MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
IRONHOUSE SANITARY DISTRICT
January 8, 2013
The Ironhouse Sanitary
District (ISD) Board of Directors met in regular session on Tuesday, January 8,
2013.
The place of meeting was the
Ironhouse Sanitary District Office at 450 Walnut Meadows Drive, Oakley,
California.
1.
Call to
Order
Pledge
of Allegiance led by Doug Scheer
The
meeting was called to order by President Lauritzen at 7:00 p.m.
2. Swearing in of Newly
Elected board Members and Introduction of New Board Member Doug Scheer
The District Secretary held a ceremony swearing in
the newly elected Board members David Contreras, Michael Painter and Doug
Scheer, who accepted the oath of office.
3. Roll Call:
Directors present: David Contreras, David Huerta, Chris
Lauritzen, Michael Painter and Doug Scheer
Members
absent: None
Staff/Consultants present: Tom Williams, General Manager
Jennifer Skrel, District
Engineer
Joe Mueller,
Environmental Compliance Officer
Susan Walde, District
Secretary
Fred Etzel, District
Counsel
Michael Welty,
Financial Officer
Interested
Parties: None
4. Approval of Agenda
M/S M. Painter and D. Huerta and the Board voted to
approve the agenda with the amendment of the addition of the pledge of
allegiance.
5. Approval of the minutes of the December
4, 2012 Regular Meeting
M/S D. Huerta, C. Lauritzen and the Board voted with
the correction of “scrapper” to “scraper” under 9C, to approve the minutes of
the December 4, 2012 Regular Meeting of the Board.
6. Public Comments – Communications from the public on subjects not on
the agenda.
There were no comments from the public.
7. Consent Calendar
A. Approval of
Payment Order, Report on Financial Position & Operating
Performance.
Director Huerta directed a question for Mr. Welty
regarding solid waste allocation of solid waste in legal and utilities under
garbage and collection services. Mr.
Williams explained the different allocations; legal is budgeted for any
possible legal for franchise agreement and the utilities is for the solid waste
off the screens at the water recycling facility.
Mr. Welty reported the district received its first
installment of annual assessment charges from Contra Costa County in the amount
of $4.9 million (approximately 55% of ISD’s total assessment from the County). Tomorrow Mr. Williams and Mr. Welty will be
having a kick off meeting with senior management to work on the budget process
and forecast forward two years. He
reported he is hoping to have a formal draft of the budget complete by the end
of March 2013. He reviewed with the
Board the changes to the budget process.
The Board asked for the staff payroll time to be categorized by
department.
Director Lauritzen asked about the need for a two year
budget and Mr. Welty stated it would help to forecast the future rate and
reserve account maintenance.
M/S D. Huerta, M. Painter and the Board voted
unanimously to approve the consent calendar.
8. Business Before the Board
8A. Public Hearing for Consideration of Power
Purchase Agreement (PPA) With Real Goods Solar (RGS).
At 7:15 p.m. President Lauritzen opened the Public
Hearing to consider the PPA with Real Goods solar. He asked the Board and the Public to use this
opportunity for comments on the proposed PPA.
Mr. Williams stated that staff would like to recommend continuing the Public
Hearing to the February 5, 2013 meeting.
Ms. Skrel stated that the CEQA document was approximately
90% complete and, being so close to completion, was the key reason for
continuing the Public Hearing to the February 5, 2013 meeting.
Discussion was held on the CEQA and mitigated negative
declaration process and policy.
President Lauritzen asked the Board if they would like to hold a public
workshop for review of the PPA proposal for the solar project. The workshop date was set for January 23,
2013 at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the PPA package.
Ms. Skrel will make the CEQA documents available on Friday January 11,
2013 to all Board members and interested parties.
8B. Consideration
of Designated Signers on Depositories, Public Agency Resolution Funds Transfer
on Oral Instructions, Bank Depositor Agreement and Contract for Deposit of
Monies. Required due to the change in
status of authorized signers.) BO 13-01
Mrs. Walde proposed to the
Board an update to the designated signers on the Bank account including
removing prior Director Doug Hardcastle, and adding Director Doug Scheer as
authorized signers. M/S D. Contreras, D.
Huerta, and the Board voted unanimously to approve B. O. 13-01 updating signers
on the Bank account to remove prior member Doug Hardcastle and add Director Doug
Scheer. (B.O. 13-01)
8C. Adopt Resolution 13-01 Amending Section 3.6
of the ISD Bylaws, Previously Adopted and Effective on November 6, 2012, and
Approve Attached Form of Director Health Benefits Agreement.
Mr. Williams reviewed with the Board the revisions to
the Director benefits polices approved at the November 6,, 2012
Board meeting and recommended the Board approve Resolution No.13-01 amending
Section 3.6 of the ISD Bylaws and approve the attached Form of Director Health
Benefits Agreement.
Discussion was held to revise the Bylaws and approve
the form of agreement and have the District Secretary prepare a separation
package for each Board member to sign.
M/S M. Painter, D. Huerta and the Board voted
unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 13-01 approving revisions to the Director
Benefits Policies and approve the attached form, Director Health Benefits
Agreement, an agreement for a Director’s payment of his share of the costs of
his benefits.
8D. Consideration
of Mid-Year Budget Update and Proposed Revisions.
Mr. Williams reported to the Board that he and Mr.
Welty met with senior management to review the mid-year budget figures, through
the month of November 2012. He reported
that the finance committee met to review the process and proposed staff
recommendations. Mr. Welty, Finance
Director, gave an overview of the revenue, income and expense highlights,
proposed recommendations:
Revenue highlights:
The district had budgeted for 100 new connections and,
as of December 2012, have 130 new connections.
Staff recommends revising the new connection estimate to 140, which results
in a $159,000 overall increase in connection revenue. The mineral rights income is expected to be $8,000
less than budgeted, and a misc. income is anticipated to be $21,000 more than
budgeted (resulting primarily from a onetime dividend payment from our
insurance company of $19,500). In addition, staff estimates an expected
increase in cattle revenue of $43,000. The net result on the budget for revenue
is an increase of $269,560.
Expense highlights:
Various expense items (both increases in expense and
decreases in expense) were discussed.
The net result of revisions to the expense portion of the budget is an
increase in expenses of approximately $120,000. The key highlight included an increase in
Professional Services budget of $112,050 ($60,000 in laboratory groundwater testing
and $42,000 in Legal Services being the major contributors).
Staff’s recommendation for the mid-year budget
revisions looks positive with an anticipated net increase in revenue over
expenses of approximately $184,000.
M/S D. Huerta, D. Scheer and the Board voted in favor
to accept the mid-year budget review and proposed budget revisions, with
Director D. Contreras opposed.
8E. Consideration
of ISD Board Committee Assignments for Calendar Year 2013
President Lauritzen explained that with the succession
of the Board, he recommended we prepare the Board to become President. His recommendation would be for the Vice
President to hold a seat on the finance committee to be prepared for his
position as President. He recommended the
order of Committee assignment to prepare the board for the future succession. He also stated that standing committee
meetings have to be noticed to comply with the Brown Act. The committees were assigned by the
President as follows:
·
Finance –
(quarterly) Huerta and Contreras
·
Maintenance/Collection
Facilities – (quarterly) Scheer and Painter
·
Recycled Water
Facility/Operations – (quarterly) Scheer and Lauritzen
·
Jersey Island
Management/Operations - (quarterly) Lauritzen
and Painter
·
Public Outreach –
(monthly) Huerta and Contreras
Board appointed designated for
attendance/participation:
·
LAFCO - (monthly
a.m.) Lauritzen/Contreras
·
Special District
Local Chapter – (quarterly a.m. lunch mtg.) Contreras/Lauritzen
·
City Liaison – (semi-monthly,
evening) Scheer/Huerta
·
East County Water
Management Governing Board (twice
yr., lunch mtg.)Contreras/Huerta
·
BIMID – (monthly) Painter/Lauritzen
·
BIMAC – (monthly) Painter/Lauritzen
·
Delta Science
Center – (bi-monthly) Painter/Scheer
8F. Authorize
the General Manager to Negotiate, and Enter into Contract, with Koff &
Associates to Perform Total Compensation Study Update for ISD, not to Exceed
$15,000.
Mr. Williams reported that he has been authorized to
develop and send out an RFP to perform an update to the ISD’s 2006 Total
Compensation Study. Due to our unique
district and the base line previously prepared by Koff and Associates, he
recommend’s the Board authorize the General Manager to enter into a contract
with Koff and Associates to perform the Total Compensation Study update for ISD
in an amount not to exceed $15,000 to be completed prior to holding the next
budget workshop in May 2013.
M/S M. Painter, D. Huerta and the Board voted
unanimously to authorize the General Manager to enter into a contact with Koff
and Associates to perform a Total Compensation Study Update for ISD at a cost
not to exceed $15,000.
9. Staff Reports
Joe Mueller
– Mr. Mueller reported to the Board that staff and JSP are fine tuning the SCADA
controls fixing short comings that the previous storms revealed On December 19th the District had
a power failure and the server went down, staff was able to recover all the
data from the Scada servers.
Fred Etzel – Mr. Etzel reported that in November the Delta
Stewardship Council published the final draft of the Delta Plan. District Council had reviewed and prepared
response letters on behalf of ISD and Reclamation District 830. He reported that the Bay Delta Conservation
Plan will be out this spring for review.
He will draft documents for ISD and RD830.
Jenny Skrel
– Ms. Skrel reported to the Board that she met with the Regional Board two
weeks ago and ISD will be getting its permit.
She reported that, per our State permit, the required sampling for pharmaceuticals
has been accomplished and submitted to the State.
Director Lauritzen asked staff to set a date for the
annual staff luncheon in December and hold a combined safety meeting and luncheon. Discussion was held and decided by the
general manager that Wednesday is the best day for staff attendance.
Tom Williams
– Mr. Williams reported to the Board on RD830.
He received the 100 acre enhancement project final draft of funding
agreement. Prior to RD830 meeting to
consider adopting and signing the agreement, RD830 will work with ISD to hold a
workshop on the proposal, and will invite representatives from the Department
of Water Resources to attend and participate.
RD830 will need to enter into an agreement with ISD for the purchase of
the soil by RD830 and for ISD providing a conservation easement over the 100
acre project area.
The rock placement on Jersey Island has been completed
by Dutra and Sons. The rock placement occurred
on about 12,000 feet of Taylor Slough and about 5,000 feet on Dutch Slough near
Blind Point. Dutra placed approximately 10,000
tons of rock on the levee and RD830 has about $30,000 invested in the rock
protection project.
Mr. Williams reported that he will be on vacation
starting on Thursday and returning after the CASA conference on Tuesday January
22nd. The evening of Jan. 22
he will be giving a presentation to the City of Oakley at their City Council
meeting.
10. Board
Members Advisory Reports
Director Painter – Director Painter reported that the Delta
Science Center has distributed 2013 calendars to local students from the
Cottonwood area to Martinez. On March
22, 2013 they will be participating in the National Water Sampling day and will
be coordinating with the East Bay Regional Parks District. U.C. Davis will be holding an upcoming career
day at Freedom High School.
Director Contreras – Director Contreras reported that the
newsletter went out and the outreach committee has had many compliments. He
reported on the grease pickup event hosted at ISD. There was a very good turnout with
approximately 35 people participating and approx. 190 gallons of grease was
collected. Director Contreras thanked
Director Lauritzen for all the hard work in preparing for and facilitating the
Christmas party.
11. Future Agenda Items for Consideration
There were no future agenda items suggested for
consideration.
12. Adjournment
President Lauritzen
adjourned the regular meeting at 9:58 p.m. until Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at
7:00 p.m. for the next regular meeting in the Ironhouse Sanitary District
offices at 450 Walnut Meadows Drive, Oakley, California.
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