MID Board Report Archive

MID Board Meeting of Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Contact: MID Public Affairs Department, Maree Hawkins, 209 526-7390
The next MID Board meetings are scheduled for July 11 and 25.

Water report

Walter Ward, Assistant General Manager Water Operations, reported that the City and County of San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy water storage system is 96 percent full.  Don Pedro Reservoir last week recorded its highest year-to-date elevation (828.74 ft.), but is dropping slightly due to irrigation water use.  The Don Pedro Powerhouse is expected to be at maximum power generation through July as the reservoir’s elevation is brought down to meet the Army Corps of Engineers Oct. 7 requirement of 809.1 ft.

Customer billing system update

Lou Hampel, Assistant General Manager, Finance and General Services, reporting in his capacity as project manager for the Customer Billing System, said there have been no major problems in the last two weeks and the focus is data cleanup.  The top 12 issues have been categorized into 80 sub items with about 10 now fixed.

2006A Certificates of Participation

The Board unanimously approved financing documents relating to refunding the 1996 A Revenue Refunding Bonds (approximately $80 million), and financing improvements of local transmission and distribution facilities including poles, conductors and hardware (approximately $67 million). The refunding of the 1996A Revenue Refunding Bonds is consistent with the District’s policy of reducing debt service costs, while the financing of the capital improvements is required by routine growth within the District’s service territory. The sale is expected in late July.

Revisions to apprentice training program

The Board unanimously approved revisions to MID’s Basic Apprentice Training Program and the Electric Transmission & Distribution Lineworker Apprentice Program. Assistant General Manager Tom Kimball, Transmission & Distribution, said the changes grew out of concerns voiced by crew leaders.  A group was brought together to make changes to improve the program. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has also approved the changes.

MID and IBEW have worked together over the past 30 years to develop an apprentice-training program for various skilled crafts.  MID now administers eight different apprenticeships to provide for some of its labor needs.   The apprenticeships include these job classifications: dispatcher, generation technician, power system scheduler, lineworker, substation, test technician, operations technician, and water treatment plant operator.

Changes to improve the Apprentice Lineworker Program include:

• Adoption of the Northwest Lineman’s College academic curriculum as part of the formal MID training.
• Establishment of training crews to improve basic work training early in the apprenticeship.
• Additional training on equipment operation and tool identification early in the apprenticeship.
• Additional field-testing requirements to prove apprentice competence.

In other action, the Board unanimously approved

• An investment management services agreement with Tradewinds NWQ Global Investors, LLC.  Tradewinds will be managing a portion of the basic retirement plan’s international assets.
• An agreement with Quality Assurance Engineering doing business as Consolidated Engineering Laboratories for geotechnical study and construction monitoring for Claribel Substation, and on-call geotechnical construction monitoring for various projects to be performed in 2006 and 2007, including the Westley Switchyard expansion project.

Don Pedro Board of Control report
Director Cecil Hensley reported that the cool spring and a cold Memorial Day weekend has reduced recreation revenues at Don Pedro Reservoir.  Don Pedro’s fireworks will be presented on July 3 with parking priced at $6 per car. Staff says fireworks begin about 9 p.m., but suggest getting there as early as possible (no later than 6:30-7 p.m.).