February 1999

For the Sake of the Salmon

Minutes

News & Views from Your Elected Representatives

This year the board was again provided with an impressive list of the many accomplishments of Salem Electric. Again, I felt this is the type of information our members would enjoy knowing about. While the list is long, we need to remember these accomplishments were in addition to keeping the system running smoothly, and all the other day-to day responsibilities of operating the cooperative.

Awards

• Numerous "Excellence in Communication" awards from the Northwest Public Power Association
• United Way Community Spirit Award
• United Way Merit Award for increased contributions
• BRAG (Business Recycling Award Group) Award
• "Best Use of Humor" award from the Holiday Parade went to the now famous SE "Drill Team"

Member Benefits

• Purchased BPA substations
• Finished our portion of the Wallace Road widening project
• Updated the SCADA system
• Connected almost 300 new residences
• Sold over 40 million kWhs to our members
• Updated our website
• Autopay participants grew to more than 600
• The board authorized $1 million in capital credit refunds

Community Involvement

During 1998, SE helped sponsor or participated in the following community events:

• Keizer Iris Festival Run
• Salem Downtown Association Holiday Lighting Ceremony
• World Beat Festival
• Salem Art Fair
• Summer in the City Celebration
• Gilbert House Discovery Village Children's Tent
• Waterfront Parade
• Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk
• Marion County Fair Senior Days
• Kids Voting
• Victim Offender Reconciliation Program Benefit Performance
• Oregon Symphony Concert
• Dr Wilderness Program
• Salem Rodeo

And a special note and thank you to the 27 SE employees who donated over 200 hours of "construction time" to the Gilbert House, and to the 14 employees who worked so hard on the United Way "Days of Caring". These efforts are greatly appreciated by everyone in our community, and we thank you for volunteering your personal time to help others.

New Benefits to Employees

• 2nd Annual Employee Appreciation Day
• Wellness Program expanded
• 23 fitness awards were earned by employees
• Flextime pilot program began
• Informational breakfast meetings started
• Retiree lunch program implemented
• Increased life insurance benefits

The employees of Salem Electric are the reason we continue to be a good neighbor and strong contributor to the community we serve. We hired new people, promoted others, and celebrated with two employees their 30 years of service to the cooperative.

Once again, I think we can all be very proud of the efforts and contributions of Salem Electric and its employees so we can enjoy the benefits of having a safe and reliable system. Thank you all for making 1998 a very good year!

Nancy Towslee

Vice-President

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A Special Report

Salem Electric is always interested in conservation. Sometimes this is just seen as finding ways of saving electrical energy. That effort certainly has a very high place in our planning. The board of directors is aware that our members hold a sharp interest in those areas. However, we have also found equal support for efforts to go forward in other environmental conservation areas. Recognizing that interest, the board invited Bill Bradbury, Executive Director of "For the Sake of the Salmon" to present a conservation program aimed at restoring salmon in the Pacific region. Prior to inviting him to address the board we were assured that this was not another attack on hydroelectric power, dams or Bonneville in general. A second assurance was that it would be offered as a program that would be on a voluntary contribution basis for our residential and business members. Mr. Bradbury then presented a unique program for addressing the decline of salmon in Oregon's waters. The following is a synopsis of his presentation.

What is "For the Sake of the Salmon"?

For the Sake of the Salmon (4SOS) is a coalition of 63 governmental, tribal, industrial, environmental, agricultural and fishing organizations in Oregon. It has the endorsement of the governors of Oregon, Washington and California. The organizations are united by the high value they place on having a healthy salmon population in the Pacific Northwest. Their vision is that salmon must be a part of the region's future. All have agreed to work together to share the responsibility for conserving salmon and clean water for future generations. They work together in a search for watershed projects that can restore and protect salmon habitat. They are not involved in taking positions on breaching dams, barging young salmon, hatchery debates or harvest allocation. They have developed a spirit of respect and cooperation among often warring factions in the effort for salmon survival. They have sought and found positive and practical solutions that all coalition members can agree to develop. They have achieved a $1 million federal grant to fund watershed coordinators for 33 local watershed organizations and 650 people have been trained in habitat restoration.

What is the Project and How Does it Work?

First and foremost, an electricity customer's participation is voluntary. A residential customer may voluntarily participate by requesting that a $5 surcharge be added to their electric bill each month. Business rates are based on usage, again voluntarily. The contributions would then go to support restoration and protection of salmon habitat in local waterways. These habitat projects may include: revegetating landslide scars; boulders and logs placed in streams to re-create deep pool habitat; sensitive stream banks protected and any of many recognized and approved habitat enhancement activities.

The program, Salmon Friendly Power, will give electricity customers an opportunity to directly support restoration and protection of salmon habitat through the Pacific Salmon Watershed Fund. It will help emphasize production of electric power from salmon friendly sources. When a customer chooses to participate in the program they will be encouraging creation of more salmon friendly sources of power such as Salem Electric's participation in wind power. High efficiency gas and low-impact hydropower are also considered salmon friendly. Coal or nuclear sources are not.

The wind power Salem Electric is purchasing is salmon friendly, as is the case with some of the other power coming from BPA. While all Salem Electric customers are sharing in the added cost of the wind power project, this program allows interested members to make additional voluntary contributions, based on that salmon friendly power, for salmon habitat restoration.

Customers who choose to participate would be rewarded with coupons from various participating merchants in their area. They would also receive a newsletter detailing the projects that their contributions are supporting. The newsletter would also outline other ways to get involved in the effort.

The Pacific Salmon Watershed Fund is designed to provide long term funding for restoring and protecting salmon habitat. 4SOS is confident that by restoring natural salmon habitat that native salmon will recover naturally over time. This strategy differs from past efforts. It has three major strengths. One, it is designed to help nature heal itself by rehabilitating the ecosystems that sustain salmon. Two, it is community-based. Strategies will be developed and carried out through comprehensive, voluntary and cooperative measures that are planned and implemented by local watershed organizations. And three, it reflects a consensus among the major sectors within the region. The watershed-wide strategy has the support of sport and commercial fishermen, the forest products industry, local and state governments, tribes and environmentalists. This unity provides a unique opportunity to go beyond past conflicts and move toward major accomplishments in saving the salmon.

What Does the Board Need From You?

This short summary is intended to give you, the member, an idea of the program that For the Sake of the Salmon supports. Salem Electric's cost of participation would be some staff and accounting time. What the board needs from you is your opinion.

The questions we have for you are: Should Salem Electric enter into an agreement to participate in such a program? Is this a program that would be of interest to you? Would you like to see Salem Electric offer this opportunity to voluntarily participate in a salmon conservation program?

Please include your comments with your electric bill or contact us by e-mail at se@salemelectric.com.

Jim Dyer

Board President

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Minutes of the Meeting Held on:

December 15, 1998

The Salem Electric board of directors was called to order at 7:01 p.m. on December 15, 1998. Board members present were Jim Dyer, Bill Wolf, Nancy Towslee, Jeff Anderson, Alicia Bonesteele, Curt Culver and Murray McCreary.

Member Services Report

Member Services Manager Terry Kelly gave a brief overview of his department's activities. Of note was that the SE "Drill Team" participated in the Festival of Lights Holiday Parade. They won the "Best Use of Humor" award.

Manager's Report

Manager Bob Speckman reported that Jeff Anderson was re-elected to the ORECA board of directors. Congratulations, Jeff!

Speckman also reported that Kelly and Dyer are scheduled to attend the City of Salem's Revenue Task Force meeting on December 17. This is an opportunity for SE to comment on the proposed 1.5% increase in the franchise fee.

For the Sake of the Salmon (4SOS)

Staff prepared a report on the status of the talks with 4SOS. This group came to a prior board meeting to ask SE to participate in a program that encourages salmon-friendly power through voluntary contributions from the customers of power companies. At that time, the board asked staff to report back at the December meeting. Bill Bradbury, Executive Director of 4SOS, was present to answer questions from the board.

Bonesteele mentioned that she was concerned about the costs to the customers. Kelly replied that the program would be totally voluntary, like the Dollar Check-off Program. He added that there would be some employee time spent administering the program, but not a significant amount. There are also some start-up costs related to computer programming to allow for the contribution to automatically occur. This would be similar to a deduction withheld on your paycheck. The programming needed will be useful to SE in the future, so there is some value to SE.

Motion was made by Anderson to support the concept of the program as provided by staff, with the start-up costs to be recovered by withholding 5% of the contributions. There was no second.

Towslee questioned the percentage of contributions that was lost to overhead. Bradbury responded that about 2-3% is used for overhead. Wolf pointed out the benefits to SE in pursuing this program. The program costs very little to SE, other than an initial start-up that would include programming beneficial to SE in the future. This is good for the salmon recovery effort and continues to present SE favorably as one of the forerunners in conservation. McCreary was concerned that if the cooperative pays the estimated $6,500 start-up costs, it will look like a contribution and he felt that the contribution issue needed more discussion.

Motion was made by Anderson and seconded by Wolf to support the staff action item that a 5% administrative fee be attached until the $6,500 start-up costs are recovered. More discussion followed about how to administer the fees. McCreary thought this could be looked at as a service we can provide for our customers. He suggested that if SE paid the start-up costs, then it should be considered as a contribution. Dyer supported the program and did not see a downside. He felt it would not be controversial if it were totally voluntary. Anderson asked the staff to return a true dollar amount that included staff time, but to remove the value for programming that benefits SE. Towslee proposed that we wait on deciding this until after the numbers were firm and a report was printed in the newsletter. Anderson agreed that there was time before the implementation date, but said that he felt comfortable with the motion as it stood at this time.

Culver called for the question. Motion failed with Wolf, Dyer and Anderson in favor; all others opposed. Motion was made by Towslee and seconded by Culver to bring the discussion back at the February meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Dyer will write an article for "The Board Report."

Forfeiture of Capital Credits

A resolution was presented by the Administrative Services Manager Jack Belleque authorizing the forfeiture of all unclaimed capital credits for 1973. Motion was made by Anderson, seconded by Bonesteele and carried unanimously to adopt Resolution 98-12-15.

Meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m.

Bill Wolf

Secretary/Treasurer

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