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of vegetation issues. Communication to customers of the expected duration of the outage <br /> followed with the restoration of service is their ultimate goal. <br /> • Vice Mayor Mordo requested clarification on the number of customers affected in Los <br /> Altos Hills (3,747) that had been provided in the PG&E overview. He noted that there <br /> were approximately 3,000 parcels in Los Altos Hills. Gambelin explained that each <br /> service disruption had been included in the total with some residents experiencing several <br /> outages during the storm. <br /> Mordo offered that he had requested Council discussion of Ordinance 503 (Eucalyptus <br /> Tree Ordinance) in conjunction with PG&E's presentation and not as it appeared on the <br /> meeting agenda as a separate item(agenda item#20). He noted that the ordinance did not <br /> address trees that affected power lines and queried if many of the outages were a direct <br /> result of downed trees or branches impacting power lines. <br /> Elissa Carrol, PG&E Maintenance and Construction Superintendent, responded that it <br /> was dependant on the type of storm, however, it was appropriate to say that over 50% of <br /> the outages could be assigned to downed limbs, branches or trees impacting power lines. <br /> Mordo questioned if it would be helpful for the Town's ordinance to focus on trees <br /> affecting power lines to alleviate the potential problems and reiterated that this was his <br /> primary reason for agendizing the ordinance for discussion. He shared with Council a <br /> notification that he had received from PG&E regarding trees on his property and <br /> requested clarification. <br /> • Council concurred that it was appropriate to reorganize the agenda to permit discussion of <br /> agenda item#20 in conjunction with PG&E's presentation. <br /> Darren Defner offered that PG&E reviews each issue of vegetation management on a case <br /> by case basis. He noted that the vegetation management staff was always looking to <br /> partner with residents to resolve the issues presented by Vice Mayor Mordo. Defner <br /> explained that the company removes trees at no cost to the resident when there is a <br /> potential safety issue with electrical wires and provides a coupon for a replacement tree. <br /> However, residents are often reluctant to accept vegetation management solutions brought <br /> to them by PG&E. <br /> Carrol suggested that trees were a very sensitive issue with homeowners. The company <br /> was governed by the California Public Utilities Commission regarding guidelines that <br /> pertained to primary service lines. The guidelines regulated the amount of trimming they <br /> were permitted to perform. Carrol noted that PG&E does not trim trees on residential <br /> properties that impacted customers' service drops noting that these were the responsibility <br /> of the resident. Funding for the program was for the maintenance of primary service lines <br /> only. She suggested that it might be beneficial for a PG&E vegetation management <br /> representative to speak to the issue. <br /> Vice Mayor Mordo questioned if it would be of any benefit to PG&E for the Town's <br /> • ordinance to focus on those trees that impacted primary service lines and assist them with <br /> their maintenance effort. Mordo noted that a downed power line often had a financial <br /> 3 Regular City Meeting Minutes <br /> January 24,2008 <br />