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Public Utilities Board to Host Annual Planning Workshop

ALAMEDA, Calif., January 6, 2009 – On next Thursday, January 15, the City of Alameda Public Utilities Board will host a Special Meeting for the purpose of conducting its Annual Planning Workshop.

The meeting will be held at the Alameda Power & Telecom Service Center, 2000 Grand Street (at its intersection with Clement Avenue) beginning at 6:00 p.m. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

"The Annual Planning Workshop will be particularly significant this year as we return our focus solely on our core electric business," said Ann McCormick, President of the Board. "This essential planning process ensures that our operations are aligned with customer expectations, community goals, and City direction and also that we are appropriately anticipating and addressing future challenges."

The 2009 workshop builds on the work accomplished during a similar workshop in November 2007. At that time, the Board identified and discussed 10 utility trends and 30 supporting initiatives. These trends included such elements as Safety, Reliability, Customer Service, Fiscal Responsibility, Carbon Footprint, Workforce, and a number of others, all under the umbrella of Customer and Community Value.

Utility General Manager Girish Balachandran explained, "Outcomes of the Annual Planning Workshop will feed into the development of the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Budget, ongoing performance assessment through selected Key Performance Measures reported monthly by staff to the Public Utilities Board, and our long-term planning."

In addition to prioritizing work and allocation of resources for the next 12 to 18 months, the Board will be asked to consider Alameda Power & Telecom's fundamental purpose, as well as its name. There has been much recent discussion about how Alameda's municipal electric utility is identified. Over the past 121 years, the oldest municipal electric utility west of the Mississippi River has been known by such common names as, "the Municipal Electric Light Plant," "the Department of Public Utilities," "the Bureau of Electricity," and, since 1999, as "Alameda Power & Telecom."