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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10 Stratigic Planning Agenda Item # 10 -. TRUCKEE Public Utility District i Memorandum To: Board of Directors From: Peter Holarneister Date: August 10, 2001 STRATEGIC PLANNING Each year in August or September we have been scheduling a facilitated strategic plan workshop. Bob Rauch has been our facilitator. Workshop participants have included the Board, the general manager, department heads and other professional staff, and consultants. It is time to consider scheduling the next workshop. Bob Rauch is available on August 29 and September 5. We have been starting the workshops at 4:00 PM, taking a dinner break at 6:00 PM and resuming them at 7:00 PM. We find that we run out of time at the end of the evening meeting. I have talked about this with staff and we think we have been spending too much time reviewing the past year's plan and accomplishments, thus eating into valuable time to discuss the future. Reviewing the past year is a valuable way to set up our thinking about the future, so we want to suggest a way to do that. We suggest that the review of the past occur at the August 15 workshop. Then, at the facilitated workshop, we can get right to work on the future. With that in mind, the following is the action plan adopted last year. I will be prepared on Wednesday evening to describe what we have done in the past year. The Action Plan Issue 1. Donner Lake Issue: Should District acquire Donner Lake Water Company? (1200 connections) - State DOHS requires boiled water - System is deficient & unacceptable - Local residents have requested District to acquire district &fix system - Currently we are refining cost estimates - Owner is opposed to sale—would require condemnation Action: (a) Conduct disciplined analysis of what will be required - Consulting engineer - Appraise - Consultant engineer working on CEQA Page 9 (b) Bring report on all of above to Board (c) Bring information on acquisition to Donner Lake property owners (d) Ditto to other PUD water customers (e) Work with present owner to achieve a smooth acquisition process Who: General Manager& staff Consultant engineers Attorney Board When: - Package to Board by end of year (2000) - Follow-up & communications (early 2001) - Complete acquisition by mid 2001 Issue 2. Financial 2.1 High Financial Demands on the District Issue: In 2001-2002, purchased power costs will rise - Undesirable to raise rates, if possible, so as to remain below SPPCo rates (which are frozen) - So we have a temporary (2 year) squeeze on budget - Should we restrict our discretionary spending during this period? Action: (a) Postpone some capital spending (for about 2 years) to relieve budget squeeze period. Who: General Manager in 2001 budget When: Bring a conservative budget with a limited capital spending plan to the Board in November 2000 2.2 Financial Master Plan Issue: District is growing rapidly. Increased demands on capital, and operations and maintenance for new growth and for current residents. Need to review facilities fees and rates. New facilities (such as corporation yard). New broadband business and Donner Lake water system. Cash flows & reserves must be set that match dynamic situation. Action: Develop a long-range capital plan and budget. (a) Staff recommend possible use of consultant, along with an appropriate statement of work, for development of a Financial Master Plan Who: Mary Chapman When: Second quarter of 2001 Page 2 Issue 3. Power Supply Issue: The District is currently purchasing its wholesale power needs on the market. The market is too volatile. We need to secure a wholesale power supply that avoids the price spikes, and is priced close to the cost to produce power at the new plants being brought on line. We need a multi-year contract with transmission service to deliver it to Truckee with appropriate risk mitigation measures. Action: Bring a proposal to the Board for a power supply contract, or series of contracts that satisfy the above criteria. Who: Steve Hollabaugh When: Fourth quarter of 2000 Issue 4 Growth 4.1 Electric master plan Issue: The District electric system is growing due to development within our service territory. The District's current master plan is over 5 years old, and most of the projects identified have been completed. It is now time to prepare an updated electric master plan. There is a need to generate additional facilities fees from developers to pay for electric system facilities needed to serve developments. Action: Submit a draft electric master plan and proposed facilities fee schedule to the Board of Directors. Who: Steve Hollabaugh and Bob Quinn When: First quarter of 2001 4.2 Water master plan Issue: The District water system is growing due to development within our service territory. The District's current master plan is over 5 years old. It is now time to prepare an updated water master plan. There is a need to generate additional facilities fees from developers to pay for water system facilities needed to serve developments. Action: Submit a draft water master plan and proposed facilities fee schedule to the Board of Directors. Who: Neil Kaufman When: Fourth quarter of 2000 Issue 5. Long Tenn Water Supply Issue: There is substantial groundwater in the basin, but not sufficient number of wells. Page 3 Firm yield in basin has been established—but Placer County has half of basin May need to revisit safe yield of basin Golf courses create a substantial demand, as does growth Change in environmental rules impact supply picture Action: (a) consultant assist in revisiting basin safe yield, possible recharge areas, develop model of groundwater basin (b) Work with PCWA on such project— may include other stakeholders in the basin. Develop principles of agreement (c) Water Master Plan will provide information on demand. Who: General Manager and water staff(Ed Taylor and Neil Kaufman) Groundwater consultant When: Fall 2000—Spring 2001 Issue 6 Management and Operations 6.1 GIS—location of District facilities Issue: The District is in the process of developing advanced GIS capability. It is not clear to Directors and staff what capabilities GIS brings to the District. Action: Present Board workshop and demonstration of GIS, explaining what we are planning to do, and what benefits it will produce. Who: Staff(Ian Fitzgerald) When: January 2001 6.2 Staff training Issue: GIS brings substantial new capabilities to the District. To get full benefit of GIS it needs to be used by staff at all levels of the organization, and GIS needs to be coordinated with other District technology. District staff needs to be trained to use these new technologies. Action: Conduct a broad based training program for District staff in utilization of software and hardware associated with GIS and related technologies. Staff to develop a training program and submit is to the General Manager. Who: Steve Hollabaugh and Ian Fitzgerald. When: First quarter of 2001 6.3 Communications— Board and staff Page 4 Issue: voters as well as make wise decisions. Vital that Board understand what staff is doing so it can explain this to constituents. Actions: (a) Consider a facilitated workshop on the roles and responsibilities of Board and staff, to clarify roles. (b) Consider pruning Board agendas to focus more on key policy areas, with less "hands on"technical information. (c) Consider well-planned tour of district departments and facilities. Staff present to Board what they do. (d) Use the monthly staff reports to keep Board informed regarding significant employee actions, such as hires, separation, employee disabilities, etc. Issue 7 Corporation Yard Action: Prepare a conceptual plan of what the new facility would be, rough costs, benefits, etc. Who: Staff(Kathy Neus), with assistance from a consultant When: Third quarter of 2001 Issue 8. Broadband (telecommunications) 8.1 Obtain authority to activate latent power Issue: The District is evaluating whether to offer broadband services to the community. We need approval from LAFCo to do so. It is difficult to go further in our evaluation until we have a decision from LAFCo's. Action: Submit Vectren report to LAFCo. Complete the LAFCo process leading to approval or denial of activation of the latent power Who: General Manager and Alan Harry When: Fourth quarter of 2000 8.2 make decision whether to deploy metropolitan area network Issue: The Board of Directors is evaluating whether to offer broadband services to the community. A decision must be made to we can proceed or terminate further action. Action: Staff will bring the Broadband issue to the Board at a series of meetings at which the Board will deal with the many individual elements in the decision process. Who: General Manager, Alan Harry, with help from consultants. When: Fourth quarter of 2000 and first quarter of 2001 Page 5 Issue 9. District owned land Issue: - District has substantial land assets - Desire policy decision on whether to liquidate some of these properties to obtain revenue - Note: must follow process of offering surplus property to other public agencies, then negotiating with private buyers Action: (a) GENERAL MANAGER will bring to Board various options related to disposing of excess land: whether to sell, why sell, when to sell, not sell, etc. (b) Prepare an inventory of these lands (c) Board consider what its interests are in sale of property, & adopt a policy with respect to disposition of property (d) Prepare a (rough) appraisal of the value of the various properties Who: General Manager Attorney Consultants (appraiser) When: December 2000—GENERAL MANAGER will bring a package of informational materials related to above to Board for consideration Issue 10. Placer County Water Anencv Issue: TDPUD and PCWA are neighboring water agencies. We share use of the Martis Valley groundwater basin. TDPUD provides contract O&M services at the Lahontan water system owned by PCWA. TDPUD wishes to expand its presence in Mantis Valley in Placer County. PCWA wishes to maintain an ongoing presence in the Mantis Valley. Both agencies are interested in developing a closer working relationship to gain mutual benefits. Action: Enter into a formal arrangement by which each agency pursues its interests without damaging the interests of the other agency. Staff to bring a contract to the Board for discussion and adoption. Who: General Manager When: Fourth quarter of 2000 and first quarter of 2001. Page 6