 Good afternoon. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Secretary Manus please the roll call Thank you Board member right here Board member Watts is absent Board member Walsh here board member Bartholome here board member Batenfort here vice chair Arnone is absent and Board member or vice chair Galvin is absent as well today. So let the records show that The board meeting consists of board member right board member Walsh Board member Bartholome and board member Batenfort Okay, thank you. I'd like to remind board members to mute their phones and microphones when they're not speaking secondly Are there do any board members have any Statements of abstentions Hearing none The next item is a study session a director Burke. Could you introduce the item? Thank you board member right Item 3.1 is our asset management principles study session and Lori urbanic deputy director of engineering resources We'll be making the presentation Thank You director Burke board member right Board members, it's a pleasure to meet you and be with you today It seems like quite a number of years since I sat in this seat. So if I'm a little Nervous, please forgive that. I'll get refamiliar with the chambers again The purpose of my being here today is we're in budget season And it's important to us that the board members and the public understand how we prioritize our capital improvement program Projects and so I'll be going through an overview of asset management and we apply asset management principles In our project selection and criteria So it'll get a little detailed and there'll be an opportunity to ask questions at the end if you'd like My screen no Sorry So first we'll talk a little bit about the purpose of asset management Why we perform it and actually you know what the heck is asset management anyway And then we'll discuss a little bit about I'll discuss a little bit about how we get from asset management to project development so the real objective of asset management is to Meet the required level of service at the most cost effective manner for both our present and future customers we want to be transparent and Be able to describe why the projects are important to the public and to the board And we also want to let the board know and the public know that we prioritize projects Maximizing the benefit to the public too. So that's part of our criteria So what is an asset? That's kind of the basic building block of this whole program An asset is commonly described as a valuable or useful thing or quality Santa Rosa water has about five hundred million dollars worth of assets in our water supply system our wastewater collection System and our treatment and reuse system so waters assets are We have about six hundred and fifty miles of transmission and distribution mains. There's 24 reservoirs 20 booster stations and The total system replacement cost estimate that we have right now is about 2.5 billion dollars Currently our annual CIP is 14 million dollars a year But we've estimated that the priority projects that we need over the next 10 years are about 340 million so that will actually relate to 20 million dollars additional we would need to meet that funding gap This is a graphic that shows our water system by age and some of you Will notice that there's it looks orange on the screen right now But that dark red line in the middle of the screen is Probably the oldest piece of pipe in the city that I'm aware of it's down farmers Lane And it's an old cast iron pipe that's in actually quite good condition the last time we had a CIP project out there during construction It was surprising how good of condition it was in when we tied into it now We'll look at the same system by material type And graphically you can see that the majority of the pipe we have in the ground right now that is depicted in red is Asbestos cement pipe and there's about 40% AC or excuse me PVC pipe So that's a good sign that our system is being renewed On our sewer system. We have just about the same amount of miles We have 600 miles of trunks and collector mains There are 17 sewage lift stations and a total system replacement cost of about 2.1 billion dollars our current capital project budget this year is 13 million and We're estimating that the cost over the next 10 years for the required projects will exceed 422 million dollars So we'd need approximately about 30 million dollars more to create to reduce that gap and Keep our current condition and our resiliency in the system Here's a similar slide to The last one that you saw on water that talks about the sewer system by age and you can see that the majority of it is Well, it's about half 60 years and older and the other half is about you know one to 60 years So that's good. There's a lot of PVC in the system. So we are making some headway on the replacement of that pipe But I will point out that both the sewer and the water are about 600 miles of pipe each Which means in easy math if we were going to renew a system with a hundred year life Which most of the system doesn't have Although we are seeing an extended life on the asbestos cement pipe It's design life is anywhere from 65 to a hundred years And some of this we're getting kind of close to a hundred years and not having too many water main breaks at this time It's it's interesting to know I was doing a little bit of research and across the country they're noticing that there's a large uptick in Water main breaks on AC pipe ours are still very very low Not even close to what the national average are so So far our the pipe in the ground is performing a Little bit higher than we would expect quite frankly and again the same graph that you saw before where it's the distribution between Material types in in our sewer system There's a little more asbestos concrete pipe than there is PVC by here as shown here This graph I just want to point out that this graph could be a little bit misleading When you look at it on the basis of material type you'll notice that purple color that is Reinforced concrete pipe and it looks like that that is a very small segment of our sewer system But this is probably one of the most Critical portions of our sewer system because it is belongs to all of our main trunk lines you'll see a majority of those in the lower left-hand corner of the screen and We have a number of high-priority projects that we are embarking on to rehab a lot of those trunk lines And we have the same situation out at the regional plant and and the regional reuse system it's comprised of the treatment plant the laboratory reclamation system geysers biosolids and The plant was built almost 60 years ago and much of it is reaching at the end of its design and useful life as the condition declines the performance of our older assets are likely to decline as well and It increases the potential for failure This is a very rough estimate of the total replacement cost estimate of the plant and the reuse system We're looking at about 2.1 billion dollars But we have a lot of very urgent critical projects that we're embarking on We would need to at least allocate 26 million dollars a year to keep up with the declining infrastructure and that's not even Really considering replacing that amount is not considering replacing major elements of the system right now This graphic is just here to show you the magnitude and the scale of the region that the regional system supports and Then here's as the same kind of scale to show you where The geyser system pipeline is in relationship to Santa Rosa, so it travels a long distance I think it's like 40 30 30 to 40 miles and there's three pump stations up there So with all these increasing demands on our system and our aging infrastructure and challenges of loss of Retention of staff that are very knowledgeable and limited resources and not to mention climate change We need to print practice these asset management principles probably now more than ever and and So why well, it's generally been accepted that if we can Replace things before and do maintenance before There's a failure. It's certainly less disruptive and less expensive, so we perform asset management to Avoid you know these kind of failures these that could be very dramatic We need to make the right decisions at the right time and no surprises and To avoid being surprised we really need to understand what we own. Where is it? What's its current condition and what's its remaining life and Is what's its economic current economic value? After we know all this information we can make informed decisions and We need to answer these questions. Which assets need the most maintenance? How or should we even replace the troubled assets and what will our cost increase be in the near term? What level of service do we expect from our utilities and which assets are critical to sustain performance? And the big question what are our long-term costs and are we investing enough in CIP? So we'll talk a little bit about what asset management is It's not a software. It's not it's a management commitment It's a standard of practice that supplied over the entire portfolio of the assets in the organization at every level We seek to minimize total cost of acquiring operating maintaining and renewing our assets And we have limited resources to you As you as I just mentioned to be able to do all this work and maintain our assets in a timely way and Continue to deliver the same level of service that our customers are expecting and that our regulators require So a comprehensive asset management strategy allows us to lower the cost of service Reduce the risk and increase the level of service to our community the program consists of The asset management program consists of strategy and planning a lot of decision-making life cycle deliveries asset information an Organization such as ours and a review of risk and further review So how do we get from all of this kind of? desk work To project delivery So asset management Reviews the data and we turn all that data into knowledge which leads us to make informed decisions about project selection we develop our five-year CIP program and Have an estimate for our ONM budgets as well the department has been systematically prioritizing projects for years now and Which has been the basis of our five-year program Every year we reevaluate the program and reprioritize projects on an annual basis and of course it incorporates All of our system water sewer and regional So you might ask how do we how our projects identified we use general plans master plans? Condition assessments are very important to us. We evaluate level of service We do risk assessment. What are the regulatory requirements stakeholder input? It's also important to us We try to understand and evaluate when general plan changes are coming what what we'll need to do Like I mentioned we update our master plans and our regional reuse plan is is in the process of being updated now So our asset scoring Uses three three levels that has three components which is condition Level of service which we call performance and then risk Condition assesses the age and the of the remaining useful life and the integrity of the pipe condition by reviewing videos inside pipe and maintenance frequency both scheduled and Emergency repairs when we talk about performance. That's hydraulic capacity What the flushing scores are and the slope of a pipe and the material and diameter often times of pipe or run times on pumps and Risk we look at the the location the proximity to of the asset to the seismic activity Are there any fire flow deficiencies? Is there an environmental? Such hazard that could happen like being having a failure near a creek or a highway or under the rail crossings So this is a little graphic of what the life cycle of an asset would look like The asset ages along the bottom axis and the condition is at the top When we purchase or install a new asset There's very little Maintenance that needs to happen in the first several years of its life And then we start its maintenance renewal on a scheduled basis and then over time that renewal has a has a a cost that is beyond Where we should be and we want to be able to replace that Asset before we start increasing our maintenance activities that would far outpace the replacement cost of it So in the perfect world we would want to be able to forecast when that actual Replacement date is in order to achieve the maximum benefit to our customers at the lowest cost and prevent failures And this excuse me Assets provide a service to the city in our community evaluating the assets can provide some numeric numeric or qualitative level of service scores such as The number of downtime the percent of a downtime on a pump or a piece of equipment the number of incidents a pipe break a sanitary overflow A pump goes down unexpectedly and we have to bring in an additional pump The hydraulic capacity our regulatory Requirements and compliance and the cost of them to maintain that asset We also use risk assessment to prioritize projects again We look at the likelihood of failure the maintenance history the condition Observations the asset attributes such as its age and its materials and we weigh that against the consequence of failure so if you look at the chart in the bottom a Project that would have a high likelihood of almost a certain likelihood of failure and The consequence would be severe that certainly rises to the top of our level of prioritization when we look at projects We also need to understand The current and future regulatory requirements in our project selection to make sure that we're keeping up to date and many of Those are shown here building and fire code updates building code updates We have npds permits on our waste discharge. We need to understand what kind of regulations might require Project improvements or plant improvements and also safety compliance We gather stakeholders such as our operation operation staff and regional staff Our water administration receives calls all the time. We collect that information and we get input from the public during public meetings and comments How are projects prioritized so first and foremost we Prioritize projects that have the highest risk and consequence of failure for obvious reasons We then look at additional benefit beyond the asset renewal which could be Maybe there's a street that's going to get repaved or rehabbed and can we take advantage of that? There are compliance needs. We need to understand the time sensitivity around some of our projects and then grant funding and opportunities those timelines also come into play when we're looking at the priorities on a project and Finally we use this Prioritization matrix to then score all our potential projects to make sure that we are looking at The project that would be the highest Point value and that would be the highest priority one so projects that would meet all of these descriptors would be The highest priority project and I won't go through and read this slide for you But it takes into all the things that I just spoke about and then we move start moving into How do we get to? From analyzing the assets and making decisions about projects how our projects initiated We review our information. We've set the priorities. We've refined the scope. We've confirmed Our funding and consulted our stakeholders. So then we queue it up for CIP our capital improvement teams to take over design and construction ultimately So I do want to point out that our greatest asset is our city employees and our water employees And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our CIP teams who deliver all of our projects are Also a very critical component in our staff and we appreciate all their help That is the end of my presentation and I'm happy to take any questions Do we have any questions from board members? I'm having some technical issues seeing other board members of my screen isn't working and stuff So maybe secretary man as you can tell me about any hands are up or anything like that Certainly board member Walsh. Looks like Mark Walsh is there Yes, I just want to say that was a fantastic presentation. I appreciate it And I especially appreciate the holistic view Thank you very much Thank you There are no other hands being raised from board members Thank you. I have a question You know on the shortfall issues the 30 million in wastewater 20 million in water and I wasn't sure what the annual was for the the Regional and the regional costs are not embedded in the wastewater. They're separate. There's three three separate things So could you give a slight a brief description of how you develop these numbers and then also? I'm curious if the time if this is today's dollars or is there a time value of money in there How does that all work? Thank you? those are excellent questions board member right and I will do my best to One let's first identify what the the gaps are so these are estimates high-level planning estimates that have been Prepared by staff some of them are prepared in when we look at the projects that are forecasted in our master plans a lot of them Do like a 10-year? Need CIP need that we have in there And so then we can look at our current Allocations and the total cost including inflation so these numbers are inflated at a very Nominal I would say percentage increased on a 3% annual basis to get to that total at the end Which probably is an underestimation Given sort of the volatility of what we've seen over the last several years with supply chain issues and Such and I would suggest that that's probably the greatest in the regional plant and the regional system where we have so much Electrical infrastructure that's in need of repair right now One of the things that we have talked about with the next master plan update is to have our consultants And this is a complicated activity to really give us a good replacement cost estimate For example a number of years ago back in 2017 another engineer and I sat down and did a high-level Estimate of plant replacement cost at that time, but it was a desktop Effort I'll say that and so we're doing our very best to estimate these numbers on replacement value Pipe is pretty easy. We have a calculator and we can run that out over the 600 miles and then Again do pump stations where we know how much it generally cost to do that But we know we can't replace all that stuff now And so we do use a little escalator in the numbers that you saw and that's been 3% As an annual basis and we've projected out some of our current need over time and the costs just keep increasing and increasing and our CIP investment is not keeping pace with that rate of inflation by any means or the rate of decline in Our infrastructure primarily out at the at the regional system As I mentioned because it's it's nearing its useful life 50 to 60 years. I mean I often Say we should probably start thinking about building a replacement plant sometime soon because it'll take 20 years to get it completed There's a lot of needs in the system and I'm just trying to identify To keep the board and the public informed so we don't have surprises and If I didn't answer your question, I'm sorry, please I can get back to you if there's something more specific No, that's fine. Thank you. Good presentation. Thank you very much One follow-up, please so I appreciate you asking about the inflation assumptions and that type of thing You know, I see a couple others. So we get into talking about finance budget versus What what makes place when? I work we also would have some assumptions on the benefits of the current design versus of the different design for instance What would be the geysers pipeline? Costs for replacement. When would it be financed and how would those costs be shared? Amongst the regional partners That charge customer sewer rates and then those that would want the the reclaimed water I Hope that makes sense and then on the financing assumptions Are we assuming it would be a cash Finance and the what percent would we want to cash finance and then when? So for instance of if construction inflation isn't 5% the Treasury is earning 1% We had all that money in the bank today. We said we had 2 billion in the bank today We'd be losing to inflation We'd be losing that present value as it go along And then obviously it's going to reduce debt service later, but the debt service later Would not lose that same That present value depending on what the what the markets are doing an overall inflation of what what people are making in those days so it would be interesting to see by Section or type of asset What when we would replace it about what cost is it expected to be cash or debt service I'm again looking at the net present value and then who has a large ownership stake and that so for instance the geysers I'm not sure when when that agreement ends and when we would Calculate a new agreement. I want just want to make the assumption that the agreement is going to be the same Right because they may have different needs and desires water Treated water waste water, maybe worth more or less And so what would be looking at when we actually get down to changing budget numbers or Putting some of these assumptions into play That would affect the rate player rate there. I think we should have those discussions Again, thank you very much for a presentation. I appreciate it. Thank you And those are very great questions that we'd all like to have the answers to so Thank you so much okay Well, we are now taking public comments on item 3.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary Manus, do we have any comments Board member right I see no hands being raised via zoom and I see no public comments from council chamber Thank you. Are there any persons in the audience who wish to make a public comment? I Guess not Okay, so then next before Next item is the minutes Before us we are now taking public comments on Minerate approval 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 Do we have any comments? Remember right there are no hands being raised via zoom and I see no public comments from council chamber Thank you staff briefings Director Burke, would you introduce item 5.1? Thank you board member right and members of the board Item 5.1 is our water supply update and Peter Martin Deputy director water resources will be making the presentation Pulling up this presentation right now Oops all right Good afternoon board member right and members of the board Very pleased to be before you today with a brief water supply update We'll start with the storage in Lake Pillsbury as of today Storage in Lake Pillsbury is about 56,900 acre feet And it really is tracking very similar to where it was last year Also, you'll note that the transformer bank for the Potter Valley project remains down So therefore the releases are at about 45 cubic feet per second, which is their mandated minimums for a bypass of the powerhouse So yeah, just in looking forward this year the expectation is that that transformer bank will remain down for that powerhouse So they will be continuing To make minimum releases throughout the remainder of the year. So a very similar scenario to what occurred last year In terms of Lake Mendocino As of today Storage is about 80,100 acre feet and releases are at about a hundred cubic feet per second It's pretty much exactly about 11,000 acre feet over the dedicated storage pool Curve for this time of year If you'll recall they have a major deviation for on a five-year plan To allow them to encroach upon that flood control storage pool That amount that they can hold back is about 11,650 acre feet. It will increase over time, but At this time you can see that the Army Corps is very much holding back water under those conditions And allowing them to store additional water under these major deviations that they have and then in terms of Lake Sonoma storage Definitely a very rosy outlook there too as well It's about 243,000 Acre feet give or take And releases are about 80 cubic feet per second. So The maximum storage pool for that is 245,000 acre feet There's a possibility they could we could see it exceeding that in the coming weeks Hopeful for some additional storms, but right now it's relatively flat in terms of storage and just to summarize the water supply outlook You know It's at these graphics here very much display that our reservoirs are full Lake Minnesino and Lake Sonoma Have recovered after reaching historical lows just in the last few you know last few months So over the last since December. It's been about 145,000 acre feet Gain in storage in Lake Sonoma So, you know definitely a very different story over the last couple months with the series of atmospheric rivers that came into our region Sonoma water does have the temperature change order in effect That was put into place in mid-December and last through June But as of now the water your classification is normal. So they are making they're under the conditions that They are requiring a minimum and stream flows consistent with a normal water your classification and then just beginning next month as I mentioned before the water storage pool increases in Mendocino and They will be utilizing Furo and the establish US Army Corps storage curve deviations to potentially store more water if more inflow comes in the coming months and then finally We had the whack-tack meeting a couple weeks ago And many of the contractors and some water are looking ahead It's very much apparent that there will be no water restrictions. We're back to Full reservoirs. So many of the contractors including Santa Rosa are interested in looking at rolling back many of the restrictions. We've had over the past couple years To meet the reduced allocations from Sonoma water So we'll be coming back on March 2nd to this board Looking for a recommendation for the council to remove stage 3 Implementation of the water shortage contingency plan for the city and then finally This is the time of year when we really focus on saving water indoors So we have partnered with the others and the snowmower and saving water partnership and throughout the month of March We'll be asking customers to take the dye tab challenge Customers can receive dye tabs and there will be information going out to do so We'll be asking customers to check for leaks in their toilets And they can plug it in on a web page Letting us know that they've they've done so and entered to win surprises including some gift cards, so If you would like to go and take the dye tab challenge you can go to srcity.org slash toilet and That concludes my presentation. I'll just back out and take any questions Are there any questions or comments from board members? Not seeing any well. I have a comment Deputy director Martin, thank you for the presentation and I'm very happy to see that Lake Sonoma within a couple thousand feet of the water supply pool, so that certainly changes the dynamics of our water situation for the next at least the next year, so I Am very happy about that. I should say very relieved. I guess it's a better word to say Yeah, we all share your enthusiasm. I think Okay so now We are now taking comments on item 5.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you were dialing in via telephone. Please dial star 9 to raise your hand any comments Or memory I see no hands being raised via zoom and no comments from council chamber Okay, thank you very much Next Director Burke, could you introduce item 5.2? Yes, thank you board member right and members of the board item 5.2 It's going to be a staff briefing on our stormwater and creeks team and program introduction Sean McNeil our deputy director of environmental services will be making the presentation And I just want to remind the board that with the latest charter changes You are now over the purview of the storm drain infrastructure and as we mentioned at the last meeting We're going to be bringing Updates to you over the next few meetings to start to give you an overview and introduction to the responsibilities of the stormwater and creeks team and with that I will turn it over to deputy director McNeil Good afternoon board member right members of the board I Am very pleased to be here today to talk to you about the work done by the city stormwater and creeks team Claire Myers was scheduled to be in here today to give this presentation. Unfortunately. She's not able to be here But she did provide this wonderful presentation. I want to make sure that she gets the credit Claire Myers came two weeks ago and discussed in the presentation Earlier about measure J which director Burke just mentioned Which puts the stormwater and creeks team under your purview a lot's happened since you Left on vacation board member right So today I'll provide an overview of the work that the stormwater and creeks team does at the next two BPU meetings Other staff on our team will be back to provide additional information about specific areas Including our creek restoration and stewardship programs and our flood study We all are very lucky to be living and working in Santa Rosa with over 100 miles of creeks in our city as shown here on our Creek map no matter where you are in the city You are close to a creek as such we on the stormwater and creeks team have our work cut out for us Our team's goal is to protect these creeks in natural environment in Santa Rosa through a variety of strategies And that includes enhancing our creek health through restoration and community involvement providing biological and engineering Services to the city staff and city projects and to manage stormwater runoff to preserve and restore water quality and minimize flooding Unlike other Divisions in Santa Rosa water. We are not funded by the water and or sewer enterprise or the sub regional Enterprise we are funded primarily by the stormwater assessment fund This fund was created by city council in 1996 as a long-term public funding source to support Creek restoration water quality improvements and drainage improvements The assessment is an annual charge placed on each parcel within city limits last year The average household fee was 37 dollars and 83 cents which generated 2.7 million dollars for us to conduct this work we also received some funding from the general fund and from The projects that we support with our biological staff As well as augmenting the funding with grants the stormwater and creeks team is a team of 11 staff and as Deputy director urbanic mentioned staff are a critical component of everything that we do In addition to Santa Rosa water we serve and work with virtually all departments Across the city and also fund Partially fund positions in the police department and public works with that funding broadly speaking our work falls into three categories and that's Managing our stormwater permit flooding and storm drain infrastructure and creek restoration and stewardship And I'll go over each of these individually First the stormwater permit compliance as you may already know water and debris that collects in streets and gutters drains directly to creeks With no treatment This means that stormwater in an urbanized area like Santa Rosa has a high potential to convey pollutants directly to our creeks We address this pollution a few ways our team ensures the city stays in compliance with all regulatory permit requirements that protect waterways from pollutants This includes stormwater permits for construction and industrial sites It also includes the city's municipal separate storm sewer system system permit Shortened as the MS4 stormwater Permit this permit regulates stormwater runoff into and from our city's storm drain infrastructure systems We monitor water quality in our creeks and storm drain outfalls We take water samples and run those analyses to identify and quantify Pollutants so that we can direct program resources towards reducing those pollutant loads into our waterways Our team manages numerous outreach and education programs to reduce pollution coming from the community and help people learn about our creeks We do a lot of work with schools summer camps and other groups throughout the city The big push in the last three years has been our streets to creeks ours to protect signs Campaign excuse me that you might have seen in social media and print ads Our team supports the development of what we call best management practices for stormwater and Insist in the inspection of these best management practices in compliance throughout the city Much of the work we do centers on low impact development Also goes by LID if this term isn't already on your radar. It will be soon LID features are small scale landscape features that capture and clean stormwater And allow that water to infiltrate into the ground We have them here at City Hall is a project that we put in a few back Years back with our stormwater team coordinating with our water use efficiency team Our team also helps with spill response. This is a big piece of what we do If something is going into the storm drain that shouldn't be that's considered a spill we responded to 125 spilled discharges in 2022 and 23 incidents so far in 2023 The photo to the top left shows a spill from the power washing In downtown Santa Rosa here And so we worked with the entities doing the power washing to ensure that they understand How to protect our storm drain from the soapy residue getting into the storm drains moving on to flooding and storm drain infrastructure Santa Rosa has over 340 miles of storm drain pipes and over 17,000 storm drain structures things like storm drain inlets and outfalls We handle Needs pertaining to maintaining the system and planning for improvements our stormwater engineer serves the technical resources to water Planning and economic development transportation and public works and other departments on the storm drain infrastructure duties such as performing plan checks on public improvement plans and encroachment permits provide engineering recommendations and cost estimates and overseeing fixes to problems in broken infrastructure as I mentioned earlier in the month or excuse me as Claire Meyer said mentioned earlier in the month Santa Rosa's storm drain system is aging 33% of the storm drain system is over 50 years old and an additional 24% is over 40 years old We are working hard to be proactive to develop long-term solutions for management of the storm drain system As you know, we have just started to work on the storm drain master plan This study will assess the state of the infrastructure Prioritized projects for construction and propose options for how to fund storm drain repairs and maintenance We are also actively working on a flood study That study will model and map flood levels on Santa Rosa Creek in tributaries under the 10 50 and 100 year flood scenarios So we know where the floods are most likely to occur Creek restoration and stewardship. We are one a one-stop shop for biological and permitting support for most city departments Our staff prepare environmental documents help with project permits and mitigation plans We do biological surveys and sampling as well as monitoring during and after construction Some of our most gratifying work we do is on Creek restoration We have a citywide Creek master plan that identifies areas for restoration in the city We are currently working on a few projects. We have the stream side project Which is a creek creek bank project on Santa Rosa Creek to remove invasive species and restore the native habitat Working with a lot of students on that project And we also have the lower Colgan Creek project and this is a larger scale project We just completed phase two of a three phase project last year And that's what you see phase two a portion of phase two in the picture up above And this is part of an extensive stream restoration project on 1.3 miles of Creek Designed to increase flood capacity from a 25-year Flood-controlled channel to a hundred-year storm event And improving habitat for fish and wildlife In addition, we are improving public access along the creek. And so there's a bicycle path Constructed and you can see a number of people walking on the path and the in the photo Eventually that will connect to the Dutton bridge Overcrossing right there and then get bicyclists out to the smart train and on down to LC Allen and out on the County trails further west We are gearing up to start oops We are gearing up to start phase three of this project And we were recently awarded five point eight million dollars in grant funding to put towards land acquisition design and construction of this final phase and Finally our creek stewardship program is something we're very proud of for 20 years We've partnered with Sonoma water to run the creek stewardship program To clean up trash in the creeks and help the public understand the benefits of healthy creeks We host by monthly community volunteer events where people can come out and clean up our creeks and also help Households and groups organize their own small-scale clean up events We do bi-weekly cleanups of creeks with the assistance of supervised adult crews from Sonoma County and in the summers We run youth core groups out there with various nonprofit partners To get students out and get workforce development for them to appreciate the creeks and the potential work You know career opportunities that we have in stormwater and creeks in the last fiscal year We led 345 activities including community events walks presentations Creek restoration events and volunteer creek cleanups and removed over 1,100 cubic yards of trash from our creeks the result our creeks are in pretty good shape and Thank you for letting me speak with you about our storm monitoring creeks team, and I'm happy to entertain any questions Are there any questions of board members? I have one lemon, it's okay. I can't see there we go great on the on the stormwater function coming into the board of public utilities I Was interested in what the conversation was like with the city council It looked like I was on the charter review committee and then in the final write-ups it looked like the The way that the documents are proposed and look like we were already in charge of stormwater Does anybody know what the conversation was like with the council that what were the goals? Or changes of the council Let's open the suit Board member Walsh, this is director Burke. I can try and address that for you To the extent that I have knowledge But I also realize that both you and board member bad and Fort were on the charter review committee So you might have some additional insight, but stormwater and creeks has always been under the purview of the city council and As we were starting the charter review most recently Aside from the charter review committee there was also questions asked of staff regarding any potential changes One of the discussions that had come up was would it make sense to look at moving the stormwater? Utility as it currently exists to be under the purview of the board So that idea was put forward. It was considered by the charter review committee All of the charter review Presentations that I watched and I watched all of the ones at council There were never any questions or concerns that I recalled regarding this move And they also looked to move any future dry utilities under this board as well And I believe both of those were incorporated into measure J and then measure J was approved by the voters and so Based on that that is now in the charter So that is the purview that the board has and then we are working on making some Reviewing the city code and looking to make some Changes to conform the city code with the charter change So you will see before you before too long sometime this year a recommendation that would go to council to Clean up city code to conform with the changes to the charter so that's that's the understanding and background that I have And I'm not sure if that answers your question, but if there's more detail I'm certainly happy to go back and talk to city manager and get more information Yeah, I appreciate that myth if you would you know check in what was the conversation if any I appreciate that I was on the charter review committee, but I know there were some suggestions to approve it I thought I was definitely in support of storm water Coming in I think it makes sense. It's a great program I'm storm water wastewater and water all have strong affinity with each other and You know, I think the VP could be the perfect host to help out and And I'm in support of it I just was wondering what the conversation was because of the I think the last charter revision That we saw coming out of the committee it didn't imply that The BPU already had storm water and then the red line versions of some of the the documents that were attached it looked like And even the one that made it the final ballot the detail on this or on the belt that it looked like it was assumed that We always had storm water. So I was just concerned that one is was that You know was that was that the implication or did we tell people that we were going to make a change? And then if there was a discussion on that we were going to make a change What was it more of their particular goals that we should be looking at that the city council was was looking to achieve? And and I I will also ask assistant city attorney bigger staff to respond But no we there was never authority in the charter for BPU over storm water and creeks So it didn't exist before it was always under the council of the under the purview of the council So this was a change to delegate authority from the council to the board as part of the charter revisions And I'll let assistant city attorney bigger staff speak as well Thanks, Jennifer Yeah, so just to your to your question I can't speak to the conversations, but I've pulled up from ballot measure J Just the explicit language just so we're clear on what was actually In there and voted on in the explicit change so Section 25 B was amended the board of public utility shall have general policy Authority and direction over the management and operation of the city's water and sewer utilities and Stormwater systems that's underlined as a change and as the facilities or operations Managed owned or operated by the city Oh, sorry, and as the council may by resolution or ordinance direct so future action other facilities or operations managed such as dry utilities Including electricity broadband and other so it explicitly pulled in stormwater now and reserved Possible future action for the dry utilities Yeah, I saw that as well and again just a concern was did That the assumption looked like we were we're already doing it Whereas in the prior chart or is in the prior charter It was something that could be added at the council's discretion And then just my interest of concern is what did the council know we were making that change And then also the section B we looked at the board shall perform such other duties and exercise Authority as a council by resolution or ordinance made from time to time direct So I think the council already have the authority to direct us to do that And so the question is did they actually intend to direct us to do that or you know, was it? And if so, what was it that they were looking for? I'm not sure if this helps but Member Walsh the stormwater and creeks team was moved from the transportation and public works team Organizationally on a staff level a number of years back I think it was 2008 or so right around there and so that Might be some of the confusion that the stormwater and creeks team was already within the water department But at that time we hadn't brought any of our Items to the Board of Public Utilities and everything was run through City Council Organizationally was already was already in place by You know proving the budget Appropriations that that thing probably already done. I was just looking out for the perspective. We're going to take on I Think they can recommendations for assessments that hit property tax bills. So I just wanted to be careful You know when we take it on what's the review of it? It's the work this and council committed to making the same type of Appropriations from non-assessment sources that there were before and then again what would the overall goal? so So Board Member Walsh in terms of Appropriations that will still reside with the council. So that won't change and only Recommendations related to budget will come from this board. So Appropriations and final approval of the budget will still reside with the council just as that does for all the utilities Bpu only has recommendation authority on that. They do not have appropriation or approval authority As I mentioned earlier in terms of the the city code and the manner of collection of Whatever the council decides will be the assessment of the stormwater the stormwater assessment Again, that'll be the council's action It will bring it to BP for recommendation, but council will make that final action in terms of manner of collection We are looking at city code and seeing what we'll need to Recommend changes to so that the board could potentially have the authority to do the manner of collection In in my discussions with city manager previously and again in watching the council meetings There was no concern about moving basically all authority over to the board But again, I will get more clarification with you and bring you back But my understanding is that similar to the policy direction and management that the Bpu has over the water and sewer utilities They were delegating that same authority over the stormwater system Right, okay. Thank you. And just to just as a fan pulled up the presentation that went to the city council and When we had the modernization of the charter update in the language for the Board of Public Utilities was a slide 23 on the slide deck of July 12 and And It under section 25 said clarify that Bpu's responsibility may the council's discretion Includes stormwater and dry utilities including electricity brought down so I think the council have the authority to direct it I just was wanted to that even though it happened So what was the conversation? Because I just want to make sure that we've got it, you know, they've gotten that path And I think obviously they could do it, you know, they could they could have done that before And that was just to Take care of ambiguity in the language I think that's what we're looking at and then the stormwater word got out of because it made too much sense To put, you know, it just made so much sense to put it in there. I think that will be the Most likely next function that that we would have added I wasn't even sure if the public needed to To prove that again, so again, I'm just looking for what was the council conversation if you check with city manager appreciate that Sure, I will and and I will just note the council did vote on the final language that was put out in the ballot So the language that you just heard from assistant city attorney bigger staff They reviewed that and approved that to go out to the ballot. I Did see that I did see that But also what I saw again was the language it looked like there we were all ready to install matter So that the concern is that they know that we weren't and there's any conversation and you know, so what were the goals? So thank you Board member Bartholth Thank you and excellent Presentation, please give my best to I don't remember her name but whoever prepared it as you suggested and My I had two questions one was sort of similar to board member Walsh's I was Wondering if the storm water piece was something entirely new To Santa Rosa water, but it sounds like it wasn't I mean there had you know, there had been people working It it had been already placed under Santa Rosa waters purview even though The authority for it was under the city council. So Thank you for that explanation that clarified it perfectly for me I'm just wondering With our recent intense storms How did it go? How how would you say it went for our creeks and our storm water system? so I Think it went really well Considering the news throughout the state and the way that the storms hit us was Filled our reservoirs and didn't overtop our creeks and so, you know minor flooding in places where we always get minor flooding or We have debris washing down from the hills That clog up entries To our storm drain, but that's that's typical of the type of maintenance that is done and most of that maintenance is done by Transportation and public work staff So storm water sits kind of at a nexus of a lot of city Groups and could sit within any department practically We just decided that it fit a lot within water Fits theoretically a lot within water when you think about a more of a one water solution That we're dealing with drinking water water quality As well as the treatment of wastewater So we we brought it all within one house and all under the purview of this board I think gives us an organizational structure that is Quite frankly envious of other practitioners throughout the state By having one board kind of oversee the the whole aspect of water, so Yeah, the storms went well, you know not to say that Had we got the precipitation levels that some other areas in the state got You know, I wouldn't be able you know, I wouldn't say the same thing You know, we we are definitely vulnerable as anybody is with the These intense storms Over prolonged periods of time that could deliver we were fortunate instead of the four to five inch per day We were the one to two inch per day Area, but four to five inches would definitely Be a challenge for us Thank you. I have one more quick question so in your figures that Project the cost of Maintaining or replacing the storm water parts of the storm water system Did you learn anything from those storms that may have changed that and if so? Was that incorporated in the the data that you presented today or? No The storms are a little too recent for that to fit into any of our hydraulic models Will be coming back in a couple of meetings not the next one But then the meeting after that talking about the flood study of Santa Rosa Creek the data gathering portion of that flood study is Mostly complete and we're in the process of working with FEMA To get them to adopt the model that as presented So you'll learn a little bit more about that at that time and our storm water engineer will be available We were able to slide in the the October storm of last year into that model and that did change the model quite a bit It once you start, you know You have to kind of stop at some point of Analyzing and start making You know moving on that next step, so we'll be bringing that to you which will look at the The infrastructure of our of our flood control system, which is partially managed by the city partially managed by Sonoma water who has a flood controlled jurisdiction Throughout much of the city and manages many of the large flood control systems in the city, so we'll Talk a little bit more about that, but the last time Claire Myers presented a Contract for putting together a storm drain master plan We have this storm drain system, but we don't have a master plan for it So we haven't done the same analysis that deputy director urbanic provided today for the water and sewer and wastewater treatment plant infrastructure. We haven't done those studies. We've just been riding on Repair as it fails kind of a mentality the first step to getting out of that is to develop this master plan and From that we'll have a better understanding of the costs of replacement and and speed of replacement and have much better Ability to project forward what we think the cost of maintaining the stormwater infrastructure will be So we're at the beginning of that now and we're we're excited Because we've really wanted to be where water and sewer have been with this system Just one comment possibly there's a question there. I don't know So based on the presentation that deputy director urbanic just gave we we have similar systems Of the water system and the wastewater local water system and local wastewater system And we're asking for an additional 20 million in addition on top of the existing 10 million we put in those and 30 million and top on top of the additional 10 million we put in the wastewater And now you we get 2.3 million for stormwater, so it's From that standpoint, I hate to say it, but it's almost hopeless that you would have Ability to maintain or upgrade your system or modernize your system And I know we have a tremendous amount of pipes with eroded or missing inverts and things like that That have been known forever. We just haven't had the funding to deal with that Again, we've been we've been talking about this for years. It's just as a It's a troubling issue in the in this in the stormwater utility and is there any Is there any light at the end of the tunnel that you can see? That we could embellish that 2.3 million You know without I guess one thought is immediately we could go out for a boat and see if we can Change the tax or something like that, but outside of finding funding a stormwater utility, you know Do you have any? Any silver lining there or does that's kind of like well, I think there's something I can say You know, it's obviously not in my this it'll be at the decisions of this board to make But as a part of the storm drain master plan, we are looking at once we get that Understanding of what the asset needs will be Looking at what options exist for funding that we don't sit alone on this issue in the state This is common throughout the state of California You know, I I saw San Diego just get a 300 million CIP Stormwater budget past they have to spend that in five years You know and and so we're not the size of San Diego, I'm not expecting that level of need But but there are going to be there are solutions that are being developed For Developing a stormwater utility what we have now as far as our funding it covers our regulatory compliance and the restoration work that we've been doing and what we're seeing through time is that the cost of regulations continue to go up but we've been meeting that with our our Funding of our Creek restoration showing that our Creek restoration work is Helping with our stormwater quality, but that's really what the two point seven million dollars has funded It really is not funding the replacement of pipe replacement of storm drain outfalls most of that expense falls on general fund and so we are working with our other public works projects that in general fund to Share the pie To get money allocated to failed infrastructure We don't really have the funding at net at the point at this point to do Preemptive work and get out ahead of failures So I think there will be a lot coming and there will be options brought to this board to chew on think about and provide feedback to us and then depending on the options chosen To to work towards addressing the the funding gap for the stormwater infrastructure Will I think that's where the silver lining is there are options in the storm drain master plan That's why it was such a big contract. It's the first one. We've done and we're tying together You know, how do we go about? Actualizing the plan not just put it on a shelf Thank you. Good president member right member right. Oh if I can make just a warmer comment the at the presentation of the contract to Request approval of the master plan at the budget subcommittee. There was a good conversation about partnering with other interested parties, so there may be You know more than there's going to be more beneficiaries than you know That then than just Santa Rosa so that that may help some and of my hope too is it's just a hope I don't know much about these the grants but for That that are that that might be possible But I think if we have a holistic system and we're partnering with other people My hope is that we do get more funding from outside sources that recognize that there's the stormwater It's a Handling storm rock water appropriately is It's something that's good for the whole state So we've had we have emergencies the drought and then within you know the same year or two We will have emergencies with too much water so too little too much and But I think we need to look at this all together and then bring in Conversations with other people and hopefully hopefully we'll see some light at the end of the tunnel I don't know if we're gonna see it first somebody else. Well, I think it'll be there eventually Thank you Okay, thank you for the presentation We are now taking 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 Manas do we have any comments there are no hands being raised via zoom and no Members of the public and council chamber wishing to make public comment Okay, director Burke would you like to introduce item 5.3? Thank you board member right and members of the board our final staff briefing is item 5.3 brown act teleconference provisions update and Deena Manas our administrative analyst and BPU recording secretary will be making the presentation Thank you board member right and members of the BPU. Let me just pull up my presentation Okay So again, thank you for having me here this afternoon to make a presentation to provide an update Related to the brown act teleconferencing rules Currently, we're operating under AB 361 which allows for virtual and remote attendance during the state of emergency And board members may attend meetings via teleconference without posting the location on the agenda Pardon me or allowing public physical access to that location AB 361 also provides that we can continue operating under these provisions Number one that's so long as there's a public health declaration of emergency in place in the city council continues to adopt the necessary findings every 30 days Governor Newsom announced intention to end the statewide public health declaration of emergency at the end of February 2023 At the end of that expiration or the termination of the AB 361 Will no longer be applicable. Therefore, there will now be three paths to participate remotely The first being the traditional brown act teleconferencing rules and two alternatives Provided under the recently adopted AB 2449 Now the traditional brown act teleconference and requirements include notifying your recording secretary No later than eight days prior to BPU meeting of the need to teleconference and that's our city process The brown act requirements include publishing the teleconferencing location on the agenda the board member must post the agenda at the door of said location and It must be open and accessible to the public the public also must be able to participate from said location and At least a quorum of the member of the board must participate within jurisdictional boundaries jurisdictional boundaries means council chamber I want to make note that the address must be precise on the agenda. It can't just say Hotel San Diego it must say the Location or the hotel name the location the room number where you're going to be participating from Or the conference room number and at that facility your door must be open Again, and the public must have an opportunity to participate for example through a speakerphone So the two other paths are under AB 2449 the need-based alternative for teleconferencing This was recently adopted adopted The prerequisite to implement 2449 is a quorum again Just like the traditional brown act a quorum must participate within the jurisdictional boundaries And that jurisdictional boundary is identified on the agenda and open to the public a Board member may request to attend the meeting remotely under two circumstances just cause or due to emergency circumstances a Board member is allowed to attend remotely is not required to identify their remote location or make it open to the public under 2449 provisions, but there are several additional requirements Just cause is defined as With qualifying reasons such as child care or caregiving needs Perhaps a child parent grandparent grandchild sibling spouse or domestic partner There is a need related to a physical or mental disability as defined by the statute a contagious illness that prevents a member of the board from attending in person or Traveling on official business of the Board of Public Utilities or another state or local agency in order to implement or Request the just cause a member must notify the board at the earliest convenience And provide a general description of the circumstance to use the just cause provision The board does not need to take action on the use of just cause However, just cause can only be used two times a year or per calendar year under the emergency circumstances provision under 2449 It is defined as a physical or family medical emergency that prevents you from attending in person in the process to Use emergency circumstances is a member must notify the board as soon as possible and provide a general description of the circumstances You do not need to disclose your medical diagnosis disability, etc And if the members request to the board to attend remotely does not allow sufficient time to place the item on the agenda The board shall publicly identify the item prior to taking action at it Example of verbally announcing before consideration of the item Now in the emergency circumstance The board has to take action by majority vote at the beginning of the meeting on whether the member can participate remotely If the body votes to not accept the basis of the emergency Then the member can only participate as a member of the public and cannot vote on any action on the agenda again under teleconferencing Under 2449 before any action is taken at a meeting where a member is attending remotely That member also must disclose whether an individual over the age of 18 is Present at the remote location and state the general nature of the members relationship to the individual Remote participation cannot be for more than three consecutive months or 20 percent of regular meetings within a calendar year And the member must participate through both audio and visual technology For the duration of the meeting which means you can't turn off and on your camera It needs to remain on through the duration other applicable rules Through 2449, but the BPU already complies with Agenda must include and identify opportunity for all persons to attend and address the board via call-in option Internet-based option and in person at the location of the meeting The public must be allowed to make real-time public comment Which we do In addition to the advanced public comment voicemail or emails If the broadcast is interrupted or ability to take a call-in or internet-based public comment is disrupted No further action can be taken until the issue is resolved And we must implement procedures for receiving and resolving requests for reasonable accommodations For individuals with disabilities and must give notice of these procedures This language already appears at the bottom of all of our agendas and has has for some time other practical considerations These procedures will apply to meetings of standing committees and subcommittees It requires greater communication with the staff Especially you're specifically your staff liaison our water director our board chair and the recording secretary If needed to participate if needing to participate remotely There'll be additional administrative support and record keeping to ensure that there is a quorum in the physical meeting location We'll have to identified board members who appear remotely under AB 2449 and perhaps take action on the agenda There will also be a tracking mechanism implemented to track cumulative remote participation to ensure We don't exceed the number of times you can participate either under just cause or The emergency circumstances under 2449 and AB 2449 Sunsets after 2025 With that I'm happy to that's those are the highlights of the board or of this The updates to the Brown Act and I'm happy to take any questions Are there any questions of board members? Okay Seeing none, we are now taking public comments on item 5.3 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 Any comments? Board member right. I see no public comments via zoom and no one in council chamber wishing to make a public comment. Thank you Consent items there are none Report items there are none public hearing items there are none Public comments on non-agenda items We're not taking public comment on items Item 8 I guess if you wish to make a comment via zoom raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Do we have any comments on non-agenda items? Board member right. I see no hands being raised via zoom and no one approaching the podium in council chamber Okay I'm getting confused now when I were on my script here Board member right you're up to item 9 on your agenda item 9 Referrals none. Okay, there we go and then written communications none and Subcommittee reports are there any subcommittee reports? I don't believe there were any subcommittees Okay You and then board member reports any board members care to report Okay Thank you. I just wanted to thank Director Jennifer Burke and all the deputy directors and the other staff that put on an orientation To orient me to the BPU yesterday. It was just Excellent, it was so thorough and everyone presented so well and Assistant city attorney bigger staff was there as well and talked to me a lot about Conflicts and things like that And I I really enjoyed it and I learned so much and I just really want to thank all of you for For doing that. Thank you Directors report Board member right you need to take public comment on that item. Oh Okay, so then I got to go back to a Statement here Okay, so 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 Are there any comments? There are no hands being raised via zoom and no one in council chamber wishing to provide public comment. Okay. Thank you Now director Burke your report Thank you board member right members of the board. I have a few items to let you all know about First I wanted to let the board know that at during the last board meeting on February 2nd our mayor Natalie Rogers as well as staff deputy director Peter Martin deputy director water resources Peter Martin and Scott Alonzo our legislative officer went with a delegation of Sonoma water and whack and tack Representatives to have a Sacramento lobby day They met with staff from the offices of assembly member I we are curry Assembly member Connelly assembly member would and senator Dodd and then this delegation also met directly with senator McGuire along with executive staff from California Department of Water Resources They were really good discussions and Especially focusing on the need for infrastructure investment as well as highlighting some of our drought response and water use efficiency programs and Recent programs by Sonoma water and especially related to the forecast informed reservoir operations And so we're hopeful that we'll see more of these delegations going forward and continuing to have a presence In Sacramento to look for additional funding from the state. I also wanted to let the board know that earlier today We had a meeting some staff from the city of Santa Rosa executive level as well as our mayor Natalie Rogers and council member Chris Rogers as well as a number of other representatives throughout the region Met with congressman Thompson and his staff To talk about the needs in particular I did get a chance to talk with the staff who does their water and infrastructure programs and expressed our thanks for the congressman's support of our water resource development act Authorization and let them know that we were very much interested in seeing appropriations Coming forth from that bill. So we're hopeful that we will see in coming budgets Appropriations for the sewer lining projects that we put forward and are authorized under the word of program Next I wanted to let the board know that on behalf of your chair chairmen Galvin I did send out to you all your subcommittee memo earlier today Chair Galvin Unfortunately couldn't be here today, but he asked that I send that out to you all So please take a look and you'll have your subcommittee assignments if you have any questions Feel free to contact chairman Galvin directly And please note for those that are assigned to the budget subcommittee We have a strong need to schedule those meetings as soon as possible So you will be seeing those invites We need to get three meetings on the books very very quickly and we're hoping to have at least one If not two before the end of the month. So please be on the lookout for that and Then last I wanted to take a moment to let the board know that I have some great news For one of the folks in our chambers not so great news for us in the water department or for the board But I wanted to let everyone know that Dina Manis our current recording secretary Has been selected by the city manager to serve as the interim city clerk So unfortunately, this is Dina's last meeting with the board today We are very excited and very happy for her promotion She'll do an excellent job serving the city and the city council as the interim city clerk And I know she'll be incredibly competitive for that permanent position Dina joined our department in June of 2022 and she has been a phenomenal resource and support To the board as well as myself. I cannot thank her enough for all of her great work and Very very happy for her With this excellent opportunity With Dina unfortunately leaving us. I wanted to introduce to you all our new acting Administrative analyst who will be serving as your board of recording secretary and that is Michelle Montoya and Michelle comes to us from the planning and economic development department where she was Is an administrative secretary and now she will again She'll be the acting administrative analyst in the water department And we are incredibly grateful to have Michelle join our team and you will see her emails from her going forward as well as she will be Staffing this board as the recording secretary going forward and that is my report and happy to answer any questions The board may have are there any any questions from the board? Just to comment Dina congratulations You did a great job and we're gonna miss you and thanks Thank you board member Walsh Michelle welcome aboard Okay, well congratulations to both of you. It's a big move for both of you and now No other question. Oh, do I have to do a comment thing here? I guess I do Let's see So if you wish to make a comment Via zoom, please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand There any comments? We have no hands being raised via zoom and no public comments from council chamber Okay, thank you very much. I think that adjourns the meeting I only get to use the gavel here Thank you board member right