THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net
S U M M A R Y
DIARY: December 9, 1994 10:00 AM Friday;
Rod Welch
Visited PG&E re Gold Hill SMUD contract review.
1...Summary/Objective
2...Follow Up
3...Intent/Purpose - Not Enough Time
.....Improving Conventional Communication Methods
.....SDS Analysis Captures/Invests Intellectual Capital
.....Contract Scope Analysis
.....Flow Chart
4...Remove Existing Line
5...Disclose 3 Span Active Circuit
6...Randy was frustrated about having investigated this line on five
7...Conflicting Memory on Communication about Electrical Spans Active
8...Meeting Productivity Reduced by Communication Conflicts in Memories
.....Communication Metrics Critical to Management Productivity
9...Lease Date v. Lease Term Date
10...Administration
..............
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CONTACTS
0201 - PG&E Transm Contracts O-00000558 0201
020101 - Ms. Pam Taheri,; Contract Manager, Rm 2334 Mail Code B23A
020102 - Transmission Contracts
0202 - PG&E Trans Sys Engineering O-00000560 0202
020201 - Mr. Randy L Hopkins, E.E.
020202 - Engineer; Rm 580, Mail Code F5C
0203 - PG&E Law Department O-00000571 0201
020301 - Mr. Glenn West Jr., Esq.;
0204 - PG&E Building & Land Svcs. O-00000562 0203
020401 - Mr. Buck Jones;
0205 - PG&E Proj Mngmnt Transm Sys O-00000329 0210
020501 - Mr. Tom Marki; Project Manager, Room 1169B-V11C
020502 - Project Management Group
SUBJECTS
Gold Hill Horseshoe Upgrade
Final Conceptual Framework
Remove Existing Line, SMUD
1205 -
1205 - ..
1206 - Summary/Objective
1207 -
120701 - Follow up ref SDS 7 0000.
120703 - ..
120704 - Worked out the language to present to SMUD for the contract on Monday,
120705 - 941212. Made arrangements to attend; Tom later decided I do not need
120706 - to attend.
120708 - ..
120709 - Follow Up
120710 -
120711 - Need to verify substation work is not required; Buck needs to review
120712 - project schedule; Pam needs to resolve matter of pre-contract pay-
120713 - ments from Sierra.
120714 -
120715 -
120717 - ..
1208 -
1209 -
1210 - Discussion
1211 -
121101 - Intent/Purpose - Not Enough Time
121102 -
121103 - Pam said she did not set out a statement of intent in the contract, as
121104 - discussed on 941207, ref SDS 10 0000, because there was not enough
121105 - time to do it yesterday. Glenn indicated that the recitals can
121106 - clarify what is to be accomplished by the contract. Upon discussion,
121107 - there was no effort to clarify the intent of the contract. To save
121108 - time, Pam omitted the "Arrangement" term, so it need not be defined.
121110 - ..
121111 - Improving Conventional Communication Methods
121112 - SDS Analysis Captures/Invests Intellectual Capital
121113 -
121114 - I have not had time so far to craft language on this. My sense is
121115 - though that based on the meeting with SMUD in Sacramento on
121116 - 941110, see ref SDS 3 0000 and in particular ref SDS 3 8861, and
121117 - the review by Bill and Tom, ref SDS 9 0000, considerable effort
121118 - may be required by SMUD and PG&E to reach a common understanding
121119 - of what is "intended" and how to implement it in the language as
121120 - presently drafted. The effort on Monday will indicate whether it
121121 - would be helpful to add language on "intent" or "purpose."
121123 - ..
121124 - PG&E's contract development process provides excellent analysis by
121125 - skilled contract managers and others, who, due to heavy schedules
121126 - of meetings and other communications, have difficulty remembering
121127 - from one meeting to the next what was considered, adopted,
121128 - rejected, modified and why. Time is needed to discuss what
121129 - happened previously, in order to build on prior understandings.
121130 - This makes for lively, creative meetings where ideas are adopted
121131 - or rejected for critical strategic reasons. Yet there is nothing
121132 - to inform anyone in several weeks or years about the complex
121133 - scenarios anticipated by the drafters of a contract, that are
121134 - aimed at avoiding harm to PG&E and achieving particular aims not
121135 - expressly set out in the contract.
121137 - ..
121138 - One result is frustration, as expressed by Randy below. ref SDS 0
121139 - 7777
121141 - ..
121142 - Another result is a lot of overlooked opportunities for cost
121143 - savings, as reported on 941004. ref SDS 1 8899
121144 -
121145 - [On 941211 another example of overlooked tasks that costs time
121146 - and money attributed to "Murphy's Law". ref SDS 13 0000.]
121147 -
121148 - [On 980307 Andy Grove's book "Only the Paranoid Survive" says
121149 - analysis, copious notes, asking questions helps remove
121150 - ambiguity of mental maps. ref SDS 15 3668]
121151 -
121153 - ..
121154 - Contract Scope Analysis
121155 -
121156 - It could take a day or two to create a memo that pulls together
121157 - the concerns and aims of key players to show how they are addres-
121158 - sed in the contract, and how they are supported in the record
121159 - (i.e., what documents, discussions, EM, drawing). With SDS, this
121160 - task is a by-product of doing the work, so it occurs BEFORE going
121161 - off to negotiate. Without SDS, a judgement must be made about
121162 - whether the risks entailed by lack of an audit trail i.e.,
121163 - "knowledge," pose higher costs than does the time to do the
121164 - analysis, i.e., acquire knowledge.
121166 - ..
121167 - Flow Chart
121168 -
121169 - Pam explained our discussion on Wednesday about preparing a flow
121170 - chart to illustrate the intent of the contract. ref SDS 10 5583
121171 -
121172 - Glenn advised that care is needed in preparing anything that
121173 - supplements the language, since it could result in double
121174 - meanings. Pam feels the chart could be in the appendix, and
121175 - qualified to avoid confusion.
121177 - ..
121178 - Adding a flow chart of what is to be done seems similar to giving
121179 - a contractor plans and specifications, or as in the case of
121180 - Appendix E, a location map of the proposed improvements. There
121181 - is always a chance of conflict between overlapping sources of
121182 - information, but experience shows that it is hard to build a
121183 - project without drawings to support the narrative. In this case,
121184 - it will be difficult for those charged with implementing the
121185 - contract to know what was intended, without a flow chart, as Pam
121186 - suggests. This need not necessarily be included as part of the
121187 - contract documents. It should be prepared and compared with the
121188 - language to see if they correlate. If it becomes difficult to
121189 - make this correlation then the language should be clarified.
121190 -
121191 -
121192 -
1212 -
SUBJECTS
People Remember Meetings Differently Argue Over Who Said What at the
Entropy Information Bumbling Mistakes Comedy Errors
3404 -
340501 - ..
340502 - Remove Existing Line
340503 - Disclose 3 Span Active Circuit
340504 -
340505 - Buck recommended setting out in the contract that there is an active
340506 - circuit on the last 3 spans of the line to be removed by SMUD. He
340507 - and a colleague recently investigated this line again and concluded
340508 - it is active. He believes the SMUD contract negotiating team does
340509 - not share his knowledge that their line is active.
340510 -
340511 - On 941108 PG&E's negotiating team considered this issue in
340512 - preparing the conceptual framework. ref SDS 2 9448
340513 -
340515 - ..
340516 - Randy was frustrated about having investigated this line on five
340517 - separate occasions with SMUD engineers, and yet at the meeting last
340518 - week, SMUD representatives were saying the line is not active.
340520 - ..
340521 - Pam asked what the trip reports show, and who got copies? Did a copy
340522 - go to SMUD?
340523 -
340524 - [On 040505 Paris peace conference in 1919 heads of state began
340525 - holding meetings hoping to avoid keeping records, but found the
340526 - top people in the world could not remember enough to perform daily
340527 - work; eventually leadership yielded to an even stronger fear of
340528 - accountable for failing to get anything done, and so a record of
340529 - organizational memory was prepared and this change in management
340530 - practice yielded results that expedited progress. ref SDS 17 MQ49
340532 - ..
340533 - Randy said he did not have enough time time to prepare trip reports,
340534 - but he discussed the matter very carefully with SMUD's representatives
340535 - on each of the trips, and feels they should have prepared records to
340536 - manage their own facilities. He feels very strongly that he does not
340537 - have time to do SMUD's work, though he had time to make five (5)
340538 - trips to redo the same work.
340539 -
340540 - [On 020504 study shows professional standards for communication
340541 - practices and requirements on good management specified in FAR,
340542 - ISO, Health Care, Covey, Drucker, law, contract notice provisions,
340543 - and 2,000 years of literacy for contemporaneous documentation for
340544 - alignment and feedback to work intelligently, quickly, and
340545 - accurately are ignored in government, business, health care, every
340546 - sector. ref SDS 16 NS6F
340548 - ..
340549 - Pam asked why the Engineering Department would make five (5) trips if
340550 - this wasn't important enough to write down what happened?
340552 - ..
340553 - Randy said maybe he should have made a report, because PG&E's policies
340554 - call for preparing trip reports, but nobody else is turning in trip
340555 - reports, so this is one of those requirements that people perform when
340556 - there is enough time, and in this case everything seemed so obvious
340557 - that writing down what they both saw seemed like unnecessary
340558 - duplication. He was doing a favor for SMUD, by driving up to
340559 - Sacramento and inspecting the power line, so it was their
340560 - responsibility to manage their work, not his.
340562 - ..
340563 - Pam asked if Randy every got a copy of SMUD's report confirming
340564 - understandings on the field trips to investigate the line?
340566 - ..
340567 - Randy advised that one of the reps he met with died after their
340568 - meeting, so no report was issued. Another went on vacation, and there
340569 - was no feedback on that trip. Two others did not submit anything,
340570 - which is normal, per above explaining PG&E requirements are ignored
340571 - when there is not enough time. ref SDS 0 HV5X But, on one of his
340572 - trips he did get a letter from the SMUD manager for the district they
340573 - inspected that confirmed their findings that one of the lines in the 3
340574 - spans was active, which is why he feels so strongly about it today.
340576 - ..
340577 - Pam asked if Randy could provide a copy of the letter from SMUD to
340578 - facilitate negotiations on this matter?
340580 - ..
340581 - Randy said that last month, before the meeting with SMUD, he looked
340582 - for the letter, which was received about 6 months ago, but could not
340583 - find it in his files. Randy recalled that in the recent reorg at PG&E
340584 - his office was relocated, and he is now missing quite a number of
340585 - files, so possibly the letter is just gone. He called SMUD to ask for
340586 - a copy, but the engineering manager, who wrote it, has transferred to
340587 - another assignment, and the new manager, who is now responsible for
340588 - that part of SMUD's electrical transmission lines, could not find the
340589 - letter. Randy talked to a secretary. She remembered something about
340590 - the letter and she looked for it, but couldn't find it. She called
340591 - her former boss to see if he could reissue the letter, but he has not
340592 - returned her call. They had a big power outage that has everybody
340593 - working overtime to get the system back up and running for customers.
340594 -
340595 -
340597 - ..
340598 - Conflicting Memory on Communication about Electrical Spans Active
340599 - Meeting Productivity Reduced by Communication Conflicts in Memories
340600 -
340601 - Randy recalled that Buck advised the SMUD negotiating team at the
340602 - meeting in Sacramento on 941110, of his belief that the last three
340603 - spans in the circuit may be active, and that Bill Renard indicated
340604 - SMUD intends to remove the entire line (see the record on 941011,
340605 - ref SDS 3 8448).
340607 - ..
340608 - Buck feels that an active line in a right of way could become an issue
340609 - in carrying out the work, so it is prudent to expressly resolve it in
340610 - the contract, even if it delays coming to closure, while SMUD makes
340611 - further investigation and deactivates the line by changing the routing
340612 - to another right of way corridor.
340614 - ..
340615 - Buck feels somebody should contact SMUD on this, because he does not
340616 - recall talking about the 3-lines being active at the meeting with
340617 - SMUD. He rememebered discussing it with Randy when they met last
340618 - month to prepare for the meeting with SMUD on 941110, and he
340619 - remembered Randy could not find the letter at that time, as he related
340620 - today, per above. ref SDS 0 HV6W
340622 - ..
340623 - Glenn did not recall that this was discussed at the meeting in
340624 - Sacramento, either; but, noted that PG&E should not withhold material
340625 - information from SMUD.
340627 - ..
340628 - Randy got mad accusing Buck and Glenn of undermining his credibility
340629 - with the team, and taking the side of SMUD. Randy was adament that
340630 - PG&E should not be trying to force SMUD to accept PG&E's opinion about
340631 - the status and future use of SMUD property?
340633 - ..
340634 - Glenn said nobody is trying to undermine anyone, he would just like to
340635 - have a copy of the letter from SMUD for the legal department, and
340636 - feels that people should try a little harder to follow company policy
340637 - about writing things down, like reports on five (5) trips to SMUD.
340639 - ..
340640 - Randy accused Glenn of always being on "his case," and asked Glenn and
340641 - Buck both if they made a record of the meeting with SMUD showing that
340642 - Buck didn't talk about the 3-lines being active?
340644 - ..
340645 - Glenn said he hasn't had time to prepare any notes, because he had to
340646 - fly directly to Los Angeles the next day on a negotiation with
340647 - Southern Cal Edison. Buck said he never makes notes of anything,
340648 - unless his wife sends him to the store, becasue he will catch Hell, if
340649 - he comes back without everything she wants.
340651 - ..
340652 - Randy started to complain about the "pot calling the kettle black,"
340653 - but then realized that Buck made a joke. Everybody laughed, and the
340654 - letter issue was forgotten, since it does not now seem to exist.
340656 - ..
340657 - Pam indicated that Bill Renard, with SMUD, may, for strategic reasons,
340658 - prefer not to elevate this "3 span active" issue (see discussion on
340659 - modifying the location plan drawing, appendix E, at ref SDS 10 8755).
340660 - Has this been discussed perhaps by phone, or is there anything in the
340661 - record that supports this view?
340662 -
340663 - [On 941211 analysis "comedy of errors" and "Murphy's Law." see
340664 - ref SDS 13 6488.]
340666 - ..
340667 - [On 971008 Corps of Engineers issued report on costs savings
340668 - using SDS for Communication Metrics that avoids mistakes that
340669 - cause "rework." ref SDS 14 1273]
340671 - ..
340672 - Communication Metrics Critical to Management Productivity
340673 -
340674 - The larger point is that there are undoubtedly many similar issues
340675 - about a complex electrical system, which are not fully known by
340676 - either party, nor discoverable except through performing actual
340677 - work.
340679 - ..
340680 - In a large organization there may well be conflicting agendas
340681 - among management elements that require various indirect approaches
340682 - and interaction in order to accomplish a desired objective (Pam's
340683 - point at ref SDS 10 3793). SMUD has entrusted certain of its
340684 - people who are experienced in preparing contracts that serve the
340685 - interests of SMUD, to decide for SMUD what it will do. If PG&E
340686 - assumes the burden of disclosing to SMUD the status of SMUD
340687 - property, where does this duty end? The next time something comes
340688 - up, cannot SMUD simply say "You should have told us what
340689 - facilities we have!"
340691 - ..
340692 - Another approach is to craft language that places the burden on
340693 - SMUD to make its own investigation and live with the results.
340694 - This can include disclosing information received unofficially
340695 - about usage and future plans, as occurred at the meeting on 941110
340696 - to form the Conceptual Framework, ref SDS 3 8588.
340698 - ..
340699 - On the other hand, the relationship between SMUD and PG&E in
340700 - combination with the particularities of this contract, may augur
340701 - for "affirmative action" by PG&E. It does seem though that PG&E
340702 - is carrying the larger burden in resolving problems, as between
340703 - SMUD and PG&E. In this case, the cost is minimal, ref SDS 2 4839,
340704 - but the precedent may be far reaching.
340705 -
340706 -
340708 - ..
340709 - Lease Date v. Lease Term Date
340710 -
340711 - PG&E proposes to lease to SMUD upon notification that satisfactory
340712 - arrangements have been concluded with other parties for this project
340713 - to proceed; however, the term of the lease will not commence until
340714 - PG&E energizes the line to be constructed.
340716 - ..
340717 - Glenn feels there is a slight gap in this procedure in the event that
340718 - the line is constructed and not energized. Tom noticed this earlier
340719 - at ref SDS 9 9163. Buck explained that agency approvals could delay
340720 - energizing PG&E's line for a significant time, although this may not
340721 - be likely.
340723 - ..
340724 - It seemed that this matter would be left for SMUD to negotiate if it
340725 - wishes to do so.
340726 -
340728 - ..
340729 - Administration
340730 -
340731 - Pam plans to have a computer, printer and a special data entry person
340732 - attend the meeting to make any revisions agreed upon at the meeting.
340734 - ..
340735 - I think I would rather have Glenn do this language crafting, as
340736 - was done at the conceptual framework meeting, ref SDS 3 8856. He
340737 - is going to have to approve the thing anyway, and crafting
340738 - language himself provides an initial pass that may reduce the
340739 - number of re-writes. If we write it and hand it to someone, it
340740 - still has to go through Glenn, then after it is typed, he has
340741 - review it again. Pam is the strategist, let Glenn craft the
340742 - language and in doing so, review it.
340743 -
340745 - ..
340746 - Pam will pick me up at the Orinda BART station Monday at 0730. The
340747 - meeting is at 0900. This will save me from having to drive and find a
340748 - place that is new.
340749 -
340750 -
340752 - ..
3408 -
3409 -
3410 - 1341 discussion with Tom
3411 -
341101 - He came by while I was training Tito on SDS, and asked that I not
341102 - attend the meeting on the SMUD contract next Monday. Tom said I have
341103 - contributed in the meeting this morning, and attending the meeting
341104 - with SMUD would not add anything. He asked me to call Pam and let
341105 - her know.
341106 -
341107 -
341109 - ..
3412 -
3413 -
3414 - 1352 called Pam
3415 -
341501 - Advised I will not attend meeting on Monday, per above, so she does
341502 - not have to pick me up at the Orinda BART station, as we discussed
341503 - this morning.
341505 - ..
341506 - She will call next week to let me know the results of the meeting.
341508 - ..
341509 - Not clear how understandings from the meeting are going to be captured
341510 - and rolled into controllable action items?
341511 -
341512 -
341513 -
341514 -
341515 -
341516 -
3416 -
SUBJECTS
Gold Hill Horseshoe Upgrade
Pre-contract payment agreement
3604 -
360501 - ..
360502 - Pam indicated to Randy, Buck and Tom that she would arrange to obtain
360503 - pre-contract payment from Sierra, if they recommended it, per prior
360504 - understandings at ref SDS 5 line 128.
360506 - ..
360507 - There seemed to be agreement to proceed with obtaining this pre-
360508 - contract payment authority from Sierra, but I did not get the sense
360509 - that this task was actually scheduled for action.
360510 -
360511 -
360512 -
360513 -
3606 -
SUBJECTS
Gold Hill Horseshoe Upgrade
Controls, Scope, General
Upgrade Substations because line is Upgraded
3705 -
3706 - 1046 discussion with Randy
370701 - ..
370702 - In an aside, I asked Randy about the need for substation work in light
370703 - of the enhancement of the power line, per record on 941208. see
370704 - ref SDS 11 7748.
370706 - ..
370707 - Randy said the Gold Hill Substation was upgraded under a prior project
370708 - to accommodate the capacity of the new line being installed under the
370709 - Sierra Upgrade project. He briefly described a design for the entry
370710 - of the new line into the substation (which I did not follow), as
370711 - evidence of the substation being able to handle the upgraded line.
370713 - ..
370714 - My sense is that this type of issue should be in some engineering
370715 - review memo that cites the capacity needed in the substation, and
370716 - cites a drawing or other record showing the existing condition
370717 - meets that spec. I did not ask about this point.
370719 - ..
370720 - I asked about the other substations. Randy said the other Substations
370721 - have adequate capacity to handle the higher capacity being installed.
370722 - They require no modifications under this project.
370723 -
370724 - [I mentioned this to Jivat the next day at ref SDS 12 line 99.]
370725 -
370726 -
370727 -
370728 -
3708 -
SUBJECTS
Gold Hill, Schedule Files, 941126b and 941126a
Permits, GO 131-D
Schedule, Cost & Schedule Impacts of GO 131-D
File Exemption
4306 -
430701 - ..
430702 - Followed up work on applying GO 131-D to Schedule, at ref SDS 8 line
430703 - 65, to evaluate changes to the Schedule at ref SDS 6 line 81.
430705 - ..
430706 - Buck said he has not had time to review the schedules, but plans to
430707 - do so and to let me know if any changes are needed.
430709 - ..
430710 - I had the impression from the discussion between Buck, Pam and Tom,
430711 - that Buck has not yet filed for the exemption under GO 131-D, as
430712 - contemplated in our discussion at ref SDS 4 line 171. None-the-less
430713 - he seems to have a plan in mind to expedite this work.
430714 -
430715 -
430716 -
430717 -
430718 -
430719 -
4308 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"