SLVWD Board Meeting Summary

May 18, 2023

Mark Dolson

Highlights:

  • Schaaf & Wheeler Construction Support Services Extension – Lyon and Big Steel Pipeline

  • Labor Negotiations

  • Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on June 1st

Preliminaries

No actions were taken in Closed Session, and there was nothing to report.

District Manager Rick Rogers announced that Agenda Item 10b (Review of Biennial Draft Budget for Fiscal 2023-2025) was being deferred to the first meeting in June.  He explained that significant changes were requested during the most recent Budget and Finance Committee review.  Director Fultz objected, saying that he had devoted substantial time to preparing for this agenda item, and he had input that he wanted to provide.  At a minimum, he said a heads-up would have been appreciated.  Director Mahood, Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, apologized for this inconvenience.  The committee meeting was unexpectedly delayed, leaving little time to adapt.  She suggested that Director Fultz could send his notes directly to District Manager Rick Rogers and Finance Manager Kendra Reed.  District Counsel Gina Nicholls advised that, in view of Director Fultz’s objection, the Board needed to vote on the proposed agenda change.  A simple majority would be required to pull the item in question.  The motion to pull agenda item 10b (introduced by Director Mahood and seconded by Director Hill) passed 4-1 with Director Fultz voting no.

President Smolley opened the floor for public communications.  Several members of the public were attending remotely, and one was attending in person.  This latter individual (Bruce Holloway) asked for the remote display to be adjusted so that Director Ackemann would be visible.  This adjustment was made, but Director Ackemann subsequently turned off her video because she was in a hotel with very low bandwidth.

President Smolley advised that there was no President’s Report.

 

Unfinished Business

Schaaf & Wheeler Construction Support Services Extension – Lyon and Big Steel Pipeline

District Engineer Josh Wolff introduced this agenda item.  He explained that this was a proposed contract amendment for an additional $92,300.  Schaaf & Wheeler (S&W) has been working for the District on multiple projects since 2019.  The original contract was for around $200,000, but the District subsequently made multiple changes and additions to the scope of the project.  These changes were due to both environmental factors such as the CZU Fire and operational improvements to the system such as reduction in the number of pump stations.  Josh said S&W had been very accommodating and was now seeking payment.

President Smolley opened the Board discussion by noting that this item had not yet come before the Engineering and Environmental Committee.  Director Fultz asked when the District realized that it was exceeding the original total and whether it requested a new estimate at that time.  Rick said a whole section of main line was added to eliminate a river crossing, and CZU-related work was also added, but the District did not engage in a formal process with S&W.  Director Fultz responded with a rhetorical question that seemed to suggest that this was inexplicably irresponsible behavior.  Director Mahood said she understood that the CZU Fire complicated everyone’s lives, and the District was grateful that S&W could help, but at some point the District should formalize things to make sure this does not recur.

Director Smolley asked how the added scope of work and costs compared to the original contract.  He wanted to know if the charges were reasonable.  Josh said he believed the District was getting a reasonable return.  President Smolley said he also understood that the District was neither requesting nor receiving cost updates.  Josh agreed that this would normally be a problem but less so in light of the changes in scope.

Director Fultz agreed that the changes themselves were highly beneficial, but he reiterated his concern about the lack of formal process.

President Smolley moved to have the District Manager amend the existing contract with Schaaf & Wheeler for design and construction support services.  The motion was seconded, and there was no public comment.  The motion passed 5-0.

 

New Business

Labor Negotiations

District Counsel Gina Nicholls introduced this agenda item.  She explained that the District’s employees are organized into two groups for purposes of collective bargaining: the Classified Employees Union (Union) and the Management, Supervisory and Confidential Employees Unit (Management Unit).  Each group has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the District that establishes terms and conditions of employment for District employees.

The existing MOUs were approved in January 2017 for an initial term of three years.  After the three-year initial term expired, each MOU automatically renewed for 2020, 2021 and 2022.  In September 2022, the Union and the Management Units each gave notice of their intent to modify, amend, or terminate its MOU.  The Board then voted to open negotiations with the employee groups, with Rick and Gina as the appointed District representatives.   Negotiations have been ongoing since that time and have resulted in a proposed Addendum.  Meanwhile, each MOU continues in full force and effect throughout negotiations.

Gina summarized the progress to date as follows:  The result is not a new MOU for each group.  Instead, it has been determined that the District needs to conduct a salary study (to compare with similar agencies) before overhauling the MOUs.  The District will hire a salary study consultant in the next three months, with the survey to be completed within a year.  In addition, the two sides have agreed on some key terms and conditions:

  • All employees get a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) of 6% based on inflation experienced during the past year, along with a one-time payment of 7%.

  • Any salary increases that emerge from the salary study will be implemented gradually over five years with the total increase for any one position capped at 25%.

Managers intend to sign, and the union has voted to approve.  This leaves Board approval as the key next step.  Meanwhile, discussion will continue on other topics.

President Smolley said the Board has been discussing this in Closed Session for several meetings.  Gina added that the discussions have been frank and substantial.  Director Mahood said the end result was a situation that reflects the efforts Staff have made on the District’s behalf through the pandemic and CZU Fire and that puts the District on a road to paying competitive salaries while still paying attention to its bank account.  Director Ackemann agreed.

Director Fultz read a lengthy prepared statement.  The gist of his commentary was that he felt the MOU extension was being sprung on the public at the last minute after a lengthy and secretive process.  He saw this as a failure to properly and fully inform the public of critical context and facts, and he suggested that the negotiating process should include regular public disclosure of proposals under discussion.  He predicted that the salary study will lead operating expenses to increase even more, and he projected that Staff costs (which he cited as 70% of operating expenses) will end up having doubled between 2015 and 2025.  He said he still could not get a clear answer as to what benefit our community is receiving beyond what they were receiving in 2017, and he said he would not support the proposed addendum.

President Smolley said these were not easy discussions.  He didn’t believe the Board sided with employee requests readily.   The Board took a neutral position between union requests and its duty to the public as elected officials.  He felt the Board did the job it was elected to do, which was to have these difficult negotiations.

Director Ackemann added that in her extensive experience as an employee, manager, and Board manager of comparable agencies, she had never seen these negotiations conducted in public.

There was no public comment.  President Smolley moved to approve the addendum, and Director Mahood seconded this.  The motion passed 4-1 with Director Fultz voting against.

 

Consent Agenda

These items are deemed adopted if nobody pulls any of them for further discussion.   The revised minutes for the Board’s April 6th meeting were adopted without comment.

 

District Manager’s Report

There was no District Manager’s Report.

 

Department Status Reports

Engineering and Environmental

President Smolley asked if there had been any issues yet involving the Fall Creek Fish Ladder construction.  Josh said there had not been.  President Smolley asked whether the District was stalled on the Felton Heights Tank, and Rick said they were working on agreements with the landowner to enter property to conduct surveys.

Director Fultz asked if the District was seeing a slowdown with regard to grants.  Environmental Program Manager Carly Blanchard said the District was in a waiting period – there are multiple submitted proposals that it is waiting to hear about.  The District is also looking into different programs which it may decide to pursue when they open.  Director Fultz noted that the District’s steel tanks are in need of maintenance, and he asked if there were opportunities for infrastructure repair.  Carly said that grant funding for maintenance didn’t really exist, although fire-hardening is an exception due to its impact on public safety.  She said the District could seek low-interest loans, but Director Fultz doubted that the District’s debt ratio would support this.

President Smolley asked about the appropriateness of the District remaining in the Stage 2 category of water shortage.   Carly said this was a Board decision, but the District had argued that it was in a drought in several recent grant submissions.  Legal Counsel Gina Nicholls intervened to prevent further detailed discussion of our drought category as a non-agendized item.  Director Hill suggested that this be placed on a future agenda.

Finance.

Director Fultz asked about past-due bills that need to be submitted to the property-tax reimbursement program in August.  Finance Manager Kendra Reed said she could provide further details, and Director Fultz suggested that the Budget and Finance Committee might review this.

Operations.

Director Fultz asked about current use of well water.  Operations Manager James Furtado said the District is running entirely on surface water (except for some maintenance-related pumping).

President Smolley asked about plans for a leak detection survey.  James said this would run for 15 days beginning in mid-June.

 

The meeting adjourned at 7:15 PM.