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Meeting - August 9, 2006...
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Minutes:
CALL TO ORDER:
The legislative meeting hosted by the Utility Notification Center of Colorado was held on the 9th day of August 2006, at their offices at 16361 Table Mountain Parkway, Golden, Colorado. J.D. Maniscalco called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. and welcomed attendees to the thirteenth meeting. J.D. noted that committee documents include background information regarding the process thus far. J.D. stated that it was hoped that no further modifications to the documents would be made prior to the voting process. Objections to specific sections of the documents can be noted.
EXEMPTIONS:
The exemptions document was passed out. The document was briefly reviewed and changes made since the last meeting were noted. Chip Taylor noted that ditch maintenance will be removed from the exemptions proposal when legislative language is created.
ENFORCEMENT:
The enforcement document was passed out. David Fiore reviewed the few changes that had been made to the document since the last meeting. Item five was added to address the proposed amendments through the federal Pipeline Safety Act regarding an effective enforcement tool. J.D. noted that the reauthorization of the act has passed the house and is in the senate and looks like it will pass. David noted that a meeting has been held with Doug Dean at the Colorado PUC. He will need to know what resources would be available to support the process before the PUC could agree to participate. Grant money may be available through the PSA to hold all in the industry accountable to a higher standard. The grants will be given to encourage the importance of this issue. The enforcement document does not address the details of the process needed but does note that there is no real enforcement now. The current law only allows for civil penalties based on not being a member of UNCC or not calling for a locate. A change to the law would seek to enforce better excavation practices.
MEMBERSHIP:
The membership document was passed out. Requests for modifications to the document from Tier II members were made at previous meetings but have not been received. J.D. briefly reviewed the document. He noted that some Tier II representatives have made it clear that they do not want to participate in a true one call system. Many Tier II members want to receive a call directly from the excavator. Excavators have indicated that this results in an inefficient process for them. Costs to the center for Tier II membership are included in the membership document. J.D. reviewed the process that resulted in the initial law allowing Tier II membership to exist. Many changes have taken place in the industry since this law was enacted. A major concern in the past was the technology used to define service area. This technology has been updated and a much better product is now used to do this. The improvement is as high as 70 percent for some members. J.D. noted that the one call ticket cost is the smallest piece of the process. The cost of locating the actual facilities represents the real cost to the industry. Tier II members represented in these meetings have expressed the desire to participate in some way financially to a greater degree than is presently in the law.
VOTING:
Exemptions: It was noted that the exemptions document included the minutes from the meeting held with pipeline representatives.
The exemptions document was approved by a unanimous voice vote.
Enforcement: The enforcement document was approved by a vote of 22 for and one opposed. Lenny Morgan with Colorado Springs Utilities noted they have their own enforcement program and his opposition was based on a lack of need by Colorado Springs Utilities for another enforcement program.
Membership: A change was made to the sentence “There are three requirements a one-call program meets in order to be considered as having implemented this best practice.” The word three was changed to two.
Chris Laroe noted that she felt the document does not have enough input from Tier II members. J.D. stated that the group has sought input from Tier II members but no documentation has been received since February. She felt that more work needed to done.
The membership document was approved by a vote of 22 for and one opposed. Lenny Morgan with Colorado Springs Utilities noted that his opposition was based on lack of documentation regarding the revenue impact on Tier I membership fees. Edie Ortega noted that the purpose of the document was to show a need to change the current system to a true one call system. Lenny noted he was not opposed to a true one call system.
J.D. noted that UNCC will participate in but will not facilitate meetings that may be held regarding legislation language. He offered to continue to host meetings at the UNCC facility. David Fiore noted that the CCA task force was well along in the legislation process and he volunteered to lead the effort towards legislative language. Discussion was held regarding whether to prepare one bill or multiple bills with most comments leaning toward one bill encompassing all three identified issues. Committee groups will continue to move forward to create legislative language for exemptions and enforcement. Chris Laroe volunteered to try to enlist support from other Tier II members to participate in the language process. Legislation language rough drafts will be prepared for review by the group as a whole. J.D. agreed to give David access to the legislative group mailing list so that all parties can be invited to participate going forward. David Fiore will take the lead in overseeing the drafting of language for all three areas of change as discussed and voted on at this meeting. Future emails regarding meetings will come from the David. The group agreed to select a name that would represent participation from members of the industry as a whole. The group discussed going forward with the name Colorado One Call Legislation Task Force.
CONCLUSION and NEXT MEETING:
David Fiore scheduled the first meeting of the Task Force for Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. The meeting will be held at
UNCC.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 a.m.
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