Idaho Falls Utility Board Meetings

November 9, 2022 The Idaho Falls Power Board of the City of Idaho Falls met Wednesday, November 9, 2022, at the Idaho Falls Power Boardroom, 140 S. Capital, Idaho Falls, Idaho at 7:45 a.m. Call to Order, Roll Call, and Announcements: There were present: Mayor Rebecca L Noah Casper Board Member Michelle Ziel-Dingman Board Member Tom Hally Board Member Jim Francis Board Member Jim Freeman Board Member John Radford Board Member Lisa Burtenshaw Also present: Bear Prairie, Idaho Falls Power (IFP) General Manager Stephen Boorman, IFP Assistant General Manager Michael Baskin, PhD, Principal and Founder of the Resilience Group Linda Lundquist, IFP Board Secretary Mayor Casper called the meeting to order at 7:47 a.m. Calendar, Announcements, Events and Updates Mayor Casper said she thought there’d been a good policy conversation regarding a 15 megawatt (MW) microreactor in the previous day’s Energy Futures Initiative meeting. She then gave a brief overview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna, Austria that she attended. She updated everyone on the presentations and tours she went on. Mayor Casper reviewed upcoming events and provided flyers. General Manager (GM) Prairie stated that he would be putting a light packet together for December in lieu of a Board meeting. He gave a fiber marketing update and explained that the utility is helping to upgrade the art museum’s lighting as an energy efficiency project in exchange for some power promotion. He added that Idaho Falls Power (IFP) is sponsoring the Spud Kings power plays. Mayor Casper suggested that it would be ideal if when the announcers had extra time, they could announce some IFP and Idaho Falls Fiber (IFF) sales slogans. Board Policy No. 3 – Board Training Plan Review Board Member Francis’ feedback was to add an onsite tour and review of the board book. Board Policy No. 5 – Financial Stability and Creditworthiness Review GM Prairie said that he’d incorporated edits from the spring 2022 review and explained how the strength and existence of this first formal board policy helped to attain a favorable Fitch bond rating for the Sugarmill to Paine project. Board Member Hally asked if city loans have an impact on our credit rating and GM Prairie stated no, as long as it doesn’t affect our cash on hand, ability to raise rates and overall financial health of the utility. Mayor Casper reminded the board that typos do not require board action. Board Member Francis said he’d added clarity to the redlined version pertaining to the financial and physical hedge and GM Prairie reiterated that you can purchase financial or physical energy. Mayor Casper pointed out that there is substantive value in this policy, even when going for funding on other city projects. It was moved by Board Member Francis and seconded by Board Member Ziel-Dingman to accept the changes made to Board Policy No. 5. Motion passed unanimously, 6-0. 2023 Board Schedule Review  November 9, 2022 GM Prairie asked if when his business travel schedule conflicts with normal Board meetings, if it is acceptable to the Board to have staff conduct Board presentations and Board Member Freeman said yes, that it was good for succession planning and also good for the Board to hear from various staff members. GM Prairie announced that Josh Roos, City Treasurer would transition to serve as the new chief financial officer for IFP and Mayor Casper said the appointed treasurer position requires a change in the city ordinance. BCECC Agreement Review GM Prairie explained the arrangement that IFP, police, fire and the county already have in place at the Bonneville County Emergency Communication Center (BCECC) and noted the location also serves as the airport’s internet connection as well as service to other customers. He said while the city owns the building and IFP has fiber assets in the building, that IFP does not control access to the building and there is a general concern over the lack of clarity of responsibility of network equipment and operations with the co-mingled and undocumented network structure. GM Prairie explained how this has prompted all parties involved to come together to explore a cleaner solution where IFP moves their backbone network equipment to their own facility and fiber hut site. As a result, parties involved have arrived on a mutual agreement based on collaborative meetings with law enforcement, BCECC leadership and the County. He said the city attorney department has drafted a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is included in this packet, but continued to say that a revised MOU without the redlines was forwarded to him the previous night and pointed out that it didn’t reflect priorities from prior stakeholder meetings. GM Prairie explained that as a result, he recommends pulling IFP network assets from the building while cleaning up and document a new redundant network design that better serves the needs of all parties. Board Member Radford offered that GM Prairie and the county commissioner should have a discussion about each of their concerns. Board Member Hally said that he feels IFP should remove the backbone fiber assets and leave respectfully and safely while ensuring and building back a network service that is just a reliable or more reliable like he committed to do. Mayor Casper said that she understands GM Prairie’s concerns and prefers that the Board decide what to do. Board Member Freeman said he would like to see both MOU’s in a side-by-side digital comparison instead of just the two different documents in the packets today. Board Member Ziel-Dingman said she is not in favor of keeping any IFF backbone network equipment in the BCECC, even with the original MOU proposed by the group prior to the Commissioner version sent yesterday. There was more discussion about a likely transition. Board Members Francis and Radford agreed that the revised MOU from the Commissioners was a deal breaker. Board Member Burtenshaw added that the Board was prepared to vote on a MOU that honors an agreement put together by professionals that were sent to come to an agreement by the elected officials of the city and county and added that she supports staff driving the process and also the GM’s recommendation following the commissioners revised draft MOU; to support the GM and the original plan. Mayor Casper stated that based upon a review of the final county drafted MOU, that the Board supports a staff driven process and advised GM Prairie to put together a plan that meets everyone's needs and addresses everyone's concerns. It was moved by Board Member Francis and seconded by Board Member Ziel-Dingman that Idaho Falls Power (IFP) Board finds the county commissioner’s revised MOU regarding network infrastructure at the BCECC dated 11/8/22 (noted as final draft) to be unacceptable and therefore directs GM Prairie to begin the process of removal of the Idaho Falls Fiber backbone network infrastructure equipment from the BCECC with all due diligence with all protection of public safety. Motion passed unanimously, 6-0. GM Prairie assured everyone he would continue to collaborate and work with all the stakeholders to make the network services provided to the BCECC more reliable and better documented at the end of this process. There will be a numerous more meetings at the staff level to ensure this is a stepwise and transparent process. Board Self-Evaluation Survey Questions Review  November 9, 2022 There was a discussion about the difficulty of tracking improvement if questions are changed year to year versus the value of changing/improving questions to address current issues. GM Prairie invited everyone to update five personalized questions each and Mayor Casper offered her time to work on one to ten standardized questions that could be tracked over time. Board Member Francis is in favor of keeping things simple and Board Member Freeman prefers a scale of 1-5 when appropriate. GM Prairie asked if anyone was in favor of dropping the headings and Board Member Radford said he was and pointed out that the practice of an annual survey doesn’t have to be confined to just improving performance, but also providing training for the Board. GM Prairie asked for feedback by the end of the year so that the survey could be sent out in January in time for a February Board presentation. There was agreement and commitment to get review and question revisions back to IFP by the end of the year. IFP Strategic Plan Review There was a discussion about keeping the plan in front of the board regularly while dovetailing it into the capital improvement plan (CIP), budget and grant writing discussions and also making timely and incremental changes to the plan as appropriate. DOE & OEMR Grant Process Dr. Baskin, Owner of the Resiliency Group explained his role in supporting IFP as funding calls are released by the Department of Energy (DOE), particular to grid resilience, hydropower and energy storage and added that cyber could come in the future. He described the competitive process and explained that the DOE scoring is known prior to submission and pointed out that 20% of the evaluation is related to a community benefits plan. Dr. Baskin advised the Board to consider forming a community engagement committee to discuss job creation and employment opportunities around the federal funding. He said there was a bit of a bell curve on the overall scoring and pointed out that Washington is looking to fund rural and underserved communities. Dr. Baskin added that from a fiscal perspective, the funding is a 1:1 or 1:2 cost share. Mayor Casper mentioned that the funding calls are in line with what IFP is already proposing in their CIP. Carbon Free Power Project Update GM Prairie said that there isn’t much information available about the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) for public consumption as much of the financial discussion has been held in executive session, therefore, he can’t provide comment, but pointed out that the Board is welcome to attend the project’s public meetings. Board Member Burtenshaw expressed her concerns over lack of subscription and IFP’s credit rating being on the line and GM Prairie reminded the Board that CFPP is a public power project and that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) benefits from IFP’s strong credit rating. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:01 a.m. s/ Linda Lundquist s/ Rebecca L. Noah Casper Linda Lundquist, BOARD SECRETARY Rebecca L. Noah Casper, MAYOR