SLVWD Board Meeting Summary

September 15, 2022

Mark Dolson

Highlights:

  • Long Service Line Agreements

  • Howard Property Easement

  • Environmental Services for Bracken Brae and Forest Springs

  • Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on October 6th.

Preliminaries

The report from the just-concluded closed session was that the Board voted unanimously 4-0 to authorize the District labor negotiators (District Manager Rick Rogers and District Counsel Gina Nicholls) to enter into negotiations with management concerning their Memo of Understanding.

It was announced that Director Hill had an excused absence due to a family emergency.

It was announced that District Manager Rick Rogers was on vacation, and Environmental Planner Carly Blanchard was filling in for him at the meeting.

Two members of the public were present.  There were no public comments.

There was no President’s Report

 

Unfinished Business

Remote Meeting Authorization Under AB361

The Board unanimously approved a recurring monthly resolution enabling meetings to continue being conducted remotely.

 

New Business

Long Service Line Agreements

District Engineer Josh Wolff introduced this agenda item.  He explained that four residential properties on El Alamein Road off of West Zayante Road in Felton are experiencing failed wells and have applied for connection to the District’s water system.  Two of these parcels were outside the District’s LAFCO boundary and were annexed on September 7, 2022.   Staff has determined that the District can provide these properties with water, but there is no adjacent main pipeline. The District has previously authorized long service line agreements where future water mainline extensions were not likely to be constructed. The applicants were required to provide the District with proof of rights-of-way or easements, and they have done so.  Staff therefore recommends that the Board authorize these four long service line agreements.

Director Fultz sought assurance that the agreements were using the District’s updated wording, and Josh confirmed that they were.  Director Fultz said he really liked it when the District could include people on the edge of it is service area, and he welcomed these new customers.

Director Smolley asked about pipeline size specifications, and Josh said the exact size was up to the homeowners.  He said the contractor was already nearing completion of installation

Director Ackemann moved to approve the resolution to authorize the long service line agreements.   Director Smolley seconded.  There was no public comment.  The motion passed 5-0.

 

Howard Property Easement

District Engineer Josh Wolff introduced this agenda item.  He reminded the Board that the District’s 12” main pipeline known as the HUD line suffered a break immediately north of the underground San Lorenzo River crossing in Brookdale (at Huckleberry Island) in September of 2021.  Staff were able to make immediate repairs, but they determined that this location would continue to be a failure point due to the topography in the area.   Consequently, the District is pursuing a revised mainline alignment across the recently constructed Pacific Street bridge.  The current next steps involve the acquisition of easements and successful completion of environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Director Ackemann congratulated Staff on moving forward both on this project and on the prior agenda item.  She said she knew this has been challenging, and she wanted to confirm that Staff had successfully navigated any difficulties in working with local community members on this.  Josh said his interactions with members of the community had been cordial and helpful.

Director Fultz asked what was driving the monetary consideration of $11,000 being offered by the District as he hadn’t previously seen an easement with an attached dollar amount.  Josh said this was not historically unusual as these property owners had previously granted an easement for which they requested and received compensation.  The District engaged a real-estate appraiser who specializes in these kinds of easements and accepted his guidance.  Director Fultz asked if the District would offer the same consideration to everyone else and seek similar appraisals elsewhere in the District.   Josh said about half of property owners request compensation and about half do not.  Director Fultz said he was concerned about treating everyone equally, and he suggested that the Board might have a future discussion about making this a general policy.  He said he didn’t want people to retrospectively wish they had sought compensation.

District Counsel Gina Nicholls added a clarification.  She said the easement extends ten feet on either side of the pipeline, and this restricts the property owner in a way that is unique; this fact was reflected in the appraised amount for the easement.   Director Fultz said it was great if people didn’t voluntarily seek compensation, but there should be a clear policy that they are aware of.  President Mahood said she tended to agree, but this should be discussed at another time.

Director Smolley sought and received clarification on one further detail, and President Mahood moved to adopt the resolution to proceed with the transaction.  Director Fultz seconded.  There was no public comment.  The motion passed 5-0.

 

Environmental Services for Bracken Brae and Forest Springs

Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this agenda item.  She noted that some additional material had been added to the District’s website subsequent to the release of the Board packet.  Carly began by reminding the Board of some of the relevant history.  After the 2020 CZU Fire, two small mutual water companies, Bracken Brae and Forest Springs approached the District to consolidate their systems into SLVWD.  The District was subsequently awarded approximately $3.2 million to build the required additional infrastructure (including the design of approximately 1.7-miles of new or replacement water main, two bridge crossings, booster stations, and water storage tanks). The District’s intent is to award a single design contract to an engineering firm qualified to prepare the required design plans, details, and specifications.  In July 2022 the District released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for environmental consulting services for the consolidation of Bracken Brae and Forest Springs into the District’s system. The RFP closed on August 17th, and two proposals were received, one from HELIX Environmental Planning, Inc. and the other from Panorama Environmental Inc.

The HELIX fees were $28,693 less than Panorama’s and their schedule met the requested timeframe set forth in the RFP, but HELIX did not include development of the CEQA analysis document.  This was traced back to an ambiguity in the RFP that originated in guidance from legal counsel.  Staff resolved this ambiguity by obtaining a revised bid from HELIX including preparation of a CEQA document, and by informing Panorama of their actions.  Given that HELIX remained the lower bidder (at $58,000), Staff recommended that the contract be awarded to HELIX.

Director Ackemann said she understood that legal counsel believed this was a fair process, but she wondered whether HELIX could have seen the Panorama bid and factored it into their revised bid.  Carly said this was a possibility given that the proposals were posted as part of the agenda packet.  This led Director Ackemann to ask whether Panorama might have grounds to appeal the decision if the contract were awarded to HELIX.  Gina said the standards for conducting a competitive bidding contract are not as strict for professional services as for construction.  She agreed that the process was not ideal, but she said didn’t see any legal risks here.

Director Smolley said he had serious issues with the HELIX proposal, and he could not agree with the Staff recommendation.  He said that in listing the resources they propose to evaluate, HELIX specified biologic, aquatic, and cultural resources.  He contrasted this with the Panorama list which also included air quality and greenhouse gases, transportation, noise, and geology and soils.   He also had problems with the HELIX schedule and narrative.  He said there were aspects of the Panorama proposal that led him to value them more.

Director Fultz said he had some of the same concerns.  He said HELIX had done work for the District in the past for fire mitigation, and he had reservations about them.  He would have liked for Staff to provide a summary of costs, pros, and cons.  In particular, he was concerned by the substantial difference in the two schedules (which differ by a factor of three).  He said he knew there was a need to move forward quickly, but he was not prepared to approve HELIX.  In contrast, he was comfortable with the work that Panorama had done for the District in the past.

Carly said a decision was needed soon.  She agreed that Panorama had done good work for the District, and she said she didn’t know what it would be like to work with HELIX for CEQA purposes.  Rather than delay the decision, she said she would prefer to proceed with Panorama.  She also noted that the available Department of Water Resources (DWR) grant money will cover all the costs.  Director Fultz asked if the reimbursement would be 100%, and Carly said it would be.  Director Fultz also asked whether Bracken Brae and Forest Springs had been made aware of this pending decision.  Carly said they had not been.

Director Smolley noted an additional detail.  The final HELIX bid was $13,443 lower, but Panorama, as part of their comment on costs, indicated that if DWR allows for a reduced surface buffer for archaeological work, then costs can be reduced.  He said he had seen this consultant reduce such costs in the past, and he believed this to be a realistic possibility.  The grant from DWR is $120,000, which is considerably more than either bid.  However, Carly noted that the $120,000 included completion of the biological monitoring and services.

Director Fultz wondered whether the longer Panorama schedule would create any issues for Bracken Brae and Forest Springs, since they are subject to separate FEMA schedule constraints.  Carly said she had discussed this with Josh, and he expected delays in materials to dominate other schedule delays in either scenario.

President Mahood agreed with Director Smolley that Panorama was including important elements (e.g., geology and soils) that HELIX was not.  She asked about Panorama’s history of hitting their schedules.  Carly said she had confidence based on the District’s experience with Panorama in developing their Fire Management Plan and their current work with the District.

Director Ackemann said she too found Director Smolley’s concerns about the less complete HELIX assessment plan to be persuasive.  President Mahood asked if Panorama would be acceptable to Josh, and he had no concerns.  President Mahood agreed with Director Fultz that it would be appropriate to notify Bracken Brae and Forest Springs of the District’s plan and supporting reasoning.

President Mahood moved to authorize the District Manager to enter into a contract with Panorama Environmental in an amount not to exceed $72,193.  Director Smolley seconded this.  There was no public comment, and the motion passed 5-0.

 

Consent Agenda

There were no requests to pull any items, so the published minutes were accepted without objection.

 

District Manager’s Report

There was no District Manager’s Report.

 

Department Status Reports

Director Smolley asked when the District expects the consultants to complete their independent examination of cross-country pipeline replacement options.  Josh said he was anticipating a draft in October.

Director Smolley had a similar schedule question regarding the Bracken Brae and Forest Springs infrastructure design work being performed by Sandis.  Josh said he expected a preliminary design toward the end of the first week of October.

Lastly, Director Smolley asked about the status of the effort to fill the open Water Quality Manager position.  This was identified as a question for Rick Rogers.  It was also noted that Finance Manager Kendra Reed will be back in early October.

Director Fultz praised Josh for continuing to drive hard on moving things forward.  Josh noted that the supply chain delay for pipe is now nearing one full year.  Since the pipe itself is coming from within the United States, it’s not immediately clear what the issue is.  Director Ackemann asked how funding agencies were responding to these impending schedule slips.  Josh said that all agencies that the District has received grant money from have a mechanism for requesting extensions, and the District has been using these.  He has also been assured by agency representatives that they understand there is little that the District can do about pipe backlogs.  Director Fultz asked whether time limits will be an issue for the District’s COP loans, and Gina said she didn’t anticipate any issues.  The standard for tax deductibility is just that it has to be reasonable to complete the project in three years at the time the loan is issued, and the District merely needs to proceed diligently.  No formal notice is required.

Written Communications

There were no written communications to discuss.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 PM.