At 12:30pm on the 1st Floor of our home, the Lansing Center, President Lisa rang the bell to call to order the Friday, August 7th, 2015 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lansing. Terry Terry gave the Invocation, reminding us of the significance of the power of the mind in our daily lives. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ followed, led by John Dale Smith.

 

 Ken Beachler circulated the microphone as guests were introduced and visiting Rotarians introduced themselves. Noteworthy were the army of Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) employees in attendance in support of our Guest Speaker, Interim General Manager for BWL, Richard Peffley. BWL staff members represented seemingly all the various departments, to include Human Resources, Governmental Relations, General Counsel and Employee Management. Another of our guests included Jessica [sorry, I missed your last name, Jessica Ullstrup.  Rina Risper, publisher of the The New Citizens Press and member of the Lansing-DeWitt Sunrise Rotary Club, was visiting us [“Greetings, Rina :).” - BTW, I know Rina….].

 

Carmen Turner gave the Remembrance Report, and it was with sadness that Carmen shared with us that fellow Lansing Rotarian Louis E. ‘Ned’ Legg, Jr. passed away Monday, August 3rd 2015 at 1am. Ned’s sponsor was B.J. Maguire. Services will be held on Sunday, August 9th at 2:30pm at the Michigan State University Alumni Chapel. You will be missed, Ned…godspeed. Ned was 87.

 

Carmen also reported that George Guerre is undergoing heart and lung tests at Sparrow Hospital, and our Club Administrator, Cathy Andrews, is recovering from having had shoulder surgery on August 5th. Best wishes to George and to Cathy :).

 

Next, President Lisa presented Red Badges to two (2) new members of The Rotary Club of Lansing, one to Thangavelu Suseela, wife of fellow Lansing Rotarian ‘Uma’ Umakanthan, and the other to Tony Conley of the M3 Group. Congratulations, Thangavelu and Tony :).

 

Our musical treat for this week’s meeting was introduced by Terry Terry. With JazzFest 2015 happening this weekend, August 7th & 8th, it was only fitting that jazz saxophonist Trent Harris and jazz guitarist Dan Palmer, of the Trent Harris Trio, perform for us as a precursor to their JazzFest performance scheduled for 4:30-5:30pm on Saturday, August 8th in Lansing’s Old Town.

 

Trent teaches jazz improvisation and saxophone after having made a move from his study of classical piano as a young boy to jazz - a ‘chord progression’ of love, one might say. He studied classical saxophone at Albion College, the New England Conservatory and later at DePaul University and Chicago’s Bloom School of Jazz. Aside from the Trent Harris Trio, he also freelances and performs with John Dale Smith’s World Class City Band. If performing jazz doesn’t keep Trent busy enough, he fills the rest of his time with law school and a lawn care business.

 

The duet was completed by jazz guitarist playing partner, Dan Palmer, who also performs with his own band, Talking Air. Dan teaches guitar at Hillsdale College and at Albion College. The jazz duet performed two (2) musical pieces for us, the second the jazz classic ‘Back at the Chicken Shack’ written by the inimitable Jimmy Smith.

 

As for the main event, Chair-of-the-Day and Month Berl Schwartz introduced our Guest Speaker, BWL Interim General Manager (IGM), Richard Peffley, with a unique sort of ‘Back to the Future’ twist – it seems that Berl was recording Mr. Peffley’s presentation for a later viewing on City Pulse TV, to be aired at 10am on Saturday, August 22nd.

 

Mr Peffley was twice named as BWL IGM prior to being yet again recently named as such, those prior two times having been in 2006 and then again in 2007. What was supposed to be a 30-day position in 2006 turned into a one-year stint. In total, Mr. Peffley has been a BWL employee for 39 years, and has moved up the corporate ladder through nine (9) different positions (he has worked in Water and on Capital Projects, and in both the Eckert and the Erickson Plants) and having started by ‘pushing a broom’. He has seen the $182million BWL Co-Generation Plant project to completion and the naming of the Chilled Water Plant after his father, former BWL employee Roy E. Peffley.

 

During his tenure, Mr. Peffley has seen many changes at BWL, and many improvements. There is the Chilled Water Plant on Pine and Allegan Streets, the $40million project on Cedar Street, the $10million project on Wise Road, the $4.5million project to replace old water lines and to increase the electricity load for BWL. And the new 45,000square-foot REO Town BWL office building that houses 100+ of its roughly 720 employees. But Mr. Peffley went on to explain that the Eckert Plant, built in 1950, and the Erickson Plan, built in 1973, have aged and are in dire need of updating. Both are coal-burners and are major players in the service of BWL’s approximately 97,000 customers. A decision was recently made to reduce the 420megawatts the Eckert Plant traditionally produced to 290megawatts, due to environmental concerns and demands.

 

 On the financial side of things, with BWL’s fiscal year having just ended in June 2015, BWL annual revenue ended up at the projected mark of approximately $375million with $65million of that being slated for reinvestment in projects. With a cooler-than-expected summer in 2014 BWL ended up $15million under projected net income, but with work BWL has since made up the difference and increased net income three-fold. Over seven (7) years the rate of revenue increase is at 54%. Currently the rate differential is at 9% with 2016 expected to be at 10%+.

 

Conscious of the criticism BWL has received recently, and concerned about its employees, Mr. Peffley described how BWL conducted an employee survey that found 80% of all employees ‘satisfied’ overall with their job. However, employee consensus was that communication was lacking and that there was an administrative bottleneck. BWL hired 20 new employees this past year.

 

Mr. Peffley left us Rotarians plenty of time to ask questions, and so we did – fourteen (14) of them, to be exact. Would you like to know what they were, and the answers too?....sure you would [I’ve paraphrased here, obviously….I’m good, but not that good]:

 

Q1 – When do you think the job of General Manager will open up, and will you apply?

A1 – I don’t know about the time frame, but I’ll surely be ready for the position when it comes around.

Q2 – What about the financial health of BWL and the talk of selling it or running it differently?

A2 – The residents of Lansing own BWL, and they will determine its fate…the Mayor has appointed a Financial Health Team, so they will do their job and we’ll see.

Q3 – What about long-term alternative energy?

A3 – BWL has constructed a large wind farm in Ithaca MI, and is aiming to build the largest solar energy plant in Michigan.

Q4 – How is BWL handling power ‘turn-offs’?

A4 – No turn-offs in the winter, and no ‘turn-offs’ ever on Friday…there are approximately 100 turn-offs per day at present.

Q5 – What about MSU’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB)?

A5 – BWL and Consumers Energy will be selling power to FRIB and splitting profits 50/50…BWL’s annual revenue will be about $.25million. MSU is looking for renewable energy.

Q6 – Please explain the First-Step Program.

A6 – It works through Lansing Community College, and currently BWL selects 10 local High School students and grants them a $1500/month college stipend. Students must complete the program, and in seven (7) years only one (1) student has not done so. The program will be increased to 12 students soon.

Q7 – If sold, how do BWL wages compare to those of Consumers Energy (a likely purchaser)?

A7 – In some jobs they are less and in others they are more….overall, they’re about equal.

Q8 – What are the pros and cons of the potential sale of BWL?

A8 – We’re keeping the rates as low as we can, and no meeting to discuss any sale has been scheduled yet.

Q9 – What about the in-lieu-of tax deal that BWL has with the City of Lansing?

A9 – In 2015, BWL paid Lansing $22million in in-lieu-of taxes.

Q10 – What about the current ‘culture’ of BWL given the criticism and status following the major power outage of the winter of 2013-2014?

A10 – 182 recommendations were made; the number of tree-trimming crews was substantially increased, to 33; about 700 BWL customers had a power outage on August 1st, 2015 due to an area that tree crews had not been able to get to yet.

Q11 – What about the issue of Leadership in BWL?...has that improved since the bad winter outage?...and what can you say about what’s being done to allow BWL customers to have confidence and trust in BWL into the future?

A11 – BWL is being more honest now when it comes to its short-comings, and there has been a substantial increase in drills and meetings to reach that end. Q12 – How are the new air regulation standards affecting BWL?

A12 – The Eckert Plant will close eventually, and the Erickson Plant is being closely monitored. But BWL is continuing to inject power into the market. Q13 – How would we fair with regard to BWL in light of a potential terrorist attack, would we have power?

A13 – Effective 2015, BWL is capable of importing 100% of customers’ power needs should it have to.

Q14 – In 50 years, from where and how do you envision us getting our power for our daily lives?

A14 – In 50 years, I believe each and every home will power itself, e.g., using our motor vehicles, electric, to hook up to the home and trade and recharge power.

 

Finally, a comment was made extending thanks to BWL for its support of Lansing’s Silver Bells.

 

In closing, President Lisa thanked Mr. Peffley for joining us and for his enlightening presentation, and awarded him a Rotary Coin (signifying the four-way test) as well as explaining that in lieu of a Speaker’s gift our Club will be donating money to the Rotary Bio-Sand Filter-Water Project benefiting developing nations. And with that, President Lisa rang the bell and we were off for the weekend at approximately 1:30pm. Our next meeting will again be at the Lansing Center, August 14th at 12:30pm, when our Speaker will be Alice Dreger, science historian and author – her topic, Galileo’s Middle Finger.