MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
IRONHOUSE SANITARY DISTRICT
June 4, 2013
The Ironhouse Sanitary
District (ISD) Board of Directors met in regular session on Tuesday, June 4,
2013.
The place of meeting was the
Ironhouse Sanitary District Office at 450 Walnut Meadows Drive, Oakley,
California.
1.
Call to
Order
The
meeting was called to order by President Lauritzen at 7:00 p.m.
2. Pledge of Allegiance led by Chris Lauritzen
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
Susan Walde, District
Secretary
Bob Henn, District
Counsel
Michael Welty,
Financial Officer
Joe Mueller,
Environmental/Process Compliance Manager
Interested
Parties: Susan Morgan,
Oakley
Randy
Pope, Oakley City Council
Randy
Mager, DWR
3. Approval of Agenda
M/S D. Contreras, M. Painter, and the Board voted to
approve the agenda.
4. Approval of the Minutes of the April 2, 2013
Regular Meeting, Minutes of the May 7, 2013 Regular Meeting and the Minutes of
the May 16, 2013 Special Workshop Meeting.
Director Contreras noted corrections to the Minutes of
the May 7, 2013 Regular Meeting.
M/S D. Huerta, M. Painter and the Board voted to
approve the minutes of the April 2, 2013 regular meeting; minutes of the May 7,
2013 regular meeting and the minutes of the May 16, 2013 special workshop
meeting with the corrections noted.
5. Public Comments – Communications from the public on subjects not on
the agenda.
Randy Mager of DWR gave the Board an update on the
Dutch Slough project. The update on the
planning efforts is going forward with a completion date of April – May of 2015
for phase 1 construction. He stated that
DWR would like to have a decision from the Board as soon as possible as
deadlines are approaching to complete permit applications for the project and
define how much fill material, if any, will be imported to the project
area. President Lauritzen asked Mr. Mager
if DWR would be responsible for maintaining the new western levee on ISD
property that would be created as part of the fill removal process. Director Lauritzen wanted to clarify there
would be no cost to the ISD ratepayer from the project to remove of up to 600,000
cubic yards of material from ISD’s property.
Mr. Mager stated it is his understanding the intent of DWR is to
implement the project with no cost to the ISD ratepayer. It was decided to have a follow-up workshop
to further discuss the project.
6. Consent Calendar
A. Approval
of Payment Order, Report on Financial Position & Operating
Performance.
B. Approval
of Posting & Publishing of Ordinance No. 50/Order No. 13-11 Trunkline and
Capacity Fee Adjustments (BO 13-18).
C. Approval
of Posting & Publishing of 2011/2012 Sewer Service Charge Adjustment. (BO
13-19).
M/S M. Painter, D. Huerta, and the Board voted
unanimously to approve the consent calendar.
7. Business Before the Board
7A. Public Hearing and Board Consideration of an
Ordinance and Order adjusting Sewer Service Fee (Ordinance No. 51 Order 13-20)
Action on Proposed Sewer Use Fee for Fiscal Year 2013/2014.
Mr. Williams gave a brief presentation regarding the
publication of rates in the newsletter; newspaper, notice to interested
parties, and postings on website. He
reviewed with the Board the documentation publicized in the newsletter notice
to the public, outlining items mentioned regarding how the district is working to
keep the rate affordable to the rate payer.
He reviewed the alternative funding programs the district participates
in, which are not rate generated, to save money for the District.
At 7:27p.m. President Lauritzen opened the public hearing.
Hearing no additional comments from those in attendance;
At 7:28 p.m. President Lauritzen closed the public
hearing.
M/S D. Contreras, D. Huerta and the Board voted
unanimously to adopt Ordinance No. 51 and Order No. 13-20 setting the Sewer
Service Fee for FY 2013/2014 at its current level of $618 per EDU.
7B. Consideration
of Fiscal Year 2013/2014 Proposed Budget.
Mr. Williams asked the Board if they would like a
presentation. President Lauritzen
referred the request to the finance committee.
Director Contreras stated that the budget is a reflection of many
meetings with the input from staff, the Finance Committee, the Board of
Directors, and via the budget workshop.
The committee going forward is working to develop a better defined
Reserve Policy, as well as build the capital expenditures reserves in
anticipation of future asset replacements and capital expenditures.
Mr. Williams stated the committee’s recommendation is
to use to carryover revenue from FY 2012/13, combined with the transfer of
existing Royalty Reserve balance, and anticipated revenue from the possible
sale of dirt to RD830 to fund the Capital Expenditure Reserve up to $650,000 during
FY 2013/14.
Discussion was held regarding the reserve accounts,
and opportunities to fund these reserves in the future.
Mr. Welty reviewed the net revenue test with the Board
detailing the required net revenue for the debt coverage ratio. The test is one component of the debt
covenant requirements through the State of California and shows the “net of
revenues equal at least the annual debt service payment. Also, the debt
covenant conditions require the district have, at all times, at least one
annual payment in reserve.
President Lauritzen commented that the total debt payment
for the wastewater treatment plant divided by the current number of EDU’s
equates to $202 per ratepayer for debt service.
Mr. Welty reviewed how the cost for debt service per
ratepayer will shrink as new connections come on line and the “ratepayer base”
grows.
Director Contreras stated that hopefully we will be
receiving connections from the Oakley Generating station to help build the
ratepayer base very quickly.
Director Huerta stated the Finance Committee
recommends the net revenue overage be dedicated to capital expenditures
reserve.
Director Painter asked if the Board is adopting the
budget without the results of the Compensation Study update included. He stated that the employees are not at the
50 percentile.
Mr. Williams stated that the budget currently does not
include changes related to the Compensation Study as the study is not yet
complete but, there is money in the budget that can be utilized to implement
recommendations of the study. He also
stated that he is currently working on the draft compensation study with Koff
and Associates. The Human Resources and Personnel
Committee will review the study upon receiving the data from the consultant.
Director Huerta stated the Finance Committee is
pleased with the budget work that has been done but, is not pleased that compensation
study is not complete to have adjustments for salaries, based on the
compensation study, included.
Mr. Williams stated he will have a draft Compensation
Study for the Board to review with the consultant at the workshop later this
month.
President Lauritzen recommends we pass the budget as
proposed and later review the trend of new connections and possibly adjust the
budget. Director Painter agrees with the
President.
Director Painter pointed out that staff has had some
years of low cost of living increases and years of no cost of living increases,
and that it has been 7 years since the last compensation study was updated.
Mr. Williams stated that there have been no salary
modifications (review and adjustment of salary in relation to other comparator
agencies) since the original 2006 study, just cost of living adjustments.
M/S M. Painter, D. Scheer and the Board voted
unanimously to approve and adopt the FY 2013/14 Budget keeping the rate at
$618.
8. Staff Reports
Jenny Skrel – Ms. Skrel reported that the State Regional Water
Quality Control Board (RWQCB) was at the district yesterday, June 3rd,
for a tour of the Water Recycling Facility (WRF) in preparation of reviewing
the district’s submitted request for update of its NPDES (river discharge)
permit. After touring the facility,
RWQCB staff seemed agreeable to some of the changes ISD has requested in its
renewal application. The water quality monitoring the district has been doing
over the last 18 months has shown the WRF is producing better water quality than
originally permitted. The permit renewal will go before the RWQCB in
January/February of 2014. RWQCB staff will have an administrative draft of the
permit renewal in August 2013 for ISD to review. With regard to salt levels in the water
received at the WRF, the levels are currently lower than at the time of
facility startup back in 2011 but, salts are an ongoing concern for the NPDES
permit renewal. Also, as the Oakley
Generating Station (OGS) gets closer to construction, ISD staff is working with
their staff regarding documented/anticipated salt levels in our water, in
preparation of possibly utilizing recycled water at the new OGS.
Joe Mueller – Mr. Mueller reported that plant staff is still
having problems with the SCADA servers.
They have been working with JSP to get the new server loaded and on line.
Mr. Mueller and Ms. Skrel gave a report on the built-in facility redundancies
to safely direct non-compliant flows to the 30 million gallon south storage pond
in case of a fault or other facility malfunction. The District has two SCADA servers to serve
the plant. Mr. Mueller stated that in
working with both Dell and the integrator, they have not seen these types of servers
go down as they have at our facility.
This appears to be a rarity. As
an additional redundancy, the integrator has our program off-site and can
rapidly reload it in case of a system failure.
The plant was designed with efficiency, flexibility, and redundancy in
mind.
Tom Williams – Mr. Williams reported he has been working with Randy
Mager of DWR on the Marsh Creek Enhancement project to setup a workshop for the
Board on Tuesday June 18th at 6:00 p.m. Mr. Williams would also like to include at
the workshop Mr. Georg Kramer of Koff and Associates to review the compensation
study. He also reported he attended the
Special Districts Legislative Days with Directors Contreras and Huerta in Sacramento. They toured one Senator and three Assembly
members’ offices. The day was very
eventful.
Mr. Williams attended the East
County Water Manager’s Association meeting with Director Huerta and offered to
host the next meeting November 14th at ISD.
This gives ISD another opportunity to offer a tour of the WRF facility
to other water and wastewater special districts. He
attended the Delta Protection Commission Meeting in Courtland. The commission was considering which
direction to take on the Delta Plan.
There were in excess of 100 in attendance with over 20 speakers. The commission made a decision to oppose the
plan.
Discussion was held on the
possible effects of the plan on Jersey Island.
Bob Henn – Mr. Henn reported that Mr. Etzel has been assisting
staff on the Ordinances and other district business
Roni Gehlke – Ms. Gehlke reported that she has been working with
Freedom high school for 9 months on various educational programs the District
is trying to incorporate. Last week, ISD
hired its first Freedom high intern to work on Jersey Island for the
summer. He will be working with ISD
staff in the areas of cattle management, the recycled water/hay operation, and
other aspects of working on a ranch, and around ranch equipment. He will be starting on June 17th.
9. Board Members Advisory Reports
Director Scheer – Director Scheer reported that Delta Coves
on Bethel Island is out of receivership and should be moving forward with
development.
10. Future Agenda Items for Consideration
There were no future agenda items suggested for
consideration.
11. Adjournment
President Lauritzen
adjourned the regular meeting at 8:42 p.m. until Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 7:00
p.m. for the next regular meeting in the Ironhouse Sanitary District offices at
450 Walnut Meadows Drive, Oakley, California.
