CMUA 2019 Annual Conference Resources

Presentations

Monday, April 1

Economic Outlook for the U.S. and California Economies

CMUA State Issues Update
 
The Future of Infrastructure

Tuesday, April 2

Elements of a Good Credit Rating
 

Building Your Agency’s Brand
Lessons Learned from Recent Wildfires

Blockchain’s Impact on the Evolution of Utilities
 

Program & People

Speakers

Dan Beans, P.E. is the Electric Utility Director for the City of Redding. Previously he served as Assistant Utility Director responsible for the Utility Operations Division. During his career, Beans has worked in electrical engineering for NASA, the City of Portland, and numerous other public and private organizations through a consulting engineering firm. Beans is a certified electrical engineer.




Danielle Blacet-Hyden joined CMUA in 2014 as Director for Water and represents CMUA’s water member agencies before the legislature and regulatory agencies on a multitude of issues including drinking water, drought, water conservation/water use-efficiency and the water-energy nexus. She has more than 15 years of experience working with California public water agencies and in multi-member associations including the Association of California Water Agencies and Western Growers Association.


DeDe Cordell is the communications manager for Yuba Water Agency. She joined the agency in November of 2017, and has spent the last year rebranding the organization and developing a very active public/community relations program. Cordell has 15 years of public affairs experience at various government agencies including the U.S. Army and Placer County, and worked as a broadcast news reporter for many years prior.  



Andy Fecko is director of strategic affairs for Placer County Water Agency in Auburn, Calif. Fecko manages the agency’s strategic business partnerships and regulatory and government affairs. He has worked in the water and energy field for 20 years, with particular interest in water rights and water and energy management issues. He has worked on Colorado River issues, Bay-Delta matters, and Sacramento and American River flow management negotiations from both the regulatory and utility perspectives.


Chris Garner is general manager of the Long Beach Water Department and vice president of CMUA. Chris Garner leads a team of more than 230 water system professionals in regulating the sale, use, and distribution of water in the city of Long Beach, California's seventh largest city. The department operates one of the largest groundwater treatment facilities in the U.S. Garner has been with the City of Long Beach for 30 years. He transferred to the Gas Department in 1987 and was a leader in the energy industry for 27 years.


Aida Hakirevic is a director at Navigant and she leads the company's Energy Customer Strategy transformational offering. Hakirevic has more than 15 years of experience helping utilities develop customer strategy roadmaps, define customer experience and digital transformation initiatives, assess customer operations performance, and deliver customer technology solutions. Hakirevic is a recent transplant from Vancouver, BC, to New York City.



Frank Harris is manager of energy regulatory policy at CMUA. He represents CMUA’s members on energy issues before various California agencies, including the Air Resources Board, Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission. Before joining CMUA, Harris held various positions with Southern California Edison. As a Senior Regulatory Case Manager, he focused on demand side management proceedings with the CPUC. Prior to this, Harris was SCE’s Manager of Climate Policy, guiding SCE’s climate policy activities and representing SCE before the California Air Resources Board

The Hon. Mark Kersey is a City of San Diego councilmember representing the city's Fifth District. He is also the author of the Rebuild San Diego initiative, which will provide up to $4 billion in dedicated funding for neighborhood improvements. He also introduced and passed the City's first Open Data Initiative, and led a 3-1-1 effort to use technology to provide better customer service to residents. Kersey is the founder and owner of Kersey Strategies, a technology research firm specializing in the telecommunications and high-tech industries.



Jason Klein leads Shell’s U.S. Energy Transition Program, which assesses emerging risks and opportunities across the company's U.S. businesses, develops policy and advocacy positions around energy transition in the U.S., and implements long-term strategies to make Shell resilient to expected changes in the energy system. Klein, who is a lawyer by background, joined Shell following the acquisition of BG Group in 2016, where he was Asset General Manager for BG in the U.S.


David Lippman has been director of facilities and operations at Las Virgenes Municipal Water District since 2004. Lippman is responsible for the operations, maintenance, engineering, planning and regulatory compliance of our potable water, recycled water and wastewater enterprises. As a a Registered Professional Civil Engineer in California, he is involved in Engineers without Borders and a variety of other professional organizations.



Rachel McGuire is president and founder of RMG Communications in Riverside, Calif. For more than 15 years, McGuire has worked on public relations programs for local governments and special districts. Previously she led the Community Affairs Department at the Western Municipal Water District where she oversaw the development of strategic policies, programs and projects.



Barry Moline is Executive Director of the California Municipal Utilities Association, where he has served since January 2017. He represents California’s municipal electric and water utilities before the legislature and state agencies. Moline has worked in the energy industry since the early 1980s. He represented the Florida Municipal Electric Association from 1996-2016. In Washington, D.C., he worked for the American Public Power Association, the national trade association of municipal electric utilities.



Matt Reilly is a director in Fitch Ratings’ U.S. Public Finance and Global Infrastructure and Project Finance teams. Based in Fitch’s San Francisco office, Reilly’s responsibilities include credit analysis and ratings for public power utilities, nonprofit cooperatives, and energy/ industrial project finance transactions. He is the lead analyst for more than 60 utilities west of the Mississippi, including many located in California. Reilly has been with Fitch since 2011 after spending several years with the Government Accountability Office in San Francisco.

Tobin Tellers has worked at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for 30 years. He has held management positions in the Mechanical and Civil Engineering branches, the Project Management Branch, and is now manager of Engineering’s Planning Section. In his current position, Tellers is responsible for the development of Metropolitan’s long term Capital Improvement Program as well as for the annual capital budget. He also oversees a diverse set of efforts, including value engineering, quality control, project controls, engineering administration, and facility planning. Tellers is a member of AWWA and a Registered Professional Civil Engineer in California.


Rob Trinnear, managing director for The Energy Authority (TEA), leads trading services across all commodity types for TEA’s clients in the East Coast markets. He is an expert in risk management and financial derivatives with two decades of industry experience. Trinnear is spearheading TEA’s exploration and integration of blockchain technology.


Mark Vitner is a managing director and senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, where he is responsible for tracking U.S. and regional economic trends. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Vitner's Mark’s commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and many other publications. Previously, Vitnerchaired the Economic Advisory Council for the California Chamber of Commerce.



Patrick Welch joined CMUA in December 2017 as Legislative Director of Energy and represents CMUA’s members on energy issues before the legislature. Before joining CMUA, Patrick worked for two members of the State Senate, most recently as Capitol Director for State Senator Jerry Hill. He oversaw the development of the Senator’s bill package, which in 2017 included the successful passage and chaptering of measures on CPUC reform and utility billing. Prior to that Patrick was a legislative aide for then-State Senator Alex Padilla.


Justin Wynne is a shareholder with Braun Blaising Smith Wynne P.C., where he has specialized in regulatory law for over 10 years. Wynne represents numerous public power entities before California’s Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission, and Air Resources Board, and he is a leading expert on California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (RPS). In his role representing CMUA, Wynne has coordinated public power participation in a broad array of proceedings, including integrated resource planning, net energy metering, physical security of the grid, and utility infrastructure construction requirements.


Jonathan Young joined CMUA in 2017 as a regulatory advocate, focusing on issues important to water agency members. Prior to joining CMUA, Jonathan worked for the California Association of REALTORS®, where he monitored and interacted with more than 50 regulatory bodies. In addition to his association experience, Jonathan has managed campaigns at the city, county and legislative levels.