FPB Board appoints David Denton as interim general manager

The Frankfort Plant Board appointed Finance Director David Denton as Interim General Manager effective November 1. Denton will serve in this role until the board appoints a permanent general manager. The vacancy comes as current General Manager Herbbie Bannister is retiring at the end of this month.

Denton joined FPB in June 2012 as Finance Director. He earned his bachelor’s degrees in accounting and finance from Western Kentucky University and has more than 14 years of work experience as a Certified Public Accountant.

“David Denton is uniquely qualified to step in as Interim GM,” said board member John Cubine. “As Finance Director, he is involved with all aspects of the company, has an excellent working relationship with staff, is well respected and has an excellent team to cover his current duties during this interim assignment.” 

The board also welcomed its newest member, Dawn Hale, who was recently appointed by Mayor Bill May to serve a 4-year term. Hale brings leadership experience to the board, having previously served on Frankfort’s City Commission. She also is a former president of the South Frankfort Neighborhood Association and former executive director of the Sunshine Center.

The board kicked off its October meeting Tuesday night with a public hearing to receive comments about a one-time $5 credit for customers converting to paperless, electronic billing. The goal of this promotion is to reduce the cost of customer billing, but will also reduce the amount of paper used for bills and will encourage customers to use features included in the FPB customer portal encouraging more operating efficiencies. There were no public comments. The proposal will be brought to the board in November for a vote.

Every three years FPB must sign Retransmission Consent Agreements for the right to carry local broadcast channels. FPB currently provides access to local stations in both Lexington and Louisville. As these fees have skyrocketed in recent years, FPB is exploring the possibility of keeping that fee increase to a minimum for customers. This would mean not carrying duplicate channels.

Earlier this year, FPB hired The Matrix Group, a market research consulting firm out of Lexington, to conduct a survey to garner customer feedback on broadcast channels. A sample of 554 cable customers completed surveys including 150 telephone interviews and 404 online surveys in late July and August of 2017.

Martha DeReamer, a consultant with Matrix, presented the findings, which showed that only 22 percent of cable customers would prefer to keep all channels and have a larger rate increase. While 60 percent of customers surveyed feel that having access to local stations in both Lexington and Louisville is important, half indicated that they would prefer dropping duplicate channels in order to have a smaller rate increase. Twenty-eight percent of respondents indicated interest in a proposed skinny bundle offering, while 48 percent of those indicated an interest in the option of adding 12 more channels for an additional $10.

The board accepted the results of the survey and asked staff to make recommendations at the December meeting.

Consultants from Crowe Horwath, a public accounting firm, presented FPB’s annual audit report for the year ended June 30, 2017. Consultant Scott Nickerson CPA, reported that FPB has a clean unqualified audit opinion.

John Painter with nFront Consulting gave an update on the evaluation status of proposals related to Combined Cycle Natural Gas generation and renewables for the Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency (KyMEA) power supply portfolio.

The board voted to revise the FPB Ethics Code policy dealing with post-employment restrictions. The new policy states that if any FPB employee or board member who is required to execute a financial disclosure accepts employment with any person or business that contracts with or does business with FPB shall personally refrain from working on any matter in which he or she was directly involved during the last 36 months of his or her tenure with FPB for a period of one year after the employee or director leaves FPB.

In other business, the board approved a Master Service Agreement with Jones/NCTI Inc. for online customer care and technician courses, awarded a contract to Irby for underground faulted circuit indicators, approved a contract with VASS Solutions for AMI consulting services, awarded a contract to Reed Smith for legal counsel regarding FPB participation in KyMEA, and made revisions to the Community Room rental agreement.

Every two years, the board elects new officers. At its October meeting, the board elected Anna Marie Rosen as chair, Walt Baldwin as vice-chair, and Dawn Hale as secretary/treasurer.

The FPB Board of Directors’ next monthly meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017 at 5 p.m. at the FPB administration building at 151 Flynn Ave in Frankfort.

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