Rural Hard to Reach Local Government Partnerships’ Working Group SUMMARY NOTES March 9, 2016, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Call #: 800-791-2345, Access Code: 22540# Attendees: IMPLEMENTERS Joe Button AMBAG Craig Schlatter, CDCMC
Austin McCaffrey, CDCMC* Rick Phelps, HSEF Pam Bold, HSEF*
Lou Jacobson, RCEA Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Jon Griesser, SLO County
SUMMARY NOTES Welcome Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO, opened the call at 11:00 a.m. Members introduced themselves and the agenda was reviewed. The group reviewed open action items from the February 9, 2016 meeting and assigned members reported on the status of each item. Action Item CS will take document and translate into RHTR comment during public comment period SJVCEO and RCEA to hold first call between IT teams in the last two weeks of March. CK to send out Doodle poll. HTR Recommendation Letter (date left open, but time is of the essence) GJ to draft an external letter, send to group for use to get approval from boards and EDs ALL that need approval of board or ED will get approval to sign on CK will draft a charter and bylaws for the RHTR by 03/31/16 LJ will consolidate the Strategic Goals and Objectives with SER guidance documents by March 9 CK to resend the SER Guidance document LJ to take back image guidance to MM for logo development
Update CS will complete AI when the appropriate opportunity presents itself. On track
No update provided. JG to follow up with GJ.
On track Date pushed back to March 16
Will send out 03/09/2016 Complete.
Celebrate Success! Jon Griesser, San Luis Obispo County, expressed his pride in and thankfulness for the recent work of the RHTR group. He highlighted the February in person meeting and the Public Sector Business Plan memo as points of real, tangible success. The February meeting was the first in person meeting of the RHTR that was in a member location and not tacked on to an already existing IOU meeting. The work that came out of that meeting was robust and meaningful.
JG thanked Lou Jacobsen, RCEA, for his incredible effort to write the memo for the Public Sector Business Plan recommendations. That memo was sent to all seven Program Administrators and initial comments show it was well received. LJ shared that another success to celebrate is that he, Sierra Business Council and other stakeholders running Direct Install programs joined together in a similar manner to RHTR and began working with PG&E to address issues. CK was encouraged by this information as it is her opinion that more alignment efforts should be happening across the state. Public Sector Business Plan CK reminded the group as to what is happening in program design efforts at a statewide level. The CPUC decision set up the Energy Efficiency Coordinating Committee which is to work with the Program Administrators in providing feedback and direction on the new sector based Business Plans. Each sector has a subcommittee that works direct with the PAs to review gap data analysis, business plans drafts and provide feedback and comment based on experience in the field. The subcommittees are where the grunt work happens, that information is then taken from the subcommittee to the Coordinating Council and ultimately results in a well-crafted and balanced business plan. CK serves as the co-chair for the Public Sector Subcommittee with Michael Nguyen, SoCal REN. CK listed out the opportunities for engagement: 1. March 16th, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the PG&E Pacific Energy Center, 851 Howard Street, San Francisco. a. Each PA will present their gap analysis data on the 16th. 2. March 22, the Coordinating Committee Facilitator, Ted Pope, will send out an email inviting public comments on the data analyses. a. Public comment will be open March 22-March 31. Public comment will be sent to CK and Michael Nguyen. They will have from March 31-April 5 to synthesize the information and send a summary to all of you. b. April 5th C.O.B. PS co-chairs provide PAs with summary of public comment. 3. The week of April 11th Public Sector meeting for all stakeholders in the San Joaquin Valley to review first PowerPoint draft of Stage II analysis. 4. The week of April 25th Public Sector meeting for all stakeholders to review second PowerPoint draft of Stage II analysis. 5. The week of June 1st PAs will present their draft PS Business Craig Schlatter, CDCMC, asked 1) is this a PA or CPUC driven effort, 2) is the public comment from March 22-31 public comment or written comment. CK explained that the whole effort is at the CPUC direction. The process is still murky as the PAs, CC and subcommittees are still trying to understand their roles and responsibilities. She expressed that there has to be a lot given on faith that the public engagement will be taken and incorporated into the final business plan but there are multiple checkpoints where stakeholders can engage and ensure what they want to see included is. CK shared that the RHTR memo on PSBP is an excellent example of the process. The document was submitted on 03/04 and already the PAs had incorporated language from our document into their presentations. She shared that she was surprised, yet pleased that the SoCal REN has wholeheartedly embraced our recommendations and heavily incorporating hard to reach communities in their plans. JG asked CK to send out an email with a synopsis of the presented information on opportunities for engagement. Use of Strategic Energy Resource Funding *UPDATE for PG&E partners* CK reported back on a recent conversation with Leif Christiansen, Manager of Government and Community Partnerships for PG&E, on where the RHTR efforts should be billed. LC expressed having RHTR
mapped directly to a Strategic Plan menu item, such as item 5 “building local government capacity”. CK shared LC’s concerns as well as her own as a result of their conversation. For PG&E members the RHTR efforts, if called out in the SER portion of the Program Management Plan, should be listed as an ‘SER expansion or innovator pilot’ effort. LJ shared how RCEA maps their strategic plan work and sent out an excel document to group to reference. Hard to Reach Update Greg Jones, Sierra Business Council, was not able to join the call. No update was given. Other Business RHTR representative on SEEC planning committee: CK shared Jeremy Battis’ request that a member from the RHTR group be involved in the SEEC planning process. She had volunteered but was politely refused by the Local Government Commission. Rick Phelps said he or Pam Bold could get engaged. CK will make an introduction for RP and BP to Julia Kim at the LGC. Jordan Decker to join April call: the group agreed that Jordan Decker, the new Statewide Local Government Energy Efficiency Best Practices Coordinator should be invited to speak for a part of the April call. Open for member comment: CS asked if the effort to produce bylaws was still a priority for the group. CK shared that yes it was and at the February meeting she had been assigned the task of drafting a charter and bylaws for the group by March 31. She asked if CS would be interested in working on the effort with her, he agreed. CK will draft a charter and bylaws for RHTR and send to CS for a review and comment prior to send out to the whole group. Wrap Up and Conclude With no further business to discuss JG closed the meeting at 12:01 p.m. The next meeting of the RHTR will be a conference call on April 13 at 11:00 a.m.