Finance committee approves one‑year broker contract, keeps aggregation term flexible

Medina City Council’s finance committee voted to authorize a one‑year contract for an electric aggregation broker and approved an emergency clause so the broker can solicit bids this fall.

City staff summarized requested edits to the proposed agreement, saying some liability and long‑term term language should be removed. City staff said the city wants the broker contract limited to one year so the city can solicit bids again after an initial period, while the overall aggregation program could remain a multi‑year program. “We just want a 1 year agreement because we'll go out to bid, you know, this fall, early winter and we don't need a 5 year term,” city staff said during the discussion.

Committee members pressed for clarity about the length of commitments; staff said the aggregation program has typically run as a three‑year term while broker contracts have sometimes been one year. The committee approved the contract ‘‘subject to seeing the final contract with all three of those changes’’ and added an emergency clause to allow the bidding process to start sooner. The committee recorded the motion as carried and directed the city law director to review the final contract before full council consideration.

The approval lets staff move ahead with the request for proposals process while preserving council oversight of the final contract language and any limitations of liability.