WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=QK0nA2FhoQE

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: QK0nA2FhoQE):
- 00:01:59: RMLD Board and Audit Committee Call to Order
- 00:03:39: Public Comment: Reading Bike Recycling Event Success
- 00:05:03: Public Comment: Line Workers Rodeo - First Place Win!
- 00:06:38: Citizens Advisory Board Called to Order; Policy Update
- 00:07:29: Liaison from Select Board; Joint Meetings Discussion
- 00:08:05: Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Audit and CAB
- 00:09:31: Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Board of Commissioners
- 00:10:05: CBIZ CPAs: Presentation of 2025 Audit Results
- 00:21:54: Audit Presentation Discussion: Net Position and Drivers
- 00:23:31: Audit Presentation Discussion: Restricted Cash Shift
- 00:24:36: Audit Presentation Discussion: Electricity Cost Increase
- 00:27:18: Audit Presentation Discussion: Fuel Charge Adjustment
- 00:33:29: Audit Presentation Discussion: Capital Asset Investment
- 00:39:58: Audit Presentation Discussion: MLP Debt and Finance
- 00:42:59: Public Comment: Pension and Financing Clarification
- 00:46:49: Public Comment: Audit Scope and Budget Alignment
- 00:48:58: Public Comment: Carbon Certificate Values Decline
- 00:52:30: Audit Presentation Approval; Adjourn Audit Committee
- 00:54:56: Procurement Request: Dielectric Testing and Inspection
- 00:59:10: Approval for Dielectric Testing: TM Aerial Inspections
- 00:59:54: General Manager Update: Cost of Service Study
- 01:04:16: General Manager Update: NEPT Line Workers Rodeo Win
- 01:06:59: General Manager Update: AMI Meter Replacement Project
- 01:17:53: Scheduling and Adjournment of Meeting


Part: 1

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Mhm. >> of the RMLD Board of Commissioners to order and skip the cab. The Audit Committee want to call to order. Uh yes, looks like you're all in the room. I have to do a roll call cuz I think we're hybrid here. So, uh

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uh let's do that. Uh starting on Zoom, Sean Brandt. Here. Mark Zarrow. Here. Karen Herrick. Here. And Joe Carney and here. Don't think I missed anyone. Okay, great. Um do we have any public comment? Looks

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like we have a few folks online. So, the RMLD uh Board of Commissioners recognizes the the importance of hearing public comment at the discretion of the chair on items on the official agenda. Once recognized by the chair, all persons addressing the board shall state their name and address prior to speaking. It's the role of the chair to

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maintain order in all public comment or ensuing discussion. Do you have any public comment? Any hands raised? I know Ray, you did public comment. Um I just like to thank RMLD for hosting the bike recycling event. It's a It was a collaborative

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effort between Reading Cares, uh Reading Climate Advisory Committee, um the Reading Police Department did a skills set, and then RMLD committed five people to supporting the event. We moved over 150 bikes.

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That's a lot of bikes. So, pretty much uh the RMLD staff that participated, definitely uh thank you for supporting that event. And um it went very well. A little bit of rain, but didn't didn't diminish the bikes received or the or the bikes uh

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distributed. So, um thank you for all that were part of that. Okay, the update on that. Any other public comment? Did you have a I do. I just had one thing while we have him here. I'm going

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to bring in Matt Brown, our general line foreman. Uh last week, we competed at the NEPT uh line workers rodeo up in Moon Mountain. And I'll let Matt do the rest. >> [laughter] >> Watch the event happen at the public

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last week. We had a three-man team, and they were one of two teams with perfect scores. There were eight events, 100 points per event. They got 600 total points, and the tiebreaker came down to their overall time. Their overall time was 49 minutes. Second place was an hour

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and 12 minutes. Wow. They they actually. Hard work, dedication, practice days and everything like that. It's it's a good thing. So, they did they did excellent. That's fantastic. Congratulations. Uh yeah, why don't you take it?

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I give you guys a pictures and everything. >> Yes, I have a slide on it in the gym update, but that's here for a short period of time, so we wanted to get them in here and Yeah, thank you so much for coming in. stamp it and then That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Good job.

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Too bad you can't drink out of that thing. No problem. Thank you for coming guys. Yeah, awesome job. It's fantastic. That's great. Thank you for that. See you there. Any other public comment? Okay, I think we've got a quorum of the

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CAB now, so we can go ahead and get started. I know it's really short. No, no problem. Do you want to call the CAB to order? Citizens Advisory Board is now called to order. Um Dave, do you have a policy committee update? Just to say that uh you know, Jason and Erica are working on a couple

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of drafts for I think we'll be reviewing at our next policy committee meeting with respect to the OC commissioner section and some of those agenda and that we'll be looking at those at the at the next policy committee meeting. Ready? Yep, that's all.

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Uh sorry, I skipped over a liaison. I did not see our um liaison from the select board. I'm continuing and so Vermont will be joining and we're going to visit the CAB when we can.

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Okay, we typically do joint meetings. Um yeah. But if you ever we can talk about something. I'm written I just want to everyone you don't want to sit through a cab meeting and then you're not at our meeting. Same agenda, different faces, kind of long

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meeting. Now you know why we do that. That's so smart and efficient. We try. We try. Okay, excellent. All right, so we're going to move on to approval of meeting minutes. I believe the audit committee is first on this one.

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Uh yes, uh thank you. Um did anyone from the audit committee have any questions or comments on the minutes that were distributed? Thank you for meeting a year ago. All right. Being none, I'll entertain a motion to

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uh approve the minutes from our I don't have the date here. Uh that would be July July 20 or the the audit committee minutes from July 23rd, 2025 as presented. Second. All right, I think I need to about motion to approve all

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motions. Thank you Mark for the motion. Thank you Steven. Seconds? Last chance for discussion? Nope. All right. Uh starting on Zoom. Uh Shawn? >> Yes. Mark? Yes. Steve? >> Yes. Eric? Yes. >> And Joe, yes. Thank you.

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The town is next for me. Move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory Board approve the following 2026 open session meeting minutes as presented on the recommendation of the general manager and the board secretary April 28th.

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Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any discussion on any of the notes from last month? Um Brett, do you want to read the motion tonight? Yes. Uh uh

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move that the RMLD Board of Commissioners approve the following 2026 open session meeting minutes as presented on the recommendation of the general manager and the board secretary April 28th. Second. All those in favor?

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Motion carries 5-0. Excellent. All right, we are ahead of schedule. So, um we have about 45 minutes for the presentation of the audit committee. We do try to stay on track, but if we need additional time to cover additional topics coming in.

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Um welcome our presenters to come on up and join us. Uh good evening. I'm Scott McIntyre. I'm one of the managing director or shareholder with CBIZ CPAs. With me is Andrew Gordon. I was the shareholder in charge of the audit here at RMLD for the

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calendar year ending in 2025. Andrew was the audit manager, executed the day-to-day procedures, and uh worked with the staff here to bring conclusion to our the procedures that we performed over your financial statements and internal controls. And we appreciate the opportunity to come in I was going to

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say this evening, but I guess feels like it's still afternoon. So, this afternoon to give you a quick walk-through of our audit of your of your your financial statements. Uh the the audit resulted in in two deliverables, and I should have maybe thought about this earlier. There's a what we call a governance letter.

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Eric, I believe has that. I usually start uh the conversation with with the governance letter. Um uh maybe I call it the governance letter, and much of uh the profession of public accounting calls it the governance letter. We call that because our

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professional standards require us to report to report certain information to those charged with governance. Not a super long phrase, but the profession has just adopted the phrase governance letter rather than those charged with governance letter. This is where we'll walk through some of

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the significant audit findings, the qualitative practices. In in in essence, Eric, if you can scroll down a little bit, the significant findings are that we find your books and records to be in good working order. Key accounts were reconciled on a regular and timely basis,

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and as a result of our procedures, we did not need pose any significant audit entries in order for you in order for your financial statements to be materially fairly presented in accordance with GAAP or generally accepted accounting principles for the year ended

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12/31/25. On the letter that you have on your screens is this this required communication. Again, it requires us to tell you really how the audit went. It also requires us to speak about significant estimates that are involved in your financial

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statements. The five bullet items you see there are probably the largest estimates. Certainly your net OPEB liability and related accounts, pension liability and related accounts. Those are all based on estimates. They're but they are also based on actuarial

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standards. Most of this assumptions are very consistent with prior years, and you do see a a couple of other significant estimates there as well. At the top of the next page, it talks about independence. We are engaged as your

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independent auditors. We must be in accordance with our professional standards to audit your financial statements. But what this paragraph under the header of independence says is in addition to performing your audit, we also perform some what we call non-attest or

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non-audit services. And by that, all we did was we assisted the department in pulling together the financial statements. It's all based on your underlying records, your footnotes. We just really uh pull pulled everything together in

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one one one document for the department. And if Cbiz CPAs does 400 audits, whether they be utility light light plants, cities, towns, school districts, uh if we do 400 in New England, I think we assist about 395

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uh in pulling the financial statements together. So, it's a very common practice. It's really kind of unique to New England uh where the audit firm helps prepare the financial statements. You go outside of New England uh and it's more like it is in the corporate world where the corporations prepare

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their own financial statements. So, uh a little bit further down, the corrected and uncorrected misstatements. Again, I'm not going to read the paragraph there, but as I mentioned before, uh there were none. Uh we've again, we found the books and records to be in good working order and did not find any misstatements or

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potential misstatements. There were no disagreements with management, which again is a required communication that that we must make to this this board. Uh management's repres- rep- representations, we did obtain uh on the date of the financial statements of May

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12th, a representation letter from management really uh attesting to the fact that these are uh RMLD's financial statements. They are they are not Scott and Andrews or Cbiz CPAs, but but they are the product of of

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RMLD. Um significant or unusual transactions, there really weren't any in fiscal calendar year 2025. I will talk about the implementation of a new accounting standard when we get into some of the the numbers,

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uh but really that that's the that's the lion's share or the meat and potatoes of our of our governance letter. And it's again, it's required communication that we need to make to the to the governing body. Uh and in this case, it's it's a collective committee here uh in in Redding. So, with that, I'm going to go

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uh back to the financial statements if we can, Erica. And I'm going to turn to to page one, print page one. This is our opinion on your financial statements. I I sometimes say that this is what you pay us for. Everything else in this document belongs

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to RMLD. But basically, you know, it gives you it starts with our opinions on your financial statements. There are a couple of different financial statements in here followed by our basis for our opinions. You know, we are required by our professional standards to follow two

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sets of auditing standards. Generally accepted auditing standards here in the United States as well as generally accepted government auditing standards. So we we are required to follow both. There was a lot of similarities, but there are a few differences.

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In other words, the main difference that to me that, you know, is the most tangible for people to to understand is into an I can't take continuing professional education on how to prepare prepare someone's 1040s. Because that's not germane to to our RMLD. So generally

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accepted government auditing standards really dictates what we need to get our continuing professional education in. And it can't be things on how to prepare tax returns and and things like that. And so But again, our opinion on your your financial statements is what Technically it's called a clean opinion.

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Pardon me, let me withdraw and rephrase that. Technically it's called an unmodified opinion. There are no modifications to our opinion. More more often it's thought of as a clean opinion. So but technically it's an unmodified opinion. A lot of people will

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talk about it as a clean audit opinion with no exceptions to to the audit. Following that, following our opinion starting on print page three is management's discussion and analysis. This is a great resource for readers of the financial statements to

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I'm not going to really walk through management's discussion and analysis right now. I'm going to talk about some of the numbers pages if if you will. But the management discussion and analysis can be a great resource to go back to at a later point in time to maybe remember why key certain

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account why why certain balances may have changed over the last couple of years. This comparative financial statements here so you have your calendar 25 and calendar 24. In MD&A you really have almost 3 years of of trend analysis in there. So the reader can really pick up

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on some trends that have gone on over the last three calendar years. So Following the MD&A that takes us all the way over uh to page seven. Page seven and page eight is your statement of net position.

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Some folks would look at this and call it a balance sheet in the governmental world is simply called a statement of net position. And again it's comparative financial statements here. As I look at that page seven on the asset side of the equation what I see what jumps out to me

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is that the receivables net of any uncollectible amounts very consistent from year to year. To me that that's a that's a good sign. There was no billing issues in calendar year 25 that that caused timing issues or anything like that. It's a good sign to see the

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receivables stay consistent from year to year. In other words not having collection issues this year that maybe you didn't have in in the prior year. The most significant assets on on on the on the this side of the balance sheet is of course your capital assets down there in

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the non-current section. You know you know almost 125 million in capital assets net of net of accumulated depreciation. So lastly I'll I'll touch quickly on the deferred outflows of resources for pension and OPEB. Those fluctuate as

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does your your OPEB liability and your and your pension liability. These inflows and outflows, the inflows are on on on page eight. These are just a transactions waiting to happen as time time passes. Like changing up assumptions might get amortized over a

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four or five-year period. They become deferred outflows or inflows and until additional time passes in order to recognize pension or OPEB expense. Over on on page eight, uh page eight is the liabilities and net position side of your of your balance

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sheet. What jumps out to me that and I think most readers of any govern- governmental organizations' financial statements like to look at is just about in the middle of the page, your net pension liability of $11.1 million. You can see that that's come down about

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$3 million over the prior year. Um You are you are a participatory member in the Reading Contributory Retirement System, which is uh 81% funded as of 12/31/25.

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Uh so it may it may have changed. Uh it will it changes perpetually, but as of the measurement date of this these financial statements, it was 81% funded. I will point out that the pension system is using a 6 and 3/4% discount rate, very common discount rate that gets used

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by by by pension systems. Right below that is is your net OPEB liability. OPEB is simply an acronym for other post- employment benefits, and by other they mean other than pension. Uh what the maybe the more specific way of saying it, this is your liability for

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retiree health care if permitted to stay on the the plans after retirement, and this is the liability associated with that um with that cost. Uh it it ticked up it ticked up a little bit in in calendar 25 versus is

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uh but it certainly didn't change by any significant amount. It's not like there was a major assumption change um that that often exists and will drive a liability further up or sometimes in the assumption change uh will will reduce the liability. Um I do note that

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in your footnotes highlight that for your OPEB liability, you're using a 7% discount rate, a little bit different than the pension system. There's nothing wrong with that, the 7%. Uh honestly, if you were to look at your footnotes, uh I I could show you where it would tell you

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that uh the OPEB plan uh has actually had earned investment income in excess of its estimated 7% discount rate of 7%. Um I don't know if you want me to take questions. >> ahead and take questions. Yeah. So, on

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that page [clears throat] eight, you know, we noticed that there's a total net position basically there's a $10 million change on Mhm. the the from your opinion and is that >> Yep. good, bad, was um well, I don't think that's the right term, but that

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seems to be What was the main driver for that one? On the change in total net position? >> Yes. If we go to the next page, which I was uh if we go over to print page nine, um that first column of numbers, the 2025

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column, if you look at the third number up from the bottom, there's the $11.2 million. On the prior page, you estimated that at $10 million. So, that just just highlighting where exactly you would see see that number number. Um the things that I noted about this are it's it's

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really quite consistent with 2024. Uh and it's and it's in my opinion, for an organization like yours, it's an expected result. Uh you are a capital-driven enterprise fund. Uh the the

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the a healthy percentage of the revenue that's earned and recognized by the department gets put back into the capital assets of the facility. Uh so you're earning revenue in say calendar 25, but you're acquiring capital assets that will be depreciated over the next

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30 years. So all the revenue comes in one year, you're using that for capital that will depreciate over 25 30 years. That's what's driving the increase in in total position. Okay. I have a quick question. I've turned to the page seven. Just curious,

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it seems like there was a shift um from um restricted to unrestricted cash from 24 to 25. Is there like a specific driver of that move? I was curious. You use some of the restricted cash UARMLD. I used some of the restricted

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cash I think in the specific account was the depreciation cash account. You used that during calendar 2025 for some capital investment. That's what drove that restricted cash down. Uh the increase I in

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I asked Andrew this specific question today in our in our preparation cuz I wondered if could there have been a classification problem? No. Uh the depreciation cash was used um and and that's what drove that down. The cash when we look at the cash flow

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statement in a in just a couple of minutes, we'll see why why the unrestricted cash is up. So they're unrelated basically is what you're saying. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Um can I ask a question about the revenue statement of revenues and expenses? I

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just noticed that the cost of purchased electricity went up. >> [clears throat] >> You know, uh I don't know. I think that was 17%. Is that I just wondered what was happening there. If there's sort of a mega story that

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needs to be noted or if if that's just a one-year kind of it goes up and down by that much, that's fairly typical. >> interject with you on that? >> [laughter] >> Um primarily the

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the transmission cost of transmission has gone up a decent amount over year over year. And so um and a little bit on the capacity side but and fuel fuel's part of it, too. So, as you know, um December was cold, so a lot of fuel got used, so the fuel price went up. So, December in

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2025 with the fuel expense that that caused the cost to go up and then, you know, transmission keeps getting more and more expensive every year. So, just year over year, just the the costs themselves have been increasing. So, temperatures might drive it down, the cost of transmission is going to we we could expect that's going to continue

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to Yes, right now the forecast on the transmission is yes, it's going to be seen. Was the amount of electricity purchased each year about the same, though? I thought I read that somewhere. >> Yeah, the kilowatt hours is really close to being even. It was like 0.03% difference, so yeah, I would call it

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even. So, kilowatt hour sales was roughly the same, but the cost did go up. Um like I said, with fuel and specifically in December and then transmission getting more and more um cost more at year and over year. So, will that impact rates next year?

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So, right now, as far as rates are concerned, um we have already put out that we're not um raising any rates this year. We're in the middle of a cost of service study, which looks at what do we what do we need to provide service and what are we collecting in our rates? And out of

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that study, what we're going to get a recommendation as to what to do with our rates, whether we can keep them steady or if they need to increase to cover what we're doing. But we're in that study right now, so I don't have any answers for next year as yet. Um we'll have that later this year. But

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and then as far as the pop purchased electricity in the power supply, um that's a pass-through. Um so, whatever it costs us, we we charge um, to customers. Um, so primarily the cost of service is going to be looking at our distribution

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charge and our customer charge, which covers the our ability to operate um, to keep people here working and to upgrade this the the infrastructure. Okay. Um, I quick question about the fuel charge adjustment. Um,

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shows a significant adjustment from 2024 to 2025. Um, what's 2026 going to look like? Based on Yeah. Or or what what um, what drove that particular change?

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So, the fuel charge that's what's going to it's a pass-through. So, every month we have um, employees um, employees that look at what did we spend on fuel and what do we think we're going to spend based on our load forecast and then they adjust that rate up and down every month.

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Um, so it just looks like um, we might have under collected a little bit and I would say without having all the detail in front of me, I would say it's probably caused by December. Again, having the you know, looking at the in November, they adjust the rate based on November's data for December and then when December

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was colder than it has recently been, the rate was probably a little bit low and we under collected more than we normally would have. On this page, I mean, with the some really great questions and thank you for Jason the the real detailed explanation. There was question about the cost of

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electricity purchase going up and I think with Jason addressed talked about that, the pass-through cost. As I look at this statement, um, you know, I see operating revenues up about 13% and operating expenses about up about about 12%. Really, I

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think both are driven by the detailed explanation that that Jason gave. Mentioned early on that in calendar 2025, RMLD implemented a new accounting standard called GASB 103. GASB being an acronym for the Governmental Accounting

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Standards Board and 103 is just the 103rd statement. And it was the title of it is financial reporting model improvements. It changed your MD&A a little bit. It changed this page. I'll point out two things. One, it didn't change any of the

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numbers. Didn't change the bottom line. It wasn't an accounting standard that had you accrue something or recognize something. I think one day I described it as a geography issue. As you look in the middle of of this page, again, it's

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print print page nine. It's the one up on on the screen now. Right about in the middle, there's non-capital subsidies. One of the financial reporting model improvements that the GASB came to really dealt with enterprise funds and and you are an enterprise funds. And it

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deals with when when there's an exchange of transactions that that really don't meet recognition of a of a revenue or an expenditure. In other words, it it could be a subsidy. And the

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payment in lieu of tax going back to the town of Reading and a few other small transactions now need to be classified as a non-capital subsidy. It's non-capital related to to RMLD and it's non-capital related to the to the town of Reading. Meaning, the town of Reading

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isn't restricted to using it to to to capital. So again, this is simply a geography issue. In the prior year, this return of investment to the town of Reading was further down this page. Doesn't change the numbers. It's really just a geography issue of where these

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accounts get get get reported. Um in some organizations, I think this is going to be a real big improvement uh for for RMLD. I really think it just simply, you know, puts an account on a different different line uh different location in your statement of revenues

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and expenditures and changes in net position. So, um over on the next page, print page 10, uh is your statement of net cash flows. And I have a feeling last year when I I was here, I probably uh as I almost always do, tell those

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charged with governance that my opinion of the three statements um that are applicable to an enterprise, the statement of net net position, statement of revenues and expend expenses, and the cash flow statement, I think the cash flow statement is the is the most important. Um

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most readers of the financial statements are going to really look at a couple of numbers. They're going to look at that, not at the top number in the calendar 2025 column of receipts from the customers, but the first subtotal that you come to, the net cash provided by

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operating activities of just over $27 million. Net cash that came in after paying vendors and employees, $27 million. Normally, um one one would make sure that that's going to cover the the principal and

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interest on on the debt service. RMLD, like most uh util electric utilities in the Commonwealth, really don't have a a debt burden. So, it's not necessarily applicable to look at is that net cash provided covering the P&I on on any debt service. But what it is, what what what

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what should the reader should do, is they should look and make sure and and make sure that after the return to to the to the town of Reading, is it sufficient to cover the capital investment that's needed that go back into the facility. If you look uh midway

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down the page, you will see cash flows from capital and related financing activity and you have the acquisition and construction of capital assets of it's shown in parentheses indicating it was an outflow of cash to acquire the

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assets of 24 24 million dollars. Just lost my place here. Excuse me. Um yeah, the the 24 million dollars. The 27, which was the first number we looked at with the net the first subtotal that we saw, is that covering the capital

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improvements that go into the into the infrastructure here at RMLD. And clearly that is that is that is the case here in in Reading. So. Um last page I want to turn to the second to last page I want >> have a question. Do you is there any

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kind of rule of thumb in terms of um capital asset investment that you see across other municipals like this that where we might stand within that. Now, obviously there's a good deal of fluctuation. So, it looks like we've got some investment activity taking place here. But is there some sort of standard

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that you would look at this and say that seems to be on the high and low end or just about right? You know, that's that's not something we studied. Uh it really isn't It's a great question. I I would find it a fascinating exercise to to go through. Um

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but that's not something that we we've really been asked to evaluate. Uh something we probably could do, uh but it's not something we've evaluated. And so, from the RMLD standpoint, did this represent an unusual year for a big push for capital

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investment that you expect to continue or is this a short-term event? I would say it's a little bit of both, but um the primary um spend behind that 24 million was we are building a brand new substation. So, we did receive a large material items um in 2025 that we had to pay for

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and that is the bulk of that 24 million. So we're not building substations all the time, so it was a little bit larger than normal, but we do have some other large capital projects in the pipeline. It may not be at the same level as the substation, but it's going to be still

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going to be a lot of capital intensive program going forward. So it's it's I guess fortuitous and I don't know if it was planned or just happens that you also have a big cash sort of cash provided by operating activities also up by a significant amount this

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year. Is that to be expected or is that just the timing thing? I would say there there was a rate increase last April. So some of that was due to the rate increase last April. One of the last pages I wanted to turn

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your attention to would be print page 13. Um and this just shows the the inflows and the outflows of your post employment other post employment benefit trust fund. And again, if I look at calendar 25, focusing in on the the

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last column pardon me, the third to the last number from the bottom, the change in the net position, so essentially the trust fund that you have established for you know putting to putting some funds away for these costs increased by $1.1

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million. Um the the the your plan itself is about 54% funded. Pension your with with through the towns the Reading municipal Reading retirement system 81% funded. On the OPEB side, you're about 54% funded.

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Collectively between the two, the pension and OPEB, um some of the stronger numbers that I've seen. Not the strongest, but some of the strongest numbers I've seen I've seen collectively. The last two pages that I'd like to draw your attention to are the very last two pages in the financial

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statements. Um Uh so it would be print page 58 and 59. Um I mentioned when I talked about our opinion on your financial statements that our opinion is based on our work done in accordance with generally

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accepted auditing standards in the United States and generally accepted government auditing standards. Generally accepted government auditing standards require us to issue this letter. Uh and really what this letter tells you is it it it gives you a report on the internal

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control. We give you a report on the internal control over financial reporting. What it says in the paragraphs underneath that is it defines for you what a control deficiency is and further what a significant deficiency in internal control is

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and even one step further, it defines what what might be considered a material weakness in accordance with in in a material weakness in in internal control. You know, control deficiencies are some things you can can improve on. Significant deficiencies are those that

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we are required to bring to the attention of those charged with governance. And a material weakness is probably as it sounds, a big issue. Um very pleased to be able to report again in our audit of your 25 financial statements that we did not identify any

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issues that we considered to be material weaknesses in internal control. Again, we found the books and records to be in good working order. Cash was reconciled on a on a regular and timely basis and there were appropriate segregation of duties and through that we found in our in our test work. Um

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Really, again, this is the the letter that's required by generally accepted government auditing standards. I tried to give you a quick quick summary of of the standards that we followed. The the and our opinion on your financial statements again is unmodified or clean.

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A quick walk through of the financial statements, again, I like to focus on the cash flow statements. It's not that the other two aren't on aren't important. I just think from a user standpoint, um most financial institutions and credit rating agencies, they get more use from the cash flow statement. And

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again, the last thing that we looked at here is your GAS letter, generally accepted government auditing standards, again, clean. Uh we did not find any material weaknesses in internal control. And with that, I'll turn it back to the chair to try to answer any more questions that you may have. I just have

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one clarification question in terms of how it's written. So, you talked about material weakness or significant deficiency, then stated you did not identify any Yeah. deficiencies that are material weaknesses, but you didn't say that you didn't find any significant

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deficiencies. Correct. >> typical? Did you find any significant or Yeah, significant deficiencies? Those are less serious than a material weakness. >> Significant deficiencies are less serious. We did not find any. Okay. But in the text of the letter,

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professional standards don't permit us to say that. And the reason is the standards require us to design audit procedures to to detect material weaknesses. They don't We're not required by stand professional

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standards to design our procedures to identify all the significant deficiencies. So, we didn't find any, cuz if we did, they'd be reported here. Okay. But that's why it specifically says material weaknesses and doesn't say both. Thank you.

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I just have a quick general question. Um and you mentioned uh I assume you were talking about just the MLPs don't generally have long-term debt. Substation's not cheap. Why is it this industry doesn't finance over the long term debt free yet

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cash rather operations or to build whether any like dramatic spikes energy costs. It's a good question. >> [laughter] >> I don't I can't answer for all light plants and I wasn't the general manager at the time

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that that decision was made not to bond to the substation, but the management that was here at the time they looked at all the different possibilities and they chose where they went and not to bond it. Um as a light plant we can't take out financing on ourselves. So we would have to go through with the town of Reading

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to town meeting to do that and depending on the timeliness and and the and the need for for some of this stuff maybe trying to get maybe the town meeting was too far out um to be able to get the the financing when they needed it. I'm I can't Well, I'm I wasn't here part of

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making the decision. Scott, we we gave her here. Scott, you just mentioned that you you work with lots of MLPs and they never have any debt. I'm just curious. I I I think >> particular about this industry? Anything I say is going to be

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speculative because I but I just think that I've heard other MLPs say why don't I want to pay the interest on it. The the they they finance it with user charges rather than paying um interest on on borrowed money.

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Do any own their own power plants either though? I can't answer that. I don't know. >> There are a couple >> On on I'll generate I'll generate plants, but that that they're not necessarily generating for just the town. They're in the ISO market and they're generating on

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the the whole system not not just for the town. But they do bond for big Yeah, cuz we real big infrastructure. We did talk about this a couple of years ago that that you know, the town doesn't have a power plant, but if they did

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you know, it go through the the towns. But they don't. Do you all have any Do I get to say when this came up yeah, over the last couple of years, like, do we bond, do we not? Because we would have had to go to the town. And we did not have to go to the town.

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The decision was made to No, I heard the finance guy. the general manager about this. I just again, I I still continually surprises me, and that's why I wanted to ask. Yeah, I think all like not speaking for all the light plants, I don't know what they think, but I think they're that similar theme is runs throughout the light

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plants is if if they can find a way to to build and spend the capital money without without having to finance and go to the town, then they'll do that. Um, but super large projects like a generating plant, you're right. I don't think they probably wouldn't be a light plant out there that could do that without without bonding.

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So. You okay with old public? Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Might be one on top. So, I a question on the pension is is the getting the pension fully funded, is

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that coordinated with Sharon in the town, or are you on the same cycle? Yeah, all right. And OP 5 2? OP 5 2. Just one more point on the financing. So, there's the interest, there's the Scott like, sorry. I mentioned. Um, but also there's

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transaction costs associated with that. Uh, broker fees and things, and also a lot of time. Staff time here at the town side preparing, going through all the process, as you well know. Your town meeting, I think that's probably part of it as well.

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And then unless it's a mega expense. Like the substation. But even that come very often, which is a good thing, right? Yeah. I mean, I I guess so. I guess that Is that mega? What is it? What's the total cost, Jason? Mega. No, it's I think it's a Mega for the sub I think right now

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Cuz I haven't looked at with it, but I want to say 35 million. Okay. 30 mega. Yeah, so it's getting towards the direction of mega, yeah. But But I mean, but we're doing it without huge rate increases. We're able to manage it and do it. So,

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to the point of why make it more complicated and and incur the interest and the transaction costs. >> means there's no rate increase coming this year. I don't just kind of, I'm kind of a general observation. So, we usually talk here, and I think

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there might be some immateriality here about the fully funding the retirement liabilities. And I know that we're kind of saddled to the town on pension, but do you have a target date? I mean, I I know it changes every year as the

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actuaries do their thing. Can we expect that? We It seemed like over past years we've been kind of talking around 30, 31, something like that, maybe, but has that viewpoint changed at all or still closing on that? I um I wish I had

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looked up, it's a great question. I wish I had looked up, as I often do, and forgive me, I just overlooked it today, but um when I say look up, I PERAC, which is the pension oversight agency here in in the Commonwealth, they

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have a publicly available uh the approved funding schedule for any system, any community that has its its pension system. So, you can go on there and see when the past service costs will uh completely go away. Uh and it will

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and the impact of that in general, I'm not talking about Reading, but in general is that the annual required contribution or the actuarially determined con- contribution for most governments, when that when the past service cost matures, it's going to be

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a rather sizable drop-off, right? In the future. >> goes to zero unless it's there's some sort of market shift that pushes things out of line, or But zero for the past service cost, the normal cost, which is going forward, will still still be there. I

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I will look that up and I will email Patty to get you that information. Um it's generally available. Um I think the state law right now has says you can go to like 40 or 41. Um

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The last my my memory says reading is around 33, 2033. But I I will look it up and I'll email Patty tomorrow. Okay, thanks, Ben. General question. So, just just to understand the scope of the audit is you you

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it is not in the scope, correct, that to look at, okay, there was a budget and then there were expenses in the following year that may or may not have lined up with the budget, what was budgeted in the public budget, would not be something that would by itself

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cause you to note it or observe it in any way. Correct. >> Okay. And what is the reason for that again? Well, it comes down to you being the type of entity that that RMLD is, uh where there the budgetary

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on town side of a government general fund operations very much driven by by by the budget. You don't have that same type of relationship in an enterprise fund, where you might be budgeting for capital, but it's capital is not an expense. It's it goes up on the balance

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sheet. So, the the on the the plethora of reconciling items between GAAP and and budgetary basis of accounting um just doesn't lead itself to uh a meaningful addition to your financial statements.

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Did everybody understand that answer? No, but that's okay. It sounded good. [laughter] No, no, no, I understand that. No, I mean, there there's an operating budget, right, yeah, and there's certain amounts and it's not the whole picture because so much of this is power

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contracts and but there's an operating budget that states what we think we'll spend in the following year. That's all go through a process, it's public, and then if in that year there's big changes or big expenses that were not in that that just again that's not what an audit is supposed to

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be noted for the public. Not the type of entity that RMLD is. But the audit surfaces uh misaligned financial Oh, yes. statements that would point us in the direction to

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the discrepancy between the statement and an operating budget. I would assume. I agree with that. Yes. Yeah. Um I have a different question. This is sort of getting into some of the financial statements based on or at

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least some of the notes here based on some previous conversation about uh the retirement of uh carbon certificates and non-carbon certificates. I just noticed that the there's a a big

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Can I ask that question? >> Yeah, what page are you on? Uh 48, print page 48. Or well, it says 48 in the bottom corner. I guess the PDF page 83. Um

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the estimated value seems to have declined significantly from last year. Am Am I reading that right? Um from 25, the estimated value is 933.

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Uh from 24 on the next page, it was 1,941,000 and the amount of certificates also declined. I I just wondered if you could talk a little bit about that. These are we are our discussion several

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months ago about retiring Rex changing the way or increasing our target in terms of renewable energy percentage in the overall mix. And sort of what this

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you know, diminishment of our kind of what seems to be a wreck balance um if that informs that decision at all. I need to refer to Andrew on this. And we may have to get back to you on on it. Yeah, that's

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>> Just obviously there's the number of shares is between the end of calendar 24 and 25 is significantly different as well, which would drive value changes. Yeah, and I guess just for a greater context, you know, a few months ago we decided to table a discussion on whether

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or not we should increase our overall renewable energy share by a few percentage and we had um Megan do some cost calculations for us and and try to figure out you know, what the impact on the rate payer would be. Um and we decided to go ahead and table

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that partly because those Rex fluctuate. We don't really know what their value is until later on in the year and I I I guess I just noticed this pretty big discrepancy between 24 and 25 and wondered what the relevance to that particular discussion was.

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Those numbers were provided by us. One of the things just off the top just looking at the two um it looks like for 25 we only put in here met mass class ones and effects. Where in 24 we also have main class

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ones, main class twos, and CSEs. So, I'm guessing they are not and if you look at mass class ones and E 6 year to year, they're pretty similar. So, I I'm thinking it's just the those other um Okay. classes of certificates just aren't stable.

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>> Meaning like it's missing data? >> Missing data. >> Okay. So, it wouldn't be because those are non-existent. >> Megan but just Yeah. Just a quick glance looking at that that Yeah. Other questions? >> [clears throat] >> No. I think you're right.

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I just thought of an example of a late plant that did a bond but topic so Move that move that up. All right. Um Uh someone from the uh we have a suggested motion. Um

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find the agenda. Uh we've got to be someone mind doing that or is there someone else? Item five. Yep. Thanks. All right. Uh move that the town of Reading Audit Committee recommend to the RMLD Board of Commissioners to accept the 2025 audit report from C Biz Advisors fiscal year

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ended December 31st, 2025 as presented. Second. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Mark. Last chance for any discussion. Seeing none. Uh starting on Zoom. Uh Sean? Yes. Mark? Yes. Steve?

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>> Yes. Karen? Yes. And Joe, yes. And Bob? Yes. Okay. We have a new uh someone needs to update the website. Yeah, you're not listed as a as a member of the Audit Committee. Uh welcome. Welcome. All right. Take it Phil's place. Okay. Sounds good. Um About the initiation. That's fine.

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>> [laughter] >> Right. I'm reading the minutes. Um move that the Arbutus Board of Commissioners accept the 2025 audit report from Sebis Advisors fiscal year ending December 31st, 2025 as presented uh on the recommendation of the Town

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Reading Audit Committee and the general manager. Second. All those in favor? The motion carries 5-0. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thanks very much. Yeah, thanks Arbutus team, Patty and and your crew.

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Oh. Like next up is us as well? >> Yes. Someone like to move to adjourn? Move that the Town Reading Audit Committee adjourn regular session. I second. Second. Steve, what do you say? Second. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Steve.

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Uh spoke Sean. Yes. Mark? Yes. Steve? Yes. Aaron? Yes. And Joe, yes. Yeah, we're all set. Thank you. Have a good Thank you. Thank you. See you all. Back and visit anytime. >> [laughter] >> All right, we're going to move forward

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to procurement requests. Jason. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> So, uh the this procurement is uh the capital I have been 426 this year 2026 for our annual dielectric testing services. Um on April 1st, 2026, we issued the invitation for bid

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annual dielectric testing and inspection services. Um we perform these services annually on our 17 heavy duty vehicles as well as our spare bucket liners, hot sticks, grounds, and jumpers. It's to make sure that uh we have integrity, safety, and reliability of our installation on our to prevent

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electric shocks, fires, and things of that sort. For our safety for our workers. Um they apply high voltage and it verifies that the buckets can handle the if they make contact it can be insulated. And um the procurement was conducted in

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accordance with chapter 30B of national law. Um and the award is based on the lowest three-year cost from a responsive and responsible bidder. Uh the bid was sent to eight vendors. We received two bids. Um IIA Lifting Services Inc. which was

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our current provider and TM Aerial Inspections LLC. And the recommendation is to award to TM Aerial Inspections as they are the lowest responsive and responsible bidder offering a total three-year price of $54,771. Um just some background on them. Um

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they're based in Reading. They've been in operation for six years. Um the owner has more than 30 years of experience. We require at least five years of experience to be a responsible bidder responsible bidder. Um and they also currently provide services to Wakefield Municipal Light,

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Gas and Light, and Wilmington Light Department. So this is a change in vendor? Yes. Versus prior. Was it the other bidder that was our vendor previously? >> bidder was our bidder. >> Okay. Is there any cost to change from one provider to

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another? I mean like transition or anything? No, it's just the the cost of the bid so they were the lowest. Jason, what do they actually do? Like a line That's that truck. They put a voltage through it and they make sure that it it doesn't let a lot of current

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Um so yeah, they test the the bucket the lifts in the bucket, the bucket liner. Um we have hot stick tools. Um so it's like switch sticks and stuff that they use to keep distance from whatever stuff they're operating so we want to make sure those are insulated. So they test that and then they also test the grounds like

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that. How often do they test it over that 3 years? It's annual. So once twice or three times a year. If you're on the bucket, you want to make sure that that has been done. catastrophic Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, you

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plug it in. tools you You know, take the component. Yeah. It's we I we call those 17 heavy duty vehicles, but there's a lot of um sticks. There's a lot of grounds. So it is so they're testing a lot of There's a lot of equipment Yeah, there's also a

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lot of equipment in addition to the 17 bucket truck. So I can actually Nice status optical, too. Yeah. Um just so you just get an idea or anything. Uh it's approximately 197 live wire tools. Uh 90 grounds and 64 jumpers in addition

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to the 17 buckets in the bucket line. So just to give you a little And do they have insurance if it does fail? So it's Well, there's a there's insurance according to the bid. I don't know. Oh, okay. I'm sure on the contract there's always

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indemnity and stuff like that. Other questions? Ready for the motion? You haven't read anything yet. You haven't read anything yet. Would you like to read? Yeah. Number seven Item seven on your agenda. I move that bid IFB 2026-06

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annual dielectric testing and inspection services be awarded to TM Aerial Inspections LLC for 54,771 pursuant to MGL 30B as the lowest responsible and responsive bidder on the recommendation of the general manager. This is a 3-year contract.

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Second. All those in favor? I have zero. You? And we're moving on to GM update. 1 minute to get this to be an allowable meeting. 2 minutes. We can roll that up.

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>> [laughter] >> All right, just uh so for the May update, um just real quick on the cost of service study, we did hold our kickoff meeting shortly after the last uh board meeting. Uh that went very well. Um they sent us uh requests for a bunch of information, which we provided them

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um pretty quickly. They're now currently in the process of reviewing all that data that they requested for. Um and coming up with their um a sort of, you know, their output. Um we haven't received any questions yet outside of the GM provide them, so um

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so once they're ready, they'll present us with their findings. So do we expect that there would be back and forth? Like are do they come and do any sort of They asked for a lot of documentation and um and data, which we did provide them a

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lot of data. So they put it into their models and then they look and review what the models output for what they think think should be. Um if they're missing anything, they'd ask us. Um if they need help under- if we provide something that they need to be was in a different format and they needed clarification, they'd

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ask, but um so far >> do like interviews or business attorney or >> No, it's it's all digital. Primarily data driven, so. And does that include like cost allocation work? Are they doing that too or Uh like

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what do you what do you mean by Like uh Well, like like are are they making recommendations about how the cost of service is allocated across user types and different clients and Um they could uh right now they're looking

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at overall what we need to collect from our rates to cover the stuff and then there's the rate design portion that happens afterwards. So right now they're looking at uh they're doing a financial review so they're looking at all of our financial data to make sure that um

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that financially we're funding what we need to do and and something like that and then they then they'll give us a cost of service which looks at like what maybe an energy charge would look like to cover for that what what would uh what would it cost to replace our system with a minimum system which is not what you would actually ever do

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but what would be the minimum cost and then they determine if you're collecting enough for that and then we can start talking about rates and what classes cover what but that's after when they're done they're going to give us the the financial study to make sure that we're financially recouping what we need to recoup and

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then they're going to um look at what it would cost to make sure that we're covering enough to to replace our system and then when it gets to the breakout into each of the rate classes um Megan's group um has some of the ability to do that in house so they're going to look at a little bit in house and then we do have

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in line with them to to be able to work with them and ask questions and and get advice. So it's when we get to the point of where the rates are going to be I'm going to get um that's when um we'll come back before that but um that will be where uh mostly internal

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will be looking at that with some assistance from utility financial services. And so when do you which meeting do you think we would get kind of the first look at that? >> Um so they said they needed 12 weeks to get us the financial um s- uh

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study done and and the um the cost of service so that would be I think we're targeting end of July early August so probably I see it. Yeah. Could I Could I ask you actually just one more question about that, Edward? Sorry.

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There's a There's a cap of like 8% on gross plant or something like that. Isn't that right? In terms of margin? Yes, the net income is um is capped at 8% of your your gross plant. So, when when we when we fully execute the

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substation, that gross plant is going to go up. Yes. Are they anticipating that and does Is that kind of part of their study, too? They did ask for a They asked for a 5-year capital plan and a 5-year operating budget. Okay. So, they they they kind of factor all that into

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Yes. There's a little bit of a a window that they're looking at. Yes. Yeah. No more questions. Hey, I didn't touch it. It just moved anyways. Perfect. Um the next update was as Matt was in here earlier talking about the NEPA Rodeo, which was part of um

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uh They call the road the EANO, so it's the rodeo and engineering operations conference combined. That was held last week at Loon Mountain. As Matt mentioned, we had a team compete. Um it was the um and they took first place, which was awesome.

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Um this So, you're aware, the um team consisted of lead line worker Pat Fallon, lead line worker Ray Melvin, and first class line worker Rob Robchinak. Um also kind of part of the team was our line foreman Matt Bernard and our assistant line foreman Tom McCray. And

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we had a third class uh apprentice Andrew Beddow help with um helping them move their gear from event to event, you know, cheering on the team, getting them whatever they needed. So, it was a a pretty good team effort. We also had um two first line workers volunteers judges

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in the event. So, they have um from across the different light plants, they get volunteers from light plants that line workers be the judges of these events. So, we had two um T.J. Cassidy and Jason Jacoby served as judges. Um And so, I think overall it was um an awesome event. I was really proud of

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the team. I think they did awesome. Um you could see a lot of communication and planning went into it. They were well organized and um it's great to see them win. Fantastic. And And the value of that, of course, is they certainly have gained some skills,

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but then the knowledge they gain reflects on the teams they lead in the field. So, it it's a trickle-down value to the entire organization to have people perform well, and then when they lead teams in the field, they're leading those teams well. So,

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it's value that goes beyond just the participants. The pride of the organization, the camaraderie between uh the members of the team, uh and and the rest of the line workers. Uh everybody's super happy and proud. It's just an overall um good event. And even for those teams

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that participated and don't necessarily finish, um like um for instance, Damers, we would compete uh we didn't necessarily place first, second, or third overall. Maybe they did in a certain individual events, but I can tell you that the um the culture that that generated with

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that group was I can't explain it. It's just awesome. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well done. Yeah, well done. It's really nice to see such a great team effort. at the top of the pole. For sure. Yeah. Uh yeah, so those are two of the events right there that are on the lower

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left and middle. Um The one on the left-hand side was a dead end insulator changeout. And then the one in the middle is a transformer changeout. Um Nice. That's pretty much all I had as far as the presentation. Um my last update was around um

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our AMI project. >> [clears throat] >> I have a question at the end. Okay. So, um you know, there's been some conversation around the AMI meter replacement project, so we put this one-pager together

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um that we're we're going to um place on our website, put put on social media, customer service going to have copies of it. Um we're going to just get this out um and what a lot of what it's talking about here is, you know, what is our AMI system what is it capable doing, what is our existing

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meter system capable of doing. So, um for instance, they both communicate via RF to get the the data back to their system. Um the current system is nearing end of its life, so we that's why we're replacing it. Um we do get a um a little

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bit more added benefit. Um we don't just get hourly data, we can get 15-minute interval data. Um all the meters will be time of use capable and we get voltage and demand data. That's very useful when it comes to planning our system and our on our upgrades in the future. We can see if we have voltage areas voltage issues in

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certain areas and what we need to do to upgrade it. So, we're just putting that out there. Um it also has um a better ability to um notify us of an outage. And on the backside, we just talk about like just general AMI meters and their

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RF output and how it's um significantly less than regular household items like televisions, like Verizon cell phones. Um so, they are safe. Um it'll also allow the customer to track to track their usage data more effectively and

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and it'll help us generate more programs and and ways to verify that uh people participate in those programs. Um so, overall it's um and then we have a little spot here what to expect when we come to replace the meter. Um just uh uh

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some other information that we're we got later today that we we might put on this before we put it out. Um is the FCC requires that meters use no more than 1 watt of power to transmit data. That's our old system and our new system all have to be under 1 watt of power.

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So, they're all in the the same ballpark >> [clears throat] >> of power output. Our current existing meters that we're trying to replace actually broadcast information every 30 seconds. Because it's an AMR system, it's designed to whether it's communicating back on our communication communication infrastructure that we

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have in place now or or they will communicate. Or it's also meant for um meter readers to be maybe driving by and picking up this data. It doesn't it is independent of how you get the data. So, that's why it's putting out every like 30 seconds. It doesn't know when you might be sending somebody by to drive by. Right?

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Our new meters are only going to um transmit every once every 15 minutes. Significantly less um because that's 15-minute interval data. The only time it wouldn't be on that 15-minute interval is if there was an outage in an area and had to report that outage. So, it's sending data then, so

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it's not on that 15-minute interval. Or if we wanted to do like an on-demand read. So, um maybe a customer called and said there was some low voltage they're experiencing or high voltage, you know, we might want to do an on-demand voltage read just to verify and and maybe on a So, that would be not very common, but

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it's possible that we would be doing a that. So, I I think um in general, it's going to be a lot safer and and it's and the meters we have out there now are already in the communications. Jason, just can you do remote troubleshooting?

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So, if a customer says that they're they're flickering lights, are you able to look and read voltage from the control room or is is that the the capability of this or I'd have to look more into it, but I I'm pretty sure we can do like an on-demand voltage read from the instantaneous voltage read. You know, it might not catch flicker or anything like

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that. You know, it would tell us whatever it saw at the moment that we tried to pull the read. Um you guys Thank you for this. So, so it'll be updated with the additional information that you just shared. Um, I assume the customer service team has will have access to this and have like a

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frequently asked questions if they get calls that are about it. Um, and then this is also something that we'll share with select board and in each town and the town manager just in case they get questions, right? And this came from the communications group for the the fire

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together or who So, um, yeah, the the communications group um, helped put the data together, but it was data that was given by our engineering operations group as well as our um, metering group. Kind of and and Megan's team all kind of worked to put this together.

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It's a nice project. I think Yeah. Really helpful. And and I and I ask the question only in that I I think I see in a lot of the communication quality improve from the group. And I get it's a team effort, obviously. They're not making a step up. Um, they depend on the other groups to

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do it, whether it's Megan or the the team, but the the communication of that, the the electronic newsletter, the this, other stuff. They're they're doing a great group great job. So, who who makes the meter? Who

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actually manufactures the meter? It's going to depend. It's a we're going through Tantalus. Tantalus adds cards to the meter. Um, Oh, okay. So, it could be several different meter manufacturers, um, depending on on the type of meter and and the use.

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Um, but but two but two things. I I don't know if you did door hangers prior to installation. They are effective. It's it's like like old school technology, but they they are. If if our Yeah, if you're going to go into a

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certain neighborhood, it it all depends on how you you lay it out, but they have they have they do work. And then, uh, second, you know, we are getting contacted about folks who are concerned about the um safety of them and an opt-out. Um

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if someone chooses to opt-out, uh I don't know who's going to set the fee for opting out. Um we you know, we're moving forward as a as a organization. You want to choose to opt-out, there's going to be a cost associated with the

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opting out. Bob, right now there is no opt-out. We don't have an opt-out program period. >> I that that was probably better question. Just because they already have uh uh a form of a smart meter and and essentially that's communicating.

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Um everybody has one. Yeah. Um so we're not going out and doing any manual reads today and we're not going to in the future. So we have currently no opt-out program. We have seen some of the communications that that you're referencing. What so we are we are going to do is we are going to look at what it would take

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to to potentially have one. I'm not The plan is not to have one. Okay. Um but just to look at it and see what that cost might be and it would be an additional fee that we would charge if we were to go down that road. Not planning on going there, but if we were and that fee would as because it's

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a rate would become before the board for approval of that rate. But >> Yeah. we're a long way off from there. Um we're not like I said, we're not planning on having an opt-out. Right now the the few customers that have requested it, we've told them we will just not do their meter right now while we look at this. But the plan is to eventually go back and replace the

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meter. I make sure it's a it's a strong education campaign Yeah. that they understand what this actually versus what's not and and make sure that they're You won't >> make a decision based on facts. You won't never satisfy some people with education and you know, just the reality

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of that. And if we do have an opt-out, just uh they have to under the price point of that opt-out has it will be it it'd be significant because you are not moving forward with the plan. It becomes basically we have to go

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to your home to do something once a month. The the other issue is the material availability, right? Yeah, everything. These are reaching the end of their useful life. They're not going to be manufactured anymore. It's going to be very hard if they do ever need a issue like a meter fail. It's going to be almost impossible at some point in the very near future to

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replace it and they'd be getting a smart meter because that's an option. No, but correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding. The current one transmit every 30 seconds and the next one transmits every

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15 minutes. So, there's less transmission. And even though it's only one watt power um and it seems trivial, but even at that it's less you're going to what we

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have now if someone wants to say I just want to have what I have. They're actually exposed to more than if we switched. Plus they got like I mean every meter has to be less than one watt. That's the FCC I Right. So, depending on the actual wattage

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but yes, the the frequency of transmission matters and it's a significant reduction in that. So, it has to be a significant difference in in in power and >> So, we not only be that they wouldn't get the AMI, they would we would actually get to go for what they have now to something backward. It would be

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easier if there's if there is no backward. There is Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Yeah. Yeah. So, I think the message is that we are reducing your exposure cuz we're putting in a meter which There's no actual

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power facts cuz it's hard to get on the old stuff. Um I don't want to necessarily make that statement. It's in My point is they're roughly the same. It's either roughly the same or better. Yeah. Okay, that's reasonable rate. So,

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sorry if I reasonable. It's just Also, I think I don't think the premise that people are being exposed to anything would also need to be challenged. I don't think people are really being exposed to anything. Yeah, I mean, well, it's compared the infographic does a really

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nice job of comparing it and again, this is something that is generally outside >> Sure, but homes, not in their homes. But thank you for putting this together. Um, yeah, just let us know when this is uh complete and if you can maybe send us a list of who received it like

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town wise and just so we armed folks with that information if they get questions. Um, but thank you to you and the team for putting this together so quickly. Under GM updated, I just wanted Patty, any other comments or suggestions about all the fun stuff you've got going

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on, the audience, the uh cost of service, any team doing good and you're doing well and >> [laughter] >> The fun never stops. All right, anything else? Good, Jason. All right. Uh scheduling.

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Think we've got the warrant schedules correct. Mhm. >> Meetings, we have no August meeting on the calendar right now. Um, so cost of service would be September that we would hear about that, which is great cuz it'll be before the budget, right?

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Any issues with the schedule? Everybody good? Yeah. Excellent. All right. Let's take a vote. Move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory Board adjourn the regular session. Roll call vote required.

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I got Uh yes, Bob, yes. Robert Feeney, yes. Kim Woods, yes. Thank you. Move that the RMLD Board of Commissioners adjourn regular session. Second. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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And I thought it was yeah. Okay. Thank you everyone. We are adjourned at 6:46. Round two, again.