Executive Committee Meeting
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
3:00 pm
In Person:
Altamont Conference Room
Ava Community Energy
1999 Harrison St, Suite 2300
Oakland, CA 94612
Or from the following locations:
24301 Southland Drive, Suite 101 Hayward, CA 94545
Hayward City Hall, Conference Room 4A, 777 B St, Hayward, CA 94541 Stockton City Hall, 425 N El Dorado St., Stockton CA 95202 Balch Enterprises, Inc. - 30960 Huntwood Avenue, Hayward, CA 94544 Via Zoom:
https://avaenergy-org.zoom.us/j/88267670367
Or join by phone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or 877 853 5257 (Toll Free) or 888 475 4499 (Toll Free) Webinar ID: 882 676 70367
Meetings are accessible to people with disabilities. Individuals who need special assistance or a disability-related modification or accommodation to participate in this meeting, or who have a disability and wish to request an alternative format for the meeting materials, should contact the Clerk of the Board at least 2 working days before the meeting at (510) 906- 0491 or [email protected].
If you have anything that you wish to be distributed to the Executive Committee, please email it to the clerk by 5:00 pm the day prior to the meeting.
1. Welcome & Roll Call
2. Public Comment
This item is reserved for persons wishing to address the Executive Committee on any Ava Community Energy-related matters that are not otherwise on this meeting agenda. Public comments on matters listed on the agenda shall be heard at the time the matter is called.
As with all public comment, members of the public who wish to address the Committee are customarily limited to three minutes per speaker and must complete an electronic speaker Ava Community Energy
Executive Committee Page | 2
slip. The Executive Committee Chair may increase or decrease the time allotted to each speaker.
3. Approval of Minutes from December 3, 2025
4. Customer Care and Data Management Services Procurement Plan (Informational Item)
Informational item regarding staff intentions to follow the procurement policy for CCDMS contracting
5. Committee Member and Staff Announcements including requests to place items on future Executive Committee Agendas
6. Adjourn
The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 3pm.
Draft Minutes
Executive Committee Meeting
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
3:00 pm
In Person:
Altamont Conference Room
Ava Community Energy
1999 Harrison St, Suite 2300
Oakland, CA 94612
Or from the following locations:
Hayward City Hall, Conference Room 4A, 777 B St, Hayward, CA 94541 Stockton City Hall, 425 N El Dorado St., Stockton CA 95202 City Council Office, Pleasanton City Hall, 123 Main St., Pleasanton, CA 94566 Via Zoom:
https://avaenergy-org.zoom.us/j/88267670367
Or join by phone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or 877 853 5257 (Toll Free) or 888 475 4499 (Toll Free) Webinar ID: 882 676 70367
Meetings are accessible to people with disabilities. Individuals who need special assistance or a disability-related modification or accommodation to participate in this meeting, or who have a disability and wish to request an alternative format for the meeting materials, should contact the Clerk of the Board at least 2 working days before the meeting at (510) 906- 0491 or [email protected].
If you have anything that you wish to be distributed to the Executive Committee, please email it to the clerk by 5:00 pm the day prior to the meeting.
1. (2:18) Welcome & Roll Call
Present: Members: Marquez (Alameda County), Balch (Pleasanton), Andersen (Piedmont), Fugazi (Stockton), Vice-Chair Roche (Hayward) and Chair Gonzalez (San Leandro)
Vice-Chair Roche joined the meeting at 3:14pm.
2. (3:02) Public Comment
Ava Community Energy
Executive Committee Page | 2
This item is reserved for persons wishing to address the Executive Committee on any Ava Community Energy-related matters that are not otherwise on this meeting agenda. Public comments on matters listed on the agenda shall be heard at the time the matter is called.
As with all public comment, members of the public who wish to address the Committee are customarily limited to three minutes per speaker and must complete an electronic speaker slip. The Executive Committee Chair may increase or decrease the time allotted to each speaker.
There were no speakers for public comment.
3. (3:42) Approval of Minutes from November 5, 2025
No comments
Member Andersen motioned to approve the minutes. Member Marquez seconded the motion, which was approved 4/0/1/0/1 (yes, no, abstain, recuse, not present) Yes: Members: Marquez, Balch, Andersen and Chair Gonzalez No: none
Abstain: Member Fugazi
Recuse: none
Not Present: Vice-Chair Roche
4. (3:58) Value Proposition (Informational Item)
Review potential changes to value proposition for January 2026 CEO Howard Chang introduced the item and addressed questions from the Executive Committee.
(23:48) Public Comment: Jim Lutz, member of the Community Advisory Committee but speaking on his own behalf, reminded board members that "customers, when they're looking at their electricity bill, do not differentiate between PG&E and Ava." He noted that while Ava's portion of the bill would go down, PG&E's distribution charges were going up slightly, and "the bulk of the price, the charge is PG&E's distribution transmission rates."
5. (50:54) Opt-Out Fee Removal (Informational Item)
Review proposal to remove fees for customers opting out of Ava service Kelly Brezovec, Senior Director, Account Services, introduced the item and addressed questions from the Executive Committee.
There were no speakers for public comment.
6. (58:48) Community Investment Grants (Informational Item) Review Ava Community Investment grants and plans for future grantmaking JP Ross, Vice-President, Local Development, Electrification and Innovation, introduced the item and addressed questions from the Executive Committee.
Ava Community Energy
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(1:12:52) Public Comment – Jim Lutz, Community Advisory Committee member but speaking on his own behalf, spoke in favor of creating additional grant funding levels between the hyper local and the $300,000 level.
7. (1:24:16) Committee Member and Staff Announcements including requests to place items on future Executive Committee Agendas
Member Balch noted the next meeting was scheduled for January 14 rather than the typical first Wednesday of the month. Staff confirmed that this was intentional due to the holiday break and board member availability.
8. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 4:23pm.
The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 at 3pm.
Staff Report Item 4
Staff Report Item 4
To: Ava Community Energy Authority
From: Kelly Brezovec, Sr. Director of Account Services
Subject:
Seeking feedback from the Executive Committee to follow Ava’s Procurement Policy guidelines with respect to the functions performed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for call center and data management services Date: January 14, 2026
__________________________________________________________________ Summary/Recommendation
This Staff Report seeks to obtain feedback from the Executive Committee regarding Procurement Policy guidelines for mission-critical products and services with respect to the functions performed today by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for call center and data management services. The updated policy was recently adopted at the October 22, 2025 Board Meeting, therefore work to be completed in 2026 is among the first to follow the new guidelines.
Analysis and Context
The Master Services Agreement (MSA) with SMUD was originally signed in February 2018 for a term through December 2020. The MSA was extended initially for two years (2021-2022) and again for two years (2023-2024) after a competitive solicitation was run in 2021. The MSA was amended a third time to set the term from 2025 through 2029. Associated with the MSA have been three Task Orders: Task Order 1 running from 2018 through 2020; Task Order 2 running 2021 through 2024; and Task Order 3 running 2025 through 2026. Task Order 4 is for Accounts Receivable Recovery services and also runs through 2026. As of December 31, 2026, the Task Order for services will expire, but the Master Services Agreement will remain valid. Under this scenario, SMUD is contractually eligible to provide services but does not have a qualified Task Order under which to bill for services.
Staff Report Item 4
In planning for 2027, staff is exploring following the new procurement policy guidelines for mission critical services in order to put a Task Order 5 in place with SMUD. Notably, agreements for mission critical services do not require a public Request for Proposal (RFP) process, which is otherwise standard for contracts that will exceed $100,000 in 12 months.
Mission Critical Service
Ava’s Procurement Policy states:
Transactions for products and services that are, for all practical purposes, essential to Ava’s day-to-day operations qualify as purchases of mission-critical products and services.
Considerations for whether a transaction is mission critical include the following:
The extent to which Ava’s essential operations are dependent upon the product or service.
Call center and data management services qualifies as mission-critical, given that the scope includes receiving and transmitting usage and billing information with PG&E, sending approximately 8.5 million bills annually, tracking over $1 billion in annual payments, and managing an average of 4,600 customer contacts each month. Without this service, Ava would not be able to manage customer billing and payments.
The difficulty level of finding and transitioning to an alternative supplier that meets Ava’s requirements.
Today, California CCAs receive data management services from either SMUD or Calpine Energy Services. During the previous RFP period in 2021, Ava received proposals from Calpine and SMUD, as well as a third bidder that is no longer providing these CCA support services.
Ava continued to partner with SMUD for the necessary services.
SMUD is a 75-year-old municipal electric utility serving over 1.5 million customers in Sacramento County. SMUD’s Community Energy Services department leveraged existing knowledge and expertise to develop services in response to CCA RFPs in 2017. Today, SMUD provides CCAs with call center support, data management services, and energy program support.
Calpine’s main business is energy production, namely natural gas turbines and the geothermal facility in Sonoma County. Calpine also provides call center and data management services to CCAs out of their San Diego, California office. In January 2025, another energy provider, Constellation Energy, purchased Calpine. To date, this has not impacted Calpine’s CCA services.
Staff is satisfied with SMUD’s performance and based on the 2021 RFP, finds SMUD to offer a customized solution that is superior to the standardized product offered by Calpine. Additionally, Staff Report Item 4
while transitioning between providers is possible, this is an operational hurdle that would require careful consideration and significant staff resources and time.
The degree of financial and/or reputational harm Ava would face in the event of an outage or other material instance of unavailability.
As previously discussed, call center and data management services are the engine that allow Ava to bill customers. Without the ability to bill, Ava would also lose the ability to receive payments, rendering the Agency insolvent.
Recommendation
Staff recommend moving forward with an agreement with SMUD for call center and data management services, in alignment with Ava’s approved procurement policy. As outlined, these services qualify as a mission-critical service and will be exempt from the formal RFP process.
Staff will continue to follow all requirements as stated in the policy.