Written by the reviewer from the ASR + docket; [verbatim-ASR] = quoted machine transcript; [paraphrase] = reviewer's wording, not a quote.
0:02 All right, we will call to order the September 28th meeting of committee of the whole
0:08 I will first move to approve the minutes of the July 27th meeting without the necessity of a reading
0:14 Seconded motion has been made and seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor. I and that motion passes
0:22 Okay, so tonight we have
0:25 Two items docketed, but they're both kind of about the same thing
0:29 So I'm gonna attempt to summarize that a little bit
0:35 By welcoming mayor George council members members of the administration
0:40 first energy representatives and our neighbors
0:44 We here in Lakewood are all entirely too familiar with first energies ongoing
0:50 failures to provide the Lakewood community with reliable electricity
0:54 Beyond experiencing these outages ourselves. We have heard from countless residents who have endured extreme hardship
1:01 Losing food throwing out critical medicine and in some cases facing hospitalization and life-threatening conditions
1:08 These perpetual electrical failures are entirely unacceptable
1:13 They drain our city's resources as we work to support a community suffering from this wealthy corporations blatant neglect
1:21 Our response must be multifaceted
1:24 It requires continued legal pressure through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
1:29 P u co or puko as you'll hear mentioned probably a few times tonight an
1:34 expansion of local resilient and sustainable solutions and
1:38 Advocacy for statewide policies to reduce strain on our outdated system
1:43 The purpose of tonight's hearing is to review first energies plans to improve
1:49 infrastructure reliability and communication
1:52 specifically regarding the corrective action plans required by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
1:58 both the 2025 and 2026 investigations
2:03 Resulted in the puko issuing notices of probable non-compliance a PNC
2:09 that concluded that most of the outages were caused by equipment or line failure and
2:14 Both highlighted first energies failure to invest in infrastructure and maintain and implement a comprehension
2:21 comprehensive communication plan
2:24 To help us understand how we got to tonight's hearing
2:26 It is worth reviewing the timeline in June of 2025 after a series of severe outages
2:34 Mayor George and Cleveland City Council members representing the affected areas
2:39 Petitioned the puko to investigate in July the mayor Cleveland council member Casey
2:45 State rep Raider and I met with the first energy representatives here with us tonight or their predecessors and were assured that the temporary
2:53 Transformers in place and various repairs would be sufficient to handle Lakewood's energy needs
2:58 later that month the puko issued a letter of probable non-compliance that told a different story and
3:05 Ordered first energy to replace two transformers at the substation in the Birdtown area
3:11 improve communications address other equipment issues and we'll review those tonight in
3:17 August first energy held a town hall at Lakewood Civic Center in August of 2025 holding up smart meters in tree trimming as
3:26 Solutions to the problem and promising to do better while simultaneously filing with the puko to be allowed to reduce reliability standards
3:37 2026 the city of Lakewood's
3:40 Successfully intervened and the puko denied first energies attempt to lower its reliability standards
3:46 Heavily citing the massive volume of complaints filed by Lakewood residents. So thank you for that
3:54 Interestingly the day after the ruling denying their request to lower reliability standards
3:59 First issue energy issued a press release announcing the delivery of two transformers to a Lakewood substation
4:06 Leaving out of the press release that they were ordered to do so by the puko following Lakewood's complaint
4:12 Less than a week after issuing that press release
4:15 Equipment failures at the Lauderdale substation caused thousands of Lakewood residents to suffer a loss of crucial electricity
4:22 During dangerously hot weather in many cases for multiple days leading up to the 4th of July
4:29 During this period first energy refused to put out a press release or social media posts
4:34 Educating residents about what was happening
4:36 They also cut off communication with City Council members who were working hard to keep residents informed
4:42 We heard from many residents that the limited communications that they did receive from first energy were inaccurate
4:49 Informing them of rolling periods of electrical restoration that never came or
4:54 Insultingly encouraging them to reduce electrical usage to relieve strain on a system that they could not use
5:03 2026 after investigating more complaints from Lakewood the pco issued a second letter of non-compliance
5:09 While the final orders from that PNC have not been issued
5:14 Tonight's hearing will go through improvements that the pco identified as needed and first energies plans to address them
5:21 in short both the 2025 and
5:26 Investigations concluded the same thing
5:29 Outages are caused by equipment failure first energy has not adequately invested in infrastructure and
5:35 communication between first energy and those served must be improved
5:39 Tonight's hearing is to investigate how those improvements will happen
5:43 Before we begin a few notes about tonight's structure and rules for decorum
5:47 This is an official City Council committee of the whole meeting as the chair questions and public comment will run through me
5:55 Well, I know that all of us who live in Lakewood and have dealt with the hardship caused by these electoral outages
6:02 Are frustrated I would ask those in attendance to please maintain decorum. We have a lot to get through tonight
6:11 sincerely understand the desire to
6:16 You know booing clapping talking out of turn will take time away from productive dialogue and the opportunity for our neighbors to speak
6:25 Because I anticipate that many neighbors will want to speak the public comment timer will be set to two minutes per person this evening
6:33 When you come up, please address the chair, which is me state your name and address and avoid personalities
6:38 Don't worry. I'll remind you of this when we get there
6:41 The format tonight will be a brief presentation by the law department after which councilmembers will have each have a few minutes to ask questions
6:48 And then a brief presentation by first energy after which councilmembers will each have a few minutes to ask questions
6:54 And of course members of the administration
6:56 To ensure time for public comment. I'll ask councilmembers to keep remarks and questions as concise as possible
7:04 Tonight we are joined from members of the administration by Mayor George
7:08 Law director Ernie Vargo chief of staff John story and assistant law director Jeff Crossman
7:14 From first energy we are joined by Sally Thomas VP of distribution engineering set fear dual VP of operations transmission
7:23 Joseph Ashburn director of distribution engineering
7:28 manager of reliability engineering
7:30 David Turner director of customer accounts and local engagements and Charles Seco local engagement specialist
7:37 I've asked first energy to arrive tonight prepared to provide exact completion dates for every corrective action item
7:44 We also are asking to know how this infrastructure decline was permitted to happen and how they intend to repair relationships with our
7:52 residents and public officials
7:54 Thank you all for being here and I also want to acknowledge our City Council staff public work security officers
8:01 Police and fire department for arranging logistics and safety for this evening
8:07 With that I will turn it over to mayor George
8:11 Thank you. Good evening
8:13 I continue to appreciate
8:16 liquid City Council's ongoing partnership with the administration on the critical issue of safe reliable and
8:24 affordable electricity for our city
8:26 Over the past few years
8:28 This has been an all hands on deck effort as we've worked together to hold first energy
8:35 To its duties to the people of Lakewood
8:37 City Council's decision to use this forum tonight to keep the spotlight and first energy is
8:43 Another way to keep applying pressure for change and to keep the public informed
8:49 Thank you. Also to all the Lakewood residents and business owners who have shown up here tonight
8:54 Your voices are important and they help us keep the pressure on first energy as
9:00 We all know this is a life-and-death issue for many in Lakewood
9:05 Especially our most vulnerable including our seniors and those with serious medical conditions
9:11 these prolonged and avoidable power outages also affect the quality of life and the
9:17 finances of all of those who call Lakewood home I
9:21 Want to thank law director Ernie Vargo and his staff for their superior work to help hold first energy accountable
9:29 The city has pursued an aggressive legal strategy through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio or pucco
9:36 So before the law department goes over the compliance issues
9:40 I just want to add on to council president's kept couples
9:45 Timeline on the city's efforts over the past few years
9:49 And there are hard copies of the detailed timeline
9:52 That's also on our website and those are on the desk
9:58 the timeline documents the aggressive
10:01 multifaceted and creative legal campaign that Lakewood has undertaken to push for solutions
10:08 ultimate and for enforcement authority rests with pucco, but the city has the ability to file complaints and intervene in
10:17 June of 2025 the city filed a complaint that led to an initial pucco investigation and
10:23 Corrective orders against first energy
10:26 Last October the city also successfully intervened to fight first energies application to lower its reliability standards
10:34 Again, thank you to everyone who submitted complaints to pucco and provided information to the city your voice matters
10:44 Know that everyone in this room is shocked that first energy would file a petition to lower standard standards
10:51 While it could not even keep up basic power in Lakewood
10:55 In July of this year first energy once again failed to provide reliable power to Lakewood for days on end
11:05 The city immediately responded with an updated complaint to pucco
11:09 Asking it to reopen its investigation and issue significant financial penalties against first energy
11:16 That led to another finding of probable non-compliance by pucco and a three million dollar forfeiture against first energy
11:24 In August first energy responded with a promise for long-term capital investments
11:30 But its public statements are still ignoring what will happen in the inner room while those long-term
11:37 Upgrades are made. I know this issue is top of mind for city council members
11:42 And I suspect you'll be questioning first energy on this as well
11:45 tonight this evening
11:48 Last week on behalf of the city I filed an addendum to our complaint with pucco to specifically ask pucco to require
11:56 this type of interim plan
11:59 That plan would require demonstrable emergency capacity for Lakewood to avoid power outages in the short term
12:06 While the long-term capital plan is implemented
12:10 Finally last month the city filed a motion to intervene in first energy's application to pucco for permission to increase the rates they charge customers
12:20 Again the city felt it necessary to step up
12:22 Raise the voice on Lakewood's behalf and push back against the unreasonable demand for more money
12:28 By a company that can't even meet its most basic duties to provide safe reliable power to the public
12:35 So thank you again City Council
12:37 Thank you again residents business owners neighbors for your for your partnership and being here tonight and keeping the pressure on I
12:45 Look forward to working with everyone
12:47 As we work on this critical issue and now I'm going to turn things over to law director
12:52 Vargo and his team to review more specifics on what pucco has ordered first energy to do and
12:58 Where things stand on compliance and some additional updates, so thank you
13:05 Thank You mayor George
13:07 resident Keppel all members of council I
13:10 Figured it was very important for council to hear and for the people of Lakewood to hear the compliance of first energy
13:16 Thus far with the directives of the Commission pucco
13:21 To start this is information from pucco the regulator
13:26 It's the regulator that has the authority to compel first energy to make these investments
13:33 We're not going the city of Lakewood is not going to first energy and asking them
13:37 What will you do for us to correct this?
13:40 Our strategy for 18 months has been to go to the regulator
13:44 The entity with statutory authority to force and compel these investments that are so necessary in Lakewood
13:53 The law department has worked with the staff of pucco we have phone
13:59 discussions with them
14:01 Chief of staff story and I have met with the pucco engineers and staff
14:08 At length to understand where first energy stands with compliance
14:12 It's critical that we work with the only entity that can compel the the necessary investments
14:22 One of the things in that response that came out of the 2025 complaint by the city
14:29 To the Commission was a requirement that first energy supply to the Commission a
14:36 Monthly notice of all the outages in Lakewood
14:40 That's important because by statute first energy has to report on certain outages
14:46 Those outages have to meet the statutory definition. So they have to be of a certain duration
14:53 Before they're reportable
14:55 But pucco required all outages to be reported and that was an eye-opener to the staff of pucco
15:02 because it got them to understand that there was something structurally wrong with the infrastructure of Lakewood and
15:10 This fix it as you go along as it breaks is not going to be sufficient to address the problems of Lakewood
15:19 the the staff for the first time upon getting these notices realized that
15:25 Structural upgrades would be needed now
15:32 As referenced by President Keppel though one of the requirements that came out of the
15:40 2025 complaint by the city to the regulator was a requirement that two new
15:46 Transformers be installed in the city of Lakewood
15:51 Pucco required this first energy at first said the second transformer could be repaired
15:57 The regulator denied that and said you must install two new ones
16:02 That first transformer was installed in July of 2026
16:07 The second one will be installed as represented by first energy by the end of this year by the end of 2026
16:17 These two transformers prior to installation cost approximately three point six million dollars
16:23 That's not insignificant
16:25 We recognize that the
16:30 Transformers are they produce redundancy so if one of them goes down
16:35 then the load can be transmitted to the other transformer and
16:40 So we don't have these long durations that necessarily would reduce the duration of these outages
16:47 the engineers at pucco
16:50 Believed strongly that had these two transformers been in place at the start of 2026
16:56 We would not have seen the extended outages in July of 2026
17:02 so we hope that this will be a short-term measure to address some of the
17:09 Unacceptably long outages that we've seen
17:22 Another element of compliance arising from the 2025 complaint and notice of non compliance by
17:32 Notice of non-performance by
17:36 By the Commission was an analysis of all of the pull equipment in the city of Lakewood
17:44 Conducts the energy from the substations to the residents and businesses of Lakewood
17:51 The Commission through those through that notice of all the outages identified a series of outages
18:01 Because of the poor equipment on the polls
18:03 So we had all kind of outages that affected just a handful of residents
18:08 Because a certain conductor a certain transformer on a pole would would go out and they went out
18:15 Routinely so we had a small number of people constantly being
18:21 Deprived of energy in different groups of people again
18:25 Suggesting that there's something structurally wrong with our infrastructure
18:29 the regulator required thermal imaging testing so
18:36 first energy engineers had to
18:38 Apply this testing to see if these transformers conductors got too hot during peak use
18:48 Reviewed a hundred and twenty six sites as required by puko and identified 19 deficiencies
18:57 19 deficient sites. This is identified in documents produced by first energy and in our meetings with the regulator
19:04 19 deficiencies thus far first energy
19:10 Attest that it has repaired 15 of those deficiencies
19:16 Slated to be completed by the end of 2026 now that is significant again
19:27 19 deficient sites were
19:31 Operating and they could have continued to operate but no doubt we're going to fail
19:37 So if you fix it as you go and they operate and then they fail and you fix it and then you fix the
19:43 Next one the next month and the next one three months. It doesn't work
19:46 That's what the the regulator is doing a very decent job of
19:51 Making first energy be proactive and look at these in the future
19:56 No longer waiting for failure
20:00 That did not work in 2025 or this year
20:06 There's been a lot of talk about the smart meters and there's no no doubt that that was an element of the
20:12 2025 notice of non-compliance
20:15 Those meters will be installed according to first energy by the end of this year the meters
20:22 Provide real-time notice of outages that lets the company react to the outages
20:29 Get its get its crew out there to repair the problems. They also allow for more efficient
20:37 Turning on of the energy and turning off of the energy for specific residents
20:41 But it's important this simply is a process designed to enhance the
20:48 the response time of the company it does does very little if anything to
20:53 Increase or improve the reliability of the energy
20:58 Another item in the 2025 notice of non-compliance by puko was the communication system
21:09 Typically when there's an outage many of us
21:13 Typically when there's an outage many of us who live in Lakewood know too. Well
21:18 we would get a notice an estimated time of restoration and
21:27 Hardly reliable to a point that people just blew them off
21:32 that's how bad they were and they were probably created as a result of big data and
21:37 the company in good faith trying to understand where an outage is reported and
21:43 thinking historically what it likely would take to repair and hitting the
21:49 the the software to indicate what the estimated time of restoration would be
21:56 But the company and the regulator have learned that that system based on
22:02 History and big data did not apply to Lakewood given our unique
22:10 Given how complex it is and how old it is
22:14 So now first energy has committed by the end of this year to produce a plan to the regulator
22:21 Where they're going to have their crews go out and identify
22:24 The source of the outage and estimate the time for repair by hands-on
22:31 experience and observation
22:33 That's going to lead to a longer time before first energy can get to the consumers and let them know
22:40 When the restoration time will be but it will be a meaningful estimate. I'm like what we've seen the last two years
22:48 That plan has to be submitted. Like I said to puko by the end of the year
22:53 now this next slide moves us in to the 2026 outage the
23:05 The city complained again after the July 2026 outage and
23:11 At that time the puko staff
23:15 Was starting to seriously consider the capacity issues in Lakewood
23:22 The regulator was shocked that we had these kinds of problems in 2026 given what the regulator
23:29 Required in terms of remedies for 2025. We talked about the second transformer not being up
23:36 Theoretically actually it would have helped it wasn't up. It'll be up by the end of this year
23:43 But the regulator has turned its whole attention away from this fix it as it breaks
23:49 mentality to looking at the future and
23:53 Increasing the capacity load for the city of Lakewood which should have been done over the decades, but it hasn't been done
24:01 So the regulator is asking first energy demanding first energy
24:08 all the equipment that failed to identify did they fail during peak operation and
24:14 If they failed because the peak operation was what the the peak load was too demanding then it definitely is a capacity issue
24:23 If the equipment failed outside of peak hours peak use hours, then everything has to be explored
24:30 Because it's beyond capacity
24:33 Nevertheless first energy
24:35 Appears to be responsive to the demand of the regulator to enhance capacity in a very material way
24:44 Now this is happening in real time
24:46 This capacity analysis has to be produced by first energy by the end of October
24:52 to the regulator and we hear talk that right now Lakewood is
24:59 basically operating on a four
25:03 Level and it's going to be increased to 13 kilovolt
25:06 I don't know what that is, but these numbers are kicked around by smart people including the regulator
25:13 But what that means is in layman's terms?
25:19 looking and is in the progress in the process of demanding a
25:23 significant upgrade to capacity in Lakewood
25:27 Demanding that first energy
25:29 Enhance that capacity in a very substantial fashion
25:34 We've seen from first energy's letter back to
25:40 We've seen from the president of
25:43 First energy his letter to the residents of Lakewood
25:47 We see language that is very consistent with the company intending to make a very
25:54 Substantial upgrade to capacity a complete transformation
26:01 We will monitor it we'll watch it and we'll we'll work very hard to make sure that
26:07 These tealies were reading in fact become reality and that is what the regulator has told us that the regulator is insisting on
26:20 Consistent with what I just said by the end of this year
26:24 First energy has been compelled by the regulator to produce a deadline a plan
26:29 for what equipment needs to be replaced what equipment is
26:35 nearing the end of its useful life if there's equipment that the company does not
26:40 Can't even estimate a useful life on then that equipment has to go
26:45 Because it's so old that there was never. Never an estimated useful life from the beginning
26:51 The regulator is requiring quarterly reports of the status of all of this equipment with
26:57 Specificity what piece of equipment has to be replaced will you replace first energy the timeline and the cost?
27:05 Of each one and that's going to be on a quarterly basis
27:09 And this plan has to be submitted to the regulator by the end of this year
27:16 One one of the pieces of equipment that really caught the attention of the regulator
27:22 Was the city's underground cables?
27:25 First energy refers to this as sub transmission
27:29 But it's it is transmission. It's bringing the energy into the Lakewood substations
27:36 Six we have 49 circuits in a city six of those are underground and
27:43 One at least one of those underground cables failed in 2026
27:48 The regulator is requiring inspections of those cables many of which could be close to a hundred years
28:03 First energy can only visually inspect those underground cables and they're going to do so in a laborious process
28:10 By going down into manholes and checking them out
28:13 Because any specific engineering heat testing of those cables we are told by the regulator could destroy those cables
28:22 So it's not feasible to do a true test of those cables
28:28 And again, those cables are approaching a hundred years old
28:32 Again, this is leading
28:36 To understand that this is a structural problem in the city of Lakewood and we cannot proceed with fix it as it breaks
28:46 First energy thus far seems to agree with that
28:50 And is willing to consider and start to put together specific plans for a structural upgrade
28:57 These circuits are very well known to the regulator
29:02 By statute every utility has to identify in the state of ohio
29:07 On an annual basis their worst performing circuits
29:14 Discussed in the hearing in the reliability case that lakewood unfortunately for us appeared on that list
29:28 Non-performing circuits
29:30 And if it happens three years in a row, it gives the regulator great authority to compel investments
29:38 Our circuits have been known to the regulator
29:41 First energy circuits in lakewood have been known to the regulator to be faulty for some time on a structural basis again
29:52 and major investments
29:54 To be required by the regulator
29:58 Now I mentioned this rate case very quickly
30:02 As the mayor indicated the city has
30:05 filed a motion to intervene in the rate case the administrative law judge has yet to rule on our motion
30:11 and that's fine and we'll deal with this but in
30:14 first energy's letter
30:16 To the regulator regarding our 2026 outages and what first energy is committing itself to do
30:23 first energy, of course references the rate case
30:26 And indicates that certain of these investments certain of these equipment upgrades are identified in its three-year rate case
30:33 So they're using it as an opportunity to remind the regulator. Aha. You want us to do all this
30:42 Don't forget. We want it
30:44 We want the rate to be tied to this
30:48 Very strategic thing for them to do the city will develop our strategy over time to oppose that rate increase
31:01 In a very well-known
31:06 First energy failed to tie a rate increase to the specific equipment it was supposed to
31:14 So the capital investment wasn't tied to the rate increase
31:18 The rate increase happened the equipment stayed where it was and the regulator was unable to tie that
31:25 Rate increase to any equipment and equipment improvement and that case went all the way up to the ohio supreme court
31:33 Who ruled that that's an unlawful rate increase
31:36 that the utility must
31:38 identify and tie their
31:41 investment to the rate all of that is to say if in fact
31:48 Some of this equipment shows up in the rate case as being justification for the rate
31:53 For the for the requested rate increase
31:56 In the city of lakewood the law department will be vigilant in watching that investment to ensure that it happens
32:03 Working with puko to ensure that it happens know the deadlines know the costs and to see it to completion
32:13 next i'll speak to the forfeiture as
32:17 As council knows as as the mayor referenced and as the people of lakewood know
32:22 puko has required a forfeiture of
32:25 First energy of just over three million dollars
32:28 That's an extraordinary remedy
32:31 The regulator does not do that often
32:33 It's intended to be punitive
32:36 The mayor has demanded that that three million
32:41 returned to lakewood ratepayers
32:44 first energy's position is
32:48 It intends and we'll watch to ensure that it happens it intends to make significant investments in lakewood
32:54 And it would rather apply that three million to those investments
32:58 Again a very strategic
33:03 It is the commission who will decide this
33:06 There's nobody else who would decide it other than puko
33:09 Typically that three million would go into the state general fund
33:14 But the city is demanding it go back to the ratepayers
33:20 In isolation, maybe as it gets divided up
33:24 It becomes less impactful. However
33:28 Principle is worth litigating over and so we will litigate that
33:34 Given this whether it's significant or not because it's a matter of principle and we already have meetings scheduled with the commission
33:45 put forth our demand and to
33:48 Try to convince puko to have that returned to the ratepayers
33:56 The required investment
33:59 I've mentioned this before
34:03 This is a very important issue and it's open right now
34:07 The regulator and first energy are going back and forth on this and again
34:13 Whatever the criticism of puko in this case. They are operating very well
34:18 They are supportive of the complaints of the city of lakewood their engineers are working hard and they're very responsive to us
34:25 the city of lakewood has no complaints
34:31 Given what it's been doing since the summer of 2025 to help us
34:38 The structural upgrades that are being discussed right now that you're going to hear from first energy
34:43 There's a reference to 19 million dollars
34:48 That is short term. That's last year this year and next year. That's last that's short term
34:57 Seven million of that 19 million
34:59 Is allocated to smart meters?
35:02 and smart meters again
35:04 Do not improve the reliability of the distribution of energy to the people of lakewood
35:10 It's fine to have but those smart meters those investments were already justified by first energy with the regulator
35:18 First energy made sure it got rate increases to support that grid modernization that included those
35:25 Smart meters so they indicate that they'll be done and installed by the end of 2026
35:31 This has been a multi-year effort and that's fine. We'll take it
35:35 But it doesn't enhance reliability
35:37 So you take that seven million out you're looking at 12 million through 2027 that first energy claims
35:44 That they will invest or have invested starting last year through the end of 2027 and again
35:52 We'll take it that's been compelled by the regulator
35:58 Nevertheless, it represents progress and we'll take it but it's not sufficient
36:07 Through 2027 investment
36:11 Will produce a product that thomas edison will still be able to recognize
36:20 has indicated publicly
36:22 That the company is
36:25 Pursuing a seven and nine year upgrade significant upgrade in the city of lakewood
36:32 That will take hundreds of millions of dollars
36:37 Seven to nine years is a long time and we'll talk about what can be happen happening in the interim just like
36:43 the mayor indicated
36:45 But if you tell us in seven to nine years, we're going to have a state of the art
36:51 System in the city of lakewood. We will take it
36:56 We waited a long time
36:58 This should have been done over the decades
37:01 But we'll take it so our our job
37:03 The law department will monitor that and make sure it happens and make sure that it becomes a lot more specific
37:10 Than it has been thus far
37:12 And that's where the regulator will come in and the reason it's not specific as of today is because this is happening
37:18 As we speak this is happening in september and august of just this year
37:25 So finally immediate questions for tonight
37:29 We know the long-term plan. We know what the regulator is requiring
37:35 If this long-term plan
37:37 Is going into full into effect seven to nine years. How are we going to address?
37:42 the inevitable outages
37:45 And I hope they're not inevitable but they were in 2025 they were in 2026 and
37:52 Everybody in lakewood has right to be skeptical that these short-term investments are going to fix things
37:58 If they do so much the better
38:02 The mayor has requested a short-term plan
38:05 In her letter to puko puko has demanded a short-term plan of first energy
38:12 And again, that's real time everybody's waiting for first energy to respond
38:17 So maybe tonight if there's a short-term plan for backup generators
38:22 Accessible repair crews very near lakewood in 2027 summer that they can get to lakewood
38:31 Are there peak demand rebate programs where you'll rebate so much per month to an individual who will agree that?
38:40 Peak usage will be the will be reduced
38:43 During high demand times those types of creative short-term programs
38:48 We are all ears because we want to do everything we can to make sure
38:53 That the history of 2025 and 2026 do not repeat themselves
39:04 I've said a lot members of city council and I do respect first energy to be here tonight
39:09 They are here in force and I respect that we have to work with them
39:13 There is no competitor. We can't call anybody else to supply energy to us
39:18 So for better or for worse, we have to be partners
39:21 We're grateful that puko is requiring this conduct and our goal is to make sure
39:27 What we're hearing from first energy and what?
39:30 Puko is demanding gets done
39:32 Thank you, and i'll take any questions from city council
39:36 Thank you director vargo. I appreciate that
39:41 So I just want to mention briefly in terms of the rate case that's we're not going to go in depth of that tonight with
39:48 Because that is actively being litigated
39:51 So we won't go into depth of that but just wanted to mention that that is happening
39:58 We did discuss that in greater detail at our july 28th
40:02 Lakewood city council committee of the whole so if you'd like to learn more details about the rate case you can watch
40:08 That meeting that was from july
40:11 All right council members
40:14 questions for the law department
40:19 Council member bolick
40:22 Thanks, madam chair. First of all, thanks for conducting this meeting and for
40:26 Organizing and there's a lot to cover. So I think it's a great opportunity. Thanks to the
40:31 mayor and the administration, I think it's been a very thorough and coherent presentation
40:37 And a recitation of the facts and also some of the indication of what the administration is currently pursuing
40:42 And I agree with with with what you're saying. I also want to say welcome first energy. Thank you for being here
40:48 Um, it it's not an easy meeting to attend. We appreciate that you're here when things are difficult more communication is better
40:56 Not less communication. So
40:58 As the law director, I think correctly said
41:01 Uh, we're partners we're gonna need to be even stronger partners to get on top of the service
41:07 Improvements that we're pursuing and I even would love to see
41:16 Smart technology that is on the market today that wasn't here even 10 years ago
41:21 And if we're rebuilding something, maybe we don't
41:24 Patch an old system and old technology, but we leapfrog ahead to what comes next
41:29 So that's i'm getting ahead of myself, but I do want to acknowledge
41:34 That you're here. I also drove past multiple cei trucks around town today. Thank you for for the continued investment
41:43 To the law director, you know, I'd certainly
41:47 I share your thanks to the public utilities commission of ohio. They of course are the as you state
41:54 Decider the regulator the facilitator and and many things more so they've
41:59 Done a excellent job of giving us attention time focus. They've got a lot of
42:04 things to track but
42:06 You know lakewood and the west side of cleveland has gotten their their focus. That's been tremendously helpful
42:15 What we're asking for in terms of peak demand rebate programs what I'd love to include in the list would be could we
42:23 negotiate a voluntary
42:25 uh economic development assistance program for
42:30 Lakewood consumers who've lost medicine food
42:36 Or have incurred extra expenses like hotels or restaurants because they had unscheduled
42:42 Cost during the power outages. That's a different question than what is legally required
42:48 and so I think that's why the word partner is important is
42:52 I'm sure we are going to be talking to each other in in a legal sense, but we're also talking to each other as a
42:57 Negotiation and partnership sense and so if there was a voluntary agreement that we could work towards where a portion of funds that would otherwise go
43:08 Could be available to qualified residents. That would be a step forward that doesn't exist today
43:13 It does exist in other states as we've heard from lakewood residents who lived in new york state, for example
43:19 We're in ohio. So the law is different
43:21 But what the law says is a minimum is different than what we could work
43:25 Out together potentially
43:28 As partners working mutually on a problem, so that is my um
43:33 Request for suggestion to the administration. I'd be happy to work with you
43:38 Uh as a council member if if that's uh desirable and feasible
43:45 Should note also that um state rep
43:48 Uh tristan raider who used to be our colleague on council does have a bill
43:56 Doing power losses, uh, any other council members questions for the law departments?
44:03 Um, so with that we will turn it over to first energy. Um, we're going with miss thomas first
44:13 Just push it once it should turn red
44:18 I think you're on okay. Very good. Good evening. Everyone again. My name is sally thomas. I'm the vice president of distribution engineering planning
44:28 Is that better? All right, very good
44:31 We already did introductions
44:32 And so I just want to start off by saying thank you to president kempel and the council here for this opportunity to come and speak
44:44 All right. Are you a little bit better back there now? All right, very good. I know how close I had to get so
44:49 All right, if you can go to the next slide, please
44:53 That's perfect. Can you skip over to introduction? Thank you
44:58 The safety of our community and employees
45:01 Reliable performance of our grid and providing the service our customers expect are really core values of what first energy strives to do every single day
45:10 Last year we made a commitment to a comprehensive plan that would provide permanent
45:14 long-term improvements
45:17 Though that plan is progressing we acknowledge that this community is still being impacted by numerous power outages causing further frustration
45:24 And inconvenience to the lakewood residents businesses schools and community organizations
45:30 We have not lived up to your expectations or our own and that's something we're here today to say we need to correct
45:36 Reliable electric service is essential to our daily lives and when service interruptions occur, especially during periods of extreme heat
45:44 They impact families work schedules public services and overall quality of life
45:50 For the hardship and inconvenience that these service interruptions have caused we apologize
45:56 Our focus and commitment to this community is continuing to invest in our electric system adding
46:03 Reliability and resilience resulting in fewer outages and if outages do occur
46:07 Shorter less impactful interruptions and quicker restorations with improved more accurate communications
46:14 Today we'll be providing you an update on the status of the plan
46:18 We presented last year as well as plans for further enhancements given the issues identified through the summer's events
46:24 And further analysis working with an independent firm with specializes in engineering reliability improvement
46:31 We understand you're not experiencing improvement as quickly as you like which i'm sure is causing many of you to further question our commitment
46:39 We must do better for this community and we're committed to putting the necessary investment and resources towards delivering better service
46:46 And improving your daily lives now and into the future
46:52 Before we get into an update of the plan. I did want to provide some background information
46:56 So our electrical system that serves this community is really broken down into three key segments. You have your sub transmission system
47:02 Your substation and then your distribution assets
47:05 The sub transmission is really the interim voltage taking the transmission high voltage high power to our then our distribution substations
47:13 So these poles overhead wires and underground cables are often located along railroad corridors or outside the public's normal line of sight
47:22 Next you have the distribution substation that's fenced in and will include equipment like the liquid transformers that are presently being replaced
47:29 And then finally you have the distribution assets which are the poles wires and equipment that supply our local neighborhoods
47:36 Over the last six years the lakewood area has experienced outages across all three categories with really distribution being the highest
47:47 So showing how all the segments flow if you could go to the next click here
47:52 You have generation that flows to transmission both of which are not owned by the cleveland illuminating company
48:01 Then you would have the sub transmission system again. That's the overhead and underground facilities that feed distribution substations like lauderdale substation
48:10 Then you have your distribution substations of which 11 serve the greater lakewood area
48:15 And again back in 2024 and 2025 we had our substation outages that were associated with the lakewood transformers in these substations
48:23 And then finally you have next click, please the distribution system. The lakewood area is served by 49 circuits
48:30 And you can see these assets daily, right? These are the visible assets located along our neighborhood
48:41 Overall for your switchまり to turn on at your house or in your business every component along this path
48:48 From generation all the way to the meat at your house must remain connected and operate properly
48:53 for reliable service
48:55 Though the majority of the outages impacted customers at the distribution level issues on the sub transmission and the substation have been
49:02 Really the biggest drivers of outages
49:05 So our plan includes work on all three segments to provide really the largest benefit to our customers
49:11 And have a that have and we have a lot of work occurring really already in our sub transmission
49:16 And our substation assets even though they may not be visible to the public
49:20 Given that they may be underground or in a substation or maybe in a less visible area other than along your local roadway
49:27 But this work will have the largest impact because the largest amount of customers are then downstream from these assets
49:35 You can go to the next slide, please
49:38 So next i'd like to get into the work we've completed since our commitment at the town hall last year
49:44 So we committed to investing 12.5 million dollars into the system that serves the lakewood area through the replacement of major equipment
49:52 And the addition of increased situational awareness to more readily readily respond to outages
49:59 I'd like to report that we're making very good progress on this commitment in the second quarter of 2026
50:05 We completed the replacement of all breakers at the grovewood substation. That is a sub transmission substation that feeds then lakewood substation
50:13 Breakers are really a key component of how we protect our system and not only sectionalize the circuit so that we can minimize the outages impact
50:20 But also enables customers impacted by the outage to potentially be switched to other circuits and have their power restored more readily
50:28 Next we have our 93 percent
50:32 Smart meters have been installed here year to date which will enable better real-time situation awareness and help with voltage monitoring
50:39 As well as power restoration after or especially during a storm event
50:44 All the smart meters plan for installation are on track to be completed by the end of this year
50:50 And then last on this slide here. We also laid out a plan to replace both transformers at the lakewood substation
50:56 The first which was the failed unit being supported by a temporary mobile substation was replaced by a brand new unit
51:02 That was placed in service just this last june
51:05 The second transformer which was not failed
51:07 But we're practically replacing is on track to be in service by the committed date
51:11 And we're working with the equipment vendor to accelerate as much as possible overall the commitments we made last year are on track
51:19 But as I open further analysis and system outages show that there's opportunity for further improvement
51:32 Our prior plan focused more on the outages experienced by those served out of the lakewood substation
51:38 But what we experienced last summer, especially with the high heat was that customers served out of water dell substation experienced most of the outages
51:46 After performing a holistic engineering analysis of the greater lakewood area and taking the events of last summer into account
51:53 Wes have developed an immediate plan to invest an additional 6.5 million dollars
51:59 To focus on mitigating these large scale outages
52:04 So first on this slide here
52:05 We have our intensive detailed circuit inspections which include thermal imaging on all 49 circuits serving the greater lakewood area were completed in august
52:14 These inspections identified over 360 deficiencies that are presently being prioritized designed and then scheduled for construction
52:22 during the coming year
52:24 Next as the community continues to grow we are developing long-range plans for capacity addition
52:30 But as an interim measure, we are installing transformer banks across the system
52:34 Which will have an immediate added capacity benefit and enable circuits approaching overloads to be offloaded
52:40 Lessening the risk of an outage and enabling greater system flexibility
52:44 And then last on this slide here
52:46 We'll also be replacing pull top transformers across the system that are approaching or at their maximum capacity
52:52 The replacement of these transformers which directly service our homes and businesses
52:57 Will lessen power quality issues by increasing voltage stability as well as provide customers with additional capacity for
53:05 capacity load growth or home improvements like maybe adding a
53:09 A larger more powerful air conditioning bank or even adding a ev charger to your home garage
53:14 So all this work should be completed by july of 2027, but we're not finished
53:19 By the end of this year, we will be providing a long-term lakewood improvement plan to the puco
53:26 This plan which we are developing in partnership with an independent engineering expert who specializes in reliability
53:32 And resiliency system planning is in progress and will include additional investment focused on improving lakewood's overall reliability
53:40 Resiliency and ensuring that the system is able to meet the growing demands of this thriving community well into the future
53:50 Here are just some pictures of the transfer of banks that I spoke of that have already been installed in the community again
53:56 We have some at edwards avenue one at franklin boulevard and one at rocking river road
54:00 Again, these banks provide immediate added capacity and serve to lessen the load on the circuits that are approaching overload
54:07 Which puts them at higher risk of an outage the additional capacity also helps to add operational flexibility
54:13 Which can shorten the overall duration of outages if they do occur
54:20 We also promised improved communication as we work to build rebuild not just the system
54:25 But also your trust in our services
54:28 I won't go through each one of these in detail unless the council has questions, but I i'll just note that ensuring transparency
54:36 Timely and accurate communication information to the council the mayor and administration and the residents of lakewood is a priority for the cleveland illuminating
54:44 company so whether it's council meetings town halls social media emails or
54:50 process improvements such as improving our estimated times of restoration with more accuracy
54:55 And even a new application that we're building a project map
54:58 Which will allow this community to track the projects that I just laid out here and kind of see status updates
55:04 We want to be transparent and give you the information you need to make the best decisions for you and your families
55:14 So I'd like to wrap up by again expressing my sincere appreciation
55:18 For this opportunity to come in front of the council. Thank you president kempel for this opportunity to provide an update
55:24 You know the impact of the outages this community has endured has rightfully left many residents very frustrated
55:30 We must do better for this community and we're committed and have the urgency
55:34 From leadership and all those at the cleveland illuminating company to fixing this issue
55:40 No electric system can eliminate every outage, but our goal is clear to reduce how often outages occur
55:46 Shorten the time they last and improve restoration when interruptions occur as well as making sure we're providing accurate communication
55:53 To our to our customers
55:55 The reliability degradation of the system didn't happen overnight and the projects I laid out won't be finished nor the benefits felt overnight
56:03 But as we continue to work on the core issues the system will improve and you'll see results
56:08 Those results are what are going to rebuild trust and we're committed to doing what it takes to re-earning your trust
56:14 And providing you with the reliable service expected from us as your electric provider
56:20 President kempel turn back to you. Thank you
56:26 Before we get going to para
56:27 I just want to let folks know if you're if you wanted to speak when we get to the public comment section
56:33 Please sign in over here on these
56:36 Papers over here so that we will take you in order of sign in
56:42 Have a few questions
56:45 um, so also just for folks I know this process
56:49 As uh director vargo walked through some of the timeline as we've talked to that in previous council meetings as I tried to lay it out
56:56 It can be a little overwhelming to understand the process. Um, you know that it's not
57:03 It's not a direct one-to-one of the pco issues a letter and therefore that's what will happen
57:09 First energy responds the pco responds back to them and back and forth
57:13 And so the 2025 one has been
57:16 finalized the 2025 probable non-compliance and those orders and those were the
57:22 Items that miss thomas just went through
57:25 Um for the most part and then the 2026 one is currently in that sort of back and forth process
57:35 More recent letter from the pco
57:44 The last letter back from first energy
57:47 So there there are some items that seem to have agreement and moving forward
57:55 I have those for council members. That's the summary that's before you includes the 2025 and what was in the original 2026
58:03 A letter of probable non-compliance. That's a little table there
58:06 Um, but though things for 2026 are not finalized yet
58:10 But so just so you have some understanding of the things we might go through tonight
58:15 Um, I do have a question so in um
58:21 Lemming's august 21st letter back to the public utilities commission of ohio
58:28 He says that before the august 7th notice was issued cei initiate a comprehensive review of infrastructure serving liquid
58:37 began developing and implementing a comprehensive reliability improvement plan focus on reducing retiring the
58:43 4kv system in favor
58:46 of a more standard distribution voltage
58:50 Um, I was wondering if you could tell me when that happened specifically
58:56 I'm sorry. I missed the first part of the question is um in the letter from mr. Lemming back to
59:02 Um the public utilities commission of ohio
59:05 It says before the august 7th notice was issued cei initiated initiated a comprehensive review
59:11 of the infrastructure serving liquid
59:14 Do we know when that happened?
59:26 When we're talking about initiated a comprehensive review
59:30 um over the the past
59:33 Year or so I guess last last
59:36 uh year or so there's been a lot of activity around
59:41 What what had happened and I know that
59:44 As we go along and do our analysis. Um, I think that that may be what he was referring to
59:53 Yeah, i'm not sure what letter you're referring to but I guess what I will say here is to joe's point
59:58 Yeah, we we we begun we began our comprehensive kind of analysis for the system our engineering team started that back in
1:00:07 Um, I think that from there we've now since partnered with this independent engineering um firm
1:00:13 This firm is specialized in reliability and resiliency system planning
1:00:18 And so we partnered with them to come up with the plan that I just laid out with you
1:00:22 That was a continuation of the first plan as well as we're going to be partnering with them here and developing this long-term plan
1:00:30 overall reliability resiliency and capacity improvement here for the city of lakewood
1:00:35 So that is to come here that we're going to file that by the end of this year
1:00:40 But I think again that partnership is really what's going to allow us to really put the right minds
1:00:46 In place to come up with these plans and and come up with the best course of action and best roadmap here for the future
1:01:02 with the mayor and and state reparator and um
1:01:05 Councilman kasey and we were we talked through all the different challenges of the system
1:01:11 At that time there wasn't a comprehensive plan to update lakewood's system
1:01:15 It wasn't until after that meeting. Is that correct?
1:01:17 So I will say that the plan that we rolled out last year was primarily looking at the outages that we had experienced
1:01:24 Right and those outages primarily primarily were out of the lakewood substation
1:01:28 So we developed a comprehensive plan around that
1:01:31 However, and really one piece of equipment or one part of the system is not going to give a holistic
1:01:37 No reliability improvement for lakewood and so that's really what we're moving to is actually coming up with what is the holistic plan?
1:01:43 Investment in our sub transmission in our substation in our in our distribution systems to really, you know
1:01:49 Set lakewood up for more safer and more reliable performance here going forward
1:01:54 So that's what we're working on and again, we kind of have this short-term immediate plan, which is what I laid out here today
1:02:02 We have a we have more work to do here within the system as you probably can't assume
1:02:06 And so really this lake this long-term plan is really what's going to help set the stage here for
1:02:11 Future investment for the long term within lakewood
1:02:20 I guess that's going back to director vargo's comments about moving away from
1:02:24 Fix it after it breaks and moving to a long-term plan
1:02:28 I also in this letter. So this is the
1:02:35 Which is from from first energy back to the public utilities commission of ohio
1:02:48 That in august 2026 cai proactively installed
1:02:54 Scada metering on the six underground cabling cables to provide real-time visibility
1:03:01 Um, can I ask when that happened?
1:03:06 Yeah, so the metering was installed installed in early august. I think it was like the first week or so
1:03:12 And it gave visibility to the 11 kv circuits that feed lauderdale substation from clinton
1:03:20 Okay, so that was after the fourth of july outages then
1:03:24 after the lauderdale and those would be about the
1:03:28 Underground cables that director vargo referenced
1:03:33 Okay, so the ones that are over that are 100 years old
1:03:37 Okay, so um that doesn't seem very
1:03:41 Proactive, but I appreciate that it's done now
1:03:45 And then it says in that same letter the company does not recommend replacing the underground lead cables between the clinton substation and lauderdale substation
1:03:53 Due to the cost and time required to replace
1:03:56 And instead will provide staff with an overall plan to identify both short-term and long-term plans
1:04:01 For creating a more resilient system designed for lakewood
1:04:04 It also talks in this letter about
1:04:11 Full replacement rather than replacing things like for like but
1:04:15 Replacing or retiring certain elements
1:04:19 And and then in the pucio's response to that letter
1:04:24 It asks for those corrective action three and four. It says what specific near-term investments
1:04:29 To prevent the types of heat related outages experienced in summer of 2025 and 2026
1:04:34 In the lakewood area the company is planning on completing prior to june 1st 2027
1:04:39 So I guess I have my I have a couple questions there is
1:04:47 Those cables and it and that some of them it's very difficult to get to some of those cables and the point about
1:04:54 replacing or retiring um some infrastructure is it part of the in those um
1:05:00 Outages this past summer being primarily at the lauderdale station with the underground cables is part of the plan to potentially
1:05:09 Move those cables from being underground to above ground. Is it a possibility to
1:05:15 Retire the lauderdale substation in favor ofぇ a newer substation. What's going on with that?
1:05:20 So pretty much everything that you just spoke of is it doesn't happen overnight, right?
1:05:24 That would be something that we need to investigate for our long-term plan
1:05:28 Again, we have kind of an interim immediate things that we can do to help to offload
1:05:33 The loading that's on those circuits, which is really what was causing some of the issues again
1:05:37 You've got aged assets. You've got circuits that are either approaching or already overloaded
1:05:42 So that's going to further strain the system and make it more susceptible to power outages
1:05:46 So those additional transfer banks that we're putting across the system that's going to help to offload
1:05:52 Those a lot of those circuits that are at those, you know, I guess warning levels, right?
1:05:58 But I think that long term though
1:05:59 We need to set this system up for future success and ensuring that we have reliable performance for many years to come as well as capacity
1:06:07 Margin for many years to come as well
1:06:09 So I think what you identified in terms of trying to potentially get those underground facilities overhead adding new sources things of that nature
1:06:17 Those are all things that we're going to investigate
1:06:20 And look at what we need to do to ultimately improve the system for the future
1:06:24 We don't have that finalized yet, but we will by the end of this year
1:06:28 Right in the 2026 letter as dr vargo pointed out really
1:06:34 Has a variety of things and we'll see what the final verdict is from the pco on that but
1:06:39 To really investigate all of the infrastructure. So it's not playing whack-a-mole so much
1:06:45 I guess I do have a question though about
1:06:47 why it has taken all of this
1:06:53 Do this type of comprehensive planning and how did we get to a point where we have 100 year old cables?
1:06:59 So I think ultimately we know we understand this community's frustration, right?
1:07:04 And that we really want to you know, i'm sure you want to get this resolved as soon as possible
1:07:10 We're committed to improving your liability and we're taking really a holistic approach in identifying prioritizing these projects
1:07:18 That will have really the best impact. So again, we began a
1:07:21 Comprehensive review back in 2025, but have now since partnered with this
1:07:26 third-party independent engineering
1:07:28 Team that's really working with us to build a more reliable and resilient system and coming up with projects to be able to do so
1:07:36 This analysis also helped us
1:07:38 To kind of like lay out a plan which is what we laid out here today
1:07:42 That will support the development of our liquid reliability here
1:07:46 But long long term here will be you know coming up with this plan here going forward
1:07:51 But again, we're not taking a wait and see approach, right?
1:07:58 We are acting and even accelerating improvements as much as possible. We're trying to be more proactive
1:08:03 I think a lot of these circuit inspections that we're doing with the thermal upgrades
1:08:08 Are really going out there looking for those conditions that may make the system more susceptible to outages right proactively
1:08:15 So again over two what 630 deficiencies that I identified
1:08:21 In my opening comments here
1:08:23 we're working to get those prioritized and
1:08:28 Completed before the summer heat next year again things those those deficiencies those condition items
1:08:35 Really are things that we can practically do so that we're not having the same situation here next summer
1:08:43 I guess when I think of the word proactive I would think that would happen before
1:08:46 Two probable non-compliance letters, but I appreciate it happening now
1:08:51 Um, i'll go vice president baker and then we'll go
1:08:55 Yes, I I want to just like my colleagues in the administration thank you all for coming here this isn't easy
1:09:02 You weren't the ones that were here over the last hundred years not investing in the system
1:09:06 Hopefully you will in your careers. I don't know how long each of you have been at first energy
1:09:12 But I will say that just like more generally this is a kind of a lakewood problem that we're
1:09:17 You know in the marketplace of communities we're constantly fighting to
1:09:21 You know compete for residents for businesses to come here for quality of life
1:09:26 And I don't know how many times over the last two years. I've heard folks say well
1:09:29 I moved to north ridgeville our power never goes out
1:09:32 It's easier right how many businesses have said that i'm gonna have to close because I stocked up for the fourth of july
1:09:39 And now all my stock is gone
1:09:41 Or residents one of which is sitting in the back here that had a serious health emergency associated with the power outage
1:09:47 And I think we can all understand as customers
1:09:52 Storm comes, you know the tornado two or three years ago
1:09:55 We're all frustrated but a tornado came knocked down a bunch of power infrastructure. It's understandable
1:10:00 The ones that I think we've we've has gotten the public more upset about and and us
1:10:05 Is ones that are in dangerous conditions that don't relate to wind or storms
1:10:10 And that's where it's this 55 percent of the upstream outages that I think we're talking about right?
1:10:15 Because those are the ones that knock out entire neighborhoods and are harder to fix if there's an issue in your distribution line
1:10:20 The 45 percent I assume could come out change transformer or whatever on a pole and it goes back up
1:10:25 It's a shorter outage. And so what we're experiencing is we're creeping further in
1:10:30 To the systematic issues and not the the small scale issues
1:10:34 And so going into this a little bit i'd like to understand you've mentioned a couple times this third-party engineering firm
1:10:39 There's a lot of engineering power up here at the table. What do they bring? Who is it?
1:10:43 What do they bring that's unique and how are they going to help lakewood?
1:10:46 So yes, we do have a lot of engineering power, right? So I will definitely speak highly of my team
1:10:51 However, I think it always helps to get a second pair of eyes
1:10:56 On a on an issue that we've had been having and we want to make sure that one we're validating what we're doing
1:11:01 As well as are there things that we're missing, right?
1:11:04 Are there things that we could further improve to implement here and again provide safe and reliable power here
1:11:09 To this community. So the name of the outfit is de novo
1:11:14 They uh, they have worked with us for a variety of engineering needs here within first energy
1:11:19 Highly technical organization and again very well versed and they specialize in system reliability and resiliency planning
1:11:31 Again, they really helped us to validate what we had identified as kind of the continuation of the plan
1:11:36 That I laid out here today from where we were at the town hall
1:11:39 And then what we're planning to do here on the lauderdale side of the circuits
1:11:42 And we felt that again partnering with them and developing this long-term plan would just be appropriate here as we move forward with
1:11:49 Again making sure that what my engineering team has identified is validated
1:11:53 But also are there things that maybe there's industry best practices that we just don't know of that they could help to uh,
1:11:59 You know support us and you know reviewing further and coming up with a good industry leading ideas
1:12:06 Are you able to share anything that they've provided to you that you're seeking development?
1:12:11 So right now here they have again helped us with this kind of immediate plan that I just laid out here today
1:12:17 But in terms of the long-term plan that's just starting up. Um, so I really don't have any further details at this point
1:12:23 Yeah, and i'll i'll you know
1:12:27 Heard a lot about a comprehensive plan. Um, I think that's
1:12:30 Part of the communications of what you're trying to display to the public and I appreciate it
1:12:34 Although i'm hearing like iterations of plans, um
1:12:40 Up here the residents and the administration to keep you to task on that to make sure that you continue to upgrade that
1:12:46 One thing I like to talk about is the communication part of it. Can you explain? I mean and this is
1:12:50 This was around the fourth of july, you know a lot of businesses residents
1:12:55 Should I get a hotel? My kids are hot. My mom is a senior and she's in this house
1:13:01 It says it'll come on in four hours and then four hours later it sends to me another message
1:13:04 It says it'll come on in four hours
1:13:06 Can you explain that system and why it's why it failed in that instance and what you can do better to make sure it
1:13:12 Doesn't fail again because I think
1:13:14 Dealing with the power outage is one thing
1:13:16 But then not knowing when the power is coming on should you buy ice to you know
1:13:20 Preserve your food or your medication should you go and try to stay with a friend?
1:13:24 These are all really critical decisions that people need to make
1:13:31 Really the etr process the estimated time restoration process that we historically would use was that if your power went out
1:13:37 There would be kind of a a general etr that was initially
1:13:41 Put on to that outage to say let's say two hours. You're going to have power back, right?
1:13:46 But that didn't really give
1:13:48 You a good idea just because again it was very generic in that it could be two hours
1:13:53 It could be an hour it could be six hours right because no one had really assessed those issues
1:14:00 Updated this process to be is that we are actually before we put we don't put that generic etr on there anymore
1:14:07 What we're going to actually do is have that line crew or substation crew go out
1:14:12 And assess the situation right it could be something very simple or it could be something more complex
1:14:17 But ultimately from their field knowledge and their expertise
1:14:21 They'll then be able to communicate to us than a more accurate etr that we can then dispatch out to this community
1:14:27 So ultimately here that's going to give you better accuracy
1:14:30 So now you can say okay, I may it's going to probably be out for two hours
1:14:34 I probably should go get dinner somewhere or it's going to be out for
1:14:39 Maybe I need to contact a family member or a friend to go maybe stay with them or or spend some time with them
1:14:44 Right. So those are all things here that we want to make sure
1:14:49 You know accurate information so that they can make the best decisions for themselves and their families
1:14:54 And that was a change here that we're looking to make here within Lakewood
1:14:58 Yeah, because because I I hear lots of discussion of the tariff and I I don't see any
1:15:03 Lawyers up here at the table. Although i'm sure they're here somewhere
1:15:05 um, but but you know the tariff kind of outlines and this is what councilman bullock brought up that
1:15:11 In certain other states, you know if power is out for a certain amount of time
1:15:14 There's basically like an amount of money you get as a rate payer right as compensation for that outage
1:15:20 And your tariff currently doesn't allow that. Do you know when your tariff is up for review?
1:15:29 and then uh lastly and this is um
1:15:36 I've been pushing the administration and I think we should study it and you know willing to put some money behind that
1:15:41 You know director vargo mentioned that you know first energy is the only game in town. That's true
1:15:46 I'll say that the electrical distribution within Lakewood
1:15:50 Is the only game in town the infrastructure is the infrastructure you guys are upgrading it
1:15:55 Ohio law and the constitution does afford the ability for municipalities to appropriate equipment
1:16:01 and that would be a very complex process of literally, uh getting an appraisal on each
1:16:09 pole each transformer each substation
1:16:12 and then likely a big fight about valuation, uh between um cei and the city of lakewood
1:16:20 I do know that there are examples in in california of communities that have tried it
1:16:24 It's usually something that doesn't end well for communities, but I think we at least need to think about it
1:16:29 Have any of you at the table ever?
1:16:32 Been involved in a municipality or a locality trying to appropriate power infrastructure
1:16:42 Okay, um well and because it's something that comes up often. Uh, it is
1:16:48 I describe it as the nuclear button. Um, and it's what you know the
1:16:53 People who created the ohio constitution back in you know, 1912. I think created to
1:16:59 Um public utilities accountable for their conduct in communities and it's something that I think
1:17:05 Um certainly has to be on the table. Although I acknowledge it will be very complicated
1:17:09 I do think more information would help create a better fact environment as to whether or not it's something we could do in lakewood
1:17:17 But I am liking the commitment that i'm hearing from you all I do think that it's going to be the continued pressure
1:17:25 Uh and collaboration from the folks up here on your side of the table to see that these are implemented because
1:17:32 Lakewood it is very difficult to lakewood for lakewood to compete
1:17:37 You know, I go to my brother's basement in brunswick and it's beautiful. We don't have beautiful basements here
1:17:42 Right. Um, I see my brother's yard in brunswick and it's a giant yard and his kids can play in it
1:17:47 Uh, but we have dense communities
1:17:49 We have close walkable communities. We're close to everything
1:17:53 But damn it we need reliable power and that's what you guys had to provide to us
1:17:58 And i'm i'm going to work with my colleagues in the administration in the public to make sure that you do it
1:18:03 Because it's your charge under ohio law
1:18:06 And you know, we do have mechanisms to to make sure you do it and we're doing that
1:18:11 But we do have a nuclear button as well and I I don't really want to use it because i'd rather spend city funds on
1:18:16 Roads and parks and everything else. So thank you for being here though. I appreciate you coming before us
1:18:24 I just wanted to respond to your question to see if there was experience and I come to the company working for dte
1:18:31 That was in southeast michigan. So i've experienced both ways i've
1:18:36 experienced where the michigan public service commission ordered the city of detroit to
1:18:41 Give up its power system and let dte energy go and invest because the city wasn't able to go do that
1:18:48 And then just recently there was the city of en arbor just outside of detroit that the city had investigated
1:18:55 Just like as you had stated
1:18:58 The cost for them to be able to take over the system was in the billions
1:19:03 So the city itself decided not to pursue that
1:19:08 Yeah, if I may respond. Yeah, i've no doubt that we're talking with a b here. I I do know that there
1:19:18 That essentially would be like an annuity right which is when you guys run your capital heavy system
1:19:23 And you've sunk most of that capital most of that capital is at the end of its useful life
1:19:27 So now the city of lakewood is essentially just like a revenue machine for you
1:19:31 And we're now making you invest in the capital
1:19:33 But if there is a time to buy an asset, it's when the asset is troubled
1:19:37 And so what i'm hearing from all of you is that our assets may be troubled
1:19:40 We want you to invest in it though, which would make it harder for us to appropriate it from you
1:19:44 Um, so that's just okay. Thank you, but I appreciate your contact
1:19:51 Council clerks, would you be able to put up the slide about the communication?
1:19:59 I'll just just one default. When is so those changes to the um
1:20:07 The etr because that's something that we've been asking about for over a year about not getting those automatic
1:20:14 Notifications because they're they're less than just saying we don't know there
1:20:18 It would be more helpful to say we don't know we're working on it because when you say it's four hours
1:20:26 They lose food or they you know, can't get a hotel room
1:20:30 So I just wondered when when is that going into place with the updated etrs?
1:20:43 As in process now, okay, so i'm not saying it's active now, but it is in process of the work in progress
1:20:49 Participate in the coming weeks to get an update. Okay, it was in the
1:20:53 2025 probable non-compliance to update the etr system
1:20:57 Um, so i'm just wondering when we're gonna see that change actually happen
1:21:03 We don't we we don't have a date yet
1:21:08 All right. Um next i'll go I was gonna go order of seniority. So councilman bullock
1:21:18 to agree with what you and also the
1:21:21 Councilman baker said if if we could do can we get on the slide number
1:21:27 Of the utilities presentation. It's about the communication. I think agree that would be an improvement
1:21:33 I think we've seen a number of those elements coming
1:21:37 It's got the colorful squares on it when we have a chance
1:21:42 So that's the right direction. I also
1:21:45 agree with what my colleagues have said that the
1:21:48 Key with the etr's are estimated time to restoration of service. I think
1:21:55 I think they've been confusing
1:21:58 But we shouldn't hold back on them. We should just persist and make them useful
1:22:02 So as councilman baker was saying the end customer has some useful actionable information about what to do with my family
1:22:09 Or my work plans or whatever it might be
1:22:12 Um, so I think I think you know, we can be successful there
1:22:16 Also compliment mr seco. He's been responsive professional
1:22:21 Engaged. It's not an easy situation to be on the front lines of
1:22:25 Major power outages for an extended time, but in the spirit of more communication outlast. I appreciate his efforts
1:22:34 I've got a couple of clarifying questions about the engineering side of things, but I put out a little bit of a
1:22:42 concept to the administration. I wonder if
1:22:46 The people here from the company might be interested in responding
1:22:51 Could it be feasible if we're partnering together to to improve the performance that we also acknowledge and recognize
1:23:06 Just on the on the economic hard facts of food medication lost work wages, etc
1:23:16 I'm not trying to quantify stress
1:23:18 Or uncertainty or emotional strain although those things exist and as a quick anecdote
1:23:24 There was one person who responded to a survey that I put out. She said
1:23:29 I'd work for weeks and weeks on a work presentation 10 minutes before
1:23:34 I'm having this important presentation from a business. The power goes out. I scramble I get to a coffee shop
1:23:39 Do it from there successfully, but I was off my game
1:23:43 How can you quantify those kinds of?
1:23:49 I think it would be a huge tremendous gesture of goodwill if the company was able to negotiate in a voluntary some kind of economic
1:24:00 Probably wouldn't cost as much as three million dollars, which is what the puc. Oh has
1:24:05 contemplated in in its enforcement preliminary enforcement letter
1:24:11 You know if that was something you're receptive to I think that would go a long way towards
1:24:17 Demonstrating the spirit of partnership with our community
1:24:22 That's that's a tough question, but would would you care to comment at all on that possibility?
1:24:26 Yeah, I guess councilman bullock here. Thank you for that question and that kind of recommendation, right?
1:24:34 We're just engineers here, right?
1:24:36 So I think that from that perspective here i'm here to really talk about what our plans to improve the system and provide safe and reliable power
1:24:44 Probably not the best person to answer that question, right?
1:24:47 So unfortunately, I can't answer that so that's my subtle hint to whomever from your company might be
1:24:53 Listening in in legal or or other departments, but thank you for considering that can I ask an engineering question or two real fast the
1:25:01 Just to clarify so it is a helpful presentation that you've
1:25:07 Is this the sum total of all work to be that the company has to date committed to?
1:25:12 Or is there more? I think you're saying there's more but I I want to just make sure
1:25:19 Is most for all this the 2025 outage and we haven't yet gotten to the 2026 outages which
1:25:26 Stem from different issues in different parts of the system
1:25:33 The ceo of first energy on august 19th set made an expansive statement that the administration referred to the law director referred to
1:25:39 He said the whole grid's got to be redone
1:25:42 over a longer period of time
1:25:46 Still true or is the company walking that back?
1:25:50 Um, so I guess i'll start off with your first um questions here. So, um, I think that was around our total investment
1:25:56 um, so between the plan that was laid out at the um
1:26:00 At the town hall last year and then what we laid out is kind of a continuation of that immediate plan today
1:26:07 It's around 19 million dollars. That is our committed to plan at this point
1:26:10 However, like I alluded to we're not stopping there. There's more work to be done
1:26:14 And so that's why we're we're working to develop this long-term reliability improvement plan
1:26:20 That will be issuing then to the pco by the end of this year
1:26:23 That'll have additional investment associated with that. I just don't have those numbers
1:26:26 Okay, so we're talking about episode one today, but you plan a series yes, I watch too much streaming television I think in those terms
1:26:37 And I think your other question was around the ceo's comments. Yeah, you know he also
1:26:43 Stated that the type of equipment
1:26:45 Four kilovolt delta my research which you know is pretty lay person
1:26:50 1910 and 1940s or 50s technology. Is that accurate?
1:26:54 How old is that and when's the end of the end of the usable life of that?
1:26:58 So, um, I don't know if joe if you can speak to how old that four kb system
1:27:03 It's pretty old. It's pretty old. So those are probably around the right numbers here dates that you just gave
1:27:10 But I guess I would say here that as as a system that serves Lakewood there are definitely
1:27:17 Parts of the system that are aged right as well as parts of our system that have conditions associated with that
1:27:23 That make it more susceptible to outages
1:27:26 Namely, we have circuits and pieces of equipment that are either approaching their maximum capacity or that are already at maximum capacity
1:27:33 Or even that are over maximum capacity, right? So all those things combined
1:27:38 Really allude to what you've been seeing within this community, right?
1:27:41 The increased number of outages and the issues that we've been having so we really need to look at the system holistically
1:27:47 What are the upgrades that we need to do on the sub transmission substation and distribution systems?
1:27:54 Find those issues do the engineering analysis look at the acid health
1:27:58 Information and then ultimately come up with a plan that prioritizes what's the best?
1:28:03 Improvement to do first to try to make sure that we're able to really provide
1:28:08 Improve performance here as soon as possible
1:28:11 So we're prioritizing those things will be identifying what those need to be and then ultimately getting them engineered here through our team and execute it
1:28:20 I'm not sure how long that plan is going to be. I know the
1:28:24 The ceo lit it to a 79 year plan
1:28:26 I don't have that detail yet again
1:28:28 That'll be part of our long-term plan that we file with the puco by the end of this year
1:28:31 Okay, I appreciate that it would it sounds as if we've got an oven tube grid
1:28:36 We are familiar in lakewood 100 year old homes, which I love by the way
1:28:42 And we have a building department that does a good job of going through our classic century homes and saying hey
1:28:48 It's time to upgrade your plumbing
1:28:50 or your front porch steps or any number of things and
1:28:55 Systems in inside the house get updated too and you always hear the hardware store guys say hey
1:29:00 There's nothing wrong with knob and tube as long as you leave it alone. It's in good shape
1:29:03 But knob and tube probably doesn't have enough capacity to run
1:29:07 Central air and all the gizmos that we're adding all the time in a modern
1:29:13 technology driven economy where you've got smart appliances and and people use their equipment like they do so
1:29:22 Lakewood has this old equipment and we haven't been updated for all these decades and years
1:29:27 Yeah, I think that ultimately here the the community has definitely faced
1:29:33 Degradation as well as some performance issues over the years many years, right?
1:29:38 Like I said, we have 49 circuits at service area 11 distribution substations at service area
1:29:43 So a lot of equipment to maintain and and upgrade and ultimately here again
1:29:48 We're working on what that plan is to move forward with providing more reliable service
1:29:54 I don't really have a good answer as to historically what you know, why things weren't maybe
1:29:59 Updated as timely as maybe you feel like they need to then but I will say here going forward here
1:30:04 We're going to correct that and that's the plan that we've laid out here as well as again this future long-term plan
1:30:10 I think that we have some capacity issues within the system and this is a thriving community
1:30:14 we don't ever want to be the the
1:30:19 Minimizer in terms of people coming wanting to come into this community to the other councilman's point here
1:30:25 So we really want to make sure that we're building this system to not just be safe and reliable
1:30:30 But also have enough capacity to be able to withstand the future growth that we know that's coming to the city of lakewood
1:30:36 But that's what I can speak to I can't really speak to the past but going forward here. We're going to improve the situation
1:30:44 Thank you council member stupid
1:30:49 After hearing from my neighbors for the last five years, I believe my following comments express their sentiments
1:30:56 concerns requests and frustrations
1:30:59 It's been reported that last year in 2025
1:31:12 2 billion dollars over the previous year
1:31:17 In a mailing that I received and probably all of you received this this week
1:31:23 And signed by torrance l hintin president of first energy, ohio
1:31:28 I learned about the comprehensive review of the electrical system
1:31:32 improvements designed to strengthen reliability and reduce outages an expanded review after the july outages
1:31:40 Substation upgrades new transformers detailed reviews of 49 circuits thermal imaging equipment improvements
1:31:48 Upgraded technology a review of backup plans smart meters and tree trimming
1:31:55 Their system to deliver the electricity
1:31:59 So basically maintenance on their equipment
1:32:03 It's like if one of my tenants
1:32:06 Have been telling me about a leak in the roof
1:32:09 And suddenly the roof collapsed
1:32:12 And ruined all of their possessions and I said hey
1:32:16 Thanks for letting me know about that leak. We're going to put a new roof on isn't that great?
1:32:22 Totally missed the point that the tenant lost everything first energy
1:32:30 Has a critical care program and allison probably knows about this
1:32:34 Designed to support customers who rely on electrically powered medical equipment it says
1:32:43 Please note that customers requiring electric electrically operated life support equipment
1:32:49 Might need to obtain backup power sources
1:32:53 Such as generators or batteries or arrange for alternative locations
1:32:59 Parenthesis we do not provide backup generation generators or batteries in parentheses
1:33:09 A phrase that is often attributed to marie antoinette
1:33:17 Upon being told that the peasants had no bread
1:33:24 The phrase mentions cake an item that would have been enriched with butter and eggs
1:33:30 And considered a luxury food
1:33:33 The quote is understood to either reflect the queen's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight
1:33:42 To recommend to individuals
1:33:44 Requiring electrically operated life support equipment that they should obtain backup power sources
1:33:51 Such as generators or batteries or arrange for an alternative location is first energies. Let them eat cake
1:34:02 Sally you said it you can do better and you have to do better
1:34:06 Show your customers that you see us that you hear us
1:34:09 Provide batteries and generators repay us for for spoiled food and medicine
1:34:15 And refund us for the electricity that we paid for and that you could not deliver
1:34:20 Send every resident of lakewood
1:34:25 $3.02 billion profit and you'll still have three quarters of a billion dollars for yourselves. Thank you
1:34:35 All right. Next is councilman evans
1:34:42 Thank you to my colleagues and from members the administration the mayor of the law department
1:34:48 All the people who've put in such hard work on this issue over the last
1:34:54 It's it's it's been a lot. Um
1:34:56 And it's it's unfortunate. We have to be doing this. Um, I I think
1:35:00 most of my questions have been answered by um, or already asked by my colleagues and answered but
1:35:05 I just want I do want to circle back to this issue of we
1:35:08 Trust coming up several times during this conversation and that's that's absolutely where we're at where we're at
1:35:14 Um, you know, this all certainly looks good on a powerpoint. Um, i'm happy that we have
1:35:23 That have happened over the past year and we're continuing to happen
1:35:27 I'm really looking forward to see what this plan in december looks like to see how we're going to continue to evolve
1:35:32 and improve the electrical system
1:35:34 um, it's just it's really disappointing just to you know quickly learning about the difference between a
1:35:39 four kilovolt and 13 kilovolt system and and and why on earth in 2026 lakewood is still
1:35:46 operating on this antiquated system
1:35:50 Um, so I I mean again these plans are great, but um
1:35:55 To trust as we all know is earned. So um
1:35:59 I'm looking forward to and hoping that we can um
1:36:03 work towards a relationship that is healed and not as uh
1:36:07 Friendly fractured as it is right now
1:36:09 Um, so again, thank you to all the folks
1:36:13 Who've been pushing this issue?
1:36:15 Appreciate all the hard work
1:36:22 Council clerks the you're about to get logged out somebody can
1:36:29 Is councilman hamilton steiner?
1:36:34 Electricity is a necessary utility. This should be accessible to all that choose to use it
1:36:40 But yet our electricity is ran by a for-profit company that was involved in one of the largest bribery scandals
1:36:49 Please excuse me as I sit here as a skeptic my trust in first energy as a company is not there
1:36:56 I appreciate you all coming here representing your employer and I commend you for that
1:37:02 But my trust in your company first energy will return
1:37:06 When first energy provides consistent service without increasing resident rates and putting the costs of their failure to act on us
1:37:14 Co brian terryney has said that the entire electrical grid for lakewood needs to be replaced
1:37:20 At a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars taking seven to nine years
1:37:24 All while his 2025 total compensation was an astonishing 13 plus million dollars
1:37:32 Making him one of the top earners in the utility sector
1:37:35 Why hasn't lakewood been neglected for so long?
1:37:38 I am sure this can be researched and a report produced and i'm requesting a thorough investigation report on the why
1:37:45 This has happened. So this doesn't happen to us again, although I feel most folks will not be here in the next 100 years, but
1:37:53 More importantly to anyone else
1:37:57 Our entire grid needs to be replaced who is responsible for these costs and how will this be paid?
1:38:03 Those are my primary questions
1:38:06 And I would love to know just again
1:38:09 Having those answers ultimately who was going to pay for this
1:38:12 I was at some black parties over the weekend and that was the number one question
1:38:16 That I did receive from residents is that they want to know who was paying for these upgrades
1:38:21 And they said we should not be paying for that and I agree with them
1:38:25 I completely agree. I do not believe that we should be footing the bill for this
1:38:37 Thank you to the administration to my colleagues and to first energy for being here. I'm going to keep it brief because most of my
1:38:43 Questions already been asked by my colleagues and I want to give the public an opportunity to speak as well
1:38:48 I know several folks have said this
1:38:50 But I do want to emphasize how this is a life and death issue for some of the most vulnerable members of our community
1:38:55 And it's really important to emphasize
1:38:58 during the pre july 4th outage during during that
1:39:04 Walking around my ward and observing
1:39:08 A great number of folks who were sitting in their cars
1:39:13 with kids or with pets or doing whatever they could to
1:39:17 Stay cool during an outage with uh during a period of intense heat
1:39:22 And so it's certainly not lost to me. This this is a life or death issue
1:39:25 For a number of folks in our community
1:39:28 and for all of us, it's a quality of life issue and
1:39:34 Just about how this is a disruption for everyone. My brother-in-law likes to give me a hard time because
1:39:40 during one of the outages this summer
1:39:43 He he's an illiquid resident. He was in
1:39:46 The dentist office and he'd already he was sitting in the chair and he'd already had novocaine
1:39:50 And then all of a sudden the power goes out. And so it's just a reminder that folks are at all different stages of their day
1:39:57 When these sort of disruptions are are real
1:40:01 Just a a couple quick questions pertaining to the lakewood substation
1:40:09 I would love to see that station renamed as the athens substation to avoid confusion if that's possible
1:40:15 But just for a point of clarification
1:40:18 At the substation the first unit the first transformer was installed in june
1:40:25 is on site and scheduled for
1:40:28 Completion before the end of this year, is that accurate?
1:40:31 So the first transformer was installed in june. The second transformer is still in transit
1:40:35 But again, we're working to try to get that installed by the end of this year
1:40:39 Thank you. I appreciate that
1:40:42 And then sticking with that same substation
1:40:45 What I believe is the most recent outage
1:40:48 was on august 11th and it was kind of what I believe was a fluke scenario
1:40:53 Where a semi-truck hit a series of electric poles in west park
1:40:58 downstream and ultimately knocked out power to
1:41:02 Thousands of folks serviced by the lakewood substation
1:41:07 Obviously different scenario than much of what we've spoke about this evening
1:41:12 With something like that. How how susceptible are we to those sort of situations?
1:41:17 Just how much of a fluke is that?
1:41:20 And to your knowledge did this driver face any consequences for running into the series of pools?
1:41:31 I believe that outage that you're you're talking about so
1:41:35 It hit on the sub transmission system, and that's why there was a widespread outage
1:41:44 There's poles along the roads the roadways. I can't really speak to
1:41:52 Where we're going to have poles along the the roads
1:42:07 Council clerks, could you put up the um the chart or the um table please?
1:42:13 I just wanted to we've gone through most of these but I just wanted to
1:42:16 Touch on into the letter that I had sent to first energy asking for your engineering
1:42:22 Folks to be here to just talk through real quick. I think most of these we've touched on
1:42:27 but I just kind of want to go through so
1:42:29 This is a summary for members of the public. This is a summary of the corrective actions from the 2025 probable non-compliance
1:42:37 2026 probable non-compliance in the letter to first energy from the pco dated october 1st
1:42:43 And as I mentioned the 2026 ones are not finalized
1:42:50 Chart it has the things that are at the top are from the 2025
1:42:55 So as we just mentioned the first one is the liquid which is the substation by bird town
1:43:00 um that or the athens we're gonna just call it the athens substation here because
1:43:05 It's just too confusing every time we say liquid and there's multiple ones in liquid
1:43:09 um, so at the athens one the the first transformer, um, and i'm just gonna try to go through this quickly
1:43:15 So you can get to public comment
1:43:17 It was installed in july of 2026 correct. Is that
1:43:23 and then the second transformer at the um, newly renamed athens substation, uh,
1:43:31 Is the pco ordered it by june of 2027 but first energy you're saying you are hoping to have it by the end of the year
1:43:39 We're working with the equipment vendor to try to get it here as soon as possible so that
1:43:44 You know, so we're working for end of the year. We'll see how quickly they can get it to us though
1:43:52 Liquid, uh, that's the athens substation investigation that was due by the end of 2025
1:44:01 In coordination with transformer manufacturer third-party expert to undertake under identify underlying cause or causes of the premature failure of the two transformers
1:44:09 Installed at that substation
1:44:11 And provide pico staff for the copy so that has happened
1:44:17 And then the pole equipment inspection complete a visual or thermal
1:44:21 Imaging inspection of pole equipment in the city of liquid to proactively identify equipment at risk of failure or a need of repair replacement
1:44:31 Fully completed that's one on track for end of the year. Okay
1:44:41 Probable non-compliance was there an extension from the pco?
1:44:45 Oh, um, yeah, so it was due by the end of 2025 so we'll follow up on that
1:44:54 The inspections were completed 9 30 of 2025 which resulted in the 19 deficiencies. Okay
1:45:01 All right. So that was the inspections but not the
1:45:06 And then the pole equipment repairs replacements
1:45:10 Complete any repairs or replacements by the end of this year 12 12 31 26
1:45:19 So that will help theoretically with those downstream issues
1:45:24 Some people are watching at home. So that's why I have
1:45:26 audibly, uh given your nodding response, okay, and then
1:45:31 Complete deployment of smart meters in the city of liquid you've talked about that's on track
1:45:38 Supplemental outage notifications. We've talked about that for
1:45:43 Reporting those to the pco which the law department talked about how that helped them identify the larger issues
1:45:50 update cei's outage notification and etr systems so that was
1:45:55 Set to be completed by the end of 2025
1:46:02 And we talked about how that's
1:46:04 The system upgraded but we just haven't implemented the new
1:46:08 Way of not doing the automatic etr's for liquid customers
1:46:16 Because that was listed as being needed here. Sorry. Go ahead. Yes, so there's two things that are taking place here
1:46:24 We did update the et of etr for
1:46:28 large multi-day outages that has been in effect
1:46:31 um what we did around the enhancement that
1:46:35 Council and ministries has been asking for
1:46:37 Was something totally different so that was done to address
1:46:41 when you're having outages that may be single day, but
1:46:46 The etr system is not accurate. So two different things. Okay
1:46:52 So how would liquid residents benefit from this one that's listed? What would they how would they see that?
1:46:59 With the etr process that was completed by 2025
1:47:10 The et of etr were designed to allow us one during storms
1:47:15 We do not provide updates. I think both of us are aware of that. We wait till the storm has passed the event has passed
1:47:21 Our crew go out and do the assessment and then from there we provide we will provide an etr
1:47:28 So hence the etr of the etr
1:47:31 So that's the that was the upgrade we did
1:47:34 Late last year beginning of this year, okay
1:47:38 Okay, um and then integrating the smart meter data is set for the end of this year
1:47:45 And we're on track for that
1:47:48 Provide staff with a plan no later than the end of calendar year 2026 to integrate smart meter data uploads into the outage reporting and notification system
1:47:57 To ensure these notification of an outage via the smart meter even in the absence of a customer contact
1:48:05 You know on track on track, okay
1:48:08 All right, and then I won't go through the 2026 ones yet since they are not finalized. We talked through some of those in
1:48:16 You know, this is a lot of information. I know for the public to take in
1:48:19 I appreciate you sticking with us. I just think it's important for us to be able to go through the detail
1:48:24 Before we go to public comment
1:48:30 Couple things one we've talked a little about the rate case
1:48:33 We're not gonna we weren't going to go back and forth like I mentioned with the litigation. We did have
1:48:38 the ohio consumers council here in july
1:48:41 On the july 28th meeting talking about the 396.6 million the first energy
1:48:48 Collected for consumers for grid modernization phase one and is currently collecting 421 million for phase two
1:48:57 Note personally when we have 100 year old cables and liquid I would argue that we have not received the benefits of those
1:49:05 All right, and then we're going to go to public comment real quick. I just want to mention
1:49:11 At lakewood public library if you haven't gotten enough civic engagement
1:49:15 You can come to the lakewood public library tomorrow night at 7 pm
1:49:18 For an educational forum from the league of women voters about the five charter amendments that will be on the ballot
1:49:24 All right, when I call your name if you come up
1:49:28 I'm going to go in order of how you've signed in if you haven't signed in yet, but would like to give public comment
1:49:33 Please sign in over. There's another sign-in sheet
1:49:36 When you come up, please give your name
1:49:39 And address the chair. That's me
1:49:44 That means don't call names and
1:49:47 You'll have up to two minutes
1:49:49 So and I apologize if I mispronounce anybody's name. Also, it's generally not a back and q a it's a public comment
1:49:58 I or other council members may choose to take up your question
1:50:05 Did the administration want to ask any questions before we go to public comment?
1:50:09 All right. Thank you. Okay. So next up first up is
1:50:18 Apologize if i'm saying that incorrectly
1:50:28 And the microphone is on so when you come up you can just speak right into the microphone
1:50:38 Thank you. My name is linda barley
1:50:41 And i'm a resident of lakewood have lived in the greater cleveland area for more than 20 years
1:50:48 Before that I lived in colorado springs colorado for 23 years
1:50:53 I served two u.s. Senators there. I was a member of city council there
1:50:59 So colorado springs has a four-service municipal utility
1:51:07 They run it through their city council representatives who sit as the board of directors of the public utility
1:51:15 We had gas electric water and waste water
1:51:19 And the thing I learned from all of that was that they are all four intimately related
1:51:25 If you have a problem with one
1:51:28 You've got a three-legged four-legged chair
1:51:33 Keep aware of what other things are going on in the utility sector
1:51:39 when we have a utility company that is
1:51:45 maintenance in their long-range planning
1:51:49 We have a serious problem here
1:51:53 One thing about colorado springs municipal utilities
1:52:00 We had rates that were 30 lower
1:52:03 Than other cities of our size
1:52:10 Lakewood's weather patterns are very similar. You cannot rely on the availability
1:52:19 Maintenance you have to have backup capability and you have to know when to
1:52:29 Invest in that but also you need a
1:52:35 Communication program from the suppliers to let the people know
1:52:39 Monthly what the status is of utilities in their rely in their neighborhood
1:52:48 All right. Next is lauren small
1:52:53 And thank you all for sticking with us, I know it's a been a long meeting
1:53:01 I appreciate it. Can you hear me?
1:53:03 My name is lauren small. I'm representing the business community. I'm the ceo and president of the lakewood chamber of commerce
1:53:16 Reliable energy is essential for a strong lakewood business community
1:53:21 The lakewood chamber of commerce commerce stands with mayor george and city council
1:53:28 In their continued efforts to hold first energy accountable for the reliability of lakewood's electrical
1:53:35 Infrastructure and the impact that the repeated outages have had on our community
1:53:40 For lakewood businesses reliable electricity is not simply a convenience. It is essential infrastructure
1:53:48 Power outages for businesses mean lost sales
1:53:51 spoiled inventory interrupted operations damaged equipment lost employee hours
1:53:57 and ultimately significant costs for businesses
1:54:01 That are already navigating rising expenses
1:54:04 Um the events of the summer have made those concerns impossible to ignore
1:54:09 We appreciate the persistent advocacy of mayor george and city council
1:54:14 As well as the action taken by pucco to investigate the causes of lakewood's recurring outages
1:54:24 We also support the city of lakewood's decision to intervene
1:54:31 In the pending rate increase case
1:54:34 Lakewood residents and businesses deserve reliable service
1:54:38 meaningful investment in the infrastructure serving our community and accountability for ongoing
1:54:44 We share the city's concern that customers should not be asked to shoulder additional costs
1:54:50 Without confidence that the underlying reliability issues are being addressed
1:54:56 As the voice of the lakewood business community the chamber will continue to advocate
1:55:01 For energy system that is reliable accountable and affordable for businesses
1:55:06 So that they continue to invest in this community
1:55:12 All right. Next is ashley drachenberg
1:55:22 Hello council. Hello everyone. My name is ashley drachenberg. I'm a resident off of newman avenue
1:55:30 I just want to start off by saying that lakewood is supposed to be a nice area for us to live in
1:55:35 And that first energies and actions are directly causing our community to not be able to be such a nice area
1:55:41 That has businesses and schools
1:55:44 And event centers that have reliable electricity to carry out those businesses and those needs
1:55:50 When you are a business you have obligations to maintain your own equipment. They are not costs for you to push off onto the consumer
1:56:00 You have obligations if you had done these in the first place
1:56:05 We wouldn't have this much suffering with people throwing out their produce and their food and their medicine
1:56:10 And trying to find places to go that they can cool down
1:56:13 It seems like you guys are cutting corners while charging premium rates and that doesn't make any sense
1:56:18 And on top of that you want to raise our rates where eventually we're going to be paying 15 more a month
1:56:23 For what is that to subsidize the data centers that seem to be popping up all over cleveland
1:56:27 When it comes to these short or these smart meters, do they even work?
1:56:30 Our council has already said that these are not going to lead to more reliable energy
1:56:35 And this like if it doesn't do that
1:56:37 What is even the point of investing in that?
1:56:40 And I don't even know if mine is really reliable it says that my highest energy use is between 12 a.m
1:56:45 And 6 a.m. I don't even have ac in my house. How is that supposed to be my peak energy usage?
1:56:53 Additionally you invested over six million dollars into those you could have paid that fine twice over already
1:56:59 If you had just paid the fine instead of this silly little gimmick
1:57:03 The three million dollars and that same thread to our council
1:57:06 Please do urge puko to give that to our city and not to the whole state because it's not the whole state that's suffering
1:57:14 Specifically that is suffering
1:57:16 Additionally with first energy you guys keep going back and forth. We have a plan
1:57:19 We have a plan at the end of the year
1:57:21 We'll have a plan at the end of the year and on top of it you have over a year to go over
1:57:26 This stuff like you want to have trust in the community pay the fine fix the issues
1:57:32 Do the research and don't needlessly raise our rates and take accountability because if you think that we didn't notice that you deflected
1:57:38 Most of those questions we most certainly did. Thank you very much
1:57:45 Council clerks, you can let this slide go if you want. All right, um, allison urbanek
1:57:57 Hi everyone. My name is allison urbanek. I am a resident of lakewood
1:58:01 I live at 1506 st charles avenue, but I also am representing barton communities
1:58:06 We provide affordable housing for older adults in lakewood. We have over 700 people under our roofs
1:58:13 And that is 700 older adults who are vulnerable people
1:58:18 So we have already talked about a critical care plan. Thank you cindy and the let them eat cake is really apropos
1:58:25 And then there's a vulnerable care plan. We stood together
1:58:29 I remember miss thomas talking at the lakewood civic about
1:58:32 The vulnerable population plan and how we can sign up for that and it's going to make a difference
1:58:37 We're still here. No one is talking about a vulnerable population plan. No one is talking about critical care
1:58:44 We've talked about maybe being in the dentist chair
1:58:46 We've maybe talked about going to a coffee shop and how you know
1:58:49 We've had to hurry up to get to a meeting
1:58:52 But we really haven't talked about the people that you are affecting by having power outages
1:58:57 We're not talking about the layers that come from not only losing power, but we have mobility challenges
1:59:03 We have equipment that runs on that electricity that is provided by first energy
1:59:08 And then if we don't have it we have to figure out how to get from point a to point b
1:59:13 Again adding mobility challenges. We have to open cove community center to be a place for people to cool down
1:59:21 It's the citizens of lakewood
1:59:24 It is not first energy to my knowledge and perhaps we need to talk more about that
1:59:28 Perhaps we need to talk about the costs that are
1:59:32 Accrued by the people we haven't talked about the people
1:59:36 We need to prioritize people over profits and I hope that the words that are coming out of the mouth tonight of the people
1:59:44 representing first energy will consider
1:59:46 people over profits and the health effects that their actions have on our community and I hope we talk more about
1:59:53 Vulnerable populations and critical care plans and we don't put the onus on the residents to take care of their own generators
2:00:00 And their own backup batteries because let them eat cake
2:00:17 Nottage I live over on morrison
2:00:20 Let me commend again of city council and of the administration for all of your efforts in
2:00:27 Getting this getting this done
2:00:30 But i'd like to address first energy because on on july 2nd it hit home for me because
2:00:34 I wound up in the er due to a respiratory event
2:00:41 Not to mention I mean there were medical expenses involved
2:00:45 The next couple of days we lost 300 bucks worth of food because we were prepping for fourth of july
2:00:50 And this should not have happened. This is something that
2:00:53 Well, I didn't feel comfortable. So I guess
2:00:57 I had to I had to decide to eat cake
2:00:59 So I had I couldn't afford that happening again, and I couldn't afford the 1700 generator that I bought
2:01:06 I shouldn't have had to do that
2:01:08 This isn't a time for baby steps by any measure
2:01:11 This is a time for concrete action and the citizens of lakewood are going to be watching very closely
2:01:19 Looked at all your presentations
2:01:22 You mentioned reducing the frequency and duration of future power outages. Well, let's strive for no power outages
2:01:29 You know backup generators are a good idea peak demand rebate programs is a great idea. I think we'd appreciate that
2:01:37 And i've been pushing for the possibility of temporary rate reductions
2:01:42 If we have to suffer through this again
2:01:47 Proactive assessment is paramount is absolutely paramount again. No baby steps major steps
2:01:53 Let's cut through the bureaucracy and get this thing done
2:01:57 Let's see. I made some notes here. Um
2:02:04 We had a heat emergency, but remember last winter how bad it got winter is coming
2:02:11 Senior residents should end up freezing to death because of the power going out
2:02:15 This is something that none of you want to have on your conscious of the consciousness
2:02:20 So think about that and think about taking these bold steps in the future. Thank you very much
2:02:26 All right next uh, barbara paul paulin
2:02:32 On detroit avenue, I apologize if i'm misreading your handwriting. She may have left. Okay
2:02:37 Um any barber that wanted to speak?
2:02:40 Okay. All right, and then teresa swinney
2:03:11 He survives on a ventilator in our home in lakewood when the power goes out
2:03:21 suffers through a life or death situation
2:03:24 Where we have to contact bms
2:03:27 To come and extract him from our home no matter what the weather is
2:03:33 What else is happening? No matter how stable he has been in our home?
2:03:37 And he has to go to the hospital and be hospitalized in an icu
2:03:44 It destabilizes my son's health
2:03:48 It takes away income from our family because we are paid providers for my son
2:03:59 put in a request for a whole house generator
2:04:03 To support my son's medical needs
2:04:06 Through the department of developmental disabilities and our county board of developmental disabilities has repeatedly denied
2:04:12 That request although they say that my son
2:04:19 24 hours a day seven day a week eyes on care, which means that we cannot leave him
2:04:27 Alone at all for any reason my son has a tracheostomy. He likes to try and pull that out. That is his airway
2:04:36 I cannot purchase a portable generator
2:04:41 Leave him alone to go outside to try and figure out how to get there from my garage to my house
2:04:45 Start that up and leave my son unattended because it is a life or death situation for him
2:04:54 He just turned 30 years old on september 7th
2:04:59 He has not stayed alive for 30 years
2:05:01 Just because we have been standing around twiddling our thumbs and on days that the power goes out and it has happened
2:05:08 Frequently over the years. This is not just a new problem
2:05:11 We used to live on lincoln avenue and every time the wind blew the wrong way our power went out
2:05:17 And we worked with our council person all those years ago
2:05:20 This was probably back in the 2000s to try and rectify that issue
2:05:24 This has been an ongoing issue in the in the city for more years than I can count my son's life
2:05:31 Demands that we have reliable power
2:05:38 When ems has to come to our house and be diverted from other real emergencies
2:05:45 For other residents that is unacceptable when my son has to be diverted to a hospital
2:05:51 Where there are germs and things that can kill him outside of not having oxygen and a working ventilator
2:06:03 You all should be ashamed of yourselves
2:06:06 We pay insane rates for electricity. I am running a literal icu in my home
2:06:16 Running for my son. I can't supply enough tanks in my house to keep him home during power outage his bed deflates
2:06:22 During a power outage. I cannot operate the electricity on his bed to readjust him
2:06:28 I literally cannot run anything in my house for more than a few hours and he has to be taken out of his bed
2:06:34 Because he is at great risk for pressure ulcers that can kill him
2:06:39 outside of his airway issues
2:06:42 If his bed deflates and I cannot adjust him and you know how hard it is to move someone who literally cannot assist you at all
2:06:50 If you'd like to find out you're welcome to come to my house and give it a shot
2:06:54 It is exceptionally difficult
2:06:56 And then we have to put him somewhere where he is not safe
2:07:00 And then we have to call ems because we already know that if my son is not in his specialized bed
2:07:05 He is at risk for pressure ulcers if he stays in that bed. He's at risk for pressure ulcers
2:07:10 If we can't keep enough oxygen tanks going he's at risk his ventilator only operates for a few hours
2:07:18 We cannot continue to exist like this
2:07:22 It is unsafe. It is traumatic
2:07:29 Yeah, thank you. Miss weenie. I really appreciate you coming and speaking this truth
2:07:34 Thank you. I can I pass this stuff
2:07:36 I would appreciate if you could take this back to your president and ceo so that he can see my son noah
2:07:42 And understand that this isn't about inconvenience. This isn't about
2:07:47 Small disruptions to our life. I forget what the word was that you used
2:07:54 Are you kidding me for us? This is life or death
2:07:59 You can hand that maybe to um, yeah, thank you
2:08:05 Thank you for sharing that I know that it was very hard to share. Um council clerks
2:08:10 Do we have anyone else signed in to speak?
2:08:15 Okay, I think that's a powerful message to end on. Um
2:08:19 I want to thank everyone for being here. I want to thank first energy for being here
2:08:23 Um, and I think the administration for preparing your remarks my council colleagues
2:08:28 We're gonna stay on this stay tuned members of the public if you would like information about the first energy rate increase
2:08:35 There is a handout over here
2:08:37 From our partners at the ohio consumers council with some information about that
2:08:42 I hope to see you tomorrow night for the charter review commission
2:08:46 And if not, we'll see you next next time back here at council with nothing further to become before council without objection