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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04.17.2024.telecommunications minutes TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES City Council Chambers April 17, 2024 4:00 p.m. 1. Members present: Van Fleet, Batemon, Kurtenbach, Young and Wienands. 2. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Young that the agenda as amended by striking Item 5, be approved. Voice vote-Ayes: Four. Motion carried. Mr. Van Fleet explained that the reason for removal was to obtain legal counsel input on some of the language. 3. Moved by Young seconded by Batemon that the minutes of March 20, 2024, regular session, as presented, be approved. Voice vote-Ayes: Four. Motion carried. 4. Moved by Young seconded by Kurtenbach to receive and file a notice of conclusion of employment of Julie Eastman and a severance payment of $4,727.83. Voice vote-Ayes: Four. Motion carried. Mr. Kurtenbach requested an update on what changed from the first time it was introduced. Eric Lage, General Manager, explained that he had our attorney review the employment agreement, which refers to the employee handbook. The interpretation of the handbook is that employees are entitled to a payout for vacation time only, so the payout was reduced by the amount of sick time that was accrued but not required to be paid out. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned if the handbook is being updated to include language regarding forfeiture of payout. Eric Lage confirmed and anticipated it will be complete by the next meeting or two. Kelley Felchle, Board Secretary, commented that legal counsel will review the entire employee handbook to make sure there are not other things that were missed by us or PDCM. Mr. Kurtenbach offered to send some language to use if it would be helpful. Mr. Young shared that he saw a recent article about CFU updating their vacation time benefits. 5.Moved by seGended by to approve an agreement with 3 GIS I I G for e OR the arneURt ef e years, 850 ever 3 OR GGRjURGtien with the FY2024 Fiber , . 6. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Young to approve an agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative and authorizing payment to the same in the amount of $28,500. Voice vote-Ayes: Four. Motion carried. Eric Lage, General Manager, provided an overview of the agreement and explained that the $28,500 is a one-time application fee which he believes will be made back in savings in just a few months. Mr. Van Fleet asked if there were any annual fees. Eric Lage commented that there is no annual fee but there is a minimum hardware purchasing requirement but does not believe we'll have a problem meeting that minimum. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned if this includes the fees for local broadcasting. Page 2 Eric Lage commented that there could be some random channels are not an NCTC channel so we would have to negotiate those on our own. 7. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Van Fleet to approve an agreement with ImOn for telephone services. Voice vote-Ayes: Three. Abstain: One (Mr. Young, due to a conflict of interest). Motion carried. Eric Lage, General Manager, explained that there is some confidentiality language in the agreement, but generally it is all within our Magellan budget. We were able to negotiate some of the terms on it to limit some of our exposure on long distance calls. Mr. Kurtenbach shared that he has been asked that if the power goes out, do they lose their phone. Eric Lage explained that the FCC requires that we offer battery back-up units and stated that they are working on setting a rental rate for those. Ms. Wienands joined the meeting. 8. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Young to approve Supplemental Agreement No. 1 with Entrust Solutions Group (Magellan), of Denver, Colorado, in conjunction with the FY 2023 Construction of a Fiber-to-the-Premise Feeder/Distribution and Backbone Network Project, Contract No. 1088, and authorizing the General Manager of Telecommunications to execute said document. Voice vote-Ayes: Five. Motion carried. Eric Lage, General Manager, provided an overview of what the supplemental agreement entails. He shared that the city's EDA project is just taking off with an estimated two crews working on that contract. We have an additional two crews on Contract No. 1088, which is the construction happening with ITG. This construction inspector will inspect for the two city crews as well as the two 1088 crews. The cost split between the city and the utility is sixty-one percent city and thirty-nine percent utility. He explained that the cost includes some admin structure. Mr. Van Fleet questioned how many crews that instructor oversees. Eric Lage said the inspector will oversee four crews. Mr. Young clarified the split cost and that it was heard by council at the last meeting. Eric Lage confirmed and said that it was up for reconsideration by council this evening. Mayor Hart commented that he was not at the council meeting but has had a chance to talk to staff and council members. There was some necessary clarification that needs to be made. Once it is reconsidered, it will then be on the following regular council meeting for a full vote. He explained that on April 1 st, Eric did provide one of the council members a very detailed explanation of what this position does and the need for it, though he isn't sure whether the information was shared with other council members. Eric explained that he does not see this as an extra fee, but really just moving those resources from the end of the project up to now. If we can finish the project in two and half years instead of three then we can avoid paying those additional months for inspectors on the back end. 9. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Young to approve Change Order No. 2024-0011, for an increase in the amount of $72,112.07 in conjunction with the FY 2023 Construction of a Fiber-to-the-Premise Feeder/Distribution and Backbone Network Project, Contract No. 1088. Voice vote-Ayes: Five. Eric Lage explained that the purpose of this change order is to get fiber from South Front Networks to the current backbone to give us redundancy back to Fire Station 6. We'll be able to utilize the city backbone to get our Phase II infrastructure in place. Mr. Van Fleet asked if this a one-time cost and is there a split in cost with the city. Page 3 Eric Lage stated it is a one-time cost and there is no cost splitting. Mr. Van Fleet asked who was doing the work. Eric Lage stated that ITG is doing the work. 10. Moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Batemon to approve Change Order No. 2024- 0012, for a decrease in the amount of$522,532.28 in conjunction with the FY 2023 Construction of a Fiber-to-the-Premise Feeder/Distribution and Backbone Network Project, Contract No. 1088. Voice vote-Ayes: Five. Motion carried. Eric Lage explained that the city received a grant to do work on La Porte Road and part of the grant is fiber work for the backbone. This is a deduct, however it will be rebid out for the construction. He shared that two of the LCPs will be impacted by this and will likely be completed after Phase 3. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned if this would be done prior to the project being done. Eric Lage explained that it would as the road project is completing. Warren Lyons, Entrust, shared that the change order is in conjunction with the city project so the project will be built out of that funding so in the future this may or may not be added back to Contract No. 1088. 11. Update from Speer Financial, General Manager of Telecommunications, and consultants. Maggie Burger shared that they are pricing bonds today for the general obligation twenty million dollars. The city will handle that approval as the citizens of Waterloo voted on this a couple of years ago. Bridgett and Eric will work together to identify any expenses to date that need to be reimbursed as well as future expenses. She stated that coming this summer is a large utility revenue bond, likely in the thirty-to-forty-million- dollar range. She shared that Kristen Cooper and Steve Nadel will be writing an agreement that outlines the understandings, with a more formalized agreement after the debt has been refunded out. Eric Lage, General Manager, provided an overview of ongoing projects. Mr. Van Fleet questioned the timeline for bringing on the next batch of test customers. Erica Christiansen, Customer Service Representative, commented that Camvio will be on-site the week of May 13th. She explained that we will be moving our four current friendlies over to the new system along with two additional new friendlies. We are currently in the process of doing drops for up to fifteen more friendlies. Mr. Van Fleet questioned what the testing period would look like. Eric Lage indicated that it will take a couple months for the test customers. Mr. Young questioned if billing will take effect while they are a test customer. Eric Lage explained that they will not be billed while under testing plus customers receive two months of free internet after they sign up. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned the status of the additional hubs. Eric Lage explained that they are considering in Phase II, Linden Tower, trying to put that infrastructure inside of Public Works, which would keep us from having to purchase an additional shelter and generator. Mr. Kurtenbach asked about the third one. Page 4 Eric Lage explained that they are reevaluating whether they will do a but or a cabinet since it is a small amount of equipment. They are also working on placement because there is some concern of flooding at original location. Kelley Felchle, Board Secretary, working on changes to the employee handbook. Office space lease RFP is due tomorrow so after they come in, Mr. Young, Eric and myself will be reviewing those. We have also been working on a confidential information policy to have a better guidance for handling proprietary information. Michael Reagan, Entrust Solutions, provided an update to the board on construction activities. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned how many crews are operating currently and how many subcontractors are operating with those crews. Michael Reagan provided an overview of crew counts for different portions of the projects. Mr. Kurtenbach questioned if any of our contractors are working with the competition as well. Michael Raegan said there are not. Mr. Young questioned how the transition to Vanguard for locates is going now that MidAmerican is also using Vanguard. Eric Lage shared that they are happy with the transition. 12. Adjourn. With no further business before the board, it was moved by Kurtenbach seconded by Young that the meeting be adjourned at 4:30 p.m. Voice vote-Ayes: Five. Motion carried. Xe(fey Felchle swNEo Kelley Felchle Board Secretary