OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities Strategic Planning Work Session - August 27, 2026

County Council & BoardsThursday, August 27, 2026
BodyLos Alamos County, New Mexico
SessionCounty Council & Boards
DateThursday, August 27, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:15:41

Transcript — Verbatim
0:06

Thank you.

0:08

Okay, I call to order this uh August 26, 2026 special meeting of the Board of Public Utilities, our annual strategic planning discussion.

0:20

Thanks everyone for being here.

0:24

And we do have four board members.

0:26

We have three board members here this evening and one remote and one very remote who's not likely to be able to join us.

0:38

So first item of business is public comment.

0:42

Do we have any public comment in the room?

0:46

I don't see any.

0:47

Do we have any online?

0:49

Thank you, Chair Gibson.

0:50

For members of the public who are joining us tonight on Zoom, when Chair Gibson calls for public comment, please use the raise hand function.

0:56

If you are participating by phone, please press star nine to raise your hand.

1:01

If you'd like to make a public comment now, please raise your hand.

1:06

There are no hands being raised, Mr.

1:09

Okay.

1:10

Well, I will take this opportunity since since I'm a member of the public to make sure that everyone knows that the gas rate increase was passed by council last evening, and the ECA was approved by council last evening.

1:24

So now we can go back to real work.

1:34

Yeah, I don't know.

1:35

You must have logged in some work.

1:44

But we're not asking you to leave so that you can come in by uh by the remote uh access there.

1:51

Um there's been no more public comment.

1:56

Is there a motion to approve this giant agenda tonight?

2:06

Everybody speak at once.

2:09

I move that we approve tonight's agenda.

2:11

That's great to do.

2:13

Thank you.

2:15

Well, Eric catches up, I'll second that.

2:20

All in favor.

2:23

Hi.

2:23

Uh thank you.

2:26

Motion passes four to zero.

2:28

That takes us to strategic planning.

2:32

And we start off with Philo.

2:40

Sure.

2:41

Uh so board members and uh my senior management team.

2:46

Uh we have Kathy Darwin here tonight to help facilitate our strategic planning.

2:52

Um we started out uh I had gone to a seminar in uh Boston with the APPA on strategic planning.

3:02

And uh one thing that's frequently done among all the organizations that represented there was all a bunch of public power agencies uh was uh having your organization do a SWAT.

3:15

Um I worked with Kathy.

3:17

We had done a SWOT about four years ago in 22.

3:21

Um and the SWOT at that time was more related to the aftermath of COVID, the great resignation.

3:30

You know, we had a lot of staff turnover.

3:32

Uh you know, just so things were different then just to kind of give you a framework.

3:37

Uh so we shared uh we did a SWAT with my newer team because most of the managers uh have retired, not that every I think Clay.

3:51

You were not quite in that role, your enacting role, I think.

3:55

Uh so uh I remember doing it.

3:58

Yeah, so um we pretty much have turned over our senior management team with everyone.

4:05

I've had employees here for that over that time, but not in the roles are in.

4:12

So uh we shared that with you, and uh you got to see a complete unedited version.

4:19

There's some surprises for for me in there, and as well as some board members.

4:23

Uh we got board members of comments because it couldn't be here.

4:28

So let's so we're gonna walk through those as we go through the SWAT to um and uh I invite senior management team meet uh members to jump in and you know clarify if the board has any questions of those so we can face takes the reality we have in front of us.

4:49

Uh and then the other thing we started looking at uh I know uh chairs talking about data needs, uh but we also kind of looked at with performance um measures, etc.

5:04

That you know, a lot of our objectives in our strategic plan.

5:08

Some are just ongoing items and others are measurable items.

5:14

And so we divided it in half, and uh obviously we can talk about if we need to move one to the left or right of those columns, uh, but uh we want to take an attempt to do a little workshop where people break apart, have a discussion, what uh metrics or measures or data that we need to collect two measures, and uh then we come back each working group will need to have a leader and and make a presentation and then uh we can have a discussion collectively and we agree with those or have other suggestions or ideas.

6:01

So uh I think with that uh I'll uh turn this over to Kathy to take the discussions from there, but I just wanted to kind of give you a high level of what we're gonna do now.

6:16

And the book one breakout room is gonna be in the DPU conference rooms.

6:20

Uh that's way we can bring Jen Hollingsworth in the fold where uh the work group can talk to her and and work on the uh performance uh objectives welcome back.

6:37

Thank you.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Strategic Planning███████████████████████████████████35%
Energy Management█████████████████17%
Public Engagement██████████10%
Fiscal Sustainability█████████9%
Personnel Matters██████6%
Water And Wastewater Management██████6%
Procedural█████5%
Engineering And Infrastructure████4%
Technology and Innovation███3%
Summary of Proceedings

Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities Strategic Planning Work Session - August 27, 2026

The Board of Public Utilities held a special work session on August 27, 2026, from approximately 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM, focusing on the FY2028 Strategic Plan. The meeting included a review of the 2026 Management Team SWOT analysis and breakout group exercises to refine measurable objectives. Board members present: Robert Gibson (Chair), Charles Nakhleh, Eric Stromberg, and Jennifer Hollingsworth (remote via Zoom). Vice Chair Matt Heavner was unable to attend but submitted written comments. Utilities Manager Philo Shelton and facilitator Kathy Darwin led the discussion.

Consent Calendar

  • Approval of Agenda: Motion by Eric Stromberg, seconded by Charles Nakhleh, passed 4-0.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No members of the public offered comment. Chair Gibson noted that the gas rate increase and the Energy Coordination Agreement (ECA) were approved by the County Council on the previous evening.

Discussion Items

  • SWOT Analysis Review: The management team presented a SWOT survey completed by eight participants. Key themes included:
    • Strengths: Experienced workforce, positive culture, reliable service, competent financial management, partnerships.
    • Weaknesses: Revenue shortfalls, workload demands, workforce culture (including bullying and intimidation of new personnel), IT and document-sharing challenges, lack of collaboration, aging infrastructure.
    • Opportunities: Rate adjustments, favorable loan/grant programs, partnerships, technological advancements, operational improvements.
    • Threats: Financial perception (public resistance to rate increases), electrification costs, funding competition, procurement constraints, communication delays, environmental risks (chromium plume).
    • Board members questioned some items, e.g., whether “competent financial management” was accurate given low reserves, and whether certain opportunities were actually internal. The management team clarified that the SWOT reflects their perceptions and is used for internal planning.
  • Strategic Plan Objective Revision: Breakout groups (one in the main room, one in the DPU conference room) reviewed the current strategic plan and proposed changes to classify objectives as “ongoing” or “measurable” and to define metrics. Key changes recommended:
    • Operations & Performance: Move objectives 1.1 and 1.2 to measurable, adding “in accordance with industry standards”; keep 1.4 and 1.5 as ongoing.
    • Financial Performance: Move 2.4 (cost-of-service studies) to measurable; remove redundant sentence from 2.1; keep 2.2 and 2.3 as ongoing.
    • Customers & Community: Swap 3.1 and 3.3 to measurable (using transactional and Voice of the Customer surveys); move 3.2 and 3.4 to ongoing; change “educate” to “inform” in 3.4.
    • Workforce: Keep 4.1 and 4.2 as ongoing; for 4.3, measure retention by years of service, promotions, and awards.
    • Environmental Sustainability: Combine 5.1 and 5.6 into one objective: “Promote efficient utility use and sustainability through education, technical support, and targeted conservation programs.” Leave 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 as measurable, with a note that 5.3 (gas reduction) may be updated after a conservation plan is completed in early 2027. For 5.5, change “sewer” to “reclaimed water” and measure by annual ratio of effluent used versus produced.
    • Partnerships: Move 6.2 and 6.3 to ongoing; replace 6.4 (ECA) with “Pursue contract modifications to the ECA in the short term and begin planning for follow-on agreement by 2031.” Some board members expressed concern about the word “replacement” given the recent council approval, and the final language was adjusted to “modifications” and “follow-on.”

Key Outcomes

  • The board provided direction to staff to incorporate the breakout group recommendations into a clean copy of the revised FY2028 Strategic Plan. The plan will be presented for approval at the regular Board of Public Utilities meeting on September 16, 2026.
  • No formal vote was taken on the strategic plan itself; the board will consider approval at the September 16 meeting.
  • The meeting adjourned without additional public comment.

Meeting Transcript

Thank you. Okay, I call to order this uh August 26, 2026 special meeting of the Board of Public Utilities, our annual strategic planning discussion. Thanks everyone for being here. And we do have four board members. We have three board members here this evening and one remote and one very remote who's not likely to be able to join us. So first item of business is public comment. Do we have any public comment in the room? I don't see any. Do we have any online? Thank you, Chair Gibson. For members of the public who are joining us tonight on Zoom, when Chair Gibson calls for public comment, please use the raise hand function. If you are participating by phone, please press star nine to raise your hand. If you'd like to make a public comment now, please raise your hand. There are no hands being raised, Mr. Okay. Well, I will take this opportunity since since I'm a member of the public to make sure that everyone knows that the gas rate increase was passed by council last evening, and the ECA was approved by council last evening. So now we can go back to real work. Yeah, I don't know. You must have logged in some work. But we're not asking you to leave so that you can come in by uh by the remote uh access there. Um there's been no more public comment. Is there a motion to approve this giant agenda tonight? Everybody speak at once. I move that we approve tonight's agenda. That's great to do. Thank you. Well, Eric catches up, I'll second that. All in favor. Hi. Uh thank you. Motion passes four to zero. That takes us to strategic planning. And we start off with Philo. Sure. Uh so board members and uh my senior management team. Uh we have Kathy Darwin here tonight to help facilitate our strategic planning. Um we started out uh I had gone to a seminar in uh Boston with the APPA on strategic planning. And uh one thing that's frequently done among all the organizations that represented there was all a bunch of public power agencies uh was uh having your organization do a SWAT. Um I worked with Kathy. We had done a SWOT about four years ago in 22. Um and the SWOT at that time was more related to the aftermath of COVID, the great resignation. You know, we had a lot of staff turnover. Uh you know, just so things were different then just to kind of give you a framework. Uh so we shared uh we did a SWAT with my newer team because most of the managers uh have retired, not that every I think Clay. You were not quite in that role, your enacting role, I think. Uh so uh I remember doing it. Yeah, so um we pretty much have turned over our senior management team with everyone. I've had employees here for that over that time, but not in the roles are in. So uh we shared that with you, and uh you got to see a complete unedited version. There's some surprises for for me in there, and as well as some board members.

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