Utilities Advisory Commission

Chair: Greg Scharff

Vice Chair: Meagan Mauter

Council Liaison: Council Member Ed Lauing

Staff Liaison:  Dean Batchelor, Utilities Director, (650) 496-6981

Commissioners: 

CROFT, Rachel

Term Expires: 3/31/2025

Commissioner Croft will serve on the Budget Subcommittee through July 2, 2025.

Rachel Croft joined the UAC in April 2023. Rachel has lived in Palo Alto with her family since 2010, both as a renter and a homeowner.  

Rachel’s interest in the UAC stemmed from a passion for sustainability and desire to apply behavior change science to help Palo Alto achieve its goals on the demand side of power and water use. Her professional background includes five years in investment banking and 25 years in medical devices and digital health, with twelve of those years focused on helping people change behaviors in the areas of weight loss and smoking cessation. She has held senior roles in product development, marketing, strategy and corporate partnerships at start-ups and large companies. Rachel received a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford and a MBA in Finance from Wharton. 

Rachel’s household has 2 EVs, a lawn converted to low water use edible garden, and multiple efficiency upgrades that reduced peak winter gas use by over 50%. She plans more changes in the future, and wants to help the city make efficiency changes easy and satisfying for residents. In the community, Rachel has organized grade crossing conversations, petitions an input for her neighbors in Southgate, and served Escondido Elementary on the PTA and as Safe Routes to School Representative.

GUPTA, Utsav

Term Expires: 3/31/2027

Commissioner Gupta will serve on the Budget Subcommittee through July 2, 2025.

Utsav has lived in Palo Alto since February 2018 with his partner, and together they run Filarion, Inc., a company pioneering applications of artificial intelligence and spatial computing. He holds a BS in Bioengineering: Biotechnology and a BA in Political Science from UC San Diego, where he served as Associated Students President. Utsav also earned a JD from Georgetown Law, where he participated in the prestigious Georgetown Law Appellate Litigation Clinic and clerked for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.

Before founding Filarion, Utsav was a high-stakes patent litigator, handling "bet the company" litigation and achieving excellent results for clients across various industries. Utsav continues to contribute to his alma mater by serving on the Board of Visitors of Georgetown Law.

Utsav joined the Utilities Advisory Commission out of enthusiasm for Palo Alto's plans for fiber-to-the-premises and a commitment to supporting the city's outstanding utility services and sustainability initiatives. 

MAUTER, Meagan

Term Expires: 3/31/2026

Meagan Mauter is an Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Global Environmental Policy and a Senior Fellow, by courtesy, in the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University. She directs the Water and Energy Efficiency for the Environment Lab (WE3Lab) with the mission of providing sustainable water supply in a carbon-constrained world.  Meagan also serves as the research director for the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), a $110-million DOE Energy-Water Desalination Hub addressing water security issues in the United States. NAWI targets early-stage research and development of energy-efficient and cost-competitive technologies for desalinating non-traditional source waters, including municipal wastewater. 

Meagan holds bachelors degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering and History from Rice University, a Masters of Environmental Engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, she served as an Energy Technology Innovation Policy Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and as an Associate Professor of Engineering & Public Policy, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

METZ, Phil

Term Expires: 3/31/2025 

Phil Metz has been a member of the Utilities Advisory Commission since June 2021. He and his family have resided in Palo Alto for over 30 years. Phil also serves Palo Alto as an Emergency Services Volunteer, both as a Block Preparedness Coordinator (BPC) and as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member.

Professionally, Phil is focused on developing and applying scientifically grounded tools for advancing environmental sustainability and mitigating climate change. As co-founder and Vice President of the BioPhysical Economics Institute (BPEI), Phil is working to advance BPEI’s mission of bringing the natural sciences into the practice of economics and financial decision-making.

Phil is expert across a range of energy markets including building energy systems, renewables, energy storage, and electric utility / grid-scale energy systems.

Phil’s professional experience includes VP-level marketing and sales leadership roles with revenue and P/L responsibility; Director-level management consulting on technological innovation, business strategy and energy; and a stint as a Research Fellow with Project Drawdown. Phil holds a PhD in physics and an MBA in marketing. He is an avid road biker.

PHILLIPS, Robert

Term Expires: 3/31/2026

Commissioner Phillips will serve on the Budget Subcommittee through July 2, 2025.

Bob has been a resident of Palo Alto since 1984.  His career has focused on using data and analytics to help companies and businesses make better decisions.  He has served as a consultant to the Department of Energy as well as to a number of electric power utilities in the United States and the United Kingdom.  He has been a Professor in the Columbia University Business School and a Lecturer at Stanford, teaching courses in the use of analytics for decisions.  He has also served as Director of Marketplace Data Science for Uber and Director of Pricing Analytics for Amazon as well as CEO of the consulting firm Decision Focus Incorporated.    

Bob holds a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University and Bachelor Degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Washington State University.

SCHARFF, Greg

Term Expires: 3/31/2026 

Biography not available.  

TUCHER, Chris

Term Expires: 3/31/2027

Chris Tucher grew up in Palo Alto. His career has been in news media, internet tech and healthcare. After getting an MBA at Harvard, he began his career in newspaper publishing, then in 1995 joined Netscape where he led sales and marketing to the publishing and media industry. He helped start two Internet companies, then moved into healthcare and co-started Healthline, a leading provider of consumer health information. Chris was a professor of marketing at De Anza College. 

In recent years, Chris has developed a keen interest in energy, utilities and the grid. He serves on the board of the Kirkwood public utility district, an elected position in Alpine County. 

He and his wife Sandra have been back in Palo Alto since the 1990s and put their three children through the local schools.

Contact the Commission by email.

The Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC) appreciates hearing from citizens and your email will be forwarded to all seven Commissioners.

Correspondence received by noon on the day of the UAC meeting, relating to an Item on the Agenda, will be put at the Commissioner's places at the meeting. See Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) Sections 2.16 and 2.23 for more information on the Utilities Advisory Commission.

Be advised that your email to the UAC is a public record and your correspondence should not include any private information (such as home address or minor children's names) that you might not want the general public to have access to. If your email is regarding a specific agenda item for an upcoming meeting, your email will be available for public inspection at the meeting. 

We thank you in advance for taking the time to share your comments!

Members of the Public may provide public comments to teleconference meetings via email, teleconference, or by phone.

Consult the relevant meeting agenda for phone number and online link to participate in meetings. 

1. Written public comments may be submitted by email to UAC@CityofPaloAlto.org
2. Spoken public comments using a computer will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Commission, click on the link below for the appropriate meeting to access a Zoom-based meeting. Please read the following instructions carefully.
   1. You may download the Zoom client or connect to the meeting by web browser. If using your browser, make sure you are using a current, up-to-date browser: Chrome 30 , Firefox 27 , Microsoft Edge 12 , Safari 7 . Certain functionality may be disabled in older browsers including Internet Explorer.
   2. You will be asked to enter an email address and name. We request that you identify yourself by name as this will be visible online and will be used to notify you that it is your turn to speak.
   3. When you wish to speak on an agenda item, click on “raise hand”. The moderator will activate and unmute attendees in turn. Speakers will be notified shortly before they are called to speak. The Zoom application will prompt you to unmute your microphone when it is your turn to speak.
   4. When called, please limit your remarks to the time limit allotted.
   5. A timer will be shown on the computer to help keep track of your comments.

• Spoken public comments using a smart phone will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Commission, download the Zoom application onto your phone from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and enter the Meeting ID below. Please follow instructions B-E above.
• Spoken public comments using a phone use the telephone number listed below. When you wish to speak on an agenda item hit *9 on your phone so we know that you wish to speak. You will be asked to provide your first and last name before addressing the Commission. You will be advised how long you have to speak. When called please limit your remarks to the agenda item and time limit allotted.

Join Zoom here: https://zoom.us/join

Meeting ID:  966 9129 7246

Phone number: 1 (669) 900-6833 (you may need to exclude the initial “1” depending on your phone service)