SLVWD Board Meeting Summary
September 2, 2021
Mark Dolson
Highlights:
PG&E Response.
Panorama contract approved.
Changes to Ratepayer Assistance Program approved.
Representatives approved for potential renegotiation of employee MOUs.
Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on September 16.
Preliminaries
There was nothing to report from the just-concluded closed session. Five members of the public were in attendance, but nobody had any non-agenda-related comment. (Public attendance may have been suppressed by a problem with the Zoom link in the published agenda. The link was broken, but it could be made to work by cutting and pasting the URL.)
Unfinished Business
Pacific Gas & Electric Response
Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this item. On August 13, 2021 President Mahood received a response from PG&E to a letter that the District sent to PG&E in April regarding PG&E’s post-CZU-fire activities. The District expressed concern about extensive and unauthorized PG&E felling of trees with no associated debris removal; it also sought clarification on PG&E plans for further infrastructure improvements and improved cooperation with the District. PG&E’s response was respectful but noncommittal.
Carly noted that Staff is working with the District’s PG&E contact on post-fire vegetation but was seeking Board direction on the possibility of pursuing some more formal follow-up. Options included a letter to PG&E Regional Vice President, Teresa Alvarado, contacting the California Coastal Commission and County, or patiently awaiting longer term solutions as suggested in PG&E’s response.
The collective sense of the Board was that it was not worth expending further Staff resources on attempting to influence PG&E. Director Smolley characterized the District as a fly trying to get an elephant to do something.
There was no public comment and no formal Board action.
New Business
Proposed FY 2021-2022 Contract with Panorama Environmental, Inc.
Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this item. She noted that the District has had a very positive experience with Panorama beginning in the spring of 2020. Most recently, Panorama has assisted the District with securing $647,000 in grant funding to complete priority projects as outlined in the District’s Fire Management Plan through partnerships with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD) and the California Coastal Conservancy. Staff recommended that the Board approve a $42,822 follow-on contract for Panorama to continue post-fire response, fire planning, grant writing, and oversight of fuel reduction/reforestation implementation in the new fiscal year (which began July 1, 2021). (Note: the actual cost to the District may be closer to $30,000 because some of the $42,822 will be reimbursed from other grants.)
Director Smolley spoke for the Environmental Committee in support of this contract. He further voiced his approval of an identified subcontractor who he has previously found to be knowledgeable and cost-effective.
Director Fultz asked how much money was budgeted for Panorama ($50,000) and whether they might seek to extend the proposed contract (yes, potentially). He also asked whether the newly-contracted grant writer had been involved in the recently acquired grant funding (no). Lastly, Director Fultz said he was hopeful that once the District completes the major remediation of clearing around its infrastructure, the ongoing costs will be much less, and the District can rely on local workers.
Director Ackemann wanted to know if these positive developments were being communicated to the SLV community. Carly said this news will be featured in the District’s September newsletter and would also be part of the District’s ongoing social media outreach.
There was no public comment. Director Fultz moved to approve the contract, and Director Smolley seconded. The motion passed 5-0.
Changes to the Ratepayer Assistance Program (RAP)
Kendra Reed, Acting Director of Finance and Business Services, introduced this item. She reported that the Budget Committee had approved two modifications to the RAP. The first of these was a formal revision to synchronize the RAP with the District’s new past-due collections policy (being more than 90 days in arrears makes the ratepayer ineligible for the RAP). The second was an increase in the monthly discount from $10 to $15 (the RAP remains capped at an annual expenditure of $25,000).
Director Henry spoke for the Budget Committee. She explained that the RAP is prohibited from drawing upon ratepayer revenue, so it needs to rely on other sources. The budgeted $25,000 comes from the District’s cellular lease revenue, but any amount beyond this would most likely need to come from the District’s property tax revenue. Property tax revenues began flowing to special districts as a result of Proposition 13 in 1978. Enterprise districts like SLVWD typically receive about 9% of their revenue from property tax, but there has been no provision for increasing the amount received as SLVWD has grown to encompass Felton, Lompico, and Manana Woods. Currently, the District receives somewhere around $800,000 per year from property tax, but this is currently used to cover debt service. The RAP is budgeted to accommodate 208 ratepayers at $10/month or 151 if the discount increases to $15/month in October [or 119 if the discount goes to $20/month]. The RAP had only 61 people signed up in July and August, but nine more are now waiting to enroll.
President Mahood summarized the two proposed RAP changes as: (1) making the program consistent with the revised payment collection process, and (2) making the program more attractive to ratepayers since it is currently grossly undersubscribed. She noted that many more people qualify for the PG&E CARE program than are signed up for the RAP (which has the same qualifying criteria). She further noted that a case can be made for increasing the discount to $20/month, but she considered it more prudent to first see how customers respond when the discount is increased to $15/month. The program will continue to operate on a first-come, first-served basis.
Director Fultz clarified some of the relevant details and reiterated his belief that: (1) relief for low-income ratepayers should be the responsibility of the state, and (2) the issue of affordability should be addressed via stricter controls on operating expenses. He also noted that the region was in the midst of a demographic shift whereby properties are turning over, and the assessed values should substantially increase (along with property tax revenues).
Director Ackemann was comfortable with the proposed revisions.
There was one public comment: Alina Layng expressed total support for the increased discount.
Director Henry moved to approve the revisions, and Director Smolley seconded. The motion passed 5-0.
Opening Employee Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) for Negotiations
District Counsel Gina Nicholls introduced this item. She explained that the District has separate MOUs with its contract employees and with its managerial employees. These deal with terms and conditions of employment. Both MOUs expired in 2019 but automatically renew from year to year if they are not opened for renegotiation in September. The decision before the Board this evening is whether to proactively appoint representatives (the District Manager and the District Counsel) who would handle the negotiations if they are opened (by either the District or either of the two employee groups).
Director Henry said she thought it would be a good idea to have the District Manager (Rick Rogers) and District Counsel (Gina Nicholls) be the people who deal with this.
President Mahood noted that these MOUs haven’t been opened up for the past two years. She suggested that it might be a good exercise for the Board to be able to look at this carefully and discuss it, particularly with three new Board members. Things that could change might have nothing to do with compensation.
Director Fultz asked why the District should take this action in advance of an explicit decision to open negotiations. He wondered what signal this would send and why the District would want to open negotiations in any event. He also wanted to know whether there were any limits to topics or timeframes once negotiations are opened. Gina said that everything would be on the table, and there would be no deadline for completing the negotiations.
Director Smolley asked what the downside would be to not appointing negotiators at this time. Rick explained that there will be tight timelines to conform to and that negotiations could well end up being opened. He said there were some indications that employees may want to open negotiations. Also, the District might want to review such things as working from home which are currently not addressed and which have caused difficulty in the past year.
Director Ackemann approved of appointing negotiators in advance if this would speed the process. Director Henry moved to appoint Rick and Gina, and Director Smolley seconded.
There was no public input. The motion passed 5-0.
Consent Agenda
Director Fultz pulled the minutes from the July 15th meeting to offer three separate corrections.
The first and most controversial proposed revision concerned a summary of a criticism that Director Henry made of Director Fultz concerning his letters to the Editor and interviews opposing the Fire Recovery Surcharge after the Board approved it 4-1. Director Fultz argued that two crucial sentences were missing from the summary and were essential to provide the full context of Director Henry’s remarks: “Even though it doesn’t say it in our Board Policy Manual.” “You are selling your usual stuff while doing it.”
Director Ackemann sought further clarification of Director Fultz’s concern, and Director Fultz said each of these sentences added enormous amounts of context; he said it was only fair to provide these items since the rest is nearly verbatim. President Mahood objected to including direct quotes in what was supposed to be a summary. Director Fultz argued that the minutes were already more detailed than a summary and should accurately capture the full critique.
Director Fultz moved to add his two suggested sentences to the expanded paragraph, but nobody seconded his motion.
On page 4, item 11c, Director Fultz moved to insert the following: "B. Fultz commented that maybe bidders need additional insight into our bid submission expectations." President Mahood seconded. The motion passed 4-1 with Director Henry opposing because she hadn’t personally reviewed the recording to confirm Director Fultz’s account of what was said.
With regard to a discussion of leak detection, Director Fultz moved to insert the following correction: “B. Fultz said he would like to see this done at least every other year, if not every year.” Director Ackemann seconded. The motion failed by a vote of 2-3.
There was one related public comment: Alina Layng said she didn’t understand why the public needed to be subjected to these corrections.
District Reports
President Mahood asked Rick and Carly to report on the District’s actions and expectations with regard to fresh funds potentially being made available by the state and federal governments. Carly said the District’s newly-hired grant writer has provided a detailed list of potential grants, and the District is pursuing three of these for October and November. One involves the Redwood Tank replacement, and another involves meter replacements. The District is also pursuing a small community grant to connect to Bracken Brae Water and Forrest Springs. Rick explained that this would be for 8000 feet of pipe plus upgrades and would be 100% grant funded. He added that Board authorization will be needed for a resolution to proceed with this.
Director Smolley applauded this. He also mentioned an item in the Environmental Report. PG&E has approached the District for a recurring mitigation project that they will fund. Carly is negotiating with them to remove up to five acres of French Broom for us. Rick said Carly and Gina have done a phenomenal job of working with PG&E.
Director Fultz asked Engineering Manager Josh Wolff about target dates to break ground for the Lyon and Quail Hollow pipelines. Josh said the Lyon date is still TBD. Quail Hollow construction bidding closes September 30th, so a target date would be mid to late October. Rick added that the Lyon pipeline project was pushed back due to CZU Fire damage which added another 1000 feet.
Director Fultz also noted that the budget numbers shown in Kendra's report don't match the numbers in the District’s approved budget. Rick asked Director Fultz to follow up directly with Kendra (copying him) via email.
Lastly, Director Fultz asked how much Fall Creek water was currently being sent to the North System. Rick said that the amount was considerably reduced as of September 1st.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.