City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes

Water and Light Advisory Board

701 E Broadway

Columbia, MO

Conference Room

1A/1B

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

8:00 AM

Regular

I. CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Ryan Westwood called the meeting to order at 8:02 a.m.

Staff: Erin Keys, Utilities Director; Sarah Talbert, Assistant Director Utilities-Rates

and Fiscal Planning; Maggie Jones, Engineering Supervisor-Water; Ron Wyble,

Power Production Manager; Todd McVicker, Utility Services Manager; Ben Edes,

Utility Services Supervisor; Matt Nestor, Public Information Specialist; Aubrey

Turner, Public Information Specialist; Paige Adams, Public Information Specialist;

Earl Kraus, Assistant City Counselor; Christina Weaver, Administrative Technician II

Public: David Huhman, Climate and Environment Commission; Mike Murphy, CoMo

Buzz; Jim Windsor, Public

4 - Thomas Jensen, David Switzer, Philip Fracica and Ryan Westwood

1 - Jennifer Coleman

Present:

Absent:

II. INTRODUCTIONS

A round robin was done for introductions.

III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Mr. Ryan Westwood made a motion to approve the agenda as submitted with a

second by Mr. David Switzer. Motion passed unanimously.

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The September 10, 2025 meeting minutes were approved as submitted with a

motion by Mr. David Switzer and a second by Mr. Phillip Fracica. Motion passed

unanimously.

Attachments: Meeting Minutes Draft 09 10 25

V. FINANCIAL REPORTS as available

Monthly Financial Reports

Mrs. Sarah Talbert presented the Monthly Financial Reports through August 2025.

Overall electric revenues through August 2025 are up due to the overall billed usage

being higher about 2.3% compared to FY 2024. Salaries and wages are higher due to

wage increases that the City Manager proposed with the FY 2025 budget and

compression pay adjustments that were implemented in June 2024. Materials,

supplies, and power purchase increased capacity costs for Prairie State compared to

FY 2024 is about $2.2 million; increased costs for our load (MISO) compared to FY

2024 is about $16.6 million; higher LMP and DA are due to congestion and volatility

of the generation in MISO and weather. Services and miscellaneous are lower due to

repair and modification of Unit 4 at CEC in FY 2024. August 2-25 represents

91.67% of the budget year. Electric operating revenues are currently 95.07% of the

budget; same time last year was at 95.00% of the budget. Electric operating expenses

are currently at 89.03% of the budget; same time last year was at 81.96% of the

budget.

Overall water revenues through August 2025 are up due to the overall billed usage

being higher about 1.06% compared to FY 2024. Salaries and wages are higher due

to wage increases that the City Manager proposed with the FY 2025 budget and

compression pay adjustments that were implemented in June 2024. Materials and

supplies are higher due to the purchase of water meters. Services and miscellaneous

are lower due to contractual services for street cut repairs and lime hauling in FY

2024. August 2025 represents 91.67% of the budget year. Water operating revenues

are currently at 87.04% of the budget; same time last year was at 93.08% of the

budget. Water operating expenses are currently at 74.26% of the budget; same time

last year was at 72.21% of the budget.

Attachments: Electric Statements-August 2025

Water Statements-August 2025

FY 2025 Summary Change in Billed usage for Water and Electric

VI. DIRECTOR'S REPORTS

a) Introduce Water Irrigation Ordinance

Mrs. Maggie Jones introduced the irrigation ordinance draft. The main points of the

draft are: The Limitations and Watering Schedule, Exemptions and Exceptions,

Requirements for Automatic Irrigation, and Penalties. As for the timeline of the

ordinance, the plan is to have a discussion about the draft in November or December

and adjustments will be made based on the comments and suggestions provided, then

there will be an interested parties meeting early 2026, it will be presented to City

Council in spring of 2026 and hopefully go into effect FY 2027 (October 2026).

Mr. David Huhman asked the board what problem the irrigation ordinance is trying to

fix. Mr. David Switzer responded that the primary problem is over-irrigation in the

southwest area as they’ve had issues with water pressure due to how much they

irrigate in the area. The solutions to the problem are either building a water tower

there, which is going to be expensive for everyone, or to put an ordinance in place

that will require them to time their irrigation.

Attachments: Irrigation Ordinance - DRAFT

b) Monthly Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) Report

Mrs. Sarah Talbert presented the Monthly Power Cost Adjustment Report through

August 2025. The PCA has been capped out since February. She expressed that the

mayor and some council members have mentioned interest in bringing back the PCA

to them since it has been capped. The board discussed the PCA and possibly taking it

to council to adjust the cap.

Through August 2025, purchased power is off by about $10 million from what was

forecasted, and energy sold is off about 22 million from what was forecasted.

Attachments: PCA Board Report - August 2025

c) Council Item Update

Mrs. Sarah Talbert discussed the council item updates.

At the council meeting on September 2, 2025, Council Bill 184-25, Council Bill

221-25, and Resolution 128-25 were approved. There was Public Hearing 26-25.

Council Bill 183-25 was tabled for a vote on September 15. Council Bill 232-25 and

Council Bill 238-25 were introduced.

At the council meeting on September 15, Council Bill 183-25 and Council Bill

232-25 were adopted. Council Bill 238-25 and Resolution 130-25 were approved.

Council Bill 248-25 was introduced. Report 48-25 was presented.

At the council meeting on October 6, Council Bill 248-25, Resolution 136-25, and

Resolution 137-25 were approved.

Attachments: Council Item Updates - September 2025

VII. CHAIRMAN'S REPORTS

a) Public Input Meeting

Mrs. Sarah Talbert announced that the public input meeting will be October 29 at 6

pm in the Council Chambers in City Hall. The board members reviewed and finalized

the agenda for the meeting.

Attachments: Agenda Draft

b) Advisory Board Report to Council

The board reviewed the Advisory Board Report for City Council draft. Mr. David

Switzer recommended some changes to the language regarding the rate increase. The

draft will be discussed further at the next meeting.

Attachments: WLAB_FY2025_Annual_Report

c) WLAB 2025/2026 Goals

The board reviewed their FY 2026 drafted goals. The draft will be discussed more at

the next meeting.

Attachments: WLAB Goals

d) Rolling Calendar

Mrs. Sarah Talbert presented the rolling calendar and some changes were made.

Attachments: WL Rolling Agenda October

VIII. PUBLIC EMAIL COMMENTS

None.

IX. GENERAL COMMENTS BY PUBLIC, MEMBERS AND STAFF

Mr. Jim Windsor reviewed the City’s budget and received a large Excel file that he

condensed into a table that he provided to the board. His big concern is how much

utilities are paying for administrative charges. Water and Light pays 27.8% of the

general administrative fee, and utilities as a whole pay over 70%, and any general fund

department pays nothing to those. Police and Fire utilize the Law Department,

Finance Department, and Human Resources. Additionally, most of everything east of

Hwy 63 and south of the interstate is Boone Electric and the Water District, where

there are a lot of customers that are City residents that pay nothing into this outside of

the sewer and solid waste portions. Electric and Water are basically paying to provide

all of these services to the citizens of Columbia and he believes it is a problem. In

addition, there are some circular charges; for instance, beyond the utilities, the airport

is next on the administrative fee then it’s IT. If you look at the IT charges, Water and

Light pays a substantial amount of that charge. It’s the same way with building utility

charges and janitorial service; it all adds up where Water and Light is paying a

substantial amount for the operation of the City that gets passed on to us as rate

payers. He would hope that the board will ask for more clarity on some of this

because they talk about rate increases that are going to happen in the future and

affordability, and all of this goes toward the base charge. It needs to be spread out

and sales tax and property tax needs to be paying for some of this stuff, and otherwise

there needs to be a very clear justification for it. Additionally, he would like a budget

that people can understand, and the City’s budget needs to be more transparent. He

also urges the board to say something about the annexation of the water plant before

the $900 thousand hits. We don’t need more water rate increases that are just to feed

into the general fund; it’s easy to raise rates compared to passing a sales tax or

property tax. He also mentioned that a few years ago, the board had a goal related to

rental property efficiency that he urges them to bring back.

Mr. David Switzer mentioned that Mr. Jim Windsor had previously brought up at a

council meeting that the public should have a say in the moment on things that are

voted on during board and committee meetings. He would suggest following council

rule and limiting the amount of time that each person gets to speak, specifically when

the board is voting on a recommendation for council.

Mr. Thomas Jensen suggested that any time there’s a handout or the scope and scale

of the comment is to that extent, it deserves a spot on the agenda and recommends

they should apply to get on the normal agenda if the comment isn’t going to be brief.

He also mentioned that there is new sodium-ion technology for batteries, and the

costs are a fraction of anything that involves lithium. It would dramatically change

some of the strategies we talk about. Within 3 years we will see a lot of companies

bringing products to market.

Mr. Phillip Fracica mentioned that he noticed Planning and Zoning had some

re-zoning for a site for a potential data center, and he asked if staff had been

contacted by anyone or if there’s any movement on that side of things that they can

speak to.

Mrs. Erin Keys said they get contacted by them off and on, and often inform them

that the City doesn’t have 100 megawatts to spare so it’s unclear what they’re

planning to do with the site. Even if the data centers were able to generate their own

electricity, it would be a large draw on water, so they City is being careful with how

they approach data centers.

She also commented that, in addition the IRP kickoff, there was also a kickoff with

AMI. The City contracted with Ameresco, which is an energy service company that

does performance-based contracting. They are going to be doing work at the ARC

and the Armory to look at what they can do to make them more energy efficient, and

they’re going to do an audit to determine the potential savings on water.

The City has recently received 2 solar proposals and would like to add an agenda

item to the rolling calendar to discuss them with the board.

X. NEXT MEETING DATE

November 12, 2025

XI. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:18 a.m. on a motion by Mr. David Switzer and a

second by Mr. Ryan Westwood. Motion passed unanimously.

To submit questions or comments to the Water & Light Advisory Board, please email

wlabpublic@como.gov.

All media inquiries should be submitted to Matt Nestor at Matthew.Nestor@como.gov or Jason West at

Jason.West@como.gov.

Members of the public may attend any open meeting. For requests for accommodations related to

disability, please call 573.874.CITY (2489) or email CITY@CoMo.gov. In order to assist staff in making

the appropriate arrangements for your accommodation, please make your request as far in advance of

the posted meeting date as possible.

USB DRIVES PROHIBITED: A speaker who desires to display a presentation must upload the

presentation, in advance, to the city network using an upload portal. To upload your files and learn

more, visit CoMo.gov/upload.