Board Meeting Aug 20 2026

Unknown: Saton.

Unknown: We're going to be waiting for Director Bowie Thompson.

SPEAKER_04: He's stuck in a traffic center on the

Unknown: street.

Unknown: All right, let's do the five seconds.

SPEAKER_04: Good evening.

SPEAKER_04: I'll call to order the SMUD Board of Directors meeting of August 20, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: Please join me in the pledge for the flag.

Unknown: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for

SPEAKER_04: which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: This meeting of the SMUD Board of Directors is recorded with closed captioning.

SPEAKER_04: The recording will be cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs

SPEAKER_04: channel on the Comcast and DirecTV U-Verse cable system.

SPEAKER_04: The recording will also be video streamed at Metro14live.seccounty.gov.

SPEAKER_04: Today's meeting replays Sunday, August 23 at 2 p.m. and Monday, August 24 at 9 a.m.

SPEAKER_04: on Metro Cable Channel 14.

SPEAKER_04: Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com slash

SPEAKER_04: Metro Cable 14.

SPEAKER_04: For members of the public attending in person who wish to speak at this meeting, please

SPEAKER_04: fill out a speaker's request form located on the table outside this room and hand it

SPEAKER_04: to SMUD security.

SPEAKER_04: Members of the public attending this meeting virtually who wish to provide verbal comments

SPEAKER_04: during the board meeting may do so by using the raise hand feature in Zoom or pressing

SPEAKER_04: star 9 while dialed into the telephone toll-free number at the time public comment is called.

SPEAKER_04: Technical support staff will enable the audio for you when your name is announced during

SPEAKER_04: the public comment period.

SPEAKER_04: You may also submit written comments by emailing them to publiccomment at SMUD.org.

SPEAKER_04: Written comments will not be read into the record but will be provided to the board electronically

SPEAKER_04: and placed into the record of the meeting if received within two hours after the meeting

SPEAKER_04: ends.

SPEAKER_04: Members may speak to items on the agenda on which the board will take action and may also

SPEAKER_04: address the board on other agenda items and items not on the agenda but within our jurisdiction

SPEAKER_04: during the general comment period.

SPEAKER_04: The auditorium is equipped with a safety alarm.

SPEAKER_04: If the alarm sounds, please leave in an orderly manner via the exits to the lobby or behind

SPEAKER_04: the dais.

SPEAKER_04: Assemble in front of the building and wait to hear the all clear announcement from security

SPEAKER_04: before reentering.

SPEAKER_04: The chief legal officer, please conduct a roll call.

SPEAKER_15: Director Rose?

SPEAKER_04: Here.

SPEAKER_15: Director Buie-Thompson?

SPEAKER_15: Present.

SPEAKER_15: Director Fishman?

SPEAKER_15: Here.

SPEAKER_15: Director Herber?

SPEAKER_15: Here.

SPEAKER_15: Vice President Kurz?

SPEAKER_15: Here.

SPEAKER_15: Director Sanborn?

SPEAKER_15: Here.

SPEAKER_04: President Tamayo?

SPEAKER_15: Here.

SPEAKER_04: All directors are present.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So we usually have a board member reading our climate action tip but I'm going to do

SPEAKER_04: it today.

SPEAKER_04: So SMUD is working toward 100% zero carbon by 2030.

SPEAKER_04: There's lots you can do to help us lead the global Clean Power City movement.

SPEAKER_04: It's time to consider efficient watering practices to conserve water and reduce your energy use.

SPEAKER_04: By checking irrigation systems for leaks and considering drought tolerant landscaping,

SPEAKER_04: you can be even more energy and water conscious.

SPEAKER_04: Join the charge and visit cleanpowercity.org.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So our first agenda item is that item number 8 is moved to the discussion calendar.

SPEAKER_04: If there are no corrections, changes or additions, other than that, I'll entertain a motion to

SPEAKER_04: approve the agenda as revised.

SPEAKER_11: So moved.

Unknown: Second.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: The motion was moved by Director Herber and seconded by Vice President Kurz.

SPEAKER_04: Directors please vote.

Unknown: The revised agenda is approved with all directors voting yes.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_04: Now we'll move to our committee chair reports.

SPEAKER_04: Director Sanborn, chair of the strategic development committee, will give the report of the August

SPEAKER_04: 11, 2026 meeting.

SPEAKER_18: Thank you, President Tamayo.

SPEAKER_18: We had one informational item on our agenda for the committee meeting.

Unknown: The informational item was an internal and external presentation about the state of the

SPEAKER_18: two zero carbon technologies that can support reliability and resource adequacy, enhanced

SPEAKER_18: geothermal and carbon capture and storage.

SPEAKER_18: The presentation provided the board with greater insight into the emerging roles of these technologies

SPEAKER_18: and their adoption into California's clean energy transition.

SPEAKER_18: This included strategic awareness of the key industry trends, technology developments,

SPEAKER_18: land use and policy considerations.

SPEAKER_18: The presentation emphasized regulatory compliance, long-term safety, community engagement strategy

Unknown: and plans to build local partnerships.

SPEAKER_18: It also provided geological, geographic and economic considerations along with the state

SPEAKER_18: of industry update on how artificial intelligence data centers are accelerating investments

SPEAKER_18: in the next generation of geothermal.

SPEAKER_18: That concludes my report.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Now, Director Herber, chair of the policy committee, will give the report of the August

SPEAKER_04: 12, 2026 meeting.

SPEAKER_11: Thank you, Mr. President.

SPEAKER_11: The policy committee met on Wednesday, August 12, 2026.

SPEAKER_11: There were three discussion items and one informational item.

SPEAKER_11: The first discussion item was a review of the monitoring report for strategic direction

SPEAKER_11: 13, which deals with economic development.

SPEAKER_11: The presentation highlighted SMUD's many efforts to support regional economic development while

SPEAKER_11: supporting reliable, affordable electric service.

SPEAKER_11: Key efforts include aligning economic development with SMUD initiatives, economic development

SPEAKER_11: rates and incentives, and supporting small businesses.

SPEAKER_11: In 2025, SMUD exceeded our regional economic development goals, creating over $3.4 billion

SPEAKER_11: in economic growth here in Sacramento County.

SPEAKER_11: SMUD remains compliant with SD13.

SPEAKER_11: This is item number five on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_11: The second discussion item was a review of the monitoring report for strategic direction

SPEAKER_11: 14, which relates to system enhancement.

SPEAKER_11: One of SMUD's key values is to make selected distribution system enhancements, such as

SPEAKER_11: relocation or underground placement of primary power lines below 69 kV.

SPEAKER_11: SMUD completed one project in citrus heights and committed to three additional projects

SPEAKER_11: throughout our service territory.

SPEAKER_11: SMUD demonstrated full compliance with strategic directive 14.

SPEAKER_11: This is number six on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_11: The third discussion item was on board monitoring regarding the board staff linkage for BL9,

SPEAKER_11: which relates to the delegation to the CEO with respect to local, state and federal legislation

SPEAKER_11: and regulation, BL10, which relates to the delegation to the CEO with respect to real

SPEAKER_11: and personal property, BL11, which relates to the delegation to the CEO with respect

SPEAKER_11: to the settlement of claims and litigation.

SPEAKER_11: This informational item was a review of the board work plan.

SPEAKER_11: That concludes my report.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Director Herber.

SPEAKER_04: Now Director Rose, chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, will give the report of the

SPEAKER_04: August 18, 2026 meeting.

Unknown: Thank you, President Tamayo.

SPEAKER_17: The Finance and Audit Committee met in joint session with SMUD board on Tuesday, August

SPEAKER_17: 18.

SPEAKER_17: There was one discussion calendar item and three discussion, sorry, one discussion calendar

SPEAKER_17: item, three discussion items and two informational items.

SPEAKER_17: The first discussion calendar item was to appoint Rosanna Herber, Dave Tamayo and Heidi

SPEAKER_17: Sanborn to the SMUD board of directors for new four-year terms beginning January 1, 2027,

SPEAKER_17: representing wards 4, 6 and 7, respectively.

SPEAKER_17: The Sacramento County registrar submitted a certificate of facts certifying that only

SPEAKER_17: one person filed a petition in each ward and requested that the board make the appointments

SPEAKER_17: in accordance with state law.

Unknown: The first discussion item was on ratifying the chief executive officer and general manager's

SPEAKER_17: execution of an emergency direct procurement contract between SMUD and WA Chester America

SPEAKER_17: LLC in the amount of $2.5 million for fault line and transition joint repair work of

SPEAKER_17: 115 kV station E to station G line 1 underground high pressure oil filled cable fault.

SPEAKER_17: The fault occurred on August 1.

SPEAKER_17: On the backup cable, there were no customers impacted.

SPEAKER_17: The emergency direct procurement will enable staff to restore the line as quickly as possible.

SPEAKER_17: The contractor is one of only a few contractors qualified to form the specialized cable work

SPEAKER_17: and all repairs and testing are expected to be completed by October of 2026.

SPEAKER_17: This is item number 7 on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_17: The second discussion item was the authorization for the CEO and general manager to negotiate

SPEAKER_17: and award contracts to Sierra National Construction Inc. and Doug Veer Camp General Engineering

SPEAKER_17: Inc. for civil annual construction services.

SPEAKER_17: The contracts would cover a three-year term beginning September 1, 2026 with two optional

SPEAKER_17: one-year extensions for up to $250 million total.

SPEAKER_17: The contract supports civil construction and maintenance work across SMUD system.

SPEAKER_17: Sierra National and Doug Veer Camp General Engineering were selected through a competitive

SPEAKER_17: bidding process.

SPEAKER_17: This is item number 8 on the discussion calendar.

SPEAKER_17: The third discussion item was authorization for the CEO and general manager to negotiate

SPEAKER_17: and execute a 20-year solar power purchase agreement with Forefront Power LLC for a

SPEAKER_17: solar parking canopy at Grant Union High School.

SPEAKER_17: The project is expected to be operating in November of 2027 and includes $1 million in

SPEAKER_17: prepayment.

SPEAKER_17: This phase 1 project at Grant Union High School builds on SMUD's previous work with the Twin

SPEAKER_17: Rivers Unified School District on school bus projects.

SPEAKER_17: The proposals for the solar-only portion and provide community solar through SMUD's residential

SPEAKER_17: solar shares program, shaded parking and supports Grant's role as a designated emergency

SPEAKER_17: shelter site.

SPEAKER_17: This is item number 9 on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_17: The information item was SMUD's financial results for the six-month period that ended

SPEAKER_17: in June 30, 2026 and a summary of SMUD's current power supply costs.

SPEAKER_17: And the second information item was the internal audit services report on the status of recommendations

SPEAKER_17: for the second quarter of 2026, our green energy annual verification and low carbon

SPEAKER_17: fuel standard program.

SPEAKER_17: This concludes the report.

SPEAKER_17: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Director Rose.

SPEAKER_04: Before we continue with the committee report from Director Bowie-Thompson, I just wanted

SPEAKER_04: to comment very quickly on the action that we took to appoint the board members who were

SPEAKER_04: filed to run for reelection, who were unopposed.

SPEAKER_04: And by taking that action, we avoid going through what would be actually kind of a frivolous

SPEAKER_04: exercise of putting one person on the ballot and we actually save SMUD rate payers many

SPEAKER_04: hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not maybe more than a million dollars in total.

SPEAKER_15: Probably close to a half million.

Unknown: Pardon, how much?

SPEAKER_04: Close to a half million dollars.

SPEAKER_15: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So anyway, we're provided that authority under state law to avoid having rather meaningless

SPEAKER_04: elections since only one candidate would be on the ballot.

SPEAKER_04: So anyway, we'll move next to Director Bowie-Thompson, the chair of the Energy Resources and Customer

SPEAKER_04: Services Committee, who will give the report of the August 19, 2026 meeting.

SPEAKER_03: Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: The Energy Resources and Customer Services Committee met on Wednesday, August 19.

SPEAKER_03: There was one informational item and three discussion items.

SPEAKER_03: The informational item was briefing on SMUD's community impact plan and its value to our

SPEAKER_03: customers and communities.

SPEAKER_03: The plan is built on strengthening customer engagement and trust, increasing energy access

SPEAKER_03: and affordability, investing in reliable and resilient infrastructure, and creating workforce

SPEAKER_03: and economic opportunity for all.

SPEAKER_03: Outcomes have included 447 all-electric equivalent homes, more than 1,100 metric tons of carbon

SPEAKER_03: reduced, more than 6,500 residential electrification measures, 268 commercial electrification measures.

SPEAKER_03: These initiatives are having lasting impacts for our customers, such as improved indoor

SPEAKER_03: air quality, increased economic mobility, and decreased net energy usage.

SPEAKER_03: The first discussion item was the monitoring report for SD5, which is customer relations.

SPEAKER_03: Our customer satisfaction scores for 2025 were 97%, with no individual component below

SPEAKER_03: 92%, which exceeds our board targets.

SPEAKER_03: The value for what you pay score were 72%, with both residential and commercial segments

SPEAKER_03: above their minimums, positive drivers of this for SMUD's EV rate and solutions, improvements

SPEAKER_03: to interconnection experiences, outbound communication for fieldwork and offerings for businesses

SPEAKER_03: and customer energy upgrades.

SPEAKER_03: This is item number 10 on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_03: The second discussion item was the monitoring report for SD15, outreach and communication.

SPEAKER_03: In 2015, we continued to enhance our relationship with customers and improve their quality of life.

SPEAKER_03: In a challenging media landscape, we topped over 1 billion impressions, with more than

SPEAKER_03: 714 million ethnic customer impressions to support the diverse community we serve.

SPEAKER_03: Our outreach and communication efforts included translated materials and 23 different languages

SPEAKER_03: and dialects.

SPEAKER_03: Our value for what you pay metrics indicate we're making it easy for customers to do

SPEAKER_03: business with us, with an opportunity area for making them feel more in control of their

SPEAKER_03: electricity usage.

SPEAKER_03: Customer awareness of our programs and services remains stable, with awareness of our EV rate,

SPEAKER_03: SMUD app, and other customer programs like Greenergie and EAPR seeing the most notable

SPEAKER_03: increases in awareness for customers across all ethnicities.

SPEAKER_03: This is item number 11 on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_03: The third discussion item was to authorize the CEO and general manager to negotiate and

SPEAKER_03: execute amendment number one to the Transmission Agency of Northern California Project Agreement

SPEAKER_03: number three.

SPEAKER_03: This is item number 12 on tonight's consent calendar.

SPEAKER_03: This concludes my report.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Director Buie-Thompson.

SPEAKER_04: At this time, we will take comments from the public on the consent calendar.

SPEAKER_04: I have not received any cards requesting comment.

SPEAKER_04: Have we received any requests from our virtual audience?

Unknown: No, we have not.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So on the consent calendar tonight, most of these items were described more fully in the

SPEAKER_04: committee report.

SPEAKER_04: Item number three is to approve board member compensation for service rendered at the request

SPEAKER_04: of the board for the period of July 16, 2026 through August 15, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: Item number four is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of July 16, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: Items number five and number six were reviewed at the policy committee of August 12, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: Items number seven and number nine were reviewed at the finance and audit committee of August

SPEAKER_04: 18, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: Items number 10 and through number 12 were reviewed at the energy resources and customer

SPEAKER_04: services committee of August 19, 2026.

SPEAKER_04: If there are no corrections, changes or additions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent

SPEAKER_04: calendar.

Unknown: So moved.

SPEAKER_05: Seconded.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: So that's moved by Director Fishman and seconded by Vice President Kurth.

SPEAKER_04: Directors please vote.

SPEAKER_15: The consent calendar is approved.

SPEAKER_15: Is all directors voting yes?

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: Moving on to our discussion calendar, item number eight is to authorize the CEO and General

SPEAKER_04: Manager to negotiate and award contracts to Sierra National Construction Incorporated

SPEAKER_04: and Doug Verkamp General Engineering Incorporated collectively the contracts for civil annual

SPEAKER_04: construction services for the three-year period from September 1, 2026 to September 1, 2029

SPEAKER_04: with two optional one-year extensions for an aggregate not to exceed amount of $250

SPEAKER_04: million across the contracts.

SPEAKER_04: And our presenter is Eric Poff, our Director of Substation Telecommunications and Metering

SPEAKER_04: Assets.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you, President Tamayo.

SPEAKER_06: Good evening to the Board.

SPEAKER_06: So thank you for this opportunity to present this contract recommendation from staff.

SPEAKER_06: This is a large contract.

SPEAKER_06: We have a plethora of things that we do with this.

SPEAKER_06: First thing I would like to remind the Board is that we don't have any employees at SMUD

SPEAKER_06: that do this type of work.

SPEAKER_06: We don't have any civil construction folks.

SPEAKER_06: We have folks that monitor this work and ensure that it's being done to our standards with

SPEAKER_06: our construction management inspectors and our project managers, but we don't have any

SPEAKER_06: employees that do this.

SPEAKER_06: So we are completely dependent on contracts like these to execute the civil construction

SPEAKER_06: work.

SPEAKER_06: A lot of this work, as you can see, is covering a whole bunch of distribution work, everything

SPEAKER_06: from structural repairs to grounding systems to also our downtown network with manhole

SPEAKER_06: access, greats, just a bunch of small jobs that all come to electrify a distribution

SPEAKER_06: substation.

SPEAKER_06: So this is a great example here of Station G, our fifth bank that we're adding there.

SPEAKER_06: This is our new transformer that is being craned safely off of the lowboy truck there

SPEAKER_06: and being permanently moved to its pad that will be serving our downtown customers for

SPEAKER_06: decades to come.

SPEAKER_06: Next slide.

SPEAKER_06: So the permit strategy here, listed here on the blue, if the Board recalls, there was

SPEAKER_06: a $100 million contract that was awarded a few years ago, and that was kind of some

SPEAKER_06: of the strategies there on the left-hand side and some of the new strategies that were done

SPEAKER_06: on the green table there on the right.

SPEAKER_06: And you'll notice that it is a larger contract, and there was a few different reasons for

SPEAKER_06: that.

SPEAKER_06: The main, some of the main reasons were that we have more work.

SPEAKER_06: We have a lot more distribution substation work that's happening around the district.

SPEAKER_06: Costs have gone up significantly over the last few years.

SPEAKER_06: There's another main driver of why we are expanding this contract monetarily-wise.

SPEAKER_06: It's even just some of the dramatic increases we've seen from earlier this year since the

SPEAKER_06: beginning of the war on the price of concrete, the price of rebar, all those components that

SPEAKER_06: go into building a distribution substation have gone up very dramatically.

SPEAKER_06: Attracting competition was another kind of strategy that was used to try to bring more

SPEAKER_06: bidders into it and improve competition.

SPEAKER_06: And then I would say just the fourth final reason is just better negotiating power with

SPEAKER_06: a larger contract of this size, give the supply chain experts ability to, you know, push our

SPEAKER_06: terms and conditions, you know, that would represent SMUD customers the best.

SPEAKER_06: I'll skip down to the escalation.

SPEAKER_06: One, two, I think was a great strategy that was embedded into this contract was an index-based

SPEAKER_06: formula to mitigate just annual increases, if you will, for requests at the end of the

SPEAKER_06: year.

SPEAKER_06: This is a much more mathematical-based index to meet those criteria for equipment, materials

SPEAKER_06: and labor.

SPEAKER_06: Next slide, please.

SPEAKER_06: So this is all of the criteria that our evaluation team used, including seed, safety, environmental

SPEAKER_06: sustainability, the terms, the commercial terms.

SPEAKER_06: So all of that was used.

SPEAKER_06: We'll get to the scoring here on the next slide.

SPEAKER_06: But I think we were successful in attracting a number of bidders into this.

SPEAKER_06: We had 73 contractors attend our ‑‑ 73 contractors were notified, 20 contractors

SPEAKER_06: attended the pre‑proposal conference and we received 11 proposals.

SPEAKER_06: Next slide, please.

SPEAKER_06: And so here is the matrix as is laid out with the scoring system.

SPEAKER_06: And we believe the staff is recommending to award to the top two firms here and we

SPEAKER_06: believe that this represents the best value for SMUD.

SPEAKER_06: And from there, next slide, I will pause and ask if there are any questions I can answer

SPEAKER_06: for the board.

Unknown: Director Sandborn.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Mr. Roff.

SPEAKER_18: There's two contractors listed here and there's a $250 million contract with multiple extension

SPEAKER_18: potentials that does not assume that any one contractor gets any portion of this or any

SPEAKER_18: extension of this, correct?

SPEAKER_06: That is correct, Director Sandborn.

SPEAKER_18: Okay.

SPEAKER_18: Because we did get an email that there is some concern.

SPEAKER_18: I just want to remind people, people can sue anybody at any time for anything and we have

SPEAKER_18: to take into consideration what we know to be true in facts.

SPEAKER_18: And things get litigated in court all the time and we will find out whenever those things

SPEAKER_18: get litigated.

SPEAKER_18: But that's ‑‑ you will, I'm sure, watch these things as things go on.

SPEAKER_18: But anyway, I just want to make it clear for the record that we've got two qualified candidates

SPEAKER_18: here that we've worked with before that have done good job.

SPEAKER_18: That is correct, Director Sandborn.

SPEAKER_18: Anyway, that's why I'll be supporting this tonight.

SPEAKER_18: So thank you.

SPEAKER_04: So Director Herber, did you have ‑‑ not at this point.

SPEAKER_11: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: You might come back to ‑‑ okay, Director Fishman.

Unknown: Yeah, Eric, just for a point of information.

SPEAKER_05: If we decided not to go forward with this contract tonight, what impact would that have?

SPEAKER_05: I mean, if we delayed it for a month or if ‑‑ and I don't know what that process would

SPEAKER_05: look like.

SPEAKER_05: Would jobs suffer?

SPEAKER_05: Would there be work that goes undone or gets delayed beyond a period that puts reliability

SPEAKER_05: at risk or puts our system at risk?

Unknown: Yeah, thank you, Director Fishman.

SPEAKER_06: So I did do a little research before the meeting here.

SPEAKER_06: The existing contract I believe expires in January 2027.

SPEAKER_06: However, we are running out of money in that.

SPEAKER_06: And this is why we are trying to put this contract, I think, our estimates by the end

SPEAKER_06: of the year we would run out of money.

SPEAKER_05: So we have an existing contract.

SPEAKER_05: If we wanted to, we could ‑‑ is there a mechanism to just put more money into that

SPEAKER_05: existing contract?

SPEAKER_15: Laura Lewis, Chief Lio, and Government Affairs Officer.

SPEAKER_15: I believe we'd have to go back to the board to add additional funds to that.

SPEAKER_15: We'd have to put it on the agenda.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

Unknown: All right.

Unknown: Director Bowie-Thompson.

SPEAKER_04: Can you remind me who ‑‑ sorry, I heard you and didn't ‑‑ who has the current

SPEAKER_03: contract now?

SPEAKER_03: That is about to run out of money, I guess.

SPEAKER_03: We're running out of money.

SPEAKER_06: We have a few different vendors on there.

SPEAKER_06: I believe Arrow Construction is currently on there.

SPEAKER_06: Sierra National Construction is on there.

SPEAKER_06: So there's a mix.

SPEAKER_06: There's a mix.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

SPEAKER_03: So the Sierra ‑‑ but Doug is the new player, right?

SPEAKER_03: He hasn't been previously.

SPEAKER_03: That is correct.

SPEAKER_03: Director Bowie-Thompson.

SPEAKER_03: Who we have now includes Sierra.

SPEAKER_06: That is correct.

SPEAKER_03: Is available for work.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_03: I just wanted to clarify that.

SPEAKER_03: Can you go back to the procurement strategy?

SPEAKER_03: The criteria?

SPEAKER_03: Oh.

SPEAKER_03: Sorry.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: So, you know, this board for many years has been proponents of community workforce agreements

SPEAKER_03: and project labor agreements.

SPEAKER_03: And I know that historically it's been quite a process.

SPEAKER_03: So I see that that wasn't part of the criteria evaluated.

SPEAKER_03: So I just ‑‑ being such a large contract.

SPEAKER_03: So typically in our history anything the size, 100 million, 200 million, typically has some

Unknown: conversation of the staff or evaluation of whether or not this would be critical mass.

SPEAKER_03: This is construction and a large dollar.

SPEAKER_03: Usually in the past as a board we've been highly supportive of CWA, MP, LA, you know,

SPEAKER_03: businesses and values when procuring large construction projects.

SPEAKER_03: Can you explain what that discussion was and how this did not kind of fall under more historical

SPEAKER_03: avenues?

SPEAKER_03: Because when I looked back I did some research, a good chunk of our large projects at this

SPEAKER_03: 100 million dollar plus have had some consideration of a project labor agreement.

SPEAKER_03: So can you just explain maybe why we possibly looked at it and said this wouldn't fall under

SPEAKER_03: it being such a large value?

Unknown: Let me address that.

SPEAKER_15: Laura Lewis, Chief of the O'Hare and Government Affairs Officer.

SPEAKER_15: You're correct.

SPEAKER_15: We have had community workforce agreements in the past on large construction projects.

SPEAKER_15: And those have been really at the direction of the board.

SPEAKER_15: So for the headquarters we had a committee workforce agreement for the SONA4 wind project

SPEAKER_15: for the power control center.

SPEAKER_15: Those were specific construction projects.

SPEAKER_15: As far as I know we've never had any kind of committee workforce agreement for these

SPEAKER_15: types of contracts where there's multiple projects under a blanket agreement.

SPEAKER_15: So I think that is the difference.

SPEAKER_15: If the board desires for staff to take a look at that we certainly could do that and bring

SPEAKER_15: that back to the board.

SPEAKER_15: But that's why it was not considered.

SPEAKER_15: We typically have not done it for these types of contracts.

SPEAKER_15: So I guess this is just for staff in the future.

SPEAKER_03: I think traditionally you've seen the board be supported if they're aware of large contracts

SPEAKER_03: of this.

SPEAKER_03: We don't monitor, you know, we don't want to get in the mix.

SPEAKER_03: But I would just suggest that you know the proclivity of the current sitting board members

SPEAKER_03: here that when large construction, I mean, this is huge, $250 million over that some

SPEAKER_03: discussion, some signaling should be discussed internally.

SPEAKER_03: And then if you can't figure it out that you would think this would be something that the

SPEAKER_03: board would be interested in, you should rise it up.

SPEAKER_03: Because it is hard.

SPEAKER_03: Because we have heard from people, you know, this started in December.

SPEAKER_03: But we have lots of things.

SPEAKER_03: And it's hard at this 11th hour.

SPEAKER_03: And I hear the concerns of why this and why that, you know, where I like to try to get

SPEAKER_03: ahead of things.

SPEAKER_03: So I would just, you know, for the people in the viewing public, you know, how did we

SPEAKER_03: get here?

SPEAKER_03: We got here because it was never part of the evaluation.

SPEAKER_03: It was never highlighted as a potential conversation point.

SPEAKER_03: Whether it would have ended up as one or not.

SPEAKER_03: I just want the public to know this was not a specific calling out, failing to discuss.

SPEAKER_03: It just didn't happen.

SPEAKER_03: The evaluation didn't happen for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_03: It did not rise to review.

SPEAKER_03: Which neither here nor there.

SPEAKER_03: But I know a lot of people reached out to us and said why is this and why is that?

SPEAKER_03: I just want the public to know it wasn't a board decision.

SPEAKER_03: It wasn't an oversight from the board or even staff.

SPEAKER_03: I think it was just one of those things that is a different type of contract.

SPEAKER_03: And I think now that we have heard from various partners.

SPEAKER_03: I just wanted to clear that this wasn't an intentional miss or an oversight or purposeful,

SPEAKER_03: you know, sliding of the support of unions.

SPEAKER_03: This was just a different type of contract that fell in a different category that was

SPEAKER_03: not evaluated in our historical construction projects.

SPEAKER_03: I also had another question.

SPEAKER_03: I thought I saw at some point and it's been a minute because I've been on the board.

SPEAKER_03: I thought Sierra had an issue on one of our previous projects.

SPEAKER_03: And maybe it was a different Sierra.

SPEAKER_03: But I thought at some point in time a company similarly named was honest project and had

SPEAKER_03: some difficulty and we had to get another constructioner partner.

SPEAKER_03: I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_03: But again, I just was thinking about that I remembered a vendor.

SPEAKER_03: Has there ever been an instance where Sierra has not fully delivered?

SPEAKER_02: I don't recall that.

SPEAKER_02: But we can look into it.

SPEAKER_02: But I don't recall that.

SPEAKER_03: I remember again.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there was one.

SPEAKER_03: So I would look into that again because that should be taken in consideration.

SPEAKER_03: Again, my memory is not as good as it used to be.

SPEAKER_03: But I remember a company similarly named was on one of our projects.

SPEAKER_03: I don't know if it was fully dismissed but there was an issue where some other partners

SPEAKER_03: had to come in to help.

SPEAKER_03: Maybe you remember it better than me.

SPEAKER_03: But anyways, if you could do the research on that.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, something came up with one of these blanket contracts.

SPEAKER_09: It's either a long, long step, wide step issue.

SPEAKER_09: I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_09: Go ahead.

Unknown: Oh, it should want me to repeat myself?

SPEAKER_09: Yes.

SPEAKER_09: Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_09: Yeah, there was, it's been years now, but there was a similar contract to this blanket

SPEAKER_09: contract.

SPEAKER_09: And Sierra National got really busy with something else and had to step back from it as I recall

SPEAKER_09: and that we then assigned the work to Lund.

SPEAKER_03: That's what I sort of remember.

SPEAKER_03: Thank you.

Unknown: Thanks.

SPEAKER_09: You had your hand raised earlier.

SPEAKER_04: Was there more that you wanted to talk about?

SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_09: Mr. Fishman also did.

SPEAKER_09: Okay, thanks.

Unknown: So we're asking, thanks Eric, we're asking for cost-based proposal and we don't actually

SPEAKER_09: know what the work's going to be yet.

SPEAKER_09: So how do you come up with a cost-based proposal for unknown projects?

Unknown: So, again, part of the strategy that was used by the team is that we used a previously executed

SPEAKER_06: job that we knew what the prices were recently executed.

SPEAKER_06: So it wasn't a hypothetical bid of people hypothetically.

SPEAKER_06: Betini gets a hypothetical job.

SPEAKER_06: So that was a strategy that was implemented into this strategy where we could really get

SPEAKER_06: clarification on what people were bidding on and make sure that they understood the

SPEAKER_06: size and scope of the job.

Unknown: I'm not sure that answers my question.

SPEAKER_09: Could you give a little more detail on that?

SPEAKER_09: How does that work?

SPEAKER_06: So again, we were utilizing a job that was executed recently and that was what was embedded

SPEAKER_06: into the RFP.

SPEAKER_06: So we knew cost-wise how much it cost on our side.

SPEAKER_06: And so we were able to really understand how the bids were broken out and how they were

SPEAKER_06: line by line bidding on it.

SPEAKER_06: So we asked each proposer to bid that previous project?

SPEAKER_06: Correct.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: And so the proposed amount then is an extrapolation to future work from the earlier work?

Unknown: Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_09: Okay.

SPEAKER_09: There's not a big difference between them in here.

SPEAKER_09: How large was the bid on the previous project?

SPEAKER_09: What was the dollar volume of the previous project?

SPEAKER_09: Yeah, I don't have that.

SPEAKER_06: I can research that.

SPEAKER_09: Okay.

Unknown: I'm curious.

SPEAKER_09: Okay.

SPEAKER_09: Next question then.

SPEAKER_09: It would seem like there's a good chance for an amplification error there if we're taking

SPEAKER_09: a smaller project and then multiplying it into a large project.

SPEAKER_06: Sure.

SPEAKER_09: That could accumulate quite a difference.

SPEAKER_09: Next question, how did you decide on two?

SPEAKER_09: Why not four?

SPEAKER_09: Why not nine?

SPEAKER_09: Why two?

SPEAKER_09: Normally these come to us, I seem to remember most of the time it's three.

Unknown: Correct.

SPEAKER_06: Vice President Burke, thank you for the question.

SPEAKER_06: So the cost was the main driver.

SPEAKER_06: Between the third bidder and the other two bidders, we saw a significant cost increase.

SPEAKER_06: And so we thought this would be a better value for SMUD with only going with the two bidders,

SPEAKER_06: and we felt confident that these two top bidders could handle the volume of work that we were

SPEAKER_06: anticipating over the next three to five years.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: Then it seems a little shaky that we're not bidding

SPEAKER_09: a real project, or we bid a completed project and then we're amplifying that into future

SPEAKER_09: work.

SPEAKER_09: Now this is two and a half times at least the earlier contract.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_09: So we're going from $100 to $250 million.

SPEAKER_09: So we mentioned just a bit about we're running out of money on the current contract, we'd

SPEAKER_09: be out by year end, and if we wanted to just continue the current contract, we would need

SPEAKER_09: to add money to that.

SPEAKER_09: That's like only takes one board meeting to do that, right?

SPEAKER_09: It's a fairly ministerial thing.

SPEAKER_09: So if the board wanted to think about this some more or offer additional instruction,

SPEAKER_09: we could do that within before we run out of money.

SPEAKER_09: I believe so, yes.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: And the contract that we currently have has the right language in it that we could extend

SPEAKER_09: it if we wanted to?

Unknown: Yes, I believe so.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: Okay, thanks.

SPEAKER_09: All right.

Unknown: I have a technocratic question.

SPEAKER_17: Eric, can you explain a little bit on how the pricing points are calculated because

SPEAKER_17: they don't seem to follow a straightforward logic?

SPEAKER_17: For some people with potentially higher or lower value, proposal amounts have scores

SPEAKER_17: that wouldn't seem logical.

SPEAKER_17: Looking at this.

Unknown: Right.

Unknown: So, like, if you look at number two, the Veer camp, right, it's priced at $244 million,

SPEAKER_17: it's 38 price points.

SPEAKER_17: International number one is $262 million and it's got 37.54.

SPEAKER_17: And so $22 million is worth what is that point?

SPEAKER_17: Point five two of a point in this, right?

SPEAKER_17: So it's sort of a head scratcher.

SPEAKER_06: Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_06: Again, I believe as the team was going through every single line item and identifying the

SPEAKER_06: quote to the price to that specific line item was how they were weighing it.

SPEAKER_06: So it wasn't just an aggregate.

SPEAKER_17: So line item would mean like vacuum truck services.

SPEAKER_17: Yes.

SPEAKER_17: Right.

SPEAKER_17: And here's your whatever that metric is, that dollars per hour of that work.

SPEAKER_06: That's correct.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: Director Fisherman.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: I want to go back and kind of make sure I understand the answer to Director Thompson's

SPEAKER_05: question.

SPEAKER_05: I mean, essentially the PLA was not applied in this case.

SPEAKER_05: We apply the PLA to single projects that are large and complex and at a large dollar amount.

SPEAKER_05: But in this case it wasn't because it's multiple different projects under a blanket contract.

SPEAKER_05: Is that roughly correct, even though it's a large dollar amount?

SPEAKER_15: That's correct.

SPEAKER_15: Okay.

SPEAKER_15: In my 25 years of being at SMUD, the board, the policy has always been a community workforce

SPEAKER_15: agreement is always it's a board decision and staff brings large projects, construction

SPEAKER_15: projects, generation projects, and to the board to determine whether or not we should

SPEAKER_15: enter into a CWA and the board has defined and outlined the parameters of the CWA and

SPEAKER_15: then we would go negotiate it.

SPEAKER_15: So for each single project, that's how we've always done it.

SPEAKER_15: We've never had any kind of blanket community workforce agreement.

SPEAKER_15: Certainly we could look at that, but we have not been directed by the board to do that.

SPEAKER_05: Okay.

SPEAKER_05: Since it's not on CWA's PLAs, not specifically on the agenda tonight, we might not be able

SPEAKER_05: to get into it as deeply as I'd like to at this point, but I think at some point we need

SPEAKER_05: to have that discussion.

SPEAKER_05: We certainly could add it to another board agenda.

SPEAKER_05: I think that would be appropriate.

Unknown: Anybody else?

SPEAKER_04: Director Rose.

SPEAKER_17: Yeah, I have some general comments.

SPEAKER_17: I know in terms of the previous, we saw this for the first time last week and I saw it

SPEAKER_17: on the work plan for several months coming.

SPEAKER_17: So we knew it was coming.

SPEAKER_17: I think what surprised me is just the size of this contract and echo what Director Bowie

SPEAKER_17: Thompson has said.

SPEAKER_17: The last one was 100 million for three years.

SPEAKER_17: This one was 250 million.

SPEAKER_17: And so I know we're trying very hard to control costs and that's one of the reasons why we've

SPEAKER_17: opted in what's in it.

SPEAKER_17: It's a lot of little projects in there.

SPEAKER_17: I definitely think we want to be aware and make sure that some of the benefits of our

SPEAKER_17: projects make sure that they are spreading to the communities that they're in.

SPEAKER_17: And we've always had this balance between our SEED program and supporting small businesses

SPEAKER_17: in economic development and that balance there.

SPEAKER_17: At this point, this project is so far down the path, I wonder from a process perspective,

SPEAKER_17: right, is there a lesson learned?

SPEAKER_17: I've been on this board now for coming about 10 years and this is the first time that we've

SPEAKER_17: really run into this issue.

SPEAKER_17: So I think there's a lesson to be learned here.

SPEAKER_17: And so maybe that's something that we think about our process as we move forward.

SPEAKER_17: So that's sort of just a couple of thoughts.

SPEAKER_17: Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Okay, Director Hermer.

SPEAKER_11: Thank you, Mr. President.

SPEAKER_11: I tell you, I have concerns about this mainly because the amount is so much.

SPEAKER_11: And also that, you know, getting concerns shared with us at the last minute before a

SPEAKER_11: project moves forward is concerning to me.

SPEAKER_11: I understand that staff does need to have the money to move forward with the facilities

SPEAKER_11: in order to keep the power on.

SPEAKER_11: I'm just concerned about the fact that this is the first time I've only been on the board

SPEAKER_11: eight years, but this is the first time there's been so much concern about a contract.

SPEAKER_11: And I wonder, I think Director Rose is right on when he says there's probably some things

SPEAKER_11: that we can learn about this, but I also wonder, you know, if maybe this needs a little bit

SPEAKER_11: more time.

Unknown: Okay, and I'll let the rest of the board members know that we do have a speaker to speak on

SPEAKER_04: as Kip Skidmore of Sierra National Construction.

SPEAKER_04: But first I want to add my comments so far.

SPEAKER_04: And there will be opportunity, you know, after Mr. Skidmore if board members feel like they

SPEAKER_04: want to have more discussion of this.

SPEAKER_04: So the way I feel, and I understand that this is not a single project, so it doesn't really

SPEAKER_04: fit the type of direction that we've had in the past of large individual projects.

SPEAKER_04: So you know, it's like it kind of slips through the cracks, but I'm uncomfortable with the

SPEAKER_04: idea of having such a large contract, especially since I know that there's a lot of that we

SPEAKER_04: are exploring the possibility of having a more umbrella kind of community workforce

SPEAKER_04: agreement or PLA, whatever we're going to call it.

SPEAKER_04: And I'm uncomfortable with moving forward with the contract of this size when we know

SPEAKER_04: that we're looking at having that other policy discussion about how we're going to move forward

SPEAKER_04: with sort of a more umbrella kind of CWA.

SPEAKER_04: So also I just had a question.

SPEAKER_04: So the way the bidding was done, is there anything, you know, they come up with a bid

SPEAKER_04: but it was on a hypothetical thing, is there anything in the contract that binds them to

SPEAKER_04: any of the elements that were part of that project?

SPEAKER_04: Is there an actual requirement to adhere to that bid?

Unknown: Yes, President Tomayo, there is.

SPEAKER_06: We have those quotes and they are going to have to abide to what they quoted in the contract

SPEAKER_06: and outside of what I've mentioned here around index-based escalations that are mathematically

SPEAKER_06: based that will be reviewed on a periodic annual basis.

Unknown: Okay, so there's things that they specifically identified, this is what it would cost and

SPEAKER_04: then there's a formula to translate that to, okay, to future work.

SPEAKER_04: What about work that is not covered, you know, that's still under the contract but wasn't

SPEAKER_04: sort of foreseen in the hypothetical?

SPEAKER_04: Or was that covered by, is that already covered under the index that you just referred to?

SPEAKER_06: I believe that would be covered under the index.

SPEAKER_06: Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_04: Anything else from board members at this point before we ask Mr. Skidmore to speak?

SPEAKER_04: So Kip Skidmore of Sierra National Construction, please come up to the mic.

SPEAKER_04: You don't need to adjust it, you'll have three minutes and direct your comments to the board

SPEAKER_04: and do you have anything written that you want to provide to us?

SPEAKER_04: Okay, so please proceed, thank you.

SPEAKER_07: I would like to express my opinion on the bidding process.

SPEAKER_07: We've been doing public works in Sacramento area for over 40 years, thousands of projects.

SPEAKER_07: This by far is the most sophisticated process we have gone through in terms of bidding,

SPEAKER_07: incorporating small business seeds into the project along with evaluating both the

SPEAKER_07: personnel, the company itself, the work we've done in the past, all of this was incorporated

SPEAKER_07: and I want to compliment the staff for doing an excellent job of doing that.

SPEAKER_07: Because most public works are it's low bid, you get the job and sometimes you get less

SPEAKER_07: than you paid for in those kinds of situations.

SPEAKER_07: SMUD has taken a different direction here.

SPEAKER_07: I would imagine in this contract it sounds like a lot of money, there's probably, I imagine

SPEAKER_07: there's two or three hundred projects in that, venturing from projects that are $50,000 to

SPEAKER_07: $15 million.

SPEAKER_07: So it is, I think it's an excellent way for SMUD to approach this kind of project.

SPEAKER_07: We talk about PLAs and stuff which are really directed to more larger projects where you

SPEAKER_07: have a $200 million substation kind of project.

SPEAKER_07: So this is so many different kinds of things.

SPEAKER_07: It's slabs, it's everything that they come up with.

SPEAKER_07: And I know there's going to be 200, 300 projects that are going to come out of this thing.

SPEAKER_07: So the dollar value may be big but the average project is probably going to be under a million

SPEAKER_07: dollars I would think.

SPEAKER_07: That would be my opinion.

SPEAKER_07: So anyway, if you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer but I intend

SPEAKER_07: to make a speech.

SPEAKER_07: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Skidmore?

SPEAKER_04: Okay, so I want to, you know, do we have any requests for comment virtually?

Unknown: I do not see any hands, no.

SPEAKER_04: Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_04: So Board, any further discussion?

SPEAKER_05: Director Fishman.

SPEAKER_05: I'm just really struggling with this.

SPEAKER_05: First of all, Mr. Skidmore, thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_05: I do appreciate that you took the time to come down.

SPEAKER_05: That matters.

SPEAKER_05: I'm really struggling with this one.

SPEAKER_05: I mean, our staff is doing a great job of trying to get the jobs done that we need to

SPEAKER_05: have done at the lowest cost possible.

SPEAKER_05: That's great.

SPEAKER_05: But at the same time, we've always, as an organization and as a Board, had a very strong

SPEAKER_05: commitment to organized labor and to what that stands for and what that means.

SPEAKER_05: And this is a very difficult one for me.

SPEAKER_05: And I'm still really struggling.

Unknown: I would prefer to take a little bit more time on this.

Unknown: And I don't know exactly what that would look like, but either to consider adding some

SPEAKER_05: additional funds to the existing contract and extending that, and then I don't know what

SPEAKER_05: happens to the RFP process that we've just gone through and that.

Unknown: Or I'm not sure which one of my, it might have been Director Kurth, asks, you know,

SPEAKER_05: why just two?

SPEAKER_05: And maybe a contract of this size should be opened up to maybe three or four different

SPEAKER_05: companies instead of just two.

SPEAKER_05: I don't know.

SPEAKER_05: I'm just really struggling.

SPEAKER_05: I'm hoping that somebody has some ideas.

SPEAKER_05: Would you?

SPEAKER_17: Director Rose, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05: No, I think we've given a lot of feedback for the staff to consider.

SPEAKER_17: Maybe if we just continue this either to the next special committee, the next special board

SPEAKER_17: meeting or just the next board meeting, right, staff can go and hear our feedback and look

SPEAKER_17: at the, give us some options that we might find a little more palatable.

SPEAKER_17: And maybe that is putting money into the existing contract.

SPEAKER_17: Maybe that's taking a harder look at the process that everybody just went through.

SPEAKER_17: And I want to thank you all for coming out as well, right, and trying to be respectful

SPEAKER_17: of all the work that went into the work that's happened this far.

SPEAKER_17: That would be sort of my current thought.

Unknown: Director Buie, Thompson.

Unknown: Yeah, I would support that because I think that legally we have a position, right?

SPEAKER_03: It's none of the bidders have won or under any sanctions in the state of California.

SPEAKER_03: They all have valid licenses from a procedural.

SPEAKER_03: We don't, you know, as a boarder, we don't have any contractual or, you know, that's

SPEAKER_03: been violated.

SPEAKER_03: The process has been followed.

SPEAKER_03: So there's that.

SPEAKER_03: But I think that there's been enough discussion this evening.

SPEAKER_03: You've heard from all of us and most of us in sort of some concern.

SPEAKER_03: Since we still have a little money left, we have several bidders that are in the pool,

SPEAKER_03: except I believe the Verkems, right, in the current mix.

SPEAKER_03: I would suggest that, you know, we push it, get some more information because there was

SPEAKER_03: a very diligent also RFP process.

SPEAKER_03: It started in December of last year.

SPEAKER_03: We're in August.

SPEAKER_03: And so it would be good to have a discussion with what can be done, what flexibility we

SPEAKER_03: have because even if you, just Greg, if you know, if you took the top three, they're all

Unknown: nonunion bidders.

SPEAKER_03: So all the top companies that were successful in the top five, I believe, are none of them

SPEAKER_03: are union.

SPEAKER_03: So you'd have to extend it a lot longer.

SPEAKER_03: So I think there's just some conversations that and some more information.

SPEAKER_03: I think there's been a lot of, I don't want to say misinformation, but just lack of true

SPEAKER_03: understanding of how we got here.

SPEAKER_03: It would be good just to clear up everybody's concerns, questions, push it out a month or

SPEAKER_03: two.

SPEAKER_03: If you need, I guess it'd be good to know how dire are we.

SPEAKER_03: Are we running out September 6th?

SPEAKER_03: That would help in terms of knowing how far we can push this out.

SPEAKER_03: If it's tomorrow, we're going to run out and that's something else.

SPEAKER_03: But if this can wait till September or October's board meeting with the current financial state,

SPEAKER_03: and if we do have to have an emergency push, we would just need to know.

Unknown: Director Kirk.

SPEAKER_04: Did you want to?

Unknown: Well, I hadn't thought up anything to say yet, but I'd be happy to say no.

SPEAKER_04: I don't have anything to say.

SPEAKER_09: Those words will never come out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_09: But of course, I'd be happy to see this continue to month, take it up at our next board meeting

SPEAKER_09: or the board meeting after that to have our questions answered.

Unknown: Thanks.

SPEAKER_04: Director Herper.

SPEAKER_11: I'd like to see us delay this for a month and get questions answered and have more comfortability

SPEAKER_11: with making this decision.

SPEAKER_04: Director Sanborn.

Unknown: I would like to hear from staff about where would this leave us and what kind of issues

SPEAKER_18: would we have if we kick this down a month?

SPEAKER_15: I think what I heard from Lauren, the Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, what

SPEAKER_15: I heard from Eric is that we could defer this for a month, give staff time to bring

SPEAKER_15: back options, and we would not have an impact on the work at that point, would not have

SPEAKER_15: an impact on the work if we delay until September meeting.

SPEAKER_18: Okay.

SPEAKER_18: Well, with that, I would be fine delaying it a month and making sure my colleagues are

SPEAKER_18: comfortable.

SPEAKER_18: I'm fairly comfortable right now just because of it looks like the number three group was

SPEAKER_18: significantly more expensive.

SPEAKER_18: So for me, that's when we're trying to keep rates down.

SPEAKER_18: But there are issues and it would be better to have more time if we have it to give breathing

SPEAKER_18: space and some thought.

SPEAKER_18: So that's where I will go ahead and support that for one month.

SPEAKER_15: Perhaps then we could get a motion to postpone until September board meeting?

Unknown: I'd like...

Unknown: I'll move that we go ahead and move this to the next board meeting.

SPEAKER_11: You were the one that wanted to.

SPEAKER_11: I'll second that.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So I want to have a little bit more...

SPEAKER_04: Well, I want to add my comments if nobody else has comments.

SPEAKER_04: So what I'd like to have is staff come back with some options or ideas for us to consider

SPEAKER_04: at a committee meeting so we can have a more robust...

SPEAKER_04: And I'm hoping there's enough time maybe a committee meeting the week of the board meeting.

SPEAKER_04: What I'm particularly interested in is, is there a way that we can accommodate...

SPEAKER_04: Because a number of us are clearly concerned about this not being under a CWA or having

SPEAKER_04: CWA type provisions in it.

SPEAKER_04: And I'd like to see if there's some sort of options that can be somehow included in all

SPEAKER_04: of this.

SPEAKER_04: And then also, in case there's...

SPEAKER_04: It'd be great if we could agendize for the next board meeting an extension of the...

SPEAKER_04: Or addition of money to the existing contract in case we're unable to resolve this particular

SPEAKER_04: contract issue next month.

SPEAKER_04: I don't imagine it's going to take forever, but if there's still something sticky, it'd

SPEAKER_04: be great to have that on the agenda and we can not do it if we don't need to add money

SPEAKER_04: to the existing contract.

SPEAKER_04: So does that work?

SPEAKER_04: How does that sound?

Unknown: Yes, I do believe that would work.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_15: I think, yeah, for clarification, the issue before the board is going to be we did run

SPEAKER_15: an RFP process and we have qualified two.

SPEAKER_15: And I think the decision before the board would be whether or not the board decides

SPEAKER_15: to award that contract.

SPEAKER_15: We're not required to award it.

Unknown: That would be the decision before the board, but we can certainly come back with additional

SPEAKER_15: information and look at extending the existing contract and how we go about doing that and

SPEAKER_15: even adding money to that as well.

Unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: Do you think that a month is enough time for you to look at those types of options or?

SPEAKER_15: I think we would need to come back in a month just so we don't run out of money.

SPEAKER_15: We need to do the work.

SPEAKER_15: So that should be enough time, yes.

SPEAKER_15: And certainly we would bring it to committee first.

SPEAKER_15: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

Unknown: So.

SPEAKER_04: President Tamayo, can I just say, looking at our work plan, right, I would love to see

SPEAKER_17: right now we're scheduled for finance and audit September 15th, which is just two days

SPEAKER_17: before the board meeting.

SPEAKER_17: So I'd love to see if we can potentially have this discussion the week before and push this

SPEAKER_17: on to the policy strategic directive committee discussion.

SPEAKER_17: So that way if we have more direction, staff will have that week to work on it.

SPEAKER_17: Does that seem reasonable?

SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: And that's doable.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So the motion is to just continue this to next.

SPEAKER_04: Is that something we actually need a motion for?

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So we've got a motion to continue this to our next board meeting.

Unknown: So it would just be a vote at this point.

SPEAKER_04: You know what?

SPEAKER_04: I'm having trouble hearing you.

SPEAKER_04: I believe there was a motion and a second already.

SPEAKER_15: So it would just be a vote at this point.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_15: To postpone this until September.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: And could you just read the motion then?

SPEAKER_15: The motion would be to postpone discussion of this calendar, discussion 8 to September.

SPEAKER_15: That's the motion.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: And can we just use the, we don't need to do a roll call, right?

SPEAKER_04: No.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So you guys all know the blunt.

SPEAKER_04: So directors, please vote.

SPEAKER_15: The motion passes with all directors voting yes.

Unknown: Well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04: Thanks to the staff for putting all the work into this.

SPEAKER_04: I know that, you know, anyway.

SPEAKER_04: And thanks for all the work that you're going to do over the next month.

SPEAKER_04: I realize that's some complicated issues.

SPEAKER_04: So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So all right.

SPEAKER_04: So we've moved on to our next agenda item, which is public comment on items not on the

SPEAKER_04: agenda.

SPEAKER_04: And we have two folks that have requested to speak on items not on the agenda.

SPEAKER_04: The first is LaCharles James.

SPEAKER_04: Please come up to the mic.

Unknown: And you've got three minutes.

Unknown: Great.

SPEAKER_10: My name is LaCharles James.

SPEAKER_10: I'm president of the Herald Fire Prevention Council.

SPEAKER_10: Good evening.

SPEAKER_10: Good evening, leadership, board.

SPEAKER_10: I'm here on behalf of the rural community to raise a critical groundwater concern that

SPEAKER_10: has been quietly compounding beneath our feet for years.

SPEAKER_10: All Sacramento County accumulated eucalyptus debris, unregulated stormwater runoff, and

SPEAKER_10: land applied treated bio waste containing microplastics and persistent solids are steadily

SPEAKER_10: percolating into our shared aquifer.

SPEAKER_10: This is not a distant hypothetical hazard.

SPEAKER_10: It's an active long-term contamination pathway that threatens the water security and health

SPEAKER_10: of our region right now.

SPEAKER_10: At its core, this is a bio waste and fuel management crisis.

SPEAKER_10: And SMUD is uniquely positioned to help lead the solution.

SPEAKER_10: Pyrolysis is a proven, scalable thermal conversion technology.

SPEAKER_10: Unlike traditional disposal methods, advanced pyrolysis eliminates organic waste, permanently

SPEAKER_10: destroys embedded plastics, significantly reduces hazards, wildfire fuel loads, and produces

SPEAKER_10: high value byproducts, firm, dispatchable, clean energy, and carbon sequestering soil

SPEAKER_10: restoring biochar.

SPEAKER_10: The regional feedstock is virtually unlimited.

SPEAKER_10: We have a convergence of resources waiting for collaborative leadership.

Unknown: SMUD's land and infrastructure assets, strategic, regional, land and grid interconnection capacity,

SPEAKER_10: strategic funding, robust financing opportunities through the California Energy Commission for

SPEAKER_10: clean tech innovation, wildfire resistance mandate from CAL FIRE, high priority statewide

SPEAKER_10: mission to accelerate biomass utilization and fuel load reduction.

SPEAKER_10: I'm asking SMUD tonight to initiate a formal conversation and partner with local fire councils

SPEAKER_10: and regional stakeholders to explore a commercial scale pyrolysis solution.

SPEAKER_10: Acting now protects our groundwater aquifer, satisfies state environmental mandates, and

SPEAKER_10: returns what is currently a hazardous liability into a resilient clean energy asset for our

SPEAKER_10: entire community.

SPEAKER_10: Thank you.

SPEAKER_10: Thank you for your leadership.

Unknown: Thank you, Mr. James.

SPEAKER_04: Any questions?

SPEAKER_04: Anybody have any questions?

Unknown: Director Sanborn and then Director Herb.

SPEAKER_18: Thank you.

SPEAKER_18: I appreciate you coming tonight.

SPEAKER_18: I work in the waste management industry by day and pyrolysis is a well-known technology.

SPEAKER_18: Are you proposing a project?

SPEAKER_10: Yes.

SPEAKER_18: So you've got a project that you're proposing.

SPEAKER_18: I'm sorry, we can't talk about this.

SPEAKER_18: I guess you sent us information so we can get more information from you.

SPEAKER_10: I can leave you this.

SPEAKER_10: I have an extended briefing for your record, maybe.

SPEAKER_10: We can meet later on.

SPEAKER_18: We'll just need more information, I think, to do anything with what you've said.

SPEAKER_18: But I'm very interested.

SPEAKER_18: Okay.

SPEAKER_18: All right.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: Director Herman.

SPEAKER_11: Thank you, Mr. President.

SPEAKER_11: I just wanted to say thank you for coming in and talking to us.

SPEAKER_11: I think you're right that we share the same concerns about the environment.

SPEAKER_11: And if we can look at a project, then that would be good.

SPEAKER_11: But that's something for staff to decide.

SPEAKER_11: But thank you for visiting us.

SPEAKER_11: You're welcome.

Unknown: Great.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: And I'm guessing that our CEO may direct staff to look at the information that you

SPEAKER_04: have.

SPEAKER_04: I'll leave it to you, Laura.

SPEAKER_04: So we'll get the information from you.

SPEAKER_02: Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Mr. James.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: Our next speaker is Scott Sliderbeck.

SPEAKER_08: First of all, I wanted to say the comment about elections being frivolous.

SPEAKER_08: I know it wasn't meant to denigrate the electoral process.

SPEAKER_08: But I just want to make it clear that I like the board to actually justify its existence

SPEAKER_08: when you're asking for people to nominate and have you serve another four-year term.

SPEAKER_08: It's not a frivolous process, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_08: I am going through – unfortunately, I can't come to every board meeting or every committee

SPEAKER_08: meeting because I work until sunset most days.

SPEAKER_08: But I am interested in this item.

SPEAKER_08: Unfortunately, I didn't fill out the form.

SPEAKER_08: But this grant proposal with the canopy and having a solar facility.

SPEAKER_08: I certainly think that's an excellent idea.

SPEAKER_08: I prefer it using existing infrastructure that is not agricultural, doesn't kill birds,

SPEAKER_08: doesn't destroy 3,500 or 4,000 mature oak trees.

SPEAKER_08: I'd like to see more of that from SMUD.

SPEAKER_08: I don't know the cost.

SPEAKER_08: It might be easier to chop down 4,000 oak trees and put a large-scale multi-megawatt

SPEAKER_08: facility in.

SPEAKER_08: But I certainly think it's much more preferable for an environmental standpoint to take existing

SPEAKER_08: urban environments that are not going to disrupt the environment to that extent.

SPEAKER_08: The last thing I wanted to mention is the reason I filled out the card is incentives

SPEAKER_08: were mentioned in the meeting.

SPEAKER_08: I am doing a room addition on my house.

SPEAKER_08: And I went through – it just seemed to take a little bit longer than it should for me

SPEAKER_08: to see what incentives are out there for building projects, residential especially.

SPEAKER_08: That's what I'm concerned about.

SPEAKER_08: I have a whole house fan.

SPEAKER_08: I put a whole house fan in my first house I bought many years ago, and I made it a

SPEAKER_08: rule that I will never live in a house in Sacramento without a whole house fan.

SPEAKER_08: I don't have to use the air conditioner at night.

SPEAKER_08: We are fortunate in Sacramento to have the marine influence.

SPEAKER_08: And even if it's 105 degrees during the day, it'll cool down most times into the upper

SPEAKER_08: 50s, low 60s.

SPEAKER_08: And you just turn that whole house fan on, go to sleep, and it's just such an energy

SPEAKER_08: saver.

SPEAKER_08: I'd like to have it a little bit easier for people to see these incentives.

SPEAKER_08: I'd like to see incentives for whole house fans because surprisingly not everybody has

SPEAKER_08: one.

Unknown: Thank you, Mr. Slatterbeck.

SPEAKER_04: And thank you for calling out my poor choice of words and describing an election as frivolous.

SPEAKER_04: There's reasons not to have it, and it certainly wouldn't be a frivolous act.

SPEAKER_04: But thank you for calling out that poor choice of words.

SPEAKER_04: But I am glad that we have an option to save our rate payers money from having a ballot

SPEAKER_04: with one name on the ‑‑ for a position.

SPEAKER_04: So anyway, thank you for coming.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So at this point, we are moving on to our director's report.

SPEAKER_04: President DeMio, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_15: We do have a virtual speaker, John, as is Andres.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: Excuse me.

SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.

Unknown: Hi, this is John Weber.

SPEAKER_13: Can you hear me?

Unknown: Hello?

SPEAKER_13: We can hear you, John.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_13: Thank you.

SPEAKER_13: I just wanted to say good evening, Chair and board of directors.

SPEAKER_13: Thanks for all your work.

SPEAKER_13: You have a lot of tough decisions to make, and it sounds like you're making them in a

SPEAKER_13: very thoughtful manner.

SPEAKER_13: And I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_13: I submitted detailed written comments about another issue, but for this month, I want

SPEAKER_13: to give a shout out to a SMUD employee, Jack Haglund.

SPEAKER_13: He works with the distributed energy solutions.

SPEAKER_13: He's done a great job of keeping me informed of what SMUD is doing.

SPEAKER_13: And have a good evening.

Unknown: All right.

Unknown: Thank you, John.

SPEAKER_04: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So any other virtual comment requested?

Unknown: No, I don't see any hands.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So at this point in the agenda, we provide the directors an opportunity to report on

SPEAKER_04: SMUD activity.

SPEAKER_04: We'll begin our report with the report from Director Rose in ward one and continue in

SPEAKER_04: ward order with the President's report as the final item.

SPEAKER_04: Go ahead, Director Rose.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_17: I have just a short report, just a couple things to report on.

SPEAKER_17: I got out to the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce luncheon and had an opportunity to

SPEAKER_17: give some introductory remarks.

SPEAKER_17: Lisa Cardoza, who's the president of American River College, was the keynote for the day.

SPEAKER_17: Did SMUD a good service talking about our partnerships with them, especially around

SPEAKER_17: their culinary education and our induction work there.

SPEAKER_17: Had an opportunity to stop by the Sacramento Business Journal Corporate Citizenship Awards.

SPEAKER_17: And so had some good conversations with some sort of like-minded organizations in the community

SPEAKER_17: at that.

SPEAKER_17: And then the last one I would mention is, and I know many of us on the board got out

SPEAKER_17: there, out to the California State Fair for our Giving Friday at the fair.

SPEAKER_17: And that's always a lot of fun, collecting cans from folks and being with the staff,

SPEAKER_17: handing out bags and talking energy with the public.

SPEAKER_17: And I was on the stop-back by later that evening and help support Director Kurth.

SPEAKER_17: He gave a few comments later in the evening and a cooking demo that I'm sure he will talk

SPEAKER_17: about in more detail.

SPEAKER_17: And with that, that concludes my report.

SPEAKER_17: Thanks.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: I also attended several events, but I will just cover a few.

SPEAKER_03: I attended a national summit for elected Asian American Pacific Islander elected officials

SPEAKER_03: across the country.

SPEAKER_03: It's a rare occurrence to bring elected officials from across the country.

SPEAKER_03: It's a nonpartisan group.

SPEAKER_03: And we discussed various issues of economic stability, environmental justice, how to engage

SPEAKER_03: the public during these tough times.

SPEAKER_03: We it was a quick summit for a week, but about to get some great connections.

SPEAKER_03: Actually ran into several of our electives that we work with with our CCA in Silicon

SPEAKER_03: Valley.

SPEAKER_03: We had to connect with them and talk about all of SMUD's great work in our CCA's across

SPEAKER_03: California.

SPEAKER_03: I also visited, I represent Harold Galt in the south part of the district in my ward.

SPEAKER_03: And I, in present to my eye, went to go look at where potential Twin Cities project, our

SPEAKER_03: solar and storage.

SPEAKER_03: We had several people from the community write and show concern.

SPEAKER_03: So I've been out there several times.

SPEAKER_03: I cycle, spend time out at the lake.

SPEAKER_03: I didn't get to actually previously get, you know, dive in deep to that area.

SPEAKER_03: I just drive by as a recreationalist.

SPEAKER_03: And so it was good to see where our potential project could be or would be and what impacts

SPEAKER_03: if at all to that neighborhood in terms of glare, road issues.

SPEAKER_03: And so it was nice to be on the ground to see what potential, if any, impacts that project.

SPEAKER_03: Because I understand great concern was over that project and we're spending some time

SPEAKER_03: to see what options are out there.

SPEAKER_03: So that is it for me in terms of notable items from the last period.

SPEAKER_05: I think I'm next.

SPEAKER_05: First of all, I want to take note that while we've had some significant retirements recently

SPEAKER_05: among our leadership, someone else is retiring.

SPEAKER_05: This is her last board meeting tonight.

SPEAKER_05: Claire Rogers, our auditor, has been with the company for 34 years and spent the last

SPEAKER_05: several years as the director of audit services.

SPEAKER_05: And that's more than just financial auditing, which is, of course, very, very important

SPEAKER_05: to us.

SPEAKER_05: But we also have an outside firm that does our financial audits for us.

SPEAKER_05: But Claire's team helps keep us on the straight and narrow in a lot of other ways, making

SPEAKER_05: sure that our programs are being run effectively, make sure that we're compliant with a lot

SPEAKER_05: of different regulations.

SPEAKER_05: As a SMUD board member, it is a great, great relief to know that someone with Claire's

SPEAKER_05: acumen and abilities and knowledge has been there making sure that we're doing the right

SPEAKER_05: thing and it allows us as a board to look forward instead of look behind us to say,

SPEAKER_05: what's coming up to bite me?

SPEAKER_05: And Claire, we're going to miss you.

SPEAKER_05: We've made a great internal hire and we're looking forward to her service.

SPEAKER_05: But we're going to miss you, Claire.

SPEAKER_05: And I'll see you around the neighborhood because we live in the same neighborhood.

SPEAKER_05: So congratulations on a great, great career and hope you enjoy your retirement.

SPEAKER_05: A couple of other things I did was also at the State Fair for a Giving Friday, collecting

SPEAKER_05: canned goods for the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, a great organization

SPEAKER_05: there.

SPEAKER_05: A couple of things that I really enjoyed celebrating African American heritage in Sacramento.

SPEAKER_05: One, the Black Cowboys Parade in late July.

SPEAKER_05: Just a really fun event and celebrating the history of the Black Cowboys in the West.

SPEAKER_05: Something that we don't hear about a lot, but they played a significant role in that

SPEAKER_05: part of our history.

SPEAKER_05: And then also the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum had their 15th annual Banana

SPEAKER_05: Festival last weekend in Land Park.

SPEAKER_05: And that was also a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05: I went to a National Night Out celebration in my ward at Vintage Park for the Vineyard

SPEAKER_05: and Vintage Park neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_05: Their first event, but they had a good turnout and it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05: I got to say a few words and attend the ribbon cutting for an e-mobility hub at Hiram Johnson

SPEAKER_05: High School.

SPEAKER_05: It's actually in President Tomayo's ward, but it's close enough to mine so that I think

SPEAKER_05: you were unavailable, Nate, and I got to go do it.

SPEAKER_05: We worked with a school and another company to install two charging hubs for e-mobility

SPEAKER_05: devices for bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters.

SPEAKER_05: And they're separate from the grid.

SPEAKER_05: They're not, so it's a very low cost solution.

SPEAKER_05: They're all solar powered and battery driven and a place for kids to plug in their e-bikes

SPEAKER_05: and e-scooters.

SPEAKER_05: And while to qualify to be able to do that, they have to have a helmet.

SPEAKER_05: They have to have safety gear.

SPEAKER_05: They have to have a little bit of training, so it's a way to hopefully keep those students

SPEAKER_05: safe as well.

SPEAKER_05: And then finally, President Tomayo and I also got to both say a few words at the Iranian

SPEAKER_05: American Cultural and Educational Center Business Leadership, GALA, last weekend.

SPEAKER_05: And that's just a great fun event.

SPEAKER_05: And as I mentioned at one of our committee meetings earlier this week, many of those

SPEAKER_05: folks have families still under all kinds of duress and threat in their home countries.

SPEAKER_05: And it's a difficult time for them, but they put on a beautiful event and still managed

SPEAKER_05: to find things to celebrate and celebrate the American dream as part of that.

SPEAKER_05: So it was a fun event.

Unknown: I'll stop there.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: And now for me, a variety of things happened this month that were very interesting.

SPEAKER_11: And I just want to give a shout out to Rhonda for putting on the SMUD Employee Remembrance

SPEAKER_11: Event.

SPEAKER_11: I was fortunate to be able to speak.

SPEAKER_11: I worked 20 years here at SMUD, knew a lot of the folks and a lot of the folks that have

SPEAKER_11: passed away.

SPEAKER_11: So we were able to join together and remember the employees who have left us this year.

SPEAKER_11: And there also were others who shared about employees who have gone before us.

SPEAKER_11: I just want to say that I really miss you, Alan Wilcox and Mi Vu and Darren Schrum and

SPEAKER_11: my buddies, wonderful SMUD employees.

SPEAKER_11: And I think it's wonderful that we honor them every year.

SPEAKER_11: Also have the privilege of speaking to the rainbow chamber of commerce and telling them

SPEAKER_11: a little bit about the different contracts that they could potentially bid on.

SPEAKER_11: Several of the businesses in the group have won contracts from SMUD.

SPEAKER_11: And so it was a really nice luncheon just to bring people together and support each

SPEAKER_11: other.

SPEAKER_11: I also had the privilege of going out to Elk Grove for a special event that was put on

SPEAKER_11: by a seat at the table.

SPEAKER_11: A seat at the table is a bookstore, caters to LGBTQ folks, and they were unveiling a

SPEAKER_11: sensory inclusive space.

SPEAKER_11: And this is now the latest thing where there are rooms that are put together where people

SPEAKER_11: can go and not be distracted by different things that impact their senses.

SPEAKER_11: And it sounds a little odd until you're there and you see what they're doing.

SPEAKER_11: And I know that SMUD is supporting a seat at the table in this effort.

SPEAKER_11: And I think that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_11: So had a great time at the American Leadership Forum.

SPEAKER_11: Welcome reception to not only our new general manager, but the new CEO for Los Rios Community

SPEAKER_11: College.

SPEAKER_11: And that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_11: One of the most important things I did this past month was to go with President Tamayo

SPEAKER_11: and Director Kurth to meet with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and to share

SPEAKER_11: with them the land acknowledgment statement that we have been working on for many, many

SPEAKER_11: years.

SPEAKER_11: They were very welcoming.

SPEAKER_11: They were willing to share with us all kinds of things that they have there.

SPEAKER_11: We looked at baskets.

SPEAKER_11: We looked at, you know, warriors, tools.

SPEAKER_11: There was just a whole bunch of things that were displayed at their museum.

SPEAKER_11: And so they were pretty happy with our statement.

SPEAKER_11: They gave us some feedback that staff is now considering.

SPEAKER_11: But I'm hoping to bring that forward to the policy meeting in October or November.

SPEAKER_11: And then last but not least, I just want to give a little shout out to the intern I've

SPEAKER_11: had for the last month.

SPEAKER_11: Her name is Tiffany Elliott.

SPEAKER_11: She is the class president at JFK, Kennedy School, others call it.

SPEAKER_11: And she spent some time with our executive, Jose Bodipamemba, thank you, shared with her

SPEAKER_11: the bigger overall picture of how SMUD works.

SPEAKER_11: And then also I want to say thank you to Leroy in government affairs who shared with

SPEAKER_11: her the local stuff that goes on with SMUD and the elected officials.

SPEAKER_11: So with that, I will end.

SPEAKER_18: Thank you, President Smil.

SPEAKER_18: I'm going to keep it short.

SPEAKER_18: I've had a busy month but it's mostly just average working stuff with SMUD.

SPEAKER_18: I did go to the North State Building Industry Association for their chairman's circle lunch.

SPEAKER_18: It was really nice to see all our friends in the building industry.

SPEAKER_18: We worked very closely with them.

SPEAKER_18: They're electrifying homes.

SPEAKER_18: They're struggling to try and sell homes right now.

SPEAKER_18: It's a really tough market.

SPEAKER_18: And costs have gone up a lot of materials.

SPEAKER_18: So that's a real struggle for them.

SPEAKER_18: And we all need to work together to get more housing built in this region.

SPEAKER_18: So I was glad to be there.

SPEAKER_18: Also attended for the first time in about a year a group called the Lunch Bunch in North

SPEAKER_18: Highlands.

SPEAKER_18: And they meet at the Pancake Palace on Watt Avenue.

SPEAKER_18: And it's very local and a lot of great people there are working to make their community

SPEAKER_18: better.

SPEAKER_18: And I encourage everyone in that area to come out to celebrate North Highlands.

SPEAKER_18: It will be Saturday, September 26th.

SPEAKER_18: And I believe SMUD will be there.

SPEAKER_18: I'm one of the sponsors and very much looking forward to seeing everybody in North Highlands.

SPEAKER_18: There's not a whole lot of events up there.

SPEAKER_18: But they have a great aerospace museum and a lot of stuff going on.

SPEAKER_18: So glad to be there for that.

SPEAKER_18: And then we did have a great celebration for past CEO Paul Lau at the Sacramento State.

SPEAKER_18: And it was just wonderful to send him off after 44, 45 years of incredible work here

SPEAKER_18: at SMUD starting as an intern at Sac State.

SPEAKER_18: So very appropriate that we had it there.

SPEAKER_18: So with that, I'll turn it back to you.

Unknown: Thanks.

Unknown: I guess it's my turn.

SPEAKER_09: So a couple of things.

SPEAKER_09: I dropped by a cooling center put on by the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition

SPEAKER_09: and had an extended conversation with Herman Baharona about what else?

SPEAKER_09: Data centers.

SPEAKER_09: And so it was just wonderful to see this organization doing things on the ground, helping people

SPEAKER_09: out every day but then also worried about where we're going in the future.

SPEAKER_09: And so that was I have to say interesting.

SPEAKER_09: I filled in for director, I'm sorry, President Tamayo at the, well let me find out, the new

SPEAKER_09: home Missionary Baptist Church community celebration.

SPEAKER_09: They said I get to come back next year.

SPEAKER_09: It was a wonderful event with a huge number of church folks and this great community engagement

SPEAKER_09: activity that goes on there and any number of different booths and activities and fun

SPEAKER_09: things to do and just some great food too.

SPEAKER_09: So not going to miss that.

SPEAKER_09: Anyway, sorry, I'll let you go.

SPEAKER_09: Dropped by the Greenhouse Culinary Arts Intern Program where high school students practiced

SPEAKER_09: running a restaurant.

SPEAKER_09: And it was great.

SPEAKER_09: That's an organization that SMUD sponsors, the Greenhouse in South Antomas.

SPEAKER_09: And honestly, I think I had a $250 meal.

SPEAKER_09: It was one of the best meals I've ever eaten all done by high school students.

SPEAKER_09: It was just unbelievable there.

SPEAKER_09: And had a great time and a lot of fun there.

SPEAKER_09: I'll let President Tamayo go to that one next year just to make up for what he missed this

SPEAKER_09: year.

SPEAKER_09: Then with continuing the theme, dropped by the Cal Expo State Fair where Bella Vista won

SPEAKER_09: the Watts Cooking Competition this year.

SPEAKER_09: And I wanted to be sure and point out that Director Brandon Rose went to Bella Vista.

SPEAKER_09: So he dropped by to share in the celebration.

SPEAKER_09: And again, just a group of high school students won the competition and prepared some great

SPEAKER_09: food for a big crowd at the State Fair.

SPEAKER_09: Had a lot of fun at that.

SPEAKER_09: And last thing, oh, two things, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_09: Also traveled to meet with the Shingle Springs Band of the Miwok Indians and with the Director,

Unknown: I'm sorry, President Tamayo and Director Herber and also a key SMUD staff.

SPEAKER_09: Frankie and Emily traveled with us.

SPEAKER_09: Frankie McDermott and Emily Bikini.

SPEAKER_09: So try and sort of road test our land acknowledgment statement.

SPEAKER_09: They had some great suggestions for things that we could do and look forward to bringing

SPEAKER_09: that back.

SPEAKER_09: And just in a side note here, I traveled to Napa to the 80th birthday party of one of

SPEAKER_09: the former board members here, Larry Carr, who was having family from all over the country

SPEAKER_09: and friends from high school and college.

SPEAKER_09: And it was a big crowd in a huge room.

SPEAKER_09: And I was really happy to be there for Larry and celebrate his 80th birthday.

SPEAKER_09: And to remind him, because he hasn't kept up on all the details of what goes on at SMUD

SPEAKER_09: since he moved on to be a city council member and then retired, that what was originally

SPEAKER_09: his initiative on policy governance at the SMUD board continues strong to this day.

SPEAKER_09: And I think it's one of the key factors that saves the SMUD ratepayers almost a billion

SPEAKER_09: dollars a year over being in a different utility.

SPEAKER_09: And so it's a proud moment for Larry, I think a proud moment for all of us.

SPEAKER_09: With that, thank you.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Director Kurth.

SPEAKER_04: I didn't forget anybody.

SPEAKER_04: I got out of order, so I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_04: So I didn't forget anybody.

SPEAKER_04: So first of all, we save almost $2 billion a year for a Medicare care.

SPEAKER_04: That's right.

SPEAKER_04: It's gone up.

SPEAKER_04: Sorry.

SPEAKER_04: I'm going to start out with something unusual.

SPEAKER_04: So I took a vacation to Vancouver, British Columbia.

SPEAKER_04: And one of the things, even though we were without electricity most of the time, one

SPEAKER_04: thing that was really notable there was that because they have BC Hydro, which is a public

SPEAKER_04: agency and it's inexpensive, there's a lot of electric vehicles up there.

SPEAKER_04: And then another thing that I noticed was that one of the local, I was going to say

SPEAKER_04: Native American, but First Nations of Canada, they have as part of their economic plan,

SPEAKER_04: they have a run of the river electric generation plant.

SPEAKER_04: And they have lots of rivers and they probably, I'm guessing they probably have more, but

SPEAKER_04: it was really interesting to see the amount of hydro that they have.

SPEAKER_04: Up there where it rains a lot.

SPEAKER_04: So anyway, I had the privilege of going to Filipino American chamber mixer.

SPEAKER_04: And then also I went to the rainbow chamber that Director Herber spoke at.

SPEAKER_04: And I was just really impressed with the one, the level of energy of the people who were

SPEAKER_04: attending and their interest in the types of assistance that SMUD has to help people

SPEAKER_04: be successful in their business.

SPEAKER_04: And I thought that our staff did a great presentation for the amount of time that I was able to

SPEAKER_04: be there.

SPEAKER_04: I went to Florin Square Development Center for a small business development workshop.

SPEAKER_04: It was an all day workshop that we were one of the main sponsors of.

SPEAKER_04: And people had a lot of access to workshops and information on how to be successful in

SPEAKER_04: their businesses, a lot of small businesses in large of the Florin and Meadowview area.

SPEAKER_04: I think that's a really valuable thing that we do.

SPEAKER_04: I think we do that every year.

SPEAKER_04: And I think that it's actually really helpful to the community down there.

SPEAKER_04: I did have the extreme privilege of going up to the Apple Hill Growers Association annual

SPEAKER_04: dinner and our Suresh Kota and his lovely wife were there too.

SPEAKER_04: And it's a great event.

SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, a little reluctant to share what a great event it is because I know there's

SPEAKER_04: going to be competition for the seats at the table there.

SPEAKER_04: But it's a really nice thing that we help sponsor and participate in and increase our

SPEAKER_04: connection to El Dorado County even though we don't serve them with electricity, we're

SPEAKER_04: still an important part of their community for a variety of reasons.

SPEAKER_04: And we have a lot of employees up there.

SPEAKER_04: So it's really good to have a presence there.

SPEAKER_04: And it's really good food.

SPEAKER_04: So don't go, you know, because it won't be any good next year.

SPEAKER_04: So and I'll take the bullet for you on that.

SPEAKER_04: The land acknowledgment visit that we had was very enlightening.

SPEAKER_04: It's great to see one, it was great to have their very meaningful input into what we should

SPEAKER_04: consider having in our land acknowledgment and how that should be done.

SPEAKER_04: So some great ideas on what we should consider.

SPEAKER_04: But it was also really inspiring to see the level of effort that they're putting into

SPEAKER_04: raising awareness of their culture.

SPEAKER_04: And I think that maybe that's something that we could partner with them on in how we do

SPEAKER_04: our land acknowledgment but also right after the very next day I went to the Folsom Zoo

SPEAKER_04: and I could tell that they had been in contact with this tribe because they had for each

SPEAKER_04: of the animals, they had both the Miwok and the Nisanon names for all of the animals.

SPEAKER_04: And I could tell from the materials that we had seen up there that they had done that.

SPEAKER_04: And perhaps there's other opportunities that we and other agencies down here could support

SPEAKER_04: that awareness of their culture.

SPEAKER_04: It was actually pretty inspiring.

SPEAKER_04: I had a great opportunity to speak at the Indian Association of Sacramento.

SPEAKER_04: And so people from Indian descent or actually from India come together.

SPEAKER_04: It's sort of a big umbrella group.

SPEAKER_04: So there's people from states all over India.

SPEAKER_04: And I had a nice opportunity to speak there on behalf of SMUD and speak to one group that

SPEAKER_04: works with kids on implementing artificial intelligence.

SPEAKER_04: And it's another one of the many STEM oriented things that we support in the community.

SPEAKER_04: So that was inspiring.

SPEAKER_04: And then I went with Director Fishman to the Iranian American Cultural and Education Center

Unknown: celebration and Director Fishman was very modest in not mentioning that he did part

SPEAKER_04: of his speaking in Farsi.

SPEAKER_04: So he got a lot of applause for that.

SPEAKER_04: And let's see, what else?

SPEAKER_04: Today I went to meet the buyers at our customer service center.

SPEAKER_04: And that was amazing.

SPEAKER_04: There were so many people there.

SPEAKER_04: And we had so much information for them.

SPEAKER_04: We couldn't get everybody all in one room.

SPEAKER_04: But it was really great to see the interest of people wanting to do business with us and

SPEAKER_04: the amount of support that we give folks so that they can be successful in trying to

SPEAKER_04: do business.

SPEAKER_04: And then I also went to the community resource event that we put together.

SPEAKER_04: And it was held at the Salvation Army in Oak Park.

SPEAKER_04: And we had a number of our partners and other community agencies, the county, various educational

SPEAKER_04: and health care and just community groups like Asian Resources and La Familia.

SPEAKER_04: Even PG&E was there offering some of their customers assistance.

SPEAKER_04: And that was really well attended.

SPEAKER_04: I mean, almost all of the booths had multiple people waiting to speak to the people there.

SPEAKER_04: I haven't seen one of those events be that successful.

SPEAKER_04: So kudos to the SMUD team who really did a lot of outreach.

SPEAKER_04: And certainly there's a lot of people in that community that need help with a lot of different

SPEAKER_04: issues.

SPEAKER_04: But it seemed to me to be very successful and really positive energy.

SPEAKER_04: People were really interested in the resources.

SPEAKER_04: And then finally I went to the sort of retirement farewell thing with Claire.

SPEAKER_04: I learned a lot about her history with SMUD.

SPEAKER_04: A lot happens over a long career like that.

SPEAKER_04: I got to see some great pictures.

SPEAKER_04: And one of the bonus things was that a guy named Paul Lau showed up with a visitor badge

Unknown: and wearing shorts, he looked very relaxed.

SPEAKER_04: And it was nice to see him there.

SPEAKER_04: And he said some very kind words about his long-term collaboration and working with Claire.

SPEAKER_04: And as Greg, I'm in Claire's neighborhood like a lot.

SPEAKER_04: So I won't be missing her because I probably see her a lot too.

SPEAKER_04: But we'll miss you, your efforts here.

SPEAKER_04: But I know that you have trained up a good successor.

SPEAKER_04: And thank you very much for that parting gift.

SPEAKER_04: So anyway, congratulations on your retirement.

SPEAKER_04: And finally I had my first one-on-one meeting with our brand new CEO.

SPEAKER_04: And she seems to have settled in very nicely and doesn't seem too stressed out.

SPEAKER_04: Seems like she knows what's going on.

SPEAKER_04: So I'm very happy with the excellent choice that we made.

SPEAKER_04: And so with that, I'm going to hand it over to you for your CEO report.

SPEAKER_04: Your very first one.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you, President Tamayo.

SPEAKER_02: And congratulations, Claire, on your retirement.

SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your years of service.

SPEAKER_02: And we wish you the best.

SPEAKER_02: Very excited to be delivering my first CEO report.

SPEAKER_02: So I do want to thank the board for your support over the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_02: I think this is day 14 for me.

SPEAKER_02: I think it's 14.

SPEAKER_02: So thank you.

SPEAKER_02: I'm incredibly excited about the journey ahead with all of you.

SPEAKER_02: And it's an honor to have your trust.

SPEAKER_02: As you know, we are stewards of a vital community asset.

SPEAKER_02: And so I'm very excited to be on this journey to power our region for a more prosperous,

SPEAKER_02: resilient, and sustainable future.

SPEAKER_02: I'm proud to share that we've accomplished a major milestone this month.

SPEAKER_02: On August 11th, we successfully cut over our OMS, our outage management system.

SPEAKER_02: The OMS is the system that we use within distribution system operations.

SPEAKER_02: Our DSOs and our crews gather information, manage and restore power outages using that

SPEAKER_02: system.

SPEAKER_02: Our previous OMS was nearing the end of its life or nearing end of support.

SPEAKER_02: And by replacing it with Emerson's or formerly OSI Open Systems International, with their

SPEAKER_02: OMS, we're improving the resiliency of our core operational system and equipping our

SPEAKER_02: teams with enhanced outage and information, situational information and awareness.

SPEAKER_02: This project was a big undertaking from planning, design, and implementation to cut over.

SPEAKER_02: And it required close collaboration across many teams at SMUD for three years.

SPEAKER_02: During Go Live, we had teams providing 24-7 on-site support to the operators to ensure

SPEAKER_02: a smooth transition.

SPEAKER_02: It's a great job to the team involved in making this happen.

SPEAKER_02: A shout out to Katarina Militiev and her team in distribution operations engineering

SPEAKER_02: and Mike Whitter in terms of the operations technology support group as well.

SPEAKER_02: I have more great news to share.

SPEAKER_02: SMUD's Giving Fridays at the California State Fair was a huge success.

SPEAKER_02: As always, we were out at the fair connecting with our customers and community, educating

SPEAKER_02: fairgoers about our clean energy rebates and programs.

SPEAKER_02: This year, we collected more than 36,000 pounds of food for the Sacramento Food Bank and Family

SPEAKER_02: Services at our Giving Friday events.

SPEAKER_02: That's the most ever and 500 pounds more than last year.

SPEAKER_02: These donations will provide almost 30,000 meals for families facing food insecurities

SPEAKER_02: in our community.

SPEAKER_02: The numbers are really impressive.

SPEAKER_02: Our team distributed over 12,000 outage drawstring bags and 3,000 LED nightlights while connecting

SPEAKER_02: our customers with programs and rebates to help them save.

SPEAKER_02: Those are so important connections and have a lasting impact.

SPEAKER_02: We also hosted an induction cooking demo and celebrated the next generation of sustainable

SPEAKER_02: chefs.

SPEAKER_02: The Bella Vista High School team was there and they won our Watts Cooking Induction Cooking

SPEAKER_02: Competition.

Unknown: Thanks to all who came out to support SMUD at the fair and thanks to the volunteers and

SPEAKER_02: to our board members and executives that were there as well for giving your time to connect

SPEAKER_02: with thousands of community members.

SPEAKER_02: Thanks for putting on such a successful community presence again this year.

SPEAKER_02: This month, we celebrated the dedication and growth of our most recent intern class at

SPEAKER_02: the intern showcase.

SPEAKER_02: This diverse group included summer high school, college, and year-round interns.

SPEAKER_02: We brought them together to highlight their impressive work and share insights about their

SPEAKER_02: experience at SMUD.

SPEAKER_02: Over the year, our award-winning internship program has expanded significantly and this

SPEAKER_02: year we had even more than ever.

SPEAKER_02: In fact, we had so many interns at this year's showcase that we filled all the rooms and

SPEAKER_02: open spaces on the first floor in this building.

SPEAKER_02: Currently we have more than 70 year-round interns across our business units and then

SPEAKER_02: during the summer that number increases to over 120 interns.

SPEAKER_02: It was great to hear about the real world challenges that we have our interns working

SPEAKER_02: on from complex data analytics projects to engaging with our community at events to supporting

SPEAKER_02: our customers, digital experiences, and our interns are doing such meaningful work that

SPEAKER_02: it will set them up for future success.

SPEAKER_02: We're grateful for the work of all of our interns in helping us build a clean energy

SPEAKER_02: future.

SPEAKER_02: And finally, tonight's video will feature our chief customer officer, Brandi Bolden,

SPEAKER_02: and members of her team who are here.

Unknown: It's about our commitment to serving our customers, both residential and business,

SPEAKER_02: and how our customer programs help lower customers' bills, increase energy efficiency, and improve

SPEAKER_02: the region's air quality.

Unknown: Ultimately, being community-owned and not-for-profit means that we're always striving to deliver

SPEAKER_02: best-in-class services and personalized solutions that can help improve the quality of life

SPEAKER_02: for our customers and our community.

SPEAKER_02: So let's take a look.

SPEAKER_00: People don't work for SMUD just to work for a utility.

SPEAKER_00: They work for SMUD because they want to engage in our community in a very meaningful and

SPEAKER_00: deliberate and intentional way.

SPEAKER_14: I feel very honored to be able to come in and work with customers and help them find

SPEAKER_14: solutions or just being out and about and being part of the community.

SPEAKER_12: When you see the relief and just the happiness and the joy that you can bring a customer

SPEAKER_12: just by saying you're approved for a discount that you qualify for, to know that you can

SPEAKER_12: make that big of an impact, it's just, it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00: These power life, they are the center of everything that we do.

SPEAKER_16: At SMUD, our customer programs help lower customer bills, increase energy efficiency,

SPEAKER_16: and improve the region's air quality through clean energy options.

SPEAKER_00: Our programs and services really center around improving the quality of life for our customers

SPEAKER_00: and community.

SPEAKER_12: We will go into underserved communities and we will do neighborhood walks where we will

SPEAKER_12: send our energy specialists out, sometimes with board members, and we'll go door knocking

SPEAKER_12: and we'll let customers know that, hey, we are at this local agency.

SPEAKER_12: Please go down there.

SPEAKER_12: We're processing our EPR apps and our discount program applications on site.

SPEAKER_00: We show up for our business customers the same way we show up for our residential customers.

SPEAKER_00: Every single commercial account has a dedicated strategic account advisor that services that

SPEAKER_00: customer and that account in meeting all of their needs.

Unknown: I think trust starts with listening.

SPEAKER_14: In customer service, you always are trying to get to the solution, which is important,

SPEAKER_14: but listening to the customer, I think, is even more because when you get to have the

SPEAKER_14: customer talk about their future plan, as I'm listening, I'm kind of formulating different

SPEAKER_14: ways that I can approach the customer.

SPEAKER_00: Every single interaction is an opportunity to build or break trust.

SPEAKER_00: And so in everything that we do, we want to make sure that we are building that trust

SPEAKER_00: through being easy to do business with, being responsive to our customer needs.

SPEAKER_16: Whether customers visit us at our customer service center or connect with us at local events,

SPEAKER_16: we make sure it's easy for them to get the information and support they need.

SPEAKER_12: Having different resource expos, having different opportunities to be out in the community and

SPEAKER_12: provide these services, it lets the customers know that we're there for them.

SPEAKER_12: I know what it's like to be in need, to grow up with a single mother.

SPEAKER_12: So to be able to give back to the community that I come from is just something that is

SPEAKER_12: just nothing short of amazing.

SPEAKER_00: It's important that we pay attention to what our customers want and need and build those

SPEAKER_00: programs and services that meet their needs in order to provide the value that they deserve.

SPEAKER_16: From keeping the lights on to delivering top tier customer service programs, we put our

SPEAKER_16: community first.

SPEAKER_16: Learn more at smud.org.

SPEAKER_02: That concludes my report.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04: Do we have any summary of note for the record?

SPEAKER_15: I have a staff will check on CR National's performance record.

SPEAKER_15: We'll provide additional information to the board about the solicitation process and criteria.

SPEAKER_15: And we'll add the CWA to the board parking lot for discussion.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_04: So seeing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

Unknown: Thank you.