SLVWD Board Meeting Summary
July 15, 2021
Mark Dolson
Highlights:
First transfer of past-due accounts to property tax roll.
Approval of 2020 Lompico Assessment District Report.
Approval of contract with MME for design of bridge replacement water lines.
Discussion of 2021 system-wide water line leakage detection report.
Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on August 5.
Preliminaries
President Mahood opened the meeting with two announcements. First, she reported that Stephanie Hill, Director of Finance and Business Services, has resigned effective at the end of the month. She thanked Stephanie for all of her service and particularly the recently approved bi-annual budget and the new debt collection procedure. The Board wishes Stephanie all the best in her future endeavors.
Second, President Mahood announced that District Manager Rick Rogers called a meeting with Environmental Planner Carly Blanchard, Fisheries Biologist Mike Podlich, District Counsel Gina Nicholls, Director Mark Smolley, and herself to review the City of Santa Cruz Environmental Impact Report (EIR) relating to the city’s recent water rights petitions. The group concluded that there is very little in the EIR that bears directly on the District's water rights; hence, the staff will not be preparing a critique of this lengthy document for SLV public consumption, as requested by a member of the public at the last Board meeting, as it would be a poor use of Staff time. The District will prepare a comment on a few minor issues and submit it to DWR.
Director Henry offered an independent observation. She said she had served for eleven years on water district Boards and had attended many meetings where instruction was provided as to how a Board member should behave. She was therefore disturbed to hear fellow director Bob Fultz on KSCO telling people to vote against the District’s proposed fire recovery surcharge. It is widely understood that if the majority of the Board votes for something, an individual Board member should never go out and undermine the Board consensus. She was really disappointed that Director Fultz did this, and she thought it was the wrong thing to do.
New Business
Delinquent Bills to be Placed on the County Property Tax Roll
Finance Director Stephanie Hill introduced this item by reminding the Board of previous discussions in which it was agreed that the District should adopt a new approach to dealing with past-due bills: rather than shutting off customers’ water, delinquent water charges will be submitted to the County of Santa Cruz for collection on the property tax roll. The District is now ready to put this new plan into effect. This will be an annual process, but – in view of potential financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the District is initially only pursuing accounts that have long-standing past-due balances from 12/31/2019 and prior.
All Directors took this opportunity to thank Stephanie and wish her the very best. Director Henry noted that even if ratepayers don’t pay their taxes, the District still gets paid because the County knows it will eventually get its money. Director Smolley asked how long the accounts in question have been outstanding. Stephanie said some haven’t paid in a decade, but none of these are consuming water – the parcel owners are far removed, and the District has no form of contact with them. This will be the District’s first experience with utilizing the property tax roll. Next year’s list will involve just active customers and will be longer.
Director Ackemann moved that the Board adopt the prepared resolution specifying that the delinquent water charges be submitted to the County. Director Smolley seconded. There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
Lompico Assessment District Annual Report 2020
Mary Ann Lobalbo, a member of the Lompico Assessment District Oversight Committee (LADOC), announced that the LADOC 2020 Annual Report is ready for the Board to approve. It should also be linked to from the SLVWD web site.
Director Fultz said he found these reports to be very helpful, he appreciated the work the Committee has done, and he was glad the District was addressing Lompico’s needs. He asked if permanent connections were part of the project list for the $15 million loan. Rick Rogers said yes, this was part of the promise made to the assessment district and will be completed even though the original funding has been depleted. The District has reordered priorities now that the water pressure is lower and leaks have diminished, and this is now being treated as maintenance.
Director Henry added that the committee worked very hard on this report, spent a lot of time, and visited all the relevant tanks. She said it had been her pleasure to work with them, and President Mahood noted that Director Henry had been a big help to the committee.
Director Smolley pointed out an incorrect date on the report and asked for clarification on a loan amount. Director Fultz added that the report should use the District’s new logo.
President Mahood moved to accept the report. Director Fultz seconded. There was no public input. The motion passed 5-0.
California Highway 9 Bridges Project
Engineering Director Josh Wolff introduced this agenda item. Caltrans is planning to replace bridges on CA-9 at San Lorenzo River and Kings Creek crossings. SLVWD maintains an 8-inch water main that will be impacted by the bridge replacements. The District received two bids for the design of relocated water mains. Rick Rogers, Director Smolley, and Josh reviewed the bids and recommended that the project be awarded to MME: (1) MME’s proposal is clearly organized and shows a greater understanding of the project scope; (2) MME has provided more specific plans for addressing important aspects of the project, including Caltrans-specific schedule and coordination issues; (3) MME proposes to include a subconsultant who specializes in projects involving Caltrans. The fee for the competing Sandis proposal was approximately $20,000 lower than MME’s bid of $152,567.80, but Sandis failed to include a contingency which would have reduced the difference in cost between the two proposals to approximately $6,000. Staff and Director Smolley agreed that the superior quality of the MME proposal offset the lower cost of the Sandis proposal.
Director Smolley, Chair of the Engineering Committee said he found it significant that the MME proposal included a detailed outline and a well-chosen subconsultant with experience dealing with Caltrans.
Director Fultz wondered if Sandis should be given some additional insight into the District’s assessment process so that they could improve the quality of their bids. Director Henry endorsed the choice of MME. Director Ackemann asked whether the District was being compelled by Caltrans to undertake this project. Josh and Rick explained that the District uses the Caltrans bridges for support structure, that one bridge has reached the end of its lifespan, and that Caltrans requires the District to move its lines.
Director Smolley moved that the Board direct the District to enter into a contract with MME for $152,567.80. Director Fultz seconded. There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
System-Wide Water Line Leak Detection Project Final Report
Director of Operations, James Furtado, introduced this agenda item. The industry standard is to perform a system-wide leak detection every three to five years. In 2021, the District completed a full leak detection for 104 miles of pipe, performed by Utility Services Associates at a cost of roughly $20,000 using acoustical devices. District staff then returned to the identified leak locations and facilitated repairs.
Director Henry asked if the total estimated water loss of 28.6 million gallons per year was an overestimate. James said previous estimates in 2014 and 2018 of water loss (compared to what was observed when repairs were made) were over-estimated but were not off by much. He said the 28.6-million-gallon figure assumes that the leaks were present for an entire year. Director Smolley pointed out that the last leak-detection study was three years ago, so some of the leaks could have been present for significantly longer.
Director Smolley wanted to determine whether it would be cost-effective to perform the leak detection more frequently. He noted that more than half of the leakage was in main lines (as opposed to service meters). He suggested that it could make sense to check main lines annually if the leaks were costing the District more than $20,000 per year. Rick Rogers noted that the project also consumed four weeks of Staff time, but he agreed in principle. First, though, the District needs to determine the cost of the wasted water.
Director Ackemann wondered if there was more leakage during periods of drought. Rick said there are more leaks in drier weather (and also with any type of earthquake). James added that tree roots reach out during drier weather and impact service lines.
Director Fultz noted that 28.6 million gallons is about 4.5% of the District’s total production. He would like to see leak detection performed at least every other year as a part of the District’s (and the community’s) commitment to conservation.
There was one public comment. Larry Ford asked if some communities were doing better than others. He also asked where the District could improve anticipation and repair of leaks. James said the District is starting to create a “heat map” of leaks, that some neighborhoods have been identified, and that the District is putting the worst neighborhoods on its pipeline replacement schedule.
Director Smolley moved to accept the report. Director Ackemann seconded. There was no public input. The motion passed 5-0.
District Reports
President Mahood reminded the Board that questions and comments are most appropriately sent directly to relevant Staff via email.
Director Ackemann said she wanted to publicly acknowledge all the of the District’s recent work on public messaging, outreach, and communication.
Director Fultz noted that Stephanie’s most recent report on past-due balances suggested that the District was more or less holding steady on anything more than 30-days overdue. Stephanie confirmed this.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM.