 Let's go ahead and get it rolling. Holly, go ahead and take the roll call please. Director Fulse. Here. Director Henry. Here. Director Moran. Present. Director Farris. Present. President Swan. Here. Okay, terrific. Rick, do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda? That does no addition or deletions to tonight's agenda. Now is the time for oral communication. So if any of the attendees, and it looks like we have about six, have any thing that they would like to comment on that's not on the agenda, please raise your hand and we'll recognize you. I see no hands. So we'll move on to unfinished business. Oh, Rick, where did you go from here? Let me just quick open this. Tonight, we have Amy Holworth, who's with the municipal resource group who provided the district's governance training, the workshop of July 22nd. She's here to do a training debriefing with the board. And with that, I will turn it over to Amy. First off, Amy, thanks for coming tonight. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure. Great to be with all of you again. I guess we're all getting used to this new world. So as Rick mentioned, municipal resource group is the firm that I work for. We were contracted to fulfill a 2016 grand jury requirement to hold a workshop on dealing with contentious issues. And I know the board knows all this, but I do want to let those in the public understand what we did. Since this board is completely different than the board from 2016, and the general manager is different than the general manager in 2016, I suggested framing the workshop around good governance practices, rather than simply dealing with contentious issues. Because I think for the most part, this board is, well, I'm quite confident you're doing a much better job than a prior board was on that topic. So with the goal that constant attention to good governance will help prevent contention that is toxic. So that was how I framed the workshop. So for the public to understand, I had traveled up to Boulder Creek in February and spent over an hour with each board member individually talking to them, asking them the same questions, listening to them. I spent lots of time on the phone with the general manager, Rick, of course. And I also consulted with the council, Gina Nichols, on a couple of different occasions so that I could understand what the requirements had been, but also what was going on currently. And I gotta tell you, I see a group of people that really care about their community and are really committed to working hard to make things better for all the San Lorenzo Valley great payers. So I was all geared up to design a workshop and come back in person in March and about nine days before that happened, the state basically shut down. And I think we all still held out hope, well, maybe it'll be three weeks, maybe it'll be a month longer. So we kept postponing in the hopes that I could actually come back up there and do this in person like we're all used to. And finally, I think the decision, I think you all had a discussion frankly, let's do it virtually. It was no one's first choice to wanna do this virtually, but I commend the board for pushing forward and making this happen. You not only fulfill the requirement, but I think it's good practice to check in on all this stuff every now and then. And I think the public should understand that, that this board was committed to this process. So I did the interviews. I did research looking at a lot of the board minutes, the grandeur report, various news articles to try to understand what had happened and then what was needed now. I also prepared the board members for the workshop by sending them lots of free work as if they don't have enough to do to get ready for regular board meetings. I sent them about seven articles and I sort of apologized for that, but I actually, I was surprised and pleased that this board did their work because they had all, they all commented on different aspects of those articles. So just so the public understands the nature of this work, there was an article beyond ethics establishing a code of conduct to guide your counsel. We looked at the work that Scott's Valley had done in the past and creating their best practices. We, there was an article on exceptional counsels. Well, this is a board, the same principles apply. 10 traits of effective leadership. And one that I think really seemed to resonate and maybe I'm wrong was 10 traits of an effective council member from the municipal research and services center. And so that's kind of how we began the talk. So I broke down our workshop into the following subject matter areas. So we talked about the attributes of the ideal governing board member. And then we talked a lot about the notion of campaigning and how that's different than governing because we're in election season or campaign season, right? You probably have people that are signed up to run for your board seats. And I think that is a very good thing to keep top of mind right now. We had a contentious issues discussion. We talked a bit about board member and staff roles defining those and the differences in those. And I thought that we would create some team norms at the end of the day based on all these discussions. And, you know, truly you all didn't seem to think and I, that's fine. I agree with you, it's not wrong that you didn't need any additional team norms beyond the code of conduct or civility that you have in your board policies. So that's how I broke it down. And despite the fact that we did this all via Zoom, I was pleased that we did have discussion. In some ways, I actually feel like as the facilitator, I could see you all a little better and get a read, you know, because that's what you're really trying to do is trying to say, hey, you know, Lou seems like he wants to say something here. And I really felt that I could actually see that better than if I was in a room standing back here and trying to capture what you all were feeling. And so, you know, I think despite its challenges, it's hard sometimes muting and muting for all of us. I think it went really well from my point of view. We launched right into the Ideal Board Member based on some of those articles. And I just, I want to remind you all what you said, not what I said, but what went up on the whiteboard, the Zoom whiteboard, which I found challenging, but I mastered I think. So you said collectively, I can't remember who said what. The Ideal Board Member represents everyone in the district whether they voted for you or not. The Ideal Board Member listens openly. And I think that meant that avoids premature bias is really trying to just hear what the speaker is saying and not try to assume the intended speaker. The Ideal Board Member has a history of community involvement. The Ideal Board Member respects everyone, respects staff and staff's time. And ideally they would have experience with water issues or be willing to learn. And what you all said was you really couldn't believe how much time it takes to be a good board member, right, that when you're campaigning, we all know campaigns can be intense. And you think it takes a lot of time, but then you realize how much there is to do as a board member, how much there is to learn, how much there is to be on top of and aware of. And again, you're also committed to the district, you're willing to spend that time. So very commendable. So pivoting to campaigning versus governing. Here's what you said. Again, this is not good or bad, but you make campaign promises. And so then can you fulfill those promises? Are they possible? Did you know everything that you now know as you're governing? Maybe, maybe not. You learn, and again, you learn when you're elected, how much time it takes. So going back to what I said. In a campaign, you're trying to win and we talked about differentiating yourself from other candidates or even the current board. And when governing, you're trying to find common ground, right, to build consensus or get the votes. And we talked a little bit about how differentiating isn't necessarily divisive or contentious. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. So I appreciated that conversation. Also the notion that the people that you're running against in a campaign are opponents, but people are running to do the best they can for the district. And campaign is short-term, governing is long-term. And at the end of the day, governing in public is really hard, right? That's, I think, very hard. So these were all your comments. I had plenty, but I want you to understand that you actually really did talk about all this stuff. So again, there wasn't consensus that you guys needed a separate code of conduct for your meetings. I know that when I came in February, I had a lot of questions posed to me from various board members about how would I handle this? How do I, is it okay for me to say this? Is it? And I have been, for the public, I didn't really explain. I was an elected official for 16 years. So I spent eight years on the school board in Manhattan Beach, California and eight years on the city council. And so I have my own kind of toolkits. So I was really helping people along. So what I found is that between February and July, a lot of you had either taken a heart what I had said or found the experience such that you were able to now say, I don't want to say anybody's name because it wasn't any one person, but hey, Joe, okay, you made that point. Let's move on. You felt like you had language and confidence and that governing and public thing you were starting to be able to do. So I was really grateful to see that. You are as a whole interested in creating an atmosphere that avoids toxic contention. And I use the word toxic because there was also an opinion that contention isn't always a bad thing. And I only disagree because it's a definition of a word and that contention to me is a more angry disagreement, but certainly disagreement is not bad. And I encouraged during this session when we were talking about code of conduct for meetings that you really use the Brown Act as a tool for transparency and also how to speak and interact with the public because when you public comment is made, it's so natural to want to respond to it, especially if it is, and we talked about this, if it's somebody says something completely erroneous or offensive and just to, technically you can say certain things, it's your right, but to figure out ways to do that that is listening to the audience member because they have concerns and they may be really angry at you. It doesn't mean they're wrong, but it's still unpleasant. So trying to understand how to do that and using the Brown Act to facilitate that. I, we talked about how it's still okay to ask questions of the public speaker, clarifying questions are great. And the last thing we sort of talked about in that whole area is that there's a real spectrum of how different board members, this board deal with pointed criticism. It's not easy no matter what, no matter how thick-skinned you are, no matter how much of a sense of humor you have. It's really hard, but people have to allow people in the public to say what they're gonna say. So those were my, the white board notes that you all came up with. And the last point I wanna make, and it seems like I am going to take up your whole time, hopefully not too late, is that I want the public to really appreciate how hard it is to be, say an elected official and do your business in public like all of you have to do, right? And how to have a workshop such as this, all of you I believe have been in private enterprise where you've had a workshop or a facilitator come in and it's, you can talk about things and in a business setting, but that's private, it's not public. There aren't political ramifications in the way that there are for you. And so I want the public to understand that what you guys did in a full day, on the 22nd, by the way, right? Six full hours on Zoom. I think we all deserve a medal for that. It was very hard. And I really appreciate what you guys went through to get through that day. So I hope that as you continue doing the work, even though there is election, you have a lot of work to do in post-election, no matter who's elected to the board, you will continue to develop your own best practices, your own team norms. Keep thinking about this as a process that's going on because no matter how good you are, my opinion, you can always do better. And it gets easier as you have more time in the chair. So I hope you will continue to commit to that practice. So I think that's really all I have. I've submitted a full report that says basically exactly what I just said and you can all get a copy of that. And I'm open for questions from the board members. If anyone thinks that I misrepresented something, please let me in the public now. But thank you very much. Thank you, Amy. I think you characterized the event very well. And thank you for facilitating and your time and great opportunity to learn from you. Any other comments from anybody on the board or any attendees at this point? Yeah. Can I make a comment? You can and you don't even have to raise your hand, Lois. I don't. No, you just spit it out. Amy, I imagine you don't have board members normally who are as old as I am. But after six hours of this, I could hardly see for two days. It was terrible, terrible strain on my eyes. Believe it. And I mean, that's not your fault. But I'm just telling you that if you wind up with somebody, you know, Methuselah like me, you might wanna tell them they need to do something to protect their eyes. That's great feedback, Lois. I appreciate that and I'm sorry to hear it. Thank you, Lois. Any other comments? I'll make a comment. Here, go ahead, Rick. Thank you. I wanna thank Amy for all she did as well. First, and I may be repeating some of the things that Amy said, but first, this was a legal obligation I felt we had for the 2018 grand jury report to make a response to that, right? And as you said, Amy, no one on this present board or staff was on that subject to that grand jury report. But this board felt an obligation to be proactive and to continue to commit to doing the best we can and to promote civic involvement. That's how I felt about this whole process. We wanna promote civic involvement. And I think one of the things that I'm taking away from this is you always have to be, that has to be in the back of your mind. You're thinking about particular issues and what to say, but it really matters about how you say it and how you address people. So thank you for all your help and just thank you. Lois, I really appreciate that. And I think you're so right. And it's hard to remember. I mean, it's not hard to remember it. I mean, you serve the public, but it's a discipline, right? So it does take work. So appreciate that, those words very much. Great. Thank you, Amy, for facilitating and it's been a pleasure meeting you and working with you. So thanks again for all of your efforts and your time. Likewise. Okay, Rick, let's next on the agenda. Okay, thank you, Chair. Next on the agenda is item 5B, prepared by the Director of Finance and Business Services. It's the update on the rate assistant program. There's no recommendation, this is strictly informational. We'll be bringing back information on this pilot program, every board meeting until the board directs otherwise. Effective 715, 2020, the board approved a rate assistance program for water customers. As of 728, 2020, there are 14 approved applications and six applications pending additional paperwork. And we did roll out, I would consider a pretty good considerable outreach campaign through Facebook, Press Banner, I think next door, several of the different applications that are available to the district. And I'll try to answer any questions if I can or our finance manager is on vacation. Board members, any questions? I'll go. You're good. Steve, thank you. Hi, Chris. Not right now then, okay, excuse me. So with only 20, perhaps 20 people signed up, it's continual, right? So we're making room for other people to get on later on. We still have, we have a $25,000 budget, 20 people who aren't gonna eat that up. So are we still advertising or are we just letting things kind of generate by themselves here? I do believe staff, after the first two, three weeks, then we'll do a re-advertising. We didn't wanna go right back out and re-advertise right away just in case we got a wave of applications, but we will continue advertising through our social media and our other forms of outreach. Plus, I think, and staff are talking to customers when they call in for assistance on payment arrangements and issues with their bill. I know our staff are informing customers when they call in. Great. Bob, you have a question or comment? Just a couple of comments. I mean, clearly I would like to see the people that have historically the most difficulty paying their bills be the predominant beneficiaries of this program. And hopefully that will be the case once it's fully subscribed. Maybe we can take a look at that at least at a percentage level. I did ask Stephanie during the Budget and Finance Committee if this rate assistance was retroactive and she said, no, just going forward. So given that we had assumed 208 people basically for the full year, it's very possible if we don't see a ramp up of applicants here shortly that we'll actually end up with some money left over. Assuming we stated to the 208 maximum figure. That's something to take a look at a little bit further down the line. Thank you, Bob. Any other comments, questions from board members? And we'll continue reporting this back to the board and the Finance Committee. Gina, you have a question? Yeah, thank you, Chair Svann. I just wanted to remind everyone, including the met the attendees who were in the audience to please not use the chat function for Brown Act reasons or for transparency. It's, we really wanna have one discussion going on with the board instead of multiple discussions. So if you could refrain from using the chat, that's much appreciated. Thank you, that was it. Thanks, Gina. Okay, your hand is full up, Gina. Let's go to the attendees. We have a question. Jim Moser, you are recognized. You're still on mute, Jim. Can you hear me now? Yes. Well, first I would just wanna thank the board for going in the previous agenda item. Just I wanna thank the board for doing an all day session on contentious issues and working hard on this. And I feel there's has been a whole lot of progress. And I just wanna commend the board for the work you're doing to try to improve relationships both within the board and with the public. I think it really has, your work on this has shown. So thank you. As to the rate assistance program, I of course am a little disappointed that we have so few people signed up so far. I'm wondering whether it would be worth considering spending a little money. I don't know what it costs to put a notice within the bills or to send something on the online bills to people. That might be a good way to reach people. I don't know. And I also wondered whether if it really is gonna be this slow whether you might wanna consider doubling the amount of assistance and lowering the number of people who would get it in order to make this really useful. Because $10 a month is, it's helpful, but $20 I think would really get people's attention. So I just wanted to throw that out as a possibility. Since I think we all have a shared concern here, which is that during this pandemic and with people facing severe, many people facing severe financial issues that this may be an opportunity to give folks a little relief. The other thing, Rick, I'm not sure if, I know Stephanie had done this research. I'm not sure. I'm not real familiar with it, but I know the PG&E when we looked at that, those numbers, a number of people in the Valley who may qualify for the PG&E reduction in rates and it may be in our publicity, we could help people even more if we alert people. There's also this substantial reduction in electricity and gas rates for some people who aren't taking advantage of it. And it just may be that the folks who need this most are the hardest to reach. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. So, Rick, didn't Stephanie say that this went out in the, like a newsletter with bills? I do believe so, yes. And I'm not, you know, Carly's not on, most senior staff are not on the, at the meeting tonight. Otherwise I would ask Carly because she handled the outreach end with Chatterbox and Stephanie. But I do believe we tried to get the message out and I do believe we even, I think it was even in on the bills, but I will double check that and have more information for you at the next budget and finance meeting. When we notified the press banner, was that in the form of a press release or just a notice of some sort? And I'm wondering, maybe we should send something like that over to, let the staff discuss it or Carly discuss it over to like the radio station, you know, let them make mention of it. You know, there's a good, a good following. I'm sure Rosie will talk about it. Yes, yeah, so, you know, I do believe I saw it was like a block, a block statement. You know, it was definitely, it wasn't just hidden in the press banner. It was a pretty good statement about it. Yeah, I remember seeing it, I think. So, so we can revisit outreach again on it and no problem with that and see what we can figure out. It's kind of nice to have a little bit of a slow start because it gives staff a chance to get familiar with the process. They weren't all flooded, but we, you know, definitely we want to see, we'd like to see the program maxed out. There's no doubt about it. Okay, we have another comment. Rivka and Tina, I saw you had your hand up a couple of times. So if you still have a question, you can go right after Rivka Lund. Rivka, you're on mute, there you go. You're back on mute, Rivka. Can you hear me now? Yes. Great, I was just saying I received my bill about nine hours ago and there's no notice of it online when you get it via email. So if you guys could figure out a way to add it as attachment or in the block of the email itself, that might also help if people are receiving their bills electronically. Okay, good, we'll let them know. Thank you. Tina, you're still here. Thank you, Steve. I was just gonna concur with Jim about, you know, the numbers are low and that's disappointing, but I think that a little bit more word of mouth would help and then encouraging the staff with anybody who's having trouble paying their bill to talk to those people. And, you know, to get, I think over time word of mouth will be helpful, but I also paid my bill electronically and did not get any sort of notice that that was an option. And I agree with Rivka that maybe we should put it in an email form with either with the bill or just as a general email. If that's something we wanna encourage people to do. That's fine. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Because I think we're simultaneously, sorry, we're simultaneously telling people to sign up for electronic statements and then not giving them notices for the other things that are happening, right? Right. Is there had that contest going on? Thank you. Beth, you had the comment, your hands up. Hi, thank you. I also wanted to suggest, I think it's gonna take us a few months of advertising this program to get people going and understanding what is available. But I also wondered if it makes sense to reach out to some of the organizations in our community like Valley Church is United and map resources where people go to often, often go to get some help. It seems like we might wanna make some direct contact with them to let them know that this program is being offered. That's an excellent suggestion. Thank you. April. Hi, thank you. I like Beth's suggestion and I wanna add to the discussion. I get a paper bill and I pay it automatically but I still like to have the piece of paper and in the special message on the top left, it talks about when late fees will begin. It talks about shut off or non-payment being suspended. It mentions contacting the district for assistance but it doesn't specifically mention a rate payer assistance program based on care guidelines. So that might be a good place to start in if anybody ever reads that. Thank you. Thank you. April, that's another good suggestion. Okay. Anything else? Any other comments? Any more comments from the board? No? Okay. Steve, I have a comment. Okay, Lou. I would like to second Jim Moser's suggestion. I think it's a good one that if we continue to run low in enrollment for the program, we should seriously consider upping the contribution per person because our intent is not to understand the amount we've allotted. It's to help people. Completely agree, Lou. Okay, any other comment? Anything else? Okay. All right. Moving on, Rick. Okay. Moving on to item 6A is the public committee member for the budget and finance committee. As per board policy, committee appointments will be reviewed by the full board at a board of directors meeting in December of each calendar year or as soon as thereafter practical. Applications to serve as a public member will be available at the district office or online at the district's website. Public member applications will be reviewed by the full board. Each committee member shall be appointed by a simple majority vote of the board. Regardless of the start date, terms of public members of the administration, the administrative, budget and finance, engineering and environmental committees shall end on December 31st of each year. On June 25th, 2020, the district secretary received an email from public member Steve Archisel, resigning from the budget and finance committee as a public member of the committee as he's moving out of the area. The district has advertised the opening for public members to the budget and finance committee July 13th through July 30th. Attached in your agenda are two applications that were received. We do believe and we would want to confirm this that the size of the budget and finance committee is four. The makeup is two board members and two public members. So I do believe that the committee or the board wishes to, they could appoint both. And with that, I'll turn it back over to the chair. Thank you, Rick. I have my paw up. You were the first in line, Lois, so feel free to share your comments. Okay, I think we ought to accept both people who sent in their applications. One is a CPA and the other one, Union person right up my alley. So I think they could be good additions to the committee. Thank you, Lois. And to agree with you. Bob, you have your hand up next. Yeah, regarding the number of people in the committee. Darth Vader, hang on. We're gonna give you a minute to do something and fix your bandwidth there. Yeah, I'm going to rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock. Is that a matter? No. In the meantime, Lou, would you like to share a comment or two? Yes, I would. I would like to weigh in and second Lois's motion that we actually put both candidates onto the committee. But I realized that we're waiting for Bob to make comment and others to make comments as well. Sure, that's fine. Thank you, Lou. Rick, you're ready, head? Yes, while we're waiting for Bob, who is the chair of the budget and finance? I am. Oh, okay. And you support this? Yes, I do. Yeah, well, you know, I've been involved in this committee process and it started out as one member, one public member. And I'm glad to see that this board has increased it to as many members that are want to be and it encourages civic involvement. So I would support both members being considered for the position. Yes. Thank you, Rick. I see Bob has returned. Bob, let's save people sound like James Earl Jones. Can't do that, but is that better? Much better. Better. Yeah, so I think Rick had already covered what I was gonna say about the flexible nature of our committee assignments as part of the board policy. Like Lois, I mean, I'm echoing what Lois says. The talent, excuse me, the talent that is available in our community is astounding and I'm very pleased and humbled that Rivka and Stephanie are volunteering to join our committee. I think they bring tremendous strengths to those positions based on what I saw in their resume. So I'm looking forward to voting on both of them. Thank you, Bob. We're gonna go to the candidates for the applicants in just a moment and let them have an opportunity to address the board and say anything they'd like to. But I see Gina has got another comment. Gina, you are recognized. Yeah, thank you, Steve. I just wanted to ask the board for purposes of a motion related to this item. It would be very helpful if the motion clarifies the total number of seats on the committee, including the number of board members and the number of public committee members, just because the board policy manual allows that number to float, which is great, but it can lead to confusion. So it's helpful when doing this to make it clear what the total number of seats are. Thank you. Thank you. So should I say my motion is? Yeah, one, just a second, Lois, but yes, you'll do that as soon as we give the two applicants an opportunity to say hi. Okay. All right, so let's, let me go to Rivka. I'm gonna recognize you and give you an opportunity just to say hello and anything you care to comment to the board regarding the committee. Hi, my name is Rivka Lund. It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I heard about the open position from Bob who lives down the street from me. I'm a relatively new resident of the valley. I've only been here for three years, but I have a passion for water conservation and I love numbers. I am a CPA, former auditor, and I do a lot of program management as well. So it would be great to join and I'm happy to participate. And thank you for your vote of confidence that we can be a part of the team. Thank you, Rivka. Appreciate that. Stephanie, Wine Garden, you have an opportunity to say hi and any other comments you'd care to share. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, good evening. My name is Stephanie Wine Garden. I've lived in Boulder Creek for over 14 years with my husband and two daughters who tend BCE and now I have a middle schooler. You know, we love Boulder Creek just like most of our neighbors. We love the outdoors. We spend a lot of time outdoors when we're not working and doing things around the house. As my resume shows, I've spent 25 years in banking, much of that in operations, which includes some budget, some finance, a lot of audit, a lot of policy and procedure. Currently, I'm a stay-at-home mom so I attend to our operations and budgets at home. I regularly volunteer at the school for the girls and I'm on the membership committee at our church and we just love this community and I think that this committee would be a great way for me to serve and give back to our community so I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you, Stephanie, I appreciate that. And Tina, I would like to thank you for your patience as I skipped over you twice here so you now have an opportunity to share whatever you would like to share or comment. I'm grateful that these two people are excited about this committee and I'm glad that they have great experience. What I'm confused about is that I also applied for this committee and I have no, there's no recognition of my application. I applied weeks ago so and I may have been lost in the mail or something like that, that I didn't get an acknowledgement from Holly so yeah, I'm just a little bit confused. Sorry, this might have occurred. Do we have any, I don't know. Mr. Secretary, I think Holly would like to say something. Yeah. Hi, I did not receive anything from you, Tina. There was nothing in the mail, nothing on an email. Okay, I'm happy, like I said, I'm happy about the other candidates, that's great. And it's okay if I'm not serving on this committee, I'm just a little bit confused, that's all. No, did not receive anything. Tina, how did you send it? Did you send an email or a US postal or both? Sorry, I sent it through the mail. Yeah, I printed it out and filled it out. I couldn't seem to fill it out like on my computer so that's how I did it. Well, I'm terribly sorry that occurred to you on the positive side, we've got three and a half months and you'll have another chance to participate again, I guess. Do we have, Gina, do you have any comments on this or do we have any kind of an issue here? No, there's no issue. I believe that if the application had been received, it would have been included in the packet. I'm not offended, I was just like a little lost, yeah. No, that's very understandable. I can certainly understand that and sympathize with you. Okay, all right, well, thank you. Thank you, Gina. I guess there's nothing to do with this other than get back to the business of voting. So, Lois. To make my motion clear. You get to make a motion and include all the things that. I make a motion that the Budget and Finance Committee is made up of two board members and two committee members, Stephanie and Ricky. And the, should I say in this motion and remind that anybody we put on a committee right now, their time on that committee ends December 31st. Should I do that, Gina? That's fine, Director Henry. The Board Policy Manual is controlling in that regard. Okay. I'll second the motion. Yeah, okay. To amend the motion a little bit we're talking about, this particular committee will have three public representatives and two board members representing it. And you're recommending that both of the applicants be added to the committee. Correct, Lois? Right. We don't have three applicants. You have one existing member. No, he resigned. He's retouched. He had his last meeting. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He resigned. Okay. So as she said, we'll have four members now, two each. Right, gotcha. Okay, and you seconded it. And he did a great job and he deserves a bow to thanks. Yes. Yes, I did second. Okay, let's move to Holly and you will record the vote, Holly, please. Director Fawkes. Gina has her hand up them. Oh, sorry, Gina? I just wanted to clarify. So it'll have four members and four seats. I believe that's consistent with the motion that's on the table. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. All right. Director Fawkes. Yes. Director Henry. Yes. Director Moran. Yes. Director Ferris. Aye. President Swan. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay, Rick, what's next? All right, we have item 6B, which is the employees, both the classified employees unit, Memorandum Understanding and the Management Supervisor and Employees Unit. And to present this item, Councilor Nichols will present this item to the board. Thank you. So as you can see in the memo, well, if you'll refer to the memo, you'll see that it has links to both the Memorandum of Understanding between the district and its management employee group and the link to the Memorandum of Understanding with the classified employees union. All of the employees in the district are members of one of those two groups, except for the district manager. Both documents set forth most of the terms and conditions of employment of the folks in those respective groups. Both documents come up for potential renegotiation starting in about a month. The window for giving notice of intent to make any modifications to those, to either of those MOUs starts on September 2nd and it closes on October 2nd. The district manager has obtained information from each of the two employee groups that neither one of them intends to request to enter into negotiations regarding the MOUs and what that means under the terms of the MOUs is that they will automatically renew on their current terms for another year starting this January through the end of 2021 with the caveat that if the district wishes to open the MOUs for negotiation, it may do so. And the reason we're talking about this item in open session is that under the Brown Act, the only way to conduct a closed session with respect to labor negotiations is to first appoint negotiators and then we can conduct closed sessions where the board meets with negotiators and instructs them regarding the district's negotiating position. So the purpose of this open session item is to determine if the board wants to give notice of intent to renegotiate or modify either or both of the MOUs and appoint negotiators for that purpose. And it would be typical to appoint the district manager for the role of negotiator. And I'm available to serve in that role as well if the board desires. And with that, I'll answer any questions the board may have about this item. Gina, okay, do we have any questions for Gina? Gina, is there any? Okay. I did. Bob is first, Lou is second, Rick, you're third, I'll be fourth. Okay. Oh, Bob. Thanks, Steve. Gina, so assuming that neither side opens negotiations, what is the sort of net effect for next year relative to, as you were saying, terms remain in effect? Are there, are there raises involved? Other changes in the agreement? Sure, yeah, I'm happy to address that. The main, well, the agreements will stay in place exactly as written, but with one caveat, I suppose, which is at the very end of the agreements, if you look at them, there's a salary schedule that you'll see there. And I believe the last one that the attached agreement was for 2018, they were updated for the first couple or few years of the agreement with COLA amounts that went into effect under the agreements each year. New tables haven't been issued recently, but essentially what happens is that those salary tables remain in effect except that the annual COLA that applies under each of the two MOUs gets added or multiplied against the salary schedule to create a new salary schedule for the current year. Okay, so what you're saying is that whatever the salaries are that are in place now will get raised 3% starting January 1st. Yeah, for the classified unit, the number of the value is 3%, each year the salary table and all the values in the salary table go up by 3%. For the management MOU, it's not a set 3%. There's a inflationary index that's used, which is the San Francisco Area Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI number. That was 3.7% for last year and it's 2.0% for this year. So essentially the management employee salary table will go up by 2% in January, if no changes are made to the MOU. Great, thank you. Lou, your turn. Thanks, Steve. Gina, is there any limit to the number of negotiators that we can nominate? And also, is there any restriction on the qualification for those negotiators? There is not. No restrictions and no set qualification. Thank you. Thank you, Lou. Rick, you were next. Yes, thank you. For Gina again. So how long is the MOU contract for? The original term was three years. The three years expired at the end of 2019. No, I'm sorry, it expired at the end of, yeah, that's right. The three years expired at the end of 2019. So about six months ago, after the expiration of the initial three years, it gets renewed automatically if not for another year, if not open. So last year when neither party gave notice, it renewed automatically for another year through the end of 2020. And if neither party gets noticed this year, it'll renew automatically for another year through the end of 2021. And that could be for a longer period of time as well. Just keep on rolling over. That's right. It will keep on rolling over in theory forever if no party ever gives notice of an intent to renegotiate or modify it. Okay, and just for clarity here. So the COLA for this year, well, it's pegged to the inflation index, which is 2%. And so what we read as a 3% COLA will actually be 2% for this year? Well, for the classified employees, it's a fixed 3% each year. So they'll get 3% and for the management employees, it's pegged to an inflationary index, which will be 2.0% for this year as of the beginning of January. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Gina, my question was answered in that discourse. So thank you. Any other comments from the board or discussion areas, or should we hear from the, we can hear from the attendees first and then we can come back and discuss some more. Do we have any comments from the attendees on this subject? I don't see any hands coming up. We'll go back to the board. Okay. Okay, so board, fellow board members, what are our thoughts with respect to identifying negotiators, should we want to? Lou? Yeah, thank you, Steve. Gina, one more question. Is there any effect to the benefits that you, cause you were really addressing the salary, correct? I mean, is there any additional impact to the benefits, benefit section of the compensation? The automatic renewal won't have any impact on the benefits, they'll remain at current levels unless changed via negotiation. Thank you. Bob? Yeah, but of course the cost for those benefits goes up every year by some percentage, 5%. I think it was last year or something like that. There is an inflationary impact there as well. Right. In the MOU? It's the way I understand it from Stephanie is the benefits have a particular package and the cost of those package from our insurance carriers goes up every year by some amount. And that amount can be basically whatever the insurance carrier decides it's gonna be. I think the last couple of years it's been relatively modest, but I believe before that it was substantial. So it really is, it's gonna be variable until we hear from them what the rates are gonna be, we don't really know. I think that happens, I forget exactly when that's gonna happen, but it'll be part of the budget committee processes we start looking at next year's budget. So what do we think we want to do, fellow board members? Do we have a feeling one way or the other whether we want to renegotiate with the employees and management or do we want to let it ride as it has been given the circumstances in the country and in the state. There's a lot of financial pressure on everybody in a lot of different areas. And I don't know that this wouldn't be one of those opportunities where it might be prudent to take a look at the agreements that are currently in place. Anybody else have any similar thoughts or other thoughts? Lowest. Lowest. I'm not for negotiating. The staff doesn't want to negotiate and I respect their feelings on that. So I'm not for negotiating. I, our staff's been through a lot in the, I mean, first they had the PG and E outings and they were working themselves into exhaustion making sure everybody had water. And now they've been dealing with this virus but they're still out there doing their job. And I'm really proud of our staff and if they don't want to negotiate, I don't want to force the issue. Thank you, Lois. Other thoughts? Bob, you had your hand up for a moment. Oh, I think Lois covered it pretty well. Okay. So in lieu of not hearing any motions to appoint negotiators, then I'm guessing that we, I guess the motion is, do we need a motion to not appoint somebody? Gina? No. If the board is not going to appoint somebody, there's no action that needs to be taken. Okay. Then not seeing any hands, nothing from the attendees or panelists. Then we'll just move on. Rick, what's new? What's next? What's next is the consent agenda. I'm sorry. Do we need to take that to the public? Okay. I think you did. You did. You did. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. Next would be consent agenda, Chair Fong. And in which we have the minutes of the Board of Directors meeting for July 16th. Right. And district reports. From the minutes. In the minutes, okay. District reports. Anybody want to comment on them or shall we just accept them as is? Okay. No written communication. I just had one question on district reports. Yeah. So, Rick, could you give us a quick rundown on where we are in the construction projects just for the public's benefit here? A quick rundown, okay. Well, as quick as you can make it. I think it's an important topic since we shouldn't be getting close to breaking ground. Okay. You're referring to the Pipeline Projects. The Pipeline Projects. Yeah, the two that are scheduled for this year. Don't get a heart attack over the rest. I think we won an hour today at engineering committee and barely scratched them, but it was a good discussion. The 2020 pipelines that are in construction or have been out to bid and been awarded to Anderson Pacific will break ground starting Monday on Hillside Terrace and Fern, which is North Boulder Creek, out in the Riverside Grove area. I do believe it's roughly 1500 linear feet of eight inch main. We have done extensive outreach with letters and emails to the customers that will be affected in the construction area. I did emails up to tonight and there's a kickoff meeting, construction meeting on site starting at 7.30 Monday morning. As soon as they complete the Hillside, they move straight to California Drive and do the California Drive, which is roughly, I think 2000 plus linear feet of six inch. So we're breaking ground. The other two 2020 Pipeline Projects are in design, which are the Highway 236 Big Basin Way project that the design consultant engineers are finishing up on the design of that project. And the second project is the Quail Hollow project that I do believe has been designed and is going through, I think, the final parts of environmental. Both of those projects will be bitted late fall and break construction early spring. We're moving right along on those two projects. Those are the two major projects of the four Pipelines. And when do we expect construction to be completed on California Drive? I don't have that in front of me. I have no worries, but it's before the rain. I think by the end of the year that the four Pipeline, or the two Pipeline Projects are supposed to be completed in 2020. Okay, great. Well, it's an easy project. So I imagine, I think it was 59 days for Hillside until I imagine it'd be a little bit longer than that for California. California Drive is gonna be a much easier project because the traffic is not as restrictive as Hillside. Hillside's very one lane, at least California Drive, I think you'll be able to. And there's several ingress and egress, so it's not one way in, one way out. A lot of loops on California Drive, flat ground. It'll go, I think, quicker than the Hillside project. And Mr. Moran will be straw bossing it all the way. Right, he's gonna be the go-to guy in the neighborhood, so we're prepping him. I'm an age stand out front, the whole nine yards. It'll be popular. I want a hard hat and a vest. All right, thanks. Thank you, Rick. Yeah, it's nice. I see your Smurf-like hand up. Yeah, I just wanted to tell everyone, be sure to read the Santa Margarita Ground Water Agency report. They're gonna start getting more and more involved. This one happens to be for June. The meeting we had in July started bringing up surface water. We're gonna be hearing more about surface water. And you might want to pay attention to that. And the meetings are getting more and more technical. And we have been working with our geologists, not geologists. I'm a geologist. Yeah, why? Anyway, we've been working with him, Lou and I, and Rick with our hydrologists. And he's been a big help and helping us out. Lou's been working on some issues of his own. And I think some of you might have seen, I don't know if you saw any of the emails about, I say this wrong every time, ASRs, right? Did I say that right, Lou? Shake your head if I did. Okay, I say that wrong all the time. That's something we wanna be careful about. That's something we need to be more informed about. It could cause possible problems with the quality of our water. You wanna tell them what it is, Lou? Real quick, what an ASR is. Do we need to agendize this? I was gonna say we're getting- We're getting- Mark, I'm just bringing up what's happening in Sentinel. No, it's very important, but I think we need to agendize this. Okay, all right. We'll agendize it then, sorry. I tried to speak in one, and Rick wouldn't let me. Well, you do have the Sentinel Margarita Groundwater Report in the committee reports, but I wouldn't get too far into the weeds. It's just kind of- Okay. Yes, I know. I just got carried away. I will say that our two directors, Ferris and Henry, are spending an incredible amount of time and are representing the district well. As far as I'm concerned, they're leading the JPA on great questions to do with finance, water quality, surface water. They're, we're very engaged and it's really, it's great to see SLVs has taken a lead here. This could be a substantial cost to this district and it could have water quality issues and all of these issues, I don't think we're sure that this is the best for San Lorenzo Valley at this point in time. Let's agendize it so we can have an in-depth conversation. Okay. I just did what I told Lois not to do. Thank you. Just felt like we had a lively topic worth agendizing. Our board's really doing a great job. That's great to hear. Congratulations and thank you to Lois and to Lou. Okay, moving on. No written communication. Steve, since we're on kind of committee reports and things like that in the consent agenda, I think it's appropriate time. I just want to say that it's been an improvement with the minutes for all the committees, the publication of them, the availability of the video for the board meetings has been quicker response. And I just want to acknowledge who's ever been involved in that, that I appreciate that. It's much easier. I can read the minutes and I get a understanding of what's going on in that committee or, and it's prompt. So thank you for doing that. That's Holly. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Holly. I think Darth Vader sends his respects too. I love that Darth Vader. Sorry. Bob, I'm sorry. You make a great Darth Vader even have black on. Black helmet. Oh, is it blue? Sorry. Okay. All right, everybody. Well, thank you all. I think we'll call this a day. We will adjourn this meeting until the next, the next time. And I hope you all have a nice evening and we'll talk to y'all.