 Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa to order If we may have a roll call, please Yes Board member right here Board member Watts here. Okay board member Walsh is absent Board member Barthelot here Board member badden-fort is absent vice chair anoni here and then chair Galvin here All right and let the record reflect that all board members are present with board member right and board member badden-fort absent Thank you again. Good afternoon item 2 on the agenda statement of extension by board members We're member Barthelot. Thank you chair Galvin. I am going to recuse myself from a budget Item 7 point or I'm sorry agenda item 7.3 To avoid any actual or perceived conflicts of interest stemming from my employment with the Sonoma County Farm Bureau because The regional budget includes operations and maintenance costs and capital expenditures for the geyser pipeline in Santa Rosa waters agriculture Declamations is some more generally out of an abundance of caution I will be stepping down from the dace and exiting council chambers when this agenda item comes up Okay, thank you board member Barthelot any other stat statements of abstention Hearing none we have no study session Item 4.1 is the approval of the minutes from April 6th We'll now take public comments on item 4.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary Montoya There is no one in council chamber No hands raised on zoom and no voicemail or email public comments were received Very good, and then the minutes will be approved and entered will now move to item 5.1 Which is our staff briefing for today director Burke Thank You chair galvin and members of the board our staff briefing is the Santa Rosa Creek flood study and FEMA map revision and Flannery banks our assistant engineer for stormwater will be making the presentation Welcome miss banks Good afternoon. Thank you director Burke. Good afternoon chair galvin vice chair or noni and Members of the board of public utilities. My name is Flannery banks. I'm the assistant engineer with stormwater and creeks I'm here today to tell you about the Santa Rosa Creek flood study, which analyzes the inundation extents under various Storm scenarios and to discuss how the city is working with FEMA to establish new and updated flood insurance rate maps or firms and The flood insurance study or an FIS Before we do that It's important to discuss some local history and background about the flood events in Santa Rosa in order to understand Why the city is undertaking this project Santa Rosa Creek is one of the many creeks and possibly the most iconic creek in our beautiful city It runs the width of the entire city including through our downtown However, this beauty and proximity come with potential flood risk to adjacent properties during large storm events Understanding this risk and how to plan for it is the ultimate goal of this project FEMA's flood plain maps currently do not include the majority of Santa Rosa Creek and its key tributaries And we do not have up-to-date information on where flooding will occur during a 1% annual chance flood event as a consequence This leaves property owners and renters at risk and uninsured critical public infrastructure is vulnerable it leaves developers and planners unable to effectively plan for and develop a thriving safe and resilient community and it leaves the city unable to develop the strongest emergency preparedness and mitigation plans This project is needed for improved protection and planning for preservation of life and safety as well as be able to work on flood mitigation strategies for Santa Rosa Santa Rosa Creek and its key tributaries Have a history of flooding and actions to address potential floods during the 1930s and 1950s The city experienced major flooding including the inundation of former highway 101 South of Santa Rosa before the modern freeway was constructed as shown in the photo on the left Which is now part of present-day Santa Rosa Avenue The central Sonoma water shed project was developed by Sonoma water in the 1960s The project included construction and shaping and straightening and Stabilizing of the waterways as well as for flood protection reservoirs to reduce flooding in Santa Rosa area the photo on the right shows an example of A reach under construction within Santa Rosa these facilities were built to carry 100-year floods based on the amount of Development condition of the watershed and accepted engineering calculations at the time of the efforts Four reservoirs were constructed as part of the central Sonoma water shed project and are shown on this map The four reservoirs constructed were Santa Rosa Creek reservoir commonly known as Spring Lake Matanzas Creek Reservoir Pioneer Creek Reservoir located on Paulin Creek and Brush Creek Middle Fork Reservoir However, since 1960 flood risk has increased due to a variety of reasons Most notably development has increased impervious service areas Considerably and climate models are projecting an increase in frequency magnitudes and or intensities of atmospheric rivers Atmospheric rivers as we've recently experienced are a narrow band of enhanced water vapor transport with increased potential Precipitation amounts in other words. It's a river in the sky Given this risk the flood study project is critical to understand the risk of flooding within the city of Santa Rosa today To help you understand this project. I want to take a moment and walk through some basic terminology The primary method to establishing a regional understanding of the effects of potential flood events Aide in the protection of health and safety and better plan for flooding is to generate flood maps. So what is a flood map? Flood mapping uses hydrologic analyses to determine how much flow will be generated by a particular storm event hydrologic analyses developed the creek flow rates using statistical rainfall and data from stream gauges From the hydrologic analyses. We developed the hydraulic analyses and models using topographic information Creek channel geometry and creek flows the hydraulic models are used to determine where the resulting flood water will travel and how deep it will be From the hydrology and hydraulics information. We generate maps such as the one shown Outlining the extents of flood impacts or inundation to adjacent properties These maps are what we refer to as flood hazard mapping Flood mapping generally focuses on an annual 1% chance of flood event also known as the 100 year flood The 1% standard affects floodplain mapping floodplain management mitigation urban planning and flood insurance requirements the term 100 year flood is often Misleading as it is often understood to mean once in every 100 years However, we can experience more than one 100 year flood in the same year or multiple years over the course of 100 years Calculating the probability of a given flood event occurring does not determine the exact occurrence intervals The various flood events sizes occur in an unpredictable and irregular manner The purpose of identifying a certain year flood event is to compare the likelihood of occurrences of Various flood events for the purpose of storm rain design and risk analysis To avoid potential confusion we often prefer to refer to the event as a 1% annual chance of flood or a base flood event Determining the frequency side of size of a flood event considers many factors including 24-hour rainfall totals one-hour rain intensities Aniseedant conditions or what the watershed conditions were prior to the event the antecedent conditions often include creeks and reservoir levels Soil moisture levels, how much can the current watershed accommodate more water water year-to-date precipitation? precipitation immediately before any particular storm event an Anomalous or non-standard not expected positive water storage The antecedent conditions are the primary reason that a 1% annual chance storm event or 100 year storm Does not necessarily result in a 1% annual chance of flood event a prime example of this was on the October 24th 2021 storm From the October 24th storm. We witnessed that 1% annual chance storm event Storm events do occur within the city limits We observed 24-hour rainfall totals ranging from 6.86 to 8.75 inches or a 10-year up to over a 100-year storm event With additional data outline these noted values when we look at similar time duration Intensities such as a one-hour intensity Observed intensities were closer to a 50% to 10% annual chance of occurrence or a two-year to 10-year storm event Which is our typical design storm However, even though 24-hour totals were within the 1% range the observed impacts were not those associated with a 1% annual chance flood event This was due to the state of the antecedent conditions ahead of the start of the storm event The key factors included record-breaking drought conditions with low water levels and local reservoirs ponds and waterways Including the downstream Laguna de Santa Rosa The storm came unusually early in the water year with very low precipitation in the days and weeks before the rain event The soils were dry to very dry with extended length of the event With the extended length of the event the soils were able to infiltrate some of the precipitation Mitigating the amount of runoff Because of the antecedent conditions prior to the storm we did not see creek levels or flow rates associated with a 1% annual chance of flood For design and modeling purposes the antecedent conditions used in the hydraulic and hydrologic Hydrologic and hydraulic models to develop the inundation maps are based on decades of available and observed data Which incorporate conditions such as saturated soil moisture levels and more typical water levels in the reservoir creeks and Laguna de Santa Rosa Some of the data collected from the October 24th storm was utilized in the analyses from the project where it was an Insignific where it wasn't a significant outlier set For the second time in as many years. We saw very similar occurrence with the January 2023 storm events In contrast the January 2023 storm events had antecedent conditions more closely Correlated to the antecedent conditions in the flood modeling an Atmospheric River hit the area just days prior to the 2023 New Year storm Filling our reservoirs with many approaching their capacity volumes on the cusp of flow being released via spillways Santa Rosa Creek at Willowside shown here was nearing flood stage as the Laguna de Santa Rosa was actively flooding Creating a backwater condition in Santa Rosa Creek and the soils in the watershed were moist and approaching full saturation All this meant that there was a significantly different antecedent condition ahead of the 2023 New Year storm as there was for the October 24th 2021 storm event and this resulted in a condition that had a very concerning risk of flooding for a storm with high high Intensities So you may ask if we had worse antecedent conditions Why did we still not experience flooding from Santa Rosa Creek despite forecasted flooding? Leading up to Saturday December 31st 2022 Meteorologists watery source managers and emergency managers knew that the December 31st Atmospheric River was going to pack a punch with a high likelihood of detrimental intensities However, there were variabilities and the pressure systems That would be the determining factor and where the worst of the storm would track as close as Wednesday December 28th The forecast models were still not concurrent with some of them showing the worst intensities tracking towards Santa Rosa and Sonoma County While others showed the system tracking towards San Francisco Peninsula in the East Bay area Essentially, we had a 50-50 chance of Santa Rosa being hit by the worst part of the storm However as the weekend approached the pressure stabilized and the forecast models became aligned And as we saw the Bay area bear the brunt of the impacts While some areas in Santa Rosa did experience prolonged flooding We essentially got lucky with the brunt of the storm staying south and the intensities being low enough in Santa Rosa The flows remained within the channel banks These two very different storms highlight an important idea to understand Storm events and resulting flood events are much like snowflakes in that no one circumstance is the same Risk of flooding can come any given year with a variety of different background conditions Modeling used to generate FEMA floodplain maps can provide an excellent Representation of a particular storm event, but it won't represent any actual storm perfectly There are simply too many variables in these recent events of flooding immediately after extended severe drought Left you feeling like your head spinning. You're not alone As mentioned before the probability of 1% annual chance event has a 1% chance of being equal or exceeded in any given year Even following or admits a severe drought The idea of abruptly experiencing the extremes of both circumstances is actually called weather whiplash As the risk of severe drought seems to be increasing So are the intensities and frequencies of the atmospheric rivers, which we got a prime example of these last two years Even during severe drought. We need to be mindful that the risk of flood event persists with every water year Having key waterways such as Santa Rosa Creek Modeled for a variety of events and having FEMA firms published when a serious flood risk exists is Essential in being prepared for these events which leads us back to our Santa Rosa Creek flood study a Number of efforts have been made over the last 20 years to understand flood risks within the city Including work with the US Army Corps of Engineers and Sonoma water because FEMA's current flood insurance rate maps again firms Do not have up-to-date information or inundate Inundation extents for a base flood event the city teamed with Sonoma water To begin the process of updating the flood models and inundation maps for Santa Rosa Creek and its key tributaries Under contract with the city and Sonoma water our consultant ESA developed initial draft models in 2017 The map shown here shows the inundation extents from the draft inundation map efforts For flood depths of 1.25 feet and greater within the study limits However, since the development of this initial model and draft maps newer and better information has become available That will help increase the accuracy of the flood extents This brings us to the current status of the project The purpose of this project is to update draft models and maps with new data and information To better predict where flooding will occur along Santa Rosa Creek and its key tributaries under rain events of various sizes And provide this information to FEMA so that they can update their firms and the flood insurance study The firms are the maps that determine which property owners subject to national flood insurance program regulations and other regulations for development In terms of roles and responsibilities Sonoma water contract with the ESA included updates to the draft models and maps With new data and information in collaboration with the city ESA is performing this as part of their work with four Sonoma waters central Sonoma water project The new models show new inundation thresholds for the 10 50 100 and 500 year flood events The city's contract with ESA includes preparation of documents and submittals to FEMA for FEMA's preparation of the firms and FIS The Santa Rosa Creek flood study project team will continue to closely coordinate with Sonoma water Sonoma County and other key stakeholders throughout the project The project deliverables are the hydrologic and hydraulic models previously mentioned and submitting all related Documents to FEMA FEMA has been reviewing our submittals and will then develop the firms and updated FIS once they've made all of our submittals final So community benefits to having an appropriately mapped floodplain are increasing property owner knowledge and awareness of potential risks Better informed decision-making for community development and planning improve planning for protection of infrastructure and floodplains and waterways improve protection and planning for preservation of life and safety An ability to access funding and grant opportunities to address and mitigate flood risks Impacts to the community and call Include the new requirements to obtain flood insurance, which is required for all federally backed loans so mortgages Um, and this will will be an additional cost to affected property owners It also increase restrictions on development and requires in-depth hydrology and hydraulic analyses as part of those development projects It also has municipal impacts as this Increases the workload of staff As well as the design community at large so the engineering and surveying community will likely experience increased workload from this The project schedule uh, february 2022 was a project kickoff in october 2022. We submitted the hydrology submittal to fema In april this month. We are submitting the hydraulic submittal to fema and later this year will be submitting the final modeling model and mapping submittals to fema In the last quarter this year through the following year fema will be developing and releasing their preliminary firms and fis and do their due process period ongoing will be community outreach with an increased focus ahead of the preliminary firm and fis release Staff will have community outreach meetings at key points including the publishing of the preliminary firms and fis when released by fema As required by the fema process and at strategic points ahead of the effective firm and fis At meetings members of the public will be provided the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback Topics we anticipate in including Uh, we'll be helping property owners identify which properties are likely to be subject to the nfip insurance requirements and floodplain management requirements Pathways for property owners to purchase flood insurance, and I would like to note that we also anticipate providing information around renters insurance as Typical renters insurance does not usually cover flood. That's a separate insurance policy for renters We anticipate holding public meetings in council districts Most impacted by the floodplain Um, potentially there will also be discussions at the waterways advisory committees and other public meetings can be held To meet demand for information FEMA's due process also allows for opportunities for the public to comment on the entire process City staff intends to build out additional resources including further development development of the dedicated webpage for the project which the address is posted here on the screen Uh and include Questions frequently asked questions and answers and providing additional resources As mentioned before the the outreach will be focused on the district's most impacted by the project Which will be district seven and five as well as some properties in district two Next steps for the stormwater and creeks team is this information is being integrated into the modeling for the storm drain master plan And we anticipate doing future project planning and pursuing grants around floodplain mitigation for the new delineated floodplain So with that If it pleases the chair i'm available to answer any questions there might be Thank you miss miss banks. I'll open it up for board member questions or comments board member right I'm just curious. This is the other whole uh firm map is kind of like the golden gate bridge It's sort of forever going on. We're always painting it My question is It looks like the firm maps are going to be released by 2025 Are they going to piecemeal them out or do they let them all do or do they wait till they're all done? Or what is the famous policy on that? They wait till they're all done You'll see the effect of maps first Which is the portion that is opened up for public commenting periods and then they'll release the the finals Sorry, they'll release the preliminary maps first open for public comment, and then they'll finalize them making them effective What we have found by the recent model updates is there is overflow that escapes the watershed and potentially Enters other watersheds to the south of us particularly colgan creek So there might be additional updates that fema Chooses once they are able to integrate our model into their full model process So at that point you might see additional maps coming forward for other watersheds other than the santa rosa creek Thank you. You're welcome Other board member questions or comments Thank you for the presentation. We'll open it up now for public comment on item 5.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary montoya It looks like we do have one public commenter in chamber Um, we'll pull the timer up for you and once we have that up your three minutes will begin My name is bob harder 93 27 lakewood drive winzer um working with the engineering contractors association um our contractors are pretty much at ground zero Where the maps run into private property? and have raised a number of concerns And resulted in the inability to develop property I'll say as a surprise to the owner Because of the mapping some of the mapping. Mr. Harder. Could you move a little closer to the microphone? Please? um, thank you, and some of the mapping as described um Will be changed to reflect some of these concerns So when the outreach goes out there were like public comments and then a commission And we would just ask that specifically the engineering contractors association is looped in specifically on that interaction Because as I say it's their members who have ground experience With the conflict of the map And work in the field. Thank you Thank you for your comment Okay, and we have no hands raised on zoom and no voicemail or email public comments were received Mr. Banks, did you want to respond? Sure, uh, we do realize there's going to be significant impacts to the design community um and the Contracting community, but largely the design community and the developers So there is plans to reach out to the engineers to make sure they know this is coming as well as the survey community um And the city has made efforts to update and start laying out the navd 88 System throughout the city because all the fema's information is in that datum, which is not the traditional city datum for our organization So those are those have been developed. They're available in house at tpw So we are preparing to further engage both of those communities Thank you No other online or any other comments No All right, that will take care of item 5.1. Thank you again for the presentation We'll now move to item 6 which is our consent calendar We have Five items on the consent calendar We'll entertain a motion Go ahead. I will motion to move the consent calendar Then i'll second All right, we have a motion and a second on the consent calendar We'll now open it up for public comments on item 6.1 through 6.5 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in, please dial star nine secretary montoya, okay Uh, there's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received Yes, go ahead board member right? Yeah, I just want to comment on most almost trunk line I just want to point out that this is a very significant project I was It's it's kind of in this consent calendar. So it's not really noticed by all, but it's a 10 million dollar project and I congratulate staff on getting this out to bid and i'm and i look forward to the construction of this project and Can't wait for future phases to come in front of us. Thank you Thank you board member right. We'll go ahead now with the roll call vote, please Board member right. Hi Uh board member watts. Hi board member barthelot. Hi Vice chair anoni. Hi And chair galvin. Hi Okay, and that passes with five affirmative votes with um board member Walsh and board member baden for absent Very good. That'll take care of the consent calendar We'll now move to our report items item 7.1 director burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board items 7.1 is a professional services agreement with cats and associates for the development and implementation of the water reuse and education program at the laguna treatment plant And alisha kwalicci our research and program coordinator will be presenting Thank you director burke Good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board. My name is alisha kwalicci And I am the research and program coordinator for santa rosa waters energy and sustainability team I'm very excited to be here today to present for your consideration A proposed professional services agreement for the development and implementation of the water reuse education and tour program Santa rosa water offers public tours of the laguna treatment plant For the purposes of educating our community about the facility and the treatment and beneficial reuse of wastewater Currently the tours are primarily led by treatment plant operation staff on an as needed basis Staff have identified the need for several tour program improvements Including the establishment of a training program to facilitate a deeper bench of staff To lead tours and a plan for intuitive and educational displays and signage around the facility Santa rosa water released a request for proposals on november 2 2022 in the rfp firms were told they would be evaluated based on the firm's experience And references completeness of proposal project approach and project schedule Four proposals were received on december 16 2022 and the panel evaluated these firms and two firms were asked to follow up interviews After a very competitive selection process cats and associates were selected by the project team Their firm has extensive experience working with other water agencies throughout california Specifically in the areas of tour program implementation and water reuse education and research An outreach the proposed professional services agreement for the project is not to exceed an amount of 247 $1,577 Funding for the project was appropriated in the fiscal year 2022 2023 operations and maintenance budget The approval of this contract by the bpu would have no additional Or forecasted impact on the water department enterprise budget The project scope includes four phases in phase one cats and associates will conduct research including best practices and key Message preparation for identified audiences Phase two and phase three of the project will design a program and train department tour guides The cats and associates team will create a specialized tour curriculum for identified audiences that is designed to achieve commonly understood outreach objectives The curriculum will be developed and produced into a guidebook and other training resources that will enhance and ensure continuity for future tour guides And the program at the LTP The goal is to generate a train the trainer legacy foundational document Phase four includes creating a master plan for educational displays and signage throughout the physical tour The team will also identify potential vendors for construction installation of the signage material Santa Rosa water and cats and associates Intends to start work as soon as possible. The tour curriculum is proposed to be completed by december 2023 With the training programs for the tours beginning shortly thereafter The master plan for educational signage will be finalized by july 2024 It is recommended by the contract review subcommittee and santa rosa water staff that the board of public utilities approve and authorize the professional services agreement with cats and associates Sorry with cats and associates for the water reuse education and tour program and in the amount not to exceed 247,577 dollars Thank you, and I can take any questions that the board may have at this time Thank you. Ms. Quillichy will open it up for board member questions or comments board member bartholome Thank you chair galvin. Um, I just have a comment. Um, I have been on that tour twice over the years and it was There were no bells and whistles on the tour, but I personally find it fascinating anyway But I think this is going to be great. I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to the tour and Just project even more pride in in the plant That I think anyone that knows about it feels so Great. Thank you Thank you board member bartholome any other questions or comments All right, and I will entertain a motion I will move that The board of public utilities adopt the recommendation made by staff That the board of public utilities approve and authorize professional water services agreement with cats and associates as presented And I'll second Okay, we have a motion by vice chair anoni seconded by board member right We'll now open it up for public comment on item 7.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand. I believe mr. Dwight wants to speak Hello, my name is dwayne. Dwight. I'm from roseland It's been almost 30 years since the city adopted a Program to ship water to the north to be reused for the geysers Very positive program in many ways And back at the time noreen evans the city council person who was supportive of this measure and myself would talk about How water is a valuable asset? Even if you call it reused And water should always Be considered an asset and you should get money off of the water that you are using in other places I think now is a good time to bring up that this should be revisited on the geysers contract It might not be specific to this matter right here right now But I think you in your fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers and ratepayers here in the community Should look at how you can get money For the treated water that santa rosa water ships up to the geysers And that basically you should be getting a revenue stream It shouldn't be something that costs to send there It should be something that those folks pay for the reuse of that water And in this contract that you're talking about today I'm hoping that you'll expand looking at things and you'll prepare for the future Because i'm hoping that you didn't give these guys a lifetime situation up there When it was first coming forward I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt sir Chair galvin, I would suggest that mr. DeWitt Hold these comments for item eight, which is when we typically comment on non-agenda items Well, this is actually about the reuse of water and this contract that's going forward right now Is going to people to talk to about the reuse of water So I'd like to finish my comments here, sir, and I'll come back at number eight and I'll make it even more fun Thank you for your time. I apologize, but we're actually um on a different item than I think you Didn't 7.1 say that this was a contract with these people to talk about the reuse of water So talk about developing more plans for tours at the laguna treatment plant Okay, has nothing to do with the geysers or the geysers contract water from the laguna treatment plant gets shipped up north Yes, it does there you go Now you might look at this as if that's a bit of a stretch, but I'm looking at it like hey There's a rate payer. I have to agree with the deputy city attorney I think you should hold your comments till item number eight mr. DeWitt Well, I appreciate that now that you've at least heard what I said Please don't ignore it keep it in mind Because there's a loss of water and a loss of revenue occurring by the way you handle things right now I understand for your time. Thank you Secretary Montoya, do we have any other comments? We have no hands raised on zoom and we've received no voicemail or email public comments May we have a roll call vote, please Um board member right. Hi board member watz. Hi Board member barthelot. Hi vice chair anoni. Hi and chair galvin. Hi, and that passes with five affirmative votes Thank you. That'll take care of item 7.1. We'll now move to item 7.2 director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.2 is our fiscal year 2023 24 Water wastewater stormwater and creeks operating and maintenance capital improvement and debt service budgets recommendation to city council And nick harvey our budget and financial analysis manager will be presenting Yes, good afternoon chair galvin fellow members of the board of public utilities As director Burke mentioned i'm nick harvey budget and financial analysis manager Center as a water I'm here today to go over once again our fiscal year 23 24 water wastewater and stormwater and creeks on m and cip budgets Which were originally brought before the full board at our study session on april 6 So today we'll go over the water local wastewater and stormwater and creeks budgets The assumptions pertaining to the development of those budgets a quick review of cip as well as our remaining budget schedule And of course, hopefully capping off with your formal recommendation to city council of these budgets So our staff assumptions water use. We're projecting 5 increase in deliveries Which is based on historical drought bounce back In other words years following drought We're expecting wastewater use and development will both stay stable And our rates will increase per our current schedule and as it currently stands water Is scheduled to increase by three percent july 2023 and four percent july 2024 And our sewer rates are expected to increase two percent for each of those years So in terms of our expenditure increases I'm not going to go over in terrible detail the city overhead and vehicle costs As you may recall those costs are all Stipulated by finance as part of the city's overhead Plan and the cost recovery Mechanism for the garage and vehicle costs. So as they're uncontrollable. I won't spend a bunch of time on those Um, I will speak to electricity Electricity as you may recall, uh, we were directed by our cfo to increase electricity budgets by 15 percent With the idea of being that if pgne rate increases necessitate We'll go mid-year for further appropriations due to those rate increases on on part of pgne Um chemicals we're also seeing an increase in chemicals. It's more pronounced In terms of our regional operations as they're the largest consumer of chemicals We also have two and a half percent mo u increases effective july 2023 and A few staffing changes, uh, you could see at the bottom of the slide there So to look at our increases on the aggregate fund level We're proposing a seven percent overall increase in our water budget 1.6 percent for wastewater And just under nine percent for stormwater and creeks Of particular note stormwater creeks stormwater and creeks rather We always like to remind you that That is a funding mix consisting of both general fund and enterprise funds unlike What we see in the water enterprises So looking at our water on m budget The largest increase is purchase of water i'm going to hold off on making comment there as i'll go into more detail on a further slide miscellaneous line items 13.6 percent over last year That's mainly due to the newly adopted department policy of reimbursing people for or employees rather For certification and training costs related to the requirements of their position So you'll see that as a theme among all three of the water enterprises that That miscellaneous line item is increasing I did want to speak however to so I just mentioned on the last slide that We're doing a 15 increase across the board for utilities In the water enterprise you look at the utilities line item and you might wonder why that's reflecting a 10 percent decrease Reason for that is when we are doing our budget analysis We realized that 122 actuals We're actually Lower than what we budgeted. So rather than Indexing that 15 off of the budgeted amount We indexed it we did 15 percent over the actual incurred expenses So to expound a bit on the purchase of water increases. This is the largest line item in the water on m budget The main difference between When we talk about water today versus when we saw you saw you at our study session is the fact that The county board of supervisors formally approved the new rates at the meeting on tuesday night the 18th So as we mentioned the volume of water is increasing by five percent And we now have that 10.56 percent wholesale water rate increase locked in at this point So here's in overview of the water fund on m Breakdown by by budget category Again, you can see just how large a role to purchase the water budget Plays in our overall budget Then we'll move on to wastewater operations Again, you'll see the largest line item here is the miscellaneous Same reason as in our water enterprise sewer Or local wastewater rather has 25 uso ones that are up for Certification training for uso twos. So that's why we're seeing such a sharp increase in that line item in this fund here And here's an overview of the wastewater fund on m budget by category And we always like to show you the revenues to expenditures the water fund You can see that we're budgeting For approximately 3.5 Million dollar budgetary deficit. That's due in large part to The wholesale water rate increase Which if we look at it in terms of raw dollars Was a two and a half percent or two and a half million rather dollar increase year over year. So we have I believe 15.3 budgeted for 22 23 And 23 24 that's going all the way up to 17.8 million And we're showing that deficit here To drive home the point that rather than our customers seeing impacts on their bills to account for That increase in that one line item. We're absorbing That impact on behalf of the customers utilizing our fund balance Now we go to the local wastewater revenue expenditures. We're also planning for a small operational deficit in this fund As a reminder, you might wonder why the 86.6 million total expenditures exceeds the previous slide. I showed you The reason for that is we are including cip and the santa rosa contribution cost to our regional operation As it is our local sewer rates That fund that contribution on behalf of santa rosa water Here's a look at our reserves in each of the local operations The big highlight here is we just like to show you that We are carrying strong undesignated reserve balances in both funds So even though we're absorbing small operational deficits in each fund It's not going to have a material impact on our reserve balances. Well, it will still be in strong financial position stormwater and creeks operating budget Internal and external overhead sticks out the reason for that being There was actually an accounting error last year which led to Stormwater and creeks being allocated Under allocated their share of water overhead costs So rather than the 87.6 percent representing a true cost increase That amount was trued up and it's just showing that large of a delta on a budget basis And we would expect those numbers to be more normalized Next year and continuing on from there They've also taken on some debt service and that pertains to one of their big cip projects, which I'll speak to in a later slide So here's a snapshot of the overall stormwater and creeks expenditure budget by category And a quick look at the stormwater and creeks enterprise reserves Each fund has just over a million dollars undesignated fund balance and As a reminder the reason they only have one fund balance on that being the undesignated fund balance in each fund Is that stormwater and creeks as opposed to Santa Rosa water and our water operating funds is not actually utility. They're an enterprise fund So, you know, they're supposed to generate a revenue But they they're not beholden to all of these special reserves That the water and wastewater funds are subject to Pert illegal requirements So for cip programming We're planning 14.6 in water 13.5 in sewer And stormwater and creeks is a little over 1.6 million on the water side We're emphasizing our investments in groundwater supply and hardening our pump stations and facilities And with the remainder going to neighborhood water mains and services projects and some planning efforts Our local wastewater cip the vast Majority of it is going towards sewer trunks Which highlights santa rosa's commitment To investing in our sewer trunk infrastructure Which is further highlighted by the los alamos trunk project that Board member rights spoke to on the consent calendar today stormwater cip for next year As I mentioned 1.6 million overall 380,000 of that is going Towards programmatic efforts things that allow them to operationally Uh gives them more operational agility to react to things such as spills sanitary sewer overflows that sort of thing And of particular note is a lower colgan creek restoration phase three project that deputy director banek spoke to in her portion of the study session on april 6th And uh one more point to make on that that's where the debt service figure for stormwater and creeks comes in Is they took on a small amount of debt to fund the purchase of rideaway pertaining to that project Okay, so our remaining budget schedule. We're getting towards the end here City council will be going there for preliminary approval of the regional budget on april 25th as we like to notify our partner agencies of their allocations by may 1st of each year City council budget study sessions on may 9th and 10th followed by formal budget adoption on june 20th And with that it is recommended by the board of by the budget review subcommittee and sanaries of water that the board of public utilities By resolution recommend that the city council approved the fiscal year 2023-24 water fund local wastewater fund and stormwater and creeks fund operation and maintenance and capital expenditure appropriation requests Thank you. Mr. Harvey We'll open up now for any board member questions comments vice chair arononi I just want to make a comment about the water budget and I just want to recognize that That with this budget we're keeping a promise to the ratepayers that when we adopted a rate schedule three and a half years ago We were going to define Specifically the increases that they would have to pay and we were going to stop the previous practice of passing through water cost increases And we did that based on representations made by the county that they would limit all their future For the next five years. They would limit their future increases to between four and six percent So we planned on six percent with this year's adoption over objection by the city of senate rosa at after the recommendation from this Board was was adopted With this the the the county is actually increasing the cost of water by 10 percent so And as you said we are Filling the gap by using reserves and i'm glad we're in a strong reserve position So we can afford to do that and keep the promise to our ratepayers, but Given this experience of having been somewhat blindsided by a county Increase such a large magnitude. I'm really looking at the next rate study Perhaps having to go back to the old ways of passing through the increase directly to the ratepayers. It's unfortunate, but We budgeted based on different facts and and now we need to adopt our practices to meet the the truce So that that's my comment Yeah, just to speak to that briefly that that is a big concern Throughout the sonoma water approval process with attack the whack Most contractor most contracting agencies rather I express that same concern and we expressed our concern that yeah, we We modified the last rate schedule to eliminate that pass through aspect and um, I believe in director Burke I think we're going to be taking a close look at that in our upcoming rate rate setting process for the next cycle Remember watts Thank you First I just wanted to thank the staff for making it very easy for the budget subcommittee this year I think this was the the easiest budget review process that we've had so I know so much work went behind the scenes for your staff so just wanted to thank you for all of that and Just had a question if if the vote at the county level was a unanimous vote this this I think you said this week this Tuesday for the increase for the cost of water At the county level it was a unanimous vote. I believe Thank you, and I really appreciate our our our vote and our director Burke for speaking You know on behalf of our ratepayers and I know that you guys will take this into consideration moving forward and Thank you guys for your time Thank you for your comments other board member questions or comments I would echo board member watts's comments It is unfortunate that that things have Progressed the way they have with with sonoma water and we'll deal with it as we move forward with our rate study But in the meantime the staff has done an excellent job of working on this budget and the budget subcommittee has worked hard as well So I want to thank all of you for that Your your work is much appreciated, and I know the ratepayers appreciate it as well Thank you If there are no other questions or comments, we'll open it up for Public comment on item 7.2 if you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand chair galvin if we could please get a motion on the floor before we do public comment Thank you. I'm sorry I'll entertain a motion I'll move adoption of a resolution of the board of public utilities recommending that the santa rosa city council approve the proposed physical fiscal year 2023-24 santa rosa water operating maintenance and capital improvement budgets for the water fund and local wastewater fund And the storm water and creeks funds and wave the reading of the text I'll second that Now we have a motion by vice chair anoni and a second by board member barthelow We'll open it up for public comments. Mr. DeWitt. Hello, my name is duane. DeWitt. I'm from roseland raised at 1020 mc minne avenue in roseland I'm very supportive of the idea of the mc minne avenue storm water project and the $550,000 going that direction I'd also like to ask you to dig deeper into the creek restoration enterprise fund and put some more money Over onto that mc minne avenue site where roseland creek is crossed by the bridge the Parcel that's right there at the bridge is actually in the right of way of sonoma water and there's a Opportunity a few folks would work together in a collaborative manner in which you could get State and federal funds brought into the area to do a riparian corridor restoration that would help on Long time plans first put into actual writing in 2004 And what was called the roseland creek concept plan? $100,000 was put aside community help meetings were held and the idea was that The city and county were going to work together to get that roseland creek corridor all the way out past stony point road to the west To utilize natural spaces To be green spots to be green areas where the community could participate In the planning for our area a bikeway parks Unfortunately, what's been happening is development has been allowed right up next to the waterways Sonoma county water path that's been put there and we've been ignoring the creek setbacks That were settled upon by the city years ago They put together a waterway advisory committee and they basically said hey, we're going to honor these 50 foot setbacks We're going to make a point of having a really good riparian corridor Especially along rosland creek although colgan creek has taken most of the interest for the last 20 years Rosland creek is a jewel in the rough if you utilize this McMinn avenue stormwater replacement As a way to get creek restoration done and get more funding in from both the state and the federal agencies many of which would be Every interested in bringing money forward to you. This could be something where you could actually Revisit the rosland creek concept plan with new Surveys of the local public the rate payers the taxpayers the property owners get them involved in the process again and Go for a 20-year update for next year Update that rosland creek concept plan And have it be something that brings funding into you so that you're not depleting your resources Especially for this enterprise fund have your staff look at things in a broader way Basically, they've gotten so narrowed into colgan creek. They missed the larger picture of the southwest. Thank you Thank you, mr. Duet. I'm sure that staff will take those those Comments into consideration At this time, I will open it up Is there any further public comment? There are no hands raised and we received no voicemail or email public comments. All right. May we have a roll call vote, please Board member right. Hi Board member watz. Hi Board member barthelot. Hi Vice chair anoni And chair galvin. Hi, and that passes with five affirmative votes Very good. That'll take care of item 7.2 at this point. We will excuse board member barthelot We will move now to item 7.3 director berk Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.3 is our fiscal year 2023-24 regional water reuse system operating and maintenance Capital improvement and debt service budget and allocation of costs Again recommendation to city council and nick carvey will be presenting this item as well Thank you director berk chair galvin members of the board happy to be here to Do an overview with you regarding our fiscal year 2023-24 regional on m and cip budgets So today we'll go over the proposed regional budget the related regional partner contribution allocations looking at our cip and Touching on the remaining budget schedule and also asking for your recommendation of this budget So just like we saw on the local operations side We're also getting a two and a half percent cola effective july 2023 Electricity overhead vehicle costs. We're seeing the same impacts that we did on the local side, but more pronounced for electricity We're also seeing a pretty pronounced impact on the cost of chemicals. I'll touch on those in a later slide And we've also added one position that you can see at the bottom of the slide there So looking at the regional budget, the largest year of year increase is to the utilities budget There's several reasons for this one is that the regional plant is the largest consumer of electricity in our department And in addition to the aforementioned 15 percent across the board increases They've also anticipated an increase in the quantity of electricity consumed. So that's why we're seeing such a large number there We're also seeing quite a few Employee certification and training costs under miscellaneous there Operational supplies at 16.6 percent. That's where the chemicals come in the plants also a large user of chemicals That's mostly due to the fact That the chemical market has seen Quite a bit of market volatility in supply chain disruption Since since the beginning of covid. So we're continuing to see further impacts on that So here's the overall picture of the regional fund expenses 72.1 million dollar budget and we always like to also show you that negative miscellaneous revenue figure As a reminder, we always when budgeting for the regional fund We always look at all of our expenses and then we budget what we think our miscellaneous revenues are going to be and we subtract that To get to our net partner contribution To meet our operational needs Here's the regional partner allocations for next year As a reminder the the o&m Figures are allocated based on the previous full years of actual flows into the plant Cip contribution is dictated by Uh condition set forth Allocation set forth rather than master sub regional agreement and our debt service figures Are allocated based on the primary purchase of each debt issuance Taking a look at regional cip Most, you know a vast majority of funding is going to directly into plant infrastructure We're also making a significant investment in the geysers infrastructure this year with the remainder going towards Study efforts Okay, and so we'll be taking this budget to council April 25th for their formal approval for the purposes of notifying our partner agencies by may 1st City council study sessions may 9th and 10th With eventual adoption June 20th And that being said it is recommended by the by san eras of water the budget review subcommittee in the sub regional technical advisory committee That the board of public utilities by resolution recommend that the city council approve the 2023 24 regional system operating and maintenance capital improvements and debt service budgets and resulting cost allocations Thank you. Mr. Harvey. I'll open up now for board member questions and comments All right, we have a resolution. I'll entertain a motion I'll move um That the board of public utilities by resolution recommend that the city council approve the 2023 24 regional system operating and maintenance capital improvements and debt service budgets and resulting cost allocations And I think we're I'm recommending that the city council approve them I think I left that out of my statement. So that's what I meant to say I will second Motion by board member right seconded by board member watts This time will open it up for any public comments Thank you again for the opportunity. My name is doing to it. I'm from roseland I've never met mr. Harvey a lot of work has been put into this obviously on a budget I believe though there's some inadequacies And it's not in a negative way in a sense It's just because they haven't looked at more opportunities to bring in more funds And I think that's really an important thing because the state of california has stated and put into legislation That stormwater retention is now one of the main things they're going to be trying to fund And that they're going to be putting monies out I would hope in your budget that you'd put some sort of an exploratory column That points out what you'll be reaching out to bring in funds from the state and the federal agencies I'd like the record to show That I believe this is part of a budgetary process for forecasting in the future and part of planning It's not to say Cast any aspersions upon staff and their current efforts It's just to say that we're not looking broadly enough at what we could do to bring in extra funding to help our situation Earlier you talked about how the county and a bit blindsided you and now they're asking for extra money So one of the ways that you can plan ahead to avoid These types of difficulties that hit the rate pair harder than you might expect Is to have your budgetary planning people Look at where there's extra money coming out of the state first and foremost Because that's your easiest take if you will and in the federal government where the epa has been stating Under the american rescue plan act and the infrastructure act that they will let more money come to local agencies like this If they're asked That's the key word there the jurisdictional agency has to step forward and make the ask Often lead agencies don't want to do that But I believe it's now time to do that Especially because we've had a really nice wet year and we're up ahead in some ways It's important that you folks work together with the community Maybe do some surveys about how you can have your budgetary process be more inclusive And I'll thank you and I want to let the city attorney know this It's good to be able to participate in person in these meetings again And I think it should not be seen as an inconvenience to any body any governing agency that acts for the people To have the people come here and take a few seconds of your time Especially during the middle of the day when no people can really get here You've been in a lockout situation for three years where you kept the people from participating Some would say deliberately so now that we're here welcome us back and say hey, that's what we're here for As a matter of fact the city manager and the mayor say the communication and transportation Excuse me transparency. I keep looking at that director of public works and transportation But transparency is supposed to be what it's all about So i'm here to participate in that in a transparent manner. I'll speak during public comment also. Thank you Thank you. Mr. DeWitt Any other comments from the public here in the chambers? Seeing no one rise secretary montoya anyone else There are no hands raised on zoom and no voicemail or email public comments were received All right, may we have a roll call vote, please board member right? Hi Board member waltz. Hi Um vice chair anoni. Hi and chair galvin Hi, and that passes with four affirmative votes with board member barthelot recusing herself All right. We'll now move to item number eight public comments on non-agenda items Mr. DeWitt Hello, thank you again. My name is dwayne. DeWitt I want to thank you for this opportunity to have spent Almost nine minutes speaking with you today. That's the first and it's been a long time since we've had this opportunity I want to return to that idea though that You've been blindsided by the county They're asking for more money to be paid for water And yet water is an asset and a resource I wish you'd stop using the term wastewater And perhaps use the term Recycled or reused water Treated water It's never should be looked at like it's a waste And it's really bothersome in a sense that We've taken an approach for almost a quarter of a century that that contract with calpine up there at the geysers Is in violet and you can't change anything I think it needs to be looked at as a way to get revenue in so that our ratepayers are able to absorb No more increases and instead when the county blindsides you you're able to take it from a fund where you're getting Revenue back in just think of it was a penny on a gallon One penny per gallon if you go to the store right now to buy water They'll charge you anywhere from 99 cents on a pint of water On up So water is valuable And the thing of it is is i've had people such as miles ferris in the past Tell me that our water that's treated is so good. He'd drink it And he did drink water in front of me from a glass out at the laguna treatment center So let's look at this in a more realistic manner if you're business people and I know some of you are independent business people And you definitely and your businesses look at how you can maximize your profits Minimize your costs and get a better return on your investments I think it's time for you folks to look at it like okay We represent the ratepayers the people of the city of santa rosa on this situation And we should beginning to have talks with calpine of restructuring that whole contract for the future For the next 50 years This one should get up sometime in my lifetime. I've been following it now for 25 years or more So it's got to be coming up sooner or later But when I ask staff about it they kind of brush me off and shine me on and don't tell me the specifics So where can we find the specifics as when is the date? The final date for this original contract To be up And if you've given amendments to it, where can we find the amendments? It's like dealing with a black box down here You folks have got such a comfortable bureaucracy that you don't really think In terms of sharing the information out there and it shouldn't be that way. You shouldn't feel like autocrats You should feel like public servants that you're here to say. Oh, you know, mr. Dewitt We got those facts right here and we'll print them out for you and we'll hand them to you So that you can have them and look at them and then share that with those people who are going to complain about those water rate increases Thank you Thank you. Mr. Dewitt Dr. Burke Sure. Thank you. Um, mr. Dewitt. I'm more than happy to talk to you I can provide you with uh, the geysers contract and the amendment The current contract that we have expires in 2037 The geysers project has been online. This will be the 20th year this year And so we are looking at future opportunities to Look at all of our our water sources including the water that goes to the geysers It's part of our water future project that we're working on. There's information available on our website Numerous public meetings scheduled can provide all that information to you Um, right now for the geysers, uh, calpine pays for all the power, uh, which is significantly expensive plus they invested Tens of millions of dollars to build the pipeline Um, actually over hundreds of millions dollars, pardon me So that was a cooperative agreement between us and calpine. So there's a lot of information I can provide to you Um, it's a completely separate system So any revenues that we get related to recycle water go just to the regional system and can't offset the water system They're two very different systems and governed by prop 218 So happy to have more conversation and provide you with additional information Thank you. Director Burke any other public comments on item number eight There are no hands raised on zoom and no voicemail or email public comments were received Very good. That'll take care of item number eight. We'll now move to Item number nine, which is referrals. We have none. We have no written communications We have I believe two subcommittee reports director watz You promoted me to director. Oh, I mean Anyway, uh, I have one subcommittee report from the water use Water conservation subcommittee We met on april 12th and we were presented and approved the awardees for the water awareness month water use efficiency awards It's always a very exciting meeting when we get to hear all of the stories that have been That of the stories of all these fantastic water conservation individuals or households or businesses And that will be presented to city council on april 25th We also modified the rebate for the cash for grass back to a dollar per square foot That was voted from a two to one vote with board member wash voting no And then we also had the opportunity to hear from the water use efficiency Staff efforts during the drought and the communication staff efforts and got to hear about the magnitude of of success and just everything that went into everything that happened as far as The last few years when we've undergone such a significant drought so Happy to take any questions. It was a great great meeting Thank you board member watz I'll make a short report on the contract review subcommittee. We met on april the 11th We reviewed three agreements all of which were Recommended unanimously by the subcommittee and we're on today's agenda The first was the cats and associates professional service agreement for the reuse education and tour program The second was the amendment to the west yost Contract for ground wire program that will raise a spending cap to allow existing already funded projects to be completed And the third was the recommendation for the approval Of the waiver of competitive bid for the purchase order for inagulant technologies 5900 series inductively charged plasma optical emission spectroscopy Replacing the current icpoes which is beyond its service life We have any board member questions or comments regarding either of those reports If if not, I'll open it up to public comment on Item number 11 if you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 Secretary Montoya And there's no one in chamber no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received Thank you. That'll take care of item 11 item 12 is any board member reports Seeing none we'll move to item 13, which is the director's report Thank you chair galvin and members of the board. I have a couple things that I wanted to update the board on First of all, I just a reminder that we have two exciting events this saturday The first is our creek cleanup on the greenway from 9 30 to 11 30 That will be happening this saturday on earth day And if anyone who wants to participate we will be starting at the olive park footbridge And then second we are bringing back our earth day at courthouse square also on saturday and that'll be from noon to four And we're really excited to be bringing that event back like it had been in years past So both those will be this saturday I wanted to also let the board know that we have been doing a lot of outreach And working as was brought up by mr. Dewitt to see about applying for various funding Working with our elected officials In particular, we've had both congressman thompson and congressman huffman Come out and get a tour of our treatment plant And then we also had a tour For and for their staff, but we also had a tour for senator feinstein staff And I did want to let the board know you may recall that last year We were successful and we're very very grateful to congressman thompson for sponsoring Our water resources development act or award a bill A project which we are looking to do Lining of our lano trunk sewer main sewer trunk. Sorry And we were successful in getting a 19.4 million dollar Authorization to work with the army corps. And so this year we've been working on trying to get appropriations And senator feinstein has included 2.5 million dollars In her recommendation for potential appropriation for this project. So we're very helpful Hopeful that it will make it through the process the budgeting process with congress So that is my report and i'm happy to answer any questions Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? That will open it up for public comment on item number 13 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary montoya There's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received very good. That concludes the agenda Wish you all a good evening and we are adjourned