Good afternoon. I'd like to call the meeting the Board of Public Utilities for the city of Santa Rosa to order We may have a roll call, please Board member right Board member Watts Board member Walsh here board member Bartholome here board member badden for it here Vice chair Arnone here chair Galvin here Okay Thank you Go ahead. Sorry Let the record reflect all board members are present with the exception of board members right in Watts Thank you We'll now move to item two whose statements of abstention by board members board member Walsh mr. Chairman I'll recuse myself from item 7.1 the mitigated negative declaration Of family members chiefs of the federated Indians great Rancheria. All right. Any other statements of abstention? Very good. We have no study session Item number four is the minutes from the May 4th meeting So at this time, we'll take public comments on the minutes approval if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you dial in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary LeDesma We have no one making their way to the podium. We do not have any hands raised in zoom No public comments were received via email or voicemail Very good. The minutes then will be approved and entered. We'll now move to our staff briefings item 5.1 director Burke Thank You chair Galvin and members of the board our first brought staff briefing is Water Professionals Appreciation Week and Elise Miller our Communications coordinator will make the presentation. Thank you for the introduction. Let me just get this up Good afternoon chair Galvin and members of the board I'm Elise Miller and I'm here today to share how Santa Rosa water and the city will be celebrating National Public Works Week Celebrating our public works professionals is very important Because they provide essential services to our community They are responsible for maintaining repairing Rehabilitating and building new and vital infrastructure Like our water delivery wastewater collection water reuse and stormwater systems This year from May 21st through the 27th the city of Santa Rosa will be celebrating our public works Professionals by sharing a series of stories across the city's various social media channels receiving a proclamation at City Council on Tuesday May 23rd and Hosting the third annual City Works Festival at Santa Rosa's Wednesday night market in courthouse square To share a Santa Rosa water story as well as our co-workers in parks and transportation and public works Santa Rosa will highlight the infrastructure the facilities and the server services provided by our public works professionals these professionals include engineers Technicians and employees at all levels of government as well as the private sector And they are responsible for our shared transportation system residential and arterial streets Lights and signals water distribution sewer collection systems Treatment and water reuse systems parks and amenities Public buildings and other structures and facilities So these stories and more will be shared on the city's Facebook and Instagram pages as well as in Santa Rosa City connections e-newsletter in order to recognize Santa Rosa's public works professionals and their contributions Santa Rosa City Council will present a proclamation to parks transportation and public works and water staff at the Tuesday May 23rd council meeting representatives from our water team will include include Andrew Allen supervising engineer and asset management Flannery banks assistant engineer in stormwater and Elvis Shipman our senior utility system operator in the meter shop To provide an opportunity For our community to interact with these public works professionals Santa Rosa is hosting our third annual City Works Festival on May 24th at Santa Rosa's Wednesday night market from 5 to 8 30 p.m And the City Works Festival will be located on 4th Street between Mendocino Avenue and D Street and The festival will feature a cleaning demo a camera truck a scavenger hunt and plenty of big Equipment to a climb aboard and explore So this is really an interactive event and it's designed for all ages and I encourage you all to attend You can learn more at srcity.org forward slash your city works and in closing I would just like to say thank you to all of our public works professionals and I'm happy to take any questions Thank You miss Miller appreciate the comments and the report on what should be a fun week I'll open it up now for any board member questions or comments All right hearing none. We'll open it up for public comment on item 5.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary Ledezma We do not have anyone at the podium No hands raised in zoom and no public comments were received received via zoom or excuse me email or phone Very good, that'll take care of item 5.1. We'll now move to item 5.2 director Burke Thank You chair Galvin and members of the board item 5.2 is our second staff briefing and it'll be the 2022 2023 capital improvement project update and Tracy Dwayness our supervising engineer with our CIP teams will be making the presentation Good afternoon chair Galvin members of the board. My name is Tracy Dwayness supervising engineer with trap transportation and public works Today I'll bring before you the staff briefing for the fiscal year 22 23 capital improvement project update It's been some time since we've been here. So we've got a bit to cover. I'll try to make it quick and expeditious as possible. So with that I'm going to cover a few things that being the completed projects for fiscal year 22 23 Projects that are currently in construction that previously been bid and are actively in construction And we'll forecast some anticipated projects that we know of for fiscal year 23 So completed in fiscal 22 23 we had five projects completed Of those projects two were primarily sewer three were primarily reuse and then we had various what we call on calls Which is reuse or local on calls as we call it To segregate the definition sewer is primarily sewer funds water is primarily water funds and reuse is what we've known as sub regional funds And so just think of sewer and water as local if you will reuse being sub regional So total cost spent in total construction was a little over 15.2 million Um of those costs approximately 90 percent were local sewer 7% was reuse As we dive into the actual projects We'll we'll highlight some of those that being the crosstown trunk lining project in particular So this project was uh in an effort to rehabilitate approximately a thousand linear square feet of Sewer main along the crosstown alignment Um with that we we installed what is what is known as cured in place pipe technology In an effort to rehabilitate that In line with that sewer trunk was five manholes. We also rehab In an effort to to do the construction requires an extensive bypass This bypass comprised of approximately 5.5 million gallons per day Which is essentially a quarter of the city's sewerage It was required in order to build the project the distribution system ran parallel if you will or jason to the santa rosa creek within prince memorial trail It traveled under 101 under one smart it traveled over two city bridges And it had a vertical drop very extensive and elaborate. Um, it also had to Co mingle with the 22 merit the santa rosa marathon. So uh project team accomplished that Um In the end the project did Uh complete in winter of 2022 at a total construction cost of 1.6 million Next project you've heard this the north trunk sewer replacement project This project was in an effort to relocate Existing sewerage that was in the pollen creek corridor. We needed to relocate that into the schnake corridor Uh coupled with the fact that that was um vintage 1950 sewerage um, the alignment Had very little access. So in an effort to minimize risk or exposure to the city in an ability to Get the trunk out of out of The water course that oftentimes would travel under or near it. We relocated in the schnake corridor. So This project involved Installing approximately 2000 square feet 2000 feet Of main in schnake. Some of which was actual board Referred to and this technology was a trenchless boring effort. This these photos here show the Extents of the shaft in some cases 40 feet deep The pipe that was installed was a vitrified clay pipe with steel casing That pipe was suspect in order due to the axial loads that were thrust upon it with this this kind of Machinery so the project also involved an extensive detour from schnake through Parker hill to fountain grow parkway In an effort as most required as part of most of the project That project was complete in winter of 22 at an obstruction value of a little under 2 million 12 million, excuse me So a couple projects out of the plant These were covered under a minor contract You would have not have seen these but this is the laguna treatment plant maintenance building project improvement project This is in response to a leaky roof out of the maintenance building the Over winter the water would infiltrate the roof and would subject the equipment and staff to hazards So we through an urgent track. We put this project out. We replaced the existing built up roof with what is known as a Thermoplastic polyethylene material, which has a 20 year life. We completed that project in Summer of last year at a value of a little under 200,000 Adjacent to that was also the lab chiller replacement So this project Replaced antiquated chiller equipment system out there that was running nearly 50 capacity And it was ancillary to the climate control serving the lab at chiller extension room That room has extensive Temperature sensitive analysis involved. So it was important imperative that we repaired that as expeditiously as possible We did we completed that in fall of 2022 at a value a little under 300,000 as well And lastly is the dealt upon diffuser maintenance project This project essentially is just a glorified large maintenance project. You guys board has seen this previously twice It was in response to A phenomenon which we know the diffuser had impeded sediment around it The diffuser was originally constructed in 2010 and over the course of that time is accumulated much sediment through santa rosa creek The diffuser is in the santa cruise santa creek proper. It's comprised of many duck bell duck. I'm sorry duck bell check valves Which as in essence is the main discharge Or the primary recycle water discharge facility for the entire city So over the years the sediment would would compile and this effort was to remove that In an effort to do that. It's more mainly a dredging operation Where in fact you'd see a large excavator like this has shown up here remove sediment Close to the vicinity of the check valve and when we got close closer the Contractor would deploy divers to actually vacuum Vacuum clean out near the perimeter of the duck bills in an effort to not damage the bills And then while we're in mid-mid job, we actually had we had the opportunity to actually rotate And that's a picture of the valves themselves, but we were able to rotate those valves Under executed field change order in concert with the approval of the board for a change of scope Work We completed that in immense in addition to all the issues we had and in constraints we had and challenges We had in design and construction one of the more pressing thing was the regulatory schedule deadline to get out of the creek By october 15th and the team managed to do that And we also achieved that job with a little under 550,000 So as we look at the projects today in construction, we have a total of 12 Of those 12 again, it's broken down into the sewer water which actively we have four We have four just primarily water and five primarily reuse We also anticipate as we have Every year some kind of engagement in the on calls whether that be reuse or or local The value of the 27.7 million is essentially a total of either the base Construction cost base construction cost or the total for the entire certified work today It's actively moving. There's a lot of projects, but in essence it may not cover all the extra work So if we look at the these projects in particular the four local sewer and water projects with which Evaluate a little under 15 million Three of those are your standard sewer and water projects neighborhood type projects Which we replace sewer and water with some kind of street rehabilitation Those projects are the cleveland avenue and rose district The terra linda and buena vista sewer and water the slater street in la rosa way As well as the backup generator serving the waste the water and wastewater facilities We assume all of these projects to be complete by this year A special note the backup generators serving water and wastewater facilities So this project was in response to the tubs fire of 2017 It was in part of a greater effort to make the city's infrastructure More resilient and hardened against future hazards This project replaced dual fuel that being propane and diesel Or excuse me propane and natural gas was straight diesel The project replaced its infrastructure serving mind you 18 various water and wastewater facilities So the project replaced with straight diesel generators And in that in concert it improved the power capacities It had an opportunity to transition to more reliable fuel and reduced overall greenhouse emissions Funding for this the city acquired Through the FEMA hazardous mitigation grant program funds through cal eo at cal eos Cal oh, yes, excuse me that provided an opportunity for 75 percent reimbursement For design total construction including the procurement of the generators And construction management costs So that total project construction cost the base construction cost is approximately 9.2 million As we look at just straight water projects They comprise of a little under 5.5 million About being the control and radio upgrades that water tank tree removal The emergency seawall public state public pump station place to play and the cobblestone drive r2 to r4 water main connection These all are anticipated to be complete this well this year as well And as we look at Drilled down into a highlighted project. This project has been before the board twice now the controller and radio upgrades specific to just local water This project scope replaced antiquated and obsolete equipment out over Serving, excuse me replaced antiquated and obsolete equipment with programmable logic controller upgrades at 19 various pump stations And radio telemetry upgrades at 41 local operation facilities So in that in essence that this the breadth if you all of the project limits was quite vast Currently this project is Completing its first phase that being the radio telemetry upgrades and we should hear within the next month have Next phase of the plc upgrades forthcoming That project base cost is approximately 1.6 million So looking at just the water reuse projects those summer they those total have approximately 7.5 million again This is total construction Base cost with assumed work certified total that being the ltp chill chillers and climate control upgrades The ltp waste gas burner replacement the ltp emergency generator fuel tanks last station The west collage storage facility pumping improvements in the geysers delta connection improvements All of these aside from the emergency generator Out of the plant where these are slated to be complete this year of highlight We'll look at the ltp waste gas burner replacement So this project is to facilitate biogas handling the project's replacing an aged Beyond useful life candlestick type waste gas burner with a new skid mounted Enclosed barric biogas waste burner system that you could see on this photo here. It's a it's a tall tower You'll see the gentleman to the far right corner. So it gives the scale of the extensive this improvement And it's specified to achieve high destruction efficiencies greater than 99 So this base construction cost is 2 million Adjacent to that is the the emergency generator fuel tank station replacement also out at the plant This is in pursuant to the PG knees Unpredictable frequency in implementing its public safety power shut off aka psps So the plant identified the need to replace its aged diesel fuel emergency generator fuel storage with new Above ground storage tanks a new fuel fuel diesel gasoline above storage tank and a new fuel diesel gasoline dispensing station This base cost of construction is approximately 1.3 million And lastly for reuse is the delta connection improvement project This is in an effort to improve system resiliency in essence Its project purpose is to increase plants capacity To divert recycle water from the geysers pipeline to delta pond, which is the main recycle discharge point for sub regional This project involved the installation of new distribution pipe installation of a new spillway facility and the installation of a new energy dissipation system Approximate base cost was 2 million So as we look forward, we anticipate four projects that are will be bid and fiscal year 23 That being two sewer and water one water and one primarily sewer The total anticipated engineer the total cost of being 14.7 again that cost Is a total of either the engineering estimate or the total base construction cost as we know as of today As we look at the sewer and water primarily It is the albany clement and malano sewer and water and the east haven drives sewer and water improvement projects These two are your bread and butter sewer replacement projects that replace Age sewer and water and bring them up to current standards as well improve fire protection in the jays in the neighborhoods These are both slated for start of construction this summer As we look at just the water project, that is the water pump station when retaining wall. That's in an effort to rehabilitate migrating water penetrating through the wall Estimated cost at that is a little under 200,000 and we do anticipate start of construction that this summer as well And lastly is the large Los Alamos trunk sewer replacement This project in essence will replace sections of the existing Los Alamos trunk system That are either in poor condition or undersized to serve future demand So this project involves the installation approximately 5,700 linear feet between stream side and the lean elane drive It will traverse and over well In essence 55 percent of the alignment will be an unimproved area It would also require an extensive bypass system to convey upwards of 1.5 million gallons per day In an effort to minimize public and business disturbance. It will also have portions of the work Either at night time or some of the work that's in highway 12 actually weekend work This construction cost is 8.8 million and we assume that to be starting construction this summer Apologize for the quickness, but we are here Cip's web page is still up and active. It is located at srcity.org slash cip There the public will have the opportunity to see projects either in design primarily in construction That they have a map or a list format to navigate through it provides details Contacts start ending estimated times of construction as well as costs And it gives the public a good opportunity to see what's upcoming. It also provides an update update for current construction And lastly I want to provide or give an opportunity for staff appreciation Within tpw. There's two primary teams that serve specifically for water enterprise fund Cip that's team two and team three Within each two those in each two and each both of those teams comprised of essentially 10 folks I'll list them real quick But that's made up of associate associate civil engineering classification And that would be sarah matthew serving under team two That would be rachela mayada and andy wilts serving team three at the quality associate quality control associate level That's chris huffman and dave keck serving team two and team three respectively civil engineering technician that would be oscar sarano And mike miric and tim sell as well as the administrative support that being joy spranvold and allison grongo As you could see with this It highlights the somewhat deficiency in the staffing But we have been performing and we continue will do so and with that I will take any questions Thank you, mr. Dwaynes. I'll open up for any board member questions or comments Board member walsh I appreciate the high level report of what you recently completed What you're gotten what you have in progress and what you plan to do Um the report falls directly in line with the concern we heard recently about how much capacity that we have And this shows that you're you're getting a lot done and I very much appreciate it And I'm just kind of looking for who who all's in here that worked on those projects because I want to Say thank you very much for getting the work done and we appreciate it All right. Thanks for calling our staff. Thank you great Thank you Other board member questions or comments Right, we'll open it up for public comment on item 5.2 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary ladesa We have no one at the podium. No hands are raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails were received Very good. Thanks again, mr. Dwaynes. Thank you. That'll take care of item 5.2 We have one item on the consent calendar If there are any questions from the board. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion I'll move adoption of the consent items I'll second the motion We have a motion and a second to approve item 6.1 We'll now open it up for public comment on item 6.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary ladesa We have no one at the podium. No hands raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails were received Thank you. May we have a roll call vote, please? Board member walsh I board member barfalo I Board member baden for it I Vice chair or noni. I In chair galvin. I This passes with five five affirmative votes with board member watz and board member right absent Thank you We'll now move to item 7.1 Which is our first report item director Burke Thank you, and we'll give board member walsh just a second So item 7.1 is our first report item adoption of a mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program an approval of project for the laguna treatment plant flood protection project And uh with me this afternoon presenting we will have andy wilts our associate civil engineer And christine gas bar from our consulting firm ghd Okay, good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board. I'm andy wilts civil engineer with public works I'm here with christine gas bar senior environmental planner from ghd Today, we'll be presenting the laguna treatment plant flood protection project mitigated negative declaration So first i'll go over the project background Uh including the location and flood plan analysis And i'll go over the scope of the proposed project Then christine will discuss the california environmental quality act more commonly known as the sequa Then we'll provide a recommendation and be available to answer any questions So the project is located at the laguna treatment plant on yanno road between highway 116 and todd road It's also sandwiched between the laguna de santa rosa to the south and colgan creek to the north Both of which are potential sources of flood waters So in 2018 schoff and wheeler completed a flood plan analysis The light blue shading on this uh drawing represents the fema 100 year floodplain It's clearly clearly showing that ltp would be impacted by flood waters coming up from the laguna You can see how that shaded area penetrates up into the plant The red lines on this drawing represent the proposed berm And you can see that where that berm is located it would block that water from traveling north up into the plant so to remove the treatment plant from fema's flood maps the improvements must comply with fema criteria And to be compliant the elevation of the berm must be at least three feet above the 100 year flood water surface elevation Or four feet near an obstruction. So in this case, there's an obstruction along the laguna, which is the yanno road bridge So it also must be above the 500 year flood water surface elevation So over the last 15 years the city has received Three consultant opinions on what this 500 year water surface elevation is The most severe of which is 92 feet. So that's what was selected for the design height of the of the flood protection wall Now the elevation of the south entrance into ltp is approximately elevation 85 So it would give you an idea at least in that location as to what the height of this berm would be So the purpose of this project is to protect ltp from flood events that occur when water over tops the banks of the Laguna to the south of ltp and colgan creek to the north The flood protection system includes earthen berms shown in red A flood gate across yanno road Warning lights and barrier arms at two locations on yanno road And a storm water system to remove the storm water from ltl tp to outside of those berms Now this project was awarded a community development block grant From hud and also a hazard mitigation grant from fema So combined those grants will fund most of this project Approximately 90 of it will be funded by those grants So this rendition provides an idea of the scale and location of the proposed berm So the line work in light blue or aqua color represents the Proposed berm and you can see how it is in relation to the other facilities out there So the storm water system will collect storm water from ltp and it'll gravity flow Directly to the laguna or it could gravity flow to the new storm water pump station Now this storm water pump station is currently under construction By the disinfection and diversion project Now the plant operations will have the flexibility then to use this pump station to pump the water either directly to laguna Or up to the equalization basins and then through the treatment process at the plant So this would you know allow operations for example if there's any spill at the plant That that the liquid spill could be Directed to the pump station and then pumped up through and treated Also, maybe for a first flush event like after a long summer You might have sediment dust accumulate on the roads You could collect that water as it washes down on that first rain event into the pump station and then treat it So this photo of a of the proposed flood gate is kind of in the normal flat position They've been installed in state highways. They're rated for traffic loading Our installation will include raising the profile of yano road approximately two feet in the area of this gate So that minor flooding will not activate the gate So when the floodwaters rise from the laguna The proposed five foot tall flood gate and yano road It'll passively lift up into position to protect the facilities from floodwaters It has hinges along one edge And so it'll basically it basically floats up into position So as that water rise it floats up into position. There's no power needed That happens in the middle of the night after a big storm event and you know all the power's out This thing will still activate to protect the facilities doesn't need any Personnel there to operate it.  It just does it by itself So as previous as previously stated We plan to add two warning signs and barrier gates One will be located south of the laguna the other north of the laguna just north of the flood gate So it'll prevent vehicles from driving into the flooded area Yano road here is not a city road. It's a sonoma county road So we're working on an agreement with the county Um For the city to maintain this equipment so it'll be our responsibility So what will this proposed berm look like? Well, most of the most of the public will see it as they're traveling along yano road driving So this uh initial photo here Is yano road looking south The south entrance to ltp is that driveway on the left of the trees just beyond that Are adjacent to the laguna So this is kind of the before photo so here you see the A rendition that depicts the proposed berm what it may look like From that same location looking south on yano road. So this is kind of the after photo So i'll just back up again so that you can see the before So here's the before photo And here's the after photo So next uh christine gaspar from ghd. We'll explain the sequel Good afternoon chairman gallum members of the board The sequel process is essentially a public disclosure process where We identify the environmental impacts of a proposed project and then also determine what avoidance measures mitigation measures or um other Project modifications that can be implemented to reduce the impacts of a project This is done not only for you as the decision makers, but also for the public And state agencies who might also have Some type of authority or approval over the process Thank you for this process that The city decided that the appropriate sequel documentation would be an initial study proposed mitigated negative declaration Early in the process the city sent out tribal notification letters And did receive response from one tribe that they wished to consult. So the city did Go through that process and that summarized in the project description Um Once the initial study was prepared and ready for circulation a notice of intent was sent out to um neighboring property owners And it was also posted at the county clerk and then also In the press democrat Those first days of circulation The initial study itself was made available On the city's website for the public to review There was a hard copy over at the offices at 69 stony And then we of course submitted it to the state clearinghouse as well so that state agencies could review it The public comment period very Inconveniently was over the holidays So instead of doing the traditional 30 day circulation period The city opted to extend it a week to give folks additional time to review the document and provide any comments Uh, there was one comment letter received from California department of fish and wildlife They asked questions about the wetland conditions and the potential need for additional plant surveys And they also let us know what the requirements were for Completing a leg and strebid alteration agreement for the project And I believe there is the response in your packet regarding that We did provide them with information about the conditions of the the wetlands and you know, they're they're not that great at At the ltp. Um, they're degraded just by virtue of you know, it's an industrial facility And then also even though the sequa document did not identify a need to do additional plant surveys The city is conducting some additional spring surveys This year there's going to be three and actually the first two have already been complete and No plants no special status plants have been found thus far And there was no other comments received That's so in summary The project was evaluated and noticed in accordance with the sequa guidelines All of the potential impacts that were identified Were found to be less than significant after mitigation Those were related to biological resources and tribal cultural resources No other impacts were identified And there was no unavoidable impacts thus an eir didn't need to be prepared The conclusionary analysis or the conclusions in the analysis. There we go Supported the mnd doing a mitigated negative declaration And a mitigation monitoring and reporting program has been prepared in accordance with sequa And is included in your packet and would be implemented with the project And I think I turn it back over to you So it is recommended by the transportation and public works department and the water department that the board of public Utilities by resolution number one adopt the mitigated negative declaration for the laguna treatment plant flood protection project Number two adopt the mitigation monitoring and reporting program Number three approve the laguna treatment plant flood protection project in number four Direct staff to file a notice of determination So we're here to answer any questions Thank you both for the presentation. I'll open it up for board member questions or comments board member barthelow Thank you for the presentation And if you stated this in the beginning of it, I apologize, but what is the timeline for this once this gets going? So we are hoping to start construction the next summer, but there's a lot of moving parts. So You know there are hurdles that need to be overcome before we can start but we are shooting for next summer And then I think we expected remember what the timeline is. I think it's a A year and a half to two years Any other board member questions or comments? If not, we have a resolution before us I'll move adoption of the resolution to the board of public utilities of the city of san aroza Adopting a mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program And approving the project for the laguna treatment plant flood protection project and waive the reading of the text second Thank you. We have a motion by vice charononi seconded by board member battenford at this time We'll open it up for public comments on item 7.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand for dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary ladesa, we have no one at the podiums No hands raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails were received very good. May we have a roll call vote, please Board member barthelot. Yes Board member battenford Yes Vice chair arononi. Hi Chair galvin. Hi This passes with four affirmative votes with board members Walsh waltz and right absent Very good We'll wait for board member walsh to make his way back to the dais We will now move to item 7.2. Director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board our second report item is approval of a proposed agreement for removal of micro grid demonstration project battery transformer and inverter at the laguna treatment plant And peter martin deputy director water resources will be making the presentation Good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board very pleased before you today It's been some time since this board has received any updates on this project So I will spend a little time reorienting everyone on its history and purpose As far as a demonstration project So we'll start with the beginning. There was quite a bit of coordination In in time around 2014 When ultimately trained secured about a five million dollar Grant from the california energy commission and the grant's purpose really was to Look at opportunities For utilizing micro grids and pairing them with large users like wastewater facilities And the project site Was selected which was the laguna treatment plant and partnering with santa rosa And the goals of the project were were relatively simple It was to fund the testing and demonstrate the operation of micro grid technology Utilizing and pairing it with renewable energy opportunities And evaluate any opportunities where there could be a participation in energy markets Utilizing the micro grid whether it be Demand reduction or sending energy back to the grid And and selling it as well at some point so In 2017 the city signed an agreement for the design and construction of the micro grid with train That construction concluded and testing began in 2019 So there's relatively Large elements of this project that worked in concert with each other And they were a 2.2 megawatt Battery array controller and various sub-partnesses including and and berter And two selective calic reducers also known as scrs That were installed on two of the four existing combined heat and power units that are at the facility that generate power on site And then also a 125 kilowatt solar array And the parking lot near the admin building of the laguna treatment plant Some photos here of the interior of the battery array micro grid and inverter You may recognize or may not recognize some of these folks. They've since since retired but You know these are more critical folks that were here when this project was brought online The two scr units, they were truly a just like a large Cadillac converter in your car and Work towards better emission controls and efficiency for these units as well And this is the parking lot solar array That exists today Again in 2019 the construction concluded On-site testing and simulations occurred for 30 days This time frame essentially proved up that the micro grid could micro grid could deliver power In a day ahead market scenario And the study of the project included that revenue opportunities For the day ahead market and spot markets were limited And ultimately PG&E would not accept full interconnection Due to the incompatibility or compatibility of the inverter design Full interconnection is not possible today Without a significant capital investment The grant funds are fully expended at this time And no additional funding is available, of course from Santa Rosa water for this project But train did complete all of their grant requirements and submitted a final report to the california energy commission Basically addressing all of the requirements of the grant additionally the City did engage uc davis to evaluate the pilot project as a third party evaluator They looked at the proxy demand resource program Otherwise referred to as a day ahead and real-time market They identified limited times a year when this program could be utilized Of course priority goes to the operations of the LTP during certain times of year, especially during the winter months And they must be prioritized. So there's limited opportunity to manipulate those operations in a way That could either reduce demand or Work in conjunction with the micro grid To shift load, but they did determine ultimately that there could be opportunities that generate savings from about 1% to 7% of the energy costs in 2017 dollars Through a combination of the demand response programs And the ability to shift those loads and still meet the regulatory and treatment plan operation requirements Was deemed to be challenging and that was an outcome of that study In the meantime, uh, the city has began participating in pgne's base interruptible program It is a program where a It's an optional program where a scheduler Notifies the LTP operation staff That they are going to make a call for reduced demands on the grid And offers the opportunity to participate This is again fully optional if it's not a good day for doing so Staff do not have to respond So it's a fully elective program and there's no penalty for not participating in the events These are really when the grid is most vulnerable statewide And it's an opportunity to reduce that demand and prevent blackouts or brownouts on the grid. So Um, and then the LTP has certain elements and SOPs in place Whereby they can put certain things and stand by Reduce the demands overall in the plant And get paid back uh for reducing that demand on the grid As a large energy user Right now the program is estimated to Give these the utility about 40,000 to 80,000 annually For this participation The past few quarters have resulted in about $13,000 per quarter So to why we're here today The operations of the pilot project have concluded in 2019 And due to costs and the capital investment needed Interconnection with the grid is not recommended by either train or santa rosa water staff And really at this point what we've learned based on what we've learned Train santa rosa water staff recommend the termination of the project And removal of certain elements of the project including the micro grid transformer and inverter Train it would be responsible for all permits and necessary approvals to complete the work under this agreement Train will remove these project elements at no cost to santa rosa water and return that site back to satisfactory conditions according to onsite staff And ownership of the solar array and the scrs for which santa rosa contributed Obviously remains with santa rosa water after they remove those elements There are some ongoing benefits To santa rosa water from engaging this project despite the removal of the micro grid We know the longer needs perform to maintenance on the micro grid, which is estimated at about $25,000 annually And it is somewhat dangerous work Because it is high voltage electricity as well. So there is some some risk there too as well The installation of the two scrs We got those for the price of one When the grant was put together And it has resulted in further maximize operations of the combined heat power generation facilities um And the completion of the 125 kilowatt solar array Which does offset some demand for the facilities and provides shade in the parking lot as a result as well So with that The agreement For which is in the packet today Santa rosa water staff are recommending the board of public utilities By motion approve the right of entry and access agreement for the removal The micro grid demonstration project battery transformer and inverter At the santa rosa laguna treatment plant that agreement being between the city santa rosa and train With that I can take any questions the board may have Thank you for your presentation It's unfortunate that this project didn't become successful But I think this is a a good way to conclude it and we did get the solar array and and a couple other pieces of equipment so I'm supportive of the agreement I'll open it up for board member questions or comments vice chair arnone Thanks, I would also agree that it's been a worthwhile project given the final results But the question I have and it's probably just because of my lack of knowledge is I thought that it was necessary to have an inverter to make use of solar panels And if we're giving the inverter back To train how how is it possible that we're able to use the energy from the solar panels without an inverter? That's a good question vice chair arnone. Um, actually the inverter is compatible with the micro grid itself. So when the micro grid Discharges the power it would need to run through the inverter in order to return back to the To to the grid. I do believe I may have to call upon Deputy director prins or maybe director Burke, but I do believe that the Solar array is is operated somewhat separately From from that micro grid in in terms of how they work in concert. So I don't know if somebody needs to confirm that or not, but It's been a while since I was involved with the project But my understanding is is it is separate and it doesn't provide enough energy to go back to the grid So we're using it on site As long as we can use it on site, that's good. I mean, I'm glad we can use it on site Other board member questions or comments All right, I will entertain a motion Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion I move that the board of public utilities approve the agreement For the right of entry and access for removal of the battery transformer and inverter at the san rosa laguna treatment plant between the city of san rosa and train us incorporated I'll second that I have a motion by board member waltz seconded by board member barthelot At this time, I'll open it up for public comments on item 7.2 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary Ledesma, we have no one at the podiums. No hands are raised on zoom and no voicemails or emails were received All right. May we have a roll call vote, please board member walsh I Board member barthelot. Hi Board member baden for it. Hi Vice chair Arnone. Hi Chair galvin. Hi This passes with five affirmative votes and board members watts and right absent Thank you. Thank you again deputy director martin. We'll now move to item 7.3 director berk Thank you chair galvin and members of the board Our final report item is a contract award for the albany clement and melana sewer and water improvements And rachela mayeda associate civil engineer with our capital projects team will be making the presentation Good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board as director berk mentioned My name is rachela mayeda, and i'm an associate civil engineer with the transportation and public works department Today, I will present the contract award for the albany clement and melano sewer and water improvements project contract number c 00203 As I will discuss due to scheduling constraints related to bidding and right-of-way issues I am bringing forth the contract award in accordance with resolution number 900 titled resolution of the board of public utilities Authorizing a specific process for expedited construction contract award I'll start off with a little bit of a project background a portion of which is located on santa rosa junior college property So i'll talk about securing those easements and why that's relevant to the contract award I'll go over the project schedule I'll touch on how we structured the invitation for bids to allow for flexibility in scoping the contract I will present the bid opening results and finally end with a recommendation The project is located just east of highway 101 and south of steel lane The purpose of the project is to replace water facilities that have been identified As having a high likelihood of failure and being fire flow deficient It will also replace age replace aged and undersized sewer mains As well as upgrade existing storm drain facilities and replace a few a excuse me a few pedestrian ramps to make With ADA compliant ones Seeming into the project area and starting at the top in the pink area is where we have some minor storm drain improvements About 120 or linear feet and several catch basin basins The blue area indicates where we have some water main replacements about 1900 linear feet And then the green area indicates where we have about 1400 linear feet of sewer main replacements And then with those sewer improvements, we will be able to abandon abandon and existing private sewer sanitary sewer easement Since the project will be improving multiple utilities within the roads, we will be doing full roadway Reconstruction, which means that we will be replacing a total of eight new ADA compliant ramps Towards the right that yellow box indicates where we have SRJC's property boundary So as you can see a portion of the water mains are located on their campus To do the improvements on SRJC properties, we need both a temporary construction easement as well as a permanent easement Both of which need to be approved by their board And then to minimize disruption to the college construction on the campus would be restricted to when school is not in session With summer breaks really being the only practical windows to do the work that's expected to take about six weeks Last month SRJC's administrative staff and their legal council preliminarily approved the easement documents So we decided to target this summer for construction And this could prevent the project from lasting an extra six to nine months Which could increase impacts to the neighborhood as well as the total project cost We will direct the contractor to start this portion of the project as the first order of work And this doesn't mean they won't be able to work on other portions of the project It just means that the SRJC property needs to be a priority For construction on SRJC's property to begin at the start of summer break We identified mid april as the latest date to advertise the project We ended up advertising on april 18th And as you can see we needed to advertise the project before We were able to get on SRJC board meetings agenda So we did not know if we would have SRJC rights at the time And i'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide But continuing on with schedule after SRJC's may 9th board meeting We had a bid opening on may 10th I'm here before you today requesting approval to award the contract Construction is anticipated to begin in mid june with the SRJC portion of work Being done in late july or early august And again if something happens and we cannot complete construction this summer We do already have rights to do the work next summer as well As i mentioned we structured the invitation for bids To accommodate the uncertainty with SRJC's property rights We included all work on SRJC property as an additive bid item Meeting that we got a completely separate cost for this portion of work And then we could decide after we opened bids whether or not we wanted to include it in the contract According to public contract code We do need to stay in the invitation for bids how we would determine the low bid And so since we weren't certain that we would have SRJC rights We opted to have the low bid be based on only the base bid without consideration of the SRJC portion of work Again, we advertised on april 18th of this year. The easement documents were approved by SRJC's board on may 9th We received a total of five bids on may 10th and the apparent low bidder was terracon constructors incorporated Looking looking more closely at terracon constructors estimates They had a base bid of about 2.9 million dollars Which was approximately five percent over the engineer's estimate The additive bid item or the portion of work that was on the SRJC campus came out to about 329 thousand dollars, which was approximately 46 percent over the engineer's estimate for that portion of work But because it was such a small portion of the total project terracon constructors still actually had the lowest total Project cost of about three point two million dollars It is recommended by the transportation and public works department and the water department that the board of public utilities by motion approve the project award construction contract number c 00203 in the amount of three million 233 289 To the lowest responsive bidder terracon constructors incorporated of healdsburg california for the albany clement and malano sewer and water improvements approve a 15 percent contingency And authorize a total contract amount of three million seven hundred and eighteen thousand 282 and 35 cents Thank you for your time, and i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have Thank you for your presentation and for getting this project moving quickly I'll open it up for any board member questions or comments Right, and I will entertain a motion I'll make a motion To To approve the project And to award construction contract number c 00203 in the amount of three million 233 289 To the lowest responsive bidder terracon constructors of healdsburg For the albany clement and malano sewer and water improvements And approve a 15 percent contingency and authorize a total contract amount Of three million seven hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and eighty two dollars and 35 cents I'll second that motion We have a motion by board member barthelos seconded by board member walsh to approve item 7.3 At this time we'll open it up for public comment on item 7.3 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand We have no one at the podiums. No hands are raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails are received May we have a roll call vote, please board member walsh I Board member barthelot. I Board member baden for it. Hi Vice chair arnone. Hi Chair dalvin. Hi This passes with five affirmative votes and board members wats and right absent Thank you We'll now move to item number eight, which is public comments on non-agenda items We'll take public comments now on item eight if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary ladesma We have no one at the podiums. No hands are raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails are received Thank you We have no written communications. I don't believe we have any subcommittee reports Do we have any board member reports? Board member walsh Thank you, mr. Chairman. I was able to attend the eco-friendly garden tour saturday may 15th And I want to thank the folks that put it together the signups were really easy The small to help people make sure that they could get what they needed to be And one project in particular pointed out some of the things that we're working on It's called the tanzas creek natives Each each garden has their own kind of theme And metandas creek natives was on side press way The front yard was great. They had a lot of low water native plants the backyard was great There's these catchment catchment facilities and then people were saying what's that they started walking down the stairs towards metandas creek and the homeowner was explaining that Originally a federal agency wanted to do a survey for endangered species and do some fish counts And she said well, I do have steps to provide the access that they wanted But she's concerned that the slope may erode and the project turned into sort of a creek bed restoration project where the She had willows planted and the ones that took stayed there provided shade for the fry um the neighbors upstream neighbors had a drainage pipe that Was uh was buried underneath their yard. I can't what went from the street. I think of the storm drains I'm not that up on it But that water flowed into sort of a ditch And their yard slowed it down fed the stream and it was just fantastic that people were amazed at how it looked the sitting areas um, and you know the Cooperation of the agencies involved. So I was really appreciative. So it took in storm water creeks Um, what doing water right and the in the fish counts and it was just a fantastic project really wowed me on the cooperation So I appreciate that and the folks that pulled pulled everything together Great. Thank you for that report any other board member reports All right, well, we'll take pups. I'm sorry I also attended that event and um, I only was able to visit two of the gardens But it was so well done And the amount of information that was conveyed to all the people that participated. Um Was was really amazing So hats off to everyone who helped with that Thank you any other board member comments All right, we'll take public comments on item number 12 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary Ledezma We have known at the podiums no hands are raised in zoom and no emails or voicemails are received All right, that'll take care of item number 12. We'll now move to the director's report director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board. I only have a couple items to report to you on First I wanted to give an update on our water future project We continue to make progress on the our water future project, which is our water supply alternatives plan The project is remaining on schedule A feasibility assessment of water supply options has been completed and a draft Technical memorandum was distributed to our internal water team As well as our external stakeholder group The stakeholder group will have their next working session Next week on wednesday may 24th And then any input we receive from the stakeholder group as well as the review from the internal team will be integrated into the memo And the initial feasibility study results will be presented at a community webinar on monday june 26th And that's going to be from 5 to 7 p.m. And will be a virtual meeting via zoom And then we will be coming to the board at your meeting on july 6th to present The information to the bpu as well So all updates including information on how Members of the public can register and attend the june 26th community web Webinar pardon me can be found on our website, which is srcity.org Slash our water future I also wanted to let the board know that we are Excitedly moving forward with our direct install program On monday may 22nd We will begin targeted outreach for the grant funded toilet direct install program And we'll begin opening up an online pre qualification application And Santa Rosa water customers will be eligible to swap out higher water use toilets with two high efficiency 0.8 gallons per flush toilets as well as high efficiency shower heads faucet aerators and kitchen faucet aerators The fixtures will be completely installed For the customers by qualified plumbers and there will be no cost to the customer And as you might recall, this is a grant funding that we received not only through a earmark from our local assembly member as well as Funding that we will be receiving through a bureau of recreation grant So our goal is to begin installation in late summer And if anyone is interested to either get more information or information on how they can Pre-qualify for the program Please visit our website at srcity.org slash toilets And then last I wanted to let the board know that we will be canceling the june 1st bpu meeting So our next meeting will occur on june 15th And you will see a cancellation notice posting soon And that is my report and i'm happy to answer any questions Thank you director burk any board questions for the director Vice chair anoni Actually, this is not a question and I probably should have brought this up at the board member of comments period But i'm going to bring it up now And I just wanted to share a fact that a couple of weeks ago We had a leak in our drip system in the backyard and We discovered it it was pulling up and we called somebody to come in and fix it and and took a few days to To get the person on board But just the day that they did the work of we got a phone call from santa rosa water That said you have a water leak and And we took the call and said well, we just had somebody come in fact He just fixed it today and they said okay wait for a minute and they checked and apparently online in real time They said yep, it's stopped. You're all good. And if you want to have a Reduction in your water bill because of all the water that was lost We'll send you the paperwork and you should be receiving it shortly and we received it. So it's just You know something that I experienced that I was very impressed by the immediacy of picking it up because it was like Two or three days after the leak started that that we got the call So it was just a very good example of Some of the investments in real-time monitoring Paying off for the rate payers Which I am one so That was it Well, thank you for those comments. I will note that the AMI System has been very helpful To both our water billing and water use efficiency teams I'm guessing you probably got a call from our water billing team to let you know And uh, yes, if you find a leak you repair that leak We can work with you on whether or not you would qualify for a leak adjustment So I'm glad that worked out well and they got you the information and kudos to the water billing and water use Efficiency teams Very good. Any other questions or comments? Then we'll open it up for public comment on item 13 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary Ledezma We have known at the podiums. No hands are raised in zoom and no voicemails or emails were received Thank you. That concludes our agenda for today. So I'd like to adjourn the meeting in honor of our water professionals I hope they have a great week next week since we won't be meeting and kudos for job well done We're adjourned


This is the Daily Tech News show for Wednesday, December 29th, 2021 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt, Sarah and Roger and Joe and Amos. They're all around too. But it's time to look back on the year that was 2021. And as many of you know, we have DTNS, but we also have a longer show called Good Day Internet. So our producer Joe combed through both shows to look for some highlights that exemplify the big stories, the interesting discussions, the fun diversions we had on both shows. So here is the best of 2021. Enjoy. Have you had a chance to really like pay much attention to the CES stuff earlier in the week? The video that breaks CES out into the news cycle is some ABC Good Morning America's cameras on a phone that rolls up, right? A television that splits into a tablet that splits into a robot that can pour you wine. This year, you couldn't be there.  Because that's great TV. You can't do that. And I think that contributes to Ryzen winning Best of CES because it's a more conceptual thing plays better in a world where nobody's actually in any of the booths. And all the political events and everything else just kind of meant like we don't have a dry news cycle. So we don't need to fill a slot. Well, and yeah, although I do think that if there was a super compelling gadget, there is for the reason that we're going to do the show that we're doing today. That is not going to mention the politics stuff really at all, even in the way that we mention it normally on DTNS, that there would have been a place for the like. And and here's the thing that your kid's going to love. Cause CES is always a first and foremost to trade show. The whole kind of newsmaker aspect came like big newsmaker came a little later. Like where did those news stories start? No, those those news stories started with the companies that were producing them. They started outside CES was the was there was our platform to push it out, but it wasn't like that. Three major waves over the last 10 years, smart phones, televisions in general, for which has still been a thing. 3D televisions is an example for which of an empty hype cycle for which televisions went through and CES played a part in. I'm not saying they invented it. I'm saying that they are the clearinghouse of the rubber meets the road again in a dead news cycle where you can work where these stories become talking points on a level that they don't otherwise unless you are in this field. And then IOT the rollable foldable thing is equivalent to 3D TVs. And if it was a normal CES in a dry news week that it would it would be getting close to that. But I totally agree with everything you said. And in clam chowder. Yeah. There's vodka in my clam chowder. Oh, not yours, but if you want to be better. Why did no one tell Sarah this before? When you cook for a restaurant, a few shots into like, you know, three gallons worth of clam chowder. Alcoholic soup. No, that's. Have you ever tried alcoholic soup before you give it a bad name? We're not going to spend a lot of time on on the show. We had we had texted about it. Did we want to go into it or just do we want to go into hashtag, hell portal hashtag portal to hell regarding the suspension of the president from all these different platforms. We're going to have it in DTNS. It's going to be a quick hit. Like, yeah, part of like, here's all the technology stuff around what happened, but we're not going to have a big discussion about it. Is this appropriate for the platforms?  Is there transparency on how long they're being suspended? What do they need to do to cure their suspension? Like, and what we saw yesterday is what we've seen from all these platforms forever, which is, you know, the whose line is it anyway? You know, welcome to social media where the, you know, we make up the rules and the points don't matter. So, yeah, we clearly have rules that we will follow and we just changed those rules. Yes, exactly. And I don't say that meaning I necessarily agree or disagree with their decisions. But if you're if you're, you know, trying to see them as neutral players, I don't think that's accurate. You know, them reacting to the moment, the controversy of the moment, and this is a massive controversy. I don't want to downplay what it is.   The only thing I would say is that this particular situation because of the gravity of it is not a portal to hell. It is indeed where we arrive after we have to go through the port.  Television has been around for almost 100 years. So, so they're learning right now. We can't look back and say, well, for a long time, it's been well established that this is what you do in that situation. That said, you can make judgments about like, OK, if they have to make it up as they go along, how good are they at doing that? I think that there is a tremendous problem with both Twitter and Facebook specifically that they created a message board without mods and only admins. And if you create a world without mods and only admins, however you want to define what those would be on those platforms, then every decision that is made is the decision from God. And that's the problem. No, but the community will moderate itself, Justin. That's it. I'm quoting Tom Merritt from Buzz Out Loud, Circuit 2008. Cloud was, so we had the net, right? That was the ability to even connect. Cloud was, we'll take your data and you don't have to have it local. What's decentralized? Like, if we get, I'm not saying we will, but my hope is that we end the next wave is a big decentralization. You get to control your data. It's not in any one place, so nobody else can control it, but you. What would we call that? Well, people talk now about data lakes. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. What's a decentralized lake? Minnesota. A pond. Data pond. Yes, there's over a thousand of those. I still think data lake and data pond and like all that kind of stuff. Cause then you can have like rivers running between them and like oceans for the big one. Well, you know, if you make it a tributary or an estuary, then you can have like. So like a delta could be the edge of the public cloud and your personal. Oh, that's good. Your private cloud could be the, could be the freshwater and the public salt. Distributed. Yeah. It's distributed.  And so it's the data. Then your data lakes works with the, with the, with the delta. Yeah. Underground. Yeah. I was going to say data. Right. Data dams. Reservoir. Reservoir. Okay. Yeah. Like your personal data reservoir. Right. Your data lake is your personal backup, but then you also want it to be backed up somewhere else securely. You need to have potable data. We do need to have potable data.  Oh, seriously. GameStop stock started January at $18 a share. Quite a bit up from the $3.30 a share. I'd have been trading at in the summer, but it rose even more 69% January 22nd, triggering a halt to its trading. Then Monday, this past Monday, January 25th, its trading was halted nine times. It reached $224 a share on Tuesday evening. And was passed $300 early Wednesday. Molly Wood. Why is this happening? How did this start? This is happening because I guess the sort of shortest possible version is that the internet has discovered the world's largest casino. And you have this sort of confluence of things happening. Right. Trading is way more accessible in part because of Robin Hood. You named an app Robin Hood. What did you think was going to happen? People remain super furious about things like the 2008 financial collapse and also shorting. And there's like no small amount of kind of Tesla fanboy rage that's playing into what were happening here. People were angry at all of this shorting of GameStop that also left markets totally vulnerable to what we're seeing today. And they've suddenly figured out how to apply crowd sourcing and actually what I've been calling Google bombing to the stock market. They're coming from primarily this Reddit board called Wall Street Bets, this subreddit. And it's existed for a long time. And it's a place to, you know, it's got like hardcore day traders in it. Some people who might have at some point been working for the same firms that are engaged in this activity right now. This, again, this combination of events, maybe a little extra money, maybe more time on their hands about the pandemic, maybe just this kind of like pent up rage about inequality and this kind of edgelord troll sensibility that just said, like, we can do this thing for the walls.   I mean, I think it is just a dirty old trick that internet trolls figure out how to exploit. Like so far, all of it is legal. There are that we know of, right? There are certain rules around market manipulation. But I think that like organizing all your friends out in the open to all buy the same stock probably does not violate those rules. Short selling at least now doesn't violate any rules. And to be honest, if I, if, if I thought there was going to be a regulatory response to this, I, I would imagine that it would protect the hedge funds and not the Redditors. Like I don't think they're going to make rules against short selling. If anything, if they, if there is regulation that results from this, it will probably hurt individuals who want to buy into the stock market. And that's actually very bad. Like the worst outcome here is that by showing how manipulatable this system is and by doing things that are perfectly acceptable behavior, when they're done by hedge funds or even investment banks, it's possible that you would have regulators come in and go like, maybe we, maybe everybody who buys into the stock market has to be accredited or maybe if there's a certain amount of volatility and everybody's trying to buy the same stock at once, we just don't let them. Reddit's not saying GameStop's going to make a comeback. They're just saying, let's all pile in and buy it and screw over these short sellers. So you would have to find another way to say they're doing something illegal and you'd have to figure out who to prosecute. There's not a particular ringleader. Um, how a lot of big firms have bought the basically the rights to early trading information on Robinhood. They can, they can essentially front run these trades. So like a firm called Citadel might realize that everybody's buying into GameStop, get on board with that, make a ton of money, and then loan that money to bail out Melvin Capital and then have that money be invested later and make money on it. Right. So like at the end of the day Citadel's, by the way, if you're out there to read in this, their Citadel securities, which has a deal with Robinhood and then there's Citadel, which is doing what Molly's talking about. Um, and they're both going to benefit from this and they're both going to benefit. Exactly. Like at the end of the day, we shouldn't shed too many tears for what we think of the establishment investors, because all of those same investors are going to make money. Some retail investors on Reddit are going to make a lot of money. Some retail investors on Reddit are going to be left hold in the bag. Cause right now there's a lot of pressure on them not to sell, even though the stock is really high and they could have made a lot of money. And so then now you're going to have this weird game theory thing to see who sells first, which will cause the price to go back down. And some individuals may lose an incredible amount of money. The whole thing is, is it dangerous game? It's twisted and crazy. I just can't believe it's all over a company. I used to trade Madden 05 in for for 10 bucks. The incoming head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, Senator Amy Klobuchar plans to introduce a new antitrust bill targeted at big tech companies that would place limits on acquisitions. If the bill became law, here's how it would shift the burden of proof onto companies with more than 50% market share. So that's how this, this bill would work. You, it would work by shifting the burden of proof and I'll explain what that means in a second and it would only apply to companies with more than 50% market share, which right now that's a lot of big tech companies. If you are one of those companies, you would have to prove that an acquisition would not create an appreciable risk of materially lessening competition. In other words, if this were the law now and Facebook were buying Instagram now, Facebook would have to prove that buying Instagram wouldn't hurt competition rather than what they had to do under the current law, which is having investigators prove like you would right under the way the law used to work, you had to prove that it would hurt competition for Facebook to buy Instagram. They want to change the law to say Facebook has to prove it won't. Some conduct would be presumed anti competitive unless the company can prove otherwise. So let's say Amazon shuts a company off its platform for what it says were violations of policy. Right now the company that got shut out would have to go to court and prove that it wasn't just a violation of policy. It's anti competitive. Under this bill, Amazon would have to prove why it was not anti competitive and a large company could face antitrust liability, even if the market in which it took place was not precisely defined by the claimant. There's a whole load of complicated case law around market definition. For instance, and we'll go down this rabbit hole now, but apparently Pepsi and Coke have been ruled in court not to be in the same market because brand loyalty makes customers less price sensitive. So Justin, this is just Amy Klobuchar trying this again. She apparently tried it in the last Congress. It didn't didn't float then got any chance of floating now. You need 10 members of the opposite party. So I don't know if immediately this would get all 50 senators from either party. It would be curious to see whether or not this is something that you could rally the banners and pitch a perfect game on if Amy Klobuchar wanted to get all of the Democrats on on board. Some might not see that it goes far enough because it doesn't break up certain tech companies. I'm going to Elizabeth Warren has pushed. Some might think that it goes too far on the, on the blue dog side, like on Joe Manchin. What I don't like about this kind of bill is having it targeted at big tech. I don't like laws that are made for specific companies and this reeks of that a little bit. What I do like about it is that it's not making major policy changes. It's just trying to adjust the levels and say, let's make it a little easier for someone to prove an antitrust case because we're going to shift the burden of proof. I haven't worked through all the implications of doing that. Maybe if I did, I would be horrified by it. But in principle, that seems to be a better way to go around adjusting things than to have these more extreme measures, at least to me. Hold on. We forgot something. Oh, let's check in with Lamar who's been illustrating today's show. Today's Friday. Yeah. So, yeah. So this is, um, this is a sad family who has a, I took a long time to draw this guy. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. They're sad because they live at the end of the zip code and they don't have internet. Right. Yeah. So we, Is that how it works? The person at the front of the zip code gets the one internet connection. Yes. Yeah. So your 30 cents can help this family. Oh yeah. Oh wow. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding? Tom, are you kidding me? I need no way. Your picture looks a lot, a lot like Lamar. What did you make this? It's very nice. Yeah. Super Bowl 15. Super Bowl 15. I don't count. Are you still Philadelphia with two L's? Uh, it looks like I did. Yeah. Okay. How about, uh, how about this turkey? That I drew. Okay. That is, that is, you know what? I don't, why don't. Here's a, here's a train that I drew. It goes to Chicago. Okay. I really do want to know, I'm with Sarah now. Why do you have these? I had a brief career as a cartoonist. This is super duck with two C's. We need a view. Super duck. I never finished the last frame apparently. It ain't. Justin, Robert Young. Yes. Going to Texas. I am. Yeah. You know, it's a, a city that has spent a ton of time in because of Brian and South by Southwest and, and, and all that. Uh, it just kind of, uh, feels like the right, uh, the right move. Although the fact that it is, uh, gonna snow here on Monday, uh, is, is not something that I'm excited about. Yeah. I know that it did that. You're going to get blamed is what's going to happen. People are like, Oh, you buy a house in Texas and then it snows. And it's nine degrees out of here. So like, uh, I'm leaving on Friday, uh, uh, what I've heard is that this kind of weather is once in a hundred years kind of thing. So in a lot of ways, I'm pretty excited that I'll be moving in because they got it out of the way. Yeah. So, uh, we, we can reset that clock to a hundred years. What was the movie about the room? Oh, that one, the one, uh, Franco. Yes. James Franco. I think, I think that was the last movie I saw in the theater. It was Christmas three years ago. Disaster. That's it.  Where I was like, really? That's the end of the movie. Yeah. Oh, nobody knows where I'm actually from. I made up this whole backstory about Greenville, Illinois. And I'd never believed it paid some people off to Tom came out of a photo man with your, with your kind of like, oh, I'm like close to St. Louis thing. Yeah.  Tom, he even faked that, that little clip of him when he was much supposedly. No, that's the actual, that's an actual person. It's just not me. It was pretty obvious Tom. Yeah. I'm glad we're just finally airing it out. I know. Greenville. And I'm going to admit that this is a green screen behind me. It's, it's time to let go of all the illusions. I had to delete Tik Tok. I, I. You could say week for a story. Because, because why? Because it was too addictive. Absolutely right. Yeah. I downloaded it for a story because I was trying to find something else that was being, that was trending on Tik Tok. And I opened it up to search for that particular hashtag. And then 17 hours later, I thought, whoa, this is bad. I found the compliment rap battles where instead of tearing the other rapper down, you're trying to compliment them. I found some lyrics, some compliment battle lyrics here. Would you like to hear some example? Sure. I'm terrible at rapping compared to you.  Give a high five to your parents, dude. That's, that sounds like. It rhymes. Okay. If props to your mums and props where it's due because they did a good job taking care of you. You should take a day off like Ferris Bueller. Ah, right. Yes. That's where the rhyme gets kind of fun.  You can bag a beat like those hickory stick snacks. You know, that totally sounds like the sugar no gank. It totally do that. And it would sound not out of place. Somehow you became water there, Tom. Jack Dorsey's first tweet has sold for 2.9 million. There's some, there's some NFT things where I'm just like, it's grown. It's newsworthy, but it's also grown worthy. Yeah. So help me with the metaphysics of this. Because mentally I'm looking at this and I'm like, okay, it's the first edition. Of course we printed the first edition to everyone who was in a bookstore. So there's, you know, well, it probably dozens at that point or maybe even hundreds. Like I don't know how many people were on Twitter when Jack sent his first tweet. Like how do you, you know, I mean, you're, you're asking for people, you're asking how people are objectively determining the value of something that's relative. I'm not, the charge with the market will bear not asking for objective value. What I'm literally asking is, you know, given that the first tweet happened over a decade ago and was published to everyone on the service at that time, which was probably a really short list. But, you know, is, is what is the first tweet, right? Because does a tweet exist until other people read it? If there are 50 people on the service or 50,000 people on the service, which one is the first tweet? Or did he basically say, this is the first tweet I sent and I am making it a thing and now I am selling your rights to the first tweet, which is like, you know what I mean? It's like, if lawyers made art for people who like to, you know, if lawyers made art for hustlers, it sounds a lot like this. Great that it made 3 million for charity. How searching for help online can be healthy. And I think we all agree that the last year has affected us all sometimes not in the greatest of ways. Mental health is a big concern. So if you want to help yourself, do you search online? Well, aren't you supposed to talk to a doctor? Isn't it kind of dangerous to self-diagnose? But Peter, you found some recommendations that searching for help with mental help online isn't always a bad idea.  Yeah. Yeah, it's really important to kind of evaluate the sources. Like anything on the Internet, if you're, there's going to be fantastic advice out there. And there's also going to be really, really terrible advice. So the trick is to figure out how to tell those two bits of advice apart. I was reluctant to kind of name any sources as being you can trust everything that these people say because I'm not a doctor myself. So I felt very uncomfortable offering that advice. So I guess the rule of thumb that I found in the last week looking at this stuff is just ignore the stuff that says that, hey, we're going to cure you of your anxiety or your depression by the time you get to the end of this YouTube clip or whatever it is. Anything that says that it's going to be an easy fix I think starts to feel a little bit kind of self-help guru-y and not so valuable. But I found that there were some really, really good sources. And to be honest, this all did come about because Google did an update to their search product where if you do a search on depression in both the United States and in Australia, you will be presented with this nine-question questionnaire which is used to screen potential patients at psychology departments around the world to see kind of where you fit on the depression and anxiety scale. Even with physical ailments, you know, you've got your arm. You start searching sore arm and the next thing you're certain you have some wild rare disease that you'd never heard of before because you're searching. I wouldn't also necessarily trust any of the recommendations I would see in some of these self-help kind of or support groups that I found on Facebook. But the very nature of just joining into one of those groups and seeing that you're not alone in any of the anxiety or depression that you might be feeling because this has been a really trying year as you said, Sarah, that it's not surprising if you're doing it tough at the moment. And there is absolutely no shame in looking at that, admitting that and seeking help. I try to think of it the same way. It's like my shoulder hurts. My shoulder still hurts. I'm a little worried about my shoulder. Well, let me go online and see if I can get some help from an expert. Well, does the shoulder expert who's telling me what I should do have credentials? Do they work for a publication that I like and trust? Is there a history of information in the past that has been helpful? It's like it's all kind of the same thing. And it's easy to say, oh, we'll just do it that way. But I think for a lot of folks, it's an ongoing process. Totally, totally. And the final thing I would say is just psychology and therapists can seem very, very expensive. But I didn't include this in the story because it had to be for print, so it had to be shortened. But you go to psychology in your state and do a Google search there. You'll find there are always kind of free clinics or free support out there. And quite often universities will have low cost people that you can see as well. So yeah, explore what is out there in the physical world as well as online. But online is a great place to start. When your eyes swells up from allergies, I don't know, just picking that at random, you go to the doctor. You don't feel ashamed, Tom. Yeah, yeah.   Mental issues shouldn't be any different. I struggle with anxiety problems, but over the years doctors have tried different things and we've been able to track it down to most likely being something with my thyroid and thyroid medication has made a world of difference for me in managing it as has cognitive behavioral therapy, just to kind of deal with the symptoms. And there's no shame in any of that. It's like any more than there'd be like, oh, I had to put this ointment on a cut to heal this antibiotic ointment. It shouldn't be any different. As human beings, we're so good at being, you know, compassionate and supportive and empathetic to other people. But then we screw up once and we just, you know, we think about it constantly and we're so less compassionate to our own selves. The only safe comedy is a pun. Puns hurt everyone, Tom. Yeah. You could make a really tasteless pun. No one wins. Lyon Jim Video says I think puns are illegal in China and North Korea. They are illegal in North Korea. I believe they're just highly regulated in China. You have to submit your pun to a ministry. Okay. I thought you were being serious, darn it. For a second, you actually got me. This is Tom stand up routine. See the victim there was North Korea. No one minds. Okay. Hold on. Jim Video in our discord just sent an L.A. Times article titled No laughing matter. China's media regulator bans puns. 2014. L.A. Times. Oh, 2014. Yeah. The state general administration of press publication, radio, film and television issued an order restricting puns and irregular wordplay on television and advertising. Oh, wow. Because puns could mislead young readers and make it more difficult to promote traditional Chinese culture. Irregular. I mean, I guess that's true sometimes, but that's just more fiber. This is amazing. Well, I'm Chao Yu, the former dean of the School of Communications at East China Normal University said the big difference in the internet age is that the people who have the privilege of creating puns and idioms have changed. It's no longer restricted to the elites or the well educated. So we have to ban them. Yeah. Puns are running rampant. Yeah. You can't have that. You can't have that low brow everyday common man pun. Just running a muck. Can't just have anyone making a pun. Chaos. It's going to be nuts. I have finally met my harassing four legged rodent and I have dispatched him. Right. Anybody who's been following Roger's rat hunt. Rat hunt. Oh, that sounds like a great board game. Oh, audio listeners. I'm sorry. You cannot see that Sarah has achieved her dream. Oh. Oh. What? Is there something on my face?  Is that a mouse though? That might be a mouse. It's very cute. Well, snap camera said it was a rat filter. So. Okay. All right. I'll take snap camera at its word. Yeah. And it's time to start the show. No. I feel like you guys could get over it, but I will, I will change it back because we are professionals. Sometimes people say you need a better camera. Oh my gosh. There's a spider on my monitor. Okay. I'll just keep going. But, but yeah, that's, it's sort of the, oh, you want to get into video podcasting. Start with that. It's relatively cheap and does a good job. And this seems like the, for 70 bucks, it's a, it's seems to be right in that, right in that wheelhouse. How's the spider? The spider is dead. Oh, well. I'm sorry. It just wasn't something I could deal with for the rest of the show. I understand. We understand. Yeah. Can I introduce you guys? I don't know if this is her, her DTNS debut, but my mom is here. Oh my gosh. Please bring Gloria onto our stream. Show yourself. Yay. Ladies and gentlemen. Presidential vote receiver, Gloria Young. That's me apparently. Yeah. Oh, it's nice to meet all of you as well. I feel like I know you because I've heard you on all of Austin's podcast, but yes, it's lovely to say hello. Well, that's great. It's, it's good to be here. Very happy to be visiting. You can tell us for real. What do you think of the house? I love it. Oh good. We just did a little Austin tour. We went to see the state capital. We went to SoCo. South of Congress. All right. Yeah. So it's cool. Love being here. Oh, that's great. Oh, it's so nice to say hello to you. Okay. Take care, everyone. All right. Thanks. Gloria. Gloria Young, ladies and gentlemen. Gloria Young. You know, it was your conversation with her on the PX three extra this morning that prompted me to tweet about 1979. Oh yeah. You just got a, you just got a very audible. Oh, she made her way downstairs. No. Oh, and Tom's least favorite pie is an apple pie, which says a lot. So, well, we, I don't know if you, you should know that me and Tom have a too much of this relationship, you know, again, I tell everyone this. Of course. And of course it goes to pie. How un-American is that? You got me on the ropes now. So nothing I say, nothing I say can, can get me out of this apple pie hole that I've been casted. Again, I'm, I'm all American classics when it comes to pies. See, cherry pies is number one for me. That's the best.  I'm a big warrant fan. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. You find everybody had a cherry pie. You're just singing the song in the background. But I have the CD single from Warren right now. If you'd have had that, I might have just. And I don't know how to break my tie for third because pumpkin sweet potatoes, like they're. It's a difficult conversation because you're like, no, I know. I know what I like. And then you're like, oh no pumpkin. I mean, number one. I feel like now is the right time to admit that I've never had a sweet potato pie. No, we, we all know, we all know you haven't had a sweet potato pie because you put pumpkin pie so high. I might find out. I've got a pie guy. He'll make it. He'll freeze it. And I will ship it to you overnight. I have a pot. Wait. I said stuff. I'm not playing. I accept. Yes. It's going to happen. I'm so excited. That was the pleasantest of shows. Oh, I'll tell you what, it was, it was double stuffed, man. It was in the red lights. That's always good. And you were thinking that we were Lyndon Baines Johnson the way that we were dangerous, dangerously ignoring the reds. That you, that's a winner right there. There is somewhere I just know there. It's a hundred percent. I just, it's just like curry level confidence with the jokes that Tom will. Talk about first party targeting, right? Oh yeah. No, that was full of personal information. That was, that was pre pre Cambridge, analytical pre apple ad shutdown, Facebook level targeting. The only one person who would enjoy that joke more than I did was Richard Nixon. I can't remember the boat Judas priest guitarist. Do you hear about this? By the way, what I don't think I have. Okay.  It's a recent story. Recent story. He did a hard bypass thing, whatever. He's, you know, getting on his ears, but a great recovery. Doing great. They're on tour. They have a new album. So he's up there. All those old Jews, priests, guys up there and he's wailing on some solo that he's famous for. And then during that, he could tell something was wrong, but wasn't totally sure what, but apparently one of the valves or something busted and started just pumping blood into his chest cavity. While he's doing this, this, you know, the solo, epic solo. Yeah. And he finished it before it went anything about it. Yeah. Which tells me that that's the most metal thing anyone's ever done before. That's the most metal thing I've ever heard of. I'm having, I'm literally having chills right now. Just, I know, right? If I remember the story correctly, but he went off stage for a few minutes and was seen for it. And then went back out and finished the show and then went to the hospital. Yeah. He thought he could just get through it. That's happening right then while he's going, his heart's all, I don't think I could watch that. Yeah. It was hard. It was hard for me. Anytime I have an anxiety attack and anybody who has anxiety attacks knows this, you have to convince yourself you're not having a heart attack. My greatest fear is that I will do too good of a job and convince myself I'm not having a heart attack when I'm actually having one. My. Exactly same thing. It's just an anxiety attack. I'm fine. I didn't know you and I shared that one thing because I do that all the time when that happens. Yeah. And you do, you get good at it. Right. So you're controlling it. You're good at knowing when they recognize in the mind killer fears, but then eventually when it really happens, if it does, are you going to be all? Oh, I know what this is. I'll just do routine. Just calm down, Tom. Yeah, calm down.  Oh my gosh. Yeah. Let's see. Yeah. This seems fine. Yeah. This is fine. Is it possible to summarize the metaverse Nate? Heck, I'm going to do my best. I think there is this expectation that a lot of people have that the metaverse is actually something that we can define today. And it's something that companies like Facebook and Microsoft now are trying to do. And it generally feels like most people's perception is that the metaverse is just around the corner and it's something to do with VR and 3D worlds. The reality is much, much more likely that what we think of the metaverse as being is probably 10, 20 years away from now. Take a little step back. A key component to what will make the metaverse a metaverse is not whether it's 3D or not. It's not whether it's VR or not. It's whether objects, things, experiences, purchases, objects, things can move from one bit of a metaverse to another and retain that portability, retain that value. You can take that virtual object and you can go and put it in something in Minecraft. Or you can move it over to something you're playing in Roblox.  In a metaverse, as we envision it, you should be able to take that from Roblox and take that with you. As you grow mature, that thing that you have should be able to move with you. And you should be able to pass it on and sell it or what have you. It should retain that value. If you think back to the early days of the web, the web was created after the internet. It was a thing you could use the internet for. But it was created by researchers and scientists and the military to a certain extent and geeks in schools and in research facilities. And it wasn't driven by a commercial interest, shareholders and so forth. Do you think that fits in with what Andrew Bosworth was saying at Facebook Connect when he described it as something in the internet right now is something you look at when the metaverse has kind of arrived. It'll be something you're in. I agree with part of it. I think VR will be a way of interacting with the metaverse in the way that a high resolution screen is a better way of interacting with the web than a very low res, tiny little screen. It's fundamentally underneath the surface underneath the screen or the VR glasses or whatever. The information, the objects, the experiences, they're all basically the same but are the ways in which we interact with it. That's kind of how things are being shaped and made exciting frankly and probably made commercial. So I would agree with a lot of what he's saying, but it's going to be very interesting. But I'm skeptical that any one company can do this. It has to be open by design. Man, we're getting zoom-bombed. Who's that? Who just joined the call? I don't know. Who is this mysterious person? Why are we saying zoom? Because people understand that term, even though you say Skype-bomb. Hey, Sarah Lane! Hi! Hello. I'm sorry, I missed the good day internet. Oh, you missed it was great. But I'm here now. How's it feel to be back on the saddle there? It feels good. It feels really good. I kind of hope to be back sooner than this, but... Understandable. Really, really glad to be back. I missed everybody a lot. We missed you too. Thank you. Do you see all those Sarah emojis in chat right now? It's like a wall of Sarah. I'm not looking, but thank you in advance. Don't make me cry. We won't. All right. It wasn't all fun, but in general, that was a lot of fun. That's it for this episode of DTNS Slash GDI. We're live Monday through Friday, usually 4.30 p.m. Eastern 2130 UTC. Of course, we're not live again until January 4th, but starting January 4th, go to DailyTechNewsShow.com Slash Live. And we're back tomorrow right here in this feed with our predictions results show, where we're going to judge how well we predicted the tech landscape of 2021 back at the end of 2020. No one should have to spend New Year's Eve alone every year. Ritual Misery presents the Diamond Club New Year's Eve stream a thought 27 hours of raising money for sick kids to extralife.org. This year, Sarah and Tom, that's me, will be bringing in the new year with a live show. Join us on New Year's Eve at 2330 UTC 1530 Pacific for good year internet. You can find all the details, including the full schedule at ritualmisery.com slash streamathon. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.