SLVWD Board Meeting Summary
May 19, 2022
Mark Dolson
Highlights:
Budget and Finance Committee Appointments.
November 2022 Election.
Outreach.
Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on June 2nd.
Preliminaries
All five Board members were present, but Vice President Ackemann chaired the meeting at the request of President Mahood.
Vice President Ackemann reported that, in the just-concluded Closed Session, the Board authorized the District Manager to sign a settlement agreement with the County regarding the Bear Creek Road slide. A copy will be made available to the public after it has been signed by all parties.
District Manager Rick Rogers advised that agenda item 12d (concerning a new staff position) was being pulled from the agenda due to failure to include required information in the agenda packet. This item will be brought back to the Board at a future meeting.
There was no non-agenda-related public input.
There was no President’s Report.
Unfinished Business
Remote Meeting Authorization Under AB 361
This agenda item refers to the now-routine monthly reauthorization of the District’s ability to conduct remote meetings during the pandemic. Director Smolley moved, and President Mahood seconded. There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
New Business
Review of Applications and Possible Appointments to the Budget & Finance Committee
Two members of the public applied to fill the newly open seat on the Budget & Finance Committee: Elizabeth Paulsen (Felton) and Monica Martinez (Felton). District Counsel Gina Nicholls advised that, should Monica Martinez be appointed, the District would require her to resign from her current position on the Administration Committee. Vice President Ackemann, Chair of the Administration Committee, suggested that she would be inclined to leave the resulting opening on the Administration Committee unfilled, but she first wanted to consult with the committee members.
Director Fultz said the District’s practice was to appoint as many community members as possible to serve on District committees. He found both applicants to be well qualified, and he favored increasing the size of the Budget & Finance Committee to five members. Directors Hill and Smolley agreed.
Director Fultz moved to appoint Elizabeth Paulsen and Monica Martinez to the Budget & Finance Committee, increasing the number of members to five and accepting Monica Martinez’s resignation from the Administration Committee. Vice President Ackemann seconded.
There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
Ordering an Election in November 2022
Four of the District’s five Board seats are up for election this coming November. Three of these seats will be filled for the ensuing four years, but the fourth seat (the one currently occupied by Director Ackemann) will have only two years remaining and will be up for election again in November 2024 for a four-year term. As of February 28, 2022, the District had 17,690 registered voters, so the estimated cost of the election this November is between $44,225 and $70,760, using estimates from the 2020 elections.
State law requires special districts to file a Notice of Election with the County Clerk specifying relevant details. Historically, the Board has elected the following options:
The Candidate's Statements of Qualifications is limited to 200 words. Alternatively, the Board could choose a limit of 400 words, which would double the cost. (Note: this cost is separate from the filing cost and is in the range of a few hundred dollars.)
Candidates are responsible for paying the cost of publishing the Candidate's Statement of Qualifications. Alternatively, the District could choose to cover this cost.
The Board’s first set of questions concerned the two-year seat. Director Smolley confirmed with Gina that, if none of the candidates elect to pursue the two-year seat, this seat could be left vacant. Rick regarded this scenario as unlikely; his experience has been that someone will usually jump in when there is an open seat. Director Fultz noted that, if the incumbent doesn’t file, there will be an additional five days to file. He wondered whether he would be deemed an incumbent if he filed for the two-year seat (and whether Director Ackemann would be deemed an incumbent if she filed for a four-year seat). Gina said she would need to refer this question to the Elections Office.
Vice President Ackemann said she would be in favor of the 200-word limit and having the District pay (in order to minimize the cost to candidates so as to level the playing field) provided that there weren’t too many candidates and that current Board members could exempt themselves from having the District pay for them. Gina advised that there is no way to make this distinction. This led everyone to support the District’s previously established practice of limiting statements to 200 words and making candidates responsible for publishing costs.
Director Fultz moved to specify a limit of 200 words with each candidate responsible for their own payment. President Mahood seconded.
There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
Public Outreach
Vice President Ackemann introduced this agenda item in her role as chair of the Administrative Committee (and Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard provided some additional background). The Administrative Committee identified two key outreach objectives for the District:
Facilitating customer interaction and promoting mutually beneficial customer behavior.
Maximizing citizen awareness and understanding of District issues and initiatives.
The District hired Buzz PR to assist with its outreach in 2020, and it has continued to work with Buzz on a month-to-month basis since the termination of the initial contract. Buzz has been effective in increasing the District’s presence on social media, but it has primarily focused on the nuts and bolts of posting prepared content. (Buzz also recently evoked a very strong negative reaction from local press when it plagiarized some non-District content.) Moving forward, the Administration Committee identified multiple outreach needs that are likely beyond Buzz’s current capabilities:
Technical writing (translating internal reference documents into a form suitable for public consumption via editing, wordsmithing, and polishing)
Event and workshop planning (engaging the public interactively, both via Zoom and in person, to ensure that complex issues like pipeline replacement, proposed rate changes, and consolidations are adequately understood and discussed)
Promoting accurate and in-depth understanding of water-related developments (as opposed to providing only a positive marketing spin on the District’s activities and plans)
It was initially hoped that these responsibilities could be handled by the to-be-hired high-level Administrative Analyst, but the District has made no progress toward filling this position. Consequently, the Administrative Committee recommended that the District develop and circulate an RFP for a new contractor. Based on input from Rick Rogers, the committee further recommended that the outreach budget for Fiscal Year 2023 be increased from $35,000 to $50,000. (Rick is assuming that costs in excess of this amount may be covered via grants.)
Directors Smolley and Fultz each asked some initial clarifying questions. Rick Rogers said that the proposed RFP would discuss the District’s objectives and would be brought back to the Administrative Committee for final review. Both President Mahood and Director Hill spoke in favor of devoting adequate (i.e., increased) resources to outreach for upcoming large and potentially controversial projects.
All Directors were in favor of developing the RFP, but there was a broad consensus that it was premature to approve a specific budget increase at this time.
Four members of the public provided input. Amanda DeJesus (a member of the Administrative Committee) identified herself as a communications professional. She viewed high quality communications as a high priority and felt that the District had a strong responsibility to provide excellent communications. This led her to believe that a full-service communications expert was much needed, particularly since the SLV community is unique and requires unique engagement. She urged the Board to pursue the RFP.
Larry Ford agreed. He saw improved communication as a really important additional service the District needed to add in order to function well, especially because there are some really important upcoming challenges that need to be addressed. He also suggested that the RFP should provide some indication of how much the District was expecting to spend.
Cynthia Dzendzel agreed as well. She asked when and how the RFP would be released, and Rick said it would be put out to different local consultants and also posted on the District’s website.
April Zilber agreed with the three previous speakers. With complicated issues coming up, she felt that a very professional firm would be very helpful in getting community buy-in.
Director Hill moved to authorize the District to prepare an RFP for public relations services and circulate this both locally and more broadly in Central and Northern California. The motion was seconded and passed 5-0.
Rick said Staff would bring the budget back to the Board at the same time that it brings the consultant contract to the Board for approval.
Consent Agenda
District Counsel Gina Nicholls pulled the April 22nd meeting minutes for a minor correction. President Mahood moved to replace the statement “None” under “Written Communications” with a statement specifying the name and date of the written communication along with the fact that there was no discussion of this communication. Director Fultz seconded.
There was no public comment. The motion passed 5-0.
District Reports
Directors Smolley and Fultz had multiple questions aimed at eliminating minor discrepancies and/or improving clarity. Director Smolley confirmed that the pending technical peer review for the Pipeline Replacement will include environmental review. He also called attention to two projects which are now on hold. Director Fultz received an update from Rick on the Felton Heights tank (currently choosing between two possible locations) and noted that operating income is falling short of the projections in the current budget. Kendra promised an update (with a specific focus on the District’s current debt coverage ratio) in her next report. Director Fultz also had multiple recommendations for improving reports.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 PM.