MOUNTAIN PARKS ELECTRIC, INC.
Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
Granby, Colorado
January 09, 2025
8:00 A.M.
Attendance
Present: Liz McIntyre, Ty Wattenberg, Mark Volt, Ryan Zorn, Mike Sjobakken, Justin Fosha, Aaron Street, Sue Henderson, Virginia Harman, Emily Meek, Joe Palmer, Adam Paulson, Jodi King, and Attorney Bryson Fredregill attended in person. Cray Healy attended virtually. Angie Wallace was not present.
Call to Order
President Liz McIntyre called the meeting to order at 8:01 a.m.
Determination of Quorum
A quorum was declared.
Public Comment
Daniella Gosselova, Granby resident, addressed the board on recycling in Grand County.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda contained the following items:
Minutes of December 12, 2024, Meeting of the Board of Directors
Bills for Payment
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve the Consent Agenda with a change to the minutes as discussed.
Operations Report
Adam Paulson presented the Operations Report. Paulson reported that apprentice lineman, Scott Crawford, passed his journeyman test. MPE has three more apprentice lineman who will take the journeyman test during 2025. Paulson reported on an outage that affected City Market. Additionally, Paulson reported that an upcoming rebuild will be put out to bid.
Engineering Report
Sue Henderson presented the Engineering Report. Henderson reported that customers were having trouble finding the new construction information on our website. To solve this a new construction button has been added to the MPE website, which will help to avoid confusion in the future. MPE is prepared for its upcoming exit from Tri-State and does not anticipate anything that will delay the transmission setup. Henderson further reported that engineering is continuing to work internally on the customer excavation program.
Finance Report
Information Technology (IT) Report
Joe Palmer presented the IT Report. Palmer reported that IT is working on wrapping up 2024 projects but has had difficulty getting resources from manufacturers. Palmer reported on radio and SCADA upgrades. Palmer presented an IT video.
Human Resources, Safety, and Administration Report
Virginia Harman referred to the Human Resources, Safety, and Administration Report as prepared by Angie Wallace and offered to answer questions. There were no questions.
Member Relations and Communications Report
Aaron Street presented the Member Relations and Communications Report. Street reported on partnering with Grand County Emergency Services to send outage information in the Code Red application. Member Services is continuing to work on a press release with Tri-State for the exit at the end of January. Street further reported that Todd Budin is departing from his role as Executive Director of Sustainable Grand, and Helen Brown will be his replacement.
Attorney Report
Attorney Bryson Fredregill referred to the written report.
Manager’s Report
Manager Harman reported that she will continue to focus on Power Supply. Harman reported on upcoming education and scheduled meetings, including a planned presentation to the Town of Fraser Board. Harman further reported that a large power member has requested third party meetings with Guzman Energy. Harman reported that MPE continues to work on a sustainability report. Harman presented an updated report on MPE’s progress on specific board directives.
Action Items
Deferred Revenue
Discussion of deferred revenue recommendations was tabled for further discussion at the February meeting.
Western United Delegate
President Liz McIntyre presented the request for a Western United Annual Meeting delegate. Discussion took place.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to appoint Ryan Zorn as delegate and Virginia Harman as alternate delegate for the Western United Annual meeting.
CREA Delegate
President Liz McIntyre presented the request for a CREA Annual meeting delegate. Discussion took place.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to appoint Ryan Zorn as delegate and Virginia Harman as alternate for the CREA Annual Meeting.
Remove References to Tri-State from all Policies
Virginia Harman presented and explained the need to remove references to Tri-State from MPE policies after MPE’s withdrawal from Tri-State membership. Discussion took place.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to authorize MPE staff to remove references to Tri-State Generation and Transmission from MPE policies as needed after MPE’s withdrawal from Tri-State membership.
Policy B10 – Interconnection of Distributed Energy Resources
Aaron Street presented a revised policy B10 and reported that the Member Relations Committee recommends the board repeal the policy because it is duplicative of matters addressed in the MPE’s Tariffs. Discussion took place.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to repeal Policy B10 – Interconnection of Distributed Energy Resources.
Policy C4 – Scholarship Program
Aaron Street presented a revised Policy C4 and explained the revisions. Discussion took place. No decision was made and further consideration of Policy C-4 was tabled until the February meeting.
Board Open Forum, Committee Reports, Association Reports
No committees met.
Ryan Zorn reported that the next CREA meeting is in February and highlighted that there is on-going consideration of wildfire legislation. Discussion took place.
Mark Volt reported that the next Western United meeting is on January 29, 2025.
Upcoming Events
The CREA 2025 Annual meeting will be held in February.
Jodi King presented the schedule for board meetings in Walden and Kremmling for 2025. Discussion took place. Kremmling’s meeting will be in August. Walden’s meeting will be in September.
Committee meetings were scheduled.
Old Business
No old business.
Mountain Park Services
No business.
Sue Henderson, Aaron Street, Jodi King and Adam Paulson exited the meeting.
The meeting was recessed at 10:04 a.m. and reconvened at 10:20 a.m.
Executive Session
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to go into executive session regarding legal matters. All directors, Virginia Harman, Emily Meek, Joe Palmer, and Attorney Bryson Fredregill were present for the entirety of the executive session.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to exit executive session.
Additional Public Comment
Clint Georg and Aaron Street entered the meeting in person. Megan Moore-Kemp entered the meeting via remote video conference.
Mr. Georg, in his capacity as managing partner for member High Mountain Processing, requested that the board lower its approved rate increase as it would affect High Mountain Processing. He supported his request by providing information on the economic impact on High Mountain Processing and its employees if the former cannot sustain the increase. Mr. Georg asserted that the increase was discriminatory and inequitable.
President Liz McIntyre discussed MPE’s rate development process and its reliance on a recent cost of service study in development of cost based rates. President McIntyre discussed MPE’s offer to High Mountain Processing to review information related to the development of Rate 8P.
Mr. Georg exited the meeting.
Executive Session
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to go into executive session regarding power supply matters, employee matters, and legal matters. All directors, Virginia Harman, Emily Meek, Joe Palmer, Aaron Street, and Attorney Bryson Fredregill were present for the entirety of the executive session. Megan Moore Kemp was present for a portion of the discussion of legal matters.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to exit executive session.
MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to authorize to allow waiver of MPE’s formal complaint process under the circumstances discussed during executive session.
The meeting adjourned at 2:05 p.m.