MCE BOARD MEETING MINUTES1
Thursday, January 15, 2026
6:30 P.M.
Present: Liz Alessio, County of Napa and Four Napa Cities/Town (American Canyon, Calistoga, St. Helena, and Yountville) Stephanie Andre, City of Larkspur
Dion Bailey, City of Hercules, left at 10:30pm
Mark Belotz, Town of Danville
Kari Birdseye, City of Benicia
Monica Brown, County of Solano
Barbara Coler, Town of Fairfax
Cindy Darling, City of Walnut Creek
Jill Hoffman, City of Sausalito, arrived at 6:45pm
Kevin Jacobs, City of Novato
Arlene Kobata, City of Pittsburg
Maika Llorens Gulati, City of San Rafael, joined at 7:11pm John McCormick, City of Lafayette
Aaron Meadows, City of Oakley, arrived at 6:37pm
Devin Murphy, City of Pinole, left at 8:22pm
Laura Nakamura, City of Concord
Beth Painter, City of Napa, left at 9:43pm
Charles Palmares, City of Vallejo
Max Perrey, City of Mill Valley
Mary Sackett, County of Marin
Manveer Sandhu, City of Fairfield
Shanelle Scales-Preston, County of Contra Costa, Chair
Amanda Szakats, City of Pleasant Hill
Graham Thiel, Town of Moraga
Sally Wilkinson, City of Belvedere
Carolyn Wysinger, City of El Cerrito, left at 10:21pm
Cesar Zepeda, City of Richmond
Brianne Zorn, City of Martinez
Absent: Eli Beckman, Town of Corte Madera
C. William Kircher, Jr., Town of Ross
Tarrell Kullaway, Town of San Anselmo
Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado, City of San Pablo
Holli Thier, Town of Tiburon
Sridhar Verose, City of San Ramon
1 Approval of the minutes is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA
Staff
& Others: Jared Blanton, VP of Public Affairs
Jesica Brooks, Lead Board Clerk and Executive Assistant Alice Havenar-Daughton, VP of Customer Programs
Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer
Tanya Lomas, Board Clerk
Linda Lye, Senior Legal Counsel
Nathaniel Malcolm, Senior Commercial Counsel
Catalina Murphy, General Counsel
Ashley Muth, Internal Operations Associate
Justine Parmelee, VP of Internal Operations
Mike Rodriguez-Vargas, Internal Operations Assistant
Enyonam Senyo-Mensah, Manager of Internal Operations
Jamie Tuckey, Chief Customer Officer
Dawn Weisz, Chief Executive Officer
1. Roll Call
Chair Scales-Preston called the regular meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. with quorum established by roll call.
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
There were no announcements.
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by members of the public, Alicia Minyen, Ron Arlas, Jody Timms, Shawn Marshall, and Alison Madden.
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
CEO Weisz introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by member of the public, Lewis Derfuss.
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1 Approval of 11.20.25 Meeting Minutes
C.2 Approved Contracts for Energy Update
C.3 Addition of Board Members to Committees
C.4 Ensuring Accuracy in Local Information
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA C.5 Policy Update of Legislative and Regulatory Items
Director Andre requested that item C.4 be pulled from the consent calendar for discussion. The Chair accepted the request and opened the floor for questions and comments from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by members of the public, Alicia Minyen, Lewis Derfuss, Dan Segedin and Nick Pappas.
Action 1: It was M/S/C (Darling/Coler) to approve Consent Calendar items C.1, C.2, C.3, and C.5. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. Directors Beckman and Quinto rotated off the Executive Committee. Directors Birdseye and Painter were added to the Executive Committee. Directors Andre, McCormick, and Wilkinson were added to the Finance Committee. Directors Coler and Murphy were added to the 2026 Ad Hoc Contracts Committee. (Absent: Beckman, Kircher, Jr., Kullaway, Llorens-Gulati, Pabon-Alvarado, Thier, and Verose). 2
Action 2: It was M/S/C (Hoffman/Brown) for staff to bring C.4 back to the full Board as an informational item after further analysis by staff and further review by the Technical Committee. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Beckman, Kircher, Jr., Kullaway, Pabon-Alvarado, Thier, and Verose). 3
Begin Closed Session Chair Scales-Preston opened the closed session at 8:20 p.m.
6. Return to Open Session – Roll Call
Chair Scales-Preston returned to open session at 9:21 p.m. and quorum was established by roll call.
10. Corby Battery Energy Storage (Discussion)
Chair Scales-Preston adjusted the order of items and opened up the discussion on item 10.
Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer, introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
2 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
3 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by members of the public, Alicia Minyen, Chris Heise, Cheryl Whitfield, Sarah Dunn, Lewis Derfuss, Deanna Cole, Robin Jackel, Wendy Breckon, Alison Harris, and Pam Barringer.
Action: No action required.
7. Election of Chair and Vice Chair (Discussion/Action) Catalina Murphy, General Counsel, introduced this item.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
Action: It was M/S/C (Szakats/McCormick) to approve Shanelle Scales-Preston (County of Contra Costa) as Chair and Cindy Darling (City of Walnut Creek) as Vice Chair. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Beckman, Kircher Jr., Kullaway, Murphy, Pabon-Alvarado, Painter, Thier, and Verose).4
8. MCE Government Assessment (Discussion)
Chair Scales-Preston, Director Alessio, and Director Sackett, introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by members of the public, Jody Timms and Robert Miller.
Action: It was M/S/C (Szakats/Llorens-Gulati) to approve the creation of an Ad Hoc Governance Assessment Committee to consist of Shanelle Scales-Preston, Liz Alessio, Mary Sackett and Kari Birdseye. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. Motion carried by roll call vote. 27-Yays 1-No (No:
Zorn. Absent: Bailey, Beckman, Kircher Jr., Kullaway, Murphy, Pabon-Alvarado, Painter, Their, Verose, and Wysinger).5
9. Finance Committee Scope (Discussion/Action)
Justine Parmelee, VP of Internal Operations, introduced this item. Director Perrey provided a summary of the Finance Committee scope.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there was a comment by member of the public, Dan Segedin.
4 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
5 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA Action 1: It was M/S/C (Perrey/Scales-Preston) to approve the Draft Finance Committee Overview. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent:
Bailey, Beckman, Kircher Jr., Kullaway, Murphy, Pabon-Alvarado, Painter, Their, Verose, and Wysinger).6
Action 2: It was M/S/C (Perrey/Darling) to add Directors Alessio (County of Napa) and Palmares (City of Vallejo) to the Finance Committee. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Bailey, Beckman, Kircher Jr., Kullaway, Murphy, Pabon-Alvarado, Painter, Their, Verose, and Wysinger).
11. Customer Programs Update (Discussion)
Chair Scales-Preston deferred this item to a future meeting.
Action: No action required.
12. Voting Process (Discussion)
Catalina Murphy, General Counsel, introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there was a comment made by member of the public, Alicia Minyen.
Action: No action required.
13. Board & Staff Matters (Discussion)
There were comments made by Directors Szakats, Alessio, McCormick, Sandhu, Llorens-Gulati, Andre, Hoffman, Nakamura, Zepeda, and Perrey.
Chair Scales-Preston opened for public comment and comments were made by members of the public, Alicia Minyen and MCE Board member, Tarrell Kullaway.
Action: It was M/S/C (Llorens-Gulati/Hoffman) to end discussion and adjourn. Motion carried by roll call vote. Abstain-3. (Abstain: Belotz, Darling, and Zorn. Absent: Bailey, Beckman, Brown, Kircher Jr., Kullaway, Meadows, Murphy, Pabon-Alvarado, Painter, Their, Verose, and Wysinger).7
14. Adjournment
6 This item relates to the CCA program. Action requires voting share method. 7 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA Chair Scales-Preston adjourned the meeting at 11:53 p.m. to the next scheduled Board Meeting on February 19, 2026.
___________________________________________
Shanelle Scales-Preston, Chair
Attest:
___________________________________________
Dawn Weisz, Secretary
Docusign Envelope ID: 552B4E56-DF49-4CE5-9970-40DAF86342AA