Approved Minutes — original pdf
Approved Minutes
Electric Board APPROVED MINUTES REGULAR CALLED MEETING August 20, 2025 The Electric Board convened in a Regular Called Board Meeting on August 20, 2025, at the Permitting Development Center at 10:00 am. Board Members in Attendance: David Johnson, Delwin Goss, Michael Grant, Kenny King, Joseph Hernandez-V; Victoria Shope-V and David Deshaine Members Not in Attendance: Joel Cochren, Gabe Flores and Rogelio Wallace Staff in Attendance: Rick Arzola (DSD), Maria Jaramillo (DSD) James Epperson (DSD), Marty Starrett (DSD), Hyatt Dunn (DSD), Aaron Finney (DSD), Raistlin Chiovaro (DSD), Jessica Lopez (DSD) Robert Ruiz (AE) and Josh Contreras (AE) PUBLIC CITIZEN COMMUNICATION: No one registered to speak. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. The minutes were approved for the March 19 ,2025 regular called meeting on board member Grant’s motion, board member Goss second the motion. Motion passed on a 7-0 vote. DISCUSSION 2. Austin Energy Criteria Manual update- Josh Contreras with Austin Energy gave updates that two rules posting for proposed changes have been submitted, 1-for the criteria manual and the other for pole attachments. These changes are relatively minor in scope and were submitted by the AE solar team. Some of these changes are to clarify the language and the others that may affect the rule a little bit more. Stakeholders had no objections to these changes and the housing authority had no issue with the affordability impact statement that was submitted. The only other change was to effect data centers only. A proposed change that was submitted by the solar team that anything more than 75 megawatts, would be served a transmission level voltage. For now, no broader changes to the criteria manual are known. 3. Austin Energy Inspection Process on Electrical Permits- Robert Ruiz with Austin Energy provided that propose changes to AE inspections process will now be available for stakeholders to schedule their AE inspections on the AB+C portal. These inspections will be found on the electrical permits with Developments Services. Type of inspections that will be able to be requested, AE modular metering inspection, CT inspections and Spot and conduit inspections. Currently looking at scheduling shut-downs as well. 4. Discussion: Plan Review updates- Commercial plan review staff James Epperson updated that for FY 2025 up to July, plan review has taken in 2700 plan reviews, sitting at 98% rate, compared to the same time last FY 2024, 3121 reviews at a 99% rate. Been a decrease of 23.5 %. Currently have only 3 electrical plan reviewers and don’t expect any more due to a hiring freeze. 5. Discussion on Building and Trade Contractors update on staff and workload- Manager Maria Jaramillo updated that currently 16 employees are with the Building and Trade contractor services, 2 of which are supervisors. 3 are borrowed employees from Site and sub inspections but they are due to go back to Site and Sub division at the end of September. There is a potential to hire 3 employees but awaiting approval for this. Currently sitting at 2-3 business days behind in processing time. Webforms and portals requests sit at 4300 for the month of July, which includes stand-alone permit request thru the portal for trade contactors and contractor registration. Not included are stand-alone permits that are not on the portal, including activating permits, demo’s and retaining wall permits, all done with 16 employees. 6. Update on Commercial and Residential Inspections- Residential supervisor Aaron Finney updated that residential inspection took a minor dip due to training but still maintain a 96% on time rate. 5 vacancies currently in place. Commercial Electrical supervisor Hyatt Dunn provided with one electrical inspector short, is sitting at 80% next day inspection with residential assisting in ETJ locations. Commercial Division manager Marty Starrett did weigh in that due to these numbers, summer vacation and training affected these percentages. And with the current hiring freeze, it was noted by Starrett, we did have the option to find temporary employes and even the possibility of third-party help, if those percentages dipped below to an unacceptable level. Hiring freeze is expected to linger to as long as 2027. 7. Discussion on NEC workgroup- Marty Starrett Commercial Building Division Manager announced that he is requesting a work group to assemble to start working on the 2026 NEC Code Amendments. Those who volunteered to assist Development Services Dept. with this workgroup are David Johnson, David Deshaine and Mike Grant. First meeting will be held in a few weeks and would be a in-person meeting. DISCUSSION AND ACTION 8. Election of Chair and Vice Chair Nominations-Board member Goss made a motion to nominate David Johnson as Chair, board member Deshaine second the motion. Motion passed 7-0. Board member Goss made a motion to nominate Gabe Flores as Vice Chair. Board member Grant second the motion. Motion passed 7-0 FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 1. Discussion on Austin Energy Criteria Manual update 2. Discussion on Austin Energy Inspection process on Electrical Permits 3. Discussion on Commercial Plan Review Update 4. Discussion on Residential and Commercial inspection updates on vacancies and inspections. 5. Discussion and updates on Building and Trade contractor services. 6. Report on the NEC workgroup ADJOURN: Board member Grant made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Board member Goss seconded the motion. Motion passed 7-0. Meeting adjourned at 10:47 am. Minutes were approved at the October 15, 2025, meeting on board member Grant motion, board - member Goss second the motion. Motion passed 7-0. Board members Joel Cochren, Gabe Flores were absent.