The meeting was opened by Chairman Steve AmRhein and Brian Scheidler kept the minutes of the meeting.

Board members present were Steve AmRhein, Brian Scheidler, Jason Barnhorst and Dale Wernke. Not present with notification were Suzanne Parmer and Clay Nuhring. Not present without notification were Jeff Lawrence and Carl Riedeman. Employees present included CEO Brett Abplanalp, Jeanne Loechle, Matt Raver, Crystal Greathouse and guest speaker Brian Garrison.

With only four board members attending, the quorum requirement was not met so there could be no official action taken. It was decided to continue with the meeting but skip topics that required a vote. Those topics included:

Community Trust nominations

Direction from board on Veterans Way

Recommended changes to Redline Changes to Line Extension True-Up Long-Term Rules and Regulations, Rule 25

Recommended changes to Policy 11-1 and Rules and Regulations, Rule 25: Changes for Facility Credits

Review of Policy 1-8: Director’s Fees and Expenses.

Education — Policy Review

Brian Garrison reviewed the following policies for the board:

Policy 1-3: Board Manager Relationship

Policy 1-10: Director Code of Ethics and Oath of Office

Policy 1-13: Whistleblower

Policy 1-14: Conflict of Interest

Policy 1-16: Director Conduct Policy

CEO Report

Brett Abplanalp reviewed the CEO report, project updates and company metrics as presented on CTO.

Completed 90% of Clay’s stage two director orientation.

Worked on and created changes to accommodate the member’s work credits that effect Rules and Regulations, Rule 25, and Policy 11-1: Relocation of Facilities.

Created the line extension data requested for the recommended change to the true-up process. 

Launched our 2021 employee survey.

Strategic Planning and Vision – Began working with facilitator on vision retreat as well as strategic retreat offsite.

June was 1.1% warmer than the five-year average with cooling degree days up 15% and warming degree days flat from the five-year average.

Hoosier Energy purchased power was 1% lower than the five-year average with demand up 4.3% from the five-year average. Year-to-date energy sales went from 1.5% under budget to 1% under.

On June 18-19 there was a major storm with high winds. Daily SAIDI was measured at 192 on June 18, which crossed the T(MED) threshold for a major storm (34.2). The 2018 ice storm had a daily SAIDI score of 497. Lost consumer hours ended up at 44,614 compared to a five-year average of 2,555. The number of outages was at 163 compared to the five-year average of 73.6. Outage causes for the month were “major storm” then “power supplier.” DCREMC has generated 11 near-misses or safety suggestions and implemented 10 corrective actions year-to- date.

Financial Update

The financial update was reviewed as presented on Call to Order. Matt Raver shared highlights of the monthly financials.

Revenues are under YTD budget by -5% but power costs are also under by -7.7%, resulting in a gross margin above budget of 1.7% YTD. KWh sales are 1% behind budget. Controllable expenses are under budget -11%. At the end of June, operating margins are $416,987 ahead of budget.

Hoosier Energy Board/Committee Update

Jason Barnhorst gave an update from the board meeting. A motion was passed to do a special retirement of $7 million subject to RUS approval. This will roughly double the retirement that DCREMC will receive. Barnhorst’s recommendation is to pass this through to the members.

IEC Board/Committee Update

Steve AmRhein gave an update from the board meeting that occurred in June. The meeting was adjourned at 8:42 p.m.