Weekly Status Report - 8/12/10

MEMORANDUM

TO:               City Council

FROM:         David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUBJECT:  Status Report/Council Poll 

DATE: August 12, 2010 

Status Report

1.  PSC BERAP Testimony

On Wednesday, August 11th, Mayor Robinson and staff attended the Public Service Commission (PSC) Hearing on the Bowie Electric Reliability Action Plan (BERAP).  BGE presented a summary of the BERAP program for the Commission.  Attached are excerpted pages from their presentation.  Of particular interest, there are now 118 variances that BGE is working on to bring this program to conclusion.  Also, page 30 of this report shows information not previously received by the City regarding the performance of the 21 different feeders in the City before and after BERAP.

Mayor Robinson presented the City’s testimony as previously approved by City Council.  Mayor Robinson also invited the Commission to come to Bowie to view the impact of this program on the City.  John Allender from the City’s EAC also attended the hearing and testified to the importance of renewing the tree canopy in the City and the environmental importance of trees.  Commissioner Brenner asked BGE to consider some amount of money to be given to the City to mitigate for the loss of trees in the City.  He suggested that these moneys could perhaps be combined with City funds and that the City and BGE might want to consider jointly managing this program.  He felt that if moneys could be provided in this fashion, it would also help to resolve the right-of-way issues.  He indicated that if BGE felt uncomfortable about allocating resources to this program that BGE could come before the Commission for the Commission’s approval of a reimbursement program.  He asked to see if BGE and the City can work out anything and then come back before the Commission if necessary.  Chairman Nazarian disagreed with the position offered by Commissioner Brenner.  He said that BGE and the PSC has a responsibility to consider the larger customer base in terms of how BGE disperses funds.  He suggested that BGE and the City continue to talk and see if an agreement can be reached.  He said if the PSC is needed to make a decision on this issue, they can do this.

2. Emergency Management

Councilmember Trouth posed a series of questions to staff regarding various aspects of emergency management.  Please find the responses on the attached document dated August 3, 2010. 

DJD/asf

Attachments