MINUTES
Finance Committee
of the Clean Power Alliance of Southern California
Regular Meeting
Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 11:00 a.m.
Meeting videos are available on CPA's YouTube Channel.
http://www.youtube.com/@CPApublicmeetings
Committee Members participated in this meeting from the following locations:
Camarillo City Hall
Administrative Conference Room
601 Carmen Drive
Camarillo, CA 93010
Clean Power Alliance
Executive Conference Room
801 S. Grand Ave., Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Calabasas City Hall
Council Conference Room
100 Civic Center Way
Calabasas, CA 91302
Claremont City Hall
Council Office
207 Harvard Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Rolling Hills Estates City Hall
Conference Room
4045 Palos Verdes Drive North
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Thousand Oaks City Hall
City Manager’s Office, Council Office #1
2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Carson City Hall
Executive Conference Room
701 East Carson Street
Carson, CA 90745
CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL
Chair Santangelo called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. and Annie Mendoza, Deputy Clerk of the Board, conducted roll call.
ROLL CALL
Camarillo Susan Santangelo Committee Chair Remote
Calabasas Ed Albrecht Committee Member Remote
Carson Reata Kulcsar Committee Member Remote
Claremont Corey Calaycay Committee Member Remote
Rolling Hills
Estates
Steve Zuckerman Committee Member Remote
Santa Monica Pam O’Connor Committee Member Present
Thousand Oaks David Newman Committee Member Absent
All votes are unanimous, unless otherwise stated.
GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
CONSENT AGENDA
1. Approve Minutes from the October 29, 2025, Finance Committee Meeting
2. Receive and File December 2025 Risk Management Team Report
3. Receive and File December 2025 Investment Report
4. Receive and File November 2025 Financial Dashboard
Motion: Committee Member Zuckerman, Rolling Hills Estates Second: Committee Member Calaycay, Claremont
Vote: The consent agenda was approved by a roll call vote
REGULAR AGENDA
5. Oral Report from the Chief Financial Officer
David McNeil, Chief Financial Officer, reported that CPA selected Chandler Asset Management, based in San Diego, to help invest cash and review CPA’s investment policy. Mr. McNeil described future agenda items for the Finance Committee, including revisions to the Financial Reserves and Fiscal Stabilization Fund Policies.
Committee Member Zuckerman inquired about the search for an asset management firm, and Mr. McNeil stated that CPA ran a competitive process, considered proposals from four prominent fixed-income asset managers, and selected Chandler as the best firm for CPA’s needs. Mr. McNeil also thanked Committee Member Albrecht for his input in the decision-making process.
6. Provide Input on Proposal for a 2-Year Budget Structure Jennifer Stevenson, Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, explained that as CPA's business has matured with increasingly predictable multi-year planning, the annual budget structure presents opportunities for streamlining and improvement.
Staff is proposing a two-year budget structure in which the Board would approve two consecutive annual fiscal-year budgets simultaneously.
Under this proposal, the Board would be presented with a budget amendment for the second year of the two-year cycle to update revenue, energy costs, and contributions to the net position in line with the annual rate-setting process. This proposal seeks to increase agility, enhance efficiency, and optimize resources within the operating expense budget while maintaining appropriate oversight. Ms.
Stevenson described the current budget process and detailed how a two-year cycle would benefit CPA’s operations and spending.
Committee Member Albrecht remarked that he was impressed by the proposal, noting that CPA has grown as an organization and that a two-year budget cycle would improve financial operations. Committee Member Zuckerman expressed support, as did Committee Member Kulcsar. Staff clarified to the Committee that the CPA’s financial statements would continue to be audited annually. Both Chair Santangelo and Committee Member Calaycay noted that their cities were on two-year cycles before the pandemic and expressed support for the efficiency of budgets being approved for two years.
7. Receive Presentation on Bad Debt Reserve and Accounts Receivable Ms. Stevenson reported that CPA's bad debt reserve estimate methodology has been adjusted to reflect customer payment behavior, CPUC mandates, and SCE’s collection activities. Ms. Stevenson explained that CPA routinely assesses its bad-debt estimation method to ensure it accurately reflects recent customer payment behavior. CPA’s bad-debt reserve calculation methodology establishes fixed bad-debt reserve percentages representing the probability of non-payment, which are applied to Accounts Receivable grouped into different delinquency or aging buckets. CPA last updated the bad debt reserve percentages for both active and inactive accounts in March 2020 and November 2023, and in June 2025 updated the bad debt reserve percentages for Active Residential customer accounts who participate in payment arrangements and those with debt greater than 120 days outstanding.
Committee Member Albrecht asked about payment arrangements when an account is in arrears; staff responded that the customer would have an agreement with SCE to pay a certain amount per month, and that if they default on that, they will receive another disconnection notice and make a new payment arrangement.
Staff clarified for Committee Member Zuckerman that SCE can track bad debt customers if they open a new account within the SCE territory, and that another person at the bad-debt address may be able to open a new account in their name.
He also asked about estimates for successful collections, and staff stated that they have compared CPA’s calculations to SCEs, and they align.
Committee Member Kulcsar asked about the collections process; staff responded that SCE would try to collect for 90 days and, if unsuccessful, will refer the account to CPA for collection efforts. At that time, the debt is removed from SCE’s books, and CPA’s portion is placed on CPA’s books. CPA has been working with SCE to obtain accurate customer data in a timely manner, so collection has a better chance of success. CPA’s Board has approved a Collection Policy to govern CPA’s collections activities, but CPA has not yet started to collect accounts returned by SCE.
COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS
None
ADJOURN
Chair Santangelo adjourned the meeting at 11:44 a.m.