 abstention seeing none there's no study sessions so let's take up the meetings next and excuse me the minutes next we have one set of minutes the August 17 2023 regular meeting minutes and I'd like to now take public comment on the minutes approval if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you are dialing via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand we have no one in chamber wishing to make public comment no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemails were received very good then thank you very much that means the minutes will be approved as submitted that takes us to staff briefings and the first half briefing would you please introduce the first half briefing acting director McNeil item 5.1 thank you vice chair Arnone I'm members of the board I'm excited to introduce Claire Nordley to talk on the water supply update thank you good afternoon vice chair Arnone and members of the board I'm Claire Nordley and I'm going to be presenting the water supply update today on behalf of deputy director Martin is out today so I know you all have seen this graph many times this is Lake Hillsbury storage right now the storage curve is about 44,000 acre feet which is about 76% of the storage curve for this time of the year it is declining at a rate of about 1500 acre feet per week PG&E has filed a variance request to reduce their releases into the east fork of the Russian River from the mandated 75 cubic feet per second to 25 cubic feet per second and potentially lower actually to the minimum critical minimum of 5 cubic feet per second if conditions warrant it as of today though for hasn't yet responded back to that variance so therefore flows still haven't changed and they're under normal operating conditions here is Lake Mendocino so again reservoirs remain very full for this time of year which is great news and Sonoma water is expecting healthy carryover to the next water year which begins October 1st Sonoma water does have an existing temporary urgency change petition in place until October 15th which does allow them to reduce the minimum in stream flows to meet the biological opinion requirements and as you see here we're about 72% of the storage curve capacity and then finally Lake Sonoma again very full it's about 92% a full of the furrow enhanced storage pool and this is actually the highest storage level ever courted in for this time of year since operations began in 1983 so that's great news for us I also wanted to provide an update while I have the floor to describe our direct install program so this is a program that we launched just a few months ago to provide free high-efficiency toilets to customers along with high efficiency fixtures the RFQ to get responsive plumbers ready to install these fixtures was released in July and the deadline was August 2nd we did get six responsive plumbers which is great news including three local plumbing companies which is exciting so since June of 2023 about 1500 toilet installations have been pre-approved and those are being installed currently and that does mean that all of our phase one funding which is one point five million dollars have been committed at this time so a lot of money committed in a very short time so there's definitely customer interest in this program additionally in mid-to-late 2024 we are going to be receiving funding from a grant that we applied for through the US Bureau of Reclamation and we're going to be receiving an additional one point eight million dollars so we'll be able to install several thousand additional toilets also while I'm up here I wanted to provide an update on a new piece of legislation well the legislation was adopted in 2018 but a new rulemaking process for this legislation this is currently draft the legislation is called making conservation a California way of life and it basically directs the state water resources control board to adopt water use efficiency standards and performance measures for commercial industrial and institutional water use it requires that urban water suppliers meet a specific water use objective beginning in 2027 and we're actually required to start reporting January 1st of 2024 so that reporting deadline is coming right up despite that reporting deadline coming up this framework is actually still in draft and I'll be sharing through some slides on the draft regulations as they're currently proposed by the state board so this urban water use objective has several components different targets basically so there's an indoor residential water use target an outdoor residential water use target a commercial industrial institutional dedicated irrigation meter target and a water loss threshold and then there's also several ways in which we could adjust our target for example if we had you know a large percentage of our service area supplied by recycled water or direct potable reuse for example the indoor residential standard is based on a gallons per capita per day target you can see currently through 2025 that standard is at 55 gallons per person per day and drops down to 42 in 2030 that standard is multiplied by our population times 365 to give us this residential budget just to clarify this target is not going to be studied under an individual parcel basis so we don't plan on confirming that each one of our customers is meeting this target but it's an overall target for our entire service area there's also a target for outdoor residential use and our dedicated irrigation meters both of those are based off of plant water factor how much water the plants need the irrigation efficiency the landscape irrigation area effective precipitation and an outdoor landscape factor that decreases over time so the square footage of irrigated area for the residential side was provided to us by the Department of Water Resources they flew over our service area in 2018 and provided aerial image to us which provided us square footage for the dedicated irrigation meters we've actually been measuring for many years all of our dedicated irrigation meter sites so we would plug that into the equation and that would be our outdoor budget again we're not looking at this and we're not going to be enforcing this on a parcel by parcel basis it's an overall target for our entire service area there's also an additional water loss standard this is based on system specific standards such as our gallons per connection per day of water loss the number of connections that we have and we've been submitting this data to the state for many years now based on another piece of legislation Senate Bill five five five so this just continues that piece of legislation there are also performance measures for our commercial industrial and institutional customers so beginning in 2025 we are going to be required to identify all disclosable buildings in that sector which means that they have more than 50,000 square feet within their commercial building so we have to identify those customers and then we have to provide the monthly water use data in a format that matches an energy star portfolio manager style which is an energy efficiency reporting tool that was developed by the CEC then beginning in 2025 the ban on irrigation of non-functional turf for commercial industrial institutional landscapes will take effect this is already currently in place just to note through the governor's drought declaration and it doesn't expire until June of this coming year so this would just be making that current stipulation permanent then in 2026 through 2030 there's various different things that we also have to achieve we have to classify each one of our over 4,000 CII customers into 22 different categories that match the energy star portfolio manager categories and then within each one of those categories we have to target the top 2.5% and the top 20% of water users within those categories and offer them specific water use efficiency programs that match their classification type we also have to identify all of our CII large landscapes that have mixed use meters and either ask them to install a dedicated irrigation meter or employ in lieu technology for their large landscape so sort of the next steps is that this notice and the regulations were released a month or so ago in August there is going to be a public workshop on October 4th that we do plan on attending and making comments at public comments are due to the state board later on in October and the state board is set to finalize these regulations in mid to late 2024 obviously we are reviewing these regulations currently and we're determining our comments we are going to be presenting at the October 4th state board public workshop and well of course we'll continue to follow the rulemaking process and keep you all informed I'd be happy to take any questions thank you very much for the presentation do any of the board members have any questions I have a couple of questions first of all at least with the indoor residential budget there's specific numbers associated with it already and I'm wondering where we stand currently with regard to our level of usage and whether we have to make many changes to meet the potential new rules yeah we're in pretty good shape so depending on what year you look at it for determining that compliance and what methodology specifically would you use calendar years or billing years or sorry billing days or calendar days we're somewhere between 45 and 49 gallons per person per day for single family residential so we're right in that range that they're requesting and I should have mentioned as well that the goal for this legislation is that we meet the overall objective and not necessarily each individual target so we could be over say in the indoor target but as long as we're lower in another target and the overall objective is met then we are in compliance oh great okay the other question I had is that seems to be some significant monitoring and follow-up requirements at least for commercial properties and I'm wondering how much of a burden that's going to place on existing staff and resources that's a great question yes I do think that there are quite a lot of reporting burdens for that CAI part specifically and unfortunately anytime you're focused on reporting you're obviously losing time and actually working with customers to help them save water so that will probably be one of the comments that we provide to the state board to hope that they simplify the reporting requirements so that we can focus on saving water instead of just reporting excellent excellent excellent any other questions yes thank you you triggered some in me I appreciate that I have a couple questions the first is the outdoor measurement where aerial photographs were taken in 2018 so that is kind of used as the baseline is that what I'm understanding the thought was that DWR is planning on flying over our service area every few years every five years depending on what their budget allows to ensure that they're capturing new landscape as it goes in and as our landscapes change obviously we would want that to be flown as frequently as we could because people change their landscapes routinely but we are sort of beholden to DWR's budget to make that flyover happen right okay yeah because I know things change a lot there are programs out there to remove grass and put in native play you know there's a lot of stuff going on regularly so thank you the other question I had was around the CII performance measures so it was for a commercial property with 50,000 square feet of building or of footprint building so yeah excluding landscape great thank you thank you the other questions all right then we will now take a public comment on item 5.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand see nobody in the chamber speaking secretary Montoya do we have anybody online there's no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received thank you very much that should conclude item 5.1 as I previously thank you very much again for the report as I previously mentioned we are going to postpone consideration of item 5.2 so that moves us to the consent calendar do any board members have any questions about the item on the consent calendar okay then may I have a motion to approve I'll move the consent calendar I'll second that motion thank you it's been moved and seconded so let's now ask for a public comment we're taking public comment on the consent agenda if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand and again I see nobody raising to make a comment here secretary Montoya and there are no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received all right thank you very much if that's the case then can we please have a roll call vote on the adoption of the consent calendar yes board member right hi board member Walsh hi board member Barthelot hi and vice chair Nune hi and the consent calendar passes unanimously thank you that takes us to item 7.1 acting director McNeil would you please introduce that item yes thank you chair Arnone I'm happy to announce Deb Lane coming to present the recommendation to adopt proposed ordinance amending Santa Rosa city code chapters 14-21 water waste regulations good afternoon vice chair Arnone and members of the board I'm Deb Lane and I'm here to discuss our proposed revisions to the water waste regulations the regulations were originally adopted in 1999 and were last revised in 2007 to include recycled water things have changed in the past year since the last revision and we feel there is a need to modernize the water waste regulations you'll find the revisions that we were are proposing in the red line copy of the of the regulations that were included in your package and you can see here the current definition of water waste which is potable or recycled water use in outdoor areas resulting in runoff or breaks or leaks in the potable or recycled water delivery system the city can issue written warning through the director of Santa Rosa water and the city may disconnect water service so why revise these regulations AMI and the hourly data that we now have has increased our ability to identify continuous use which is typically and often leaks our current water waste regulations are missing acknowledgement of the continuous use exceptions for enforcement based on adverse impacts on health sanitation and safety and an option to enforce the commercial industrial institutional accounts CII without disconnection it's also missing a defined appeals process so CII shut off is often not feasible there are essential services in our CII sector that need to continue operation we have schools police fire grocery etc. and shut off could also disrupt local economic activity so we need a mechanism to motivate the CIA customers to resolve their water waste this is an overview of the proposed revisions all go into a little more detail on each one and this is a result of reviewing other cities regulations like Petaluma and a year long process of reviewing a review and discussion with the city attorney's office so we have it's applicable to all customer classes CII multi-family residents single-family residents we have defied redefined water waste and added an escalating penalty although the fine would be applicable to every customer in practice we plan to primarily use this to enforce the water regulations water waste regulations for non responsive CII customers we've clarified the authority to disconnect added a process for requesting exception and a process for appeal I already went went over the current definition of water waste you can see it's a very basic definition it doesn't address equipment malfunction that can cause water waste especially in the CII sector and it doesn't put a time reference requiring the customer to find and fix the problem here's our proposed definition part a stays the same but with part B it's the escape of water through breaks or leaks or due to an equipment malfunction within a customer's plumbing or private distribution system for any substantial period of time within which such break leak or equipment malfunction should have been discovered and corrected so we've added that equipment malfunction and also a time reference requiring the customer to find and fix the leak so this is the waterways process that we currently follow for all of our customers we plan to continue to do so and provide support to every customer once staff identifies irregular use we make multiple attempts to reach the on-site decision-maker this is easier for single-family residents but when we get into CII the the billing contacts are often not the same contacts that we want to find at the facility so we do our due diligence to track down the right person and you know when we do we they they often most often respond when it's the right people so the billing the billing the bill can go out of state somewhere to a billing service so we do extra work to make sure we're finding the right person and that's very successful for us we offer a water smart checkup we provide ongoing technical analysis and support and if we get to the point where the customers being non-responsive then staff we still continue to make phone calls we send emails we a series of warning letters and door door tags before we ever disconnect service the process can take up to six weeks so customers have ample time to find and fix their leaks and disconnection is only for single-family residents we haven't disconnected CII customers and we don't disconnect any customer who's actively trying to find and fix the leak so this is the proposed penalty process should we be able to enact an administrative fine for a non-responsive customer as I mentioned it's applicable to all customers but in practice we only plan to implement this for CII and after staff have made many attempted phone calls and emails if the customer is still unresponsive we would follow the process as outlined in the revised regulations so the first violation would be a written warning the customers in violation of the regulations and has one week to respond or they will be assessed a $100 fine a letter that letter of warning will be signed by the director of Santa Rosa water or their directors designee and the customer can apply for an exception we feel this is going to be a rare situation and I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment so if staff receive no response after a week after sending the official warning letter then the formal notice of violation process would begin that second notice of violation letter would go out the customer has 72 hours to respond or a hundred dollar fine will be imposed and if we don't hear back in 72 hours the hundred dollar fine starts the third notice of violation letter goes out customer has 72 hours to respond or a $200 fine will be imposed if 72 hours goes by no response then that fourth notice of violation would go out they've got again 72 hours to respond or a $500 fine will be imposed and that $500 fine will continue every 72 hours if we don't hear back from them so this is definitely a last resort and all the customer would need to do is contact staff to try and find and fix the unexplained continuous use to stop the fine process process no matter where they are in the process the notices must be signed by the director of Santa Rosa water or the directors designee and the customer has a right to appeal the final decision so water waste fines are are common and this is these are some of the local and other cities and water districts that we've researched and looked at and you can see our proposed fine structure is in line with industry standard and we do anticipate a low need to implement the fine process with single family residents we are getting about 500 reports of water waste per year that's resulting in approximately eight shutoffs per year which is 1.5% of the cases so with CII we get about 40 reports of water waste per year if we extrapolate that 1.5% that's fewer than one customer per year so this is the the current definition of the authority to disconnect the director of utilities may issue a written warning to anyone who violates the provisions of this chapter if a customer does not correct the violation within 15 days of notification or or such other time as specified by the director the city may disconnect potable or recycled water service the proposed definition the part a is outlines the administrative fines that I've already described and under section B it clarifies the authority to disconnect as outlined in city code chapter 14-04 potable water and recycled water service so the this is a new section that we're proposing to add because disconnects disconnection or an administrative fine could have an adverse impact on health safety or hardship on the customer or the public so the customer may request an exception to a water waste regulation violation in advance of receiving a notice of violation they have that one week to do so the customer must submit a written application explaining why the exemption is justified the director of water or the director's design may grant the exception if necessary to avoid adverse impact on health sanitation safety of the applicant or public and or avoid undue hardship for the applicant or the public and this decision may be appealed in writing to the board of public utilities so we can identify customers with exceptions or they can self identify and then staff will assess case by case basis I think a good example of this will be schools or hospitals that are essential services and the type of customer we would grant an exception for it's likely that most of these exceptions will grant our situations where the customer has already been working with us and they've been finding and fix fixing every leak they can but there's still some unexplained continuous use I think another good example to think about let's say we have we have old school facilities here one big meter domestic meter it might you know go to many buildings there are no isolation valves it's hard to isolate some portions of the main line they can't cut in new valves and they've worked with they're working with us regularly and they they found numerous leaks and the continuous use they just can't trace out the last bit of it and they continue to work with us so this is the proposed appeals process any customer may appeal the final decision of Santa Rosa water staff regarding violations to the director of Santa Rosa water or the final decision of the director of Santa Rosa water to the board of public utilities the customer must submit a written notice of appeal and should we receive your approval today these are the proposed next steps October 24th we will go to city council to conduct a public hearing on the revised regulations November 14th city council will conduct the second reading of the regulations and December 14th is the proposed effective date which is 30 days post second reading so it is recommended by the water conservation who this is subcommittee yes and the Santa Rosa water San and Santa Rosa water that the board of public utilities by resolution recommend the city council adopt the proposed ordinance amending Santa Rosa city code chapter 14 dash 21 water waste regulations to include administrative fines provide an exception and an appeals process and make other clarifying changes and that's it if I if there any questions I'd be happy to answer them thank you for that presentation is Lane are there any questions for board members board thank you I guess my question is around I'm I'm thinking back when I was a single mom with three kids and if something had gone wrong with my outside plumbing connections I probably wouldn't have had the money to fix it and that would have been very challenging even in a week and then adding on more money to the fines as you know I continued to fail to fix it because I couldn't afford to do so and I don't know how to do it right I mean I know we're looking at eight or one and a half percent of the population who actually get shut off but is there is there any consideration for for people like that right well first of all situation we don't plan to use the administrative fine for a single-family residence customer okay and we work at great we go to great lengths to work with the customer that would have been in your situation okay to provide and you know we would come out and do an audit try and help figure out what's going on and any process of you know just finding the the easiest solution that we could you know try and identify right away it often isn't that complicated and even if it was a difficult situation the process of going toward any kind of violation takes many weeks so it does offer the customer time to figure out how to deal with it okay are there resources to help them figure out how to deal with it like I'm just curious is you know are they just kind of on their own or well I mean a half the two at our own horn for a minute I think I'm pretty good at what we do we're not plumbers we're not leak detectors but but we go out and and offer a lot of expertise to try and figure out and isolate at the best best we can of where is it is it maybe is it a leaking toilet is it something in your irrigation system you know hopefully it's going to be something like that and not a mainline that's under the driveway that's what we all don't wish for so right we do our best to try and help with that the AMI data really helps us understand what's going on when and in the worst-case scenarios you know they need to get a plumber out or maybe a leak detection company thank you sure any other questions from board members I had similar concerns as I mentioned in the subcommittee and I I'm pretty much taking staff at their word that this is not an assault on the single family but trying to control CII which we have no real way to do that without shutting their water wall off and when which point you as you point out you can't do that in many cases so yeah I mean I I've been around a long time in the in the department and I know the water use efficiency division is very conscientious and very helpful to customers but the situation is brought out there are people that are somewhat dysfunctional or have other issues and it's I don't know it's not our business to write grants to solve these people's problems but at the same time it's it's it's just a that's just a it's a troubling problem and I guess I'm what I'm saying is I'll take you it's a word that you're not gonna go after our single family for issues that might seem unsolvable by them that's that's what really I want to say I think yeah I'd also like to add that we have a number of programs in the department to support people of low-income we have the help to others program and we also in the case where if you do have a significant leak it can become very expensive very quickly and we do have a leak forgiveness program to help individuals but we do need to by law get these leaks fixed and this these are just mechanisms for staff to to meet those regulatory requirements and as board board member Wright has mentioned and as has Deb Lane we really do our best to try to work with our customers to support them and to prevent them from getting into a position where they can't afford their water and that's really where leaks really hit hard and if you're paying a lot of money for water and most of that isn't even what you're using it begins to become more expensive for you so this these tools that we're proposing for the council really help staff to help individuals get there we're identifying leaks earlier we're providing service to our customers so that they aren't we're wasting their limited resources on water that isn't really beneficial to them so I appreciate the concern I do think that that we are doing everything within the rules that we have to support all of our customers and businesses as well so just put that out there for your consideration any other questions from board members I I I guess I have a slightly different view on this and the reason I'm going to be voting on voting to approve this is not because there's a plan to not enforce this against single family residents I'm uncomfortable with adopting or recommending the adoption of an ordinance that we don't plan to use I think if the authorities in there to use power then that powers got to be dealt with and the reason I'm going to support this is because I think having that power has been dealt with with appropriate checks and balances I mean the whole issue of exemptions wasn't in the prior ordinance and and so now they have undo horde hardship exceptions that can be applied there's an appeal procedure that's been adopted so I I'm treating this as if it can be enforced against single family residents but given the new protections and checks and balances have been provided uncomfortable with that possibility that it that it would be enforced I've also had personal experience having had a leak in my backyard that we've discovered an irrigation leak we discovered it we called our contractor they came in to fix it as he was finishing the job I got a call from the city saying we detected a leak in your parcel and and you know so we're calling to help you fix this and I said well I think we just fixed it because we just had a guy out here to repair the problem and they said oh let me check so they had the ability to in real time check whether or not there was a continuation of the leaking water and said oh yeah there we see it it stopped you're done way to go so I'm from personal experience I know that you're very proactive in assisting single family residences in identifying leaks I'm glad to hear that there's programs to to to provide additional support and and I plan to support this as a as a more in a way more protective of users because before all we had was one option you know turn off the water now we have additional options that can be used with fines and other programs so I I like the way it was presented and I plan to approve it if I am even a motion to do so after we asked for well first we need a motion then public comment I guess yes right and I yes and I do believe assistance again briefly here I'm sorry go ahead but can you all hear me yes thank you I just wanted to speak somewhat to your last point and to also try to modify some of the concerns by the other board members you definitely recognize the intent in some of the language regarding the exceptions and the appeals so while I would agree that I believe staff is going to use this with the best of intentions to enforce on the high water wasters and I think the the main focus will be CII customers that I personally advise staff that it best to have the rule apply to all classes of customers and leave the enforcement discretion to staff however as you rightly point out that is counterbalanced by the exception and appeals which allows the individual customer to either proactively or after the process starts to say look I'm doing what I can I I can't do any better than this or for this and that reason I need you to grant me an exception and the the initial consideration will be done by staff by the director of water the designee but ultimately because it can be brought to the board of public utilities if some if staff wasn't using the rules in the way that the board intended when they if they support it there's always that final check of being able to go to the board of public utilities a kind of major case so I just wanted to kind of broadly speak to all the comments that were made by the board of thank you for those comments council any other questions by board members do I have a motion to approve this recommendation okay I'll a move that the board of public utilities by resolution recommend the city council adopt the proposed ordinance amending Santa Rosa city code chapter 14-21 water waste regulations to include in administrative fines provide an exception and an appeals process and make other clarifying changes thank you member right second that thank you member Bartholome we are now prepared to take public comments on item 7.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand I see nobody in the chamber raising to comment secretary Montoya and there's no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received thank you very much would you please do a roll call vote on the resolution yes board member right aye board member Walsh aye board member Bartholome aye and vice chair Anani and that passes unanimously thank you for the presentation again okay so now we are at the point in the agenda where we will take public comments on non-agenda matters so that's item 8 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 and again this is on non-agenda matters nobody in the chamber is raising to speak secretary Montoya no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received thank you that brings us to not item 9 referrals there are none I see no written communications either so how about subcommittee reports any subcommittee reports yes so regarding the water conservation subcommittee which met on September 12th the first item was a recommendation to discontinue the recycling hot water pump rebate program to a lack of realized water savings low customer participation market availability of eligible products and other challenges the committee unanimously recommended that recirculating hot water pump rebate program be discontinued and the second item was presented was the presentation we just saw of the proposed revision to the city code water waste regulations which you which we heard at today's board meeting the subcommittee reviewed the proposed changes provided feedback to staff and unanimously recommend the bpu consider and recommend to the city council the adoption of the proposed revisions to the city water waste regulations and that's my report thank you member right um are there any individual board member reports vice chair noni if we could do public comment for the report out on subcommittee reports please thank you for catching that omission this is now the time to give public comments on the subcommittee report if anybody would like to do so please make a comment via zoom by raising your hand if you're dialing in by telephone please dial star none to raise your hand nobody in the chamber secretary montoya no hands raised on zoom and no voicemail or email public comments were received thank you very much is there a director's report for us today acting director neal yes chair anoni i do have uh two items to present to the board today i'm pleased to announce this announce that the city of senorosa and the sonoma marine saving water partnership has been awarded two awards through our participation in the institute of local government's beacon program this city of senorosa has been actively participating in the beacon program since 2013 reporting on the adoption of voluntary policies that promote sustainability and tracking activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy the city of senorosa will be recognized with the platinum level 2023 beacon spotlight award for achieving a 21 percent natural gas savings compared to our baseline year in 2013 in addition to the spotlight award senorosa water has been awarded the 2023 beacon leadership and innovation award for our cross agency collaboration with the sonoma marine saving water partnership during the recent 2021 to 2023 drought the partnership's drought is here save water campaign was heavily augmented by senorosa water and the campaign was recognized for providing a unique yet simple and cohesive drought message throughout the russian river watershed that resulted in measurable water savings the second item is uh that um our current water and sewer rate schedule was approved by city council on may 25th 2021 the current rate schedule began july 1 2021 and concludes on july 1 2024 we are beginning the process of developing the next multi-year rate schedule for fiscal year 25 through 26 through 29 30 the first step requires hiring a consultant to compile and complete a full rate study to assure rates are designed to meet all regulatory requirements of proposition 218 we issued a request for proposals on august 17th and it closed on september 14th over the next several weeks staff will be evaluating the submitted proposals and anticipate making a recommendation for a contract award to the board likely in november and beginning work with the selected consultant sometime in december the development of the report and draft rate schedule is estimated to take one year to complete staff will review the proposed final report and new rate schedule with the budget reviews subcommittee of the bpu and the bpu in detail prior to the bpu's recommendation on the rate study and new rate schedule to the city council the council will review and provide direction in study session prior to the proposition 218 notice being sent to all water and sewer customers we are planning to hold a public hearing at city council to consider adoption of the new rate schedule in march 2025 and the new rate schedule would be implemented on july 1 2025 that concludes directors thank you for that report we will now take public questions from board members about the report we will now take public comment on item 13 if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand nobody's in the chamber and miss secretary montoya there are no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received very good that concludes our business for this meeting today so thank you all for your participation and that will uh we'll adjourn the meeting