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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-07-20 Utilities Advisory Commission Summary MinutesFINAL UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION - SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES OF JULY 20, 2010 CALL TO ORDER Chair Melton called to order at 7:04 p.m. the meeting of the Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC). Present: Commissioners Berry, Eglash, Foster, Keller, Melton and Waldfogel and Council Member Yeh Absent: Commissioner Ameri ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES The Minutes from the June 2, 2010 UAC meeting were approved as presented. AGENDA REVIEW No changes to the agenda were requested. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEETINGS/EVENTS Chair Melton attended the ribbon cutting event at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for its new solar PV system. He commented that this was an appropriate installation for the organization and that EPRI will be conducting research on the performance of the system. UTILITIES DIRECTOR REPORT Utilities Director Valerie Fong delivered an oral report on the following items: 1. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Loans: On July 6, the Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) directed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks to reduce risks possibly associated with PACE loans by:  Adjusting loan-to-value ratios to reflect the maximum permissible PACE loan amount available to borrowers in PACE jurisdictions;  Ensuring that loan covenants require approval/consent for any PACE loan;  Tightening borrower debt-to-income ratios to account for additional obligations associated with possible future PACE loans; and  Ensuring that mortgages on properties in a jurisdiction offering PACE-like programs satisfy all applicable federal and state lending regulations and guidance. Note that there is concern that the last requirement may actually lead to red lining of mortgages in communities that offer PACE like loans and assessments. Response to the FHFA restriction on efficiency and renewable energy assessments was swift. In addition to letters of concern from state, local, and federal officials, the State of California sued the Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 1 of 10 FHFA to change this requirement, and legislation is pending in Congress forbidding this restriction of PACE loans. Due to the uncertainty of the program, CaliforniaFIRST and other similar programs are on hold. 2. Landscape Water Efficiency Ordinance Training: On July 7, the Utilities Department partnered with several water agencies in Santa Clara County to offer a free training workshop on the new Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance. The workshop curriculum was structured to address the needs of landscape professionals and agency staff who will be working closely with the new ordinance requirements. Approximately 80 participants learned the basics of landscape and irrigation design, plan review, ordinance enforcement, and conservation programs designed to assist with water efficient landscaping. 3. RKS Residential Customer Survey: RKS is a consulting company that performs annual customer satisfaction surveys for municipal utilities statewide. Surveys on residential customers are performed in even years, with commercial customer surveys in the odd years. Typically, the City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) also performs “oversamples” of the statewide survey to compare our customers with those statewide. Just this morning we received preliminary results from the statewide survey. After the local oversample is complete, we plan on preparing an informational report for the UAC. Preliminary results from the statewide survey show that the very challenging economy is affecting all utilities. Municipal utility and IOU customer satisfaction scores are all down, but the muni advantage over IOUs no longer exists. Municipal utility customers are a lot more critical on price/value dimensions than they have been in the past. On the other hand, publicly owned utilities have a good image when it comes to concern for environment and involvement in local community remains strong. Customers believe that municipal utilities handle customer service calls well, and municipal utility customers show greater likelihood of migrating to utility website than IOU customers. The preliminary evidence statewide is that municipal utilities must continue and increase communication, reinforcing the advantage to customers of having a locally owned utility. As a brief summary on other topics: o Smart Grid: There is generally low awareness of the capabilities on smart grid, but some high expectations are being set; customers indicate a high level of interest in benefits and a belief in the value of monitoring energy usage. o Energy Efficiency: Commitment to saving energy is declining, perhaps due to the economy. The reduced interest also holds for belief in climate change. o Communication: Customers are more interested in communication channels in newer media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, smart phones and others. o Electric cars: About 1/3rd of customers are interested in hearing about EV’s. About 10% say they are likely to purchase an EV; 1/3rd of these (3% total) may buy one by 2011. 4. NCPA Annual Meeting: You should have received an email from Marites Ward regarding the annual meeting in September. Commissioner Foster asked if the City was planning to take a position supporting legislation to continue PACE loans. Director Fong stated that she would add the item to the next UAC meeting agenda. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 2 of 10 UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. NEW BUSINESS ITEM 1: ACTION: Election of Officers ACTION: Commissioner Eglash nominated Commissioner Waldfogel to be the Chair of the UAC. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Foster. The motion carried unanimously (6-0). Commissioner Waldfogel took over chairing the meeting after the vote. ACTION: Commissioner Eglash nominated Commissioner Foster to be the Vice Chair of the UAC. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Melton. Chair Waldfogel nominated Commissioner Berry, but Berry declined the nomination. The motion to elect Commissioner Foster to be the Vice Chair of the UAC carried unanimously (6-0). ITEM 2: ACTION: Designate Spokesperson for FY 2011 ACTION: Commissioner Eglash nominated Chair Waldfogel to be the spokesperson for the UAC for FY 2011. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Melton. The motion carried unanimously (6-0). ITEM 3: ACTION: Recommendation to Defer Any Action on Trading the City’s Excess Individual Water Supply Guarantee Until at Least January 2011 Assistant Director Jane Ratchye stated that there have been several entities that have expressed an interest in purchasing Palo Alto’s excess water supply allocation and the offer from Purissima Hills Water District was the first actual offer received. However, as explained in the memorandum, there are too many issues that have not been resolved and staff recommends that the City not act on any such offer prior to the end of 2011. Commissioner Foster summarized the report by saying that Palo Alto’s Individual Supply Guarantee (ISG) is about 17 million gallons per day (MGD), yet it uses only 13 MGD and, therefore, has excess ISG to sell, but that he supported staff’s recommendation to wait until the issues were resolved to consider selling the excess ISG. Commissioner Melton stated that he was worried that when the Interim Supply Allocation (ISA) was established, the ISG would be meaningless and have no value. Commissioner Eglash agreed that the ISG could be worthless and we could get some money now, but going forward, we would be in a stronger position in future negotiations with San Francisco if we did not sell any of the ISG. Eglash stated that we need to understand that we are choosing not to sell despite a real offer of $1 million, but that he concurs with staff’s recommendation. Commissioner Keller asked if the sale of the City’s excess ISG could be structured differently so it would get ongoing revenues rather that a one-time payment. Ratchye replied that a future sale could be structured in many different ways, including the one suggested by the commissioner. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 3 of 10 Commissioner Berry stated that he supported staff’s recommendation. He added that Palo Alto should protect its own interests with San Francisco and not necessarily go along with what BAWSCA is doing. Commissioner Eglash agreed that Palo Alto should go directly to San Francisco to protect our interests. ACTION: Commissioner Foster made a motion to recommend that Council defer any action on trading the City’s excess Individual Water Supply Guarantee until after the end of 2011. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Berry. The motion carried unanimously (6-0). ITEM 4: DISCUSSION: Gas Asset and Supply Management Plan (GASMP formerly known as GULP) Draft Objectives and Strategies Assistant Director Jane Ratchye began the discussion on the key discussion items on today’s agenda – the Gas Asset and Supply Management Plan (GASMP), the Long-term Electric Acquisition Plan (LEAP) and the Council Colleagues’ Memo. Ratchye stated that staff’s goal is to have clear direction from Council to allow management of the energy portfolios with incorporation of the direction in GASMP, LEAP, and the Utilities Strategic Plan. Ratchye said that LEAP and GASMP address long-term resource acquisition, not rates and rate design, reserve levels, or what to do with the Calaveras Reserve. The Utilities Strategic Plan will address such issues as the value of rate stability and rate design objectives. The tentative schedule for the Utilities Strategic Plan as outlined by Ratchye includes: interviews of key stakeholders in August and September to determine the key issues and to develop a draft vision for Utilities; a draft of the vision, mission and key objectives for discussion at the UAC’s November meeting; consideration of the Utilities Strategic Plan at the January UAC meeting; and Council consideration in February 2011. The tentative schedule for GASMP and LEAP is for draft objectives and strategies to be presented to the UAC in September depending upon feedback received at this meeting. In October, staff will ask the UAC to act on the objectives and strategies and to review the implementation plans. The schedule calls for the plans to go to the Council in November. Ratchye then stated that the UAC might want to take a high level view and consider what the vision for CPAU should be. Ratchye discussed four potential profiles that could be considered for CPAU: 1. Risk Averse/Minimum Compliance – this would be a small utility without any or many assets. Its strategy would be to comply with laws, but at the lowest up-front cost. Energy efficiency and local generation would be considered only if the costs were lower than brown energy. 2. Reward Seeker/Risk Taker – this would be a larger utility that has a market view and acts on it. This type of utility is profit-driven, invests strategically and would seek out money-making opportunities beyond the need to meet load – it would build and own assets and manage risks by developing a diverse portfolio of transmission and generation assets. 3. Green Leader – this type of utility has a clear carbon strategy and would seek to maximize energy efficiency and renewable energy. Hydro assets would be sought or retained for their carbon value. Assets would be leveraged to meet environmental goals. 4. Green, but Risk Averse and Cost Conscious – this type of utility has a carbon strategy, but balances the costs of reducing carbon emissions with the impact on rates/rate payers. Commissioner Berry asked if there were Utilities that could be characterized into each of the profiles. Director Fong stated that the Minimum Compliance profile would be a small municipal utility such as the Cities of Biggs or Gridley. The Reward Seeker/Risk Taker could be Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) might be the Green Leader. Commissioner Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 4 of 10 Foster stated that he thinks Palo Alto is between the Green Leader and the Cost Conscious Green and he noted that everyone is cost conscious these days. Commissioner Keller mentioned that it should be clear if these profiles are for the short term vs. long term. Senior Resource Planner Karla Dailey provided a presentation on GASMP. Dailey presented answers to three questions raised by the UAC at the last meeting: 1) market pass-through rates will not result in additional energy efficiency; 2) no information currently exists that would suggest that customers do not like the rate stability CPAU provides; and 3) shorter purchasing ladders result in costs closer to market prices. Dailey then presented draft GASMP strategies: 1. Balance supply cost stability with market exposure by: a. Diversifying energy purchases for the pool across commitment date, delivery date, duration, suppliers, pricing terms & delivery points; b. Leaving some fraction of the forecasted gas pool needs exposed to near-term market prices; and c. Avoiding long-term (>10 years) fixed-price commodity contracts. 2. Lower total supply cost over the long term by: a. Acquiring pipeline and/or storage assets that yield supply costs below market and meet operational needs; b. Taking advantage of the City’s low cost of capital to acquire gas supply and assets; and c. Optimizing existing assets. 3. Protect the City’s interests and maintain parity with PG&E’s core customers by: a. Participating in the regulatory and legislative arenas when the potential impact on the City is aligned with the cost to intervene and the probability of success; b. Negotiating with PG&E for fair access to transportation and storage; and c. Exploring potential joint action with other public agencies. 4. Ensure the deployment of all feasible, reliable, cost-effective energy efficiency measures by: a. Developing and implementing a Ten-year Energy Efficiency Plan for gas every three years that includes a reasonable carbon adder for traditional gas supplies. 5. Reduce the carbon intensity of the gas portfolio by: a. Acquiring non-fossil fuel alternatives for the portfolio when the total cost is less than traditional gas supplies including a reasonable carbon adder; and b. Designing and implementing a voluntary retail program using reasonably priced non-fossil fuel gas resources. Commissioner Eglash commented that he liked the presentation, the recommended plan looks close to where we need to end up, and that he noted his preference for Strategy #2, the deployment of the City’s low cost of capital. With respect to Strategy #2, Dailey noted that a gas prepay is one of the few ways to lower cost, but CPAU missed the opportunity a year ago, with resistance to the idea from internal staff as well as from the UAC due to its complexity. Other municipal utilities have taken advantage of gas prepay contracts. Gas prepay is unlikely under the current credit market conditions, but staff wants to be ready when the opportunity arises. Commissioner Eglash stated that the set of draft GASMP strategies needs to delve more into the competing goals – lowest cost, maximization of renewables and energy efficiency, and reduction of carbon footprint. This balance is the core question that Council is interested in and real progress needs to be Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 5 of 10 made. The goal is for the UAC to provide guidance to staff that is prescriptive enough to help find this balance. Commissioner Keller pointed out the importance of predictability (not stability) of rates in making energy efficiency (EE) and solar photovoltaic (PV) investment decisions. Dailey suggested that this issue could be included in the strategic plan. Chair Waldfogel added that volatility of costs is also an issue. Referring to the slide showing the Cost of Portfolio vs. Different Laddering Periods, Council Member Yeh commented that ratepayers do not understand impact of laddering strategy, and that this slide would be a useful one to show when soliciting stakeholders’ feedback for the Strategic Plan. It could also be used to provide a context for the community to explain the historical benefit of the laddering strategy, but that the strategy is now hurting us. Yeh said that he is hearing from many residents regarding CPAU’s gas rates which are higher than PG&E’s. Commissioner Foster added that the majority of ratepayers don’t understand rates and laddering, but that it might make sense to communicate to ratepayers about why CPAU’s rates are currently higher than PG&E’s. Commissioner Melton stated that the proposed objectives are fine and that there is not much opportunity for pipeline capacity or biogas, but focus should be on the laddering strategy and on energy efficiency acquisition. He noted that if there is no evidence that increased customer efficiency would result from following the PG&E strategy of buying gas on the spot market and passing on that price signal, then there’s no reason to change the current laddering strategy as a key benefit of the laddering strategy is rate stability. PUBLIC COMMENT: Art Kramer stated that to reduce demand and carbon footprint, CPAU should encourage the installation of solar hot water heating systems by reducing the cost to install such systems. Commissioner Melton asks if CPAU has a strategy to encourage customer to install solar hot water heating systems to reduce gas usage and greenhouse gas emissions. Ratchye responded yes, CPAU does have a program to incent customers to install solar hot water heating systems. Chair Waldfogel stated that the objectives were at a very high level and that we may need more specificity such as the lowest cost of fully internalizing environmental costs. Regarding Strategy #2, Waldfogel asked how CPAU could have a cost advantage over PG&E. Dailey reiterated that gas prepays, available only to municipal utilities, were the only way to have gas costs lower than those of PG&E. Commissioner Eglash noted that the idea that you don’t see usage respond to varying rates does not mean that stable rates are the best. He said that we should consider shortening the laddering period a little or buying less in years two and three. He stated that the longer the laddering period, the higher the premium paid for fixed-price products. Dailey responded that the hedge targets within the laddering strategy are approved by the Director of Utilities and that hedge targets are small (e.g. 25%) in the furthest out period. Eglash added that staff should have latitude when making purchasing decisions and buy when prices are low. Chair Waldfogel stated that staff can’t know if prices are low since they don’t know the costs in the future in the long term. Commissioner Eglash said that he cannot comment on what is a “reasonable” carbon adder without understanding the consequences. He said that in these times, and since our gas rates are higher than Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 6 of 10 PG&E’s, an additional cost is not as supportable. For the foreseeable future, the rate impact hurdle is large. Dailey responded that using the carbon adder similar to what is in the City’s Climate Protection Plan will result in a 7 to 8% upward rate impact. Commissioner Foster stated that he would support a voluntary green gas program, but sees that a gas rate increase for green gas for the portfolio would not be acceptable at this time. Commissioner Melton noted that given the gas prices are already high, he is not willing at this point to have anything more than 0% rate increase for green gas, but he supports a voluntary program. Chair Waldfogel also supports a voluntary program. Commissioner Foster noted that the GASMP is a long-term document, so there needs to be flexibility to allow for a future carbon adder when prices are reasonable. Foster noted that we may want to have a low or no carbon adder for Strategy #5 (renewable green gas), but could have a rate impact for Strategy #4 (energy efficiency). Foster noted that we need to think ahead now to adopting one that kicks in either in a few years or when a rate comparison to PG&E criteria is met. Commissioner Melton wants no mandatory green gas rate adder to be collected now, but would consider a carbon adder for the evaluation of EE opportunities applied now since it has no immediate rate impact and it influences long lived equipment decisions. Commissioner Eglash agreed with the concept of using a carbon adder for EE, but not for green gas now. Commissioner Eglash commented that gas use has traditionally been encouraged for certain uses such as heating homes and hot water, but wondered if fuel switching from gas to electricity is something we have contemplated especially in light of the ability to find renewable electricity versus renewable gas. Council Member Yeh added that the Council was focused on “true cost pricing” earlier, but this concept should be checked again with the current Council. Chair Waldfogel asked whether CPAU would be willing to take advantage of our low cost of capital to invest in EE. ITEM 5: DISCUSSION: Long-Term Electric Acquisition Plan (LEAP) Draft Objectives and Strategies Senior Resource Planner Monica Padilla presented draft LEAP Objectives and Strategies as a “strawman” proposal in an effort to get feedback from the UAC. The draft proposed LEAP strategies included: 1. Resource Acquisition – Pursue the least total cost resources to meet the City’s needs in the long-term. 2. Energy Efficiency and Demand Reduction – Fund programs that maximize the deployment of cost-effective, reliable and feasible energy efficiency and demand reduction opportunities as the highest priority resources. 3. Renewable Supplies – Acquire renewable energy supplies to meet the state RPS standard. 4. Climate Protection – Support the City’s climate protection goals 5. Distributed Local Resources – Promote and facilitate the deployment of cost-effective local distributed resources. 6. Transmission and Reliability – Pursue the reliability of supply at fair and reasonable transmission and delivery costs 7. Hydro Resource Management – Actively monitor and manage cost uncertainty related to variations in hydroelectric supply and maximize value of hydro resources. 8. Energy Risk Management – Actively monitor and manage operational, counterparty and wholesale energy price risk. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 7 of 10 Regarding the proposed Strategy #3 (Renewable Supplies), the proposal is to meet the expected state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that is under consideration by the legislature today (33% RPS by 2020) and to pursue all projects that are deemed eligible by the California Energy Commission. The new law (SB 722) is also expected to allow Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to count towards the RPS. The proposed Strategy #3 also includes the development of a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) to encourage locally sited renewable resources. Padilla explained that alternatives to this proposed strategy include exceeding the expected state standard (33% RPS by 2015, no use of RECs, acquire only new renewables), which would have a rate impact, or including carve-outs for technologies, locally sited PV resources, contracting mechanisms, such as FiTs and owned resources. Padilla added that the proposed strategy is a step back from the existing LEAP guideline for renewable resources, which exceeds the expected state standards. Chair Waldfogel indicated that he liked the direction staff is proposing with the least total cost resource (Strategy #1), but that some of the later strategies may undermine that one. He also asked if the RPS goal should be what the law currently requires (20% by 2010), rather than what we think the law will become based on what’s under consideration at the state legislature today. Commissioner Eglash said that using least total cost sounds fine, but it doesn’t show the impact on rates. If this methodology results in little or no rate impact, then it will have support, but if it would result in a 30% upward rate impact, it would not be supported. Eglash asked if the City was exposed to peak prices and what the impact of time-differentiation of cost means for Palo Alto. Padilla indicated that the City is indeed exposed to hourly prices and when those prices spike in certain hours of hot days, the City must pay those prices for its entire load. At the same time, the City has supplies that receive those high prices for the energy generated during those hours so that the overall effect is mitigated. Commissioner Melton suggested raising the strategy of local distributed resource to a LEAP objective. He indicated that local generation offers local capacity value, avoided transmission costs, possibly a renewable attribute and other intangibles that are difficult to assign a value to. Commissioner Eglash indicated that there are a wide range of technologies for local generation. Commissioner Foster asked if local generation would add much to the City’s distribution system reliability. Commissioner Foster indicated his strong opposition to reducing the current RPS goals. He stated that Palo Alto should not just barely meet the goal, but continue to be a leader in this area. He also indicated that he does not support technology carve-outs in the RPS, but said that we should look at a FiT, but wouldn’t want to mandate a certain percentage of the RPS to be met with FiTs. Council Member Yeh agreed that he was in favor of a 33% by 2015 standard. He said he liked the idea of using FiTs saying they provided predictability and a declining price structure. He contrasted these with the escalating price structure in the renewable Power Purchase Agreements that the City has recently committed to. Due to time limitations, further discussion on LEAP was postponed to the July 28, 2010 UAC meeting. ITEM 6: DISCUSSION: Information Update to Support the Utilities Advisory Commission’s Response to the Council Colleagues’ Memo Regarding the Development of a Comprehensive Energy Efficiency and Renewables Procurement Strategy Commissioner Foster found the staff’s informational memo helpful, but pointed out that he believes that Council is requesting direct guidance from the UAC, and that the UAC should draft the response, not staff. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 8 of 10 Commissioner Eglash asked Council Member Yeh, as one of the co-authors of the Colleagues’ Memo, to comment on the thoughts that Council had in looking for a response. Yeh suggested that all the co-authors suggest that there should be a broad reading of the Colleagues’ Memo with a written product that would document the value proposition of the utilities department and strategies to communicate this value proposition. Yeh went on to discuss that the response should include why there is value to having a local utility and stated that it often gets reduced to a discussion of rates. The response should address the question of how can CPAU best serve its customers and noted that a good response could turn into a presentation that the UAC members could take on a “road show” in the community. Yeh added that it should also address how the City should balance short-term cost concerns with long-term strategic goals. Eglash asked Yeh how a response to the Colleagues’ Memo fits into the strategic plan, GASMP and LEAP. Yeh noted that the Strategic Plan was an occasional document and that this response needs to provide a critical analysis and translate that to clear policy that is accessible to the Council and the public. Eglash noted that the from his discussions with Council members, the Council seems to be asking how to balance low cost and rate objectives with environmental goals such as RPS and EE Plans. Eglash said that what Yeh just expressed expands the scope tremendously and he suggested that too expansive of a request is destined for failure and that the project should be focused on some defined desired outcome to result in a successful project. Commissioner Foster agreed with Eglash’s last point and stated that he didn’t see the Colleague’s memo as broad as addressing the value overall of a municipal utility. He noted that staff’s informational report did address the Colleagues’ memo and that the UAC should dig into those topics. Commissioner Berry agreed that the task should be defined with a timeline and that he believes that what Yeh is requesting will be delivered in the Strategic Plan, GASMP and LEAP. Berry added that regarding community outreach, these topics are very complicated and it would be difficult to develop a story that could be communicated simply. Yeh agreed that much can be incorporated into the Strategic Plan, GASMP and LEAP. He also noted that the Council approved a new Utilities position for a Communications Manager to address public communication needs. Chair Waldfogel suggested that what the Council needs from the UAC at this point is a document that fills the holes that may be left by the Strategic Plan, GASMP and LEAP. Commissioner Eglash agreed that a joint study session with the UAC and Council could be beneficial to determine what answers are not provided by the Strategic Plan and LEAP/GASMP. Eglash added that the issue that has not been, and may not be, addressed in LEAP and GASMP is how to balance the costs and benefits of renewable supplies and whether we are putting enough resources towards expanding efficiency programs. He pointed out that several Council members are asking whether it is appropriate to continue on a course for an ambitious RPS when the cost for green energy has gotten so much higher than that for brown power and perhaps the Utilities should focus more on energy efficiency and conservation. Waldfogel stated that LEAP and GASMP must answer these larger questions so that they will be impactful and useful. Eglash agreed that LEAP and GASMP should address these issues and be actionable. Commissioner Melton agreed and pointed out that the UAC should prepare a position paper talking about the tradeoffs between the conflicting values and how they should be looked at together. The timeline for delivery of a response to Council should be ahead of the LEAP, GASMP, and Strategic Plan. Commissioner Keller expressed concern that the back and forth between the values and their qualitative cost is a moving target and will change over time; therefore, a paper at one point in time might be much Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 9 of 10 Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: September 1, 2010 Page 10 of 10 effort for no value. She also questioned how this document would be used and pointed out that there should be a clear plan for this document before spending the time and effort to develop it. Council Member Yeh said that the Council members have huge learning curves with being termed out on a fairly regular basis. This document would be helpful as a learning tool for new Council members. He then suggested that the co-authors of the Colleagues’ Memo be present for the UAC’s next meeting on July 28 to discuss the goals for the document. Director Fong added that the annual joint study session with the UAC and Council is an opportunity for these discussions. Commissioners Melton, Waldfogel, Foster and Eglash all voiced agreement for this approach. Council Member Yeh offered to invite the three other Council members (Colleagues Memo co-authors) to attend the meeting to provide their input into the response to the Colleagues’ memo that they would like to see. Chair Waldfogel said he was convinced that a separate memo from the UAC would be useful to address the issues about the Council Colleagues’ Memo since they may not be addressed in LEAP and GASMP. ITEM 7: ACTION: Appointment of Members to Prepare the Utilities Advisory Commission Response to Colleagues’ Memo Item continued to July 28 meeting. ITEM 8: ACTION: Potential Topic(s) for Discussion at Future UAC Meetings Item continued to July 28 meeting. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None. Meeting adjourned at 11:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Marites Ward City of Palo Alto Utilities