Dane County  
Minutes - Final Unless Amended by  
Committee  
EV Advisory Commission  
Consider:  
Who benefits? Who is burdened?  
Who does not have a voice at the table?  
How can policymakers mitigate unintended consequences?  
Monday, April 13, 2026  
1:00 PM  
Hybrid Meeting: Attend in person at the City County  
Building (210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Room 351) or  
virtually via Zoom.  
A. Call To Order  
Staff Present: Nicole Dewitt  
The meeting was called to order by Kathy Kuntz at 1:11 p.m.  
15 -  
Present  
PHIL GRUPE, LYNN MCDANIEL, JIM SCHWINGLE, GREGG MAY, Chair KATHY  
KUNTZ, DAPHNE XU, Vice Chair DAVID LONSDORF, EDWARD LEE, ERINN  
MONORE-NYE, ANDREW BREMER, CRISTINA CARVAJAL, SAMANTHA  
WORDEN, STEPHANIE ROBINSON, KARI GEHRKE, and DAVID SALMON  
2 - JOSH GALASSO, and KAREN MENEDEZ-COLLER  
Absent  
B. Consideration of Minutes  
A motion was made by MAY, seconded by LONSDORF, that the minutes from  
January 13, 2026 be approved. The motion carried by a voice vote.  
DRAFT minutes from previous meeting (Jan 13, 2026)  
2025  
MIN-649  
Attachments: Draft minutes from previous meeting (Jan 12, 2026).pdf  
Registrations from previous meeting (Jan 12, 2026).pdf  
C. Action Items  
D. Presentations  
Program Update  
2025  
PRES-290  
Attachments: Program Update 04.13.26.pdf  
20260319 EVCS Panel Presentation.pdf  
Kathy provided a program update (see also Program Update 04.13.26.pdf):  
• Host Site Selection & Planning  
- Federal Highway Administration - Wisconsin (FHWA-WI) has approved  
environmental paperwork for 35 sites (31 from Round 1; 4 sites from Round 2).  
Environmental paperwork for 16 additional sites from Round 2 is pending  
approval.  
- The RFP for Round 3 closed on April 2, yielding 13 applicants from our  
priority areas. We are also revisiting some sites from Rounds 1 and 2 that  
were not initially moved forward.  
- A couple of sites from Rounds 1 and 2 have notified us they are no longer  
interested. We are encouraging these sites to remain involved, but delays and  
uncertainty related to construction are contributing factors.  
- The Office of Energy and Climate Change (OECC) continues to meet with  
individual host sites to maintain lines of communication and mitigate additional  
site losses.  
• Prepping for the Construction Phase - with approval of the environmental  
paperwork, we are preparing to negotiate an amendment for final design and  
construction. Additional updates about this phase of the project will be  
discussed as part of the next agenda item during today’s meeting.  
• EV Charging Infrastructure Summit - Kathy, together with representatives  
from Kimley-Horn and KL Engineering, were invited to give a talk at the EV  
Charging Infrastructure Summit in March. It was a good opportunity to connect  
with other CFI grantees and to hear from national firms doing operation and  
maintenance (O&M) about workforce development issues.  
• CFI Legal Update - while there is no timeline per se, we expect the CFI  
lawsuit files by state attorney generals against the U.S. Department of  
Transportation will be resolved in the next few months.  
• Buy America for CFI and NEVI - in mid-February, the FHWA proposed a  
change to the Buy America rules for EV charging infrastructure, which would  
require 100% of components to be manufactured in the United States (up from  
55%). The comment period, now closed, was very active with most opposing  
the change. FHWA has not provided a recent update. If we are able to finalize  
the amendment for final design and construction (Phase 2) before (and if) the  
rule changes are adopted, they would not apply to us. Barriers like this may  
continue to arise throughout the remainder of this project.  
Discussion of Construction Phase  
2025  
PRES-291  
Attachments: 20260413 Construction Tasks & Timelines.pdf  
Kathy provided an overview of the construction phase of the project (see also  
20260413 Construction Tasks & Timelines.pptx).  
• There are two phases to “Charge Up Dane County”: the planning phase  
(about $1.3 million allocated) and the construction phase (almost $12 million).  
The planning phase includes identification and verification of sites, preliminary  
designs, cost estimates, and environmental paperwork. The construction  
phase covers final design of sites, the development of an RFP to select a  
construction team, construction, and ongoing O&M for five years.  
• There are several key steps (some of which would happen in parallel) in the  
second phase of the project.  
1. Dane County will process a contract amendment with FHWA that moves  
approved NEPA sites to the construction phase, where they will be considered  
“obligated”. At the same time, we would update the KL Engineering contract to  
include final design.  
2. KL Engineering will finalize the design and construction documents for the  
RFP. At the same time, OECC will get industry input regarding best way to  
achieve our RFP priorities, as well as to increase vendor understanding of our  
approach.  
3. Dane County will issue a construction RFP which would cover  
construction, equipment and software (more discussion is needed, but we may  
want to issue a separate RFP for the O&M).  
4. KL Engineering will work with the selected construction vendor(s) to build  
out the sites; in parallel, OECC will work with site host on various operational  
details and to ensure their readiness.  
5. The O&M vendor will tune up sites twice per year, be on call for repair  
services, and provide site host support for five years.  
6. OECC will track and report site usage, up time and down time, and verify  
compliance.  
• Given the number of steps in the process, Kathy is setting expectations with  
site hosts that construction will likely not happen until 2027.  
• Advisory Commission members, who played a critical role in promoting the  
site host RFPs, will have more outreach to do once we start construction.  
Entities can help us create awareness and excitement in the community. Until  
we launch that second phase, though, there is a bit of a lull as we await the next  
steps in the process.  
• EV Advisory Commission members provided feedback:  
- Confirmed the need to further discuss how to issue the RFP (or RFPs) so  
that we don’t leave local vendors behind.  
- Be wary of vendors claiming to be able to meet interoperability  
requirements; some are vertically integrated and not interoperable with all  
software.  
- Practically, the number of vendors is/will be greatly narrowed due to Buy  
American rules.  
- Having boots on the ground is very important for non-scheduled  
maintenance and good customer service for site hosts.  
- For purposes of budgeting the O&M portion of the project, it might be  
helpful to plan on about 30% of installations having issues associated with  
stations going offline unexpectedly.  
- EV charging station stickers get weather worn, making barcodes  
impossible to scan and directions difficult to read.  
- Connectivity will be variable. This can be anticipated and signals can be  
boosted up front.  
- Consider doing outreach and promotion with car dealerships.  
E. Reports to Committee  
F. Future Meeting Items and Dates  
G. Public Comment on Items not on the Agenda  
H. Such Other Business as Allowed by Law  
I. Adjourn  
A motion was made by LEE, seconded by LONSDORF, that the meeting be  
adjourned. The motion carried by a voice vote. The meeting adjourned at 2:06  
p.m.  
Minutes respectfully submitted by Nicole Dewitt, pending committee approval.