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The October 23, 2000 joint meeting of the Public Works and Property Vacation Committee,
the Utilities Committee and the Residential Neighborhoods Committee was called to order by
Public Works and Property Vacation Chairperson, Council Member David Varner at 3:34 p.m. in
the Council Informal Meeting room.
Persons in attendance included Council Members Aranowski, Pfeifer,Vamer, Kelly,
Ujdak, Kirsits, Coleman and White; Citizen Member Jean Troutman-Poole, Mayoral
Administrative Assistant Jack Reed, Community&Economic Development Executive Director Jon
Hunt, John Oxian, Public Works Director Gary Gilot, Carl Littrell, Dave Sweitzer, John Coffee,
Tom Grate and Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand, Council Attorney.
Council Member Varner noted that this joint meeting of the three (3) Standing Committees
of the Common Council was called in light of the continuing concerns with regard to services
being provided by the American Electric &Power. Dr. Varner noted that growing frustration with
regard to the failure of AEP to promptly address street light outages prompted the meeting.
Mr. Dave Sweitzer, Community Services Manager for AEP then introduced himself, John
Coffee, AEP Manager of Distribution and Tom Grate, AEP Communications Coordinator. Mr.
Sweitzer noted that he has been in the area two (2) years;Mr. Coffee has been here approximately
three(3) months,and Mr. Grate has been here less than three(3) months.
Council Member King noted that as Chairperson of the Residential Neighborhood
Committee,he is concerned about:
1. The low level of service response to service outages;and
2. The quality of service with regard to a"Mission Critical Resource".
Council Member King stated that the public is very frustrated after having called the AEP number
and getting no results and then calls their District and At Large Council Member for assistance. He
stressed that safety and security are affected resulting in disrupting the quality of life in our
neighborhoods. He suggested a % of uptime as the measuring stick which should be applied,
noting that the current % of uptime now as being totally unacceptable. He noted that the service
response time is miserable. Council Member King concluded that if the City had a choice in this
area is would not be doing business with AEP.
Council Member Kirsits voiced the following concerns:
1. Entire grid systems going out citing Portage Avenue as an example;
2. The AEP phone number having a person in West Virginia responding;
3. The run-around given by AEP when advised of an outage;
4. Two(2) Fire Department incidents:
* September 16th FD Dispatch Center reported to AEP of live wires down on
Olive Street with poor AEP response;and
Joint Meeting of the Public Works &Property Vacation Committee,
Utilities Committee & Residential Neighborhood Committee
October 23, 2000
Page 2
* October 4th: FD Dispatch Center report to AEP of live wires down across
from the Mayor's house creating a reverse feed-AEP
response was 1 1/2 hours later.
In both instances,AEP stated that they did not know when they would be able to respond.
Council Member Kirsits urged AEP to address these growing public safety issues resulting from
the lack of AEP timely responses.
Council Member Aranowski noted that the Keller Park area may have an entire grid system
out which has raised many public safety concerns.
Mr. Coffee stated that for the past 1-2 weeks AEP has been implementing solutions to these
concerns. He stated that he met with the Mayor in late July to discuss these many of these items.
He noted that there are two (2) kinds of street light designs: 1: individual photo control; and 2:
single control over 15-30 lights. The majority of the City's system is under a single control. It
was established at the meeting with the Mayor that a 2-3 day response time would be implemented
with a 24-hour response being preferable. Mr. Coffee stated that the task team has determined that
bulb outages make up 56% of the problems. Other items discussed in July included dedicating one
(1) AEP employee full-time to South Bend service needs; and identifying repeat bulb outages
which would be tracked and causes identified.
Mr. Coffee noted that there were 190 outages as of October 9, 2000 which will be worked
down to zero. He noted that within 1-2 weeks AEP should be down to one (1) person handling
the outages since they now are using a second employee on overtime to address the current
outages. He noted that some of the problems may be underground and that they may desire to
partner with the City to address problem areas under sidewalks,etc.
Dr. Varner suggested:
1. AEP designate a local number instead of using the call center;
2. Replacing all burned out bulbs immediately;and
3. That AEP should put in writing to the Common Council their commitments.
He noted that many of the street light outages in the Fifth District have been out for 3-4 months
which is totally unacceptable.
Mr. Coffee stated that meeting the expectations of the City will be the goal of AEP and that
they will see that there is action to their commitment.
Council President Pfeifer suggested that the AEP representatives return to the Council at
3:30 p.m. on Monday, November 27th. She further requested a breakdown of street light outages
listing those which are bulbs only and those which are underground problems.
Council Member King thanked the AEP representatives for their input and for coming to
the joint Committee meeting. He noted that we must determine what would be an acceptable
average downtime in light of the reasonable expectations of the public for this service;
Joint Meeting of the Public Works &Property Vacation Committee,
Utilities Committee &Residential Neighborhood Committee
October 23, 2000
Page 3
and determine an average overall uptime percentage for the City.
Dr. Varner thanked the AEP representatives and then adjourned the meeting at 4:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Council Member David Varner,Chairperson
Public Works and Property Vacation Committee
Council Member Al`Buddy"Kirsits, Chairperson
Utilities Committee
Council Member Karl King, Chairperson
Residential Neighborhoods Committee
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