 So we'll be good to start at 1.30. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the city of Santa Rosa to order. If we may have a roll call, please. Yes. Board member Wright. Here. Board member Watts. Board member Walsh. Here. Board member Barthelot. Here. Board member Bannonfort. Here. Vice Chair Arnone. Here. And Chair Galvin. Here. Let the record reflect that all board members are present. So good afternoon, board members. So obviously, I'm not with you. I'm appearing virtually under the just cause provisions of AB 2449 due to the fact that I have a contagious illness. So there is no one here in my house with me, other than my 14-week-old dog. Then I will keep my camera on during the entirety of the meeting. So I apologize for any inconveniences may cause you, but couldn't be helped, unfortunately. So we'll now move to item number two, which is the Board Reorganization. I want to announce that Mayor Rogers has reappointed me as the chair. So we now need to elect the vice chair for a two-year term, which will end in February of 2025. And I would ask for a motion and a second. I'd like to make a motion. Please. I move that member Arnone be the vice chair of the Board of Public Utilities. I will second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Mr. Arnone, do you accept the nomination? I do so humbly. Very well. So we have a motion and a second to appoint Vice Chair Arnone as, reappoint him as vice chair. Are there any additional nominations from the floor? Very well, hearing none. Then there's being only one motion. It will be by unanimous consent that Vice Chair Arnone is reappointed. And congratulations. Thank you very much. Do we need to do any oath, Secretary Manus? No, we do not. Very good. All right, so we have a motion and a second. And we don't need to roll call vote because it was by unanimous consent. So that it takes care of item number two. Item number three is statements of abstention by board members. Do we have any hearing none? We have no study session. Item number five is the approval of the minutes. We're now taking public comments on item number five, which is approval of the minutes of February 16, 2023. If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya, do we have anyone? I see no one moving for public comment in chamber and no hands raised on zoom. Very good. Then the minutes will be approved and entered. We'll now move to item 6.1, which is a staff briefing and Deputy Director Shavone, if you would introduce the speaker, please. Thank you, Chair Galvin. Introducing item 6.1, Creek Protection, Care and Restoration. Kellan Johnson, environmental specialist, will be presenting. Well, thanks. I am filling in today for Steve Brady. I wanted to acknowledge his effort in putting together this slide show. He can't be here today though. I'm pleased to be here with you all to share information about all the creek work that's being completed by the city's stormwater and creeks team and our residents to protect care and restore creeks. Oops, here we go. So we have over 100 miles of creeks around the city. So no matter where you are in the city, you are near a creek. Most creeks drain into Santa Rosa Creek, which then drains into the Laguna de Santa Rosa and eventually to the Russian River. In the southwest part of the city though, the creeks drain directly into the Laguna. They don't go into Santa Rosa Creek. For restoration projects and plans, we have a long history here in the city of working on creek restoration. It all dates back to the committee for restoring Santa Rosa Creek. And that photo on the lower left is the committee in 1989. They're standing in Santa Rosa Creek. They're concerned about the condition of the channelized and concreted reaches of Santa Rosa Creek where it runs through downtown. And so this was a grassroots effort and it gave creeks a voice and eventually encouraged the city, county, and Sonoma water to work together to develop a Santa Rosa Creek master plan in 1993. And that was with the intention of improving creek habitat and adding trails. Then in 1996, the city adopted a waterways plan which greatly changed the way creeks were treated within the city. One example is the plan required all new development to front onto the creeks, to create a public space rather than tuck the creeks away behind fences and backyards where they were hidden. This plan also required protection for creeks and outlined ways to enhance and restore creek areas. So over the years, the city has worked really hard on creek restoration. We started by restoring Brush Creek from the confluence of Santa Rosa Creek at Flat Rock Park upstream to Highway 12. Then came the Prince Memorial Greenway and Santa Rosa Creek through the downtown reach and this added, this project removed the concrete and greatly improved habitat there for fish and wildlife as well as added paved trails and parks. Then the city shifted our focus to developing a citywide creek master plan in 2007 with an update in 2013. So the citywide creek master plan covers all creeks in the city and identifies reaches for restoration, enhancement and preservation. It also plans improvements to the creek side trail system to link with other systems and to provide safe and efficient routes for trail users. The plan consolidated most creek related policies to provide clarity to property owners. More recently, we have focused on the Colgan Creek Restoration Site in Southwest Santa Rosa. So this project covers 1.3 miles and it stretches from L.C. Allen High School up to Victoria Drive. This reach was channelized and straightened in the 1970s so you can see there where it's taking that hard right turn, that's not natural for a creek. The project is a complete channel realignment so we're going to be removing that sharp corner, adding back in meanders and we're going to add a lot of in-stream habitat features as well as a paved pedestrian and bicycle trail and increased flood protection. Currently the channel is sized for a 25-year storm and it will be increased to carry the 100-year storm. Two of the three phases are already complete and we're planning for the last phase now. We've been grant funding for that and so that should be coming up soon and that last phase as you can see in the image here is going to be adjacent to a future city park that's being developed as well. Photo here on the lower left shows what Lower Colgan Creek used to look like prior to restoration, that's phase one and you can see it's pretty degraded. And all the other photos show the habitat improvements and the volunteer work days and the youth crews and the different L.C. Allen High School students who have participated in this project. The L.C. Allen High School students come out and use this as an outdoor classroom regularly. We were just there yesterday working with them and they come out as part of our creek education program and do all kinds of science in the creek. So our program has really been going after grants over the last many years. They've been extremely important to construct all of our restoration projects. So in total we've raised over $19 million that have been secured usually from the state and also from Sonoma County Ag and Open Space. Our approach has been to use our creek restoration funding from the stormwater assessment for design and planning and then use grant funding for the construction. The Creek Stewardship Program is a really special program we have here in the city for over 20 years. The city has partnered with Sonoma Water to enhance creeks and engage with our residents. So the goals of the program are to increase the awareness of creeks, support volunteers and provide one place for residents to report issues and provide timely responses to creek issues. So prior to the program residents sometimes would have to go back and forth between the water agency, Sonoma Water and the city for creek issues because many of the creeks are jurisdictionally underneath the water, Sonoma Water but they run right through the creek. So it was kind of confusing for people to go back and forth. So now we really strive to provide a much higher level of customer service and to get issues resolved and answers given out to folks that need them as soon as possible. And as part of that program the Creek Stewardship Program has been really successful. The accomplishments of the program are pretty impressive every year and we've really greatly improved the habitat conditions of water quality and the level of cleanliness of the creeks in Santa Rosa for everyone to enjoy. Last year alone the program removed over 1,100 cubic yards of trash and debris and that was a combination of efforts from our team, supervised adult crews that we help lead, youth core crews and volunteers. And we have amazing volunteers here in Santa Rosa that come out and spend a lot of time with us. So that's equivalent to over 75 garbage trucks, full size garbage trucks of debris taken out of the creeks. Volunteer events and hours have really rebounded since the pandemic so we're feeling grateful for that. Our residents are spending thousands of hours caring and learning about our creeks. Creek Week is held each year in September and 2022 was another successful year with nearly 300 residents participating in cleanups, creek walks and tours of the Laguna Treatment Plant. And that's it, does anybody have questions? Thank you, Ms. Johnson, I'll open it up now for any questions from the board. Great, it looks like- Very well. Yeah, I don't know if you can see me tonight, Chair. No, I can't, sorry. My only question is, did the phase three of the Colgan $5 million, did we actually secure that or we only applied for that grant? Yes, we did secure. We got 4.4 million for the Urban Streams grant program and another, I think it's 1.2 from Sonoma Ag and Open Space for land acquisition there. Good, well congratulations. Thank you. Jump in if there's any other board member questions or comments since I can't see it. All right, hearing none, thank you for your presentation, Ms. Johnson. I think the work that's being done is fabulous, the amount of volunteer hours and especially the participation of the youth and the students at LCL and high school is really impressive. So I hope that continues. Thank you so much, appreciate it. All right, before you leave, we're now gonna open it up for public comments on item 6.1. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya, anyone? There is no one in chamber for public comment and no hands are raised on Zoom. Very good, then that will take care of item 6.1. We'll now move to item 6.2, which is the Consent Calendar. We have one item on the Consent Calendar. If there are any board questions, now is the time, otherwise I'll entertain a motion. I'll move the Consent Calendar. I will second that motion. We have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Calendar. I'll now open it up for public comment. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya. There is no one in chamber wishing to make public comment and no hands are raised on Zoom. Very good, then we have a roll call vote, please. Yes. Board member Wright. Aye. Board member Watts. Aye. Board member Walsh. Aye. Board member Barthalo. Aye. Board member Badenfort. Aye. Vice Chair Arnone. Aye. And Chair Galvan. Aye. And that passes unanimously. Very good, thank you. That'll take care of the Consent Calendar. We'll now move to item 8.1. Deputy Director Savoni. Thank you, Chair Galvan. Item 8.1, or introducing item 8.1, recommendation to rescind stage three of the City of Santa Rosa Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Deputy Director Peter Martin, presenting. Good afternoon, Chair Galvan. Members of the Board, just a moment while I pull up the presentation here. Okay, I guess we're all ready now. Yeah, my name is Peter Martin, Deputy Director of Water Resources. I'll start this presentation today and really just highlight some of the work that's been done over the last few years, some of the conditions we've dealt with in the watershed. I'll take a little bit of a look ahead at what we're seeing for the next coming year and talk about a potential recommendation for pulling back some of the actions that we've done previously in response to the drought. So this is a very busy slide, but I just want to capture the past few years and just all the actions that have happened and occurred in the Russian River watershed until today. So really 2021, well, 2020 and 2021 water year was perhaps one of the driest on record in more than 128 years of record keeping. We really started to see some concerns and we began a dry year campaign early in that winter. And then it became really dire in the upper Russian River watershed in the spring. As you all recall, Governor Newsom stood in the dry lake bed of Lake Mendocino on April 21st of 2021 and declared a drought emergency in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, the first two counties in the state to receive that drought declaration. Shortly thereafter, we began our drought is here, save water campaign. And on May 18th, coinciding with Sonoma water filing, temperature change petition, the city of Santa Rosa and the water advisory committee both voted to adopt a resolution requesting voluntary cutbacks. As time went on, the state water resources control board issued a temperature change order and with that came 20% reductions in their diversions. So the city council acted appropriately and instituted stage three of our water shortage contingency plan consistent with a 20% reduction in community-wide and water use and then instituted allocations for all their contractors, including Santa Rosa water. Things looked pretty good for a moment in October. We saw some of the most intense rainfall in October, 2021. And but shortly thereafter, we saw some of the second driest record, January and February and early 2022. With that, we knew things were still looking not great in our water supply picture. And so we continued the efforts from 2021 into 2022 and launched the drought is here, still here, save water campaign, just reminding folks to stay diligent for that second year drought. And again, Sonoma water file, another temperature change petition, very similarly, they had institute allocations. For all the contractors, and throughout the last summer and fall of 2022, we continued to ask our customers to cut back as much as possible to allow us to help us meet those allocations. And scarily, Lake Sonoma fell to the lowest levels in its operational history during this timeframe. So things were not looking good by the fall of last year, but things can change very rapidly and beginning December 26th, there was a series of storms that occurred and Lake Sonoma gained more than 145,000 acre feet and is actually above its dedicated water storage pool today. So I'll talk a little bit more about that, but quite a change in events. The reservoir is acting just as intended, acting as a flood control and water storage supply. So in the meantime, I do wanna highlight that the State Water Resource Control Board did issue two emergency water conservation regulations, one that they issued in January of 2022 and re-extended it again in December of 2022. It was a emergency regulation to prohibit wasteful water uses. And there was a series of regulations and excuse me, prohibitions on water use. We were already in stage three of our water shortage contingency plan. So the vast majority of these were already being implemented by the city. Surely thereafter, they issued another emergency conservation regulation per the direction of Governor Newsom. He was recognizing that folks were not conserving as much as had been hoped for. Our water supply situations were getting pretty concerning throughout the state. And the State Water Resource Control Board, and excuse me, I'm gonna advance the slide here. In June of 2022, issued another emergency regulation called the Emergency Regulation to Reduce Water Demand and Ban Decorative Grass Watering. I briefed the board about this last summer when it was put into place, but it prohibited irrigation of non-functional turf, what they termed non-functional turf. The state board enforces that regulation, but we did message all of our CII customers and put out the messaging about this regulation to our customers since the middle of 2022. And furthermore, that regulation required all utilities, instituted demand reduction actions consistent with a shortage of up to 10 to 20%. So those reduction actions have to be in place and they are what the state calls stage two, which is consistent with our stage two here at the City of Santa Rosa and our Water Shores Continuity Plan. Again, we were already in stage three covering most of this. And then I just wanna highlight the regional drought response. We're very lucky to have the Sonoma Rensaving Water Partnership. It allows us to create a consistent message across the entire watershed. It represents 13 utilities in Sonoma Run counties and we achieve a lot together. There's a lot of coordination and a lot of things that go on behind the scenes with this group and a lot of effort put into it and a lot comes out of it too as well. But really this drought response, the water contractors adopted those resolutions for voluntary cutbacks back in May. And then it allowed all these contractors and partners to implement their own water shortage plans at the same time and achieve up to this 20% savings. And we did, we did together achieve more than that in terms of the amount of water that was reduced from the diversions as required by Sonoma Water's Temporacy Change Orders. There was significant outreach and education. We coordinated our drought drop by events to make sure there was coverage throughout the entire watershed and it really worked out well and we saw us meeting those targets together. And for our own drought response, as I mentioned, we issued a drought emergency and implemented stage three of our water shortage contingency plan in June of 2021, June 29th, 2021. And it included a lot of prohibitions and restrictions. We dedicated a ton of outreach to customers, began water waste patrols. Those are the things that get you in the newspaper and get a lot of attention. We had a great tool in terms of our water waste reporting. We received over a thousand water waste reports via our online submission forms. And we really utilized the new tool which was automatic metering infrastructure. Through that, we are able to take a look at what we call continuous use cases where we know a customer has a significant leak and we were able to monitor and develop reporting mechanisms so we could let customers know that, hey, you might have a substantial leak. And they were grateful and it also helped us to sort of work on water waste and any other issues that were out there in the community without having to deploy too much folks out on the street. And then we obviously had power washing variances. We didn't wanna prevent folks from continuing construction and other economic activities. We issued variances for those folks that needed power wash for certain health safety and construction activities. And all this combined with the efforts of our community represents an 18% community wide reduction in water use since June of 2021 when you compare it to 2020. In total, that's about 1.8 billion gallons. So really, this is where we start to say thank you to the customers for all that they've done. They had to make hard choices. It was a difficult, I imagine, to add these stresses on in the middle of a pandemic. But in all, they reduce their water use and save more than 1.8 billion gallons of water during this emergency. In the meantime, we upped our cash for grass rebate program and converted more than 400,000 square feet of turf to low water use landscape during the same timeframe. Completed more than 450 water smart checkups in homes and businesses. And we hosted virtually and in person more than 22 water use efficiency workshops throughout our community. And then furthermore, we've installed more than 20,000 gallons of new rainwater capture utilizing available rebate programs. There's so much more that was done. And I just, you know, again, thank you to the customers but also to the staff of Santa Rosa Water. It was a monumental effort. And thank you to this board for your support for launching into this activity over these last couple of years. So as I said, we'll look ahead a little bit here. The water supply outlook for 2023. Lake Minasino and Lake Sonoma have recovered after just last fall reaching critically low levels. Lake Sonoma as of today is 249,600 acre feet, meaning they're storing about almost 5,000 acre feet above their dedicated storage pool. So about 101% of their dedicated storage pool in Lake Sonoma. In terms of Lake Minasino, it's about 85,300 acre feet. And so they're continuing to see an increase in their ability to store water using their forecast informed reservoir options and rations of Sonoma water. And they can store about 12,000 acre feet above and beyond their dedicated storage pool under their agreements with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And so to take this all home, Sonoma water-existing temperature change orders still remains in effect. But the water year classification is normal. According to that. And I don't see any situation where that's gonna change barring some very critical emergency where they'd have to release a bunch of water very fast. So Sonoma water is utilizing their forecast informed reservoir operations. And that allows them to store additional water above and beyond the Army Corps' storage curves for flood control purposes. So there's an opportunity now to store additional water above and beyond the typical flood control curves. And then just wanted to note that prior analysis, Lake Sonoma has three to four years of water supply for the region and the contractor's demands when it's full. So it's quite a turn from where we were a few months ago. So what does that mean in terms of water use efficiency measures? We really no longer need to ask our community to reduce water use by 20% compared to 2020. That was an action that was related to these cutbacks and allocations we were receiving from Sonoma water. However, the elimination of water waste and efficient use of water is always needed. And we're always gonna ask that of our customers. And there are a lot of factors that go into a declaration of drought. Our water supply is good right now, but it may take some time for other factors that contribute to drought declaration to recover over time. We also offer our WaterSmart tips, tools and resources. And we're gonna continue to push those out as much as possible when we have been doing so. They still remain very popular. Customers still are asking and calling our water use efficiency team a lot. So the demand has not gone down over the last few months. We still need to comply with the statewide water, emergency water conservation regulations. Those established in Title 23, Section 996 of the California Coder Regulations. And that specifically is, we've been in stage three up to this point, but Santa Rosa still must implement demand reduction actions, not reductions in water use, but demand reduction actions, consistent with a shortage of up to 10 to 20%. And so our stage of our Water Short Continuity Plan that aligns with that is stage two, which would require our staff to continue to implement communication protocols, provide customer service and assistance, make operational changes as needed. Obviously you're gonna continue to ask that our compliance and enforcement of all of these ordinances and prohibitions. And then our water waste ordinance is always in effect. And then we'll continue water waste patrols, hose and shut off nozzles are required, private washing heart services with the hose at your house so we can't wash them down their driveways. And then restaurants will continue to message about serving water only upon request. And we'll work through the hotel and lodging industry to message with them about the requirements of the regulations as well. We always have outreach and water resources available to our customers. We'll have updated water use restrictions on srcity.org slash save water. And then we'll continue to highlight some of the workshops and community events we have coming up this summer, very excited about. And those are srcity.org slash water smart, or you can contact them at the phone number or email above. So with that, staff are recommending that the board of public utilities that by resolution recommend that the city of council adopt a resolution rescinding that June 29th drought emergency declaration. And then rescind the implementation of stage three of our water shortage contingency plan. With that, they also should at this point remove the authorization for the use of the catastrophic reserves and direct staff to, of course, implement demand reductions that are consistent with the emergency regulations from the state as long as they are in effect. I should note that we are scheduled to go to the city council on March 14th. Should the BPU continue with this recommendation too. With that, I'm happy to take any questions from the board or otherwise. Thank you, Deputy Director Martin. We'll open it up now for any more member questions or comments. Feel free to jump in since I can't see you. I have a question. Is Santa Rosa the first of the contractors to take this kind of an action or are other contractors taking similar actions to recognize the changed in conditions? Yeah, thanks for that question, Vice Chair Arnani. You know, at the last WAC-TAC meeting, it was discussed that many of the contractors had interest in starting to do the same. We will be the first contractor to take this action that I know of. The exception being, well, Moran Municipal has their own reservoirs. They've been managing things a little differently for a while now. Other board member questions or comments? I have a comment. So in 2008 or 2009 or whatever I sat where you're sitting now and gave similar reports, and that was the first major drought that we'd had since, I think, 1976. So we'd kind of forgotten about droughts. And then it rained and holy smokes, another drought came along. And then even after our retired, then Chair Dowd said, Glenn's been a pretty good deputy director, but Doug Garner, ever since he's been deputy director, we've had nothing but droughts. So I guess my point is, we've had nothing but droughts since then, too. And this drought thing isn't gonna go away. So we need to obviously change our habits. And I think that's what you're talking about. Furthermore, I wanna point out, and one thing that you didn't say, which I think is important, is that from a financial standpoint, the customer has control over the amount of money they pay at their bill by reducing their water usage. They can do that for the water itself and also for the sewer cap. So there are further incentives for our customers rather than just for the community at whole. So anyway, I am very happy that we're at least for now out of the drought zone. And I definitely support this. Thank you. Thank you, Board Member Wright. Any other Board Member questions or comments? Yes, Chair Galvan. I have just a couple of comments. First, I wanna echo Member Wright's comments on the ability to know how much water you're using on any given day. I think with your encouragement, you had used it, Member Wright had used it. And when you get your sewer cap lowered every year, you get it at the end of that party building, you're happy with it, but it really does work. We had a broken hose and then we find out, you get a text to your phone, you go, no, better go figure this out, but it really does work and helps reduce the bill. Also, the whole city staff coordinating the Department of Water, the creeks, the city administration, and coming up with the new fees, it wasn't easy to do that. And so it did a lot of work, the city attorney and the staff, but I gotta say, Deputy Director Martin, you did a fantastic job. And when you walk in here, we'll be kind of afraid for what you're gonna say. And it's just so happy to see you get through this and be very successful. I appreciate your leadership and I wanna thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Board Member Walz. Other Board Member questions or comments? Chair Galvin. Yes. Let's have a couple of comments as well. I just really wanna echo the appreciation. Each step of the way through this, the team, really with kind and careful and consistent communication about not just what the guidelines were, what the requirements were gonna be, but really deliberately providing the tools and the training and the services to help our customers achieve those goals and achieve those requirements. And so I think that there's a little bit of a breathing room right now for where we're at, but even over the last couple of years, I can see how you also help prepare the city and prepare the board for what would it look like in potential future stages, even more extreme stages. So I feel like we have a good baseline, a tremendous team, and thank you for putting us in the right spot, thank you guys. Thanks. Thank you, Board Member Badenfort, other comments? Yes, thank you. I just had a kind of an echo off of, I think what Board Member Wright was discussing about the connection of the cost of water versus usage and maybe being able to focus some of our efforts in that way, we are in a period of high inflation, and so the utility costs for every household is hitting them harder these days, just like everything else. So if we are able to direct some of our wonderful resources and talent that we have with all of the type of messaging that we've done around the drought, maybe we can continue to market in the way that helps people understand that the usage associated with the cost and maybe help keeping the rates lower for some of these households, but I mean, I'm excited that we're out of the drought and that you were able to present us this recommendation today, and I do think that staff should feel really proud of that crazy timeline that you had on your first slide of all the work that's gone into this, so thank you. Thank you, Board Member Watts. Other comments? Yes, Chair Galvin, I have a quick comment. I'm gonna join in the group Psi of Relief, the community Psi of Relief, and thank you for the great presentation, and though I was not on the BPU during the worst part of this latest drought, I am also grateful for all the work that went into it. I also hope that the messaging still in a drought, remember, we're still in a drought, maybe becomes, remember, we're likely to be in a drought, again, and from your presentation, it looks like there are a lot of things that are continuing to happen that will provide that message, so great, well done. Thank you, Board Member Bartholome. Chair Galvin, if I could chime in. I too wanna express just phenomenal gratitude and appreciation of the Santa Rosa Water Team. I think the efforts that were put in by staff and the leadership by the BPU really helped change the culture, and going back to Director Wright's comments, or Member Wright's comments, I think we are starting to change culture. I think we've seen some substantial movement, whether it's in the Cash for Grass program, in many of the implementation aspects that the water team has done. I'm hoping, Board Member Wright, that we are not gonna see some of the challenges in the future, even though drought is still gonna come, because I think we've, I'm hoping we've really started to change people's mindsets, but I am very impressed with the work that Santa Rosa Water's done over the last several years through the drought, and hope that the next few years it'll be a little easier on all of us. Yeah, I should mention that there is a playbook that was created back when Board Member Wright was working for the City of Santa Rosa, and we just bring that playbook out, dust it off, and try to continue to make it better every time. So there is a foundation there too as well that's been very, very helpful for me. Thank you, Assistant City Manager Knud for your comments. Anyone else? All right, well, I would certainly echo all the comments of my colleagues and the Assistant City Manager. I hesitate to say that I don't think we're out of the drought yet, and I'm sure that we'll have opportunities in the future to address these issues, but the response that we've received from our community and the dedication of our staff has shown forth in where we're at today, and hopefully moving forward. So with that, we have a resolution. I'll entertain a motion. I'd like to move adoption of a resolution of the Board of Public Utilities, recommending that the Council of the City of Santa Rosa adopt a resolution rescinding the June 29, 2021 drought emergency declaration, rescinding stage three of the city's water shortage contingency plan, removing authorization for Santa Rosa water to utilize the Water Enterprise Fund, Catastrophic Reserve, and directing staff to implement demand reduction actions consistent with the requirements of Title 23, Section 996C1 of the California Code of Regulations for the duration of this emergency regulation is in effect and waive the reading of the text. I'd like to second all that. Thank you. We have a motion from Vice Chair Arnone and a second from Board Member Bartholo. At this time, I will open it up for public comments on item 8.1. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya. There are no attendees in chamber wishing to make public comments and no hands raised on Zoom. Thank you. May we do a roll call vote, please? Yes. Board Member Wright. Aye. Board Member Watts. Aye. Board Member Walsh. Aye. Board Member Bartholo. Aye. Board Member Baden-Fort. Aye. Chair Arnone. Aye. And Chair Galvan. Aye. And that passes unanimously. Great. Thank you. And thank you again, Deputy Director Martin. That'll take care of item 8.1. We'll now move to item nine, which is public comments on item nine. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya. If there's no one in chamber wishing to make a public comment and no hands raised on Zoom. Thank you. We have no referrals. Item 10, we have no written communications. Item 11. I don't know, Board Member Watts, is there any report from the Budget Review Subcommittee? Yes, thank you. The Budget Review Subcommittee we met on February 23rd, and we received an update on the 2023-2024 budget overview with anticipated increases, preliminary revenue projections, staffing changes, budget processes, and set some of the budget schedules. So we'll be coming back with more budget committee meetings as well as we'll be presenting to the BPU. Thank you. Any Board Member questions or comments for the Budget Review Subcommittee? All right. We'll now take public comment on item number 12. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine. Okay, and there is no one in chamber wishing to make a public comment and no hands raised on Zoom. Thank you. That'll take care of item number 12. Any Board Member reports? Item 13. Then we'll move now to the Director's Report, Deputy Director Savoni. Thank you, Chair Galvin. Unfortunately, I do have some sad news to share. I am deeply saddened to report that a member of our water team passed away yesterday following a medical emergency and a vehicle accident. Erin DeLaMontagna, a wastewater operator on our reclamation team, was a 24-year veteran of Santa Rosa water. Arrangements are being made for grief counselors, for staff, and our thoughts are with Erin's family, friends, and teammates. That's all I have to report. Very good. Any Board Member questions or comments for the Deputy Director? All right. We'll now take public comments on item number 14. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Montoya. There is no one in chamber wishing to make public comment and no hands raised on Zoom. All right. That concludes our agenda. I would like at this point to have a moment of silence in memory of Erin DeLaMontagna. Thank you. And we will now adjourn the meeting in memory of Erin DeLaMontagna and our best condolences and wishes to his family. We are now adjourned. Thank you.