MCE BOARD MEETING MINUTES1
Thursday, March 19, 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
Mark Belotz, Town of Danville
Kari Birdseye, City of Benicia
Monica Brown, County of Solano, left at 9:32 p.m.
Barbara Coler, Town of Fairfax, Acting Chair
Craig DeVinney, Alternate, City of Walnut Creek
Kevin Jacobs, City of Novato
C. William Kircher, Jr., Town of Ross
Belle La, Alternate, City of Pleasant Hill
Eduardo Martinez, City of Richmond
Aaron Meadows, City of Oakley
Laura Nakamura, City of Concord
Beth Painter, City of Napa
Max Perrey, City of Mill Valley
Mary Sackett, County of Marin
Manveer Sandhu, City of Fairfield, joined at 6:59 p.m., left at 8:18 p.m.
Graham Thiel, Town of Moraga, joined at 7:18 p.m.
Holli Thier, Town of Tiburon, left at 7:07 p.m.
Sridhar Verose, City of San Ramon
Sally Wilkinson, City of Belvedere
Brianne Zorn, City of Martinez
Absent: Eli Beckman, Town of Corte Madera
Jill Hoffman, City of Sausalito
Arlene Kobata, City of Pittsburg
Tarrell Kullaway, Town of San Anselmo
Maika Llorens Gulati, City of San Rafael
John McCormick, City of Lafayette
Devin Murphy, City of Pinole
Charles Palmares, City of Vallejo
Patricia Ponce, City of San Pablo
Shanelle Scales-Preston, County of Contra Costa
Carolyn Wysinger, City of El Cerrito
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: 669D2673-D0BF-8E68-8028-9CBC5C0371C8 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
Shuvo Chowdhury, VP of Technology & Analytics
Alice Havenar-Daughton, VP of Customer Programs
Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer
Shaheen Khan, VP of Human Resources, Diversity, and Inclusion Tanya Lomas, Board Clerk
Linda Lye, Senior Legal Counsel
Alexandra McGee, VP of Strategic Initiatives
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
Enyonam Senyo-Mensah, Manager of Internal Operations
Dan Settlemyer, Internal Operations Associate
Maíra Strauss, Chief Financial Officer
Jamie Tuckey, Chief Customer Officer
Dawn Weisz, Chief Executive Officer
1. Roll Call
Acting Chair Coler called the regular meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. with quorum established by roll call.
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
There were announcements from Acting Chair Coler, Director Alessio, and Director Brown.
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
Acting Chair Coler opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
CEO Weisz introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Acting Chair Coler opened the public comment period and there was a comment from member of the public, Nick Pappas.
Docusign Envelope ID: 669D2673-D0BF-8E68-8028-9CBC5C0371C8
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)2
C.1 Approval of 2.19.26 Meeting Minutes
C.2 Approval of 3.16.26 Special Meeting Minutes
C.3 Technical Committee Recommendation Regarding Term Limits C.4 Resolution 2026-01 Creating Interim Advisory Committee for Energy Procurement Delegation Implementation
Director Belotz requested that item C.3 be pulled from the consent calendar for discussion. The Acting Chair accepted the request and moved item C.3 to be discussed after item 7.
Acting Chair Coler opened the public comment period and there were comments from members of the public, Nick Pappas and Jody Timms.
Action 1: It was M/S/C (Their/Bailey) to approve Consent Calendar items C.1, C.2, and C.4. Motion carried by roll call vote. 21-Yays 5-Nos. (Nos:
Andre, Brown, Jacobs, Martinez, and Wilkinson. Absent: Beckman, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Scales-Preston, and Wysinger).
Action 2: It was M/S/C (Their/Bailey) to reject the recommendation of the Technical Committee to pause term limits for the Technical Committee Chair for one year and to appoint Director Murphy as Interim Chair.
Motion carried by roll call vote. 17-Yays 7-Nos. (Nos: Bailey, Birdseye, DeVinney, Meadows, Nakamura, Thiel, and Verose. Absent: Beckman, Brown, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Scales-Preston, Thier, and Wysinger).
6. Fiscal Year 2026/27 Budget Approval Inclusive of Rate Reduction Effective, April 1, 2026 (Discussion/Action)3
Maíra Strauss, Chief Financial Officer, and Efren Oxlaj, Manager of Finance, introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Acting Chair Coler opened the public comment period and there were comments from members of the public, Nick Pappas, Jody Timms, and Joe Barber.
Action 1: It was M/S (Nakamura/Sackett) to approve the Fiscal Year 2026/27 proposed budgets inclusive of a 2.05-cent rate reduction 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 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).
Docusign Envelope ID: 669D2673-D0BF-8E68-8028-9CBC5C0371C8 effective April 1, 2026, and a temporary 0.62-cent rate credit running April–December 2026, and to increase the Communications Services budget by $175,000 to avoid any decrease in local community and industry events and sponsorship opportunities. Motion did not carry. 19- Yays 6-Nos. (Nos: Andre, Belotz, Jacobs, Martinez, Meadows, and Wilkinson.
Absent: Beckman, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Thier, and Wysinger).
Action 2: It was M/S (Coler/Alessio) to approve the Fiscal Year 2026/27 proposed budgets inclusive of a 2.05-cent rate reduction effective April 1, 2026, and a temporary 0.62-cent rate credit running April–December 2026. Motion did not carry. 13-Yays 12-Nos (Nos: Andre, Bailey, Belotz, DeVinney, Jacobs, La, Martinez, Meadows, Nakamura, Painter, Verose, Wilkinson. Absent: Beckman, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Thier, and Wysinger).
Action 3: It was M/S/C (Nakamura/Alessio) to approve the Fiscal Year 2026/27 proposed budgets inclusive of a 2.05-cent rate reduction effective April 1, 2026, and a temporary 0.62-cent rate credit running April–December 2026, and to increase the Communications Services budget by $170,000 to avoid any decrease in local community and industry events and sponsorship opportunities. Motion carried by roll call vote. 20-Yays 5-Nos. (Nos: Andre, Belotz, Jacobs, Martinez, Wilkinson.
Absent: Beckman, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Thier, Wysinger).
Acting Chair Coler opened for a 5 minute break. Quorum re-established by roll call vote.
7. Draft MCE RFP Governance Assessment Services (Discussion/Action) 4 Directors Sackett, Alessio, and Birdseye introduced this item and addressed questions from Board members.
Acting Chair Coler opened the public comment period and there was a comment from member of the public Jody Timms.
Action: It was M/S/C (La/Perrey) to approve the MCE RFP for Governance Assessment Services. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Beckman, Hoffman, Kobata, Kullaway, Llorens Gulati, McCormick, Murphy, Palmares, Ponce, Sandhu, Scales-Preston, Thier, and Wysinger). 4 This item is a general administrative matter. Action requires a majority vote of board members present for a motion to carry.
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8. Board & Staff Matters (Discussion)
There were no comments.
9. Adjournment
Acting Chair Coler adjourned the meeting at 9:46 p.m. to the next scheduled Board Meeting on April 16, 2026.
___________________________________________
Shanelle Scales-Preston, Chair
Attest:
___________________________________________
Justine Parmelee, Secretary
Docusign Envelope ID: 669D2673-D0BF-8E68-8028-9CBC5C0371C8