 It's a fairly big hand you got there, Chairman Galvin. What was that Mark? I'm sorry. Oh, I just said it's a fairly big hand when people reach for their zone. Oh, please excuse if I snipple through the meeting I've got to hay fever, hay fever that goes with the drought, the wind. Roberta, it looks like we're just waiting for Board Member Watts, is that correct? Yes, she texted me, she's having some technical difficulties, so maybe a little bit late. No problem. Thank you. Chair Galvin. We don't have an ETA for Board Member Watts, sounds like she is having some difficulties, so it's your call if you'd like to get started. Okay, I was hoping maybe she was just trying to log on, so it's maybe something more than that. It sounds like she's having some trouble. Okay, all right, well, hopefully she'll join us shortly. Why don't we go ahead and we'll call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities to order for the City of Santa Rosa. Can we have a roll call please? Yes, Chairman Galvin. Here. Vice Chair Arnone. Here. Board Member Badden-Port. Here. Board Member Grable. Here. Board Member Walsh. Yep, don't mute yourself. Here, thank you, sir. Board Member Watts. Here. Board Member Wright. Thank you, Board Member Wright. I mean, it's everything, Board Member Watts, I was perfect, okay. So we're all present and accounted for then. Any statements of abstention by Board Members? Okay, just a reminder to have your phones or your microphones muted when you're not speaking. Also to put away all cell phones and personal computers and to please keep the video on your iPad on throughout the meeting. We'll now move to item number 3.1, which is administration of the oath of office for reappointed Board Member Grable. Secretary Aitha. Secretary Aitha, you're on mute. Sorry about that. Mr. Grable, if you could raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Chris Grable, do solemnly swear. I, Chris Grable, do solemnly swear. 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. 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 without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter welcome back to the Board of Public Utilities congratulations on your reappointment Board Member Grable we look forward to lots of hard work from all of us and yourself included so that's great at this point we'll take public comments on item 3.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary atha we have no public comments thank you that'll take care 3.1 we have no study session the minutes 5.1 from February 18th 2021 will be entered we do we will open it up for public comments regarding the minutes if you wish to make a comment regarding item 5.1 please raise your hand via zoom otherwise if you're via telephone please dial star 9 secretary atha do we have anyone we have no public comments thank you we will move now to item 6.1 staff briefing on the water meter upgrade project deputy our director Burke thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 6.1 is our water meter upgrade project update this is exciting to bring to the board after many many years of work and deputy director administration Kimberly Zanino will be making the presentation good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board I am sure some of you oh I think we're getting to this beginning of the slides great thank you so good afternoon I am sure you are not surprised to hear that I am very excited to update you on the completion of this project several of you have been on the journey of this project with me for many years and many many presentations next slide please with new board members however I wanted that had not been involved I wanted to take a step back and go over the system the history of the project selection and then after that I'll be discussing the timeline the project cost the benefits and what we are looking forward to next slide please the meter upgrade project is the installation of a system the industry refers to as AMI or advanced metering infrastructure the system allows us to stay in contact with our meters and retrieve hourly reads and notifications from them as well as communicate back to them this is an overview of the system starting with the meter next the meter interface unit that we call an end point this is the device that sends and receives data to and from the data collection units which provides our two-way communication we did choose to go with a cloud-based data system so our data is sent there and then transferred to our water billing systems where the verification and analytics of the data are completed before distributing that data to other systems next slide please the decision to move to AMI began with an evaluation of our meter reading systems we used to have two ways to read meters manually and one called a drive-by system or AMR and at the time the option of AMI was becoming more industry-wide as a choice of a reading system in Santa Rosa we had been moving towards automated meter reading or that drive-by system that required a truck to drive near them to retrieve a single read but only a read and not hourly read data or notifications it was taking us a very long time in-house to install that system and at the rate of installation it was going to take us about 15 years or more to complete it so we decided we we would bring some installers in but before doing that we decided that it was best to look at all available options next slide please we performed a feasibility study and it was determined that AMI was the best solution for Santa Rosa well it wasn't necessarily a huge savings because where those financial savings are typically seen is with the reduction of non-revenue water and our system systems water loss or non-revenue water is considerably low compared to many around the nation so we knew we wouldn't see that quick financial win however we did determine that the savings would pay for the project within the warranty period and the system would likely last much longer than that so the savings would continue to increase over time in addition to the finances however we recognize the other benefits of the system that we were all that we are already seeing we do our best for our customers and the system has really enhanced our customer service abilities by providing a great tool for staff to use environmentally it reduces trucks on the road and therefore greenhouse gas emissions and finally we wanted to use the data for as many purposes as we could find to make our system more efficient next slide please this is simply a timeline from the feasibility study to the final meter set it took several years but the timing from signed contracts to final meter set is actually very impressive as most water utilities take many many years to convert their entire system I also wanted to let you know that we actually came in under budget which is always great news so we had budgeted 14.1 million dollars and the project costs have come in at 13.5 next slide please from the beginning we knew the benefits others were seeing from the systems once again customer service was at the top of our list near real time usage data allows us to catch leaks early and save water for both us and our customers as I mentioned less vehicles on the road less greenhouse gas emissions and then the system provides a huge amount of data that we wanted to use to improve our core functions as much as much as possible next slide please what we now realize goes beyond what we even expected and here are some of the highlights I'll start with water billing we receive our reads for billing in a system which does the analytics and alerts us to any reads that may need to be investigated to assure accurate billing we perform start stops which are the reads used when at one customer moves in and one customer moves out without having to send a truck out any longer and most importantly we're notified when there are possible leaks it used to be only once a month that we might see a possible issue and now it is within a day or two this saves our valuable resource and our customers money water use efficiency is another one of the super users of the data they are creating reports for our customers to use as tools to educate our customers about water use they are able to really help people understand how much water is used in a realistic manner they have been able to track down and follow up on more than 300 continuous use cases we get many compliments and thank yous from our customers that have been helped when they don't understand something with their use we're able to give them graphs and information that help them and when we proactively reach out before they get a huge bill because of a leak they are super appreciative next slide please so this is something we didn't know what we found out during the tubs fire is that even when the meters and the endpoints were severely damaged by heat which you can see in some of the pictures here they were still sending us information well they may not have been reading with total accuracy they still were letting us know that we had services flowing up to a thousand gallons an hour which allowed us to get out there and shut them off when it was safer for our staff to go out there's also no meaning to locations when the location in the system is 300 feet from a white picket fence when the house in the fence no longer exists having the coordinates that are within three feet of the meter is just crucial next slide please and still to come we continue to improve improve what we have found and new ways to use the data as well as our long-awaited portal which has had some delays with all that our city has been through over the last few years but it isn't testing and staff are giving it a trial run on their accounts so we expect to be releasing it very soon next up so before I take questions I had a couple comments myself first this was a huge project that Santa Rosa water and water billing should be very proud of it helps us do our daily jobs use an extremely valuable resource efficiently educate and assist our customers as well as track our internal success with programs it would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of many staff members in both Santa Rosa water and water billing and I couldn't be more proud of what they have accomplished even just before this meeting I reached out to those people who are using the system every day and the comments that came back for that they're really able to help our customers they help them track down leaks they can provide a quick resolution they're able to build trust with our customers by not guessing at an issue but really being able to work through it by using that hourly data which is exactly what we had hoped for when we started this project and with that I will take any questions or comments that you may have thank you deputy directors and you know I'll open it up for any board member questions or comments I will tell you having been on the board for a while this is quite a moment to know that the last meter was set in January and I know it's been a labor of love for deputy directors and you know and members of her staff and it's super exciting to know that this project is completed and that it's under budget and that everything's functioning and hopefully we'll outlive even what we think is its useful life so congratulations for all of your hard work Vice Chair Arnone I just want to say that I came on the VPU shortly after the feasibility study was approved and the very first briefing I got from anybody at Santa Rosa water was from Kimberly and she was very excited at the time explaining the anticipated benefits and seeing those benefits come to fruition now under her leadership and direction is just very edifying and this congratulations on the work you did it was a good introduction to Santa Rosa water and it's wonderful to see it come to conclusion now thank you board member Bowden for ditto on the congratulations I think one of my first meetings was deputy director Zunino actually serving in a different role in the city and continuing to to lead this project so thank you and congratulations a couple of quick questions on the the testing of the portal you mentioned that can work piloting and kind of testing it with staff accounts is there a way that we can effectively test that kind of with a with a range of different user types not necessarily you obviously to open up to part of the public and not the other but I just it strikes me that I've launched a few platforms in my life and and always have learned something about some unforeseen technical challenge that might have rolled out with it along the way so it's just a question for interest not even necessarily a direction of any kind thank you so I have to give our billing group a huge amount of kudos they test everything from start to finish and they test it over and over and over again so I am sure they are testing everything they can the portal that we chose is not as advanced as some so therefore not nearly as expensive as some either because it's directed mostly towards residential customers since we are a 95 percent residential community I think as that comes out and people start to really use it that's our hope is that people will really use it that's I think the biggest hurdle is to get people to log on and to get people to look at it and to get people to set up their notifications and do that kind of work and if that's happening I think that there is the possibility we'll even look at some of the business portals that are available and that have some more advanced tools you know that could could be useful for our business groups so yeah I I am sure that they are doing their best to test absolutely everything they can think of great well thank you and congratulations again to us all remember right well congratulations to all of the water department and and to you Kimberly on this project I know I can remember when this thing first started long ago and I uh I kind of have to echo Lisa I can't wait to see that customer portal and I like to watch my own data I certainly use PG&E's data portal the same way and so I'm very anxious to go move on to the next step now that we have the actual reading system operating but anyway thank you thank you board member walls thank you mr chairman I just want to congratulate the the water water department team and Kimberly Zunino on a project well done to get a project completed under under budget and working as intended as a victory thank you thank you okay I think that concludes all the board member questions and comments we'll now 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 9 to raise your hand secretary aether do we have anyone we have no public comments on this item thank you that will conclude item 6.1 we'll move to item 6.2 which is a water resources division update director Burke thank you chair galvin and members of the board in continuing with our plan to update the board on the various work that goes throughout the department this is our second update and it'll be on the water resources division and deputy director water resources peter martin will be making the presentation thank you very much good afternoon chair galvin members of the board i'm very excited to be here today to share about this wonderful division and the staff that work in it and this is kind of a good opportunity for me to just to gloat about the work that we do every day so next slide please so the water resource division is made up of four different teams the water use efficiency section water supply planning section the energy and sustainability section and the water quality section it's a small team but they do provide really high quality services and technical functions that support the entire department so there's folks that touch every part in every division and work closely with other department staff to see realize benefits for the department and see projects through i guess you know that i'm the second one that gets to give this presentation i just want to say that i think my staff is the best but you know they're probably the same from others as well but we can go to the next slide i'll just go ahead and start off with just a brief overview of the water quality section the water quality section uh sort of i think i should move to the next slide the the main objectives of the water quality section is is solely based around ensuring compliance mostly with state and federal regulations related to water quality you know this team is a high functioning team of four staff that you know focuses on bacteriological sampling letting copper rule compliance various disinfection byproduct sampling every day and then also ensuring compliance with our water treatment plant at farmers lane in addition to the work that they do for compliance they are very customer service focused actually so they respond to customer calls relating to anything from pressure flow taste odor turbidity any indicator of potential water quality concerns for a customer in 2020 this team responded to over 450 calls regarding various backflow cross connection water quality and pressure concerns by customers next slide and so as i mentioned the water quality team is involved in ensuring the maintenance of water quality in the system through routine bacteriological sampling and other sampling requirements to ensure compliance with our permit this also includes routine flushing of system mains which is also in compliance with our drinking water permit requirements the section also provides services in the form of ensuring protection of the system through customer side backflow prevention devices and the cross connection control program making sure that those are maintained the staff track and inventory of over 10 000 backflow devices in the city in addition to monitoring recycle water plumbing or domestic wells for instance on the customer side that have the potential to be inadvertently cross connected or plumbed into the potable side of their connections perhaps putting risk to the overall system also the team tracks and monitors many fire protection lines to ensure equivalent compliance for backflow protection as well next slide please so as of now we are currently working on the annual water quality report which you'll be seeing in the next few months which provides quite a bit of information to the public which is also required by law we not only use it to meet our requirements of the law but we use it as an outreach tool to educate customers about things like where our water comes from how to sort of interpret all the data in the report it can be very data heavy and also the numerous tests that we conduct to ensure our water quality meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements in addition in the past few years we've included information regarding ongoing sampling efforts with the water quality contamination that was caused by the tubs fired in 2017 next slide please so with that I will move over to the water use efficiency section which is a very robust team that is very customer service focused as well next slide please so you often hear about certain parts of a water supply portfolio mostly surface water delivered by Sonoma water we also have of course local groundwater wells and our recycle water system but as part of our portfolio water use efficiency falls into just as important in the category by improving water use efficiency and eliminating water waste it allows the city to expand our existing supplies to meet additional demand in the future every drop of water we save right now increases the reliability of our water system for current users and eliminates the need to develop additional supply which can be very expensive for future users next slide so I think people often question you know what are the benefits to our ratepayers by an investment in water use efficiency the investment of water use efficiency to support the department is of great value for our ratepayers and it supports the department in a variety of ways by reducing utility expenses obviously less pumping and treatment let also on the wastewater side reduces treatment costs as well it allows us to defer CIP you know not investing in additional infrastructure that we may not need in the form of treatment plan expansions or upgrades and then also we don't need to pursue water supply projects as aggressively as we would if we didn't have it also allows us to meet future demand by encouraging the appropriate use of our valuable resources and lastly which I'll talk about a little more it's helping us to meet additional regulatory requirements that are being put on the city right now next slide please so let's talk a little bit about the future of water use efficiency um water use efficiency is starting to see a overall shift with a focus on improved data collection and metrics for our customers as deputy directors and you just talked about with the advanced mirror infrastructure project we're looking at improving individualized customer services helping customers help themselves through shared data with advanced metering infrastructure and education on their water use via that pathway the future is also making sure that santa rosa is compliance with legislation that we've seen put through the last few years you're probably familiar at this point with sb x7-7 which we've had a 20 percent requirement reduction in water use by 2020 we are well on our way to meet that goal we actually achieve that goal you'll hear about that in our overwater management plan update this year we also have new requirements for water efficient landscapes and home fixtures that are tied to things like building and development regulations and then of course we have lofty goals as a city and state for greenhouse gas reductions as well the restructure agreement also has the has some requirements for conservation of between Sonoma water and its contractors and the saving water partnership also requires a regional approach and so we're participating in that as well and then additionally we have the water waste ordinance which is required and prohibits the waste of water within city limits so i guess the future of water use efficiency is more holistic it's we'll be looking in the future to integrate things like stormwater fire resiliency for the city and other billing inputs so that customers receive sort of a seamless customer support making sure our customers achieve the highest level of water savings but also achieving ancillary benefits for the health of our communities is going to be a priority going forward next slide please so the city has many rebate programs that are available to all customer classes water use efficiency staff provide end-to-end service to our customers and support those rebate programs that help us achieve water savings the team continues to offer assistance to residential and commercial customers through our water smart checkups that help match them with water use efficiency programs and measures we've modified those as i've talked about the past to meet the existing requirements of the county health order and of course we expense significant time on outreach and public education about outdoor and indoor water use efficiency programs and measures this is where we sort of obtain our greatest interest in water use efficiency and can direct the public and customers towards water use efficiency programs and rebates and also other education opportunities next slide so the very small but mighty water supply planning team provides a suite of long-range planning technical and administrative services for the recycle water and groundwater programs and a variety of monitoring and reporting efforts that are also mandated by law they also integrate with significant support to other divisions and provide superior products in support of long-range planning or goals for the department next slide please so as far as long-term planning this team as you know develops the urban water management plan and oversees the water shores contingency planning efforts this is a year that they are working very hard on the urban water management plan and it will be updated for 2020 as required by law they're also interestingly enough responsible for water supply assessments for new developments for the cities there's a lot of integration with other city departments and this is also requirement by law and also fits in nicely with sequel regulations for new development they also support different departments and division and plan review the team is currently supporting the effort for the update to the general plan and also the as you know this table groundwater management act is currently the effort is ongoing with the groundwater sustainability agency for the development of a groundwater sustainability plan by january of 2022 next slide please so this team also provides a lot of monitoring as report and reporting as required by law in the future they'll continue to track legislation and regulations were required to meet conservation and water supply and management goals they support significant reporting that is required by law to comply with new regs as we've been seeing a lot of those coming in as far as water loss and also outdoor water use efficiency this team supports the department in pursuing compliance with those as well and then finally the SB Senate Bill 555 audit is an annual audit that characterizes water losses for the system and is quite a bit of effort across the department to supply that to the state as well next slide the department has a robust groundwater program focused on beneficial use of our existing municipal groundwater wells and also of course supporting the long-term goals of groundwater as an emergency supply this year they will continue to work with the local operations and engineering service divisions on the grant funded freeway wells feasibility study a place to play well study as well which is ongoing right now and also the construction of that project the elite well rehabilitation study and the carly and peter springs design studies those are all going to be ongoing very soon so next slide please and finally this team oversees the regulatory compliance and system users for the urban water recycle system urban recycle water system excuse me this includes supporting other divisions and they're reporting on wastewater and stormwater compliance for the system and they are responsible for meeting all the regulations regarding reporting and permit compliance with regards to the users of the urban water recycle system slide so finally the energy and sustainability team is responsible for supporting many long-term goals of the department and sustainability energy demand reduction and adaptation to climate change as such they are responsible for supporting the planning and implementation of five areas that is reducing energy and increasing renewable generation promoting the use of tap water over bottled water in our community improving recycling and reducing department waste to meet city and statewide goals supporting planning for optimization of system energy use to mitigate and adapt to climate change and also providing leadership for planning to optimize the water energy footprint for the department next slide you may be familiar with the take it from the tap branded program which has had a wide success with the public over the years the very popular hydration station visits publicly events visits public events when we can have them to promote the use of tap water by the community and educate them about our delicious drinking water that comes directly from their tap they coordinate a very popular earth day event each year this year we will have some exciting alternatives to share that are alternatives to an in-person event and this team supports development implementation of energy optimization plan on the behalf of the department and works with energy providers to match our energy accounts and programs with incentives that reduce overall costs for the department over the years the team has assisted with securing five million dollars in grant funds for energy efficiency upgrades for the department as well next slide sp 1383 established targets to achieve 50 percent reduction of level of statewide disposable organic waste from 2014 to the from the 2014 level by 2020 and a 75 percent reduction by 2025 as such the department has implemented waste diversion program and throughout the many department facilities which has also been adapted by other departments within the city the department has often taken a lead with implementation of these types of programs that have been adapted by other departments within the city as well next slide and finally in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change a team supports many progressive projects to reduce department greenhouse gases and integrate with city's goals for resiliency they monitor and manage and maintain by some contracts the department's solar photovoltaic systems they also represent the department on various tasks and outcomes from the city's climate action subcommittee including the climate action plan and the team is also responsible for technical services to looking at treatment plant compliance staff in their annual reporting requirements to the california energy commission and the energy information administration so we can move to the last slide i think here with that i'm happy to take any questions about anything going on with the water resources division thank you deputy director martin board member questions comments board member right just to say that water resources is a great division and i personally enjoyed all the pictures of staff over the years and some of them are kind of older pictures what makes it really fun to look at but what a lot of people don't realize is that water use efficiency or water conservation is a water source it's water we don't have to get and have don't have to deal with and so it's it's a it's a really good it's a good division i'll say that but my one question i have is that with freeway well where are we at with freeway well that's that was a something i was always very interested in my career yeah that's a great question i'm glad you asked it yeah so we actually just finished the remedial investigation report which was a requirement of that grant that was fully submitted we're looking to accomplish a final feasibility study on potential treatment or other options including possibly you know other options for the well in the future by the end of i guess this year so that's the goal so it should be complete and at that time we of course will bring something to this board to report out on on that project as well have we actually done pumping tests to see how much stuff we draw in that we didn't necessarily want to yeah yeah so thank you so yeah there is a nested monitoring well that has been installed that happened about a year ago and then also a pump test that was done that worked in concert with other wells in the vicinity to look at the movement of water and you know possibly travel of contamination that contamination bloom so those results are being worked out right now and being shared with the state as we go forward with the project thank you other board member questions or comments very good thank you for the report deputy director martin will now take public comments on item 6.2 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand through dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary atha we have no public comments thank you that will conclude item 6.2 we'll move to item 6.3 which is the water and recycled water supply update director Burke thank you chair galvin and members of the board um our third staff briefing is our water supply update and deputy director's peter martin uh deputy director of water resources peter martin and deputy director regional operations emma welton will be making the presentation thank you director burke uh very happy to hang in here with you for this presentation as well um so uh yeah we're just giving a brief update on water supply uh conditions today and some of the things that we're working on right now uh next slide so um just a reminder snow water filed the temperature change petition on february 4th of 2021 um that allows them to modify their in-stream requirements in the upper watershed and better manage their storage in lake mendicino i should say actually they filed earlier uh i just want to correct that actually and it was um approved on february 4th so i'm going to make that correction um as of march 1st uh they had to kind of they reevaluate everything every month the water year and the upper watershed is deemed to be critical and is subject to the modified in-stream flows from the t-u-c-p of 25 cfs at the confluence of the east fork of the russian river and the main stem stem russian river uh the water year type in the lower watershed is classified as dry and is subject to the minimum stream flows delineated incision 1610 that governs snow waters water rights um reservoir storage lower lower as i should note uh reservoir storage levels are now lower than they were in the high of the modes recent drought in 2013 and 14 next slide please so this graphic is sort of a comparison of rainfall uh so far in the past two years uh in comparison to 2013 14 as you can see rainfall amounts are falling short of the most recent drought on record and rainfall is training to just above the lowest rainfall in recorded history at yukia i'm denoted by that red line um we heard at the most recent tack meeting that came in that rainfall is falling below those recorded uh levels in the statewide drought that existed five years ago and also kind of tracks well the show the cyclical night nature of rainfall in the region and the state next slide uh lake menesino storage is continuing to see a rise since the implementation of the tcp as of today the reservoir has about 32 800 acre feet or approximately 48 percent of snow waters targeted storage for this time of year releases are currently set at just above 25 cubic feet per second next slide uh lake sonoma storage at this time is remaining very flat with about 155 thousand acre feet of storage or approximately 63 to 64 percent of storage for this time of year um next slide um as we kind of closed out 2020 i just wanted to go over a few highlights of the water use efficiency teams efforts in 2020 as you know we modified quite a bit of the programs due to the half county health order um but 167 water smart home kits were delivered to customers or um you know i guess at one point customers could actually pick them up but um and then also uh 23 000 square feet of grass was removed about 22 000 of that is related to single single family homes and um about uh i think a thousand to three thousand is commercial related at turf removed um we did about 269 in person or virtual surveys um in 2020 and followed up on about 369 cases of water waste many of which were related to data that was supplied by automated metering infrastructure and then also um we received over 1400 calls to the water use efficiency team that we're all responded to and 4 000 welcome postcards were sent out advertising our water use efficiency offerings uh these postcards are sent out two months after customer moves into our service area so seen quite a bit of folks new customers and trying to continue to supplying with the information they need to be water efficient uh next slide please we continue to offer many virtual offerings in the form of water smart workshops we've supplanted a lot of the information on the web page with videos that can help folks check their meters or excuse me do a water smart checkup and program irrigation controllers those have received quite a good positive input from customers we also revised the website to be more friendly to services that customers can do themselves and then also we've continued to offer virtual surveys of float and home people's homes and rebate pre-fault qualification via virtual means as well um next slide please uh and then just look ahead at some of the outreach activities you'll be hearing a lot about we have fix a leak week coming up this month we'll be pushing out quite a bit information on that the seat patrick's day 5k has been moved to a virtual event we will be supplying those that participate with various swag i guess from the white efficiency team and then also we're looking at a earth day event that will be coordinated with stormwater and also the energy sustainability team uh looking at a drive-up event possibly with some kids activities and a lot of things so stay tuned for that and then uh we'll you'll be seeing quite a bit of updated regional messaging from the snowmobren uh saving water partnership they are going to start doing some digital advice and additional digital radio spots potentially and then of course we continue to do weekly city connections social media and other sort of digital advertising that will continue to push out and plan add um several weeks in advance next slide um of course folks can go to srcity.org slash water smart to learn more about rebates and incentives um and the phone number uh right there for the santa rosa water use efficiency contacts um with that i will hand it over to deputy director walton thank you deputy martin and good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board um here once again to provide a brief update on our status of recycle water availability next slide please so we continue um to produce very little recycled water we ended out february um with an average of about 17 million gallons per day um as you can see far below our average production and just as a reminder last year um was our our previous historic low for production um and you can see that this year we're well behind um our our last year production next slide please um brief look at our storage curve we did um get a little bump in storage from some of the small amount of rain that we did receive but still again um far below average and actually starting to teeter on um the minimum amount we've ever seen in storage um at at this time um since the geysers has has come online um so we um will you will see next time um i i bring this um presentation to you another little bump we are currently um in a geysers shut uh one day geysers shut down um to facilitate um some work on one of the pump stations that needs to occur but we will be ramping back up uh tomorrow um and continuing delivery and any time we do a shutdown um like this just for our own purposes and maintenance purposes um we do have to make up that water and just as another reminder we are currently under delivering um to the geysers so the storage curve is um higher than you would see um if we were at contract delivery rates next slide please so just a recap of of the water availability not much has really changed um we are not providing frost protection water at this time uh we have sent out email updates to all of our frost protection users we have mailed letters to all of our ag users to make them aware we have personally called all of our frost protection users to speak with them in person to make sure they are aware and to plan accordingly um we are continuing to have um monthly meetings with the farm bureau um to make sure that um they're they're getting the message and that they're helping us spread the message as well um we're continuing to do updates to the bpu and email updates to bpu and council um also any chance we get to talk with our um customers out in the field we're making sure that they're aware of of the situation we're in we um this month started sending out an e-newsletter to all of our users um to update them on the status um and as well as continue to update um our website with both the production curves um and the storage curves as well as information around it being an incredibly dry year and the fact that we are not providing frost water at this time and that we are looking um to very little to no recycled water available as we enter into the agricultural irrigation season um allocations are going to be necessary this year and forthcoming um as a reminder we are going to be um or we have established a recycled water ad hoc to tackle some of the the big questions around how we're going to do allocations um uh again a reminder under delivering to geysers it's it's really important to remember that because it does artificially increase our storage um but all of that water will need to be made up and we're confident we'll be able to make it up but we just want to keep some water in storage to provide ourselves with some operational flexibility as we're dealing with such little water um we are continuing to work with our regional partners Windsor is over delivering um to the geysers to help us offset what we're delivering we are also now accepting water from Sonoma water um and we will do so until um they tell us that they don't have anymore for us um which will likely be fairly quickly since they are also in the same situation we are in um but we will take whatever they have um and then again just ongoing communications with our customers um trying to get the word out any way we possibly can um to make sure that nobody's caught by surprise um but we are moving into an extremely dry year with extremely limited um recycled water available um with that I'll move to the next slide um our contact information please feel free to contact us we have all of our contact information for um on our website as well if you have specific questions um with that I'm happy to answer any questions thank you to both deputy directors board member questions or comments or member gable yeah just regarding the the water supply thank you for the presentation it was really you know again and again I think we're it's sinking in just how severe um the drought season is and you know I do think we need to um all prepare for what may come you know across the board I mean I would say there's so many issues that this pertains to um especially going into fire seasons um that you know if it's anything like we've had over the last five years um what are we doing in terms of um in terms of managing storage and and the first thing that strikes me and and you know maybe you all are ten steps ahead of me here um as always but in terms of storage and management and planning for fire season specifically in terms of our tanks and making sure that our maintenance schedules and things on tanks aren't affecting um you know optimal storage making sure we have enough water uh in the system and and and that we're preparing for you know any any fire contingencies uh and supply issues that that might come with that um I know we had you know one one tank issue obviously in Fountain Grove in 2017 that comes to mind but just in general um regarding storage and preparation um for some of these very dire contingencies that I think it behooves us to to think about right now I mean what are what are we doing in terms of those preparations um thank you board member Grable great questions we are definitely thinking about the upcoming fire season we are already in discussions with fire um there were a lot of lessons learned after the 2017 Tubbs Fire and so coordinating closely working closely with fire between our operations crews and I would like to ask um deputy director uh Joe Shibani over our local operations he is on the meeting and he can speak more specifically to the work and preparation that our local operations team are already doing with fire because we are very prepared and and concerned and want to make sure we're continually continuously collaborating with them so I think secretary Aitha you can promote looks like um uh w director Shibani has been promoted and he can talk in more detail yeah thank you board member Grable that's a great question um as director Burke mentioned we are already we're in constant communication really with fire we have regular meetings with them we do have tank maintenance as you as you mentioned we are finalizing some of that right now and trying to do that in the early months as early as possible um as you do know we do have backup methods we we plan for the um tanks to be offline at times we can operate them and in different ways we often can feed from another from another tank and then also run our pressure zones in a pressure mode if needed and um whenever that happens we are in constant communication with fire they're aware um they also know how to connect with us if there is an issue so that we can get in right away and start moving water where needed so it's it's a great question it is something that we're thinking about we are hearing from them that um the strange weather is going to make for an interesting fire season and so we're really making sure that we let them know where we're at um and that includes everything including backup generators and having everything in place ready to plan for the fire we've you know unfortunately had had the opportunity to practice for this but a few times over the last few years and one of the things that we found especially with the success of moving water around during the glass fire that communication is key so it's a great question and yes we are working with them uh regularly thank you deputy director sarone um board member walsh yes uh thank you chair gallin um this is a question maybe for janifer or uh or uh deputy director walton on on the the briefing that that the uh the agents water water division gave me it looked like the 6.6 billion gallons the year was the normal water reuse are we concerned that eventually the uh the demand for reuse in a normal year is going to um exceed the available supply in a normal year so in yeah great great question um our recycle water production is extremely variable and very dependent on the weather in kind of normal and most years we have enough water to um satisfy the needs of all of our customers um in very dry years like this year we uh do have enough water and will have enough water to meet our uninterruptible contractual obligation so our obligations to the geysers and our obligations to our urban users um we will always have enough water um unless peter deputy director martin is so successful with water conservation that we see our plant our dry weather plant flows substantially decrease but um even with conservation that we have been able to achieve over um the past years um our plant flows alone during dry weather um will satisfy all of our uninterruptible contractual obligations um the rainfall on top of that is what gives us the ability to um supply users uh to our interruptible customers um so i'm not i hope that answered your question but let me know if it didn't it does answer my question and i appreciate the lesson thank you very much yep any other board member questions or comments okay seeing none we'll now take public comments on item 6.3 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 etha we have no public comments thank you we have one item on the consent calendar item 7.1 which is a motion for additional contingency on the laguna treatment plant chillers and climate control upgrades i'll move adoption of the content item i'll second we have a motion by vice chair Arnone seconded by board member right any other additional comments by the board okay if not we will open it up to 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 nine to raise your hand secretary etha we have no public comments thank you may we have a roll call vote please yes chairman galvin hi vice chair Arnone hi board member badenport hi board member grable hi board member walsh hi board member watts hi board member right all right thank you motion carries unanimously that'll take care of the consent calendar now move to item 8.1 which is our only report item regarding the sum county water agency water transmission budget and rate increase director burke would you like to make the introductions yes thank you chair galvin and members of the board um as uh you mentioned our report item is on the proposed budget for Sonoma water and we have deputy director Zanino who will be introducing and we have Lynn Roselli from Sonoma water who will be making the presentation thank you welcome to both you good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board again um before uh Ms Roselli provides you with the review of the Sonoma water transmission budget for the upcoming fiscal year i will provide a brief update on the work that leads up to this step in the approval process for Sonoma water which is very long and includes many presentations for Ms Roselli to many committees councils boards and so we really appreciate her coming and giving these presentations to us each year she does this first and then she will also um be at city council for us on the 23rd march so prior to the technical advisory committee voting on whether or not to recommend the proposed Sonoma water transmission system budget which occurred at the beginning of this week they um voted to recommend um there is also a technical advisory budget subcommittee and this committee meets to review the budget in detail and work with Sonoma water to arrive at the final proposed wholesale rate increase this year's subcommittee consisted of representatives from Sonoma water town of Windsor city of Katari city of Santa Rosa north marine water district marine municipal water district and the city of Sonoma this year's first proposal from Sonoma water had a wholesale rate increase of 6.56 percent for Santa Rosa and the Petaluma aqueducts and a 4.96 percent for the Sonoma aqueduct after several meetings and communications there were reductions made and then the contractors that are supplied by both the Santa Rosa and Petaluma aqueducts agreed to have a discretionary capital charge which is a charge that we use to build fund balance and smooth increases reduced from $27 to $20 per acre foot this provided an additional reduction in the wholesale rate to us and the final proposed increases ended up at 3.47 percent for the Santa Rosa and Petaluma aqueducts and 3.43 percent for the Sonoma aqueduct which the subcommittee unanimously approved for recommendation and i will now turn it over to Ms. Roselli who will provide you with a review of the final budget and the wholesale water rate increase thank you Ms. Zunino I am Lynn Roselli I am the administrative services division manager at Sonoma water I've been with Sonoma water 12 years the administrative division is responsible for putting together the budget and rate packages in collaboration with the water contractors and our internal staff and executive team for those of you that are not as familiar with Sonoma waters enterprises we they include water supply water transmission flood protection of about 75 miles of creeks and streams eight wastewater treatment plants and an energy and sustainability program that allowed us to become carbon-free in 2015 next so today we're just going to be talking about the water transmission system budget and rates and i just want to highlight that the revenue that we received for each one of these enterprises is specific to that enterprise can only be used for the purposes intended and cannot be moved into any other enterprise next slide please so this is a 10 000 foot level map or picture of the Sonoma water water transmission system certainly not as intricate as the city's system or network in the upper left hand corner are the Mirabelle Woller collection wells or production wells on the Russian river and then there is the Santa Rosa aqueduct Petaluma aqueduct and Sonoma aqueduct are the three main aqueduct serving the eight water contractors we prepare a budget and rate for each aqueduct and the customers on those aqueducts pay that that rate for the water that they purchase from Sonoma water and we provide wholesale water to city of Santa Rosa and and the other water contractors and they in turn provide clean boatable water to as many as 600 000 customers in Sonoma and Marin counties next slide please so as as miss Zunino mentioned we engaged in a collaborative process and I want to thank very much miss Zunino and miss Burke for helping guide this process and participating with Sonoma water in a collaborative way to to develop this budget and rate package the budget rates are established in accordance with the restructured agreement for water supply that was signed by the eight water contractors in Sonoma water in 2006 and it it says it provides a roadmap for how we develop the budget and rates which we start doing in the fall and then we bring it to the budget subcommittee in mid-January we meet with the budget subcommittee members in January and February to discuss the budget we take their input we go back we work some more we try to accommodate as much as possible any of the comments that we receive as miss Zunino mentioned on March 1st the technical advisory committee voted on the budget and rates and unanimously approved recommending to the WAC the the budget and rates I present to city and town councils and water districts in March we call it March Madness and then the water advisory committee on April 5th we'll vote and then it needs the the budget and rate package needs to be adopted by our board of directors on the before the end of April so on April 20th next slide please so the budget hits on all of these these functions or activities of the of the water transmission system so there's obviously operations and maintenance and then there are four sub funds that are operating type budgets and then there are five capital funds and a number of different debt service funds we try to refinance the debt service funds in accordance with the bond covenants whenever we can especially when the rates are low and i just want to point out that the water management sub fund is for the herbal water management plan and we are tackling that collaboratively with water contractors right now and it is supposedly do i think July 1st this year so there will not be that many costs associated with this program and this sub fund next fiscal year there'll just be some ongoing minor costs for communicating with department of water resources and the water contractors with any questions that come up and then the watershed planning and restoration fund is specifically for the biological opinion the national marine fishery service 2008 biological opinion that regulates our actions in our take of any fish endangers fish species on the river and the dry creek habitat enhancement project is one of the mitigations that we are implementing and we do have costs associated with the dry creek habitat enhancement that the water contractors do pay for next slide please so i'm going to start with talking about the budget for capital projects and then we'll move into the other areas that i mentioned on the last page so there are a number of hazard mitigation projects the first four have FEMA hazard mitigation funding grant funding for them and the three middle ones mark west creek russian river crossing and santa rosa creek crossing are the city of santa rosa does pay some share of costs for those three ilai booster is on the pedal on the aqueduct and sonoma aqueduct crossing is obviously on the sonoma aqueduct and all of these will be active in fiscal year 21 22 and the budget for next year for the for the suite of projects for hazard mitigation projects is 5.4 million next next slide please other capital projects that aren't primarily hazard mitigation projects are are shown here the sonoma booster pump station project is on the sonoma aqueduct so city of santa rosa does not pay for that the mirror bell dam bladder replacement is a key project that was awarded recently and will be under construction next fiscal year the mirror bell dam is up in the where the collection wells are when the mirror bell dam is up it creates a backwater allows water to grain through the gravels and into the collector wells so that we can provide the water contractors with a clean source of water so the mirror bell dam is very important and the bladder is going to be replaced and then there's the warm springs dam hydro turbine retrofit so sonoma water does not own the dam we pay debt service the community pays debt service on the dam's construction the army corps is responsible for operation of the dam and the flood control pool but we do have the warm springs dam hydro turbine and we generate electricity this project is going to make the hydro turbine more efficient and so that and will be has a very short payoff in the matter of three to five years so we think this is a good project and it brings revenue into the water transmission system and helps offset rate increases and the budget for these other capital projects it's 4.3 million when you add those together with the hazard mitigation projects you get a total capital budget of 9.7 million next slide please so the top project here in operations and maintenance is the san rosa aqueduct and russian river katati intertide catholic protection project that will be under construction next fiscal year it's about a 3.2 million dollar construction project it's a very important project we need to keep these keep the aqueducts protected so that we don't have to replace them which would be incredibly more expensive we have well and pump replacements and valve replacements and a tank maintenance program and on the studies side we have several studies that are budgeted for next fiscal year ongoing is the regional water supply resiliency study that we are doing in collaboration with all of the water contractors to develop a decision support tool for water supply resiliency projects and programs regionally and the budget for operations and maintenance is 30.5 million next slide please so these are the sub fund budgets again water management urban water management plan is is not shown here there will not be a budget for that but the biological opinion compliance and water conservation are budgeted next to school year have a budget the dry creek habitat enhancement phase four project it will be constructed by the army core we are we are coordinating with the army core on this project we are providing the design and the right-of-way work for the construction and providing a 35 percent cost share to the core the core is picking up the other 65 percent and that represents a very significant savings for the water contractors it is a it is a required project and it helps us not build a dry creek pipeline which would be significantly more expensive and we are finding that these habitat enhancement projects are are very successful and mr martin on your team mentioned the importance of water use efficiency and water conservation it's the third driest year on record we have a couple of prop one grant funds and we do collaborate with the water contractors and pass through funds to some of the water contractors that are participating as as santa rosa is on turf replacement water efficient landscapes weather weather-based irrigation controllers and and the like to help with conserving water during a drought and so the sub fund budgets is 11.05 million for next fiscal year next slide please so here's a comparison of the of next year's budget compared to this fiscal year's budget and the total you see there is 56 million dollars for fiscal year 21-22 59 million for this fiscal year so that's about a three million dollar difference you can see that that three million dollars is mostly based on reductions that we made in capital projects the reductions that we made i'll speak about a little bit more later is in large part due to the feedback we got from the water contractors the hardships due to the pandemic and the economic impacts of the pandemic on customers and so we have been able to reduce our overall budget for next fiscal year at the bottom you can see that we do use grants use of fund balance and bond proceeds to offset the costs of the budget the the offset for next fiscal year is 7.8 million less than this fiscal year and so the net budget for next fiscal year is 47 million versus 43 million for this fiscal year and that difference that delta is the basis of the rate increase next slide please this is a pie chart that just gives you a visual example of how the budget is allocated it's made up of 54 percent operations and maintenance capital projects are 17 percent of the budget biological opinion compliance and water conservation are 20 percent debt service makes up nine percent for the bonds and the state revolving loan fund and we have bonds and grants and fund balance that offset all of these costs at 8.5 million so now we're going to move from the budget and into the rate setting calculation so we take the budget the cost of operations and maintenance we divide by the quantity of water sold the restructured agreement for water supply tells us that we have to take the lesser of the three-year annual average or the last 12 months of water deliveries and if you you can see that thank you you can see that the lesser of the two is the 46,095 acre feet which is the last three-year annual the three-year annual average water deliveries when you do the math you can see that the rate comes out to approximately a thousand dollars per acre foot this is an example the rate is actually calculated it's a little bit more complicated than this but this gives you a sense of the rate it is a uniform rate and it is also a completely volumetric rate so when water deliveries decrease the rate goes up the rate increase goes up and when water deliveries increase the rate increase decreases in a drought year we typically see deliveries on the order of 42 to 44 thousand acre feet and those delivery reductions would mean that we would have less revenue to pay for the budgeted expenses that we have and i'll talk a little bit about that at the end when we talk about the rate cutting measures that we implemented and in comparison to other wholesale rates we wanted to show you this slide so Sonoma water is over there on the left at a thousand dollars per acre foot on the Santa Rosa aqueduct zone seven and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission elected not to raise their rates this year however zone seven said that they were going to be doing a rate increase of i think 6.7 percent next year and Santa Clara indicated that they're going to be doing a 9.6 percent rate increase next year but no change for this year Contra Costa County has a 3.75 percent rate increase this year and another one this subsequent year so we are in line with this with the other water contractors and our rates are competitive and lower than the other wholesalers in the region so here are the proposed rates for fiscal year 21-22 this is a breakdown of the rates by the operations and maintenance the sub funds the bond and loan charges Ms. Zunino Zunino mentioned the discretionary charges that is the capital charge to build fund balance for future projects and to use as a rate stabilization tool as you mentioned the tax budget subcommittee for the Santa Rosa aqueduct elected to change that number from 27 down to 20 and that has helped reduce the rate increase from a 4.1 percent rate increase to 3.47 percent on the Santa Rosa aqueduct next slide so i wanted to go over a little bit about the budget and rate reduction measures that we implemented again we heard the water contractors this is an extremely tough year not only did we have fires in the fall but we had a pandemic all year long and it's impacting customers so and we showed an initial rate of 6.56 percent saying this is what we need to operate maintain the system and keep up with capital improvements we heard the water contractors we came down to 4.1 percent we were comfortable with 4.1 percent that brings us in about 47.4 million in revenue and as you saw the budget was about 47 million so we don't have a lot of room there for room for error in a drought year but we're comfortable with it and wanted to be responsive to the water contractors so the rate increase after the water contractors agreed to reduce their capital charge came down to 3.47 percent and that resulted in savings of approximately 1.3 million and that came largely from pushing out a couple of capital projects and reducing costs in the capital project funds we increased the use of fund balance we reduced the water management sub fund rate to zero because the urban water management plan was going to be completed this year so there's not that much going on next year and we will use fund balance to fund whatever minor work does occur next year with the urban water management plan we decreased labor costs in water conservation because we felt that we could trim down that budget a little bit and so the rate increase on average just for perspective is approximately 65 cents per household per month when it's passed through to customers we recognize that that is still a 12 order if you can't pay your rent or pay your utility bills but it just gives some perspective on on what the rate increase might look like when it might be passed through or if it were passed through by the retailers to their customers next slide please so to sum up the technical advisory committee voted unanimously to approve the water transmission rate and budgets on monday i am making presentations during the month of march the water advisory committee will vote on the budget on monday april 5th and it will be adopted by our board on april 20th and i'm happy to answer any questions you might have thank you miss roselli i will open it up for board member questions and comments board member walsh oh yes thank thank you chairman galvin and thank you thank you very much for the wonderful presentation i i appreciate that um and miss roselli the the one question it has was with respect to the the russian river project um tax rate that's on the county wide uh kind of our tax bills where does that impact the funds of the water agency and the cost that could pass down to the contracting agencies or customers does that go into the um i think it's the $116.51 rate for the storage and common bond loan charges so or that went okay so that um that rate that you were looking at i i think is what we refer to as the russian river projects rate yes and that rate only applies to north marine water district and marine municipal water district they are paying that rate because they are not in sonoma county and don't pay towards the warm spring stamp the the debt service for warm spring stamp so they are responsible for paying for that in lieu of what is paid by other sonoma county customers so it really has no impact on the budget on the water transmission budget or on the city of santa rosa's budget or rate that we charge okay does it impact the storage costs that that are calculated that the hundred and looks like on the sheet the $116.51 no that is that um that particular rate is for debt service for storage facilities projects that have occurred in the past under the different bonds that we have issued i see so um that is the the debt service on bonds revenue bonds from prior projects um and uh we we separate out the storage facilities bonds from common facilities bonds because not all of the water contractors pay for the storage projects north marine doesn't pay for storage for example so we don't charge them but city of santa rosa uh does pay the storage revenue bonds thank you very much for your explanation it's clear and i appreciate you uh you make an equitable distribution and costs remember right yeah thank you for the presentation and thank you for zooming in through it i'm sure you're an expert at doing it by now um i i will support this and i'm happy that you were able to bring the rate down to three and a half from six and a half although i am disappointed that the santa rosa aqueduct charges is taking a beating because of that rate reduction um but my question is uh on the o and m charges um you listed a lot of projects in your own m now i always thought those were paid for out of your capital funds but those are paid up for out of your own m how does that work so the operations and maintenance projects get paid out of our operations and maintenance fund but the operations and maintenance budget that i showed does not include the pay go capital projects that get funded from the operations and maintenance fund itself so uh we in the operations and maintenance fund we had both the the on m projects like the catholic protection project dimension and maintenance all of those things and we also transfer funds to common facilities capital fund just fund capital projects where we don't when we don't have enough in bonds or um uh fund balance to support all of the projects in in the capital um plan so uh on your own m how what percentage of it roughly is projects and what percentage of it is operation of the actual uh sonoma water staff and all that other stuff so the the the largest majority of uh operations and maintenance is for operations and maintenance and not for studies or other activities uh they the other activities and and costs are dwarfed by uh the cost of actually operating and maintaining the system meaning you know operators in the field and maintenance workers and mechanics that all work directly on the system operations and maintenance fund does not pay for any other functions of sonoma water uh it's just strictly when our staff are working on the water transmission system and they charge the water transmission system directly um but i i would say you know 90 or more is is really just basic operation and maintenance of the system okay thank you any other board member questions or comments all right the staff report is uh recommending that by motion we provide a recommendation to the city council to advise our water advisory committee representative to vote in favor of the transmission budget so i will entertain a motion so moved second motion by uh board member grable seconded by board member watch to approve a recommendation that the city council direct its water advisory committee representative to vote in favor of the transmission budget we'll now take public comments on item 8.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing into your telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary atha we have no public comments thank you may we have a roll call vote please yes chairman galvin hi vice chair anoni hi board member baden fort hi board member grable hi board member walsh hi board member watz hi board member right all right very good passes unanimously thank you again the deputy director zanino and miss rocelli we appreciate the presentation and all the hard work that obviously goes into that budgetary process thank you very much we will now move to item nine which is public comments on non-agenda items 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 atha we have no public comments thank you item 10 is referrals we have none item 11 is written communications we have none item 12 is subcommittee reports i don't believe any subcommittees met but i'll open it up in case i miss somebody seeing nobody any board member reports board member walsh yes mr chairman up i wanted to thank director i want to thank director burr for her fine work onboarding exercise that that that she conducted for me on march first i appreciated eight members of her staff give presentations on the work that they do she had attorney mr robert madow also gave a give a fine training session to me and i left humbled by the breadth of what they do and the information that i'm going to need to learn i just wanted to thank the director great thank you for your comment we will open it up now for any public comments regarding item 13 which is board member reports if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary atha no public comments thank you item number 14 is the director's report director burr thank you chair galvin and members of the board i had two things i wanted to update the board on the first is um wanted to just give a brief update on a few important capital improvement projects that are currently under construction for the water department i do want to thank our capital improvement projects teams for their hard work on these projects i know they've been working diligently on them these projects include a water pump station upgrade project and then three fema public assistance or pa projects the first is our station 15 upgrade uh this is a project that's going to ensure continued reliability to oakmont this project replaced a failing natural gas propane generator with a diesel generator replaced outdated instrumentation recoded our hydromatic water tank and completed necessary building improvements um it's a successful project and is nearing completion we are preparing to commission the generator which we will anticipate coming online by the end of april and then at that point the project will be complete so that's great news we're also working on several of the public assistance or as i said pa fire rebuild projects i thought i'd give the board a quick update on sky farm a and handsford court both of these sewer lift stations were destroyed by the tubs fire and after a lot of rounds with fema we are now well underway with construction at these two locations and currently the estimated completion is the end of this year handsford court has completed demolition concrete flatwork electrical conduit install and is preparing to install the electrical and mechanical facilities we also received a hazard mitigation grant fund or a hazard mitigation grant for this project to relocate the previously above ground pumping equipment to put it below ground inside the wet well and this will harden the facility against future wildfires and help to reduce damage and maintain sewer services in the event of a future fire um at the sky farm a location uh project managers are currently working with pgne for their electrical service installations and the city contractor is currently demolishing the fire damaged buildings at the site um so while we have been uh operating these facilities on a temporary basis um we are do you want to also acknowledge that our local crews our utility system operators and our water system techs have been working tirelessly to ensure that this temporary pumping system consistently serves the demands of the homes that have been rebuilt and continue to be rebuilt so the the temporary project is great but we're very excited to see these permanent replacements being constructed and then i also wanted to mention that we have our fire related repairs of utility systems this particular public assistance project as multiple water and sewer facilities that were damaged during the fire includes replacing damage chain link fencing irrigation tubing a generator at our stagecoach lift station and other miscellaneous damage one of the last remaining items is to install the replacement generator at the stagecoach lift station and once this generator is replaced we will then have the portable generator available for our emergency response and likely for upcoming psps's this season so um the project is essentially 75 percent through construction and we are estimating completion by fall of this year so a lot of great work again really want to think not only our operations crews but also our cip teams for all the great work on these really critically important projects for us then second i wanted to let the board know that we did bring our rate presentation and recommendation to the city council and study session on tuesday of this week i really again want to acknowledge and thank the hard work of both the budget subcommittee and the board as a whole with your great leadership and support we were able to bring i think a very modest and reasonable rate recommendation to the council in study session the study session went incredibly well and the council was supportive so we will now be putting out the prop 218 notice to the community it will go out at the end of this month we will ensure that the board receives a copy of the prop 218 notice before it's mailed as well as what we're calling a rate toolkit giving you various um outreach materials and options if you want to engage in social media or however you want to share information we want to provide that toolkit to both the board and the council so you have that available in case you get questions from the public the prop 218 mailing should be going out the last week of march and then we are scheduled to have our rate public hearing on may the 25th so again just really want to acknowledge all the hard work we know we ask a lot of this board and we really do appreciate all of your work and leadership through this rate setting process and that's the end of my report and i'm happy to answer any questions thank you director burke we have a question i believe from vice chair arnone you're on you have to unmute bill i got it i'm midsends i got it um i just wanted to thank the city for making available the abc 1234 ethics training that has been scheduled for next tuesday i believe it is online and remind everyone that you have to register in advance to participate in that training and i just wanted to thank you for making that available at no charge so that we can satisfy that requirement so thanks thank you any other board member questions or comments from the director all right we're now taking public comments on item 14 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand your dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary atha we have no public comments all right that concludes our agenda for today's meeting so we will be adjourned see you all on march the 18th have a good rest of your afternoon we're adjourned