 All right, see this it Can you hear me? It's not on No, this how about now good. I could hear that All right, welcome to the February 20th meeting of Soquel Creek Water District Roll call director Balboni Vice president Lather here Director LeHue Director Christensen is absent She's minutes away. Thank you and President Jaffee. I'm here. All right I'm gonna rearrange things a little bit and I'll tell you why I'm rearranging them So as you know There's no public hearing outside of 7.3 which is on the rates and There were written protests That were turned in ahead of time, but you still can turn in a written protests until the end of a Look comment on on that item I'm Show of hands everyone's here for the for the rates That's what I thought. Okay, so Right now we have An item 7.2 Consider approval of contract amendment for professional legal and litigation services related to pure water soquel program As long as Our staff is not Is done with counting the protests Which it like I you has to be written and it has to be turned in by the end of of The public comment then we'll we'll pull that and We'll put that after items 7.3 but I am gonna Gonna go through the some very quick items before we do that so Director Jaffee yes, President Jaffee. Were you also thinking about oral communications too in order to oh, yes I'm oral communications. I'm gonna This is in the interest of time and Respecting everybody's time. We'll we'll do that after item 7.3 and Item 6 will also do after it will do that right before The Oral and written communications and then the last item will be closed session and and I just like to comment The oral communications is about any item not on the agenda not about items that are on the agenda He's trying to facilitate it. So we don't keep you here all night. The item you're interested in. Thank you Ron So with that Okay, I just wanted to reiterate that the protests have to be in written form to be counted If you make a comment An oral comment that does not count as a protest and Those have to be turned in if you could turn them in as soon as possible if you have them They'll facilitate the county of them, which is going to be done in the Is it the back of room or front of room? It is the back of the room We have staff back there Counting the ones that we have not received earlier and I should know there's there's other protocol like they Have to be written submitted not by email have your APN. So there are other criteria for a valid protest. Yeah and So with that I Will Move on to item three board members opportunity to remove items from Cassin agenda anything All right any comments On on the consent agenda, that's not a level of removing Well, I have I have a comment on the Management update There's an item about a letter to the Times publishing group Talking about how it's actually misinformation about and taking a Quote out of context About how the what the groundwater basin is in in good shape And there'll be more on that later During the presentations So with that are there any motions for the consent agenda? I'll move approval of consent Tom and Jennifer All in favor I all opposed All right and welcome Carla Okay, sorry about that. I was detained Understand it So that brings us up to seven point one Because we're gonna do item five the our own written communication and the reports later in the interest of time everybody I'm sure does it want to stay here too late And so seven point one is conditional and unconditional will serves there are none Seven point two we're gonna gonna put after seven point three so seven point three is Conducting majority protests public hearing and consider adoption of ordinance 24 dash zero one Fixing rates charges and fees so Ron Yes, thank you President Jaffee and and our CFO Leslie shrumps gonna kick it off tonight And we have a little trilogy to help do the presentation So this evening we've brought a memo before the board to consider adopting rates charges and fees in accordance with Proposition 218 the rate study was performed by ref tell us financial consultants and we do have a presentation here to go through For the benefit of our public members, we do have an agenda We've got some introductions of the team that's going to be presenting to you tonight We have a district overview and then a rate study an overview of the rate study itself The public participation and outreach that we engaged in to try and get our customers participating in the process We'll go over the proposed rates and then we will open the public hearing for public comment So just brief introductions. I'll let you go to the next slide, please brief introductions this evening Presenting to you tonight is going to be Melanie mouse Schumacher our special operations Manager and our assistant general manager as well as Kevin caustic from fine Raff tell us financial consultants who actually performed our rate study for us and then of course I'll be presenting as well I'm I'm the finance and business services manager So I'll pass it off to Melanie Thank You Leslie Good evening and welcome everybody I'm going to be taking a couple of the slides at the beginning before Kevin comes up really it's a time for us We feel to provide a little bit of information and background related to who we are What what's important to us and we hope what's important to you and then of course Why that's so important within our budget setting and the rate study so again so Cal Creek Water District We are a not-for-profit special government agency Created in the 1960s to provide water here to our community Our goals are about water resource management and sustainability infrastructure and delivery community engagement and trust fiscal responsibility customer service and workforce and organizational excellence We are in the business of serving water and Most of our service areas in the Santa Cruz mid-county area We serve the communities of Aptos La Selva Beach seascape so Cal and portions of Capitola We are governed by a board of directors of five here today and we are a staff of about 49 employees most of our infrastructure does rely heavily on Providing groundwater to our customers. We have tanks wells pump stations pipelines fire hydrants Water meters and more and really our main focus is to ensure that we can provide high quality drinking water to our customers 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year to meet the daily needs of cooking washing bathing All the other essential needs and of course even recreation water is also very important in terms of providing its use during Essential emergencies specifically as you know, this area does have wildfires as well as small fires in our Urban areas. We also have emergency interties. I know tonight is a day where there's quite a bit of rain But sometimes even surface water is not as reliable as groundwater in fact last year We had to open up the intertie to provide water to the city of Santa Cruz and also about a year ago Was when we made national news When our coastline was getting pummeled by the storms as well as the Bates Creek Wash out and that actually provided a disconnection of service to a small community in so Cal Now I think we've done a pretty good job over the years of explaining that so-called Creek one doesn't get water from the Creek we're a hundred percent groundwater, but also the the challenges that we have here in our area, which is We are designated as a critically overdrafted ground basin by the state of California. So we are one of 21 basins I'm sorry. We are one of 21 basins identified as critically overdrafted and in California. There are over 500 groundwater basins So we have the designation and the requirement to bring the basin back into sustainability by 2040 That is basically due to the seawater intrusion and contamination that has been occurring in the 1980s and We are actively working with ourselves as well as as well as other community groups Including the city of Santa Cruz the County of Santa Cruz Central Water District and private well owners That comprised the mid-county groundwater agency to bring the basin back into sustainability Now we have a great illustration of this on our website, which is actually animated, but this Deep picks what seawater intrusion is in the Central Valley They have a condition called subsidence But here because we have an ocean that's right next door to our ground water basin That ocean water can come in and actually contaminate and intrude into our freshwater resources So over time when more Ground water is extracted Then what can naturally be replenished by rainfall this condition of seawater intrusion and contamination occurs Where that ocean water comes in and will either affect drinking waters that are drinking water wells that are nearby and Or other private wells This is a phenomenon that is occurring right here in our community. This is an illustration of the Monterey Bay We are right here in this gold circle or oval and these yellow dots Illustrate where we have detected through our monitoring wells active seawater intrusion Where we have we take water quality levels and water quality samples and a sample You know is pulled once a month and some of these wells are actually detecting very brackish salty water None of our groundwater wells yet have been Impacted by this and we really want to keep it that way as you can see as you go farther down into the Monterey Bay Down in Watsonville and Moss landing that seawater contamination is coming in around three miles You go farther down to Marina and Salinas and that's seven to ten miles. So it's critically important We did a study in 2019 Where we had this contraption which is right here on the cover of Aptos times called Sky Tem It's an aerial geophysical tool that could better detect and model the seawater contamination that's occurring at the coastline and the results of this study Concluded that it is right at Literally the doorstep of our groundwater basin. So as long Ron likes to call it it was game on that we really needed to address this Not only were we personally interested as we have been for a long time But now the state had come in and basically mandated that our region addresses So what does it mean when the state mandates this requirement? I brought along this little handout This is an eight page kind of readers digest to the groundwater sustainability plan, which is required For all the critically overdrafted groundwater basins to prepare and it's basically the guidebook of how we will achieve Basin sustainability and these are the requirements that we need to meet to address the local groundwater issues I won't go into detail on them, but as you can see there are five main Issues or drivers primarily we're focused on tonight the seawater intrusion and the chronic lowering of the groundwater levels But we also want to ensure that there's water stored in the groundwater basin for future use We want to make sure that the water quality stays high and drinkable And of course, we also want to make sure that we're monitoring the impacts to the surface water and groundwater interfaces Now this eight page handout has some really great illustrations I'm just going to walk through a couple because again, what does it mean to be sustainable? so I'm going to go ahead and describe the This graph here on the right that y-axis is groundwater elevation so we need to have protective groundwater elevations in our groundwater basin to ensure that ocean water is staying at bay and Salt water is heavier than fresh water. So we want to have a positive outflow So basin sustainability indicator is that we want to have groundwater levels above 20 feet in this monitoring Well, that is being represented here. The x-axis is the years over time. So you can see from 2020 to 2060 So our groundwater modeling we included different projects programs and activities that are being Implemented here in our local basin this first illustration right here, which is kind of like a light green line as you can see This includes the projects and activities such as water conservation moving groundwater pumping away from the coast and more inland and also installing new groundwater wells More inland so that we're extracting farther away from the coast Those actions and activities are a cornerstone to the district as well as a lot of the other agencies here It's kind of one of the main foundations of our community water plan but as you can see we've made a lot of strides Before conservation and some of these other activities were implemented groundwater levels were very low even below sea level and The report even says that we've made huge strides to increase groundwater levels and become more efficient But it is not enough to fully recover the groundwater basin levels You can see here We're still have quite a bit of a gap before we reach that red line of basin sustainability So the green line you would you want that line to be up toward the orange line or red. Okay. Thank you So the modeling also included projects and programs that we are Implementing such as pure water soquel aquifer storage and recovery water transfers and even storm water capture And you can see with the implementation of these projects and activities just like what Ron was mentioning We're getting closer and closer, and we are achieving that red line of sustainability So so that's kind of an illustration of the basin indicator there at that coastal monitoring well and then going back to our illustration of You know what what does that look like you remember before There were these red arrows that were coming in to where the extraction wells the the drinking water wells are pulling water out Pure water soquel would be putting water into the groundwater basin that purified water would create that positive outflow To create a sea water intrusion barrier It will also help increase protective water levels so that that sea water intrusion doesn't start to move in So I do have a couple of slides as much as we try to share information about pure water soquel We do have quite a bit of information on our website if you are not aware of that I encourage you to go on to our website, but we are going to just go through a couple of slides to Describe pure water soquel the project was approved by the board and an environmental impact report was certified back in 2018 We'd actually been looking at recycled water since 2015 as a way to augment and replenish our groundwater basin But the picture on the left basically is our geographical Overview of what pure water soquel is it's a recycled purified water project that would be taking secondary Affluent that is currently being treated at this yellow star and Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz wastewater treatment plant About six to eight million gallons a day goes out to the ocean We would be capturing about 25% of that and putting that water to beneficial reuse by conveying it through Santa Cruz To the second middle yellow star, which is the advanced water purification center at Chanticleer And then we would take that water purify it there, and then it would go out to the blue lines Out towards Capitola and Aptos to our three seawater intrusion prevention wells So I want to just kind of note that you know over the years the district has been Really doing our best to try and raise money for the project by seeking grants and low-interest loans We have been pretty successful in that we've received over 95 million dollars in grants through the state and federal agencies and Then the remaining project has been funded through low-interest loans We've been in construction since 2021 and we are looking to bring the project online at the end of this year But specifically before I go to the next slide and I just want to I'm gonna dive in a little bit into that that yellow star in the middle How many of you are Familiar with where that is if you've seen the bike pedestrian bridge that's going on right there Around Soquel Avenue. How many of you have seen that bridge? How many of you know that the water purification center is right there as well? Okay, so I'm gonna show a couple pictures of that So this is the pure water Soquel water purification center. We broke ground in 2021. That's a picture on the right and it is comprised of This is kind of where we'd like to say the magic is happening. This is where the water purification will take place in this building We have some ancillary Equipment and in buildings here. We also will have our O&M center here and a learning center We would like to have tours, but it's co-located right now with the bike pedestrian bridge So this is that construction that you're also seeing That will kind of create right here in that live oak area Alternative transportation and and alternative water So it's really exciting that as people are coming in and out of our community They're able to witness and see some really innovative and I think True environmental stewardship happening on that property Once the water is purified at that site that pure water is going to go out to those three Red stars that you saw on the map and those are a seawater intrusion prevention wells Those have been strategically located by our hydrologist to best put that purified water into the ground water basin in areas where it would create the most benefit both from raising protective water levels and creating that seawater intrusion barrier, but also In front of very active production wells that the district operates now the project has been in development since 2015 and we've been under the state mandate since 2014 Progress is continually measured And that is something that our board does for our project the state requires that as well We do annual updates to the state related to the progress of our groundwater basin and the project activities Every five years. We also have to do a report to the state There was some information that went out based upon a presentation that was done last month And I just wanted to make sure and clarify that to you as we try to make sure that people are informed the basin still has shot science of being not not sustainable yet and the hydrologist for us Georgina King wrote a letter to us She wanted to provide that to us To the mid-county groundwater agency and also to the regional water quality control board that we are still seeing undesirable results we still are Needing to achieve basin sustainability by 2040. We are making progress But as you can see here projects like pure water so Cal is still needed to eliminate those undesirable results So I'd like to just share that with you. I know we I've gotten a couple calls So if you if you hear information about the basin You know, what's the status of the basin this letter is available and in the packet Two last slides before I turn it over to Kevin But again pulling up from some kind of I dove deep into pure water so Cal But really what are the benefits of a reliable and sustainable water supply? we did a study back in 2019 an Economist and professor up at UC SC Did a study for us about the the economic benefits and having a reliable water supply We'll provide nearly one million dollars in economic benefits to our residences The businesses here and also the environment and our protection of our natural resources The bottom part of it basically in a nutshell is if we didn't have a sustainable water supply We would have less water and that water would cost about three times more than what it does now Just a clarification, I thought I heard you say one million, but that's one billion went with a B. Okay. Thank you Yeah Thank you And then you know I think one of the things that's kind of true to the district's mission and our values and our goals is About environmental stewardship and doing things in a sustainable and cost-effective way I think a lot of things too as we are starting to shift I We had an open house a couple weeks ago Had some really great conversations from customers that came to that over at Temple Bethel And I think one of the things that we're really trying to share with people is that being in Conservation minded is holistic. I think in the years past. It's been a lot about using less and you know really restricting use state the state has declared, you know 25% less but really holistically as we go forward and we really want to embrace more of an environmental conservation sustainability mindset of not just using less but also about ways that we can promote Sustainability in many different ways. I think the pure water soak help project is a conservation project because we are reusing and recycling and so I Empowered and I feel that the community is understanding that as we go forward and we look forward to bringing that project online And I think with that I will switch it over to Kevin and Kevin. Just let me know when you want me to advance the slides We'll do thank you. Melanie. Good evening directors staff members of the public in attendance tonight Kevin caustic from Raft Ellis We're going to do a recap of our work with the rate study next slide, please So this slide showing our public meeting schedule with your board our work started well before we started Late spring or early summer of last year, but we came to you first in October We talked about the financial plan and preliminary results of the long term for as far as revenues and expenses We had an informational webinar in November with the community just before Thanksgiving We were back a few days after that with revised financial plan outlooks for you. We came back. We talked about rate structures some alternatives That was a selection in December 5th We returned with a firm proposal on December 19th and then noticed our customers January 4th We held a second webinar with the community late in January and as Melanie mentioned we had an open house with the community about two weeks ago about ten days ago a temple Bethel and here we are tonight for the The end of the road for our rate study work the public hearing itself The process worked not just with the board, but with the rate study advisory committee It's an ad hoc committee to board members with public participation These folks started working on the rate study process back in April and work through November of last year We've got a couple screen grabs and photos from the public participation in those meetings Next slide, please My team met with the advisory committee at five different points first in August to talk about rate study process 218, which is the legal Structure we worked through here in California as far as rate setting We talked about financial planning in September we talked about rate design and cost of service in October and then Had feedback and input from the committee in October and November on actual rates rate alternatives and preliminary proposed rates Next slide So the board the committee, but also lots of outreach with the community So I mentioned we had informational webinars. We had the open house We have bill inserts social media posts Contacts at the farmers market. We have a dedicated website The 218 notice itself to customers. I think was a fairly thorough As far as the behind the rates and the story Behind why rate increases are necessary and then the thing that's not on here is there's also a bill calculator online So folks can go online put in their information as far as what kind of customer they are What kind of meter size they have from their bill and their water use and calculate their current proposed bills Next slide, please So this just summarizes the decision points and kind of the four key areas along the way for us So first our policy objectives your board gave direction on your key priorities Before we came along early in 2023 and those priorities were financial sustainability Social equitability and legal defensibility. So those are kind of core foundational Objectives that guide our rate setting process Then is the financial plan? So we look out over a 10-year horizon and we project What are the revenues of the district with the current rates and what are our projected expenses? So what are our operating costs? What are our capital reinvestment needs? What's our debt service so repayments on past borrowings and then one of our reserve contributions? We go through that 10-year look and the result is a 10% overall increase that's required in the first year and 12% in years two three and four of this four-year plan The third piece is the cost of service analysis So this is a technical analysis where we look at all of our operating and our capital costs We we ask ourselves what purpose or function does that cost serve on the water system and allocating out to our different user groups? And so we use our existing cost services as a basis and and update to reflect the most up-to-date cost allocations and user demands and then the last piece of rate structure modifications So we do have revisions proposed in this rate study revising the residential tiered structure from two tiers to three Increasing the amount of fixed revenue that comes from rates from 40% to approximately 60% Next slide, please So these are the kind of key takeaways if take away nothing else from the study We have these future basin sustainability costs related to the pure water Soquel project and we differentiate those between the fraction that serves Higher volume users and supplemental water supply to serve those customers and recover those the water use rates Then we have the basin-wide Reliability benefit that's recovered over the fixed charges as a benefit to all parcels that are being served by the district Fixed charges again recalibrated to recover more of the district's fixed costs a three-tier rate structure Which will Provide an intermediate tier it lowers the threshold of tier one as you'll see in a few slides, but it Includes now an intermediate tier and so when we step through all those changes the impacts of customers are going to depend on Their customer class the size of meter that serves their property and their water use Next slide, please So we'll walk through a few different bill impacts. These are all for single-family customers presumed Single family at the five-eighths inch meter connection So this example is for a household that uses five units of water per month You could think of that as say efficient indoor use for a household of two perhaps three or winter water use It would see an increase under this proposal of about a dollar a day 98 cents per day Next slide That same five-eighths inch meter connection with nine units of water served in a month would see a decrease of almost two dollars per day So again, we could think of this as a high volume user, but it could also be summer needs for that same family with irrigation demands It could be efficient use for a household of say four or five and Then lastly The middle ground seven units a month. So this is kind of represented with somebody who may use Less water in the winter time have irrigation needs in the summer or might be that roughly four person household Their bill sees no change. So within a dollar between the current and the proposed bill at seven units per month Next slide, please So talking about what drives the rates and the overall revenue needs. These are kind of the core Drivers so first inflationary pressure. We talk a lot about inflation in the last year or two That's true for utilities. In fact, if we talk about general inflation being at 3% Utilities are normally experiencing that at more like 6% so it's it's roughly double. We think about all the capital Infrastructure that we have and the specialized services and components and hard to reach areas and we experience increased inflationary pressure for utilities Supply sources and costs so we talked about the pure water program Project that does change the cost structure going forward Cash reserves, which you've had to utilize in the past several years with declining per capita demands Future barring terms and assumptions. So you do have a significant loan on the pure water project that comes online Kind of towards the end of this 10-year look, but those terms are very favorable with a deferred principal option Very long-term repayment horizon and an interest rate. That's on the order of 1.3% Talked a little bit about baseline water sales estimates. So we do continue to see declining demands and that puts pressure on our mostly fixed costs So that puts pressure on rates and then outside of all of the rest of that you have your your built system all the Utility infrastructure and pipes and pumps and tanks that serve your customers and that needs continued Reinvestment so again putting all that together Projecting revenues projecting expenses and what's required is a 10% increase and that in the first year so that would be March 1st of this year followed by 12% increases in January of 2025 26 and 27 so we've talked to I talked on a prior slide about base and sustainability So talking about the benefits that pure water provides a Change in this study is to look at the existing methodology, which is 20% to our basin benefit based on wide benefit and that's recovering what were the costs of Or the district's share of costs of the groundwater management agency and the remainder Currently recovered from that tier two residential rate in the form of water reliability The update shifts that to be a split of 5545 Looking at the seawater intrusion barrier benefit to all parcels served by the district and then that Remained or being the supplemental water supply provided to large volume users So when we update this what we're doing is making sure that large volume users pay their fair share of supplemental water costs but also ensuring that those who Benefit every parcel benefiting from those current and future benefits of having the project Preventing seawater intrusion are paying for that the current under the current structure if you don't use water if you're Out of town or if you're a part-time resident you're basically getting out of paying that fee Going forward having it be Part of the fixed charges paying based on the size of your meter ensures that everyone's paying their fair share of the benefit so second Restructure modification is the increase in fixed revenue recovery overall. So from 40 percent to 60 percent And that's a combination of things. We've got an increase Revenue need that 10 percent in the first year and 12 percent thereafter also recovering the basin wide benefit costs of pure water from fixed charges and trying to Increase the overall share of the cost that we recover again because we're predominantly fixed costs revenue and one of the board priorities is financial sustainability and then rate structure modifications looking at the residential tier structure What's proposed is to introduce that intermediate tier so now tier one steps down from Threshold of five point zero to five point nine nine units per month down to three point nine nine So that's based on the average water Winter water use characteristics of single-family users in So-called Creek service area and then an intermediate tier that goes from four to about eight units per month So again providing for the peak summer needs those irrigation needs of single-family class and then all water use beyond tier two falls in that tier three Which would now start at eight units per month And if we go to the next slide, we'll see a comparison so again currently we have two tiers that first year up to five point nine nine units and then stepping into tier two at six units per month At a rate of forty one dollars and twenty three cents the proposed ratchets down to your one Provides that intermediate tier now between four and eight and then again a new tier three above eight units So we'll step through the the rate schedules themselves Highlighted here as a five-eighth inch row. That's typical of most of our single-family residential users So here we're showing our current rates and then proposed March of 2024 and then the three years thereafter And you see the increase in March 2024 again everything all in the increase in the revenue needs the Purposeful recovery of additional revenue from fixed meter charges and then again the base and wide benefit of pure water being recovered in the fixed charge and Then your district differentiates fixed charges by customer class So the prior was for single-family multi-family and commercial users. Here's a schedule for irrigation users Same charge Same components, but again differentiated based on their demand patterns and how they how this customer class uses water They peak more than those other classes and their charges are reflected here Next slide Water use rates we stepped through the single family and the The slides prior will look at those again here again just the the four-year outlook Current and four-year proposed and then uniform rates for our commercial class and irrigation class Those are uniform rates, but differentiated for both a Decrease in those rates because again, it's a uniform rate We're recovering more on the fixed charges. It's reflected in their fixed charges But what that means is the water use of the commodity rate does come down in the first year before it then increases in years two three and four and Last but not least water shortage emergency rates So these are Supplemental and temporary rates that are at your discretion if there's a declared shortage or a water shortage emergency Kind of an additional tool in the toolbox should you require that in the future but not proposed to be implemented with this increase Or at this time I should say available for the future and with that I will turn it back to Leslie Okay, so now we're back to the public hearing component of this and for those in our audience who aren't familiar with the procedures of a public hearing The board of directors will open the public hearing will invite everybody to make a public comment if they wish to do so Then we will Want to call for additional written as protests if anybody has a written protest that they have not handed in yet and want to Do so we encourage you to get that done They're waiting at the back table for any protests that might come in and then the board will close a public hearing And then make a deliberation on the motions Thank you Leslie just so we know how many people would like to speak tonight. Can I see that with a show of hands? Okay our typical Time we allow For public comment is two minutes. I think with the number of people that have raised their hands It's doable for everybody's to speak And we do want to hear from you some guidelines No Clapping no yelling No swearing for some people not my kids but the And If you agree with somebody and want us to know about that, please just raise your hand And i'm gonna be very strict on the two minutes And there's no seating of your your additional time to another speaker You want to hear from what what you think of things? So with that If I may make another recommendation Just trying to honor your own Your time and those of those around you if you want to speak and you see the lines down to like two people Maybe you could come up and be next in line just so the flow keeps going. I don't help facilitate it. Thank you. Thank you ron All right, so Who would like to speak first? Good evening, Michael Is that mic on? Hello, okay, can you hear me? Okay Hi, i'm mic boyd. I live at five four three nine So cal drive so cal california. I did submit a protest on the 13th I brought an extra copy in case you need it um I'm protesting the the rate increase Basically back in 2015 I sued the district over their tiered rates and I'm giving five million bucks to city of Santa Cruz for study in diesel Uh, I wanted the appeals court on the tiered rates And I settled with the district for five thousand dollars And the district basically assured me that they were gonna they were gonna stick till the two tiers and then Get rid of the tiers After they raise the rates the next time That's not what happened unfortunately And uh now I'm seeing you got three tiers My understanding is those uh tiers are based on how much it costs to To get the water that you produce from the ground and then have and then there's something that's going for the the the um pure water So cal the problem is you can't charge me for water from pure water so cal because you're not producing water Okay, so it's not constitutional And and the 41 cents that you charged that's not constitutional either Okay, and if so what I have to do is I have to sue you again And when I sue I'm going to sue you over the tiered rates And I'm going to sue you over the 41 cents Because you if you increase the rates, it's presumed under prop 26 That it's a a tax unless there's a vote first Thank you. Thank you for respecting the time Mike Uh, do we have somebody else? I I see some hands. Thank you No, john Hi, uh, you all know me real well. My name is john coal. I'm also a rate payer And I'm trying to reiterate something that mike brought up okay Your consultant didn't really go into detail how They devised these rates and including the Revenue requirement for the rate setting year 2024 2024 was the rate setting year and Based on that revenue requirement usually typically based on the budget Of the operating operating expenses plus capital expenses minus some adjustments That's driven all the way down Into the duration of the rates And what they put in there was 5.5 million dollars. I want you to remember that number 5.5 million dollars For pws on m cost. Well, just like mike says pws doesn't exist It won't be exist until maybe september So between now and september march to august You're talking about 2.74 million dollars of revenue that you're going to obtain That you're not incurring a cost for and so You need to justify that you need to understand how that rate study was put together and they shouldn't have put this pws cost in there now It's it you should actually have another rate study in september in october november Where you can now put that in there You can't do it. I'm sorry Thank you, john I'm seeing hands going up Hi, my name is maria marcilio and I have a property at 7227 mason drive in atos Um question for the board uh, you say that you have 95 million in grants for the pure water project How much is the total of that project going to cost now? I know a few years ago in 2018 it was 130 million. I'm sure it's gone up. So I have a question about that and then also I I did the math on kevin's rates there and We started 70 dollars and 45 cents For two units as a current bill and the 10 percent rate would be 78 dollars and eight cents and then on top of that in 2025 12 percent would be 87 40 However, I went on your website just now and put in the 70 dollars and 54 cents And with two units and it comes out to 98 dollars and 76 cents. So that's over a 40 percent increase Not just 10 and 12 That's very concerning Those those numbers just don't add up um, so Please oh, we don't want to be interactive here. We want to hear what people have to say So please keep your comments to yourself if you want to speak at the the podium you can I work With the population of people who are um at risk And Is senior citizens and as well as others as well as others So I implore you to really be respectful of them because this kind of an increase Is going to severely impact people like that who are on a fixed income. It's really difficult for them to afford To live here and this is a necessity water is a necessity and I understand But it's really hard for people. Thank you Thank you, maria Next Chris Hi, I'm chris curby. I live in um the seascape area We've been talking to a lot of ratepayers and it's been very interesting Only about three out of a hundred people think that so calc creek is doing the right thing The rest could not sign the protests fast enough You're hurting people financially and how does that feel People cannot afford to take a daily shower or plan a vegetable garden We just went through five years of a 54 percent increase and now you're demanding more and how dare you all do that to us You're making people's lives unaffordable although and that's the big buzzword Affordable housing affordable. This is unaffordable all the while you're giving bonuses to employees for doing their regular jobs Bonus bonuses should be given at the end of a project if it comes in under the projected cost and before the time It was due not retroactively in every month This needs to stop and stop now And be responsible with our money starting a project that was originally estimated at 60 million dollars And now the cost is 200 million and could be going up It's is irresponsible and obviously poorly managed. We did not ask for pure water. So cal you forced us into this project Why aren't other local water districts helping pay for it since they're also going to get water from it The district needs to manage their costs and not keep asking us to pay more and more Hookup fees in 2007 were 12 dollars and 30 cents for a regular five eighths inch hookup And now they're going to be 80 dollars and 44 cents and more in three years And that's not the cost of inflation One local retired physician signed the protest and I asked him what he thought about the pure water so cal project He said that none of us should drink the water. He's worried about cancer rates going sky high At every board meeting I see you each with your water bottles And I'm guessing that none of you that water is not straight from the tap probably through a filter And what does that say to us? It'll soon be recycled wastewater. And does that does not sound appealing or safe Stop this increase Thank you, chris. I see some hands raised and I saw him at different points during with chris talked about as well Good evening. Jerry McMullen. I live at 3410 south polo drive in aptos and I Want to echo many things that have been said already Been working 25 years in social services and I see firsthand the effects of the increased costs to live here in this county and The toll is taken on people's mental health and contributing to all kinds of things including reckless behaviors and and so on I wanted to find out about this study because I didn't hear anything mentioned about The history of saltwater intrusion and how that has affected Where we are today and what was you know determined was that even considered in terms of rates? Excuse me And you know, I believe poor planning has has a lot to do with that in terms of I don't I'm not aware of any reservoirs that have been built in the past that we're able to capture I've been able to capture water and carry us through times that are Dryer and not as abundant And so I'm also curious about that study and I can pour over it, but I'm wondering if that was considered as well as Who should pay for the poor decision-making that was done many many years ago? I don't think it should be the the rate the homeowners or the rate water People that are paying for the rates you're indicating And yeah, I think that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you I see some hands agreeing with that can you As ron suggested if you know, you're gonna want to talk We can decrease the amount of change over time if if you'd line up ahead of time Good evening. My name is Antonia Stoney I live at 113 Madeleine Drive in Aptos and I just have a couple questions I want to Echo what the the lady said earlier. I don't understand why the The households that use the least amount of water are going to get hit the hardest It just doesn't make sense to me. I think there was a comment made something about Oh, yeah, well those we've got to get those people who you know are out of towners, you know They're in the same category as the people who use the least amount of water something is wrong there because um, I was brought up to always conserve water and a policy that doesn't respect the idea that water is a A valuable resource that we must all conserve Does not make sense to me. It does. It doesn't have legs. I'm sorry. It just it's not working The other thing that strikes me is that The the biggest users are getting are getting actually a rate decrease or are staying the same I I just I want you to reconsider Who you're impacting here. It's very expensive to live here People make big sacrifices and they're willing to make big sacrifices over the water too To to keep the expenses down. We we know that you we you know, we want to support you. We need water But but please be mindful. Thank you Thank you I see hands raised Becky Thank you. My name is Becky Steinbruner I've been assisting with collecting protests because you know what your right peers didn't know they could They didn't know they could protest. I listen to the the online rate Study thing and never once was staff saying people have a right to protest I ask you to take no action tonight that is your option number four by staff you can take no action I ask you to reconsider given what you've heard given the number of protests which I would wager as a record number for anything you've ever done And reconsider this It bothers me that you continue to give staff $1,600 a month bonuses $1,000 a month bonuses And come and and penalize those who have worked the hardest to conserve It makes no sense as the former speaker said and also what Darcy Pruitt said in the Santa Cruz Sentinel She wrote the mid-county groundwater sustainability plan. It doesn't make sense to her either I think you need to clarify that Miss Georgina King did say to the mid-county groundwater board the basin is doing pretty well. I was there Your staff was not So for them to criticize and call it misinformation. I'm quite offended The district has had to reconvene their uh readoo their their use for this because people conserve so much Leslie Strom said in the initial hearings were here because we're at $11 million shortfall because people have conserved so much That's never shown in here Neither has it explained the 5.5 million dollar increase for operating costs for pure water so cal There's never been any explanation about how paying not paying your cow per's debt to lower its 10 Will affect the rate payers either. Thank you, Becky Unseen hands raised as well anybody else My name is Michael Gutierrez. I live at 507 pine street in Aptos And I can really relate to the folks that had a chance to speak I've been on the right advisory committee volunteer I'm a senior with cancer on a fixed income having said that I only saw one of the people Not to put people down I saw one person Michael at the open house They talked about protests and so forth But not one of the speakers spoke tonight I was in the Sentinel they wrote me up and because He asked how I felt and I initially went in Back when the advisory committee started I didn't like the price increase. I didn't like the rate increase once again We can't live without water. I will drink with cancer. I will drink the pws. I will drink the water That's not the point a point as I changed as I went through the rate study and listened to Sustainability we need sustainability stability and equity I'm paying for it I didn't want to pay for it. It's expensive for me. I'm on a fixed income The fact the matter is I look at this paying forward for future generation I just found out today I'm going to be a grandfather for the second time The fact the matter is I'm willing to pay forward for our water for future generations And I won't be around in 2040 for the sustainability that we've got to maximize I won't be around. I will be here for the eclipse April 8th and the next one's 2040. I hope we don't eclipse Our sustainability For our water here. Thank you. Thank you Michael I see i'm raised All right Anybody else? Okay, is there a motion to close to close the public hearing? So moved The question is whether I asked for written protests. I did at the beginning of the meeting saying at the end of the close At the public comment period was the the limit on written protests so Um, and I think it was also asked several other times. Is that correct? Josh that's correct president jaffee. But if anyone has a written protest who hasn't submitted it. Um, now is the time Okay Thank you. I'll move to close the public hearing. It looks like everybody got a chance I wanted to There's been motions. There's second second second Tom rachel All in favor I Okay So You want to start off tom? Yeah, a couple things. I mean I really understand frustrations on seeing the rates go up at the At the rate they are None of us really want that But as michael said our number one thing is to have sustainability for future generations his grandchildren my grandchildren And unfortunately, you know, we've looked at a lot of options. We did look at reservoirs. We did look at diesel and this is the best project By far and it was funded Much more by grants than we ever had hoped that yeah, the costs went up and inflation sucks But that's just what happened. So I think None of us like it and then We're faced with wanting to Take care of our groundwater basin So we have to be able to pay for that and One of the things I wanted to see in these rates is to have it be fair One of the things that bothered me in the previous rates is that a family of four would just necessarily bump into a really high tier And so this takes care of that. I mean everybody is paying more on that service charge to pay for basin sustainability and you know Whether I didn't want it to go up quite as fast as it did but But I still I went along with it because I think our fixed costs are like 95 percent of Of what the district actually has to pay so 60 fixed costs is really You know just bringing it closer in line And there's still a conservation signal There's still an encouragement for people to save water because it's gonna you're still gonna save money if you don't overuse so The other thing I just wanted to mention is just These rates that we set They are our maximum if a year from now we look and you know, there's been More water used than we expected or More people have built ad use and things like that and we don't need to raise them as much as predict as the maximum Then we won't We'll look at it every year Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. We have that we have that ability to analyze that every year. So And it may not happen. I'm just saying, you know, we don't want it to go up any more than we have to to pay for our costs maintain sustainability And to be able to serve all the customers with water every day of the year We're with that reliable source of clean fresh water. So that's all Thank you, Tom any other directors Yes I just wanted to let you know that we're all in the same boat. We are all rate payers I work for a living. I have to have fresh vegetables and fruits Given to me by friends to make it to the end of the week I'm in the lowest user group and I will be bearing the brunt of this So I am you we are together Just wanted to make that clear Any other comments from directors? Well, I just wanted to say that, you know, we've been looking for a project We've been aware of seawater intrusion. It's been Existential threat to our water supply. We've known about that for 30 40 years All of us I've been here 30 years. All of us have been living here But we did not pay and we did not solve that that problem There weren't any good projects reservoirs are very attractive, but they are not a great project They're expensive With climate change Evaporation, there's a lot of issues that make it a very expensive approach to saving Saving up water Luckily our customers and I'm one of those too. I learned to conserve. I've been hauling water I just you know, there are wonderful blissful winter that we had I've stopped having to carry and conserve water as much as I did taking showers more often I've heard it all from all of you as a canvas for re-election So I get that I get what you're saying and I've I took note of all of the things that people said Tonight too and I reflect those I agree with that, but We help create the problem. We have to solve this problem together We Been working really hard to get the pure water. So Cal online and it is In permitting now We're getting or that is going to go online And so with these costs these tiers are to address When that goes online and I feel like Far from being mismanaged the staff has done an amazing amazing job of struggling through COVID a COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war that caused an incredible inflation of all the parts that needed to go into this project We've done amazing The staff has done an amazing job of keeping this together and keeping it on track so that It's what I've been here 10 years That's pretty small amount of time for a project to go from research To completion. So it's really I think next time you see a staff member walking the streets Thank them thank them sometime, you know, they everybody just stayed in there. We had COVID here all over the place We are had to be careful. We had quarantine people and we still kept the water flowing. So just really uh Listen carefully try to understand The the factors that go into rates Are very complex and we'll all be disagreeing about one or the other aspect of it But if you really listen To what we had to do what our rate consultant did. He's certified by the state. This is a serious A serious effort that has to be made to raise the rates or not Capricious, we don't pick numbers out of the sky To just start charging people We're all customers. So Please listen try to really understand what goes into the rates and uh, the next time there's a rate advisory committee I urge you to participate. This is the process that we went through now and I really think you should study it hard And not just listen to I've been saying in water And now they're charging me more. Yes, that's what happens when we don't use as much water We still have to provide the same level of service Uh, and so that cost is divided among a smaller amount of money and so we We had to provide the water So we did have to borrow that money that we didn't realize in revenues So it is there. We lost that money or we didn't experience that money We are I think we're on a good path to recover from that Thank you I think they all um covered everything that I would possibly cover um I think the the big thing for most of us Most human beings is that we want simple solutions And simple solutions aren't going to fix those And so we've had to work really hard to come up with What we've come up with We didn't like she said we weren't capricious There was a lot of thought and I think like our heart and souls Went into this to try to figure out the best way and um You know fair is not necessarily A defined word What's fair to one person isn't to another but that doesn't mean That you're not being fair Okay well I just make one. Yeah, go ahead. Just I wanted to just once again Make it really clear that when the consultant hydrogel that is Was speaking to the mid-category water agency and said that we're doing well She meant and she clearly stated again We're doing well in moving towards the goal of sustainability by 2040 because The groundwater sustainability plan includes pure water soquel which will replenish the groundwater It's not there yet But that's what she was referring to Okay, well I agree with what's been said by the audience And also by the directors. I'm a I'm a rate payer um And my water uses towards the low end of things my rates are going to go up And I think Michael Gutierrez said this is this is an investment in the future um I'm willing to do that and It's not it's not something that that I'm happy doing Really not happy doing it um I'm going to close with I was very impressed by a general manager of the calvary county water district And this is almost verbatim. It's very close And here's the the quote that that he he sent out with his prop 218 And it's there's no sugar coating this The proposed rate increases are significant If there was a better alternative The water district would pursue it But underfunding the water district would ultimately cost our communities more than these proposed rate increases We need a generational investment in our water In the infrastructure and we ask for your understanding that summarizes My feelings as well about and thoughts about this so Josh we need to have a A report out on the the protests We do and if I may um before we get get to that I I heard two themes that I think need to be addressed one is the the low income I'm not sure we how do people are struggling. What are we doing? And so I'll ask Leslie to address that a little bit just that one thing And then the other one is because prop 218 is kind of arcane for most people I look to josh Nelson to provide a little context around that how it does What we think you're on sure Leslie, okay, so in terms of trying to assist our customers with with their water bills and with water rates We have applied twice now to the state a rear-age program To get funds for our customers who fell behind on their bills during the pandemic Pandemic and then the state gives us those funds to have applied directly to customer accounts So we did receive almost a hundred thousand dollars for customers a couple of years ago And we have reapplied and are waiting to hear on another dispensation on that We also have enrolled in the state's low house or low-income household water assistance program Which we call liwap. It's the equivalent of the PG&E light or the energy liheed program But it's for water And we encourage any low-income household to apply they can get a one-time assistance with their water bill In in the hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on how much water they use So if you are a low-income household, we encourage you to apply This program is due to sunset at the end of march We have high hopes that the state will continue it if they get some federal funding for the program We have also written letters to our legislators asking them to Appeal to the federal government and to the state government to come up with some low-income assistance programs that we can participate in As a special district who Has to comply with the auspices of of proposition 218 We are not able to provide an in-house low-income assistance program Because proposition 218 prohibits you from taking the monies paid By ratepayers and using that to subsidize another class of customers. It's to protect It's it's to protect constituents from being overtaxed and having that money Go to the benefit of another taxpayer So it's actually a protection under prop 218, but it does kind of hold our hands And and keep us from being able to provide that in-house So we will participate in Whatever program we can at the state or federal level to help help our customers with bills Thank you. Leslie Go ahead josh, please I think so as was mentioned procedurally The proceeding this evening is subject to proposition 218, which means that there are some special procedural rules We need to move forward before the board can decide whether to adopt the proposed rates And specifically under the proposition 218 water rates are what's called a property related fee Which means that before there's any increase in a property related fee The district has to provide 45 day notice of the protest hearing that we just had Which provides an opportunity for any customer or property owner to submit a written protest against the The proposed adjustment If the district receives Protests from 50 plus one of affected parcels by either the customer or the owner The district cannot move forward if the threshold Protest the protest threshold or protest amount is below that threshold. Excuse me Then the board can move forward with the proposed adjustment So with that background, I would turn it over to miss western to announce the results of the majority protest hearing Hi So we have received 569 protests These have not all been validated But we are still below the majority protest threshold of 7127 The board may move forward to consider adopting the ordinance Thank you And thank you josh for explaining So that brings us So whether there's any motions or not on this unless there are other comments the directors want to make Seeing none Is there any does anyone want to make a no go ahead and make the motion to adopt the ordinance fix the rate, you know Ordinance 24 01 second So tom and carla Right and this probably has to be done by roll call correct I believe so Director balboni. Yes Vice president laither. Yes Director lehu. Yes Director christiansen. Yes And president jaffee. Yes So that concludes this item I've rearranged this the schedule So we're now going to go back to item 7.2 consider approval contract amendment for professional legal and litigation services related pure water socal program And who's taking this? Is this humanly? Yes, this is my item So the item before you um item 7.2 is to consider approval of a contract amendment for professional legal and litigation services For the pure water socal program as you know, the project has Undergone some litigation towards the project due to environmental review Recently, we've had five lawsuits filed on the project all the same person a pro per litigant Several of these have been tried all the way up And have been completed. However, we did recently have a case that went to the trial court and to the appeal court and the ruling was in the district's favor However, the litigant has Voice that she intends to again challenge that At the state level and so before the item tonight is for additional litigation services with bbk Who has been our consulting attorney to provide legal services? currently, we don't see that this is something that would be Received at the appeal level when it's challenged. So there are two options that are before us option one is for additional funding Between 50 and 70 thousand dollars The second option would be if the california supreme court Did grant a further review of the case then the budget would need to be increased And that estimate amount is about 150 to 170 thousand dollars We think at this time we don't necessarily need to go to the option two So we are asking the board to consider option one, which would be to fund it at the the lesser level this Unfortunately is not a planned expense for the district So we do need approval to come out of our operating Reserves, so we have two considerations One is to amend our existing contract with bbk and the other is to reallocate funds from our ocr Into a pool of money that we can then use for this item. Thank you, melanie Is there Any public any questions by the board or any public comment? Public comment first Thank you. My name is becky steinbrunner. I am the proper litigant that has been challenging this because it's the only way that anyone can challenge A bad project for environmental violations and there have been many um, I made a copy of the the case 21 cv 02699 that Recently was ruled upon by the sixth district court of appeal I'd like to enter that into the record so that your ratepayers could see what it is that this is all about Now it doesn't have to go to court I've been saying i'd be willing to sit down at a table and talk with you And i've been saying that all along and you ignore me So I have to take it to court because you leave me no other choice And I care about the environment. I care that this district has never gone to california department of fish and wildlife To consult with them as you are required to do by law To get some meaningful and enforceable mitigations for this project I have confirmed that with Wesley stokes the regional director of california department of fish and wildlife They have known nothing about your project until I let them know now. Yes, you did send it to the clearing house But by law you are required to work with them to develop the mitigations and you did not do that And until march of of just last year you had not submitted an anti degradation a final anti degradation analysis Now that is is on the books and it shows that the aquifer will be degraded by the injection of the treated sewage water It will be degraded Now, how can you say that that's okay? I don't understand because you're not the only people Using this water. They're a private well owners private water companies. Thank you. I'm submitting this for the record. Thank you Thank you Any questions by board members or comments? Because I think it's okay to point out that the litigant has cost the district over 1.2 million dollars And that adds up to over 85 dollars a person Let's not be interactive here. You had your chance to add your time any other Comments by directors or questions Seen is that there's still lawsuits that Our potential I'm not going to get into disputing any of the facts um but I want to point out becky I've met with you and at the farm bakery twice And frankly I found that It wasn't productive for either one of us so I'm willing to meet with you. I'm willing to meet with you in the future becky if we have if we have a a potential for productive conversations so Are there any does any Informational or no we need to make I'll make them both motions. Okay, so that's To amend the contract and to fund it from I'll I'll second both motions Okay This one. I think we can do a voice vote All in favor. Hi. Hi all opposed Asses, okay So with the way things have been moved around I have to go back to my notes here um so District council are there report Thanks president jaffee in the interest of time no verbal verbal report for me this evening. Thank you. All right. Thank you and then The last item that's been moved around before closed session Is oral and written communications? This is an opportunity for public members to speak on any item of interest That's not on the agenda And president jaffee will also have items 7.4 Oh, excuse me. Sorry Thanks for the reminder. Didn't write that down. Yes 7.4. Let's take 7.4 before Oral comments. We have shelly flock our water resources manager here to present this item That's why you were walking up there craft ordinance 2204 It mens and repeals ordinance 2203 Which is establishing the rules and regulations for water service from the district There are two primary changes proposed to section 4 on new service and modifications of existing services That includes addition of language to exclude tiny homes on wheels from our requirement of separate or individual metering And also addition of language to add that all single family properties with additional dwelling units That are being served by a single meter Can request a voluntary separation of service without having to pay water capacity If they can prove that capacity fees were previously paid Or the dwelling existed and was legally recognized at the time of connection to the district Regarding the tiny homes related changes staff presented an analysis to the board on several occasions Regarding requiring all new individual residential and non residential Units to be supplied with separate water services and meters that was done in october And again in january at the january 16th meeting At the january meeting the board directed staff to Remove the separate metering requirement from ordinance 2203 For tiny homes on wheels only All other residential units including ad use accessory dwelling units still have to be separately metered So as related to tiny homes, we've added proposed language to ordinance 2203 to allow for this change That's shown in attachment one article 2 section 4e1 or page 6 of the ordinance And also an article 2 section 4c We also added a definition of tiny homes on wheels To that article 2 section 1 Regarding the water capacity fees for existing dwelling units voluntarily requesting separation of service We recently realized that the ordinance only allows that duplexes and triplexes Provided they were constructed before august 20th 2002 When our separate metering requirement went into effect Do not have to pay water capacity fees when separating service It doesn't currently allow the same treatment Towards single family properties with other legal residential dwelling configurations such as grant units and ad use That can show that they paid water capacity fees outright for multiple units at that time Or came on to the district system at a time when those fees would have been collected So the changes that we're proposing to the ordinance and article 2 Section 4f1 allow for equal treatment of those properties similar to duplexes and triplexes As it might not be possible for applicants to locate proof of payment For water capacity fees after many years have passed. It's suggested that another condition of the fee exemption Um is to allow the applicant to provide proof that the accessory structure Was existing prior to connection to the district and that it was considered a secondary unit by the applicable land use agency The county of santa cruiser the city of capital applicants that are Voluntarily requesting the separation would still be responsible for all other new service fees Including the cost of installing the new service In addition to the service and the water quality charges that happen mentally Due to the construction costs associated with installing a new service voluntarily As well as ongoing service charges for each meter We don't expect that this change will apply to very many applicants But we did recently have somebody in this situation that really wanted to separately meter And with that the the motions tonight are to Consider the proposed changes to 2203 and adopt ordinance 2402 Or take no action. All right public comment. Thank you. Becky Steinbrenner um, I just want to make it clear that I hope the district will continue to um Apply the these ordinances equally to all applicants In the past I was aware that Barry Swenson builder got a lot of favors And I was happy that you did not extend those to this phase two of the aptos village project but um It's at a precedent and um, you you likewise granted favors to the um rancho del mar complex when they were remodeling So again, I want to urge fairness here No favors And apply the ordinance equally to any and all who apply. Thank you Any other public comments? All right I'll move approval of the ordinance 20402 and repeal of 2203 second Um, and jennifer all in favor All right all opposed passes um Okay, so now That brings us to our own written communications for items Not on tonight's agenda. Thank you again. Becky Steinbrenner um, I was disappointed that the water optimization plan was not on your board's Agenda february 6th as it had been scheduled And I see it has been moved To your early march meeting and I hope that it does come forward. It's going to be a very interesting report Talking about how to use the pure water so Cal in conjunction with the sand cruise cities asr to benefit best benefit the The alcofers So I I hope that your district will request Water from the city of Santa Cruz Through the water transfers you've done all the studies to show that there would be no problem mixing surface water with the ground water And um, you did did do that transfer for a very short time one year. I believe And so now as we're getting this rain Maybe the conditions will occur such that you can ask the city of Santa Cruz To buy water from them and not pump from your own areas And let the ground water levels rise Passively and they will So last winter I was told that the district did not even ask We had a good winter last year But you didn't even ask So this winter if water starts spilling over the the dam. I really hope you will ask I go to the city of Santa Cruz water commission meetings and find them very interesting And um, I would ask that or or encourage you To look at some of their recent their last meeting was very very interesting a palette of all of the capital improvement projects That they are doing that will Enable them the city of Santa Cruz to take more water From the river when it is plentiful And to use that water to store it in the in the aquifer and aquifer storage recovery It could also be available for the district so, um What bothers me about the pure water so calper object is that zero right now is going to go for irrigation Zero of the recycled water for irrigation and that's what it should be used Not even the 50 years of free water To the twin lakes church is part of the permit that the central coast regional Water quality board approved that is under reconsideration now So why not? So please ask the city If if there is water available and go that route. It's a lot less energy intensive And I ask for that to happen, please Thank you Mike Mike Boyd again, um So I wanted to talk a little bit about uh, 41 cents and uh, I'm sorry This is that was an item on the agenda tonight. No, that's last rate I'm not talking about the current rates are the ones you just approved. I'm gonna talk about the rates you approved before After you told me you weren't going to do it That's not on the agenda. Is it You're correct. Go ahead Okay, thank you So the the issue here is uh, so I went to the uh, I sued the uh, the central coast community energy when they kept jacking the rates up and uh, and I and I Lost in the trial court like when I when I sued you guys and then I went to the appeals court Now they were they what I was suing them over as I said two things I was suing them because I because I said they were raising the rates and and and we couldn't protest under their their process And and I said that they they were doing that without a vote of the people So it was a tax and then I also said that it was a tax because it it wasn't reasonably related to the cost Of this the electricity service I was getting So the appeals court did agreed with the trial court on the on the on the rates being reasonable Based on the fact that they were using PG and ease rates as a benchmark for their for their rates But they disagreed prior to that and that still stands over the fact that it was a tax It is it presumably a tax. That's what they ruled in the case with void versus central coast community energy So what that show was they were saying was a under prop 26 2010 if you raise the rate if you lower the rate it doesn't Apply but and if it's reasonably related to the cost of the service like for example getting water Then Then then then it's exempt from that. Okay, but if it's not reasonably related to It's presumed tax and that's what I'm going to argue on the 41 cents See, I don't have to file a protest Asuya I do have to do it to um I do have to do a protest if we're going for the 50 plus one But it doesn't apply to the lawsuit Last time I sued you I filed a protest too But I could go to court and I went to the appeals court. So That's what I wanted to talk to you about you're raising you can't raise the rates Unless we have a vote and and it's called a special tax and it requires a two-thirds vote Thank you. Thank you. All right, no other Oral communications board members it's been a long meeting All right, so that brings us to closed session before we enter into closed sessions. There's an opportunity for a look comment Thank you, Emma. All right Becky. Becky Steinburner. Um, I just want to talk with you Um, plead with you I I do not want to take that appeal to the state supreme court But I will And There are good grounds the um, I didn't bring it with me this time but The appeal court did have a footnote saying they were disturbed by some of the Case law that uh, your attorney cited And it is exactly like the case Communidad in axiom versus the city of Los angeles it is exactly like and the appeal court judge has said that very thing during oral argument so It isn't only a matter of um My concern about the environmental what I see is violations and and The lawsuit the petition for writ of mandate that is the the case that is at at hand It it isn't just about that. It's about the people's right to be able to have Fair impartial due process and That's a principle I very much take to heart And I hope you will too I am willing to sit and at the table again I didn't think those meetings at the farm were non productive I thought they were actually quite excellent because I walked away thinking President jaffee that you were really thinking about things that I had said And you would take them to heart. I didn't think I thought it was quite productive So if I have a meeting I would want it not at the farm bakery I would want it with president jaffee vice president lather and staff in council And I would like to settle But I will take it to supreme court if I have to thank you. Thank you. All right So that brings us to closed session then Yes We're gonna have a slight recess