MOUNTAIN PARKS ELECTRIC, INC.
Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
Granby, Colorado
March 14, 2024
8:00 A.M.

 

Attendance

Present: Liz McIntyre, Justin Fosha, Ty Wattenberg, Cray Healy, Michael Sjobakken, Mark Volt, Virginia Harman, Adam Paulson, Angie Wallace, Aaron Street, and Jodi King attended in person. Ryan Zorn, Emily Meek, Joe Palmer, and Attorney Levi Williamson attended virtually. Sue Henderson was absent.

Call to Order

President Liz McIntyre called the meeting to order at 8:02 a.m.

Determination of Quorum

A quorum was declared.

Public Comment

Nicole Schafer, with the Town of Granby, presented the affordable housing request for unclaimed capital credits for ground source heat pump funding and answered questions.

Schafer exited the meeting.

Andy Radzavich, Executive Director of Middle Park Medical Foundation, presented the Restoring the Kremmling Wellness Center Gym Plank by Plank for unclaimed capital credits. Joining Radzavich were Rose Gamblin, Director of Wellness Center MPH, Jason Cleckler, CEO of MPH, Gabby Willson, Director of Recreation for the Town of Kremmling, Jodi Docheff, MPH Board chair, Sue Coburn, MPM Foundation Board. Jamie Jensen, President of MPM Foundation, Tiffany, Director of Business Development, Donna Heller, Middle Park Health Board member,

Middle Park Medical Foundation and Town of Kremmling exited the meeting.

Katy Hale, with Grand Beginnings, was present to answer questions regarding their unclaimed capital credit request for a community tuition assistance program.

Hale exited the meeting.

CONSENT AGENDA

The Consent Agenda contained the following items:

Minutes of February 8, 2024 Meeting of the Board of Directors

Bills for Payment

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. 

Attorney Report

Attorney Levi Williamson referred to his summary written report.  He did not have anything else to report. There were no questions for Attorney Levi Williamson.

Manager’s Report

Manager Harman referred to her written report. Harman did not have anything else to report. There were no questions for Manager Harman.

New Business

2023 Care Program Update

Todd Budin, with the Care Program, presented virtually an update of the program and answered questions.

Walden Board Meeting

Liz McIntyre discussed having a yearly board meeting in Walden for a regular board meeting and suggested a Kremmling meeting. Discussion took place. It was suggested to have the meeting in August. Justin Fosha further suggested to have a board meeting in Kremmling in October.

Action Items

Deferred Revenue

Emily Meek presented the deferred revenue plan and resolution and discussed that it is a good practice that MPE follows and asked the board to approve the deferred revenue plan.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve the resolution and deferred revenue plan as presented.

Policy B18

Emily Meek presented new Policy B18. Policy B18 establishes a competitive bid process and an approval process for contracts in excess of $250K. Discussion took place.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve Policy B18 as presented.

Policy D1

Virginia Harman presented the proposed changes to Policy D1. No questions were asked.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve Policy D1 as presented.

Policy D3

Virginia Harman presented the proposed changes to Policy D3. No questions were asked.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve Policy D3 as presented.

Policy D5

Emily Meek presented Policy D5 and the proposed changes. Discussion ensued regarding some changes.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve Policy D5 as presented.

President McIntyre recessed the meeting at 9:41 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 9:52 a.m.

Operations and Engineering Report

Adam Paulson presented the Operations Report. Paulson reported on a crane class that MPE hosted in conjunction with CREA. Nine MPE linemen attended who all passed and five attendees from GCEA also passed. Positive feedback was received from Gunnison regarding the environment at MPE and the training class. White River Electric participated in an onsite demonstration of MPE’s track digger and its capabilities. Paulson further reported that MPE has been meeting with developers and towns to discuss developments and the coming construction season.

Aaron Street discussed the Member Relations Committee meeting and that Adam Paulson had joined the meeting to answer questions about line locates. MPE does not do locates inhouse and it is currently outsourced.

Unclaimed Capital Credits Donations

Town of Granby

Discussion took place on the Town of Granby’s request for an Unclaimed Capital Credits donation for $100K towards ground source heat pump sourcing for the affordable housing project and suggestions were made.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to donate $100K for the Town of Granby’s request, contingent on implementation and installation of a ground source heat pump system for their affordable housing project. There was one no vote.

Middle Park Medical Foundation

Liz McIntyre led the discussion for Middle Park Medical Foundation’s request for an Unclaimed Capital Credits donation for $100K towards Restoring the Kremmling Wellness Center Gym Plank by Plank project.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to donate $100K to Middle Park Medical Foundation’s project to restore the Kremmling Wellness Center Gym.

Grand Beginnings

Liz McIntyre led the discussion for Grand Beginnings request for an Unclaimed Capital Credits donation of $15K - $80K for tuition assistance.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to donate $50K per year for five years to Grand Beginnings, inclusive of previous annual awards, for the purpose of previous annual awards (health screenings and employee assistance) and tuition assistance.

CoBank Work Plan Loan Authorization

Attorney Levi Williamson led the discussion on the required execution of documents needed to authorize the CoBank work plan loan authorization and the resolution.

No action was taken.

Finance Report

Emily Meek presented the Finance Report. Meek reported that January is off to a good start and MPEI’s margins are favorable at 13.36%. She reported that January had a record setting kWh sold since 2017. Meek also reported that the radon mitigation is completed and working well.

Information Technology (IT) Report

Joe Palmer presented the IT Report. Palmer reported on challenges with Call to Order (CTO) and showed how to enable the ability to search and annotate documents in CTO. He also noted that a web version is available if MPE is interested. It is only accessible when you are online and MPE does not have the ability to use both the iPad version and the web-based version, it is one or the other. Board members are to email Virginia Harman with their feedback and preference in the next month. Palmer presented an IT training video. In addition, Palmer referred to his summary of IT training statistics for MPE and answered questions.

Human Resources, Safety, and Administration Report

Angie Wallace presented the Human Resources and Administration Report. She provided an update on staffing and filling open positions. Wallace reported that harassment training will be in June. She presented the Safety Report. There were no lost time accidents in February.

Member Relations and Communications Report

Aaron Street presented the Member Relations and Communications Report. Street reported on a few annual meeting updates and included the draft annual meeting agenda for review. Street reported that the mail notification is prepared and ready to mail out.

Board Open Forum, Committee Reports, Association Reports, and Upcoming Events

Member Relations Committee – The Member Relations Committee reported on their discussion with Operations and inhouse vs. outsourcing locates.

Finance Committee – The Finance Committee reported on discussion regarding MPE’s financial forecast, the strategic plan, and receiving feedback from the Finance Committee prior to presenting to the board in a future month BOD meeting.

Executive Committee – The Executive Committee met in January to discuss the directors’ compensation policy and met in February and March to review and discuss policies.

Cray Healy was absent from the CREA meeting and had no updates after reviewing the minutes. Healy shared the legislative report with the board.

Mark Volt had no updates.

National Cooperative Services Corporation sent a request for Class E Director Candidates, District 4, Position M. There was no interest to run for this.

Tri-State’s 2024 Annual Meeting is April 2 – 3, 2024. There is no interest from anyone to attend.

CFC has an open position for their audit committee. There is no interest at this time to participate.

Old Business

There was no old business to discuss.

New Business

Cray Healy addressed the loss of a lineman at San Isabel and recommended that MPE donate to the family. The board gave Manager Harman general direction to donate $1,000, plus match up to $1,000 made by MPE employees.

Ryan Zorn reported that the Colorado legislature is considering SB 24-159. Zorn would like MPE to write a letter to legislators in opposition to the bill.  The directors discussed whether to write a letter from MPE in opposition to the legislation. 

MOTION: It was properly moved and seconded to draft a letter to state legislators similar to a letter from Grand County Commissioners as presented by Director Zorn. The motion failed, with three directors voting in favor, three voting against, and one director abstaining. 

Manager Harman recommended that the board authorize her to write a letter specific to MPE’s energy concerns once MPE knows if SB 24-159 has progressed outside of the committee and after opinion from MPE’s legislative team.

Emergency Business

No emergency business.

President McIntyre recessed the meeting at 12:24 p.m. and reconvened the meeting at 12:55 p.m.

Executive Session

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to go into executive session for discussion regarding power supply, employee matters, and legal matters.  All directors present at the meeting were present for the entire executive session.  Angie Wallace was present for a portion of the discussion regarding employee matters.  Virginia Harman was present for discussion regarding power supply.  Attorney Williamson was present for discussion regarding legal matters and employee matters.  Attorney Williamson left the meeting at 1:20 p.m.

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to exit executive session. 

MOTION: It was properly moved, seconded, and carried to approve the executive contract as discussed in executive session. 

The meeting adjourned at 2:16 p.m.