Gabriela Freeman

The work session centered on a detailed presentation regarding the 'My Meter' customer service portal. Key discussion points included the registration process for residential, commercial, and industrial accounts, defining password requirements, and outlining features such as viewing billing history, making payments (post-pay only), monitoring usage in dollars or consumption (daily, weekly, or billing intervals), and adding markers to track the impact of energy upgrades. The session also covered setting up usage threshold alerts via email, text, or push notification for billing reminders and usage spikes. Further details addressed viewing historical bills via PDF, setting up scheduled payments or saving payment methods in a 'wallet,' and managing user profiles, including adding secondary users with limited access. A critical topic involved informing customers about the 2% fee assessed for payments made via credit card, debit card, or digital wallet, effective March 16th.

The meeting commenced with the official calling to order of the regular session and instructions provided for public comments, including procedures for in-person, Zoom, and phone attendees regarding time limits and disclosure of confidential information. The board approved the regular session agenda and the consent agenda. The main discussion centered on a presentation by the Director of Communications regarding 2025 efforts focused on communication, transparency, and community trust building. Key successes highlighted included a 40% increase in website visits (over 1.5 million visits), significant social media engagement (nearly 900,000 content views), and crucial direct leadership engagement to gauge public sentiment. Furthermore, efforts to establish a community-first presence included developing a volunteer strategy involving multiple departments and focusing on school outreach through tours, workshops, and sponsoring community events, such as a summer movie night, to build credibility.

The Policy Review Committee convened to revisit the existing residency policy, which was originally adopted in 1983, as the unified government has also been addressing this issue. A presentation was made focusing on data-driven information regarding workforce statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, highlighting growing demand in skilled trades, engineering, and information security roles, alongside current hiring struggles and vacancy rates (e.g., 30% vacancy rate for line workers). Discussions covered the costs associated with non-compliance, including $1.67 million in replacement costs for 11 employees who left due to residency in the last five years, and a conservative estimate of $2.85 million for 19 departed linemen since 2010. Furthermore, the committee reviewed the implications of relocation assistance policies, noting that costs for contractors utilized to fill roles due to non-compliance can carry significant multipliers and negatively affect department morale.

The Work Session focused primarily on a review and comparison of the Board of Public Utilities' (BPU) Cold Weather Policy against the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) policy, referencing weather data from Winter 2018 through January 2022. Discussions included the criteria for service disconnection based on National Weather Service forecasts, the fee structure, and the general concept of utility forbearance. Board members suggested reviewing policies from other utilities and potentially developing a revised policy over the next three to six months that incorporates common sense and flexibility. The Board also approved the Agenda for the session.

The primary focus of the work session was a detailed discussion and presentation regarding updates to the Customer Service (CS) Dashboard. Key discussion points included providing CS data quarterly, the possibility of including Electric and Water statistics in the future, enabling CS to assign call codes for tracking customer needs, and adding metrics for customer disconnects and total calls taken. Furthermore, the Board requested enhancements such as an option for customers to easily transfer to the outage line via the IVR, an update to paperless billing to allow an additional contact email, and updating Call Escalations verbiage to specify the source of the escalation (e.g., General Manager's office or Unified Government Commissioners). An update was also given on IVR improvements to support Spanish-speaking customers.