 Welcome to the August meeting of Soka Creek Water District Roll call will show director Christensen not here, but the other directors present No public hearing tonight, so the first item then would be the consent agenda Is there anyone that wishes to pull anything off? Yeah, me too Anyone in the public? Thank you, Becky Steinbruner. I have some questions about Issues on 3.3 the warrants and also item 3.9 The triennial report on public health goals. I'd like to discuss those. Thank you. We'll pull those. Thank you Okay Any motions for All second moved seconded all in favor I had a frog in my throat So there was a question from the public on July warrants item 3.3. Miss Steinbrunner Thank you, Becky Steinbrunner of Aptos. Actually, I Like to look over these and see where money goes And so I want to ask on the thirty two thousand four hundred eighty nine dollars to best best and Krieger I that's a lot of money and I know what it's about But I would appreciate perhaps your council. Mr. Basso explaining why best best and Krieger always flies up Instead of using court call that could really reduce the expenses of this action I also have questions on page 18 about encroachment permit for the granite way well because there's no place where I See that there would be a joining streets or anything going on to any of the county-maintained streets page 20 I Wonder why ecology action staff is being paid over twenty five hundred dollars page 23 Thirty six thousand dollars to Hanson and Bridget another legal firm That you've brought on board to do work with the lamb estate and that property for the proposed Chanticleer Avenue site page 25. I'm questioning if Why what was the purpose of Leslie Strom's trip to Washington DC and? Page 32 I'm questioning what kind of maintenance is done at the Glenwood property for five hundred dollars and Why you don't just sell this property as excess property page 33 And 800 I just want to bring up that you're once again paying a monthly eight hundred dollar these for The Twin Lakes Church site and wonder again Why this work was begun before the project was approved and why the district did not do this kind of work at Properties that you own already and are appropriating for injection well sites page 37 Is a question eight thousand eight hundred dollars for billing services and There have been questions from the public about this that you outsource your billing services When you have people in house that could be doing it and wouldn't that save a lot of money? I Suggest you take a page from Central Water Districts Q and use Local sources especially disadvantaged people page 39 I'm questioning the refunds to have on nearly twenty five hundred dollars to mr. Jeff or Sino and 500 Possibly staff can answer her questions at another time rather than taking up the meeting for this time Is there anyone else? On that item No, it's not general public comment yet. It's just on that one item Consent agenda So the next item would be item 3.8 then what's on tap Oh, yeah, go ahead Did you want to present something or beck is here tonight because Melanie's out given a presentation So she'll be glad to answer she puts together the what's on tap I can answer any questions or take any comments or corrections. There was just a minor. I have a couple to Just extraordinary was misspelled That's at the top of the first page on the right Oh Add a few suggestions, okay. Yeah So on the front page, which is the upper right on this one When we start talking about the solution You know, there's a you go into them in detail on the next page So that took care of most of my questions, but I just wondered if under groundwater management It says we adaptively manage I'm not sure if everybody knows that that means we're monitoring closely. So maybe just add the word monitoring in there and Then on the one where it says the solution There's three bullet points on the left hand column of that where the last one says year-round reliability I think the reliability was not just a year round. It's just like long-term reliability To me, that's the the one that most people were interested in Under water conservation, I just thought the last line might want to go at the beginning Thank you for the amazing conservation efforts that our customers have done. It was just an idea on The next little which would be the third page Right, let's see if I can read this is pretty small Pure water so Cal had said We received over $2 million in grant funding and are actively seeking additional grants and low interest loans from the state and federal resources Somewhere in there explained that that's to decrease the overall cost to our customers. I think because that's the whole goal of getting the grants And then Even though it's a bullet point at the bottom of that page that says reducing reduces ocean discharge by 25% I thought maybe that should be mentioned up in the Text about why purified water or somewhere in there with the Orange County one because I think that's an important point That's all I have anybody else No any members of the public Okay, so that's not an item we need to vote on just giving feedback. Thank you Thank you. It really looks good. So sorry. I mean, I'm I have a little picky points But it looks great. I know you put a lot of work into it. So thank you All right, so there was a Public comment on item 3.9 Thank you. Becky Steinburn a resident of Aptos. I have a question. This is a very Key item that I think will have great interest by your rate payers How are you planning to notice the public hearing that will be held on September 17th? And how are you going to let people know in advance that six constituents were detected at or above the applicable DLR at entry points to or within the distribution system at levels above the public health goal Is that going to be in the what's on tap will this I Didn't really look at that issue on there But it should it would be good to have this public hearing in the what's on tap and I Also think it's interesting that it says that the health goals are not enforceable And so looking to the future if the pure water Soquel project does go through How would you notice any contaminants in your system as a result of that? project Thank you. Okay I'll just mention the public health goals are Specifically that they're not anything to do with a minute, you know maximum contaminant level sometimes they're logarithmically lower than that so Until there's an MCL then I think you know, we do we're okay Another point about the public health goals is sometimes they're set so low But you can't even measure down that low so you can't even tell whether you're meeting the public health Because technology has not gotten to the point where you can tell the difference Okay, so That is see that does require A motion I think I'll make that motion to accept a triangle report Moved and seconded all in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi post Okay, thank you your honor. I mean Emma pointed out we didn't you didn't have a motion on the warrants which were separated out. Oh Good point Okay, so I make a motion for the warrants to a second move in second for the warrants. Thank you very much. I'm All in favor. Hi. Hi. I posed Okay, great. Thank you Now the next item is oral and communications on these are on items that are not on tonight's agenda so anyone with Races to address the board on any matters not on the agenda now would be the time Or is it over here? Who's keeping the record who's receiving exhibits she is I'm Colonel Terry Maxwell. I'm a customer and an observer of this water board and I'm concerned about the Financial impact of pure water so Cal and everything else you do on your ratepayers and customers including myself Pure water so Cal project is yet another One of the inept elaborate wasteful frauds inflicted upon the so Cal Creek water district customers It's consistent with a pattern that has gone on for 40 years. It's as well documented 45 years in fact your most senior staff and your consultants and your legal counsel are culpable in Unethically and dishonestly failing to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act and related regulations and statutes in the California Environmental Impact Review process Miss Stein runner Properly brought a lawsuit for a temporary strenuous order that things moving pretty fast That's faster than three minutes. I Didn't use up a minute and 26 seconds or a minute and a half. You've had that time. No, I didn't well Don't waste it now sadly. All right Okay, but bottom line is it's another example of proflicant negligence in addition Mr.. Basso defended judge Gallagher's Incredibly wrong decision denying miss Steinbunner's initial TRO and its reconsideration and in fact judge Gallagher ignored The facts and the evidence that were clear. He ignored the California law He ignored it all judge Gallagher has a reputation for doing this and in fact embarrassingly two recent Appellate decisions overruled him for the same pattern of conduct ignoring the facts and evidence ignoring the applicable California law and failing to be attentive to it It's tragic But it's also true and mr. Basso as I point out in what I filed. He's responsible for judge Gallagher being on the court He's responsible for other judges who've been criticized on the court for terrible improper conduct and injudicious behavior Judge Gallagher should have recused himself. He was worked for you guys for nine years You paid him highly his law partner was still representing you as he done for decades Clearly, he should have properly recused himself. Mr. Basso should have moved for that You all should have moved for it the failure of this board to behave ethically as again demonstrated and your disregard for your rate Payers and the pure water. Soquel alternatives are clearly available at much less cost So anyone else that wishes to address the board Thank you Becky Steinbunner resident of Aptos I just want to point out that the mid-county groundwater Sustainability plan is now open for public review and that on August 28th. There will be a public question and answer Opportunity for people to talk with staff and really get some answers. That will be seven o'clock at Simcon Center I really encourage people to read through that document and I'm grateful that the Mid-Count of Groundwater Agency elected to put it in hard copy in local libraries Because it's a massive document and for people like me with very limited computer Systems it really helps a lot So I urge people to really read that very critical document that will be coming before the Mid-Count of Groundwater Agency board on September 18th. I think 19th 19th. Thank you And I want to I did submit a Written communication to you yesterday, but I know that it's late So it's not on the back table in late communication But I have a lot of concerns about the board's new policy regarding public communication It is no longer course written correspondence is no longer included with your agenda packets and I was talking with miss Olan and again miss Olan I really want to thank you for making available to me a hard copy of the board agenda because it helps me a lot and Again, I have limited computer things So but but I noticed there was no written correspondence and I was looking because I submitted a number of things and I was told that the communication would not be included with the minutes Even in an item if I were to submit something now to you regarding say the triennial report on health goals It would not get included with that item on the minutes of the board meeting It would be kept separate in communication now what that does is it isolates public comment on Issues on the agenda and it also makes it expensive for anyone who wants to Perhaps create a record of proceedings to collect the Public comments that were submitted So let me use an example here and I put this in my message on December 18th of 2018 when you approved the pure water so cal project there were over 65 emails that came into you But did not meet the deadline to get it into the packet They were included in the minutes, but under your new policy they would not be So if I wanted to include something like that in an administrative record I would have to file a public records act request as What Ms. Olin told me maybe the case now even for me to get it in the future the public Comment and so that cost people at least a hundred and ten dollars for everything and that's not fair It's not transparent. So I urge you to reconsider this policy. Thank you. I do have a question about that Emma Is there a way to at least have a link like if there's written communications on the agenda somewhere So it's not like they don't to go to a separate spot Let me take that and address it and then I think you can chime in if that's okay As reported in the board minutes that this item was addressed a while back and what we did is we went out and looked We wanted to find what the best practices were for written correspondence I think we found out about half of the agencies don't include it as at all As part of the board packet because that's board business What some of them did that we thought was brilliant and let me back up the ones who do include it sometimes like we used to The if it was submitted late it was part of the minutes if it was submitted early It was part of that board packet But in that mode customers if they were looking to see looking through the minutes They may not see the response that was included because it was submitted, you know kind of late There was separation of response to the letters So what we found that some agencies do that we thought was kind of a best practice is shown up here on the screen As written here or under oral communications if you go back up to the top This is in every board packet and it has a link on the website I think this is where you were getting to so would you please click on that and as you can see you come down to the board packet and a little bit further down a little bit further down right there and The correspondence you can go and click on that and you can come up and now it'll show what's in this Meeting and that applied to that Emma. Would you like to add to that? That's great. I didn't hadn't check yeah We think it was associated with the public and the customers and there we go This is a letter submitted for in time for this board Meeting with the our response coupled with the Letter from or email in this case from the customer. Okay, so What's that and we conclude the response there in one place yes, thank you, but it it is a it is a big change We think it's for the better. I Think that we should discuss it. Okay at the you know at a meeting. Okay, and we did previously Thank you All right, so we'll move on to management update Conservation and customer service field I wanted to add something to clarify from the last meeting when director Daniels had asked regarding the AMI installation if we would be reading the meters that we had converted to AMI System if we would also be reading them and drive by mode And I thought that we would but what we found out through the operation is that we can't read in both modes It's one or the other But we have done some manual checks of reads going to the base station. We also have built into our Tyler billing system Parameters that flag reads that are out of range from normal use based on monthly usage for the prior year and then Kind of seasonal usage so we feel like you know There's some good QA QC going on because I think that was kind of the the intent of your question is how are we making sure that The reads are good. We also did read all of the meters and drive by mode first Before we swapped them over to AMI mode and then we can compare those two reads and kind of make sure they're similar so Yeah, and then if you had any other questions on the The other items are reported in the management update sure You know if they're in my neighborhood not yet Yeah, my next door neighbor had some weird thing that he was telling me about and I was wondering if it was the The well, they may have replaced the registers. It depends I would have to like look at the address we've We've put in about 2,500 of the AMI registers Not all of those are reading in the AMI mode yet. The majority are still reading in the drive-by mode We want to kind of keep it small until we can make sure that things are working well before we start Converting a lot of routes over so If you want to if I can check on that get back to you But it was just You want to say something Perhaps You're talking here about you know that initially it was not working very well In fact, very few of them were actually being read and then further down you say The new base station computers now operational and reception levels have been holding to 91% Yeah, I mean only 91% of them are reading and red and 9% are not reading 91% of the AMI serve the services that have been upgraded with the AMI registers and Have been reprogrammed to read to the base station are being picked up So 9% we're having some reception issues with and we think that'll be improved when we fill in The rest of the fixed network. It'll be picked up by another repeater or carried to another base station Possibly we do have some very mountainous areas Where we may have to do some small numbers of pickups and drive-by mode and they might not be it might not be possible to Have AMI. Yeah, but it'll be it's still work in progress The base station the initial base station was working well And then all of a sudden for some reason the reception started declining We thought it was the modem antenna not getting good reception And so they tried some different configurations of that Then they tried a different antenna and that helped but it was still not where it needed to be so master meter came out Immediately and replace the whole base station electronics And now we're back up to where we would expect things to be and things are holding for the last probably about a week and a half So yeah And that was what I was asking Okay, so the 9% since it's not being Transmitted it's being recorded somewhere. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's being recorded and those are Still being read in the drive-by mode. So we just drive by and pick those up once a month Yeah, and then it's good to see that that you're working on the Software for people to detect leaks themselves Yeah, and we're trying to think about the best way to roll that out to a small group and test it out and then As you know, we get more installations in and more of the base stations and repeaters and kind of expanding and out to Throughout the service area The cold spots like Cathedral Drive Is kind of a tricky area Loma Prieta Some of them may be on the fringes too of the zone of reception for the first base station and repeater So that you know, those are ones that could be picked up with the addition of another base station and repeater in that area so I Just had a question just about Master meter, so they replaced the base station. How long is there guarantee on this stuff? There's a warrant one-year warranty and then after that we buy an annual maintenance agreement Okay, and then that covers us for any sort of problems that would occur. Okay. Thank you And so you have another question on for conservation Onto the And so I was wondering would you just take me through Update I guess I can't remember exactly How update how offsets would work for a larger project like an apartment complex Sure, so You know, we we have a credit bank of offsets available now for purchase by applicants There is a maximum purchase of 10 acre feet per project So if a project required more than 10 acre feet They would have to propose a project to the board that would save that equivalent amount of water within our service area And we have those guidelines that we developed about what sort of projects you want to see happen You know to meet that additional offset The way the process works is people apply For new water service and they pay an application fee and they put down 10% of their projects Offset requirement up front and then we come to you for a conditional will serve and That would allow them once that's granted to start their their building permit planning processes And then they would come back once they Security their development permit for a bigger project or a building permit for a small project and purchase the remaining 10% of their offsets Right now we're We're selling the offset credits from the water savings from the AMI project and Yeah, we're done with the toilet rebate that was the enhanced toilet rebate that was funding The offset project for the last couple of years that that ended at the end of the fiscal year And so now we're back to just a regular hundred dollar rebate. That's being funded through our conservation budget Yeah, there are some big projects that are being talked about and we've been approached by some of those people But they haven't formally applied for service yet Good Right moving on. Thank you. Shelly engineering Just want to mention the contractor at the granite way a well site has begun Earthwork and so that site those site improvements are going to be underway for the next couple months We anticipate The pump being installed in October near the end and then shortly thereafter we'd be bringing it online So we'll keep you posted how that construction goes on Any questions about my bullets Okay, you've been busy. Thank you. Thanks, Taj Christine I Wanted to mention that I think you are all aware that we had a main break last Wednesday in Capitola village I'm a contractor working for the county sanitation district broke our water main We had to actually shut down the water because if we left the If we just throttled down and left positive pressure in the main it was Threatening a nearby gas main. So we had to just shut it completely off which put Capitola wharf. There's a restaurant out there in two small hotels and about 25 residential or vacation units out of water from like about noon until 7 or 8 o'clock at night And Because there was the sewer main in the same excavation that was also That the contractor was removing the division of drinking water and And the district decided that we needed to issue a boil water notice So we did that on Wednesday evening notified everybody and took samples on Wednesday night and again on Thursday, and then we got the results back on Friday And we were be able we were able to cancel that well water notice so Everyone was That's good to hear and how many people roughly were affected Well the 25 residential vacation units to hotels and then the restaurant on the wharf, okay Not a large number Right and the same Customers are gonna be we're gonna have a plan to shut down next Tuesday To install a valve in that water main so that the county can proceed with their Their sewer replacement, but and so they've all been notified of that as well Anything else? No, okay special projects Melanie's out Like I said given a presentation, but I'll just report for her that she applied that there's a design build conference coming up and she Applied for a scholarship to attend or cover the hotel Maybe the tuition to anyway was awarded that it's a small amount, but every penny helps their customers and that sort of thing So that was noticed today Okay, and finance. Oh, I've got a new finance director Leslie's Leslie shake in her head. She doesn't have anything else to add Can I just I still you know on our little website? I don't you know when you go to most websites to pay your bill There's a big button that says pay your bill here, and I think it's hard to find on our website. So just There's a few little glitches that just you know certain websites are easy some are and I still are still needs some Little bit ways to make it easier Okay now human resources I just want to it remind the board about our Celebration event that we're having this Thursday, and we hope you can all make it We've got some big milestones that we'll be celebrating this week And so we hope to see you there on Thursday afternoon at the Aptos Community Foundation building Thank you. What time is that? It's a 240 begins at 245 to 5 p.m. It's a tough time for me Yeah, so you can come in any time that would be great just in the middle of my surgery day Okay So let's see General manager. I don't have anything to report out this time. Thank you. Okay, so are there any public comments on the management report Update Thank you. He has Becky Steinbruner I'm a little perplexed why the finance had no report When you've got communication in your packet from a number of people saying it's not going well And I think that your ratepayers who maybe are watching this would appreciate knowing what you are doing to try to improve things I'm not one of your ratepayers, but every time I go to your office. There at least one or two people there expressing frustration with this whole change over so Something to give your customers confidence that it's in being improved would be great. I Wondered about the water demand offset and I think I'm director Christensen was sort of Edging around the big elephant in the room and that's the big hotel Proposed for Capitola village by Barry Swenson builder That's I went to the planning commission meeting and that was a huge question that a lot of people had about that and This city council will be hearing the presentation for that hotel project. I believe this Thursday evening So I would encourage your board to attend I Had questions about the AMI and the repeaters being the hard Structure of the repeaters being installed Where will those repeater towers go? I'm an amateur radio operator and I'm always a little concerned about interference as our many operators So I would like to know kind of where those are planned to go especially since the Cathedral Drive area is a problem area And that's my neighborhood. I also Regarding the operations of the engineering report I'm I'm a little surprised that the Granite way well is moving so slowly. It was drilled constructed Almost two years ago, and it's just sat there and I drive by it every day So I know what's going on and I was interested to see it finally being grubbed and getting ready to go But the that it will not come online until October is a very long time And I think that's a little curious and wondering if it's at all tied to the phase two final map of the Aptas village project I In terms of a water quality I noted that there were some wells that two wells that are being treated for arsenic, but they're not named in the report on page 68 and that the ledgered well has high readings of Radiate radioactive Things I think that's also of concern and there are in page 74 the rowback wells Show a lot of high levels of brominated things So I'm wondering if perhaps operations could get up and explain that a bit. Thank you. Thank you What else we'll move on to MGA and GSB advisory committee meeting report Just putting that 5.2 up there in case any of the board members That it are on the MGA or the GSB want to report out We're kind of in a holding mode or you know We until we get comments on the ground water sustainability plan as it was announced They it's out on the street for everybody to To provide comment on and then we'll be back at the MGA meeting in September for the board to see those comments and and come back out of a later date for adoption, but we're proceeding along the Schedule that we originally envisioned I think over two years ago for the plan to be adopted and on track as the Partner agencies and the private well owners work together. So I think it's good news Just to report out from there and the GSB advisory committee is as Was formed. I don't know maybe a year and a half ago. That's been dissolved because they're their charter was to Guide the development of the ground water sustainability plan, which they did and especially the Indicators that are the heart of the plan I I'm on that week of September 19th and the board meeting on 17th. I'm gonna be out of the state So, okay, I'll make sure we alternate there Thank you think Cynthia Matthews is vice chair Yeah, so maybe we could just give her a heads up that she'd be running the meeting. I'll take it Cynthia No, no, she's the vice but you're not gonna be at the meeting. So we need our alternate our alternate Yeah, I'm pretty sure yep, so District council two items the one there was an article in the CSDA newsletter today that that I went in and read and apparently the California Housing Authority is Authorized a study of impact fees and what their effect is on housing cost, etc And it just come out and indicates that it definitely is an impact on housing costs But also that it's a source of revenue that public agencies need Given the restrictions on taxing And but they tied it into Potential of at least there's another initiative out there for a split tax roll under prop 13 where commercial would be Exempt from prop 13 and residential would continue under it So the governor has indicated some desire to see that kind of thing happen So we'll see where that goes and the other side second item is that A couple of weeks ago or maybe a month ago I reported on a lawsuit that have been filed by Santa Cruz underground paving against the district Rising out of the paving work. They had done for Swenson Company That has now been picked up by JP IA and they're defending it under the insurance policy Good Okay, it completes my report Okay. Thank you Bob So next we We don't have any we'll serve so we have a happy and sad thing I mean, we have a wonderful person who worked for many years here and because you've worked so close to them I wanted Christine to be able to read the Yeah, Casey Cole, he's our field supervisor of our water distribution crew He's worked here his entire adult life and even before that He is gonna be excuse me high school, right? Yeah We're gonna miss them very much. I'm gonna really miss them a One thing that didn't make it into the resolution was that he's got this amazing memory and he he remembers where Every pipe is from every tank site from every wall site from the he knows where all the Pumped-to-weights are the overflows and I mean, we're gonna be just losing So I mean just find something can we call them So we have a resolution here in appreciation The board of directors of the Soquel Creek Water District at its August 20th 2019 meeting made the following findings Whereas Casey was permanently hired by the district in April 1984 after participating as a student worker in the Monday school program in High school and working a few stints of temporary employment Casey has dedicated his entire district career to the construction and maintenance water distribution unit rising through the ranks to become the water distribution field supervisor in 2007 and Whereas Casey is leaving the district with more than 35 years of system knowledge contributing Countless hours working in the field on our critical infrastructure and whereas Casey is a beacon of loyalty dependability and reliability ready to tackle problems and always on hand to ensure water is flowing through our pipes to our customers and Whereas Casey was a key member of the construction and maintenance crew Instrumental and keeping the water flowing after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake on an October 24th 1989 memo to the board stated District workers and construction contractors work continuously for the first 30 hours following the earthquake Workers accomplished an almost impossible task by providing uninterrupted service to more than 95% of our connections through the earthquake all major functions of district staff worked exceedingly long hours under difficult conditions to produce water with limited resources and Whereas Casey has been a trusted mentor throughout the years imparting his vast knowledge and infinite wisdom to staff in the field and Where Casey has upgraded and maintained his state certification and licensing requirements for 35 years Casey holds a class 8 commercials drivers license with a tank endorsement and grade 4 distribution and grade 2 treatment operator certifications and Whereas Casey truly cares about providing a reliable and sustainable water supply Quickly responding to emergencies 24 hours a day ensuring crews under his watch Work safely swiftly and with great care and quality to restore service The September 23 2008 memo to the board regarding two simultaneous large diameter main brake stated Field crew supervisor Casey Cole deserves special recognition for his fine work during the emergency I directly observed him being surrounded by five people talking in his ear at the same time While his cell phone was ringing and the radio traffic was going hot and heavy You could visibly see the stress on his face But he continued to do an excellent job from morning to night and was at work the first thing the next morning and Whereas Casey's warm heart and cool head come through in all the work He does Casey endears himself to staff and shows compassion for district customers by maintaining good relationships with neighbors Affected by construction and maintenance projects his calm confidence, especially during emergency situations Isn't just something he's developed in as many years here It's a genuine part of his core and truly who he is and Whereas Casey has absolute respect for our customers as demonstrated by his resolute approach to water theft If Casey catches wind of a potential water theft He is often observed dropping everything running to his truck and making a beeline out of the gate to be the district's water cop and Whereas Casey has been a stalwart Leader in district safety by instilling his knowledge and providing critical oversight of district-wide safety programs and work practices He keeps the safety of others at the top of his priority list and exercises leadership and addressing safety trading needs and Promoting resources and equipment to keep the work of staff healthy and safe And whereas Casey is respected by his peers at other agencies and district construction partners successfully collaborating and working towards common solutions during emergencies and long-term projects and Whereas Casey is a creature of habit and routine his crew is convinced even in retirement He'll be eating carrots every weekday morning at 9 30 a.m.. And Whereas Casey fosters an atmosphere of teamwork and trust is a respective supervisor and his calm spirit and kind heart touch all departments of the district and Whereas they at the district honors Casey's dedication by retiring the radio call sign 220 to forever remember his commitment and expertise he shared with his co-workers and Now therefore be it resolved by the board of directors of the Soquel Creek Water District that Casey Cole is hereby recognized for his remarkable 35-year dedicated career and to his innumerable Contributions to and a legacy he will be leaving with the district and be it further resolved that we all join in extending our sincere Appreciation for his loyalty Professionalism and years of service and wish him a very long rewarding and well-deserved retirement Thank you for reading that Sorry Casey's not here, but we know and I'll second the motion to adopt the resolution and Roll call, please director Lather Yes, vice president Daniels. Yes, director Jaffee. Yes, director Christiansen the pleasure. Yes, and President LeHue. Yes All right. Well, thank you and We have a lot of good people in this Organization and he's just one of one of the examples All right. Next is the emergency service agreement for trout Gulch Yes, so this Agreement for an intertide with trout Gulch Mutable Water Company. It was a five-year agreement and it expired on August 12th So we're bringing to the board of renewal of this agreement. The last agreement had a contingency for a midterm report on their metering progress and in 2014 we were able to report that they are a hundred percent metered now or they were 99 percent metered and now they are a hundred percent metered So we've included a proposed contract and They also have a report here that identifies all the improvements that they've made to their system and their water restriction measures that go into effect whenever they are Exporting water from us or importing water from us Robert Schultz and Patricia newbie are here if you guys have any questions of them and I mean, they've been an example of doing a really good job over the years I'm getting it when we first worked with them. I think you know, they're they weren't close to this But they've done a great job. So thank you Well, I'd like to second that that you know It's it's tough running any kind of water district finding money to do improvements and all that and and they've done Amazing jobs of making their system more reliable and more certain and and more efficient And I just want to congratulate them on that that great accomplishment No other questions and I'll move approval of the renewal agreement. I'll sec. I Just wanted to second something I'll second it. Okay. All in favor. All right. I posed Great, okay Thank you Now the PG That I was important that can customers make the connection to these Public safety power shut-ups or PSPS is that will mean they will have mandatory water rationing So the county had been blinketing about, you know, your power could be shut off But what does that mean for your water service? And I don't think people are making the connection So that's why we came up with the website page and This whole action plan for when we get notice from PG&E that they might actually do one of these for us Are they going to do a test a test of the system? No, they don't they don't know what to test I mean, they have called a couple in Northern California already. So they've been practicing with those Have we been practicing with ours? Yeah, we do we we prepared a new well fire safety power shut-off internal operational SOP and More generators. Yes, you guys approved another generator another standpoint generator and then our right our fuel trailer that we got last year so we're able to deliver a fuel More higher quantities of fuel and then also be able to go outside of our district and purchase fuel if we need to if We're not able to be supplied by our contractors Okay, thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. Oh, do you have an input? Oh, what people here? Yeah, sorry And you just wanted to ask for public comment Thank you, Becky Steinbruner of Aptos. I attended I think it was yesterday morning and Try County PG&E public safety power shut-off policy and procedure workshop in Watsonville and that issue of Notification was a big topic What law enforcement asked of PG&E? Representatives there was that if it looks like it could be a possibility that Utilities water utilities be given Advanced notice at 12 hours at least if possible So I would urge you and maybe you already are working with Rosemary Anderson at the county EOC the upshot of this workshop was to urge government and quasi government agencies to really work together now To put in place Policies and and I see that you're doing a good job, but I do think that maybe Notification needs to go beyond website. You may need to consider Reverse 911 Notification if that's appropriate and also to consider The the big question that came up regarding water utilities was how would Agencies like you maintain high Fireflows if there were a need for fire protection, so I'm sure you're working with Rosemary Anderson and and I really applaud you for thinking ahead and doing the fuel tank and things like that outages could be up to 72 hours, but they explained that they would try to prioritize re-establishing the Restoration of power for key things like water utilities But it will begin at the substation and then Visually physically their crews will Check every bit of the line going out toward the end so depending on where your pumps your wells are in that Location of those lines There may be some pumps and wells that will be off longer than others So I urge you to work with Rosemary Anderson. Thank you. Thank you I had one idea that came to me is that we're setting up this plan for water conservation using our our new Meter infrastructure where we let people know on a perhaps daily basis that they will leak and using that kind of reverse Communication we could use it for something like this as well as other kinds of issues that are really emergencies to let our customers know easily I mean we would have the infrastructure already set up Tyler Tyler to notify is a product that we have with our Tyler software Right, and it allows us to isolate call areas by geographic location by route To go ahead and both call text or email those customers. That's great good Okay, so next is a pro pro curement policy, so tonight we're bringing you are our District procurement policy we last looked at this back in November of 2014 since then we've Done a lot of work toward Getting some federal funding grants low-interest loans that type of saying and those come with their own procurement Guidelines, so what we've done over the last couple of months if we spend a lot of time with the OMB's uniform guidance code Ryan and I did attend a workshop on federal procurement guidelines We have solicited samples from California Society of Municipal Finance Officers and all of the Agencies that belong to that and we've also looked at best practice guidance from the government finance offers as officers association So it's been a compilation of what we've seen out there in terms of best practices what we're seeing other agencies are doing What the OMB uniform guidance requires for agencies that are federally funded and what the state requires in terms of public works Projects, so we've pulled all of that information together into a procurement policy that we brought to you this evening We did go ahead and meet with our finance and administrative services committee and Talked to them a little bit about procurement Procurement thresholds, and they made some recommendations that we incorporated into the policy and the policy has also been reviewed by various managers at the district to do a lot of purchasing and The attorneys at Henson Bridget, so I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about the policy we've brought Before you this evening I just had a question for some reason going from 2,500 to 9,000 seemed like a lot without a PO I Was just wondering of what other people thought but I'll tell you that the government knows 10,000 on a credit card Okay, I know it's surprising. I gotta me Maybe I'm just Conservative it does need to be included in the budget Before that can be authorized. Yeah, I saw that and then a department manager would have to provide approval for the purchase before Understood, okay, no other questions any public comment on this item. I Yes, Bob the general manager approval and PO reported the board is 25 to 44 9 9 Is that no longer exists or should that be changed to to 50,000? It would be changed to 50,000. Okay. Yeah, so he would report out anything to the board Otherwise, it's four four nine nine dollars and ninety-nine cents Okay, so any no public comment I move approval then I'm jumping in there. I'll second it. Okay, so there's No Visions, so okay, so the first motion just to approve the revisions already made, okay I did ask for that I asked for a comment already So I did ask for public comment, but just check this item Okay Thanks Okay, it's been moved and seconded all in favor Opposed no motion carries great. Okay, Bruce. Thank you for your service on the committee here. Yeah, I Think this will save the district a lot of money You can imagine the time spent, you know getting little things approved up the ladder is is Annoying as well as expensive, so All right, so the next item is The countywide fish and stream habitat monitoring program, right and we know that one of the district's Organizational values is environmental stewardship, and it's just directly related that before I jump into it I'll just recognize that Emma really did the research and pulled this together Both are Took a lot of time to sort things out So thank you Emma for doing that and I'll do the the gist of the talking But if you'd like to chime in, please do so so basically the district usually contributes about $10,000 per year, although it's fluctuated a little bit to help with the stream monitoring in our area so Cal Creek app to hospital in Sia and the lagoon down there Last year that we the board up that because our regular contribution went toward Enhancing the database and the website that all this is reported out on and so Where that leads us today is that? The board has four options, and maybe you can find that table going down the bridge 118. Yeah, there we go From which to choose if they or or take no action, but there's $10,000 budgeted to stream To do the stream monitoring this year We didn't know that the number was gonna fluctuate and such but that would cover option for if the board chooses to do Any of the top three options you can see? the additional You can kind of do the math What the total would be and subtract 10 grand from that so and further down in the memo It has there's a recommendation From the fish biologist Don Alley of Alley and Associates who usually samples these streams and I'm searching for it. It was just to alternate the lagoon and Valencia. Yeah, he you know I Option to he you know he would prefer option one, but that's not available due to the cost then option To and then alternate next year so you get three with three to get the When we were doing the groundwater sustainability plan part of it is the effects on streams and habitats and this data was was very valuable, so I'm glad that we've done in the past and I Fully support option one Me too to do in the future and I'll make that motion Well, I would like to bring up the issue that since this is going to be stuff that has to be reported by The MGA shouldn't this be an MGA expense Of course we'll pay most of it anyway, but yeah, yeah, yeah This is information that the MGA will clearly need to do their annual reports yeah, and It it could evolve that way in the future and that's a good point. There was some discussion around that and then It hasn't this year. I mean that's certainly Something we could take back, but just getting through I think it's a stepwise process but that subboards You know Desire and there's other costs that are like that too, but right now we've kind of the sampling we've we've held true to ours You know like Well sampling and that sort of thing so can I amend my motion to include? Bringing this up to the MGA for future years sure and is there any public comment before we go too far. Yeah There's not a second on that anyway, so yeah Thank you Becky Steinbrenner I Live in the Aptos Creek Canyon, and I'm always interested in those the health of that stream So I want to be Very sure that as the granite way well comes online that you are watching those stream levels carefully most notably Valencia Creek because when the district moved the location of the granite way well further away from Aptos Creek and closer to Valencia and trout Creek Those impacts were not really addressed those potential impacts and so Valencia and trout Creek are already pretty challenged and I want to really know that The district is going to get some good baseline readings of those creeks and Monitoring it regularly and frequently as the granite way well comes online. That's a big well Thank you. Thank you. I encourage you to make that comment to the Groundwork sustainability plan as well Don alley Brookdale. I'm doing the sampling. I'm available for any questions you might have Regarding the monitoring I had one I couldn't remember. I know this year was the last two years were Changes in the whole approach to the program partly due to the database building and then this year San Lorenzo water district Decline to contribute the the amount of their passport to left the county who is coordinating all the partners Trying to organize it I really applaud Emma for Clearing this up for us because Lot of there are a lot of questions that have to be answered. But one of the questions I Keep forgetting is Who is funding the work on Valencia and Aptos Creek? Previously two years three years ago The water district we've been doing it for a long time For 10,000. Yeah, well the county has always contributed in this year. They'll be contributing. I think $5,000 7900 total 7,000 that includes the city Yeah, oh that includes the city. Yeah, the city contributes to sample one of the states So Their money has gone. It really hasn't been said how it's spent, but it's used Sometimes it's used for Valencia and the Lagoon and Aptos Creek So I think the continuity of the data collection is really important behind that too And I'm happy that somebody else is contributing to it that it's they recognize that importance already even before the NGA I think in years past we were the we were it for a long time The city would do the lagoon, but that's all Okay, thank you. Things are getting better so Your motion was option one option one with an addition that we approach I'm gonna do that we approach the end, you know that that we approach the MGA for Okay, that sounds good and seconded by director Christensen. Okay. All right all in favor Okay, thank you, and then last item is 6.7 scope of work for hydrologists Tasha's gonna cover that Hi, so Montgomery and associates formerly hydrometrics water resources has submitted at the staff's request this scope of work Generally there are about seven items Well, there's eight I wanted to point out first before I forget there is a small typo in the Table to the cost estimate item a task seven was left off so Eight and nine are actually a little they should be seven and eight just to clarify for that They're proposing to support the district for grant management grant applications if there are additional ones or follow-up documentation required Looking over the basis of design report for the draft seawater intrusion prevention wells Doing the next phase of groundwater modeling based on the information from the Twin Lakes pilot recharge well Also supporting the final anti-degradation study The title 22 engineering report which is required for our project to move forward Ultimately in the end. That's a large effort and then any legal technical support for our our case in court related to pure water soquel and then Overall general support for the program. I did point out that the the budget did include 26 thousand sixteen dollars remaining from last fiscal year, but that money does not Automatically roll over to fund this effort. So we have to a budget the whole amount I have a question about the table on page 124 table one and I see grant support is by far the largest one whereas modeling is only $1,500 you know peanuts there and grant support is described as Provide information and participating means as necessary to update grant agencies and the technical advisory committee for grant implementation That doesn't seem like something that's going to take thirty one thousand dollars Whereas I would think you know more modeling would be more likely to be thirty one thousand than this would Well, if I should point out maybe table two on page 126 would give you a more detailed description of those efforts There will be continued Updates and meetings that they've budgeted for that's eighty five hundred dollars for the grant support And then any responses these are of course as needed This is their estimate of what what they anticipate we will need It's a some of its under grant support. There's a part of that. That's a model. Well, it's interesting this table you mentioned on page 126 that's in there. It's 67,000 dollars listed if that's invoiced amount in table one 1819 invoiced amount it's different I believe than table two No, this is a fiscal year 1920 and the total for this effort Is 143 920 Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is this is the right table one is for past work that they've provided Last fiscal year. Sorry. I didn't is the proposed but this doesn't match what I mean here. We got Modeling is sixty seven thousand dollars and grant support is ten thousand So this doesn't match what we are proving to me Well, there's more grant support. There's two two tasks task one and two are both grant support So ten thousand four eighty and twenty one sixty six is your thirty one thousand thirty two thousand But again modeling is by far the biggest sixty seven thousand dollars here. Yeah, it's only fifteen hundred dollars in the No, no fifteen hundred was last and that scope I think phase Yeah, table one is not what you're approving This is table two on page 126 correct That's what your it's up to approval for tonight and what we're proving for modeling is sixty seven thousand dollars. That's correct But that's not what was listed back in the In the memo in the staff report then that is my error and I apologize for that one has fifteen hundred dollars for phase two modeling Well, actually it's not listed in the memo On page 124 Right table one was included to give you a flavor of what they worked on last fiscal year Table two is really the the detailed description of what they anticipate will need All right, so your intuition was correct It's mainly modeling So I always wonder whether our consultants are You know top in the field Me, you know, not okay adequate or not, okay So I asked people that I know who are in the field About our consultants. I asked the person who's one of the people who's taking over for Randy Hansen at the USGS often San Diego He had good things to say back about Cameron so Just like that. Oh, that's great to hear. Thank you any public comment on this item Colonel Terry Maxwell again commenting on why 6.7 should not be approved should not be further funded and The reasons include Sadly both the prior and now incumbent Soquel Creek Water District Boards of Directors and some senior staff have variously demonstrated during the past 40 years favoritisms for the greediest and most rapacious over developers and also clear profligate negligence in the well-informed observations of other 40-year residents and Customers of your district for decades Continuing prior corruptions in the opinion of many and negligence has caused and resulted in the aquifer Overdrafting and seawater intrusion crisis now manifested in impacting this region a very honorable county citizen and layperson Advocate for the public interest Ms. Becky Steinbrunner Properly sought a restraining order and exposure of this now incumbent Soquel Creek Water District senior staff and You have grotesquely and shamelessly violated the legal requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act SICA and the related regulations and statutes You have made a mockery of the California environmental impact review process requirements by your collective complicity and Individual failures to perform your sworn duties and your obligations to comply with the environmental laws of this state and implicitly also the federal laws the same applies to your legal counsel Then judge Gallagher of the Superior Court perfunctory ruled against even a brief TRO and denied Ms. Steinbrunner The simple justice she sought for herself and many thousands of other county residents and Water District ratepayers and customers for these reasons That is true That's true. That's happening. No, no, that's not what I what is true is that you're not dealing with this particular item Yes, I am I'm dealing with it's it's implementing the pure water. Soquel matter as it's described if you read it in detail it is Lastly this board must immediately tonight vote to direct your legal counsels to withdraw all any challenges to miss Steinbrunner's per TRO And for you to comply with the California Review and the California law and regarded things It's wrong for you to fund this a nickel more until you get a finding if there's any justice She will prevail and you and your legal counsel will be fined for wasting the ratepayers money at the hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars Right I would like to say one thing about 40 years first of all Even director Daniels who's been on the board the longest has not been on for 40 years But the one thing I'd like to point out if you go to page 44 of the agenda was the water use in 2005 actually And it's over 5,000 acre feet and the water use last year was a little bit It was a slightly over 3,000 acre feet so to two-thirds of what it was in 2005 so and that's due to Our customers, but it's also due to the board, so I just want to point that out that I'm actually very proud of the decrease in water use in our district that has Slowed down seawater intrusion Okay, and you have a comment on this particular item Thank You Becky Steinbrunner resident of Aptos I Have in communication to your board asked for the final copy of the anti-degradation evaluation and It is apparent in this Workload on page 123 support for final anti-degradation report so Brown and Caldwell is finalizing the anti-degradation report for pure water SoCal project Including updating the meet requirements of the 2018 amendments of the recycled water policy The state requires this report to Ensure that projects will not degrade the quality of the water I think I Think it's very concerning that your board approved the pure water SoCal project with only a draft anti-degradation Evaluation which cannot be relied upon and is not a solid proof of anything really until it is finalized So it is concerning to me as someone whose family and community depends on the aquifer for our water That you have chosen to approve without the state requirement Meeting Where is it? Resolution 6816, I think it is and And I really think you need to think about your actions. How will you know? How will you know what this project will do? You don't even have the data yet and here you are Spending more money to get it, but you don't have it and you've approved the project Thank you I just want to point out again that you know We had this whole issue analyzed by a panel of very well-respected experts and and then it's been Determined over and over again to be safe in multiple locations. So and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't and Looking at data about our groundwater and data from other pure water projects around the state It's clear that we're actually going to be improving water quality by this project rather than making it worse It's been found all over the state. In fact down in Orange County the the district down there is just a Replenishment district and the actual districts that serve customers have been moving their wells closer and closer to the Orange County's injection wells because that is Pure water there and back over here was and so I think we're going to find exactly the same thing here has been found all over the state And with that we will adjourn We're going to close session now Please please sit down the public is allowed to give comment before you go into public to close session That's the Brown Act. That's fine. Go ahead. So do you need to reopen the meeting to adjourn because you adjourned You did adjourn, right? Yes, he did. Well, he can open it for public comment. I can open it for public comment That's fine. Go ahead. So the meeting is open and Hold on one moment, please before you could you sit down? Why would you dress this next item when you can come back up? What is the next item? Please sit down till we address the next item. Oh, you can come you'll have your chance to come back up Thank you. So I want to clarify on the last item. Do we get the motions for the Let's go back to that. Let's go back to there. Sorry my bad. So Bob Do we need to open the we'll open it open it back up? That's fine. It's fine. Okay, so Like a motion Okay, all in favor. I post Okay, and so yes, go ahead and make comment on closed session and then we will go into closed session Thank you. My name is Becky Steinbrunner. I am the petitioner in pro per taking the legal action against your district in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. It's case 19 CV 00181 I'm sure mr. Basso will fill you in But what I want to tell you is that I find it Very distressing that a citizen's concern of miscarriage of justice brought about by a judge who had recused himself of Doing anything regarding a case mr. Cole's case in 2017 that was case 17 CV 00689 judge Gallagher voluntarily disqualified himself Because he had been a trial attorney with mr. Basso and represented you for 23 years At no point in him watching over and handling my case. Did he ever disclose that? He did say that he had been done legal work But he never said that he had filed a statement of recusal which he did for mr. Cole's case So when I found that out after he had denied my request to Give me some breathing room for submitting very complicated complex briefs that will have to be supported by case law statutes and references to the now almost 90 binders of printed material that is the administrative record which I did not get Certified augmented from the district until August 2nd The the deadline would would have been this Friday for me to do that I have had to work very hard and spend a lot of my time To get judge Gallagher disqualified which he finally did for cause Right after he denied my request to vacate this order that imposes Substantial and adverse hardship on me due to a very compressed briefing schedule He promptly within 30 minutes recused himself So I asked for a motion for reconsideration Ex parte and I did that ex parte That's the fourth time because it is an emergency under the conditions as they were I would have had to have done all of this work by this Friday. That's why I took the emergency action That action came before the newly assigned judge Timothy small last Friday. He didn't have time for us So it got relate to delayed to today And I'm really sorry to say that judge small didn't even ask me how I felt about having my Rule ruling denied by a judge who had recused himself immediately. Thank you and how that affects my thank you Civil due process it is isn't it good night. Thank you. Good night, and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you Max well comment on this very point the Steinbrunner raises You should be embarrassed ashamed and your lawyer should be reprimanded for his conduct the conduct of your outside legal counsel And why couldn't mr. Basso represent you before judge Gallagher anyone else when a lay lady a lay person brings her proper Restraining order for your failure to comply with the fundamentals of the California Environmental Quality Act for your failure to do an ERI are properly for your failure to consider alternatives Effectively whatsoever your failure your failure to comply with the law Plain and simple you should be embarrassed and the way she's been mistreated again by the judges here This county has a horrible reputation all over the state for having some of the worst judges in California And for having some kind of complicity with the fixers in this county such as mr. Basso has been described by me as who fix things for county Businesses and developers and county agencies that want to deprive people like miss Steinbrunner Her fair due process results in court and simple just as she seeks for all of us ratepayers Which you've denied us as well as you've denied us financial responsibility as well as you've denied us alternatives would cost far less and not pollute the aquifer That's I want my statement included in your formal record here was submitted for that reason and again Direct your lawyer to withdraw this direct your lawyer to comply with the law and behave ethically and judge Gallagher should be removed from the bench This meeting is now officially adjourned. We are wanting to close session. So please vacate the room