 take that thing off. Oh man, a CPA on the 15th even if I don't do taxes. Reds and family, here they come. Yeah. Roberta, Jennifer looks like we have everyone. Yes, I believe we do. Remember, if you could put your video on, that would be great. Yeah, give me a couple of minutes. I have to switch devices. It's not working right now. No problem. All right, but we'll go ahead and call a meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa to order. If we may have a roll call, please. Yes, Chair Galvin. Here. Vice Chair Ardoni. Here. Board Member Badenfort. Board Member Grable. Here. Board Member Walsh. Board Member Walsh, I think you're muted. Here. Thank you. Board Member Watts. Here. Board Member Wright. Here. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Before we get to the agenda items, I'd like to have Interlegal Counsel, Mr. Maddo, introduce our new Assistant City Attorney to the Board. Thank you, Chair Galvin. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Karen Donovan to the Board of Public Utilities. Karen began serving as Assistant City Attorney on Monday of this week. She comes to the city with a world of useful and applicable experience. City Attorney Sue Gallagher summarized that in an email, which I believe went to you earlier this week. I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Karen for a very long time, and I have known her when she has been in several different capacities. I knew her when she was a Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco's City Attorney's Office working with the Public Utilities Commission there. I've also known her as she worked with two very fine law firms, when she was dealing with water matters. And after that, I've kind of followed her career and had opportunities to interact with her when she was at East Bay Bud, which is of course where I worked for a very long time, a very long time ago. And with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and in the United States Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. And when I look at what I know about her experience, and I think about what I know about Santa Rosa's water and wastewater resources challenges, et cetera. I think she is just ideally suited to serve in the Assistant City Attorney role. She and I have been interacting a lot and will continue to as we go through what hopefully will be a relatively seamless transition. And I will phase out in a relatively short order depending upon the kinds of things that we're dealing with that the city may or may not want us to stay with. And as Karen comes up to speed, I view her transition as being, as Jennifer Burke explained it to me when I went through mine, she's now trying to take sips of water out of a fire hose. And so she, there's a lot coming her way. It'll take a little while, but very good listener and a very high energy, very capable attorney. And I just couldn't be happier that she's going to be there. So Karen, I will say welcome. And I'm sure that the board members will do so as well. Absolutely. Welcome, Karen. You have the floor. If you'd like to say a few words, we're anxious to hear about you. Oh, well, thank you very much. And I'm very excited to be here. As Bob noted, I've been working with water and utility issues for a long time. And it's a very interesting time to be joining Santa Rosa and I'm excited to learn and get to work here. And I'm really, really excited to be working with all of you. Great. Well, welcome aboard. I also wanted to remind the board members to please make sure you mute your microphones when you're not speaking, put away your cell phones and your personal computers and try and keep your video on at all times. Any statements of abstention by board members? Very none. We will move to our study session. Item 3.1, Director Burke. Thank you, Chair Galvin and members of the board. Our study session today is on our 2020 Urban Water Management Plan and 2020 Water Shortage Contingency Plan. And call in close, our Senior Water Resources Planner will be making the presentation. Thank you very much. I am not yet able to share my screen. We have some new technology for the co-host position, so there might be a few little glitches today, but we're working on it at our best speed. Sounds terrific. So, Roberta, you'll be able to advance slides for me then? Gina will, yes. Oh, Gina will. Okay. Terrific. All right. Well, thank you all very much. Thank you, Chair Galvin, members of the board. We're here to give you information about our 2020 Urban Water Management Plan and 2020 Water Shortage Contingency Plan, as you know. These are projects that we undertake every five years, and they're pretty substantial, involve lots of folks, and it's a great team that we work with here in water, and we also have some consultants that help us out as well. So, this is a team effort, and so I'm here to share with you the key findings that we've discovered about our water supply reliability over the next 25 years, as well as some modifications we're making to how we respond to water shortages. So, with that, I'm going to jump in and if you'll advance a slide, please. And I may stop at a couple of points because there are so many slides, and there's a lot of technical information. I may stop at a couple of points just to check in and see if you have questions along the way. So, just generally speaking, 1983 Urban Water Management Planning Act was adopted by the state, and it applies to water suppliers who have at least 3,000 connections or serve at least 3,000 acre feet a year of water. That's about a billion gallons, and it asks those folks to look out over a 20-year horizon at a minimum and consider growth and population and employment changes, climate changes, regulatory changes, and assess how much water they're going to need, and where's that water going to come from? Is that water available? Is it reliable? How does it perform under different kinds of stress situations? And all of this, of course, is to ensure that there's adequate water supply now and into the future to protect public health and safety and to serve the economy, etc. So, Santa Rosa has about 54,000 connections, and we serve about 19,000 acre feet. So, of course, this law does apply to us. So, we do comply with the law, and it also helps us maintain eligibility for grants and drought assistance. This current cycle is due July 1st to be submitted to the state. So, we're coming to you with a study session, and then we'll go through a timeline near the end of this proposal or excuse me, this presentation so you can see the other steps that are coming up. Next slide, please. There are lots and lots of requirements in remote management planning, but I think a couple of key components you're probably interested to know. We have to make sure there are opportunities for the public to participate. I'll go over that near the end of the presentation so you can see how we've taken care of that requirement. We have to describe our service area and our system. That goes beyond just our water system. It includes things like our population and socioeconomic information, how land is used in our area, climate. There's quite a few elements to that. We need to look at our existing demands and future demands, and again, future demands has to take into account realistic assessments of population growth and land development and changes in climate and these sorts of things. We have to look at where our water comes from and how reliable it is and how much we expect to have available, and then do that comparison. Is the water service going to be reliable given what we know are the demands out to the future? We also have to do water shortage and contingency planning, and so one of the new requirements that I'll be talking about today is the water shortage plan has to be prepared and adopted as a separate document. We will include it with the remote management plan as an appendix, but it does need to actually stand on its own as a separate document. And then we also need to talk about the demand management efforts we have in place. There are about six strategies the state's most concerned about, and I'll talk about those in just a moment as well. I also just wanted to mention that this is over a 20-year horizon by law, but the state recommends a 25-year horizon. We do use a 25-year horizon. We find that it's to our advantage. It allows us to use that urban water management plan analysis and data over the entire five years in between updates to the plan, and it costs very little extra and takes very little extra effort. So it's very much worth it for us to do that 25-year horizon. So you'll hear me refer to the fact that we looked out through 2045, and that's why we did the 25-year horizon. Next slide, please. There are, I would say, probably close to two dozen new requirements this year, as you can imagine after the historic drought that affected us from 2014 to 2016, but parts of California from 2011 to 2018, the state implemented quite a few number of new requirements. Rather than take you through the laundry list of all of them, we selected a few we thought you might be interested in. We need to include a lay description. We've done a pretty good job of that in the past using an executive summary, but we're doing an even more thorough job this time just to make sure that the average reader can go right to that executive summary and understand the conclusions of all of the work that's in that plan right up front in just a few pages. We are required to work with our land use authority. That's our planning department, and we do. Every time we work on our urban water management plan, we work with them closely. Every time they work on their general plan, they work with us closely. So we definitely have a really good working relationship with our land use authority on water and land use issues. We needed to do a modeling exercise looking at the immediate five years and determine how much risk we would be at if there was a drought and the way the state defined a drought in this particular modeling exercise. We had to take the driest five consecutive years on record and use the rainfall patterns, the hydrology of that five year period and act as though that were going to happen over the next five years and see if we have enough water supply. Just so happens that the driest five consecutive years on record ends up being 1987 and 1991. So we'll talk to you about what we discovered with that drought risk assessment modeling exercise. We do need to assess water loss from our distribution system. Our water use efficiency team heads that up every year, and there's a set of laws and regulations and targets that are being developed around that. So we discuss that in the plan, and we need to coordinate with our newly formed groundwater sustainability agency that came on after the last urban water management planning effort was completed. So we discuss that in our plan as well. And again, the water shortage plan has to stand on its own. Next slide please. So the urban water management plan, this is sort of a mock-up of what the cover will look like. We will have a draft available for public review and we'll post it online by about May 7th. We'll also have some hard copies available for the public to review, just in case counters do open up for the public before the public hearing occurs on June 8th. So we'll be prepared for that if that is an opportunity that is afforded to the public. Next slide please. The state has a guidebook they produce every time the new urban water management planning effort comes to fruition and it recommends 10 chapters. We have found that that could be a useful structure for our plan. So we'll have that executive summary with a lay description, plain language description of what we've discovered doing this work. We'll introduce the plan in Chapter 1, talk about plan preparation, how we complied with regulations for that. Our system description in Chapter 3 will also include other elements like population, socioeconomics, land uses, climate. In Chapter 4, we look back for last five years of water use and we look forward to the next 25 years of water use and talk about the methodologies we use to make those projections and what we base them on and myriad number of data points and inputs that went into that analysis. In Chapter 5, we talk about how we've complied with state mandated targets. This was a reporting year 2020 for a particular mandate and we'll update you on that today as well. Next slide. In Chapter 6, we look at each of our water supplies individually and talk about how much is available, how much we anticipate being available out to 2045 and then in Chapter 7, everything comes together. That's where we look at the demand for water versus the water supply and we look at a couple of different particular scenarios that the state mandates to just double check. Do we have adequate supply knowing that our population is going to grow, land will be developed, there will be more intensive uses of land, we'll have climate change. So Chapter 7's where all of that comes together. Chapter 8 is our shortest chapter because again the water shortage plan is going to be a separate document. So Chapter 8 just talks about what's required. In Chapter 9, we talk about those six strategies for helping our customers use water wisely regardless of whether we have abundant water supplies or short water supplies. So Chapter 9 is an opportunity for us to really lay out all of the work that we do on a day-to-day basis working with our customers. Chapter 10 talks about how we've complied with regulations for adopting the plan, submitting it to the state, what we'll do to implement it, what sorts of legal authorities we'll use and how we'll make it available to the public. The appendices are now up to appendix O so we'll have appendices A through O. Next slide please. So now I want to start talking to you about the analysis that was done for this. First, if you could hit one more return on that slide, we'll get an animation. Thank you, that's perfect. This shows you what we projected in our last effort. So in 2015's urban water management plan, this is what we showed is our projected water needs going out over that 25-year horizon. You'll see that the 2015 water use was quite low. That was because we were in the midst of that drought and working very actively with our community. The community reduced water use by 25%. So in projecting out future water use, we didn't rely on drought water use to project. We look back further into our water use history. We also still had a little bit higher population growth rate than we currently have. We weren't as clear about some of the impacts of climate changes we are now and we didn't have some of the state regulations that have put in place since 2015, particularly as of 2018 requiring additional water conservation. But every five years, this is the beauty of doing an iterative process. Every five years, we take another look at the data and the assumptions and the information and the analysis. If you advance the slide once more, we'll see the current projections. So you can see our actual water use in 2020 did not jump up to 24,000 acre feet. We did see some rebound. In fact, we saw some additional water use related to COVID. The single family sector water use increased about 13%. The biggest drop in water use was in the institutional sector. Schools, religious facilities, government facilities saw 17% reduction in water use. So you can see 2020's actual water use and then you can see that as we projected out, these projections are showing that we think there'll be less demand than we had thought five years previously. Again, that's related to slower population growth, higher efficiency rates of plumbing codes and regulations, as well as our customer base being more efficient over time. And also a few other factors that go into this analysis. So every five years, we have that opportunity to look at the data and the assumptions and run the models again. Next slide, please. We also needed to look at how much demand we thought we would have for water in the immediate five years so that we can do that drought risk assessment modeling exercise. So this just shows what we anticipate our unconstrained demand for water would be. That means if there were no shortage in site, how much water could our community potentially use over the next five years? And we'll compare this to the water supply projection in just a moment. Next slide, please. And if you'll advance two or three times, we'll get the full and just one more. Perfect. Thank you so much. So with this, we wanted to just pause for a moment before we talk about the water supplies, talk about our compliance with the targets that the state mandated. The state mandated in 2009 that water use in California go down by 20% by 2020. So in our 2010 urban water management plan, we had to report what our targets were going to be. We had to achieve a 10% target by 2015 and a 20% target by 2020. So in our 2020 plan, if you'll advance one more, we needed to make sure that we hit that target of 126 gallons per capita per day. Before we look at how we did, I just want to mention gallons per capita per day is a little bit of a confusing concept. So I want to just unpack it just a little bit. When we're talking about gallons per capita per day, this included all water uses. This was not restricted only to the use that individuals have at home. This included businesses and industry, irrigating parks. It included water losses from our system, firefighting, flushing our mains. Every kind of water use you can imagine, construction water use, everything you can imagine that we use water for within our city from our city's water system. And then we divide it by the population and we can compare that over year after year after year to see what the trends are. So if you'll hit return once more, you can see that going back to 1996, which is where the analysis begins for this compliance exercise, our gallons per capita per day was 162 gallons per capita per day. You can see in 2015, we very readily hit our goal of 84, which was well below the requirement of 136 gallons per capita per day. And in 2020, again, you can see we very easily hit that target as well. If you'll advance one more slide, we also need to make sure that we don't do what the state calls backsliding, which would be we've achieved that target, we are under 126 gallons per capita per day. But when we project out population growth, land use changes, climate change, we need to make sure that we don't exceed that goal in the future. If you'll advance once more, we did the analysis and you can see that we're projecting, we would still be within compliance even all the way out to 2045. And let's advance once more. In our chapter six, we look at how much water do we have today? And what do we expect having in the future? We have three supplies of water in our water supply portfolio today, and those are the same supplies we're projecting out to 2045. So through our restructured water agreement with Sonoma water, and we're one signatory of about nine major water contractors, we have an entitlement of 29,100 acre feet per year of water. We obviously are not using that much water currently, but that's our entitlement in that agreement. Our wells on Farmer's Lane can produce about 2,300 acre feet a year. We don't use that much, but they have the capacity. And our regional recycled water system provides 140 acre feet a year for urban customers who are irrigating landscapes and parks, common areas in, in HOAs and that sort of thing. So the total portfolio is 31540 acre feet a year if you'll advance once more. We also, as I said, you know, we have to look at this drought risk assessment and do this modeling exercise. If we had the exact same hydrology, the same rainfall and runoff patterns that we saw 1987 and 1991, how much water would we have available? This does not take into account our current weather conditions. It does not take into account last year's weather conditions. Again, this is a modeling exercise that the state required that came into law a while back. So in 2018, these changes were adopted into law. So this is a modeling exercise applying five consecutive dry years, the driest period on record, to see how we would do when we compare it to how much water we anticipate meeting. You can see that we anticipate we'd have our wells and our irrigation, or excuse me, our recycled water. We don't anticipate would be impacted by five consecutive dry years based on our experience with drought in the past. Sonoma water does anticipate that they would only have 20,220 acre feet a year available. And so the total is 22,660 acre feet per year over that five year period. So let's advance to the next slide. So again, Chapter 7, this is really the heart and the soul of the plan. This is where everything comes together. So when we look out over the 25-year horizon, we need to consider normal water years, a single severely dry year, that's our 1976-77 year. That's the driest year on record through 2020. And we need to look at five dry year periods and to be conservative, Sonoma water used again the driest five consecutive years on record as that five-year period. The state allowed some flexibility in how agencies developed that analysis and they went with the very conservative driest five years on record. Again, that's the same hydrology we use for that drought risk assessment, but looking at the immediate five years. So let's advance again and see how the results came out. So this is that 31,540 acre feet a year in a normal water year. If you'll advance this slide once, we can see how our water demands compare to supply. And of course, recycled water is less than 1% of our portfolio. So you can see that at the bottom, it's very, very difficult to see that little orange band, but it is there. So we don't anticipate any issues going out to 2045, even anticipating significant land use development through our general plan, population growth, increasing jobs, climate change, all of those factors involved. We don't anticipate having an issue in normal water years. We'll go to the next slide. Let's advance once and you'll see that in a severely dry single year, we do anticipate that there could be a water shortage of anywhere from 11% to 14% overall. So advance once more. What we would do is we would implement our water shortage contingency plan, work with our customers to make sure that the demand for water does not exceed supply. We've done this many times over the last 30 years, and we are very well versed in this. 1992 was the first water shortage plan we developed. And we've used it many times since then to work with our community. So we know that we have a successful plan in place and that we could achieve this. Next slide, please. Now, when we look at dry five-year periods that would mimic the hydrology of 1987 and 1991, if you'll hit advance once more, you'll see that we do anticipate having sufficient water supply. However, this is a modeling exercise and we would never assume that there's going to be sufficient water supply. As you see already, we're in a second dry year and we're already talking to our customers. We're already talking to you. We're already talking to our regional partners and the wholesaler Sonoma Water about what needs to be done to make sure that we conserve our water supply. So we have adequate water supply for public health and safety and for commerce, et cetera. So while the modeling exercise shows that we'd be in fine shape, you can imagine that anytime in the future where we're in a second dry year, we would absolutely be coming to talk to you about this. So this is very important for our planning, but we're very conservative and we never rely on those models. We look at real situations, real lake levels, real use of water and we respond accordingly. But we do the modeling exercise. It is required by law and it does help us plan for the future. Next slide. For the drought risk assessment, again, we assumed normal amount of water demand, but a reduced amount of water supply. If you'll advance the slide, you'll see that the modeling exercise shows that we would have adequate water supply if rainfall patterns mimic 1987 to 1991. So again, just a reminder, this doesn't use our actual data from 2021. This is looking at applying that five driest years on record and looking at projected water demand. But again, anytime we would have a second dry year, you know that we would be coming to talk to you or severely dry single year, we would be coming to talk to you and work with our constituents, our customers and our regional partners. Next slide. So actually, if we would back up one, I think this is a good point for me to pause and just see if you do have questions about the analysis and the data and anything else that you've looked at so far. I just want to touch base and see if you have questions or concerns. Any board member questions or concerns? Okay. Okay, terrific. So we'll go ahead and then advance to the next slide. So as I mentioned before, we have six strategies that the state wants us to report on every five years in terms of what we are doing to manage demand in good years and in difficult years. So these six strategies are having a water waste prevention ordinance, matering service connections, setting up our water rates in a way that encourage conservation, having public outreach and education programs, assessing water loss from our distribution system and taking steps to control and minimize that loss and having water conservation programs that have staffing and coordination. So we've had a water waste prevention ordinance since 1999. We meet all of our service connections. Our water rates are set up in such a way that about two thirds of the waters bill is driven by how much water a customer uses. So as they use less water, their bill is less. So that's conservation pricing. We have our own outreach and education programs. Water use efficiency does quite a bit. They do workshops. They also have, during years when we didn't have the public health crisis, done lots of attendance at events and festivals and sponsored events and festivals themselves. We also have our ticket from the TAP water education program that in a good year without COVID reaches about 5,000 students in K through 12 schools about water and our water system. So we have significant amount of public outreach and education and of course Sonoma Water has their programs as well. We also, we have been assessing and minimizing water loss in our distribution system for many years and we report to the state since 2016. We've been reporting to the state in a very formalized manner about that. And then of course we have water conservation programs and coordination and staff. And what I wanted to do is just highlight. We hired our first water conservation coordinator in 1991. So we have 30 years history now. So if we'll advance the slide to the next slide, I'd like to tell you some of the good news. This shows you a map of parcels that are participated in our programs at least once in our rebate programs at least once going back to 1995. So you can see we've done a terrific job of reaching our community. If you'll advance the slide once more, I do want to highlight some of the 30 year accomplishments. So if you'll advance once, you'll see that we've invested $21 million and again advance. In fact, why don't we advance two or three more times just and once more? That's terrific. Thank you. So we've helped our community replace 56,000 toilets with our rebate programs and direct install programs. We've helped our customers convert over three and a half million acre feet of turf to low water use landscaping. In fact, currently we have nine types of rebates and incentives and some of those have two or three iterations so that we can target different customer receptors appropriately. We have 10 additional ways that we reach out and help our customers. We have workshops. We do site visits and consultations. We offer technical support. We help them make their way through our rebate programs. We have additional resources. Do-it-yourself kits. We give away free aerators and shower heads. So we do quite a bit to support our customers. And if you'll advance, I think three times, maybe four. Three times. Perfect. Yeah. What we know is that we've saved about 7,100 acre feet of water per year ongoing because of those programs. In fact, looking at 1990 to 2020, our GPCD has gone down 44%. About half of that is due to our water conservation programs. About half of that is due to state regulations and local ordinances and regulations. When we compare water use to 1990 to 2020 and 2020, our community literally used 14% less water than we did in 1990. And this is with a 53% increase in population. So just really tremendous accomplishments with our programs. And we know that we've had so much support and assistance from the BPU and the Water Conservation Committee. And so this is an opportunity to just thank you all for the support you give us in doing this work. It's been incredibly successful. Next slide, please. So before I start talking about the water shortage plan, let me just see if you have any questions about the material that's been presented up to this point. Any member questions or comments? All right, terrific. So we will have a draft water shortage plan also uploaded for public review by about May 7th online. And again, we'll try to have hard copies available if counters are opening up anytime in May. Next slide. So what is a water shortage plan? It is required by law, but it's a way to prepare for water shortages. It's a set of planned response actions that we can take, that we've fought through, we've tested and refined over the years, and that we know will help us work with our community so that demand for water doesn't exceed the available supply. Again, this year, it has to be a standalone document. So it is being prepared and will be adopted as a separate document from the urban water management plan. And there are a lot of new requirements. We won't go through all of the details of all those with you, but they will be highlighted in the early sections of the plan so the public is aware. Next slide, please. We wanted to start by talking to you about the shortage stages. We in 2015 adopted a shortage plan that had stages one through seven. And stage seven included over 50%. You'll see in a moment why we thought it was a good idea to actually break out over 50% as a separate stage. So these are the eight stages in our water shortage plan. Let's go to the next slide and you'll see how our water shortage stages compared to the state's standard stages. The state is now requiring that we respond to their standard stages by showing how ours relate to theirs. So you can see stage eight responds to their stage six. So it seemed to make sense to us to break that out as a separate stage for over 50%. Over the last 30 years, water shortages that we've experienced have typically been in the 15 to 20% range. And so we know that having a lot of flexibility in those early stages allows us to fine tune response actions and work with the public to reduce water use in a way that's effective. So instead of having a stage two that goes all the way up to 20%, we have two corresponding stages that relate to the state's stage two. You can see we have up to 15% and then up to 20%. And then the state's stage three, we again have split that into two so we have more flexibility and we have the ability to have refined response actions that really tailor how we have responded to shortages in the past and know that we're here locally. We've already talked to the state and they see this as being a very compliant way to respond to their six standard stages and it does allow us that additional flexibility locally. Next slide please. So let me walk you through some of the response actions. What I want to say is first and foremost, we know why we've been successful in the past is predominantly the first two on this list. Because we reach out to our customers and we keep them informed, we let them know about all of the programs and assistance we can provide. We help them understand where water use needs to be restricted. We do such a thorough job of reaching out through social media, radio, print ads, through bill inserts, that our public remains very aware and then we provide customer service and assistance. We're there to help our customers. We're already seeing a significant increase in calls for service and participation in our programs because as you know, we've already been talking to our customers about this being a second dry year. So we know in the past when we've had water shortages, those two are the foundational elements of our success in working with our customers. We also can make operational changes like reducing the amount of flushing we do to our system while still maintaining public health. We can also look at considering hiring temporary staff to help with phones and scheduling of our technicians going out for site visits and this sort of thing. With restrictions and prohibitions, if we'll hit to the next slide, we can take a look in more detail about what those are. We always have the water waste ordinance in effect. That's always there and it prohibits runoff from property due to things like broken sprinklers or irrigation systems that are running too long. Also customers are required to fix leaks and breaks quickly. In a stage one shortage, that's the voluntary stage where we have a 10% shortage. We require that folks put shutoff nozzles on the end of their hoses and we don't allow folks to wash down driveways and sidewalks with their hoses. We want folks to go ahead and get the broom out and save water. In stage two, we add that we can't use potable water for street cleaning and restaurants can only serve water on request. Let's go to the next slide. In stage three, we limit irrigation to 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. That's because we know that irrigating outside of those hours, we have more wind and we have more evaporation. So the most efficient time to irrigate anytime, whether we're in dry conditions or not, is 8 a.m. to 6 a.m. And we also limit pressure washing with potable water. Folks can request a variance. Sometimes pressure washing is needed for public health and safety or for construction or a painting project. So folks just need to contact us and we can work with them. In stage four, we don't allow ornamental fountains and decorative water features to be operated. That's when we have a 25% shortage of water. In stage five, that's at 30% reduction. That's when we start requiring new construction to offset demand in a one-to-one relationship. And just to remind you, we've not had a water shortage that was 30% so far. So we have not had to implement that part of our shortage plan in the past. We also don't allow new swimming pools and spas to be filled and we require that dust control use recycled water with a few caveats. We'd have to have recycled water available, as you know this year. We don't have access to recycled water. And it has to be within one mile of the construction site for a filling station. Next slide. In stage six, we're at a 40% shortage. New construction has to offset demand by two-to-one. We don't allow any new landscaping on new construction. And we don't allow existing swimming pools and spas to be filled. At stage seven, we're at a 50% shortage. New construction has to offset demand three-to-one and we don't allow any new landscaping at existing or new sites. In stage eight, new construction has to offset demand at a four-to-one and that's when we're at more than 50% shortage. And we don't allow any landscape irrigation on any sites. Let's go to the next slide. Additional response actions, you've heard a bit about our water shortage charge because this was brought to your attention during the process you've gone undergone for the water rate structure that's before you and that is moving forward through the Prop 218 process. This is structured to encourage conservation and it helps us partially bridge that gap in a loss of revenue during shortages, but it does require council action. It's not automatic. Next slide. You've seen the structure before. It ranges from no water shortage charge during a voluntary reduction all the way up to a 45% shortage charge in a stage eight and we're at more than 50% shortage. But just a reminder, customers who meet the reduction target are most likely not seeing an increase in their water bill because it's designed such that if they reduce their water use and achieve that water reduction target, they shouldn't see much of a change in their water bill from what it would have been with normal water use in normal water years with normal water rates. Next slide. We also can implement water allocations and excess use penalties to enforce those allocations. These also require council action. Let's take a look at the water allocations. Next slide. Just a reminder, this is rationing and every service is assigned its own allocation. For residential, it's based on the number of occupants. For commercial and for health and safety accounts, we look back at their recent water use. And for irrigation, we rely on weather conditions. In this case, the GPCD number is directly tied to the use of customers at their individual residents. So 40 gallons per capita per day would be 40 gallons per person per day for that month. I just wanted to point out that with irrigation, those irrigation accounts already have water budgets. They're used to having water billing be based on ET or evapotranspiration, which is weather information. They are already used to that sort of budgeting. We know how much landscaping they have. We've measured their landscapes. We know what kinds of landscaping they have. So that process will not be new for those accounts. And as you can see from the way this is structured, it focuses on health and safety. Health and safety at home, health and safety throughout our community, as well as commerce and industry. For the health and safety accounts, that would be things like hospitals, nursing homes and that sort of thing. Let's go to the next slide, please. We can enforce these with excess use penalty, but of course, this does require counsel action. And these excess use penalties are avoidable by customers. If they stay within their allocation, they don't receive a penalty. And in just a few minutes, we'll talk about our enforcement process so you can better understand what we would propose to use as enforcement for any one of our prohibitions and restrictions. Next slide, please. So these are entirely avoidable by all customers, but if customers do use more than their allocation, you can see that structure is in place to apply a penalty if needed. Next slide. So about compliance and enforcement, we've been very, very successful in enforcing our water waste ordinance over the last 22 years or so with using a progressive enforcement approach. Very often customers do not realize that there's a violation. Maybe they have a broken sprinkler and it's flooding the gutter, but it's going off at five in the morning and they've just never noticed. Or perhaps if we were in water rationing, they weren't aware that they were exceeding their ration and we need to let them know. We need to alert them to the violation first. We offer technical assistance and helping them to understand what they need to do to come into compliance. About 95% of our customers who violate our water waste ordinance, that's about all it takes for them to come back into compliance. There's a few of them that we do need to issue warning letters and timelines and become more restrictive in terms of helping them understand the urgency of addressing those issues. And if needed, if there have been enough warning letters and they've exceeded the timelines, we can enforce with a penalty. But again, we have terrific success with progressive enforcement by first letting the customer know and then working with them to help them resolve the problem. Next slide. So that, before I talk to you about the timeline and public participation, I just want to see, do you have any questions about the water shortage plan itself? Any board member questions or comments? You're too thorough, Colin. Okay, well, that's good. If you can hit advance, we'll take a look at all of the opportunities we're affording the public to participate in the development and the review of these. Terrific. Thank you very much. So we did send a notice, we are required 60 days in advance to let other cities and counties know that we're preparing these documents. We did that in January. We came before the BPU's Water Conservation Thrupp Committee three times and spent quite a bit of time going through this in even more detail with them. We're here before you today on doing the study session and then on May 20th, we'll come back and ask if you would be willing to recommend that the council adopt these documents. We've sent out a bill insert to our customers to let them know that the documents will soon be online and that we welcome their review and their comments and their questions. We'll also be having public notices go in the press Democrat before the public hearing. We do that twice so the public is aware there will be a public hearing about these documents and we'll also be doing social media and newsletter articles as well. There'll be the public review process. We're required by law to have two weeks. We strive to have 30 days so that those documents are available to the public and we have an email set up and there's an easy way online for them to click on that email submit any questions or comments they might have to us. We'll go to the City Council with this study session on April 27th. They'll hear very much what you're hearing today on the 27th and then we'll go back to City Council on June 8th and that will be the public hearing and we'll be asking City Council to adopt these documents and we do have a easy URL set up an easy web address set up so folks can see the Urban Water Management Plan. Right now what is up is information about the fact that it is under development that it will be posted on that page with the Water Shortage Plan. The 2015 Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Plans are posted there as well. Next slide. So again I've kind of gone over this so I won't walk you through all of the dates other than to emphasize again that we do need to submit to the State by July 1st with a signed resolution from City Council as well as some additional documentation GIS files and tables and other things that need to be included and submitted directly to the State. So with that the last slide just asks if you have any questions and I'm happy to take any questions you might have about any of the information that's been presented to you today. Thank you very much Mr. Close. Do we have any board member questions or comments? Board member right. Colin excellent presentation very thorough. A couple simple questions now did the city prepare the Urban Water Management Plan with assistance from consultants or was it prepared by a consultant and who was the consultant? The vast majority of it was by city staff. We did the heavy lifting on most of it. We did have help from a really substantial piece of help from a group called EKI. They did the work on the demand projections and also in analyzing our existing water conservation programs to assess how much water they literally save and how much water we anticipate them saving in the future and they did the cost-benefit analysis on our programs to see which programs rate better than one on the cost-benefit ratio etc. We used them in conjunction with eight of our regional partners. We all went in together Santa Rosa managed that contract but we worked with our regional partners so that all of us assessed using the same methodology so that when it's all rolled up Sonoma water would know what the demands would be on their system in a way that was comparing apples to apples. Of course the beautiful thing is we get to provide our own assumptions our own data and our own characteristics so while there was a single methodology used we did get to tailor it specific to each water supplier and their characteristics their population their water system so it's a really robust process so EKI did that work for us this year and then we're also working with West Yoast they're doing peer review of the document they've also helped with the SBX compliance analysis they've contributed some significant there were some really new pieces that were a little difficult to sort of put our heads around exactly how we wanted to structure them and they were very helpful in providing examples of what they were planning to provide to other clients and those were very useful so we modified some of those to use in our plan as well again lots of new requirements just along the water shortage plan is over 80 pages this year without all of the without even all of the appendices so that's a big change so so those two consultants were have been really helpful to us in in preparing that but also again tremendous support from our staff planning department water use efficiency asset management operations also the water supply staff just tremendous help from from across our our city system in making this happen well kudos to city staff i know that's a huge project to do this document secondly so the water agency or the Sonoma water is preparing their own urban water management plan and and they provided us or did they provide us with water supply data for different drought conditions and did they actually have they completed that work yes and so that's integrated into the slides that i showed you so for example in that single dry year you saw we would have to trigger our water shortage plan that was based on analysis that Sonoma water provided us and how in terms of how much water they could provide us and each of their water contractors under those kinds of conditions the severe single year as well as the five dry year period as well as the drought risk assessment for the immediate five years all of those pieces in terms of what we would see in water supply from Sonoma water came directly from their analysis their water modeling so all that data is in and done and over correct okay good thank you good job thank you other board member questions or comments because board member watts not any questions the water conservation subcommittee has reviewed this document a few different times but just wanted to again thank staff for all the work that they've done on this especially just the approach in general around taking a proactive and educational response to to these types of water conservation and and our all of our programs that we work on year around that really you know go into the success of being able to respond when we do have these severe dry years so i just wanted to thank staff for their continuous work not just on this plan but everything they do year-round to get to this level thank you very much i know staff is really appreciative of the water conservation committee our conservation committee obviously did a big job in helping staff as well so thanks to the members of that committee any other board member questions or comments all right then we will take public go ahead i just wanted to comment on on how fortuitous it is the timing of this update given the fact that we're moving into a historically dry a couple of years here i think the the timing and the and the transparency around the process is fortuitous and i i think we should keep taking advantage of that that that timing to to reinforce to the public this is a very dry period we're entering into and it's good to see we have these plans in place as we go into this period but great presentation and great timing terrific thank you yes it does make this work very very compelling i will say thank you vice chair arnone we'll now take public comments on item 3.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary aether do we have anyone we have no public comment great that will conclude item 3.1 thanks again mr close the very very detailed presentation and a lot of work obviously went into both those plans and and we're going to be implementing them shortly so thank you thank you all for your time and attention next is item 4.1 the minutes for April 1st so we'll now take public comments on the minutes approval if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 secretary aether we have no public comment great we will move to our staff briefings first one is 5.1 from the engineering resources division overview director Burke thank you chair galvin and members of the board so as you mentioned it's our engineering resources division and making the presentation will be andy allen our supervising engineer and janine saragosa our department information technology supervisor good afternoon will somebody else be bringing up the presentation for us yes it'll come up in just a second very good i promise not to be as long as callin so much shorter presentation for you all a good afternoon chairman galvin and members of the board as director Burke indicated my name is andy allen i'll be starting the presentation and janine saragosa will finish it up for us and we're making this presentation on behalf of the entire engineering resources division next slide please our division is led by deputy director lori urbana including deputy director urbana there are 22 professional and technical positions within the division as shown on the slide there are three interactive work groups within the division and these work groups interact with each other and with all the divisions within water again i will discuss water engineering services and asset management engineering and janine will discuss water information technology and will also discuss the implementation of city works asset management system next slide please starting with water engineering services team as you can see from the long list of duties on the slide and the next water engineering services is very busy and i would say small but mighty with just six professional and technical employees to do this all this work the team interacts daily with the planning and economic development department and with some of our stacks staff actually embedded at city hall of course not currently with covet and they're working remotely but they were before and will eventually be back at city hall to assist planning and economic development and with city council making housing a priority these days this team is busier than ever next slide please the team provides a key role in assuring that the appropriate fees are collected and develop it is development is connected properly to our existing system and that any new infrastructure is installed correctly the vast majority of brand new water infrastructure is built with development so clearly this is a very very important work group next slide please moving on to the asset management engineering team i lead this team of engineers and professionals and technical employees as you know and have seen us recently we developed the cip in collaboration with staff from local and regional operations along with a review of master plan condition assessments and other special studies of course this includes our annual cip as well as any needed mid-year tactical changes that come up we have our water reuse engineer embedded at luguna treatment plant offices that meets regularly with regional operations staff and our asset management engineers meet regularly with local operations staff as we continue to prioritize future and current projects next slide please the asset management staff includes gis professionals that do much more than make these wonderful maps that help with our presentations specifically amongst other things the gis staff created their own program to track condition assessment and is playing a significant role in the city works project that janine will discuss soon we also provide engineering support for water engineering services the group i spoke of first and with stormwater in creeks so you can see that our engineering group we are the engineering group for all divisions within the department so now i'm pleased to introduce janine suragosa for the remainder of the presentation next slide please thank you andy thank you everybody good afternoon chairman gavin and the members of the board it's great to have the opportunity to tell you about all the hard work we do here in the water information technology department in asset management engineering services we are separate from the it department for the overall city however we do a lot of the same work that the it department does but specific only to water applications and water needs so um we have a group of seven employees that support many of the different softwares and hardware needs just specific to water department technology as in skater titan tokay and cis these are all applications that are used every day in the water processes we support both the local and regional staff in their daily operations as in software and hardware requirements whether it's something that they have an ongoing need for or whether it's something that's a new need we're there to support their processes and ensure that they have the best technology available to get the job done we have our own health desk ticket system that we provide to the users where they can put in their own requests for our help separate from the main it help desk ticket system however we work very very closely with main it we try to maintain the same strategies and policies that the it department drives for the entire city do you guys have any questions about the support that we provide on a daily basis or any of the applications we support okay next slide please i'd say a bigger role that we play and a major role that we play is in the technology um projects that go on in the water department there are a number of different technology projects uh in process at this time we have city works asset management which is replacing our current um Hansen system that manages our asset workflow we also have a cctv software and hardware implementation that's representing the current pipe logics system that we use for cctv and we also have new hardware and upgrades that we're managing for skata to collect a different data through telemetry for local and regional and that includes the geysers and we also are supporting a few other department projects within ltp one of which is an electrical review and also some help in the initial phases of the uv project so we're very project orientated in our department and we work hard to help identify the best source of application for a need of the water operations to supply both advice and management of the project itself and our biggest project at the moment is city works it's an asset management implementation and i'll go into detail on that in the next slide next slide please city works is a asset management system that is integrated with gis and it's a huge opportunity for the city and it isn't just being implemented in the water department we're implementing it in departments across the city the asset management strategy and principles within city works allows the city field services to be able to be real time within the application in the field and enter the work that they're doing on a specific asset or create new work orders for service requests live in the field and get that work processed faster with better data and more real time data that can be updated and exchanged amongst the departments today there's a process in which you know a work order is printed out and taken out in paper in the field the work is performed the notes are written on the paper the paper comes back and someone in the admin system puts it into the to the hands in database and then we have the information for analytical reporting and things of that nature in the future the field will be able to enter the information themselves in the field and update work orders and other inspections and condition assessments that today are all done after the fact in the process so we're really looking forward to the efficiencies we're going to gain just in that workflow process of increased timing one of the biggest benefits of city works is the ability to understand your future investment and forecast against the asset conditions and where you're going to need to make the next replacements and maybe some assets that based on their lifecycle you would normally replace but are appearing to do just fine so it's really a much more informative analytical tool to be making those decisions against a management level for cip the costs for all of your management of those assets can be identified in each work order and of course rolled up by department or by asset group or by section of the city and because it's map based it gives us an opportunity to actually look at different look at the data in different ways today we work very hard to integrate our information from the hands and database into GIS so that we can produce those maps that Andy was just referring to and in the future those maps will be the process and it will update instantly and it's going to be a huge advantage to the city to have that real time data and to have that level of detail of costs and labor and equipment and everything within the ability to drill into the map and not have to wait for that information to come back in from the field the other really huge benefit to this project is from an operational perspective it's a dashboard from which people can manage what's going on in the field and this is important in the day to day because then they can actually see what you know the priorities that the field services are working on but where this really comes into play and we're really looking forward to having this tool is in an emergency you know the the process of getting everybody in the right place and who's doing what during an emergency is always a little bit more difficult and with this system we're going to have a map of exactly what's going on and what's being worked on and who's working on it and it's going to be a huge benefit to us going forward from a risk perspective because you have those conditional insights you have less risk you have more transparent information for your public to view many of the times service requests will come in from the public and you know we have to join information to get the communication back out to the public this is going to be integrated with our CRM platform that will face the public for them to put in a request about a hydrant that's leaking or whatever their situation is and we'll be able to be very transparent with the information of the work going on so that's a huge advantage for the public as well as for the city to have that communication real time and much easier to manage than it is today the data that's available will be more specific to the city needs and it will also be in levels of hierarchy so it can be rolled up or down to the very tenth degree of you know just exactly what that valve costs versus maybe what all the valves cost in a certain processor system to run for a year the data is going to be much more available and it's going to be in a dashboard environment so it'll be easy for the users to go ahead and service the data themselves of what they need it's not going to be that they need to ask for a report to be built which is the way that it is today on the level of service we expect the level of service to go up because the the information is real time and the field services are out there doing the work and and we're going to be able to see that level of service and maybe even increase the turnaround time for the actual operation that would be our hope was that with this real-time information in the field we'll be able to turn processes a little bit quicker and then of course as we spoke earlier the measurements the analytics the budgets versus actuals the saved money in building reports and the transparency of the information and the ease you know this is very user-friendly this is a the type of tool that a general person in the community not only is becoming more accustomed to using but we'll be really excited to be able to look and see what is going on with my request for that streetlight to be repaired and it will be available to them so we're really looking forward to the result of the implementation and the evolution of the implementation over time because this is just the beginning so we're excited about that next slide please one of the most daunting tasks of this implementation and also one of the best advantages of this implementation is that it isn't just for the water department this implementation is across public works and finance and environmental stormwater recreation in parks and we're really really excited with the availability of this information to be shared and it's going to be a consistent process across the city so if you're going to put in a work order to fix a streetlight it's going to be very similar to putting in a work order to fill to fix a hydrant and while the assets will be different the process will be similar and the visibility of the information will be available across different domains within the city and we'll be able to create child work orders for a process in which maybe a water main is busted and the first thing we need to do is get streets out there to pull the street up maybe we need some traffic engineering to help with that and all of those processes can be workflowed within this system instead of having to be kind of built one on top of each other through different forms of communication between the departments so that's really a huge advantage for the city of Santa Rosa overall it's been a challenge because as you can imagine not all the assets are the same and not all the needs are the same amongst these different divisions in the work that they do but we're striving through it and it's really wonderful to find those areas that are always in common across those divisions even though you know someone in streets may have no idea that someone in the geysers is struggling with the same kind of operational issue and we can share the information and get a better overall result from the work that everyone's doing so we're excited about that the project management in support of this project is the department of information technology water which is the department that i lead along with of course the regular city it and the water gis teams as andy mentioned earlier we also have a consultant willpert that we've hired to help us with this implementation they have had great success over their years of experience in many different larger implementations than ours even those i have to tell you ours is a pretty big one um we're really grateful to have their guidance and support through this process and we've been through two years now of our configuration and management of asset data and we're about to go through our last round of configuration and pull up the public works division live later this summer early early fall so we're we're really excited to finally be at the finish line for the first phase the second phase of the project will be all of regional water and local water and that will come up one year from uh july of 2022 but we're really excited we're we're we can see we can see the future now and it's really it's really looking bright so it's a really great opportunity are there any questions about this particular project or any other yes yeah i i i'm really glad to hear about the the cross departmental communication here and the fact that we're presenting a consistent front end to the public so you know they they have consistent ways to to request the information and and it sounds like a water department is contributing a great deal towards that my question and i'm not sure who the best person answers this baby might be jennifer is is the contribution of the it and the water department recognized when the city allocates overhead costs to the various departments um it sounds like water is giving back to a lot of other departments and and that you know that should be taken into consideration it seems and allocating overhead costs so uh uh board member our vice chair are known a great question and yes uh we definitely ensure that the support that we're providing and what is funded by our rates is for the water department and then we have general fund funding to support all the work that we're doing for the other departments okay great thank you yes board member questions your comments yeah one comment um so a little technical here uh i've been involved with the transfer change from hansen to some other system so i was surprised that you said we're still querying the hansen system which is not a web-based program and bringing in the city works are we always going to keep the data in the hansen system no let me clarify for you currently maybe let me just clarify my statement currently today what we do is we query the hansen data to present it within the GIS system so that you see those maps with condition and all about information that andy was showing you in the future it will be based in GIS so we won't need to query hansen any longer we're actually migrating all the data from hansen into this new system and it will be completely independent but it will be integrated with GIS so there won't be any need to query information from another database to present those maps and lastly is phase two the last phase yes phase two is the last phase we are already starting a post-implementation requirements list because of course now that we can see what we can do people are coming up with great ideas so i'm sure there'll be some some activity in the future but but yes the water phase is the last phase and it's a big one thank you a good presentation thank you other board member questions or comments uh chair galvin if i could chime in here of course i just from the transportation and public works side of the house want to just kind of acknowledge the hard work that's the santa rosa water team and and janine's leadership and getting this this particular product through it's it's it's a pretty phenomenal effort city-wide that's going to help make us a very strong supported organization moving forward and and i think the acknowledgement of of the excellent work is really really critical and janine's just done a an outstanding job getting us to that point so i wanted to just chime in and express my appreciation there thank you jason and i want you to know that there are 87 members of this project team so we do not do this we do not do this alone there's a lot of people working out there and they'll definitely appreciate your comments thanks great well nice presentation any other board member questions or comments all right we will now take public comments on item 5.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you dial in via telephone please dial star nine secretary atha we have no public comment we'll conclude then the first staff briefing by point one thank you again we'll move to item 5.2 on the water and recycled water supply update director berke thank you chair galvin and members of the board and uh this is our ongoing updates on current water supply conditions and deputy director water resources peter martin and deputy director water reuse operations emma walton will be making the presentations great thanks for the introduction dr berke good afternoon chair galvin members of the board back for you again with a another water supply update um just wait for the presentation to pull up so it's been an active uh last couple of weeks and i have lots to share about the water supply outlook um can we move to the next slide so um as you're aware it's the second consecutive dry year um without additional rainfall this water year it's likely this year may be the driest water year on record um we're about three inches behind the 1976 1977 uh water year in yukaya um snow water's two reservoirs are at their lowest levels for this time of year and their history of operation um and santa rosa water staff are have been working quite a bit of the last few months uh with our customers uh to save water now and fix leaks in their homes and businesses uh take advantage of our water use efficiency programs and rebates and also prepare their irrigation systems for the summer next slide please so um about 30 minutes after board member rye asks about the expansion of the temperature change petition to last meeting we did hear uh that snow water will likely file another temperature change petition in may and that petition will seek uh approval to continue to reduce their flows in the upper russian river from lake mendicino and then expand that request to reduce flows in the lower russian river and dry creek which would ultimately preserve water and lake sonoma where we derive our water supply uh with that request they will be recommending a reduction in their diversions uh and so with that request reduced diversions from the russian river will also lead to a request for water contractors to reduce their water use uh the timing and the exact amount of conservation required are still being determined this time but we're moving very rapidly towards that scenario next slide so uh as of uh monday lake mendicino was at about 36 000 acre feet or about 44 percent of their target water supply storage uh the storage has rebounded slightly in response to sonoma waters uh requested relief in the form of the reduced storage releases in the early temporary sea change petition in february um however as you can tell storage continues to fall below those levels experienced in the most recent drought of 2014 and 2014 16 excuse me next slide please uh lake sonoma's current storage is about 153 000 acre feet or about 62 and a half percent of their water supply pool operations during this time year as you can see storage remains relatively flat and has been slowly declining and remains below that of the most recent historical drought next slide so i do have a bit of good news to share amongst all the doom and gloom here um the existing messaging is working uh our water use efficiency hotline call volumes have increased about 400 month a month uh from february to march and april is already projecting higher um so the message is definitely getting out there um dept uh director berke and deputy director walton and myself have all had uh some contacts by the media so the word is definitely getting out there as well um we've seen a 30 increase and requests for pre-qualification for our green exchange rebate program which gives customers incentives in exchange for swapping out turf for low water use landscapes and of course we are continuing to see increased participation of the rebate programs and those requests that come with that as well next slide so this graphic sort of shows the call volume to the water use efficiency team in comparison to the end of the last drought staff followed up on more than 240 calls last month and we're expected to exceed 300 by the end of april this is very similar to what we saw during the last drought in 2014 through 2016 and the water use efficiency email inbox is experiencing similar increases as well next slide so um just to kind of recap uh where we're at here um outreach and conservation messaging activities continue and they will ramp up at this point you can feel comfortable calling it a drought and our message will incorporate that um in the future uh and will take on a little bit more urgency um santa rosa water is working with snoma water and the contractors to update the water shortage allocation methodology that is part of the restructured agreement for water supply the last time i believe was updated was in 2014 so some things have changed as far as the inputs that go into that methodology as that is finalized um you know we expect that there will be continued work on that and kind of planning for a variety of scenarios for cutbacks eventually later on in the summer as snoma water works through their temporary change petition process next month um so staff are at the same time planning for implementation of our water shortage contingency plan you heard a little bit about that from calling recently uh in order to respond to a variety of potential demand reduction scenarios and then of course um a conservation request is imminent so what we've heard is that um um while the tucp is being filed in may uh the water advisory committee to snoma water will be likely to be taking up a um voluntary community wide uh conservation request to other contractors and we will be taking a similar request to the city council uh in may uh for which i will also be back to the bpu on may 6 to uh request a recommendation of that as well so um lots going on and you'll be hearing a lot from me over the next few months but this actually concludes my portion of the presentation i'll hand off to deputy director walton good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board i am here again to provide a update for recycle water next slide please our recycle water production is unfortunately still trending very low very similar messaging to the last time was before you so probably nothing of surprise in my presentation today next slide please our storage continues to be uh very low the lowest we have ever been this time of year we have as you are aware been able to artificially gain some storage by under delivering to the geysers in order to help provide some flexibility as we move into the ag agricultural irrigation season which will start this monday april 19th so you will see this curve trending in the other direction when i come before you in two weeks next slide please as i've mentioned before we have finalized our allotments we have set aside 600 million gallons this year for agricultural irrigation this is in comparison to on average about 1.7 billion gallons that we make available for our ag users through the work with our ad hoc we developed an approach to provide allocations based on historical usage we are using the years 2017 18 and 19 and not 2020 since it was an abnormal year for usage with the 600 million gallon allocation that lands us about 40 percent of historical usage for those years we sent out allocation letters to our users last week on april 7th we held a meeting with all of our ag users the the following day to review the irrigation season and answer any questions that our customers may have we are preparing to begin irrigation season as i mentioned on april 19th so we're getting all of our pump stations ready to to start up and begin the season our staff are going to be very busy this season with bi-monthly meter reads and updates to our customers so that we can very closely track the amount of water each of our customers are using and and they will be aware well in advance before they have used their entire allotment we have allowed our customers to trade their allotments if they so wish we have not had any interest yet from our customers wanting to do this but we have met been messaging that we are happy to accommodate those requests because of the storage we were able to gain by under delivering to the geysers we have a very non restrictive irrigation schedule we are allowing irrigation monday through saturday so six days a week we are asking folks not to irrigate on sundays except for our vegetable users in order to maintain a bit of control over our storage but because we have been able to gain in storage we have been able to allow a lot of flexibility for irrigation schedules something that we were not able to provide last year given the storage situation we were in we do recognize that we might have to implement further restrictions on irrigation schedules if our storage starts to drop in a manner that we cannot sustain so we're not expecting that this will occur but in the event that it does we will be sending out further restrictions on irrigation scheduling next slide please we continue to make communication and cooperation a priority we are in constant communication with our customers and holding meetings with our customers we've held two virtual meetings with our all of our ag users so far this year if we hear that another virtual meeting is desired or that our customers want that and that's useful or if conditions change and there's messaging that we need to get out we will hold another all ag user meeting we have been meeting routinely with the farm bureau every month since about november october last year which has helped with communication as we move into this very hard year we are continuing to cooperate and communicate with our regional partners we have accepted 20 million gallons of recycled water from Sonoma water and they have indicated that there will not be additional water available for them to transfer for to us this year however we'll stay in communication and if at any point they do have additional water to provide we'll be ready to accept it we are also as you are aware working with the town of Windsor who has been over delivering on their geysers contract which has been very beneficial and and actually is the first year that they that we have have done this and has helped us retain storage quite a bit we are also moving into our 30-day geyser shutdown starting may 3rd so this will add additional water to our storage as well and our our users are aware of this shutdown that's coming and our staff are prepared to to take on the extra water that will be put into storage as a result next slide please that's all i had to share with you today but as always happy to answer any questions thank you deputy director walton and also to deputy director martin do we have any board member questions or comments there you all are okay any board member questions or comments see none then we will open it up for public comments on item 5.2 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary aether do we have anyone we have no public comments thank you that will take care of the staff briefings we have two items on the consent calendar i'll entertain a motion i'll move the consent calendar i'll second motion by board member right seconded by vice chair arnony this time we'll take public comments on item 6.1 and 6.2 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand secretary aether no public comments may we do a roll call vote please yes chair galvin hi vice chair arnony i'm happy board member baden fort hi board member grable hi board member walsh hi board member waltz hi board member right hi thank you very much we'll take care of the consent calendar we'll now move to uh item 7.1 director berke thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.1 is our fiscal year 2021-22 water and local wastewater operations and maintenance and cip budgets it's a recommendation to city council and deputy director administrator water administration kimberley zanino will be making the presentation i did want to just take a moment and uh acknowledge and really thank the budget subcommittee of the board um i know this year has been incredibly taxing in that we not only asked for your work and support with rates and budget and demand fees and so just really appreciate all of the work um in helping giving giving us feedback and really producing uh i think a very sound and well supported budget this year so thank you so much to the committee and uh i'll now turn it over to deputy directors anino uh good afternoon chair galvin vice chair and members of the board um we are here today in order to present you with the budgets as director berke said um i did want to point out that there are some logistics for the presentation however um we have prepared two separate packages for you for requests for the budget or requests for recommendations for the budget items 7.1 and 7.2 um but we put both of those items in one presentation so um this was done in an effort to avoid any confusion for city council's review of the preliminary regional budget and partner allocations since they review a preliminary budget prior to may so that we can inform our partners but we do not have that same preliminary review of the other two budgets for santa rosa water so we'll go through the presentation and when i get to the end of the presentation i will pause after making the request for recommendation for item 7.1 um for the chair to take action on that item before we move to the next recommendation and the next item on the agenda so just wanted to make sure that was clear i we're making it um clearer and less confusing for the council but i apologize probably a little bit more confusing for the bpu by doing it this way thank you for the clarification move to the next slide please thank you um so we will be going over today the staff assumptions uh the proposed operations budgets the proposed regional operations budget and the partner contributions we will be looking at the proposed cip funding for all funds the budget schedule and then we'll be handling the recommendations next slide please so first we'll talk a little bit about staff assumptions that go into the budget due to in every presentation pretty much how you're hearing about the dry conditions and due to those dry conditions we are proposing a budget that is looking at a reduction in water use we are projecting a 10 decrease in water use and this reduces both revenue and expenditures but it is slightly more of a reduction on the revenue side which you will see in a later slide wastewater is less volatile because of residential sewer caps and in addition we expect a little bit of an increase in the commercial use compared to this year and that would be due to the projected reopening of businesses so we have reduced projection slightly but not to the same level that we have for water we expect that demand fees will increase slightly and we expect that all other revenues will remain stable and we are assuming for this for the budgeting purposes that the proposed rate structure will be implemented next slide please next slide so going over fund changes for the various funds in our operations and maintenance as you can see there are some increases and some decreases but overall the total for all budgets becomes basically flat we are just about increasing by less than 1 0.9 percent next slide please each year we provide you with changes in labor and water billing budgeting expenditures as well as other items increasing that are typically outside of the control of our budgeting managers so you'll see on this slide that salaries and benefits are shifting slightly likely the lowering of salaries is due to newer employees coming on and and employees that are I don't want to say older employees employees that are leaving the city that are longtime employees as they retire those new employees come in and they start at a lower salary step which which reduces the total overall salaries for us on the other side of that benefits are increasing for probably a couple of factors one being that benefit costs are increasing but also those newer employees typically come with additional family members that are covered by their benefits and so that increases the benefits a little bit as well water billing continues to trend down over the last couple of years and this is partly due to the AMI system being fully operational and positions being removed through attrition some of those positions that get removed through attrition also include less vehicles which means less gas less maintenance and so we see we are seeing a decrease in water billing charges the other items on here utilities vehicle expenses and insurance those are some of those items I was referring to that are increasing but are not determined or under the control of center as the water staff so we just like to let you see what those increases are looking like next slide please this just gives you a graph of what the water fund expenditures look like basically this is where the budget goes in the various categories the water fund for operations and maintenance being a total this year proposed budget of 33 million or 33.6 million and you can see that the majority of those costs go to the purchase of water next slide please also giving you that picture for the wastewater fund the proposed total operations and maintenance budget for this year is proposed at five 12 or sorry 12.6 million dollars and you can see that we are also showing you what the distribution of those expenditures looks like by category next slide please the purchase of water we always want to inform you on what our wholesale purchase of water will be this year as already mentioned we are reducing the volume of water we are expecting to have our customers use which means we're also reducing the volume we will be purchasing by about 10% and we're basing that actually on a normal year or a typical year or a more typical year I should say than this actual year that we're in just because this year and we have seen a significantly higher amount of water use than we had projected and that's really just based on the on the very dry and warm conditions that we've been seeing so there's been a lot more irrigation than had been expected Sonoma water is increasing their wholesale rate you've seen some presentations on that already this year their increase is 3.47% or going from $966.95 an acre foot to $1,046 per acre foot next slide please we like to show you revenues versus expenditures just so that you can see that we are financially stable on the water side we are budgeting slightly less revenue than expenditures and that is based on the fact that we do expect to sell less water this year we do however have sufficient funds and fund balance to cover this if needed and so we do expect that and we also expect that we will have some revenue carryover based on those increased uses this year that we have not projected next slide please this is the same picture for the wastewater fund and you can see that we are very much on track for both revenues and expenditures we will be collecting enough revenue to cover all expenditures that are expected and budgeted for next slide please now I will go into the regional contribution allocations so we'll talk about the regional budget as well as how the budget is being allocated to each of the partners next slide please we want to talk a little bit about some of the budget drivers in the regional fund this year there are some increases to expenditures this year on the regional side as you will likely remember we secured a bond for the ultraviolet disinfection replacement project last year and we refinanced some older debt so while we have incurred new debt and are seeing an increase in debt service we do want to highlight that the bond sale was extremely successful and that the increase in debt service ended up being only $2.1 million per year which is much better than what we had estimated at $3 million a year we also have some increases in professional services this is one of the factors for the increase in the subregional budget this is based on the fact that we went into an agreement with Liz Tech Liz Tech is the company and the agreement is the one we put into place so that we could decommission the biosolids composting facility and while we are seeing an increase right now because of that agreement and the yearly costs of that agreement it was the appropriate decision because overall it will save us about $8.7 million over the next 20 years as well as a significant amount in capital costs in the future the facility unfortunately was degrading rapidly and would have needed millions of dollars to repair it as well as professional services we are also seeing an increase in O&M projects which is that other significant factor to the increases in that fund there are a couple of factors for that one is the aging of the UV system that has not yet been replaced we have additional maintenance needs now because of not only that it is aging but also because we have new compliance requirements as well and so there is going to be increased maintenance on that system until the replacement is complete within the next couple of years in addition to that there are CHP engines and generators which are due for a 24,000 hour service and we very strongly believe that we could not delay either of these maintenance items especially since in recent years we are seeing an increase in emergency projects because of the aging system emergency projects are always more expensive so the planned maintenance projects are necessary next slide please here are some of the overall changes to the funds as I mentioned operations and maintenance going up based on professional services and O&M projects by about 1.6 percent debt service increasing by 9 percent which is based on that new debt service for the ultraviolet system replacement bond that we secured last year next slide please this is a full look at the regional budget also included in the full look of the regional budget is the eight million dollar cash funded CIP there is also an increase that is shown here for the O&M reserve because the O&M or the operations and maintenance budget is going up by a little bit we by policy keep 15 percent foreign operations and maintenance reserve and so therefore there's the $31,000 that's being increased for for that reserve as well as I am showing you also hear the decrease for the miscellaneous revenues that come into the fund itself which are at about four point one million dollars this year next slide please and all of that results in the allocation to each of the partners that you see here as a reminder the operations and maintenance which does include that reduction of those miscellaneous revenues that come in directly into the sub regional fund is distributed by actual recorded flows to the plant by each partner the CIP cash funding is allocated based on the sub regional agreement and debt service is distributed by the repayment schedules for each of the various debts that we have and when those debts were incurred Santa Rosa's allocation is covered fully by wastewater rates demand fees and other miscellaneous fees collected in the wastewater fund next slide please um you've already seen details on the capital improvement program so I'm going to go through just the funding amounts and where the or the types of projects that will be funded in year one so next slide please we did provide you um when you had the study session on April 1st the five-year CIP funding sheets so you had those which detailed the projects that would be receiving funding in year one and so this just shows you that we are budgeting for year one 13.7 or 13.8 million dollars and it gives you the categories that that funding will be or the projects that those fund that funding will be going for the funding is being distributed between water main and service replacements reservoir upgrades the city's share of a hazard mitigation grant project master planning and a small percentage for groundwater projects next slide please on the wastewater side you can see that the majority of the funding is going to sewer trunk sewer main and service replacement projects and the total funding is 12.7 million dollars next slide please we just like to show you the distribution of the projects throughout the city the little dots show you where all of the projects will be occurring or where the the funding is going I should say for year one and where those projects are located next slide please same picture for the regional CIP as I mentioned earlier we are cash funding the regional CIP at eight million dollars this year um year one projects that are receiving funding are mostly infrastructure projects and the master planning for the plant as well as seven percent of the funding for geysers infrastructure next slide please and although it's very centralized we also like to let the sub regional have a map as well so this shows you the sub regional plan and where the projects will be taking place on that property as well as a little a little map on the side that shows you where the geysers work will be taking place next slide please for the budget schedule this year there have already been three previous meetings with our regional partners to go over the regional budget and to request recommendation from them to you and our city council we have also met as you know with the budget subcommittee I as well would like to extend my appreciation to that group and we have we have taxed them a lot this year with many many items and complicated items so it's very appreciated the amount of time and effort and work that they put into reviewing all of this with us on April 1st we had our study session with the full board today we are doing the request for recommendation to city council on April 27th we will be reviewing with city council the preliminary regional budget and looking for a preliminary approval for that so that we can notify our partners at the beginning of May what their portion of the regional budget or their responsibility for the regional budget is and then city council will be having study sessions on the full city budget on May 18th and 19th including hours and then they will consider adoption of the budget on June 22nd next slide please so here is the first recommendation for item 7.1 it is recommended by the board of public utilities budget subcommittee and san eros of water staff at the board of public utilities by resolution recommend that the city council approve the fiscal year 2021-22 water fund and local wastewater fund operation and maintenance and capital expenditure appropriation requests thank you very much deputy director Zanino we'll open it up now for any board member questions or comments since i can't see open there you are any board member questions or comments if not we have a resolution in our packet i'll entertain a motion i'm of the first resolution a resolution of the board of public utilities recommending that the san eros of city council approve the proposed fiscal year 2021-22 san eros of water operating maintenance and capital improvement budgets for the water fund and the local wastewater fund and ways reading the text i'll second that motion thank you we have a motion by vice chair anoni seconded by board member walsh at this time we will take public comments on item 7.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary aether do we have anyone we have no public comments thank you may we have a roll call vote please chair galvin hi vice chair anoni hi board member badenford hi board member grable hi board member walsh hi board member watts hi board member right hi thank you the motion carries unanimously we'll now return to the presentation for item 7.2 which is the report on the regional water reuse system move to recommend the sub regional technical advisory committee and board of public utilities budget subcommittee of the board of public utilities by resolution recommended city council the preliminary 21-22 regional water reuse system operating and maintenance capital improvement and debt service budget and allocation of costs for the purpose of notifying the regional water use user agencies of their allocation of such cost by may 1st 2021 and wait for the reading I'll second that motion thank you we have a motion by board member watts seconded by board member walsh will now take public comments on item 7.2 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 aether we have no raise hands okay and i should have asked if there was any further board member questions or comments regarding item 7.2 seeing a bunch of shaking heads we will go ahead and have a roll call vote please chair galvin hi vice chair anoni hi board member baden fort hi board member grable hi board member walsh hi board member watts hi board member right hi very good passes unanimously thank you again deputy directors and you know and the budget subcommittee for all their hard work and the rest of the staff hopefully it'll sail through very easily with the city council and we can move on at this time we'll move to item 8 which is public comments on non-agenda matters if you have a 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 secretary aether we have no public comment that will take care of public comments item 8 we have no referrals we have no written communications subcommittee reports i believe uh board member watts are you going to make a report on the water conservation subcommittee yes thank you we met as a committee on april 6th and staff provided an update on the urban water management plan which we saw in depth today during the study session and just a quick reminder the the following dates for that a city council will receive their study session on april 27th and the plan will come back for the board on may 20th and city council for final public hearing on june 8th we also got a update on the activities for water awareness month which is the month of may just as a reminder and we also were able to see and approve the 2021 water use efficiency awards which we didn't get to have last year so it was nice to see those again and they will be presented to city council meeting on may 25th and we also uh had a review of a grant application for $75,000 from the u.s. bureau of reclamation water smart small-scale water efficiency projects program and this would help enhance our existing cash for grass program and increase the amount for square foot incentive for two years if we were to receive the fully amount the full amount that we requested and that was our uh committee meeting on april 6 i'll take any questions thank you very much any board member questions or comments seeing none we'll open it up for public comments on item number 11 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary atha we have no public comments thank you that'll conclude the subcommittee reports any board member reports okay directors report item number 13 thank you chair galvin and members of the board i did have a couple things to share with the board today um first i wanted to let the board know that we released the third and final uh video for our value of water campaign this week and part three is actually really cool uh well they're all really cool but in particular part three is really cool because it's a look back at the 150 years of service and our community's ongoing commitment to investing investing in safe and reliable water service so you'll see a lot of um historical photos of uh santa rosa and the water system which is really pretty neat uh this video titled our water story and investing in our infrastructure can be viewed online along with the other two videos uh the first one was entitled before the tap and after the flush and the second one entitled get to know your water and our watershed the latest release is being shared through our outreach channels including the city's facebook page and will be highlighted in today's issue of the city connections newsletter so hopefully you'll get to see it there uh second i have some good news to share on the FEMA front we have requested reimbursements for all of water's projects most projects are still under completion or not quite complete so we have requested progress payments to date as projects are completed and the closeout documentation is submitted all eligible reimbursement will be requested the total reimbursements received through april are $5.6 million total obligated reimbursements which could increase or decrease based on eligible final cost of projects is currently at 12.8 million so we've received almost half um not quite half uh next i just wanted to also note and i know uh assistant city manager nut mentioned it earlier but um as we're implementing city works in uh nearly every city department there is going to be a host of benefits that we will realize as a result of this project and so in addition to replacing asset management software that is no longer supported by the vendor the city is also ensuring that the people and processes are in place to ensure we optimize and maintain our assets and the project team has continued to demonstrate their tenacity through multiple fire seasons psps events in the COVID-19 pandemic and i just want to really acknowledge the work as they completely understand the criticality of this project and the importance that it will bring to the city's resiliency going forward so um and then last i wanted to let the board know that uh starting at the beginning of this month our farmers lane wells started producing water to help augment our city water supply over the winter months while the wells were shut down local operators completed our annual maintenance on both wells and the water treatment plant currently the wells are operating at peak productivity and we hope to continue at this rate through october i will note um as the drought is impacting everything we also noticed a change in the depth of the water table for both of our wells this year typically both wells are tees in meaning that water is at the surface and um this year the water table was 61 feet below the surface for well for one and 19 feet below the surface for well for two when they went back into production starting the beginning of this month we do anticipate that the work we did and the well rehab project that was completed in 2020 will allow us to draw more water from these wells because the project lowered the pumps deeper in the wells so we are tracking the productivity and continue to optimize the amount of water we will be able to draw from these very valuable assets but we did want to let the board know that they are up and pumping and we are hoping to continue to have them pumping throughout the season and that is my report and happy to answer any questions thank you any board member questions or comments for the director all right we're now taking public comments on item 13 you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary atha share galvin we have no public comments very good that concludes our agenda i want to welcome again uh assistant city attorney karen donovan to our little family and to the city and i also want to publicly thank interim legal counsel bob made out for his service to the board and i know you're you're not quite done with us so we'll look forward to seeing you in the future but um we really appreciate all that you've done to step in to the breach there when we uh we lost molly dillon so thank you publicly and with that we are adjourned see you in a couple weeks thank you chair galvin