MCE BOARD MEETING MINUTES1
Thursday February 19, 2026
6:30 P.M.
Present: Stephanie Andre, City of Larkspur
Dion Bailey, City of Hercules
Eli Beckman, Town of Corte Madera
Mark Belotz, Town of Danville
Kari Birdseye, City of Benicia
Barbara Coler, Town of Fairfax
Cindy Darling, City of Walnut Creek
Joelle Gallagher, Alternate, County of Napa and Four Napa Cities/Town (American Canyon, Calistoga, St. Helena, and Yountville)
Jill Hoffman, City of Sausalito, arrived at 6:45pm
Kevin Jacobs, City of Novato
Robert Jweinat, Alternate, City of San Ramon
Arlene Kobata, City of Pittsburg
Tarrell Kullaway, Town of San Anselmo
Maika Llorens Gulati, City of San Rafael
Eduardo Martinez, City of Richmond
John McCormick, City of Lafayette
Aaron Meadows, City of Oakley
Devin Murphy, City of Pinole
Laura Nakamura, City of Concord
Beth Painter, City of Napa
Charles Palmares, City of Vallejo
Max Perrey, City of Mill Valley, joined at 6:38pm
Mary Sackett, County of Marin
Manveer Sandhu, City of Fairfield
Shanelle Scales-Preston, County of Contra Costa, Chair
Amanda Szakats, City of Pleasant Hill, joined at 7:23pm Graham Thiel, Town of Moraga, joined at 6:57pm
Sally Wilkinson, City of Belvedere, joined at 6:38pm
Absent: Monica Brown, County of Solano
C. William Kircher, Jr., Town of Ross
Patricia Ponce, City of San Pablo
Holli Thier, Town of Tiburon
Carolyn Wysinger, City of El Cerrito
Brianne Zorn, City of Martinez
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: 59A8C890-E937-4050-9375-207300CBB4C5 Staff
& Others: Jared Blanton, VP of Public Affairs
Kaladhar Bollampalli, Director of Power Systems and Analytics Jesica Brooks, Lead Board Clerk and Executive Assistant Vidhi Chawla, VP of Power Resources
Alice Havenar-Daughton, VP of Customer Programs
Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer
Tanya Lomas, Board Clerk
Linda Lye, Senior Legal Counsel
Lindsay Meehan, Director of Human Resources
Catalina Murphy, General Counsel
Ashley Muth, Internal Operations Associate
Efren Oxlaj, Manager of Finance
Justine Parmelee, VP of Internal Operations
Zae Perrin, VP of Customer Operations
Mike Rodriguez-Vargas, Internal Operations Assistant
Enyonam Senyo-Mensah, Manager of Internal Operations
Maira Strauss, Chief Financial Officer
Jamie Tuckey, Chief Customer Officer
Dawn Weisz, Chief Executive Officer
1. Roll Call
Chair Scales-Preston called the regular meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. with quorum established by roll call.
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
There were comments from Director Sackett.
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments made by members of the public Dan Segedin, Nick Pappas, and Jody Timms.
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 no comments.
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1 Approval of 1.15.26 Meeting Minutes
Docusign Envelope ID: 59A8C890-E937-4050-9375-207300CBB4C5 C.2 Addition of Board Members to Committees
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
Action: It was M/S/C (Llorens Gulati/Coler) to approve Consent Calendar items C.1 and C.2. Motion carried by roll call vote. 1-Abstain (Abstain:
Kullaway. Absent: Beckman, Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Szakats, Thiel, Thier, Wysinger and Zorn).2
6. Proposed MCE Rate Reduction, Effective April 1, 2026 (Discussion/Action)3
Maira Strauss, Chief Financial Officer, and Kaladhar Bollampalli, Director of Power Systems and Analytics, introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there were comments from members of the public Nick pappas, Susannah Saunders, Dan Segedin, Jody Timms, and Robert Miller.
Action 1: It was M/S/D (Llorens Gulati/ Sackett) to approve, for purposes of supporting budget planning, proposed Rate Reduction Option 2+ for a generation rate reduction of 2.05¢ with the temporary bill credit of $0.0062/kWh ending 12/31/26 along with $15 million for the MCE Cares Credit.
Motion does not carry. Nos-24 Yays-8 (Nos: Andre, Bailey, Beckman, Belotz, Birdseye, Darling, Gallagher, Hoffman, Jacobs, Jweinat, Kobata, Kullaway, Martinez, McCormick, Meadows, Murphy, Nakamura, Painter, Palmares, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Szakats, Thiel and Wilkinson. Absent: Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Thier, Wysinger, and Zorn).
Action 2: It was M/S/D (Martinez/Andre) to approve, for purposes of supporting budget planning, proposed Rate Reduction Option 4 for a generation rate reduction of 3.51¢. Motion does not carry. Nos-20 Yays-12 (Nos: Bailey, Belotz, Birdseye, Coler, Darling, Gallagher, Jweinat, Kobata, Llorens Gulati, Meadows, McCormick, Murphy, Nakamura, Painter, Palmares, 2This 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 and requires a majority vote of the full MCE Board for a motion to carry. The Operating Rules and Regulations specify that adoption of the budget is a general administrative matter that requires a majority vote of the full membership of the Board (Article VI, Section 2). Rate revenue is a core assumption built into the budget, and MCE has historically included rates as part of a larger vote on the budget. Board action on rate setting is therefore being treated as Board action on the budget.
Docusign Envelope ID: 59A8C890-E937-4050-9375-207300CBB4C5 Sackett, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Szakats, and Thiel. Absent: Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Their, Wysinger and Zorn).
Action 3: It was M/S/D (Wilkinson/Beckman) to approve, for purposes of supporting budget planning, proposed Rate Reduction Option 3 for a generation rate reduction of 3¢. Motion does not carry. Nos-17 Yays-15 (Nos: Bailey, Birdseye, Coler, Darling, Gallagher, Jweinat, Kobata, Llorens Gulati, Meadows, Murphy, Nakamura, Painter, Palmares, Sandhu Scales-Preston, Szakats, and Thiel. Absent: Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Their, Wysinger and Zorn).
Action 4: It was M/S/C (Painter/Gallagher) to approve, for purposes of supporting budget planning, proposed Rate Reduction Option 2+ for a generation rate reduction of 2.05¢ with the temporary bill credit of $0.0062/kWh ending 12/31/26, along with $10 million for the MCE Cares Credit. Motion carried by roll call vote. Nos-11 Yays-20 (Nos: Andre, Beckman, Belotz, Hoffman, Jacobs, Jweinat, Kullaway, Martinez, Meadows, Perrey, Wilkinson Absent: Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Sackett, Their, Wysinger and Zorn).
7. Proposed FY 2026/27 Budget Elements (Discussion/Action) Deferred to the next meeting.
8. Establish Ending Time for Board Meetings (Discussion/Action) Chair Scales-Preston introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Chair Scales-Preston opened the public comment period and there was a comment from member of the public, Nick Pappas.
Action: It was M/S/C (Darling/Szakats) to approve a Board meeting end time of 10pm in the absence of items that require conclusion at that meeting, whereby to continue the meeting beyond 10pm, a majority vote of the members present would be required. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Brown, Kircher Jr., Ponce, Sackett, Their, Wysinger and Zorn).4
11. Board & Staff Matters (Discussion)
There were no comments.
12. Adjournment
4 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
Docusign Envelope ID: 59A8C890-E937-4050-9375-207300CBB4C5 Chair Scales-Preston adjourned the meeting at 10:13 p.m. to the next scheduled Board Meeting on March 19, 2026.
___________________________________________
Barbara Coler, Acting Chair
Attest:
___________________________________________
Dawn Weisz, Secretary
Docusign Envelope ID: 59A8C890-E937-4050-9375-207300CBB4C5