ok good evening everyone i'd like to call to order the june sixteenth two thousand and fifteen meeting of the belmont municipal light for my name is sam the fact that the i'm the chair smart  chair jim williams was a member of the light board and then at our end is is jim palmer the general manager of k why don't you what i am going to do is i am going to skip  their forms on site for the foundation work but they're just getting going on that now and then like i said last time there were some pipes that had to be removed that used to be under the building and the demolition project the substation building fudging the transmission line project and then the distribution project so we have four projects under the program so the first project the demolition project is complete right as of right now and the  what's going on well that we have a transmission line bit opening but we did receive three bids and we're still evaluating the bids has a very now so we haven't got any more to report on that today and as far as the regulatory process d p you had signed off on the the the regulatory filing that and star had submitted should have got the notification if you didn't know set it to you again i know i the agenda which is creation and appointment of temporary net metering work and you know this is this is the working group that that i talk about  address to town meeting that would set up a working group that can advise us on you know one look at our current phase one and phase two this on the technicalities and hopefully make some recommendations on a policy that you know that does not discourage installation of solar panels on on residences on residential properties i know that a proposal has been circulated by some residents in town but you know i honestly feel at this point that without some technical assistance from this working group which will be made up of you know primarily new faces you know without that technical guidance and understanding i'm just not in a position has been going on since last september and i don't think i can be corrected if i'm wrong but i don't think the last solar season was lost but perhaps it was but now we're in the middle of another one and it seems to me based on my work with the various parties that they're not that far apart and i just don't think they are so i got to a point with the when i consider both parties where in my experience you don't negotiate when wind wins you you try to find out where the must haves are so that you you understand the two positions in it if there are two sometimes there's more than two but in this case it's clear that the light board has to be authority to decide i don't think the two parties are that far apart and i understand that the real problem that the woman has now with regard to new solar installations is the uncertainty that's in this so called phase one because face to is in that tariff and so people are on are reluctant to start up with that and in in the phase one tariff and so i was going to suggest that we consider either agreeing to the two thousand and fifteen that's proposed by the residents and i believe the light board had to has discretion and so i'm not suggesting that we take it the way it is but that is definitely there must have there is no agree that we amend tonight the current agreement which is the two thousand and eleven tariff which has the phase two language in it in if we could do that then the solar  the solar companies would come back and people who are in the queue and want to sign up will sign up the details behind that are that that is a retail media agreement so anyone who signed house i'm going to do some other things my electric bill is two hundred forty dollars a month and the reason for that is i have an electric water heater which i think lies i got to do something about and if i do that it will come back to normal but for those of you who are sophisticates my house has what is called a hip roof and instead of you know that's not to to good deal if you're a solar enthusiastic it also has this huge tree in front of it which i was asked if i could cut the tree down but it's on property and it's a beautiful tree stumps are going to do that but in in here you'll see that they've done a proposal under the two thousand and eleven version and the two thousand and fifteen version and i just want to draw your attention mark one number and that's this number on the left here this payback analysis word says solar production in dollars unfun the one hand it's four hundred sixty three dollars annually you know on the other hand it's six hundred forty eight dollars annually so you know they're within a couple hundred dollars of each other and i think this committee that we're talking about could very easily reconcile the difference between those two numbers because it has to do with generation distribution transmission capacity and  stabilization in i believe that in may we were very close but we couldn't get all the way home so what i would suggest we consider is that we pick one of these other two options tonight so that people can go ahead and get there so we're put in place and we can do that either by agreeing to the two thousand and fifteen tariff the difference is that power of it's sold to the network would be sold at fourteen cents versus ten or that we remove a so called face two from the existing tariff which reduces the end or eliminates the uncertainty and then people can go ahead and then this committee can follow up with whatever patiently they have for us ok let me just ask a question the audio is on because i got an e mail saying that the audio on someone watching from home saying there's no audio problem ok jim my only exactly by my comments are twofold ok number one we did vote to one was basically full net metering you know right full retail that we're in right whatever goes in comes back out we can sense whatever right that was in place because we didn't have the technology at the time when that policy was drafted we were at the be very beginning stages of implementing the smart meter project which right now we've got over one thousand meters installed out of the eleven thousand so we're we're getting close to completing that project but we waited until the technology caught up when that when that kicked in to pick their new phase two was we were only going to pay what comes back on the system had wholesale rates right now that that is in the what what the tensions were for the policy which was to go to wholesale to be doing ok and i think let me let me just explain we we have said that phase two will not go into effect policy that even though we took action as a board it does say in the policy that eventually will be at phase two and you want to say to delete that because i'm not i'm i'm informed that what's holding people up who are in the queue not talking about the twenty people you know the twenty people in my view are off to the side because they're so who are pioneers and in my mind or at least solar initiat they're off to the side they've paid what they paid for their of their systems so my concern is for everybody else and i think if you think about all the houses that face south in the belmont i think it's around two thousand houses and i'm not going to say that everybody's going to put solar on their house mine faces south i'm not going to do it because my roof is there and i got this big tree in the front of it which i can't cut down and don't want to and i'm going to do other things about my heater to reduce my electric bill but the point is it's holding other people up who want so and i think while people are considering this and it's been almost a year now the this discussion has turned going on what we can do is give relief to the larger community by taking that language out of phase one and then turning the committee loose and say ok come back to us with a sensible recommendation ok and let me just raise i understand ok and let me just tell you the one point of objection i have it's not on our agenda i didn't come here tonight thinking that we were going to change our well you know you know i mean first option is frankly and i know we've gotten dozens of e mails on the chairman with all due respect i think we have to give this working group the opportunity to come back to was with your counsel and advice in terms of what the tariff should be so i wouldn't i'm not in a position to even to remove that i'm open minded about that for the time being with the understanding we can we don't need to do it and i'm doing a subsequent meeting with the understanding that the independent working group we come back to us with advice on net metering and never even have the technical know how to evaluate that so that our working group i think should yes should give us recommendations and personally i would like the working group to come back to was i mean they've got to make their decision so that i hope to meet again within the next thirty days and maybe you know if they come back to us at that time and say well this is the language you removed from the current tariff and that for school the face to that mr turm price if i could comment on the issue for me is perhaps it's it's the timing it's june sixteenth right you know another thirty days is july sixteenth and you get into august  option i really am because i think there were two things if i could i know why we're coming i know it's here in the agender i thought this working group was more of a broader group to look at renewable energy reduction of carbon emissions subset of that is looking at solar policy and shortening so if we're going to appoint some you know resume we can rename it yeah i think we need to give them much larger george and i agree and i also think that if they need time perhaps they to lobby their boards and council to i've got no metering so that's if i think that's what's taking place where they're not coming to town because i mean i've read a lot about this and there's a lot of that's taking place out of his preventing the solar installers from wanted to do business in town so let me let me back up and we'll come back to that will come back to that so this let me tell you what i had in mind i mean i off the top of my head call that a temporary net metering working for all but you know the purpose as i i was thinking of was number one to evaluate and provide recommendations on belmont's phase one and phase two solver net metering rate policies number one and then number two to make recommendations on other policies and programs which belmont lite can adopt to support low carbon energy resource service so i do it despite its name and i did have a broader purpose and by if if one of you to want to propose a that's advising us as a light board ok on these issues as they tied it belmont light the energy committee i think works on general policy within within the  now that said that said if i can just switch to that to the to the next part of this i do think i do recommend a smaller committee i do recommend we have three members ok three voting members we did get we did get five people who were very interested in serving and you know i'm happy i'm happy to to go through th roy is also a member of the warrant committee so he is very familiar with the town's finances another person who who who i mean also encouraged is willing to serve as i education you know it certainly offers and educate and and you know i think to have somebody with a big picture will certainly be helpful if we want you know policies and recommendations on tony barnes and tony is a member of the energy committee ok you know i think to have a member of the energy committee in all of this also is also not not if that idea energy committee answers to the doesn't work i think specifically with whatsoever he does work with energy in the field of energy and then the last person is of go on has also volunteered and  bob was a long time leading member now retired he was in the electrical engineer with b s from northeastern university so i think i think we certainly have a good pool of people post to me ok you know i mean we have not advertised this position and the idea is we wanted to move fast you know to advertise it would have been another two weeks and i did want to try to remain in keeping with the sixty day deadline that we imposed so for that reason you know it was not that actively advertised a working rule and lights estimation and by the top twenty four of the studies that are out there and which one you have a few believe it is very small money so as if it's more of a political issue really i think not so much of for the channel was a public television i would also say that the it is technical it is a fresh face it almost certainly excludes anybody who has really knowledge politically so from my point of view have been independent technical group advising us on the broader mission that mr chairman mr baghdadi outlined makes sense frankly it's not about me you may think it's about politics in that we are political point  we are in politics and you may not decide to vote for me in the future that's fine but i'm always going to make decisions what's best for the community is the bigger so do not get what the best politically yet so and for might because it's such a very deep technical area we need to t more broadly about what's best for this community from reduction of carbon emissions renewable energy or so a policy so and so forth to make a decision based on politics frankly i don't i don't think really is in line with our fiduciary obligation to the to the citizens ok and i think we need a process i really do i think you know we tried in november hammering it out politically and it didn't lead to the right result so i i think we owe making this change to the existing so called phase one i also would like to get rid of the phase one phase two phase three language because i think it's clear phase three is not going to happen and the idea that there's a phase that gives you an idea that you cents that we're part right now in my view and i'm not technical but i have been around a little bit i know where the you know one side is ten cents and the other side's four cents so a lot of people have much longer term views about this which i think is good but i think if you want solar in in belmont this summer you know we should we should just let the people let the people do that they're doing it in cambridge they do it in arlington i have did redacted bids from cambridge arlington concord you know we're surrounded by people that are doing it on retail net metering as ok let me make a suggestion that ok let's appoint the committee and then their first charge would be to look at your suggestion and i direct him to do the that's i'm not trying to be impolite i also want to mention for the people who are here in the public it may seem like we never talk to each other but we actually don't because we can't because there's only three of us and there's this open access law that says that if i call sammy and i talk to him about this idea that all the sudden we have a quorum and it's it's literally against state law for us to do that and just as background until two thousand and ten it was that law was in force by the local district attorneys and that wasn't working out too well so now it's at the at the attorney general's level and you can you can dial a number and they'll call you back and tell you whether what you want to talk about is is subject to the law or not so we're we're very careful with that as mark says you know we try to make our decisions in the communities best interests and we also follow the rules so if it looks like we haven't talked to each other about this the reason it looks that way is because we haven't and we have to do it in to look at the whole issue still going so there may be some changes is it going to have the same dampening effect i think that's what i was taken it was that you saw i saw the same uncertainty this changes coming just don't know what they are well i  think there's there's two things to address that one is change can always come you know number one you know point number one but point number two is that i think if people sign up under the complicated way we need to we should be striking boring promising to do our best strikingly so we have a red line given where this gentleman is red lines it's blood all over the page then it's going to be a complicated discussion of money ok ok ready for again policy future you know suggestions you know at the same time i don't see a value you know to the point member of the energy committee and you know three vote and photos and then and then you know i can't talk from my perspective you know klaus you are a friend of mine i know you i think you are very smart and well educated but the committee is going to be looking at the policy that you've put together and i think it's important to have objectivity you know you're the author of the policy that they are going to consider energy that is very clear from to collecting signatures and i would i think there should be i think it should more than three first of all or two i think you can accommodate all these interests and i also think that there should be just people who really are regular people yes  the architect you are the one who drafted the policy that you want them that you want us to adopt politically and now you want to be a member of voting member of the committee to me we owe it to the residents of belmont to have new players involved you're too tied into it so i appreciate what you say i seeing honest with you yeah i know but it person i think everybody on you or your list there is tied into the energy discussion in some way table ok now i've given my view on klaus de mint no question it ok really ok you're interrupting thank you david lobe and i really don't know go yes i do not know mr cohen here i would just like to suggest because you have said that this hasn't been advertised i'm not sure how the people who apply you know about it but my town meeting address maybe they actually came to make their major other people in town who would be very happy to serve who have very good qualifications for instance david luban who did apply that somehow that you should try bodger i'm trying to stick with our deadline because you know the other wisest thing not to do is let the strike for six months i absolutely agree with you but to give it another week and to actually put have you noticed that says that would influence your recommendation with regard to his just yeah roy i have known from the warrant committee i've worked with him actively i think one can look at things very you know not long term but short term because you know there are federal subsidies in place there are states of yes in place there's a market the us wrecked market yeah it seems like the rest of the world understands that this is ok for now and for some reason you know we're we're saying oh gee we we don't think so this gentleman is kind of an interesting he's an authority you know is he on the list  and then find my final motions chairman is i move that we appoint tony barnes member of the energy committee as an alternate member to the temporary net metering working advisory group so i can all the favor  of those people commented in favor of solar power in favor of fairness to bring in fair and sound practices and policies that support clean energy i'd like to make sure that this petition with all of the comments from those fifty one  and what i suggested to you is if you have someone within your group who's willing to do it as well you can you can do it and e mail it to us and we're happy to look at it contemporaneously ok and then so within the next yet or i d s the idea is phase one would not be permanent ok it has to be understood ok it's not permanent because the working group has to do its work but what we are mucking about is trying to address the is we have two alternates ok and the alternatives are ralph jones you might want to write that down and steve quijano those are alternate members and the other the others are for voting members now it alternative to gretchen mclean and mark mcveigh their terms all go into two thousand and sixteen or two thousand and seventeen ashley brown and bob foresters terms on this understand this is something we need to discuss and i think it's causing confusion i've heard two accounts i've heard their term expired in two thousand and fourteen december thirty one two thousand and fourteen i've also heard their term expires june thirtieth two thousand and fifteen and i think the confusion comes from and this is something we need to clarify what it comes from is the town works on a municipal fiscal year so the town's fiscal year starts july first to june thirtieth so we make appointments there effective as of july first of that here now but life goes on a calendar system so belmont lights  is january first to december thirty first therefore the question is when we appoint and lab members ok i am glad you know that vice we board members do their terms follow the calendar year of the white department or do they follow the fiscal year like all our like all of our other appointments and that's the confusion and thirty one it's more that's when the and maybe it needs to continue for the full year perhaps in the county year because of those issues because you point something in june and you know have the full road and then what we're going to have to do start appointing in december is what these for these two individuals i mean or the easiest way is just keep it like every other appointment it can be advertised with all our other appointments so that's probably that how we do it then let's do that a great ok so the terms will run from july first to june thirtieth and then that will allow us to advertise these positions as as there are vacancies just like every other committee is and we are in a position to send out the notices and so i think i think from an operational standpoint it so let's let me hear a motion that terms of point ments temper shall run from june july first to june thirtieth of each year so moved june thirtieth on on july first i mean i will make an observation i think you know actually brown and bob have done a lot of service to to you know ten years they've been they've been on the committee which you know certainly has many years of service but you know i'm also one who believes that new ideas are generated by having you members participate on committees and you know i think it's healthy for a committee to have new members from time to time and not be dominated from the same people so you know i'm going to propose some changes to the appointments i don't know how my colleagues feel i mean that's w had of the applications for you know but but this is this is what i suggest because i think i think m lab is a committee with you know which requires technical expertise and and certainly historical expertise i also think you know as as one who serves on the planning board that had an alternate member it's really not fair to get an alternate member attends meetings contributes with the idea that if we get a new people on the board that would be a great place to get their feet wet to test their participation and their commitment to the committee and we know whether mr brown or  understand that has nothing to do with any of the issues that have been taking place at least in my mind that if we wanted to elevate stephen bach and ralph who was my former colleague and us not  let's get to fresh faces and you know and again i am one of the philosophy that it's good to have active participation and it just for many years of service to belmont light ten years of their life is is a long time and i want them to know that even though i've only been here a year i do appreciate the time that they will meet and yes