 Nothing from me Okay, now I'll stop yelling Okay All right, here's the consent. Does anyone have any comments before we Oh To push the button that's at the base of the is that better A little bit bit speak closer. Okay better. Um, thank you. It's good to see you all And Thank you for holding in person meetings My name is Becky Steinbrenner Regarding the consent agenda. I just want to speak to the minutes of May 2nd The presentation that was part of that by Montgomery Associates Cameron Tana I look through that presentation material and thank you for making it available on the web You know, it's not able to attend that meeting but on the maps I never saw the monitoring while That was described a lot in Mr. Tana's report as SC 5a on the maps There was an SC 5, but it wasn't labeled as a It had R RC or something or be something like that So I request that you hear the presentation materials and make sure that Information on the maps can curse with that Presentations. Thank you. I'll move approval at the consent agenda. I'll second it I'll second all in favor. I may Anonymous all right oral communications Members of the public are invited to speak at this time on any item that is not on the agenda Hello Yeah, and you yeah, it doesn't I don't and you guys hear anything Testing testing Is that better? Hello. Hello. Hello testing now. It's all that seems better now. Yes Hello. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, yes, that's better. Thank you minute. My name is Becky Steinbrunner and I I want to just Express my disappointment that there was there were no water transfers that occurred this winter we certainly had the abundant rain and All of the conditions were met for the transfers to occur with the city of Santa Cruz, but it didn't happen and I think that was a real lost opportunity to help recharge the the Mid-County Groundwater Basin So to that end in today's Saturday Mercury news, I don't know if you any of you get that paper but front page top of the fold is an article groundwater is back to pre-drought levels and Inside the article it talks about how in Santa Clara County Some of these groundwater monitoring wells Are at the highest levels they've ever been since 1936 yeah When they started measuring in 1936, these are the highest levels they've ever seen and It also mentions in the article that the coastal groundwater levels have also increased so I'm very much looking forward to seeing the results of the Monitoring wells that you the good information your district puts out as all as well as comparing that with the AEM Resistivity studies that were done last fall By the state-funded project to fly the helicopter over and get a snapshot again and compare that with what the Mid-County Groundwater agencies Rampol studies did and I think it was 2017 I also Want to thank you for posting the videos of your former meetings I was very ill in February and was not able to attend Any of the meetings that at that time and I was very curious to see why your district Stopped charging water demand offset fees and I understand that better now. I'm puzzled by it still, but I'm glad you're not charging those fees anymore. I'm worried about the groundwater though still and That you have no conservation projects that would have qualified you to be able to continue collecting that money Finally, I want to submit some documents here that I really think should be made public And this is the only way to make them public To and I ask that they be scanned and included in your correspondence they are correspondence from Regarding the pure water so Cal and it includes the Conditional permits for the project so I will hand these two Your your clerk and ask that they be scanned and included for the public record and be included as Correspondents. Thank you. I just want to comment on the water transfers a little bit We're not privy to the thinking, you know the thinking and the situations that the city of Santa Cruz experiences But very it's something may sound counter-intuitive, but sometimes when the water it's really stormy The water is just too. It's not usable It just has to be let flood water. It has to go down into the ocean. It's just not suitable for capturing for fresh water Directly use surface water So it's just one of those situations that you'd have too much and too little water sometimes But as I said, we're not privy to the city of Santa Cruz's Thinking about how they can distribute their water Well, the other thing of course is that I think Every time there's been a halt of transfer. It's been because of conditions in the city I don't we've ever halted them because of conditions on our side. So I think this is again They're in this whole I mean sit around you ready Yes, and President Christensen if I may actually Rose Mary Menard the water director The city of Santa Cruz called me today as we often talk and she mentioned that How it's she can understand it's easy for people who don't have the knowledge base To think that it rains heavy that there should be transfers and I don't understand your conditions of turbidity and that sort of thing Reinforces what you said Any other comments? Yeah, I'd just like to comment on the groundwater levels of the coast Boy, do I wish they were liars since 1936? But the art Yeah, no Yeah And even though it said something about coastal, I don't know where they were talking about it wasn't here our water levels are still too low to keep seawater from intruding and We should wish it wasn't the case, but it is the case Administrative reports none Administrative business conservative conditional and unconditional will-serves. There are none at the moment Yes, the big item the budget adoption and if you'll recall we workshop where we hashed out a lot of Decisions that were made Budget plan and it Looked good except for one Lairing error That was the 300 days of sunshine in Santa Cruz. Not this year And I only I only have just a couple of slides So we're here this evening bringing our draft budget back to the board for consideration for adoption and I just put together Just a couple of brief slides just to kind of give you an idea of any changes that were made Since our last meeting So the changes that we've made to the budget since our May 2nd budget workshop. We did add $50,000 to our Capital projects budget to replace the North Street main That was damaged during the Bates Creek culvert flooding that we experienced during the winter storms We've also revised the amount that we've allocated for the utility relocation For the county buffered bike lane project. We increased that from a hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand So those are the two changes that we've made since our May 2nd meeting and Then just some notable items in the budget. I did want to kind of share this with the board We have our budgeted water use five-year comparison and you can see How drastically our water use has dropped over the last five years and Then you can see our budgeted water sales Comparison where we're looking at the revenue that we're getting from our water sales and you can see that it has remained fairly flat What this means for us is the rate study that we did in 2018 had forecasted some Revenue for the district that we didn't necessarily collect and the reason we didn't see that revenue come in is mainly because of the decreased water sales So it's kind of small print there But I did give a cumulative revenue shortage for the last five years We're about eight point one million dollars short on where the finance plan had projected those rates would take us So I just wanted to make sure that we were aware of that, especially as we move into a new rate study Good news is we saved more water did save more water. Yes Oh Broke if we don't change something and so this I wanted to share as well the graph that I'm showing you here is from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and it's just an inflation graph that shows what inflation has been like since about 2003 And so on the far right side of the graph you can see the recent inflation that we've experienced The inflation average for last year was about eight percent The inflation for April of this year April 2023 was five percent and the projected inflation for this last month May is going to be about five point four percent So I just wanted to share that information in comparison to where the district stands on their operating expenditures we had an increase in base operating expenses of about six point two nine percent if You take a look at that Excluding personnel costs if you're just looking under supplies and services for the district then it's about two percent and then if we take a look at the base operating expenses and we Exclude that overlap position that we added to our personnel budget this year. We're at about five point two four percent So we have made a very concerted effort this year to try and mitigate our operating expenditures and you can see that given the inflation that we've Experienced over the last couple of years that we are tracking below that except for our personnel costs, of course And then I just wanted to give you guys a little kudos. I appreciate the board's support In budgeting for pre-funding our pension and our OPEB obligations I've shared the charts that show what has happened over the last five to seven years as we've made a concerted effort to fund those Programs by pre-funding those pension benefits. We reduce that annual lump sum contribution So it saves the district money on an annual basis and it reduces our unfunded liability on our financial statements It improves the financial forecasts and it really says to the rating agencies that we're serious about how we're managing those long-term liabilities Pre-funding those other post-employment benefits Also reduces that unfunded liability on our financial statements And it also reduces the chance for some unexpected Expenditures kind of smooths that expenditure stream a little bit so that we don't see huge spikes and expenditures from year to year So as you can see here, we are about 80 percent I think it's 83 percent funded now on our OPEB And on our pension funding our tier one plan Is it about 84 percent our tier two plan and our pepper plan are actually overfunded We'll never hit it exactly 100 percent because from year to year there's changes in those OPEB obligations that liability Changes from year to year plus the investment performance changes from year to year So that kind of offsets our contributions a little bit So it'll kind of go up and down over the years But we've made a real concerted effort to make to make those payments and to improve that Liability standing so I think it saved the district quite a bit of money actually. I Guess we all should pout ourselves on the back then you definitely should great job Big difference didn't it it has it's made a tremendous difference And so that was it. I just wanted to share that information with you And so that kind of takes us back now to our agenda In the memo there was a On about the third paragraph it said in addition performance metrics will be added for each department I just had a question about what Performance metrics were so we've been collecting data over the last few years because performance metrics are kind of a Requirement now for the government finance officers associations budget award And so the types of metrics we've been accumulating on a departmental level Shelly shared a lot of information on the number of turf rebates and how much water savings we've achieved year after year Toilet rebates and how much water that saved us how many water-wise house calls we do From the finance department standpoint I share that funding of the op-ed and pensions graphs that I just showed you that kind of performance trend as well as the number of shutoffs that we do the number of customers That are in delinquent status how many days of cash we have on hand just kind of normal You know performance metrics for finance, so we just kind of track those how many main breaks we have how many Valves we've exercised and how many dead ends we flushed just performance metrics like that And comparing year to year. Yeah, we try to look at those In relation to other benchmarks and from agencies and then see trends and ours so and constantly Modifying I sent you some stuff this week about maybe once to add to so it's it's a it's influx have any like customer Customer calls like that performance metrics in terms of how many customers are Shut off or or like, you know how many like would would how many are signed up for water smart be a perfect Right, that would be a good trend as well as how many sign up for water smart complaints that sort of thing We do what water quality increasing the number of complaints or you know that kind of thing Yeah, water quality complaints is another thing that we try I have a question Given all the Financial situation of the district and what we've done and what we're doing and the economy in general And what we're talking about tonight And going into the rate study. Do we have now a goal for what we think the rate? The total rate needs to be Of course that gets Right, I don't know some of the things that are going to contribute to that Mm-hmm our our water consumption You can see by the charts that I shared this evening that with the water consumption. We're currently seeing We're gonna have to probably raise rates just to stay in tune with That decreased water consumption and then of course we've got the inflation that we need to worry about as well as Making up that eight million dollar shortfall It's gonna make it a little tough and move up with rates that people will understand Right. Well, we we are probably are facing rather challenging rate study this time around Thank you. Thank you back a Stein burner Can can you clarify did you say that the district will be 8.1 million dollar short This year did I hear that right? Please make your comments and okay Comment is I hope that I didn't hear that right 8.1 million short That's the same number of the County Board of Supervisors is looking at so all of these deficits with a lot of inflation Really make me worried and I would like to request that part of your performance data Also include the number of customers who ask to be put on a payment plan who or Or those who default and cannot pay their bills and have to have to have some sort of assistance I think that's a Very good metric especially if you're as you're going to a new rate study. Thank you as I heard it That was anticipated funds the 8.1 million that we did not realize because of lower water use Correct. That's over the last five years of that rate study It's cumulative impact of 8.1 million that we didn't collect that the finance plan That we did for the rate study that anticipated we would collect so we're not short on our budget, right? We just didn't meet a prediction. We just didn't meet our finance plan targets Yeah, which means we didn't spend that money because we never run a deficit. We're not allowed to so Or unlike the federal government more likely I Just wanted to make a comment on again on the quality of the document It's again, not just a budget. It's like a whole summary of what we do and And so it's if somebody just wanted to find out what we're up to they could just read this You know and get a pretty good feel for what what we've been working on and what's important. So a great job on that Yeah, and if I may add a few words as always on the budget. Yeah, it's kind of like an extension of our strategic plan Going back to the pre-funding Some of the outstanding liabilities, you know when we went when we had the creating the Rating agencies credit rating agencies Talked to us back a couple of years ago. That was one of the things you could tell that they were really impressed by that You know first all kudos to Leslie for for nudging us that way, right and for the board being receptive because It it's easy not to look toward the future and make those Payments now and the board has done that and so obviously put us in a good position, but I can tell you firsthand Remember when we talked to those three different Rating agencies they when we mentioned that and they saw that that was an impressive factor So I just want to say kudos and thank you for that Leslie Definitely it shows discipline. I mean because we didn't get that 8.9 million that we were looking for One way to make up the shortfall would be to not pre-fund these things and yet we continued to do that because it has this Double benefit for us, you know and so we we did it several several special districts and municipalities didn't do that Periodically Many disaster So it was really And And it wasn't great budget report This is are we just asking for input now and it'll final come back or can we vote on it? Can we adopt? I was gonna make you're gonna adopt. Okay. I'll make that motion. I'll second This is not a roll. Hi. Hi It helps to have had a workshop ahead of time Yeah, that was pretty that was pretty informative. That's good. That's when you can ask all the embarrassing questions before you get to the So items 7.3 district staffing and reorganization So I'm pulling a little double-duty tonight Good evening And pay yourself double for that Evening President Christensen and Ford Tracy human resources manager, and I'm presenting items 7.3 tonight and Asking the board to consider some changes within our staffing and organization as it relates to the finance business services specifically customer service billing unit As the memo reads we're proposing a job family revision within the district's current staffing plan Relative to the customer service billing unit and I'm We're proposing summary visions and title changes and we have some outdated job descriptions that really needed to take a look at in customer service representative 1-2 and customer service supervisor position and We are also proposing a new staff level classification within the job family We are proposing a new contracts and customer billing specialist position to address some needs that we've been identifying at the management level for a number of years in organizing and really Centralizing the district's service agreements and contracts and An appropriate place for this position to sit which currently these tasks are handled at the departmental level Is with many of the changes going on and as we know oftentimes regulatory needs become a little more complicated There's some GASB changes the governmental accounting Standards changes In regards to how we're handling certain components of our service agreements and contracts And so this position is really created in with that in mind to create a centralized location and Staff support for the departments rather than departments kind of doing things individually We've worked really closely with Josh in kind of clearing some of our processes up and cleaning some of our processes up and We feel that now it just makes sense to to centralize some of those duties We're proposing no change in the level of numbers of staff to handle these duties But what we are proposing is we have a current Position that's vacant due to a recent retirement That's always part of our best business practices is to take a look at vacant positions and see how we Move forward in staffing and it just made perfect sense for us to take that position and actually Do make some changes as we move forward, especially with pure water soquel coming on board and Create a level of position that that really will handle those Some of those roles and responsibilities and tasks that we're doing Included in the presentation tonight is the proposed Allocation to the a specialist level this position is being proposed as the contract and customer billing specialist They will be continuing to serve the the customer base and so We're not taking service away from our customers on the customer service side But we're enhancing some of the duties and responsibilities that Individual within that unit will be able to perform and some needed tasks We're also proposing some changes and updates to the customer service representative one-two position That job description has not been modified since 2011 and definitely there's some changes as you can see with a lot of the The red strike. Yeah. Yeah And we worked closely with staff Leslie the Valerie the supervisor and staff to take a look at some of those changes and There was a lot of agreement that we were ready to you know implement those changes They were they're a little overdue and being relevant and Accurate to the tasks that are being performed by our staff right now We also are looking to And we're proposing to make it as a salary adjustment to the customer service position as identified in the board memo got a little bit of concerns in terms of that level of salary for the position and so Because of some of the differences that we're concerned about and looking at some parity and it's you know We definitely need to take a look at you know some equity issues And so we're proposing an adjustment to the customer service representative one-two to align with the Customer service field representative one-two makes a lot of sense for us to do that at this time and then finally Updating and a job title change to the customer service supervisor to really emphasize not only the customer service, but the billing responsibilities Enroll for that position So with that There's some motions before the board I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have Given these various changes how much hiring are we going to do to make this and how much can we fill in with? existing personnel We have a vacant position right now. And so upon approval the We'll post that position for recruitment. It's just one vacancy. Okay good Yeah, and I might just add that that vacancy was just recently due to retirement like in the last month or two So it's recently Well, that's good because it's a tough environment to hire. Yeah, we've been we've been need-deep in recruitment. So But we've had great candidates I have to say any other questions. I'm happy to See I have a quick clarification on the revised Salary allocations are those revised supposed to be for the customer service? billing technician rather than field technician on The motion number two Yes customer service billing Not field Referring to the the two bullets the two bullets on number two There's the two bottom bullets on number two that job title is incorrect It's supposed to read customer service billing not customer service field. Oh there Thank you for that catch Leslie. We didn't catch that before it went into the packet Yeah, we have customer service field and we have customer service office. So We're gonna change motion I'll make the motion with the correction of the It's customer service billing technicians one and two all second both motions both motions. Okay Second both all in favor. I Any opposed Passes unanimously Okay, at this point we are adjourning to closed sessions so anyone who wishes to Closed session in its entirety Thank you. My name is Becky Steinbrunner and I really haven't wanted to take all the legal action that I've been forced to take and I had to do it because it was the only Action available to me to challenge The environmental Determinations that your your board has made and you need to know that This the pure water so cal project has not received Any collaboration with California Department of Field Fish and Wildlife? It's been really hard for me to get information but Recently a public Records Act request with California Department of Fish and Wildlife did Did reveal that their agency did not submit comment on the draft EIR, which we knew it wasn't there and They were not part of the collaboration As is required by law to develop meaningful and forcible mitigation monitoring reporting plan So that's what I've been asking for a lot all along and I just want to ask you again to make sure that this happens The pipeline is over the San Lorenzo River on the Laurel Strait Bridge The attorney from California Department of Fish and Wildlife let me know they were not even aware of that The materials I got were only for the Porter Strait Bridge And there there was a lot of material on that piece Nothing on the San Lorenzo River nothing on the Laurel Strait Bridge So I'm really worried and I just ask you to pay attention to these things I'm not trying to cause trouble Unnecessarily it's because I care as do you thank you