 Good afternoon. I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the city of Santa Rosa to order We have a roll call, please Board member right Remember Watts here Board member Walsh here Board member Batenfort here Board member Grable here Vice chair Arnaudie here and chair Arnaudie here Let the record show that all of the Board of Public Utilities is present with the exception of Board member right Thank you. Good afternoon again a reminder, please to have your Microphone on mute when you're not speaking please put away your cell phones and personal computers At this time we are going to I am going to read a proclamation For Chris Grable and afterwards we'll have board comments and mr. Grable's comments So the proclamation reads as follows Whereas Chris Grable was originally appointed to the Board of Public Utilities by City Council member Jack Tibbets in February of 2017 and reappointed in February of 2021 and Whereas during mr. Grable six years of service with the Board of Public Utilities He has provided excellent leadership support and guidance to the Santa Rosa Water Department and Whereas mr. Grable has served on many subcommittees of the board Including the budget review subcommittee water conservation subcommittee and various ad hoc subcommittees and Whereas mr. Grable chaired the water conservation subcommittee during the development and finalization of Santa Rosa waters 2020 urban water management plan and water shortage contingency plan Facilitating numerous meetings and helping to incorporate public comment on these critically important planning documents And whereas mr. Grable served on the agricultural ad hoc committee working tirelessly to strengthen relationships with our agricultural customers leading to the development of a new interruptible agricultural reuse agreement and agriculture reuse fees that were supported by the overwhelming majority of Santa Rosa's water agricultural customers and Whereas mr. Grable served on the landscape specs ad hoc committee which developed a landscaping contract that incorporated best management practices and Russian River friendly landscaping guidelines and now serves as a model for future landscaping services and Whereas mr. Grable recognized the board's responsibility to make tough decisions Regarding funding infrastructure maintenance repair and replacement and he thoughtfully made such decisions so that Santa Rosa water May continue to provide safe and reliable water distribution and wastewater collection treatment and reuse up to its rates payers Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Public Utilities of the city of Santa Rosa Does hereby recognize command and express its sincere appreciation to Chris Grable For his six years of dedicated service to the community of Santa Rosa, and I am happy to have signed the proclamation So Chris, I know it's when city councils change It's always difficult because you never know what kind of changes are going to be made on any of the boards and commissions But it's been a pleasure working with you You have always been a quick study on all the water issues You have always asked thoughtful questions and have comments for staff To make sure everybody's thinking outside the box when they need to We're gonna miss you on the board and wish you much good luck, but Have enjoyed your six years here. So Thank you Other board vice chair, honey. Thank you Chris. It has been a pleasure serving with you I've known Chris ever since he and since his father and I coached him in under six soccer and so seeing someone mature into such a community leader and Just a thinker and a doer has been a real pleasure So it's been a pleasure working with you and I look forward to crossing paths in the future Thank you We're better bound for it. I just wanted to one express incredible gratitude as a fellow board member The the expertise and the knowledge that you that you brought to this board into the city Were critical and I learned so much from you not only in how to Think through the impact of our services and our products and our programs Very practically and tactically but also to keep us on To keep us remembering. What is the intention of our work here? And so I will miss you I will still see you. I am Both proud and grateful to call you a friend and to have been able to serve alongside of you these past years Remember what? Thank you It's it's hard for me to imagine you not being on this board with us I think I have been able to get to know you as a person not just a board member And you're a fantastic human being on top of being a great member to this board and an admirable father Watching you with with your kids over the years, but I think from the board perspective It's it we're gonna make sure we have to make sure that we always keep some of your Your thoughts in mind you always brought environmental justice and equity Up in in times when we might have forgotten about it And I think that that's gonna be something that we're gonna make sure that your legacy is here And just really appreciate your your time with us here and as a board member and a friend and I know this isn't goodbye, but But I hope you'll come back in and keep us on our toes remember walls Chris I appreciate Being together even though it was only for a couple years You focused on things that made a difference Spent more time working diligently on them than looking at the past victories and accomplishments And you did a great job. So I hope we'll be working again in the future I don't know what it's gonna What we'll be working on but we need you to to be involved to be a bunch of so thank you Dr. Burke Thank you Board member Grable on behalf of the Santa Rosa Water Department. I want to thank you for your leadership your support the way you always embraced information from staff you asked us tough questions and Made us better. I really appreciate your interest and Always remembering or reminding us to consider climate change where things are going how we can look to the future to really have a Resilience system water supply sewer collection wastewater treatment reuse as so And it was always fun to hear your stories of when you were up on the hill doing plant surveys And the work that you did Your tie to the water department will last a long time We really really appreciate all of your leadership and thank you so much We're member Grable. Would you like to say a few words? Thank you. Well, just thank you so much everyone and if I break down in tears It's because I watch you know really emotional children shows all day with my 18 month old and I'm I'm a fragile dad now, but Thank you so much for for your words and and really for what you have all taught me in this process I think a lot of public service can be Can be very arduous to say the least taking a lot of sometimes very passionate but misinformed comments from a lot of people and One thing about this board is I you know, I don't think that we've had that experience as as much as other Elected and appointed bodies and so really that's given the opportunity for some very in-depth and thoughtful conversations And just an ongoing dialogue between appointed officials and staff for the most part that just really getting into Into policy and really, you know nerdy stuff about, you know, water and science and climate and budgets I don't I don't know that that many people get that opportunity to have that just ongoing candid dialogue and sharing expertise and in a respectful environment where For better or for worse, we don't have many public comments So that's that has been my experience on this board and it's I I'm so grateful that That I've gotten to participate and give service Chair Galvin Dan, I wanted to thank you for how you have taught me How to be an impartial and professional Leader your leadership your procedural acumen everything has just been, you know beyond compare I I'm grateful and I've learned a lot from you. So thank you and Vice-chair on only as he said he taught me both soccer when I was probably more interested in running at at the trees and in counting flowers with with my friends and So the patience you have shown me there and the patience you have shown me here because I can be a pain in the butt sometimes I'm truly grateful for and and your knowledge in closed session, especially of potential liabilities and litigational It's just it's been eye-opening and and really again public service is so difficult and to learn from folks with that expertise is just invaluable. So thank you and We'll remember that and for it. I Can't say enough about what I've learned from you and your mastery of public and government affairs and policy has just been You know hugely beneficial to me and and I'm just deeply grateful for your friendship and the expertise that you've imparted Remember Watts. I want to thank you for everything you've taught me Specifically about how we have to come back to what's the reality of the ground, you know For low income families I apologize Who when you get the water bill every month? You know and I've been there it's it is really hard, you know, and we we're looking at metadata We have a hundred and seventy seven million dollar budget and it can get lost what that means for A low-income family of children someone in a marginalized community a recently annexed community, whatever it is it You have always Prioritized that and I have deep respect and I've learned that That needs to be a priority always from you so Thank you I'm board member Walsh. I are candid conversations up and you just teaching me about mitigation fee act and rate setting and Public fee schedules it just it was so Enlivening and and enlightening to have those conversations with you the few times that we were able to do that in in the short time Let's serve with you. So I just want to say thank you. I really I really enjoyed those conversations And and and took a lot away, you know from them. So thank you And and board member right. He's not here, but I do want to thank him and say, you know Having that expertise of someone who has has worked and has an industry knowledge and has that expertise of working within the department And then being on the board I There's just things that That cannot be duplicated there that you know just are invaluable. So so thank you to board member right and director Burke First you and then to all staff Again, the the dialogue the expertise, but specifically your leadership has really been beyond compare I think in the history of this department and especially in the recent history and has just brought such a great culture of innovation of respect professionalism that I wish it were not so rare, but you your your leadership is is beyond comparability and I'm Grateful to have to have learned from you and and been able to again give service and try to support your leadership Or if I can and and to all staff, I mean the the the expertise that the level of depth and professionalism and and real forethought and and in the long game the the modeling the proxy modeling everything that our staff brings to every presentation is I wish I God I wish every Public institution in this country could operate that way and could mirror The expertise in the effort of Santa Rosa water staff because I I think this world would be such such a better place if everyone Learn from from the example that that you give so thank you so much, and it's been an honor to serve with you one last person I want to thank is he's not here, but Board Member Emeritus Dick Dowd What an honor it was to serve with him and to learn from from that from his tenure and wealth of experience and as director Burke alluded to I you know when when Board Member Dowd was Pushing forward option 3. I think it was against all odds to To look at running a pipeline through 1700 private parcels crossing the Russian River twice for jurisdictions, you know Just seemed like the biggest hopes and dreams You know crazy idea ever when when he was going through those very long meetings with hundreds of people and doing all that I was a teenager doing the the species richness surveys on the transects along the pipeline route and Sort of disgruntled as pure, you know amazing my a common mountain countryside was going to be disrupted by this pipeline Well, that was not an oil pipeline It was a pipeline ensuring clean renewable energy for for generations to come to the biggest geothermal field in the world so I to come folks are going to be able to participate and Learn from from him and have that perspective was also just something I'll never forget. So I Hope I can convey to him, but others can convey. I'm also deeply grateful to board member Dowd. So again Thank you for the opportunity to to serve with you all. It's been an honor Thank you again for your comments before I hand you your proclamation I do have to open it up for public comments on item 2.1 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 Chair Galvin, I see no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber Okay, then that will conclude item 2.1 Chris Here's your proclamation much. Good luck to you All right, we will now move to item 3.1, which is the administration of the oaths of office for the newly appointed and reappointed board members Secretary Manus, are you doing the honors? Thank you chair Galvin. We can start with you If you want to come to the front of the dais This is your oath of office for the board of public utilities. Please repeat after me. I state your name Do solemnly swear or affirm That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California Against all enemies foreign and domestic That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California that I take this obligation freely Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully Discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter Thank you chair Galvin. Welcome back Board member Watts and board member Watts I'm gonna have you step a little bit closer to me so we can hear you I didn't have you grab the mic chair Galvin. So we'll go back and forth with a microphone Please repeat after me for your oath of office for the board of public utilities. I state your name Do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear and affirm That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States And the Constitution of the state of California and the Constitution of the state of California Against all enemies foreign and domestic Against all enemies foreign and domestic That I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California and the Constitution of the state of California That I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully and that it will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter thank you Board Member Watts Vice Chair Arnone thank you this is for your oath of office for the Board of Public Utilities please repeat after me I William Arnone do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter the duties upon which I am about to enter thank you Vice Chair Arnone and now I'd like to call up Robin Barthelot hi Robin thank you this is your oath of office for your Board of Public Utilities Member please repeat after me I Robin Barthelot I Robin Barthelot do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter on which I'm about to enter thank you Robin welcome to the board of public utilities please have a seat at the dais we'll now ask new board member Barthelot to join us up here on the dais chair galvin chair galvin if I could we would like to ask all the board members if they would stand in front of the dais for just a picture we'd appreciate that and then you can go to your comments if that's okay be fine all right we are back I'll open it up at this time if there are any board members that wish to make any comments in particular I'll put board member Barthelot on the spot and let her introduce herself to us okay well I just realized how to turn on the microphone so that's my first important act here thank you so much chairman galvin I am honored to be part of this board it was wonderful to hear Chris Gray Bill talk about what an honor it was for him and the passion he has for the bpu and I look forward to working with all of you your leadership and community service is admirable and I will do my best to be a helpful player on the board very good thank you any other board member questions comments all right then I will open it up for public comments on item 3.1 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 we have anyone sure galvin there are no public comments or hands being raised via zoom or in council chamber all right may we have a roll call vote please to formalize the newly established board member certainly board member right is absent board member watts here board member walsh hi board member bartholow here board member battenfort here vice chair anoni chair galvin hi let the record show that all board members are present with the exception of board member right thank you item four statements of abstention by board members hearing none we have no study session we have the minutes from january 19th of 2023 so I will open it up for public comments on item 6.1 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber very good that'll take care of the minutes they'll be entered we'll now move to item 7.1 which is our water supply update thank you chair galvin and members of the board as mentioned item 7.1 is our water supply update and calling close senior water resources planner will be making the presentation thank you very much director Burke just be one moment and I'll have my screen shared excellent thank you very much and good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board this is your water supply update for the month uh deputy director martin is unavailable today so i'm stepping into his shoes to provide you with this information so of course the good news is we have received quite a bit of rain so I think we're all sighing a bit of relief um lake pilsbury is currently at about 57 000 acre feet and that's about 176 percent of its storage curve at this time of the year it is losing a little bit of water over the last seven days about 108 100 acre feet and it is releasing at about 50 50 cubic feet per second so right now going through the potter valley powerhouse is about 45 to 50 cubic feet per second so quite an improvement from where we were this time last month when we look to lake mendicino you can see that it is over the um the standard storage curve you know the dotted line that's on the bottom there outlining the shaded area that's the standard curve for water supply versus the flood control pool and as you know with a major deviation uh there has been permission allowed to store an additional 11 650 acre feet and so they're taking well advantage of that now of course if we do get more storms they'll have to be careful of that you can see right about in the middle of january that the army corps did release some water so we reached a peak there around the week of january 18th and some water was released just to make sure that they weren't impinging too far into that flood pool but with that major deviation they are able to store more water which is very beneficial for that lake it has over 80 000 acre feet it's about 118 percent of the storage curve over the last seven days it did lose about 1400 acre feet and it has some releases of about 161 cubic feet per second but overall as you can see it's looking very good if we do get more rains of course they'll be able to manage those using that forecast informed reservoir operation to make sure that they maximize storage in the flood pool without risking a loss of flood control then i will go to lake syndoma and of course this is the major source of our drinking water and it is also looking very very good at about 97 percent of storage capacity in the water supply pool of course the flood supply pool is above that so it has about 200 almost 238 000 acre feet the top of that water supply pool is 245 000 acre feet so it's very close over the last seven days it gained about 1600 acre feet so we're still seeing runoff even though the rains aren't coming in so that watershed is um you've probably heard it uh described before it's kind of flashy so it absorbs a lot of water and a lot of water can run off over time from that so there are it is releasing about 155 cubic feet per second there is also the ability to use forecast informed reservoir operations here as well to be able to allow for some additional storage in that flood pool so if we do get more water and we get up into that flood pool we're still in good shape and of course the army corps will be managing that with that minor deviation in mind so that's all very good news so we're very happy about that so in terms of water supply the messaging that we're now um doing in terms of reach out to our community and helping our customers and community understand water supply is to make sure folks know yes we have recovered after having been at historic lows in particular the last two years has very very historically low levels we are working with Sonoma water and all the regional water suppliers and partners on generating some shared messaging we want to focus on thanking our customers in our region over the last 18 months our community achieved an 18 percent reduction in water use and this of course comes after years of improvements in water use efficiency so tremendous effort on our community's part and we're really thankful so we really very much appreciate what our community has done and of course as you know we're also starting to work on our own water supply resiliency plan so we are really appreciative to the community we also want the community to know that we're doing our part to prepare for the future as well we are also launching our eye heart tap water campaign for February so this is focused on why choosing tap water is a great choice for our customers and for our community and part of this will include spotlighting some of our employees telling some of their stories and their backgrounds their passions what they do for the city of Santa Rosa in terms of water and water supply and so that's a really fun part of this also will be sending bill inserts to all of our customers letting them know that this campaign is on and we have social media posts we'll have radio spots and this is culminating in reusable water bottle giveaways and as you can see you all have a reusable water bottle there in front of you so these are going to be giveaways for customers who are interested so for customers who want to be interested want to be considered for this they should go to srcity.org slash tap tap and they can request a bottle we really want folks to realize that tap water is it's healthy it's good for the environment and with these water bottles we reduce the amount of unnecessary waste of one-use plastic bottles more good news for you you may remember that we participate in the groundwater sustainability agency for the Santa Rosa Plains so we have council members involved in that we have staff members involved in that effort after quite a bit of work the groundwater sustainability agency submitted their plan for groundwater sustainability plan back one year ago in January and the good news is that it was approved for all three basins in our region there is a groundwater basin in Petaluma one in the Sonoma Valley and of course the Santa Rosa Valley so really tremendous effort we congratulate and thank all of the folks who worked together on this from the board of the GSA the advisory committee the GSA staff the staff from other agencies who all worked together to make sure this occurred it does have some recommendations for future updates but there were no changes needed in this plan this is highly unusual of the over 100 groundwater sustainability plans that have been submitted only 11 have received this designation so almost one fourth of those that were approved are in our region so really tremendous we're just so blessed with having folks who are really adept at this work and as you all know we've been looking at groundwater for many many years in our in our area and that has really paid off let me just see if there was anything else so that was the last slide so there you have it for the water supply update and I'm happy to take any questions that you might have thank you mr. close we'll open it up now for any board member questions or comments regarding the water supply update let's see board member walsh but I don't see a hand raised okay thank you mr. chairman I just wanted to thank the deputy deputy director for the for the wonderful presentation and then to encourage the tap water and sometimes at restaurants all this order Santa Rosa tap Santa Rosa tap 2023 so that's the best thing I gave I appreciate appreciate the presentation and I'm thankful to have as much water as we do now thank you board member walsh vice chair anoni I just want to make a comment on how delightful it is to have everybody here in person today and have all the fellow board members here but there is one thing about it mr. close has the best audio visual headset of anybody on any zoom meeting I ever attend and so he actually sounds better on zoom than he doesn't person I'm sorry but but I did understand everything you said and I appreciate your report thank you thank you very much all right at this time we'll open it up for public comments 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 secretary manis chair galvin there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber thank you that'll take care of item 7.1 we have two matters on the consent calendar we'll entertain a motion to improve the consent calendar we'll take that as a motion from board member walsh and a seconded by board member watts any board member questions or comments regarding the consent calendar all right if not then we'll take public comments on the consent calendar agenda 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber may we have a roll call vote please certainly board member watts yes board member walsh hi board member barthelot yes board member battenfort hi vice chair anoni hi chair galvin hi let the rick show that motion passes with six affirmative votes and board member right absent very good that'll take care of the consent calendar we'll now move to item 9.1 the report item director berk thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 9.1 is the cooperative agreement for the transfer of raw and partially treated well water between sonoma county and the city of santa rosa and sean mcneill deputy director environmental services will be presenting good afternoon chair galvin members of the board i too am very happy to be back in the chamber again i didn't have as nice of a headset as our senior water resources planner calling close did but i do appreciate the personal contact so i'm happy to bring this item to you today the reason for this agreement is that sonoma water is in the process of rehabilitating three of their existing wells that and the santa rosa plane to help support water supplies in times of drought the great thing about that they're looking into with these wells is possibly taking water from the russian river in the winter time and injecting it into these wells in time when water is plenty and then when it's a drought or restrictions are occurring in the summer and fall months to pull that water back out for them to do that process they need a place to put that additional water or or not that additional water excuse me they need to put the waste water that comes from managing a well so this brought this agreement would increase the amount of potable water available for our customers as well as augment our supplies in times of drought for our recycled water system all three of these wells will require discharging the well water as a condition of operating these municipal wells and that would be purge water that could be up to three million gallons per purge that's just part of the process of of ensuring that a well is is clean and safe to drink that water is basically groundwater and is perfectly good for reuse into our system there are other types of water that would come off of these well sites that might be able to be utilized in our recycled water system including flushing filter back flush water and then they'll have a treatment system at the well site to provide chlorine into that water that that system would need to be flushed at the end of the season after the systems are put together we would be able to analyze the quality of that water to determine if it fits within our criteria to be injected into our recycled water system if it is not then that water would would have to go to a treatment plant and right now there are no accessible sewer systems nearby these three well sites but we do have our reclamation low pressure line adjacent to all three of these well sites and so here's a visual of kind of where these wells sit in the Santa Rosa plane the red circles are the locations of the wells it doesn't show up so well on the screen here but there's green lines that's the location of our low pressure recycled water system and I'll take a look a little bit closer at each of the individual sites so the Occidental Road well which is the farthest north this site you can see our recycled water line runs right through their treatment plant their well well plant and so also their aqueduct is nearby I didn't happen to mention that but their aqueduct is also right there as well so they can put the drinking water in there they can put the water reject water from the drinking into our recycled water line here's the Sebastopol Road well site this is highway 12 people need to be reminded is also called Sebastopol Road in this section so it is that's highway 12 right there and this is the city's brown farm property and you can see our reclamation line is right next to their well site and once the project is completed and we have all of the agreements signed we will probably be coming back to you to get a permanent easement for this property but that will come at a future date and then here's the Todd Road well site this is right there on Todd Road near Yano Road this is really it's on adjacent to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife property but it's really close to our alpha farm and that green pipeline that you see there goes straight to our our pond on alpha farm the agreement terms are that Sonoma water would be responsible for all the infrastructure improvements to connect these wells to our system and that does include any CEQA compliance Sonoma water would coordinate with the city before initiating all discharges to make sure that our system was in appropriate stationing and all the valves are approach appropriate to be able to handle that water the city would only take water from sources that are approved by our regulators so if the filter back flush or any of those other types of water were not approved by our regulators to be used for recycled water we would not allow that in and this agreement stipulates that and that the water is not accepted into the reclamation system they may easily be trucked to our Laguna treatment plant and since all sites will already have a holding tank available this would would not be terrible if it was a smaller amount of water the initial well flushing that could be three million gallons whereas these other types of filter black washes and stuff are in the neighbor and thousands of gallons so something that could be trucked so it is a recommendation of the contract review subcommittee and the water department that the board of public utilities approve and authorize the chair the board assigned the cooperative agreement for the transfer of raw and partially treated well water between Sonoma County water agency and the city of Santa Rosa and that concludes my presentation thank you deputy director mcneill as was mentioned in the recommendation this matter did come before the contract review subcommittee back on january 25th and received unanimous approval and recommendation to the full board i'll open up now for any board member questions or comments regarding this item all right then we'll open it up for public comments on item 9.1 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber thank you may we have a roll call vote please um i'd like to ask for a motion oh i'm sorry i'll make a motion that the board of public utilities i'll make a motion that the board of public utilities approve and authorize the chair of the board to sign the cooperative agreement for the transfer of raw and partially treated well water between Sonoma County water agency and the city of santa rosa i'll second the motion okay we have a motion by vice chair anoni seconded by board member walsh now we'll take a roll call vote please board member watts hi board member walsh hi board member barthelot hi board member ben fort hi vice chair anoni hi chair galvin hi let the record show that vote passed with six affirmative votes and board member right absent thank you that'll take care of item 9.1 we'll move now to item 9.2 director Burke thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 9.2 is a professional services agreement approval woodard and curran storm drain master plan and claire mires our stormwater and creeks manager will be presenting just wanted to remind the board that per a recent charter change which you will hear about uh the board now has uh some purview over the stormwater and creeks program and so that is why this item is coming before you today and i'll turn it over to uh miss mires here we go thank you very much director Burke again i'm claire mires i am the manager of the city's stormwater and creeks team i am very excited to be here today to request your approval on a professional services agreement for a storm drain master plan for the city of santa rosa so as director Burke alluded to before i described the project in the contracting question i wanted to give you a little background on our team um as you know until the recent passage of measure j the stormwater and creeks team fell within the purview of city council however measure j amended section 25 b of the city charter to include stormwater systems as within bp policy authority and direction so as a result we will now be bringing our items to you for approval starting with this contract today um you will be seeing a lot of our team in the coming months we're pretty busy um so i just wanted to give you a pretty brief overview of who we are and the work that we do and i will be back in i believe two weeks to give you a more in-depth presentation on our team so until then the stormwater and creeks team is a team of 11 uh full-time staff plus interns and the official mission i put on the slide and it is making santa rosa a better place by enhancing creek health through restoration and community involvement providing biological and engineering services and managing stormwater runoff to preserve and restore water quality and minimize flooding um broadly speaking our work centers around ensuring that our creeks are healthy uh and that the city it's doing its best to protect the natural environment her work is accomplished via numerous paths um some of which i put on the slide we ensure regulatory compliance pertaining to stormwater we do outreach and education to members of the community about pollution prevention and creek health um and what individuals can do to help we monitor water quality we respond to spills um we provide biological and engineering services to uh projects in the city and to departments in the city we restore creeks in the city um we run the city's creek stewardship program um in coordination with sunoma water to help the public understand the benefits of healthy creeks um and remove trash from waterways um and finally and most pertinent to why i'm here today uh we ensure that the city's storm drain infrastructure um is operational and adequate to prevent and reduce flooding within the city so something important to note is that unlike the rest of the water department we are not funded by the water enterprise um we have our own enterprise fund the stormwater assessment that funds the majority of our work um we get the stormwater enterprise funding via an annual charge placed on parcels within the city um and this fund was set up in 1988 as a long-term funding source to support creek restoration water quality improvements and drainage improvements so we brought in about 2.7 million dollars last year uh to fund the team's work and the rest of our funding comes from the city's general fund uh cip projects and grants so i'm here today to address the city's storm drain infrastructure system um it's an aging system it it has a lot of issues um this map shows the age of storm drain pipes in the city uh red shows pipes that are 60 years or older orange uh it's a little difficult to see but orange shows pipes that are 40 to 60 years old green is zero to 40 years and yellow um the date is unknown so you can see you know a significant portion of the pipes in our system are past their useful life or nearing the end of it um and what does this what does this look like in in reality um i've included a few photos of the kinds of issues that we see in the kinds of failing infrastructure um you can see in the top left we have a utility pipe a different utility pipe that is punched through a storm drain pipe uh in the top center you can see there are metal pipes that have eroded to the point where the bottom of the pipe doesn't exist anymore on the top right we have settlement between different pipe joints causing um a separation between the segments um and the bottom uh are tree roots that are growing right into the pipe so these are all conditions that reduce the capacity of flow and can result in flooding so i wanted to also include some some recent photos of flooding or photos of recent flooding um because we see some of these even during smaller storms these are photos from just this last month um the end of december and january um you know the flood water on the bottom left uh is uh on folton road and resulted in one full lane being closed for several days the other two photos are of private property and then you know adding to all of these problems the wildfires have really exacerbated the risk of flooding and in the city so you know we know the system needs fixing um but we don't currently have the data and the modeling necessary to understand where to best focus our efforts and how to prioritize the projects so um to address flooding issues and provide essential protection of life and health and safety um i'm here today to request support for a professional services agreement with woodard and kern to develop a storm drain master plan the goal of the master plan is to first fully understand the risk to public safety property and infrastructure um posed by the current storm drain system and and second to determine appropriate mitigation measures uh to protect the public our storm drain plan will do several things uh it will evaluate the condition of the over 340 miles of storm drain pipe uh and 17 000 storm drain structures in the city uh it will model the system um to support drainage review for new projects coming into the city we'll build an asset registry we will quantify the costs of replacing the aging infrastructure uh will rank projects proposed for maintenance and replacement and um we'll identify the funding needs and options for meeting those funding needs um so really it's it's essential to determine the best actions for how to mitigate the funding and how to pay for it to go over our process for selecting a consultant uh on october 13th 2022 uh our team released a request for proposals soliciting services for the storm drain master plan um on november 11th six proposals were received and on november 16th a review panel met to evaluate those proposals and that panel consisted of councilmember tom schwedholm uh sean mcneill deputy director of environmental services uh me uh and flannery banks our storm water assistant engineer so proposals were evaluated based on predetermined criteria responsiveness to the rfp project team qualifications um the adequacy of staff resources understanding of the work to be done and previous applicable experience and based on the evaluation we chose three consulting firms uh to interview so on december 8th that same group of reviewers along with lori urbanic our deputy director of engineering resources met um and conducted in-person interviews uh and made a final selection so based on those interviews woodard and kern um it was concluded that woodard and kern is the most qualified proposer um their interview was very impressive um and stood out for several reasons um they had very strong technical expertise their experts in the field of storm drain infrastructure evaluation um their modeling team includes esa who is doing the cities um doing the modeling for the santa rosa creek flood study and regulatory floodway which we will be back to tell you more about soon um so they already have a an understanding of the city's system um waterways and and current models um we liked their approach to funding strategies they showed a really nuanced understanding of the city's need to identify funding resources um and they demonstrated how they've used a storm drain master plan specifically to get public support for funding um we loved their approach to communication with the public the public outreach specialist they brought to the interview um that person was was outstanding uh and their presentation and proposal both really showed something that was important to us which was an ability to convey complex technical information in a way that's digestible to the public it needs to be able to be robust but a person who's not a storm drain engineer needs to be able to understand it because that's who we're looking for for support um and then they also showed excellent communication with city staff they showed leadership an ability to drive the project forward um and a responsiveness to our questions so in terms of contract funding and timeline um the storm water creek team has been saving for this project for several years um applying for several grants um in december of last year we were thrilled uh to be awarded five hundred thousand dollars um of community development block grant funding uh to develop the plan uh and then in addition we have saved about one point one million uh in storm water assessment funding and then funds from the southeast area development impact fees um so with this and the contract we anticipate being able to complete the plan by july of 2025 so after going through this process we feel that the award of this professional services agreement is in the best interest of the city um and it is recommended by the contract review subcommittee and water department that the board of public utilities approve a professional services agreement with watered and kern ink of san francisco california to develop a storm drain master plan in the amount of one million five hundred and seventy four thousand two hundred and four dollars thank you thank you miss mires now it opened it up for board member questions or comments as was stated this matter did come before the contract review subcommittee on january 25th and received a unanimous recommendation to the full board so any other board member questions or comments or member watts it's very exciting you were able to get that grant and get the funds to work on this project um it seems like this will be a really good match especially with the um company that was selected one thing that i had a question this is a very elementary question i am not a stormwater engineer so i'm earlier on in this recent batch of storms that we had kind of last year and remember our street had tons of leaves and my husband was going out cleaning up the leaves in the front area we were one of the only houses on our street to do that um and and it made me realize our street cleaning does not occur often in in our neighborhood and it doesn't the cars don't actually move to get street cleaning and so when i was looking at some of these these pictures and the just the aging infrastructure map as well it just made me kind of think about the fact that is this coordination not happening with like some of these elements that are probably causing some of these flooding and i'm assuming that this type of plan is probably one thing to to look at for that but someone who's just an average person in the community i think just connecting those dots and and being able to understand how it's connected to our larger system and issues that we're seeing in our infrastructure is really important and um i think that this is this is a positive way moving forward for that but just someone who's just a regular homeowner it was something that i noticed this last year for the first time um being a first time homeowner so i think that that's something that um looking at this proposal i'm sure will be um excited to see some work in that area yeah i agree that that's something that's important to our team is getting that messaging out about leaves and the system and what it does and then the plan will look at operations and maintenance of existing infrastructure and exactly those issues that you're talking about thank you for your presentation i appreciate um so the your diligence in the rfp process it was good it's good to hear that we had uh six respondents in that um interviews were held with three um i think that the proposal and the project out my most great um and i'm excited to kind of get into this as our first foray but because it's our first foray um i see that in the uh in the rollout that there's a plan to for um for two board of public for two bpu meetings and two plus city council meetings and i think that's something especially because it's our first um venture into this that it would help me at least and that i would very much welcome um more than two updates along the way oftentimes what happens is um especially for us non-engineers on the board that oftentimes we see that the the next meeting we have um a draft proposal will be brought forward and then we have to make a decision really really really soon after that um or then we end up sometimes with a project complication on the council's end and so um whether it's through staff i'm certainly not requesting that this uh that that the proposal be amended to to include more meetings but just um director berks decision on how how those updates can kind of come back along the way it would really it would help me i know and i would appreciate it so thank you absolutely and uh board member battenport thank you for that comment we'll definitely uh take that into consideration and figure out the best way to bring you updates uh we are planning to bring quite a number of updates on the stormwater and creeks team forward to the board uh to help get you all educated so you'll see a lot of it um but i will work with miss miers and we'll figure out the best way that we can also bring periodic updates on the master plan development to you all uh before it's finalized remember bartholome thank you and thank you for the excellent presentation um my question is around the annexation of the the moorland area and the county pockets is are those areas included in in the the proposal that was made um and the amount that was budgeted for or will that be added in later is that something that there will need to be a new rfp for if it indeed happens um yeah that's a great question they are not included in this rfp or the current plan um and depending on you know what is annexed and when we would need to do an additional or an an addendum to this storm drain master plan for those areas remember wells yes i wanted to to thank claire miers for putting together the the presentation it's thorough understandable and welcome aboard i think the uh stormwater and function and the uh the treatment plant have a lot of affinity in coordinating those makes a lot of sense and also um for focusing on understandability um when you selected the contractor i appreciate that as well and then i'm also thankful for a member bartholome's comment that if we look forward um we may need to expand the scope of the project thank you mr chairman thank you the other board member questions or comments all right i'll entertain a motion i'd like to make a motion i move that the uh i'll defend the presentation sorry move that the uh board of public utilities approve a professional services agreement with woodard and current incorporated of san francisco california to develop a storm drain master plan in the amount of one billion five hundred seventy four thousand two hundred four dollars a second we have a motion by board member well seconded by board member battenfort now open it up for public comment on items nine point two 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom for public comment and no public comments from council chamber all right may we have a roll call vote please certainly board member what's hi board member walsh hi board member bartholome hi board member battenfort hi vice chair noni hi chair galvin hi let the record show that this motion passes with six affirmative votes and board member right absent very good that'll take care of item nine point two thank you again for the presentation we'll now move to item ten which is public comment on non-agenda matters we'll now take public comments on item ten 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber thank you we have no referrals we have no written communications we do have one subcommittee report that i'm aware of because i'm going to give it and that's the contract review subcommittee met on january 25th we reviewed three agreements and recommended all three unanimously to the full board all three of them were on the agenda today first was the cooperative agreement between the city and sonoma water the second was the professional services agreement with woodard and current and the third was the proposed amendment to the meter upgrade project so any other subcommittee reports all right we'll now take public comment on item 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 manis there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber thank you any board member reports item number uh 14 all right we'll move then to item 15 which is the director's report director berk thank you chair galvin and members of the board i have a few things to report to the board today uh first uh since we are bringing you new storm water information i wanted to share some good news with you uh the california department of water resources recently informed the city that they are conditionally awarding santa rosa and the laguna to santa rosa foundation a grant of over 4.3 million dollars for the lower colgan creek restoration project phase three and this funding will be put towards design construction mitigation and public outreach for the project we're really excited about this because phase three will link two previous restoration areas together so that we'll have a continuous riparian habitat enhancement area totaling 23 acres and extending 1.3 miles along the creek also allowing us to restore the natural ecological value of lower colgan creek as a critical part of the laguna to santa rosa and russian river watersheds uh the project will also help prevent future property damage by upgrading the creek from a 25 year to a 100 year flood capacity and expand community involvement education and riverine stewardship through programs for project based learning community art and hands-on volunteerism so we are very excited about this and we should be getting an actual grant agreement from the state very soon i also wanted to let the board know that we have begun our process for budget preparation for the water department and so we will be looking to schedule budget subcommittees very soon once we know who is going to be appointed chair for this board we'll work on getting subcommittee assignments through the chair and get a number of those meetings scheduled and as a reminder that this year with the change in the charter not only will the bpu be reviewing and considering a recommendation for our three enterprise funds that you normally see water sewer and regional you'll also be getting the storm water budget for review and recommendation as well we anticipate that we will be bringing a study session to you in your first meeting in april and a recommendation at your second meeting in april wanted to also let the board know that we have ceased discharging at the moment we started i believe on january 13th and we had a total of 86.9 million gallons of tertiary traded recycled water that was discharged from deltapond the discharge stopped last week on january 26th during the discharge we were able to calibrate our discharge compliance model which we are required to do once every five years and with the upcoming storm we are looking to see if we may also do a small discharge to calibrate our motto for meadow lane and still help us reduce some storage as we are just about 1.2 billion gallons in storage which is quite high for us at this time and then last i wanted to let the board know i'm going to end with good news actually great news as well on january 26th our laboratory supervisor robert wilson was awarded the supervisor of the year award from the california water environment association redwood chapter redwood empire chapter pardon me cwa empowers wastewater professionals as they protect california's most critical resource which is water it was founded in 1928 and unites over 10 000 professionals throughout california to address real-time issues develop and deliver cutting-edge training raise awareness of the profession and shape the future of wastewater management and resource recovery zena rose water is a member of cwa ea and we participate in the local redwood empire chapter and each year the chapter recognizes leaders from agencies with various awards and uh again robert wilson was awarded the supervisor and of the year award which recognizes successful mentoring of team members professional development and effective communication so we are very proud of robert's and i just wanted to share that good news with the board and that's my report and i'm happy to answer any questions open up for any board member questions or comments hearing none we'll open it up for public comments on item number 15 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 manus there are no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber thank you that concludes our agenda for today i'd like to adjourn our meeting today in honor of former better board member christ grable for his many years of service not only to the community but to his six years of service to the board of public utilities and santa rosa water so we are adjourned in his honor thank you mr chairman