Board unanimously voted to accept the District Manager's goals and objectives running from December 2019 through November 2020 will be posted on the website. And that's it for the actions in closed session. Do the roll call, Holly? Director Ferris? Here. Director Coles? Here. President Swan? Here. Director Henry? Here. Director Moran? Present. Are there any additions or deletions to the open session? The item unfinished business 10A ball creek fish ladder construction. The removal will not slow the project down at all. We need to add some additional information to the staff report. It's not available tonight. Okay. It is removed. Time for oral communications. Does anybody have any comments they'd like to make regarding items not on the open agenda? Yes. If I may, I wanted to talk about the budget. And I know it's part of the finance report, but there's not an agenda item itself. May I speak about it? Is this appropriate? It is an agenda item. It is. It's the item B. Budget process. It's for fiscal year. It's a PowerPoint presentation. It's not in the agenda though. There's nothing in there. It is a PowerPoint. It's on the agenda. It's part of the finance report? No. It's item 11B. I'm not sure if I can stay that late. May I go ahead and speak about it? Please go right ahead. I think that it was, yours is on the process. And I'm not speaking about the process. So, I've written it out because I have a little bit of hay fever and I need to stop it. This upcoming budget is coming at a critical time. From what I understand it will have to be very tight and focused. As for needed progress ahead. As a customer, I want the district to consider both how to keep water rates affordable. While at the same time being well-prepared for major tasks and uncertainties that are coming. Such as recession, natural disasters, man-made disasters like couplers and other unfunded liabilities. A backlog of system upgrades and maintenance. Increased state regulations including San Margarito and some new requirements on PFAs and water quality that are coming up. And of course climate change. So the key components of a healthy budget will focus not just on safety and sustainability. But on long-term strategies and most importantly, building resilience. I recently read there's a 70% chance of a recession starting within the next six months. If you've been watching the news, businesses and government agencies are already preparing by implementing ways to both reduce overhead and increase efficiency. I'm just going to have to carefully watch spending and focus on protecting our water supply through having a robust system. This means getting really serious about minimizing leaks and maximizing the ability to move water around the system. The district has to do better than past boards. There are lessons learned such as with the Long Pico projects. There is no room for politicking. The delaying work due to political posturing costs this district hundreds of thousands of dollars more than necessary. Past boards losing their focus from the primary mission of this district and diverting funds to side programs is not just money lost to enhance sustainability and resilience. But time and money lost tenfold forever. You've inherited many of these conditions and will be thrown even more challenges. But I think we have a board with practical experience capable of making sound business decisions and not getting distracted by engaging in conflicts or popularity contests. I think most of this board understands it is critical to refocus on water and infrastructure and move towards sustainability and resilience. And I think most of the board and staff realize that going back to us ratepayers with more increases so soon after recent hefty hikes is not a good option. Stanford recently released a study on climate change that said we have all the data and we have all the money we need. We just don't have the will to do what's necessary to save the planet. On a smaller scale, I ask that you embrace this message here and have the will to do what is needed in this budget. Please show us your commitment to customers and affordable rates and to a healthy system with sustainability and most importantly, resilience. Thank you. So CalPERS is a man-made disaster? Absolutely. Wilful, too. Any other... I just wanted to thank the Environmental Committee for really hard good work today on the fire management planning. I don't know whether you're going to hear about that today, but I'm really happy with the progress on that. Thank you for your comments. Larry's been a big part of helping get information and he's been a big input into that community as well. His assistance has been in value. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Moving on to new business. Item 11A is the end review of the LADOC annual report. It's recommended that the Board of Directors review this memo regarding the LADOC Assessment District Oversight Committee, known as LADOC, and the report and the recommendation is to receive and accept the annual report from the LADOC committee chair post the report on the LADOC page of the district website. Hold questions and answer discussion. Consider a joint meeting with the LADOC and the Board, the LADOC committee and the Board for the purpose of further discussion of the annual report. The district established the LADOC assessment district oversight committee in accordance with the LAPO resolution 953A, the purpose of the committee, this review and oversee income and expenses related to construction projects in the engineering report assessment district, AD-16, and the service liaison for customers residing within the assessment district boundaries of the former from Pico County Water District and to inform the board and public, at least annually, concerning the revenue and expenditures of the assessment district proceeds and on projects approved by the voters within the LADOC AD-16 and issue a written report. One of the duties of the committee is to prepare and present to the board an annual written report that includes a statement indicating whether the proposed assessment district expenditures are in compliance with the requirements set forth in the assessment district. A statement indicating whether the prior fiscal year assessment district expenditures have been reviewed by the committee and are in within the requirements and set forth with the assessment district. Any other information the committee deemed is useful in further understanding of the assessment district revenues and expensive projects, funding, history, and purpose, and the annual report should be based on a district fiscal year. The committee worked long and hard in preparing this report. Extensive research and long hours are demonstrated with the thoroughness of this report and the committee should be commended for their hard work. Here tonight we have the LADOC Chair Tony Norton here to present this report with their annual report. Without it I'd like to introduce Tony Norton, Chair of the LADOC Committee. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. And I don't have a long presentation. I know it is a long, long report. And I have to say that as you know this is the very first annual report that the LADOC committee has produced. It's from June 1st, 2016 through the June 30th of 2019. And we all would like to thank this board for giving us the opportunity to produce this report, the first annual report, and for giving us access to the information that we needed to be able to produce the report. So thank you very much. We appreciate that. We also like to say that we could not have done it without the assistance of Holly and Rick and Stephanie. And we really, really appreciate that quarterly meetings that we have. And it was this gentleman here that negotiated our first meetings with Stephanie. Until that time we had no information. So shortly before that last devote that brought the new board in, we did start the quarterly meetings. So we had access and then it wasn't until this group came that we were able to produce the annual report. So thank you. And also we started with five people on our first committee. And then people quit and now we're down to four people. And it's only three of us that really get together each week. One gentleman that just started with it, who's been away for so long. So we three people worked hard to produce this report. And we weren't always in agreement. And so you can imagine how difficult it is to compromise with three people. But we were able to do it. And that's why I think that's why it's long. And like Rick said though, it does have a lot of important information. And what we're asking is that you approve this report and then post it to the Ladoch page. But we also have a, you have it in your agenda packet, a one-page mailer that we'd like to have sent out. And Stephanie, if you could put that one page up that I asked for, it was on page one. I don't know why it's not one of the shows. Oh, one of the. Yeah. It's only like wanting to show an actual power point. Is it the letter from the Ladoch chair? No, it's right there. Well, it's actually this page right here. It's the third one. This will be on one side of the mailer. And this is a balance sheet that shows all the revenues. This is based on information provided by Stephanie on all the revenues that have come in thus far. And then the revenues that came out as of June 30th, 2019, which is the end of fiscal year. So that will be on one side, which is information, you know, that's what they really want to see. According to my husband. And but I think he's right about that. And then on the other side, we'll just feed the address and then a real short note from the Ladoch committee showing, telling people what where they can go to find the entire annual report. So that's what we're asking that you can send that out and a copy of it is right after the annual report. You'll see the sheet that I'm requesting. And so we ask that you mail that out one page to everybody in Montpico because they just I think this is important for them to know. And we never rarely get anybody attending our meetings. So while I see that Rick mentioned something about a question and answer meeting. I don't know if anybody would ever show up actually. So I don't know if that would be time well spent. What do you think? I my thoughts are that why don't we send this out and publish it. And then if we get questions coming in and people seem to have concerns about it, then we schedule a meeting so that we can address everyone's questions. So that's my thought. And I think that that's about it. Does anybody have any questions? And the pictures came from from week three. We did post something on next we're asking people to submit pictures. We never heard from anybody. So those were all of our pictures that we came up with. That's your banana slug? No. But mine was that landslide with one of my friends in front of it. So that was one of mine. That's my favorite. I want to say thank you. I know it's been a long yard job for the three of you. You stuck with it. Debbie stuck with it in spite of how she was treated before she got on the committee. I appreciate that. And it's a lot of work. And a lot of material that Deb provided with lots of research. Thank you very much. So I too would like to thank the both of you here for such a thorough report. I learned more about Lompico than I've ever known before. It was a nice little history lesson. And the pictures were a nice video as well. So very thorough. Also, we just approved Rick Rogers' goals and objectives for his next year. And included in that is getting the training that the grand jury recommended. So that's a priority for Rick and it is for all of us as well. So that the Lompico committee have what it needs. And just doing that, it shows the commitment to transparency that I think is at the root of all this. And thank you for doing that. Debbie? Yeah, I wanted to say something too. So I've been on the committee just over a year. Tony has done all the back breaking work of keeping it going. So I was criticized for spending too much time on historical background of Lompico water and the milestones leading up to the merger. But having a front row seat to many of these events, in my view, is really important. Because someone else is always ready to change the story from that wacky, negative politically motivated version contracted by this district just a few years ago to just as late as a few weeks ago hearing yet another revision of events. Yeah, it's important. The LADOC first annual report tells only a little slice of the story and for all its length doesn't begin to recognize all those who participated in the merger and not as to where we are. No one person, board or committee could have done this alone. They took an interest and involvement by the whole Lompico community to sort through the pros and cons. So in addition to all the people that are thanked in the report as Tony has pointed out making, including president, SLB board and staff, a big thank you to everybody in Lompico. You are the heroes of this merger decision and this report is for you. So as you've seen in SLB, some issues can polarize the community and stall being able to find solutions. Ed and I saw that when we served on the Lompico citizen advisory committee which had the task of gathering questions and seeking answers objectively as possible. Kind of like what we were trying to do in this report. We felt that all people deserve to have the full information they need to make an important decision. And it took time to process and adjust to all the potential changes we were facing. So the philosopher Lao Tzu said, if you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. Just as in SLB water, someone has to set their sights a bit further, take a longer vision, get past the day to day in the politics, set values and goals, create better ideas and then work to support them. The merger and assessment district agreements were a result of that. Well intentioned and entered in good faith and trust. Politics and short-sightedness unfortunately gummed up the works originally. The grand jury did a thorough job of analyzing what went wrong and how to fix it. Our report includes that analysis and uses the framework of the grand jury recommendations to present the information. The people in Lompico paying a ten year assessment on their property tax are entitled to all the facts. We have assembled a whole list of frequently asked questions in the report from public and committee members with answers provided by the district but not yet by a neutral outside expert in assessment districts as recommended by the grand jury and we're working on that. After a slow start we are very happy to see the present momentum and look forward to the next report having a lot more to say about completion of projects in Lompico. I'm honored to serve this district and to have served with Tony, Mary Ann and Norm and honoring our responsibilities as an oversight committee and thank you for the report. Yeah I just had wanted to echo what other folks have said but this is really outstanding work and I think it is indicative of what can be done by the community when it's given the flexibility to decide what is going to work for that part of the community rather than have something imposed on it by other folks. To me this is the epitome of what we're trying to achieve as a locally managed governed board and in this case assessment district. I know this covers only through June 30th but on the next page in the agenda was a very stark contrast of what I think one of the things that we'll probably need to focus on going forward and that is really understanding what the costs are going to be coming in at for the Lompico folks. Not that we're going to increase the assessments of all but I think in the interest of transparency we also need to understand what the impact of that delay was in terms of the actual costs we're going to be paying for the projects that we're going to be doing and so I'm hopeful next year we can get out. Here's what the estimate was, here's where we are with those costs and really be able to let the community know that. I think it's a lesson that as a district I'm hopeful we can learn which is when you get money in go as quickly as possible to spend it and when you have an assessment district spend up front and wait to the end. If we had waited until the end of this assessment district ten years to start spending money it wouldn't have covered a single project at the rates we're going now. I think you've got to put your foot down on the pedal and drive as hard as you can once you have that assured set of funds and I think that's something that is going to become really clear here as we go through that comparison. Isn't that happening in this meeting? It is, we are going to put our foot down and go like crazy. Okay. You're good, Ernest. Though I would have liked for it to have been done in July of 2017. We feel the same way. We're catching up. Okay. I would also want to extend thanks and appreciation to the committee's efforts for doing such a great job and I do recognize how much comfort is required by everybody to put together a post like this, the meetings, the analysis. It's great that the staff was able to participate to the extent they were making the report in this comprehensive and complete response so thanks to them as well. That's great. We want to give a motion on the table here about accepting this. Are you ready? Yeah. I'll make a motion that we accept the LADOC, what do we want to call it? Right here. Okay. Receive and accept the annual report from the LADOC committee. I think that's fine. Would you make a decision on the mailing? Hmm? I think staff could, I think we'd make a decision on the mailing. It's a small amount of funds, it's only to the Long Pico people. Yeah. And we figured that would be part of this. Okay. That's fine. So do I need to say that's the mailer? Sure. Okay. Receive and accept the annual report from the LADOC committee and send out a one-page double-sided letter to everyone in Long Pico. What's that? Customers. They're customers. Everybody's customers. Well, I mean the people way back there are not. I'll second that. Thank you. Now would you like to take the vote? Who do you want to go to vote? Who? Who do you go to vote? Who do you go to vote? Do you? No. Public comment? No. Okay. Call me please. Director Ferris? Aye. Director Coles? Yes. President Swan? Yes. Director Henry? Aye. Director Moran? Yes. Okay. Moving on. Good. Okay. I do believe a finance manager has a budget presentation to give you the vote. What do you use, Stephanie? So this is kind of a high-level view of the overall budget process kind of down the road, how we envision everything working where we are now, some of the different types of methods that we use, and just a high level of some of the different assumptions that we have. So in general, this is for the most part across most government agencies, a strategic plan is kind of the guiding document of the district. It helps outline your mission, vision, goals, and objectives. That helps lead into five-year planning for capital planning, financial planning, financial plan that helps to lead you into the rate study, the capital that ties into that, how you're going to finance the different things, and as most fellow agencies have unfunded viabilities that guides you into the budget process for each year or by annual leak. That's where you're going to be strategizing the goals and objectives, establish the performance indicators, destiny costs and revenues, tying back into the overall strategic plan. And then as an ongoing basis, you're going to be monitoring, reviewing all of your actuals to budgets, many of the different milestones that you've set up along the way and from time to time budgets do need to be amended. So again, you know, high-level budget formulation, that's where internally staff is working on crafting everything and getting everything figured out. Budget review process, that's where we're really starting to get the board and the community in the know and being able to review some of it, identifying any of the key anomalies or specifics that are happening in that year. And then you can review and amend until you get the final budget and then budget execution, you're going to be implementing it, reviewing it as you go, and continued monthly, quarterly, and then year and review, and then all of this kind of flows into the annual audit. Here's six of the different phases. Again, a lot of this beginning steps that we've been in right now is all more of an internal document that we're working on. We're getting close to coming up to having some stuff that we'll be presenting to the budget and finance and the full board kind of as we formalize more of the different milestones in the budget components. There's four main budget methods that are typically used in these processes. Incremental, so that's going to be anything that has kind of a more fixed percentage across the board. A good example of that would be health expenditure. Our budget is July to June. The health changes for the next fiscal year are going to be coming out until later in the year. They usually run on a calendar year. So we have to make some assumptions for how much we think health insurance is going to increase or decrease. Zero base bottoms up budget. So essentially that's your building stuff up from the ground up. A good example of that is the environmental department tends to have a lot of specific studies or projects that may be going on depending on what year you're in. So you're able to kind of build your contract professional services from start the beginning all the way up. Where the opposite is you'll have sometimes stuff like in James's department for operating expenses of the district where there's a run rate of how much inventory or different types of stuff like that is typically being used throughout the year. Activity base is top down approach for management uses past experience and current goals so that's going to be a little bit more like I was just talking about where you're spending expenditures of the district. We have history to look at where you will identify if there are any anomalies in the prior year to get kind of what the general run rate is. Value proposition. This is going to be for anything that has more of an intrinsic value. Private sector has this a little bit I feel like you see this more in the public industry to where you may be spending money on something that you're not necessarily getting an actual return on your investment but there's some sort of value that you determine that it's giving to your customers or staff or other stakeholders which is why you're choosing to budget for that expenditure. Which methods do we use? We use all of them so I mean the majority is going to be the incremental and zero base budgets. We do use the activity base the value proposition for some of those but for the most part you're going to see incremental and zero base in what we're working on. They each have some of the different examples you know laborally like we talked about health insurance, zero base you know building everything up my department is similar you know I know how much our software licenses are for the year so I'm able to very clearly identify from the ground up what the expenditures are going to be. Activity based. This year is a perfect example we will be budgeting for the power shut off events so that's something that is occurring that you know we're going to be able to specifically identify and budget for. Value proposition an example would be the leak adjustment policy I mean the fact that the district offers a leak adjustment policy is for Steve as a value to the customers as a way to give a break on some you know they have an exceptional bill the flip side of that is it's less revenue than what the district would otherwise be receiving. So where we are now for what are we missing occur a strategic plan and you know coming up in the works here pretty soon why it's important it's the guiding document of the district it sets the vision and measurable goals and objectives. The other thing that we have in the works that's a major player is a capital master plan. That's going to really be needed to help with some of the long term financial and capital improvement planning that we're going to have coming up. So we are going to have these two documents in time for this budget process which is okay we can still do a budget. Ideally where do we want to be we want to have a current strategic plan that's you know going to get us to the point of us being able to have these five year capital and financial plans that's going to help form the goals of the district it's going to guide the annual budget process eventually I think it would be great if we can get into a biannual budget process and all of these are kind of the steps that we need if we do want to go and get the Distinguished Budgeting Award like we have for our annual financial students. Here's some of the fundamentals that we have known and are working with for our 2021 budget these summer months we're tracking low so this current year's budget we were budgeted at 660,000 units of consumption we're proposing 650,000 units based on the fact that the summer months were running lower than expected. Overall expenses no headcount changes no major changes for projecting the regular expenditures that we have we are going to be factoring in three day PG&E power shutoff events it's one of those things where it's not known exactly how many are going to happen it could very well be more and we may decide based off of discussions to increase that amount and then we're going to be working on presenting an unfunded employee benefit liability reduction plan as part of this budget as well. Capital the main projects that will be in construction are going to be the long Pico tanks and the pipeline projects and then there's going to be the planning phase for future projects and then the district has deferred maintenance projects that such as tank coatings that we're always constantly doing we do a couple more on each budget. Unfunded liability so these would be the three categories that we for the most part have is the CalPERS pension liability as of the last part it was 3.8 million the district in the past has done fresh starts to amortize over shorter periods you are allowed to do pay downs during the year coordinating with your actuarial to be able to chip away at that. OPEV liability so as for other post employment benefits is at 1.1 million for the last audit the district did create the trust to be able to start funding so that kind of a step one in that aspect and then things to think about and fight subsidy how to get reimbursed and then you have deferred maintenance so the full scope still to be determined but in general is chipped away at as we go the example used for 14 coatings so this is what the budget and finance this is the slide of the budget and finance committee had chose to include it in the full board but this is going to be one of the things that is the heavy topic that budget and finance are going to be talking about some of the coming meetings. Proposed timeline so January to February you know it's the internal district managers have gotten me back their first round of operating expense budgets March to April as we were sitting here pulling all of these together we start to then work on the operating the capital projects external so at the three three budget and finance meeting we'll be going over the operating revenue and operating expenditures and then we'll also be presenting that those results to the board of directors on 319 and then come the it would have been the April meeting was in moving into 331 we'll be looking at all the major components then so we'll be looking at the capital the non-operating and that's when we're really going to start to have the first high level view of how everything is rolling up we will then have more discussion at the 416 budget meeting whether the board decides to do like a workshop in between you know kind of it's going to depend on how heavy is a load that budget meeting has and then again in May you know that's where we're still going to continue working on this with the board and the public and the budget and finance committee and then it's possible that you could have if it's ready to have the full board review it for possible approval on 521 if not you know we have two meetings in a month of June to be able to get through that type of stuff so essentially we just wanted to loop the full board in on kind of just the high level timeline some of the different things that are going into it right now So Farid, are you looking for any specific guidance from the board at this point or the budget or are you going to wait for the budget committee meeting to start? I mean like I said we're kind of at that you know the district internally you know we don't have any major initiatives or major changes to the budget that we're envisioning in this process for this years you know we are there are a couple things that we are looking to integrate in such as the PSPS events a refunding plan or a reduction plan for some of our unfunded liabilities if there's anything that board members have that they really want to discuss to integrate into we could you know toss some of those ideas around so that way staff has kind of started to build some of those in or we can budget finance this meeting soon and we could always discuss that more at the next board meeting A couple other questions do you believe that our reserve funds are funded enough at this point that they weren't on the unfunded liabilities I can't remember if they're both funded capital and operation correct sorry so when I was doing the unfunded life I did not show and that'll be part of the budget process also what we set what the district's current reserve funds are set at and then we'll be able to show what funding levels they have so yes that would be an additional unfunded liability I can add to the list and not need to discuss for what we still have to fund there's two other areas that I'm personally concerned about one is where we are in meters I know we have a life of the meters but I don't have a real good handle on what our histogram is on age of meters I was wondering if that was going to be part of this budget process coming up with at least the where we are so we can then be able to analyze that to see what we've got to do going forward so for example if we're all evenly spread out over 20 years then it's no big deal we just replace X number but if there's a big hump around 18 years old then we've got a bigger problem those would have to be replaced faster we're at the hump that was my fear but part of what we have been talking about internally is looking into hiring a couple of temps to be able to have an actual meter replacement could we get that information about where we are with the meters and the life and kind of have that as part of this process is that possible? the whole thing here is unfunded liabilities for us this district has been in a hole for a while and just making sure that we have the complete picture to be able to present to the community to address some of the things that Deb was talking about earlier which is how do we get all this stuff done and I think the more that we know about that the better and the last one is the deferred maintenance so I know we've talked over the last year or so about having a maintenance schedule understanding what's deferred how much really is in arrears to me it's not sufficient to meet that longer term vision of being able to say well we do a couple every year where are we on this with our tanks with whatever else falls in the maintenance data I guess is what also fall into that is that part of this budget process as well that's all stuff that staff is like so when we're going and we're building out so the all of the property expenditures just came in so now the first weekend March is our internal meeting on all the capital projects and so that's where we're building out the number of meters that we're looking to do in the next year that starts to kind of fall into place with that process it's not so much the number we're going to do it's the picture of where we are that is for the meters and for the deferred maintenance this community does not have a clear picture of what kind of financial situation we're in right now with respect to our capital infrastructure replacements that's needed we have that process of the way with the master plan but these other two it's to me it's the black box and I don't know if it's a few hundred thousand or if it's millions my sense is it's probably millions of dollars but I don't have any data upon which to base that we need to get that out in front of the public as quickly as possible and I like to see us as a board say we want by the end of this budget cycle to have a clear picture on where we are with deferred maintenance what is our unfunded liability there where we are with meters what is our unfunded liability there to add to what we've already done with the reserves which is really good what we're doing with the pensions which should be good and what Darren's working on with that master plan when all that's done we're going to be able to go to the community you know what we need to do is spend about a hundred million or whatever it is over the course of the next X number of years to be able to address all of these and the priority around some of these deferred things that we haven't really been really clear about I'd really like to see us do that this year we've been talking about it for you know over a year now and I don't feel like we're closing on that yet so a couple of more low hanging fruits so the meters we're just about there meters that's an easy analysis tanks relatively being able to say how many tanks are up for coatings and when deferred maintenance is a lift most of that will be done by the director of operations and we've been talking about it we've been working on it starting with the tank coatings and that's a lift but we've put it in that way because from my view you know every year we ask our customers to pay more for the water but I am uncomfortable doing that until we can present to them what a clear picture is of our financial situation for example I really don't want to see the rate increase go into effect this year and I don't want to see rates go into effect until we have that picture we plan out what it's going to be and then we go to the community and say this is what you're getting for the money that you're spending for the increases that we're talking about and again I think it goes to what we had members of the audience talking about we need to be much more strategic about this than just doing this one year at a time and I don't believe we've made sufficient progress in that in these two areas over the last year correct me some of this is going to be coming from the master plan some of it will but the individual like the operations and maintenance maintenance will be coming from what you're getting from the master plan it's going to be capital that you'll get from the director of operations it's more on the O&M deferred maintenance ends up falling into both of those buckets well the tank coatings I think are much more in the O&M side than the capital side the tank would be in the capital side if we don't extend it coatings is also capital I get that we treat it that way but from the point of view of what we need to be doing it's not this 50 year life my understanding on tank coatings and then you replace the pipe you can extend the life of things by doing maintenance on it and the two strategies we have for that are either start putting away a sinking fund and if we're going to do two tanks a year forever then that's a half million bucks or we figure out where we are with these things my concern is there's so many tanks that are probably in this deferred maintenance category but it's the same thing with the meters we got this huge hump it's not this nice level thing that we can just sort of fund every year that's what we need to communicate to our community and so far in those areas the meter and deferred maintenance on the tanks what have you we aren't there yet and we need to get there this year meters will be in ease I mean the meters we are looking at doing a full blown meter so when we do the whole these things usually have either a full page or they're usually half a page on the capital we can sit there and roll out and show how much is getting done this year and how much the estimate is for each of these so that one I think what you're envisioning how to start with the meters what we need to start with is where are we now in our current situation on the meters and the deferred maintenance we have both of those right now we have meters and we're working we're working on deferred maintenance so at the very least I would encourage this board to say by the end of this budget cycle we need to at least have where we are now on those last two major multi-million dollar unfunded liabilities I could usually usually hire a consultant to do a comprehensive facilities plan that goes in and takes a look at your pumps takes a look at your tanks and all those sort of things determines useful life and all that sort of stuff I mean that's usually done by a consultant I'm not saying how to get it done that would be up to the staff to decide the best way given workloads and all that I'm saying we as a board should say we want this done by the end of this or whatever time period would be reasonable to get a consultant on board if that's what our staff wants to go we'll discuss it but we'll put it here wouldn't you do that after the master plan where we have it all cataloged well the facilities plan and the master plan definitely overlap we could look hard but the tank coding is one thing that's still this big question mark that's potentially multi-million dollar and the direct voting tank has to handle on that and that we can get to we've been working to take loading these things for those two things right so by the end of this budget year can we say we will have at least an understanding of where we are with meters and at least tank coding that I would say would be reasonable I just don't want to create a double lift with the master plan happening and staff running and doing essentially the same thing when you know there's these consultants that are putting together aspects of something which I believe that's end of 2020 when that's going to be done wasn't my understanding that tank codings were part of the master plan I'm saying meters and tank codings yes some of the other aspects those will come down a little bit further down from this specific budget it might be worthwhile to get a roadmap on that bring something to the budget finance community whatever we're at whatever plan to be at least get information to know how we're going to get through the process because the other day we have to sell the community you know and staff we've been talking about this recently as to AI is that strongly agreed that this information is needed all the way around it's just the staff time getting and we just have to figure out how we'll be there Any other board members or questions? Is there any house or budget plan compared to how we've done it in the past? Very similar I mean the timeline and everything like that for when we're doing it we are trying to get the committees and the board involved a little bit earlier on than in the past I mean I think that's good that's kind of the intention is if you have the strategic plan in all of those goals I mean it's a little bit easier to formulate everything from the start to have everyone kind of on the same expectation page last year and this year it's a little we do have that rub to where we have the strategic plan and the master plan on the horizon so that's where I think it's good that we have this discussion earlier on if there's any key things that the board really wants to see in this budget that staff is hearing it earlier on in the process so we have time to actually you know spend time to develop it out properly Thank you Dr. Exkoles Right, I mean having Exkoles now approved helps the process Yeah, so ideally you know perfect flow of everything you have your five year forecast the district managers getting his goals and objectives from the board for that year what he's communicating to us for the budget process and what he's expecting for us to be working on and building out so you know I mean we're getting close I think next year we're going to be in much better shape for kind of all of those boxes being checked Any public questions? Yes, you in the back Hi, I'm Bruce Holloway from Boulder Creek Just trying to understand a little bit discussion here I'm trying to understand was Director Fultz saying just by the way as I recall there's a rate increase that's going to go into effect on October 1st I don't remember how much it is I don't remember how many more years there are or if this is the last year Two at least 5% this year and 5% the following year So that's already been approved and essentially can just happen automatically but I guess what I was hearing Director Fultz say is that when it gets to be the fall he's not going to feel good telling the community here's your next rate increase unless this unfunded liability for the meters and tank codings is quantified essentially It's all unfunded liabilities quantified So I mean like earlier I saw a slide that had the CalPERS unfunded liability was $3.8 million and then there was $1.1 million on the OPEB so that's about $5 million for those two things I'm just going to hypothetically say suppose that the meters were going to cost around $1.1 million and suppose that the tank codings were going to cost around $3.8 million the same numbers in the next several years and so if you have that magnitude of unfunded liability that staff actually was able to substantiate and quantify then in the face of that you might be willing to say yeah I think that rate increase is necessary on October 1st I'm kind of asking you because you're leading the channel I think what that does is allow you to have a conversation about what the next 10 years to 15 years is going to look like and right now we cannot have that conversation now this is sort of input into a process that culminates with what Darren is working on, the master plan on the on the capital and all of that put together is what goes back out to the community for here's what we're going to be spending over X number of years and by God this is what we have to do and this is the finances that it's going to take in order to do that right now I can't have that conversation we don't have that data so we're providing rate increases but we don't yeah we're not sure where we're going it's a very uncomfortable place to be for me Darren do you want to comment? can you hear the Republic on it? there's no actions we're just going to say we're rational hopefully the staff is going to bring action okay I live in C great yes I live in C it's a discussion of possible action related to the debt received for the construction of the Rampiqua tanks we're going to break this up and I'm going to ask the district engineer to do the first part of the staff report and then myself and the finance manager will take it okay so it's the recognition of the board of directors and the district manager to enter into the contract for the Rampiqua tanks project with Anderson Pacific in the amount $2,212,250 and discuss supplementing the Rampiqua assessment district of $975,734 from Revenue Certificates of Participation projects for other revenue sources on December 15th 2019 that's about a quarter district to advertise and notice the nighting bids for the construction of the Rampiqua tanks project on 3pm on January 6th 2020 two bids were received the following firm submitted bids to the district manager Anderson Pacific $2,212,250 and RSH construction in the amount of $2,989,500 district staff for the bids to the design engineer Andrew from the firm for evaluation one area of concern is the price difference between the design engineer's project estimate and the low bid the tax review is his report including a discussion of the engineer's estimate in relation to the bids in summary no irregularities were found in the Anderson Pacific bid the following is an accounting of the different project costs associated with the construction of the Rampiqua tanks project one is the construction contract Anderson Pacific $1,200,000 number two is the construction management we have a proposal from MMD in the amount of $255,350 and there is environmental monitoring we have a proposal from the judge of the drawing $73,802 total for all of that is $2,541,410 I'd like to give the board a little background as we go into this on May 4, 2016 the Rampiqua property was voted approval for the 10 year assessment district that was the 80, 2016-1 to generate 2.75 million revenue to repair replace and upgrade infrastructure in Rampiqua to consolidate the San Lorenzo Valley Water District on June 1, 2016 the consolidation of Rampiqua County water district was finalized and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District took over ownership and operations of the water district the San Lorenzo Valley Water District working with the group of Rampiqua Water Board and property owners facilitated a list of capital projects that the district required for a successful transition the $2.75 million project list consisted of replacement of all water storage tanks Kasky and the drone repair and upgrade to the Mill Creek surface water treatment plant which was removed from the project list due to the district not using that water source replacement of all water meters and service lines water meters have been replaced and service lines are being replaced as needed on a case by case basis replacement of all skated controls that's been completed an upgrade of the transmission of the Rampiqua boosters the San Lorenzo Valley side of the booster and that is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2022 and replacement of all pressure regulating stations PRV valves and that has been completed when the list of the projects were developed the district was looking to operate the system to stand alone under a separate water supply permit as time went on circumstances changed and it was determined the district could consolidate Lampiqua into the district and operate as a pressure zone substantially reducing operational costs and eliminating the need to repair and upgrade the Mill Creek surface water treatment plant currently today Lampiqua is under the San Lorenzo Valley water district the city of California operational permit we are one district to move forward the construction of the Lampiqua project there is currently a projected portfolio in the assessment district of $975,443 in your agenda packet there is a in this memo a list of the current expenditures which shows where the shortfall is in a memo to the district board on April 20, 2019 regarding the revenue certificates of participation projects resolution number 6 19-20 provided for a loan funding source for the tank projects totaling $2.7 million that's attached in your agenda the district needs to decide if other sources of revenue than the assessment district funds are to be used staff is recommending moving forward with awarding the PID for the tank replacement project using additional revenue to cover the assessment district shortfall if desired the board can award the construction project and discuss the shortfall at a later date reviewing funding options of the budget and finance committee could be one recommendation speculating on why construction bids are coming in in so much higher than engineers' estimates contractors voiced strong concerns regarding site accessibility steep mountainous roads for reasons for higher bids the tank projects are not gold plated bolted steel tanks are considered less expensive and are considered the next step up from a redwood tank the district currently uses redwood tanks in other locations of the district there are no excessive bills or whistles staff believes in this tank project this project meets design criteria and water quality standards staff have reviewed the projects for cost reduction the only option would be to reduce the number of tanks reducing fire flow storage for the most likely increasing cost to the district this option is not recommended the existing redwood tanks are leaking and presenting maintenance and water quality issues the late award of the construction bid would only accelerate these issues looking at the additional potential revenue sources for the district in the process of moving forward with surplus and unusable land in Lompeco this has a possibility of bringing in an estimated $350,000 to be used to offset some of these construction costs staff is recommending to forward award bid and move forward to that we have a finance manager here obviously and she's done a considerable amount of work from the start of the assessment district I think in answer to most of your financial questions so the projects that we have in the Lompeco assessment district are the tanks the PRVs the meters and did we commit to replace the service line? so that is an absolute commitment absolutely and so as part of the assessment district and also the distribution system up to the Lompeco so that would be the inner time that's the inner time so right now we are a million dollars over we have to do finish the service lines and the inner time that's correct but the meters have all been changed so we're like so what is the estimate on this is something maybe to talk about in budget committee but it sounds like we are probably half of the assessment district will deliver about half of the funds given where this came in at but we can get a better number so we have an actual number of service lines that staff has replaced and then need to replace those as anticipated to slow down because of the PRV stations that were put in be lower the pressure substantially in some of the areas but it's a commitment but there's a commitment to replace all service lines and there is a commitment to do the upgrade to the inner time I mean again this just points out how unbelievable it is to have delayed anything on these projects we are paying the penalty for that in a very massive way you guys shouldn't have to pay no this isn't your issue but at a district level this is a serious issue for how we deal with policy around projects like this PRVs are like that PRVs are all PRVs are 100% completed that's awesome those yeah well I was involved in all these talks with SLV and what we were told was SLV has plenty of redwood tanks themselves they didn't want anymore and there was no getting away from all steel bolted tanks and replace all of those redwood tanks and I tried to argue a little bit about that and said hey some of those redwood tanks are you know they aren't 50 years old yet or whatever I don't know maybe they go 40 years but I was soundly put in my place and a Jim Reposo said to me what you think SLV is going to cheat you I said of course not he said well why are you you know wanting to talk about this and do all this and I said gee I thought that's what I was supposed to do I'm sorry I've never done this before but SLV has been really good to the people very good to us loaned us money we always paid them back the state gave us 100% loan for the inner time or grant not alone Rogers ran that project when he was done he gave me a big stack of bills that I had to take to community bridges and I had a sign and sign and sign I swear I don't know how many bills there were and that went to the state they paid Lompico and I the minute we got the check we deposited at the county and wrote SLV a check SLV has been really good to Lompico the other thing though money that wasn't mentioned here that comes from Lompico it's not just the assessment money but there's property tax money that Calam was a private company so when SLV took on Felton there was no property tax Scotts Valley Magnana Woods any of the smaller little mutuals that were special districts so since December 2016 SLV has been getting tax money from Lompico it's now up to 90,000 a year and unless there's this huge downplay in the cost of housing like there was in 2008 that 90,000 ought to go up every year so as far as for me to look at it I think Lompico is paying its way best way we can considering it's a place and I support this and I'm able to talk about it and vote on it mainly because it I don't get any special effect from this that any Lompican wouldn't get up it doesn't you know doesn't affect me anyway it's kind of like when I was on Lompico board there was this huge break on like Boulevard they wanted to say I couldn't vote on it and that was not true for the very reason I just told you because I wouldn't be affected in any major way than anybody else so I hope you'll look at this and realize that people in Lompico voted for this in good faith and I believe that SLV in good faith came up with what they wanted and we all agreed it went to the public not just the public in Lompico but also SLV customers there was a public meeting so it's all been out there in the open and I hope you'll vote for this Franklin thank you any other comments? questions from the board? second second go right out if nobody else has any questions so is there a way that we can vote for this and have the discussion about funding it separately in the budget committee? sure I can ask Jean to step in too but we are fully funded when Lompico came on as pay as you go so we took out a loan Stephanie participation loan so we are covered and the projects are listed in the resolution that this board adopted with ample funds to cover the full construction cost of those three projects so you have time to discuss how maybe we can cover the extra the shortfall and we can discuss the two projects that are left over add those two and maybe combine and then talk we have time to do that am I correct Jean? yes if you the district can move forward with funding these projects out of the proceeds of the COP without deciding the ultimate source of the funds that are going to cover the cost of these projects so I am fully in favor of getting this done I have been a huge supporter of this right from the beginning of getting done as quickly as possible I am just frustrated beyond belief that we are looking at almost a doubling of construction costs I mean even if I take into account that I think the scope went from three tanks to six correct there has been an increase in scope so I can't blame it all on the fact that it's gone up 4x I would go from 700 let's say 1.4 million and we're at 2.2 for the three tanks original plan the engineers estimate was less than 700,000 so if you double that we are going to do six tanks just pick a million and a half just to make it round I'm still frustrated that this is going on so long so yes we need to pass this to get this project going but I would like to suggest that the board direct the budget committee to get this in more detail because we have a hard commitment to Longpico and I do not want to wait 10 years to get everything done it will cost us more to do these projects if we do not award it tonight exactly but the same thing for the rest of the things that we have to do the longer we wait the more it's going to cost and we have a commitment to Longpico people to get this done as quickly and as efficiently as possible so I would like to separate the the longer term funding part if the rest of the board would go along with that from the awarding of the contract tonight to do the construction but we are still talking about committing to that $975,000 no not tonight well later well where we are getting the money I want to understand what the total cost is to do all the commitments we have done I am not sure it is $975,000 I do not know that yet that is just this project it will be additional to me there is another spreadsheet that comes out of this that is correct here is the rest of the things to do under what timeline we are going to get this done and it is going to be more money than this $975,000 I guarantee you and it is definitely understood there is very little time to review this because we did not realize until the bids closed of the cost of the tanks and we could not bring this to you six months ago and so once we closed bid and found out that we exceeded the assessment district then we combined this in that is why we want to take it to budget commitment well I just want to be clear so if we say we are going to direct the district manager to enter into a contract that is specific can we do that if we do not commit $2.2 because we have the loan and cash on hand that is sufficient not knowing where that $975,000 does not stop us from worrying the contractor it makes me very uncomfortable it is going to be two different motions and I think the emotional part of the bid would be your first action and your second action would be the finance move this to finance committee that would be great I think that is what I would recommend but not unless Gina recommends something different do we need a motion before we go to the next slide well I would just like to say that I support the staff position on this and I support Lois's position on this as well so I would refer to those to the staff and Lois to support me coming to the public for comment anybody? Tony Norton from Longpeco I just want to make one more comment and a historical point that we Longpeco was directed by SLVWD to use the engineer that was used that was someone that they indicated that it was someone that they believed in and that they trusted and that is why we chose that person at SLVWD's recommendation I just want to make that point thank you Kelly? well and sort of just practicality when the engineer did do the estimates on the tanks for Longpeco back in 2015 I did my own research and looked at what other tanks were costing nearby areas replacing redwood tanks with metal tanks and it was right in the ballpark I needed to do that for my own insurance so we were paying the right amount the previous two district managers and Mr. Rogers both indicated they felt that the tanks were actually a little overpriced that there was more than enough money that's 2015 mentality that was the market then we were okay and I think that the bids are the markets for today what I noticed was that it was the demolition prices that had really gone up there was an extra 549,000 difference between the estimate and the actuals on the bids I know in other areas I'm not sure about Santa Cruz County maybe during those on demolition and removal of materials there have been lots of legal changes about what you can do with remove materials and recycling that absolutely does drive the cost off I don't know if that isn't this effect but what we're looking at is they have to meet the regulations for today for example getting rid of dirt very very expensive more expensive every year it's a lot because the regulations have changed so I looked at how much for example was paid recently on the swim tank that was about 62,000 something like that 62,000 maybe like we're right in the ballpark if I just took the total figure of all the tanks divided by six by the way the six tanks what we're talking about is 440,000 gallons of storage doesn't matter how many tanks that's the point so whether it's three or six there's no extra tanks here we're talking about maybe yes I think so and I also know that we're overshooting it by about 20,000 yes thank you and it's a smarter design way smarter yeah there's pros and cons to go into single tanks and double tanks so for my background and research on both the original estimate and the present estimate is both market prices right in the ballpark or where they should be the only conditions that have changed in Lumpico is time to consider the tanks exactly the same everything about it is the same the same time the tanks themselves the cost is actually a little less than what the estimate looks the physical tanks look so that kind of stuff really hasn't changed the only thing that changes is that we're looking at a 2015 estimate intended to be done in 2016 that had built in some kind of estimates where if it was taken a couple more years would it not wait for five years and you cannot anticipate and I like your idea with the bigger picture but how are you going to get a bigger picture when things like this happen when estimates come in way beyond what's expected you can make guesses as to what the intertide conclusion is going to cost but we really won't know until we've got to bid on that because again it's going to be the market what the market is doing at the time how busy is everybody what's the weather like what's the economy like so there's going to be a lot of variables but I hope you would go ahead and approve this it's a very practical decision these aren't Lumpico tanks these are SLB tanks they're really leaking you're losing a lot of water you're paying to get that water out of the ground and then treat it and move it and then it's going right out of here this is an economic decision it has nothing to do with where they're located I had to Rick Rogers even say in that our system, your system and I said no that doesn't exist anymore we're friends about it but this is a good SLB decision to go ahead it's not going to get any cheaper it's only going to cost you more Thanks Bruce Thanks Well Deb mentioned the swim tank I haven't been around much lately but it seems to me it was the same story there where there was an engineer's estimate that was less than half of what the only bit you only got one bit on that I guess anyway so the previous item I guess I was throwing out these unfunded liability numbers for you know I was just making up numbers for the tank coatings and the meter replacement I have two more items unfunded liabilities which are service lines and an intertide bigger intertide than what's already there I guess well anyway I came in late so I didn't hear what happened to the fish ladder item Okay but I guess my memory of the whole fish ladder issue is that Calam had promised a fishing game California Department of Fish and Game before it became Fish and Wildlife a long time ago Calam had promised to fix the fish ladder and when this district bought the Felton system we bought a pig and a poke we just took on that liability that was pretty much known and all our items too so I don't see that the Long Peacons are unique well anyway okay so I guess what I'm wondering is is there some land in Felton that you can sell to pay for the fish ladder or is there some land in Ben Lomond or Boulder Creek that the district could sell Any other questions comments can I say something again thank you so we did have six tanks in Long Peaco um and you really need redundancy you need six tanks not just three tanks I don't think it worked very well what happens when one goes offline so four of the tanks were on the east side of Long Peaco they were all 60,000 gallon tanks and then the two 100,000 gallon tanks were on the west side because the best people are on the east side let's start a jury springer show so anyway um I'm just really happy because this is so important to me I worked on this so hard so did Rick so did James this is hard to realize that it's such a big gap and I appreciate hearing all this support thank you anything else we got a motion and moved that we direct the district managers to enter into a contract with the Long Peaco tanks project with Anderson Pacific $2,212,250 period second a little second okay Ali would you like to record it a little director Paris I yes director Henry yes excellent decision Gina do we need a motion to send this other topic to committee I don't know that we do do we you don't need a motion you could make one if you want to do it more it's gonna have if the board just says it's okay for it to go to the committee we'll take it up to committee I might not yes so do we we need to make motions on that you have additional items that we'll get to in a minute great decision thank you let's go build some tanks that is awesome item 11d discussion action related to the construction management consulting services for the Long Peaco tank project the engineering manager will deliver this item this is a recommendation that the board of directors find MME civil instructional engineers to be top right firm for the rest of the district manager to venture into a contract for the construction management of the Long Peaco tanks project to MME civil instructional engineers an amount of $255,348 on December 15th 2019 Salons Valley our district advocates to request proposals for construction management consulting services for the Long Peaco tanks project 3 p.m. on January 23rd 2020 one proposal is received following terms submitted proposal district staff carefully reviewed the proposal and determined the proposal from MME meets the minimum requirements set forth in the RFP the RFP requires the prime consultant to hire sub-consultants for research monitoring, geotechnical engineering asphalt testing, and concrete testing MME submitted a proposal which included the lowest fee and understanding of the project issues and adequate staff time to provide the required inspections and project oversight copy of the proposal is attached that's right in that 10 to 15% of the contract is that messy mill? yes this is a year long project yes there's a schedule attached just two MME did our construction management services for just recently completed probation tank they're a local firm I'm saying okay Bob I hate to see that we only got one response though is this sort of an ongoing theme well I get that they did a great job in Lompico it's so difficult to get these tank sites so if you have a firm from anywhere other than local it's just we're requiring them to be up there daily so the travel time becomes so much part of the contract that anybody that a local firm is just not practical they're the only local firm in the area wow that I've spoken to it was an interesting project I did have another firm that I was talking to it was more than Monterey but the commute time was too much yeah it was definitely presented to multiple Darren we're diligent in trying to get that multiple firm turning into a VD guy here Darren you're selling business development here we're selling the thing okay what's Misty Mill or how are we to say it MME MME they changed their name actually they did but they've been to Lompico they worked on the Lake Boulevard issue they did some engineering for us they're a great firm and I'm just happy that they'll come to Lompico Dave is Aussie okay we're on the K. O'Donnellies is Aussie public comment public comment none you give us a motion anybody it's Lompico you do all these Lompico motions come on it's not written out I might flop it up I'd like to make the motion that we authorize the district manager to find MME civil and structural engineers to do what they do anybody want to make that tank project enter into a project tank project civil engineers in the amount of $255,348 I did say that at the beginning of district manager who knows what I said I don't have a voice so does anybody want to say that over again Gina are you there I'm here all you need is a motion to direct the district manager to award the contract and delegate execution of the contract document to him okay that's a motion hauling thank you I'll second that I'll take the vote Director Ferris I he said I I tried to Director Falls President Swan Director Henry Director Moran yes okay 11E discussion possible environmental monitoring and reporting consulting services for the Lompeco tank project so the engineering manager will give this report is the recommendation that board directors review this memo and the director of district manager will enter into a contract for biological services for the Lompeco project $1,801 December 15th 2019 water district advertise construction of the Lompeco tanks at 3pm on February 6th 2020 the bids were open and will go to the Dench Anderson Pacific in the amount of $2,212,250 as part of the biological resource mitigation measures identified in the ISMND the Lompeco tank replacement project the qualified geologist must complete the task outline in the following documents biological resources section of the project initial study DDA 2019 the emergency endangered species act of consulting for the San Lorenzo Valley water district Lewis tank site DDA 2019 and the initial project schedule which shows the drone tank being constructed concurrently with the Lewis tank SLV 2020 for full scope see exhibit A below the following is an accounting of the different project costs associated with the construction of the Lompeco tank project again this is just reiterating the total cost the consultant at construction contractor Dench Anderson Pacific $2,250 construction management $255,358 environmental monitoring Jody McGraw $73,801 the proposal from Jody McGraw is attached to the three questions that you may have if you're doing anybody have any questions good question have you used Jody McGraw in the past yes I was a little confused sorry did this go to bid and Jody was the only one that responded or because it says that yeah I'm not sure exactly how that worked so the tanks went to bid I do not believe I'm not sure of the history of this particular proposal that we got from Jody McGraw other than I think Jody's been instrumental in assisting the district with some of the emergency permits that we had to attain related to the Lompeco tank so she's been involved with the project up to this point is there a reason we didn't go to bid on this the reason being she moved in at the district's request back to the initial review to take the emergency to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife emergency permit right away and put together a list of recommendations on what to do as part of the construction she's been involved with day one putting together the complete project and then she just continued on with that and she had not we did not bid at this point we would have had to do some creative bid proposals or bid writing I guess she was already engaged I get that but as part of that engagement was there like an implied promise or something that she would get the rest of the business not an implied promise it was just the way it we went into the construction phase and she was working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and developed what would be done as part of the construction phase but she's also writing which is part of this our take our multi-project take permit that covers all of our projects I get all that there's no promise that she would get this or this wasn't a part this wasn't a part of when we entered the contract with their for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the U.S. Tank that's why I was asking was that like $98,000 at that time $98,000 was what I do believe that we're putting as part of the endowment for future restoration and she worked on that that was all part of her initial with U.S. Fish and Wildlife so it just continued there was no original contract I think my personal opinion is on these things we really need to start bidding every aspect look it was $10,000 or $15,000 but this is a significant portion of the overall project as well and I'd like to see us start bidding these as well we're going to have a number of these projects coming down the line where we're going to be doing a significant amount of environmental work around them I think it's important that we bid all of the all aspects of all of those and I know you voiced that before and we have done a significant much more bidding than we have done in the past we've got a lot better at bidding projects not that the solding firm we used to use before she left that firm left a long time I think that's good direction we need to finish we have a district engineer and pretty much she was left out of the loop on the environmental aspects on this project and it just when we started and we got the emergency permit and she developed all of the mitigation procedures we've been tough to bid but not impossible I was going to say isn't it usually the case that this is a subcontractor for the it's not usually a subcontractor we keep environmental is always going to contract because we need them to report to the district we need them to be independent they need to report to the district that's correct and I was an issue in the beginning that that design had it in we had some issues going into it can we commit going forward we'll do bids on the environmental we didn't approve this we asked to get bids on it it's not a trivial element like Bob said I agree we would have some delays put it from the environmental that's why they're not building anything they're just going to be monitoring but when the I would rather come back I mean I think this person is important on this project because she led the emergency permit through U.S. Fish and Wildlife as long as we have the mitigation measures that she's going to do that she's worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife it's this continuity there as long as we commit that we're going to do going forward I can go ahead with this we'll commit to either bringing it to the board and requesting before we enter into a contract just because there may be something we can't bid we'll bring it to the board and ask for a waiver of formal bidding before we enter into a contract we'll get board approval I just want to open in to commit to projects like this can we take a look at the estimate that she's provided and are we comfortable that that's consistent with what she would have charged or has charged on other projects of a similar nature? Well, I am uncomfortable with it but that's not going to probation was right. This is the same discussion we had around what was her name again before people from down I mean it's the same thing different. I get that but from the point of view of process we are going down the same path we need to start bidding these things Dave? I don't see anywhere in the proposal any reference to whether or not Carly is involved in this is she aware of this is she approved the use of Johnny McGraw I think that's an important factor that would lead me to want to go ahead and proceed with this and she's very supportive of this Lewis Well, Jody McGraw has been working at the Lewis where the Lewis tanks were for actually quite a long time it would seem kind of crazy to put out a bid to get somebody else that would have to be brought up to speed on all the stuff she's already done at the Lewis tanks to me. She was involved at the Lewis tank before the consolidation to make the terminations of it was I mean we've been using I look at the bill pay there's Jody McGraw Jody McGraw we use her a lot and of course Carly does know her It's just business guys I agree that that's not personal it's just business that you use somebody for a long time I'm just saying she's worked on Lewis why would we get somebody else and she knows knows it it just I don't see it as an issue maybe in the future it's an issue but I don't think it's an issue It's the same thing that Brian Lee, former district manager would say about using NWC guys we don't want to do these same kinds of things it doesn't matter who it is, it's just business these things need to be good so you'd prefer to get somebody to come in who has no background on Lewis and have them you know redo it I have no idea what someone might or might not do that's up to them in responding to the proposal but I can tell you that this looks like a closed shop right now relative to this kind of work and I don't know that we can't get the same quality work done at a lower cost I don't know because at this point in time I haven't tried that's all it's just business whenever you have somebody that's been working a really long time you need to go back out and bid this is the public's money and 73 grand is worth bidding and getting a second estimate I mean it's just business but it's a little late we're not talking about getting a bid now now it is but this is why we're having the conversation so we don't do this again hopefully if we do it with a lot of lead time so we can have that conversation this might even be something that needs to go to the environmental committee if this is something that we need to talk about in a policy way most definitely so in regard to Lewis Tank so it says prior to initiation of ground disturbing activities associated with the project the district will contribute 94,900 to the endowment that will be used to manage and monitor the 6.7 acre conservation area has that money been budgeted? that was approved by the board and budgeted from all the last time they merged the two contracts with McGraw okay so that was the budget that goes with the ellipsoid down at 2 exactly back to the district I'm not sure that money has been transferred yet okay any other board discussion on this? I think Bob's got a good point we entertain spending significant dollars on the water district's money we have to ask the question you know are we getting a good fair price and the best way to answer that is multiple bids I totally agree takes Bob a whole month to make that much money whole month yeah right he must be confusing me with somebody else that's many months of work any other board comment? public comment? Bruce? that's President Randall Brown used to say when there's only one alternative I start looking for other alternatives thank you Bruce, yes? I'm a consultant in the area who sometimes competes with Jody McGraw I wouldn't work for the rates that she's proposing to charge I think you're getting about 70 or 75% of rates that I would charge so it looks like a pretty good deal to me it also looks like a very carefully awarded and budgeted proposal so I think you're getting a really good deal and I also know her really well she was one of my students she's a Santa Cruz she's very competent she's regarded as one of the top people in the area thanks for your feedback Debbie? I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the Lampico tanks but in November of 2018 Jody McGraw was awarded a rather substantial contract maybe check your number a couple hundred thousand we're doing a whole range of environmental work based on the proposed loan projects so I don't know if any of this was already included in that or where that went I think that's the HCP that's a 30 year district Y a 30 year plan is what that is so it has nothing to do with nothing to do with Lampico it would be nice if the HCP was done because then we wouldn't have to worry about going through this now conservation policy so there is a habitat conservation plan but that's going to be in addition to the couple hundred thousand dollar contract the next environmental committee she will be there to give you all a contract including a schedule you think it is in the contract HCP is that contract so maybe it is already paid for then Lampico it's not done so we can't use it for the Lampico project or we can't use it for the probation project either that's the point maybe the work that she does may be used in both places yes and maybe that's why Larry is saying it's such a great deal but as a consultant I'm also familiar with how you want to leverage activities too that's what you're asking about I just want to make sure we're all not duplicating stuff because it seems like sometimes things are forgotten that would already be approved once that's done that'll move these things a lot quicker and a lot cheaper okay any other comments then I'll make a motion that the district manager enter into a contract with Jordan McGraw consulting for biological services maybe about a $73,800 of one dollar I'll second that thank you only Director Ferris Director Ferris said I Director Falls President Swan yes Director Henry Director Moran go build tanks go build tanks okay moving on item 11F is a declaration of surplus 100,000 gallon of redwood tank boards and the director operation will give you this report it is recommended that the board of directors adopt the task resolution declaring felt nature's 100,000 gallon redwood tank boards and surplus established minimum bid of $200 and direct staff to dispose of said surplus by advertised sealed bid sale the background of this is the district's existing felt makers 100,000 gallon redwood tank developed in large leak reaching its life expectancy requiring the tank to be removed from service due to safety concerns staff disassembled the tank stacking the tank board on site from disposal this tank is located low in the pressure zone creating potential water quality concerns for stagnant water once the district's master plan is completed modeling will be done for the zone regarding storage staff is requesting the board to establish a minimum bid of $200 to cover surplus advertisement costs the tank will no longer hold water but has a salvage value it is recommended that the board of directors adopt the task resolution declaring a subject as surplus establish a minimum bid of $200 and direct staff to dispose of said surplus by advertised sealed bid and that is resolution number 181920 have you sold wood before from disassembled tanks? yes and have we gotten money for that? all of the places sometimes yes, sometimes no sometimes we would wind up hauling out of the way everybody wants it until it comes to pay for it I assume this time most likely we may get some bids because the tank hasn't been dismantled a lot of them we've sold that we're all still standing when Pico was successfully sold one of their tanks and received I think several thousand dollars for a large tank I would estimate 50% of the wood is probably in good shape when they get done there's usually a lot of rot a lot of bugs, worms cell bugs that are boring but there's a market for this kind of stuff the good thing about it right now is that we have a disassembled and stacked as to where when we get bids to have contractors come in and take down tanks and take them they will either charge very little but they're still getting that salvage value on the tank or they'll charge you nothing and take the salvage value on the tank that's where we have it down so we should get money back how many square feet do we have? roughly I think board feet? roughly I do believe we have like 1,800 board feet or something like that it might be and there are a few already disposed of yeah the rooms disposed of bands are gone there were just deteriorated and garbage there's no salvage value and some of the bands in my feet like a board foot do we sell this as is? yes and if so do we have any legal liability? I mean if for whatever reason the wood ended up being repurposed and there was a problem with that could we be liable? I'd be reflecting I'd be reflecting we had one person come back because we listed it as in fair condition so we made sure that we listed as is yeah if we listed as is I don't believe there's any valuable issues I can check the council on that Gina? Gina? yes there shouldn't be any issues if you listed as is I don't know that I do so far as to say there couldn't be any liability I'd have to look at it a little closer before we could put something in the form I don't know wood as is do you have a comment? any public comment? do you want any wood? no? it looks good if you go on the internet take a look at what repurposed wood would take it kills more about eight dollars a board foot eight dollars a board foot I've already had a call somebody had wind of it we'll see and of course we'll report back to the board party living okay by dinner a motion anybody anybody who wants? I'll make a motion that we approve resolution number 1819-20 declaring felton acres type of redwood tank boards as surplus and providing for sale season billy director ferris again director ferris says aye director foals president swan yes director yes yes flavor moving? All right lv. 2imerk continuerablo and broadband and partnered on protecting water supplies and strengthening water system reliability. San Lorenzo Valley Water District is closely working with Scotts Valley as member agencies of the Santa Marta Rita groundwater agency overseeing groundwater management activities of the Santa Marta Rita basin area and working on sustainable management of groundwater supplies. Recently Scotts Valley Water District was the lead agency on the district's upgraded emergency enterprise between the two districts. Grant funding was obtained from the project through Scotts Valley and Scotts Valley supplies reclaimed water to some existing district customers along Mount Herman Road. In the past in order to heighten the relationship the two boards and district managers have attended a mostly a mostly social joint dinner board meeting. At these meetings there is discussions on topics the two boards may wish to agendize a regular board meeting at a future date. In the past the district had traded meeting locations between the two districts. This meeting will be noticed as a board meeting and Brown Act requirements will be followed. The district manager has reached out to the general manager of Scotts Valley and received very favorable response for a joint board meeting. The staff is looking for approval from the board so possible meeting dates would be good to save Holly pulling her hair out and do the polls. With that I'll turn it back over to the board for questions. Who's the party planner? Luke? That would be Doodles. Sorry I couldn't do the 11th. I haven't even started pulling really I just was given a date and the very first person that responded couldn't handle it, could not make that date. So I'm happy to send them. Do you guys want to have a meeting with the Scotts Valley board? I think we should. I think it's an ably thing to do and we do work with the San Margarita groundwater agency, at least some of us, and more than are involved in that conversation in the back. I recall about a year ago there was a proposal for some team building type thing. I think at that time we suggested it would be a good idea to maybe do a dinner instead or some other more formal type thing in the evening where potentially more people could make it since that was during the day and I think this is a good thing but sort of follows up on that. Really good for a meal? Not only that, I agree with Lois and Rick and Bob. I think we're going to be working closer together at the Scotts Valley particularly as it relates to the Spengwell, but on other issues that and we worked with it in the past successfully on some of the projects, you know. I don't know why we turned down that team building session when they offered last time, but I think we need to sort of... Bad timing. I think the bad timing was an older day. It was an all-day event. It was a long one. It was never bad timing. My CFO would have thought. There's a lot of high-fiving. I do have a question. Okay, so for example, since it isn't open meeting and the public would be able to attend, who's paying for the public's dinner? Well, in the past, the boards were the only ones that had dinner and the public sat in the sidelines and just watched and just watched. As I recall, it's been a long time since I've been to one. It's a long time since we had one. I don't think very many people showed up, but there was always a handful. I'm sure. But I do believe that each district covered their board's dinner and anybody who attended as the public paid their own or just sat there and didn't have dinner. And that'll be clear. That can be clear. Yeah. Just as a party goer here, I would think it'd be incumbent on the host to provide some sort of snacking for the people that came, the audience, to watch people sit and eat food with not being able to have some food is poor form. So we should be able to do something to accommodate some. I agree. Any refreshments and appetizers? Well, at least some.  Yeah, some. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do we need to suggest a date? Well, it sounds like Holly's going to set up a doodle pool and maybe she can get out to Valley Water Manager and get their director's emails and send the whole group. And I don't want to be special to try to get all of us together or lost. Who would be included? Would that include managers? It was the district manager and board members. The board can say where they want. I would recommend General Counsel. But I don't believe that, I'm not sure if Gina wants to attend or not. I think it would probably be expensive. I would. No offense, Gina. I would suggest not. No, I wouldn't be inclined to attend, but I appreciate the suggestion. Even though it is a board meeting? Would it need to be recorded? Those are all good questions to ask now. I want to know. You know, obviously I think Gina has concerns with product issues and to make sure the agenda is properly posted. So it probably need to be recorded. In the past it wasn't. They just took notes. There's no requirement to record. I wouldn't recommend recording. I think that would be hard. It's going to be background though. It's going to be horrible. Especially when Lois is into her third martini. She started doing her feather dance through the 1950s. I would be under the table. I'm a silly man. I don't know that we need a formal motion on that. Probably not, as long as you can tell me any more. Gina, do you have any words of wisdom or anything that you would like to say about it? Well, I think we're on top of getting it properly noticed. And I believe that the agenda item contains a general description of the business that is likely to be discussed. That will be discussed at the meeting. We do need to capture that in the agenda. So it's worth taking a little bit of time to think about how the items of discussion are described. It just can't be anything. Right. That's right. We can talk about the weather and family. Okay, then we'll move ahead on getting this said. Public comment? Is it going to be normal? Not after the third martini. Steve, just one comment. I think that timing is somewhat important here. The meetings are starting to appear to make decisions about the GSB stuff. If we're going to be working closely with Scott's Valley on that, more communication is better than less. So I would like to see that done sooner than later. And we have the budgeting process in coming up. We have an election coming up. I'd rather not get drowned out by all that. If we act the next couple of months, I think we can get it out of the way before the other big yetters. We're hoping March. Not to drag it on. Perfect. I'm not available the weekend of the night. Okay. Sorry. But the second meeting in March. So he's spent about a middle of the week of the night. We don't want to try more meetings. So basically, we could either do it the week we have meetings. I wouldn't suggest the first week. That is a killer week for me. Schedule-wise. But the third week, but that's a meeting week is the only other thing, right? For us. We don't know their availability. So anytime, say the third or fourth week in March. That's the target. Okay, third or fourth week in March. We'll get something. Bruce, did you have a comment? Please. I think this is an extremely negative trend. If you think you're going to be eating during a business meeting. John Leopold proposed this at a snake wall meeting. I think it was in September. He came out. It was the end of the month. I guess he had meetings all month. He was so tired. Famished. And so the very first thing John Leopold said at the snake wall meeting was he wanted some dinner. He wanted to provide it. Then they're in suit about 20 minutes of discussion about how hungry John was. So I just think this is a terribly negative trend. I've been to meetings that lasted all day. I've been to strategic planning meetings. The district secretary prior to the current one bought sandwiches for people. This district secretary has bought sandwiches for everyone when there was that kind of a meeting. A workshop meeting or something like that. I don't expect to come to a public meeting and watch you eat. And I think, you know, frankly, I don't even know where you went to kindergarten. If you think that you can sit and have dinner at a public meeting and snacks for the others. I think that's terribly rude. And I don't even know where this emanates from. Has this come from Perret?   And there's so many restaurants in Scots Valley and SLV. You know, if you want to adjourn a meeting, take a break, it's easy to do. You know, you could go down the street in an hour and come back and have a meeting.   Find something else to do. Thank you, Bruce. You hear the comments? No? Okay, Polly? You got the action item? Okay. So wouldn't we go to a restaurant? No? Yes. Yeah, it's planned. It's semi-business, semi-social.  So it doesn't work that way. It's brown act violation. No, I mean... No, you're right. If it's at a restaurant, I guess we'd have to feed whoever came. Seems to me. I'm just saying how it didn't happen in the past. Yeah. You can leave that with Rick and he'll come back. Yeah, I'll see what Brett has to say. I mean, the past sessions have been semi-social and semi-business. It was kind of getting to know the different directors that you're working with and talk about possible items that you would like to agendize and discuss mutual interests, which the two districts do have some items out there of mutual interest. I mean, we've talked about several different things, especially with the Santa Maria groundwater, especially with conjunctive use. I mean, you know, I look at it as Santa Rosa Valley and Scotts Valley are the ones that are going to take care of this aquifer and we need to work together. And, you know, it's always better when you know the person like that. Might be person. I like to know who I'm working with and talking to and have somewhat of a cordial relationship with. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. That's just my two cents. We organize it for the other people to show up. We'll let Holly figure it out. Well, I was just wondering... I was just wondering why the public has to be invited? It's important for me. It's important for me. But what if it's not? What if it's a social meeting? You can't talk to me. You can't talk to me. You can't talk to me. We can talk weather, family, sports. The weather, maybe. Pictures and catchers. Weather might be a good topic. But if people aren't invited to this event, why would they expect to be fed if they're just showing up there? It's being noticed as a meeting for the two joint boards. And if somebody shows up, why would they expect to be fed? I don't understand. I don't have a problem eating in front of them, frankly. I would.  There are lots of people around them. They're welcome to eat. Now you're being silly. We'll get some dates and get back to you. We can move on that list. There's a more public comment. No, thank you. We need any more comment on this. That's good. Consent agenda. Anybody want anything pulled? No? Nothing pulled? Okay, great. One question I can find out. I believe there were no water quality complaints. Two months in a row. Congratulations. I got one this month already though. That's still to be. Surface water. Has it happened before? Well, it's surface water. Surface water. Yeah, but it hasn't. Do you typically not have complaints? No, I'm not typically not have one. It's happened before. Two months in a row? Two months in a row? I don't know about that now. Congratulations. Congratulations to me. We got one this month already in County. Yeah, County. Go ahead and send that on agenda. That's not my pocket. It's all about next month. Okay, so we have a motion to accept the minutes from February 6 2020? We don't really need to do that. It's done. District reports.  They're here to answer any questions that you may have. Or does any of the department heads would like to point out any points of interest? Do you think the board will talk? Well, I do want to point out that I did try to do a little bit better on my report, putting priorities up there and didn't really put anything about the little stuff. And the little stuff is approximately 15 leaks in the system. All those stuff I felt like needed to be talked about. And brought to attention. What's our surface water, well water? The surface water, well water was... 87%, 30%. Nope, 87% to 12.86%. Where's your president? So, and that is actually, we use a little bit more well water. In January this year, then we did in 2013. So, we haven't had much surface water to take. Any of that contributed to flushing? No. So flushing didn't start until February, so you'll see an increase in well water in February due to flushing. But other than that, no, that's just contributing to the lack of rainfall. Yeah, and that comparison's on there on the bottom of that page right there. So, you can see 2013 was 88.08%. Surface water to 11.92 well water, and then you got this year was 87.14 to 12.86%. There are close numbers, but I'll just note it. If this continues, we'll see a significant increase in electrical costs this year for copper. Yes, you'll see a shift when there's no rainfall, and you'll see an increase in operational costs. I wish we could get rid of that high pressure that's just been driving everything north. Jesus. It's going to rain in spring. Yeah, let's hope so. Is it your spittoon, Jim? No, it's definitely spittoon. I have the water bottle. Any other questions for any of the heads? Anything the heads want to say? Said it all before. Okay. Darren's going to be busy. Well, I will say, I mean, you guys all know about Bear Creek Road I'm taking right now, so I'm driving right along. So yeah, just be aware that that's coming down the pipe, and that's one of the big ones on our list right now, between there and there. Great, so there will be a replacement and to be determined to pay us for it. You got to quit breaking those pipes. I know. Darren, you're going to be busy, man. Yes, he is. But good. Very good, man. He'll be moving us a little bit. But isn't the road open? It is. We've got two lanes. We've got two lanes, so you don't have to wait anymore for all that traffic to come out of there. There's a lot of traffic that comes out of there. No, I don't mean none. Don't talk about that one. Everybody has three cars each. Okay. I guess we're done. We have three left in a jiff. Any committee reports? Anybody wants to share? Oh, yes. You know, I don't think so. Well, Rick may want to share today's committee report on the environmental. Sure. We had a SOQ, is that what it's called? Right. We're out. Statement of qualification. Statement of qualification. Yeah, correct. For a fire management plan, and Panorama was the people that came down, a woman by the name of, I don't know her last name, but came and gave a half an hour presentation about what she can possibly do. And the staff is going to work up a recommendation about how we proceed here. So probably we still work on any environmental committee about what's going on here, but we're making steps to get a fire management plan in the works, right? Larry was part of that meeting today and it picked up most of them. And the consultant in the panorama has a lot of, what do we consider some of the local experience? Yeah, they work on other water districts and truly seem to understand the area. And working with other stakeholders and the importance of working together. I think they're a firm that can just about do anything that we would need for the district. Very comprehensive consultant. And you know, I'll tell you whatever questions you have about Lulun, who you weren't able to attend and you've been a big part of pushing this plan management plan forward with Larry and Rick. So it was a productive meeting. How about very productive, yeah. You want to add anything to that Larry, or I guess still? Yeah, I think they took it from very impressive. I think clearly they knew how to approach this. Most of their approach seemed to reflect what might be done in the future and also what would be done with the cooperation of all the other agencies in our region. So it took us a while I think to get to the point where we were realizing this, a lot of this planning would not be only for the water district it would be for a collection of agencies cooperating. And so anyway, I was very pleased with it. I think that you made a really good choice. She seemed to have a very good understanding of what grants are out there and the importance that we're gonna need grants for our plan to move forward. That we have a small budget and grants are gonna be important part of this program. That is today, okay. Anything else for me? Yeah, I guess we can be adjourned. The meeting is adjourned. Make it 48. Yeah.