 Roberta or Gina I don't recall seeing anything from Mary so I'm assuming she's planning on attending today I haven't heard otherwise Okay, thank you. We'll wait a few minutes then Okay, I think we have everyone now Remember are we waiting for any staff people? We'll join as the items Come up. So I think we have everyone great and I'll go ahead and call the meeting of the board of public utilities for the city Santa Rosa to order Secretary Athe if we could have a roll call, please Yes, chair galvin here Vice chair Arnone Sorry down here Board member baden Ford here Board member grable here Board member mullen here Board member watts here Board member right here. Thank you. Good afternoon everyone Um First item on the agenda item two statements of abstention by board members. Do we have any Mary none. We'll move to item Three which is a study session on the kelly farm mitigation bank opportunities director Burke Yes, thank you chair galvin and members of the board and uh presenting this item today will be Deputy director environmental services, Sean McNeill. All right. Can you hear me? Yes So today um Good afternoon. Uh chair galvin members of the board today. I'm here to talk with you about The kelly farm mitigation bank opportunities Next slide, please And before I get into that, I just want to start with just setting a place The importance of place here is that we are in the Santa Rosa plain which is Described as a relatively flat area marked with creeks and wetlands all throughout Uh, it's extends from the north just south of hildsburg all the way down to katadi in the south And on the western side sabastable to the east throughout the flatter regions of sabast or san rosa And it's home to many endangered species next slide, please um These endangered species I'd like to just kind of talk a little bit about uh, some of the ones that we deal with most commonly And that'll be some threatened and endangered plants that occur primarily in wetlands And then the california tiger salamander next slide, please These threatened plants they live within these habitats called vernal pools and vernal pools are described as Uh depressions in a relatively flat area that have some sort of Inability for water to percolate through so that could be that the ground has been As a hard pan or it could just be that the type of soil is very clay We have very clay soils in the Santa Rosa plain and so that creates these When you have a depression these pools and these plants have grown in these pools Um, you're involved in these pools and now are endangered as many of these vernal pools have been lost in the Santa Rosa plain Many of these plant species can be avoided by projects So we don't typically have to purchase a lot of credits for these plants because The habitats that they're in are set are so rare But contrast that with the next slide, please With uh california tiger salamander, they're upland. They live in two different habitats the upland habitat next uh forward one, um In Most of these habitats That we have in the Santa Rosa plain It's these grasslands and the adults and the juveniles live in them Uh, and they'll live in some kind of ground dwelling mammal burrows Next slide, please Uh throughout most of their life and in Sonoma county That our tiger salamanders use primarily pocket gopher burrows and we find them in grassland areas and because They use the grassland areas. It's all the undeveloped land In the Santa Rosa plain is tiger salamander habitat. This is very different than the endangered plants because we can't avoid our projects From impacting the undeveloped land oftentimes. So we have to have mitigation for upland habitat for tiger salamanders next slide Also, these tiger salamanders while they live mostly underground in these burrows through most of their life They do mass migrate in the winter time, right as the rains begin at nighttime They start making their ways down to vernal pools where they meet up And the females will lay eggs in these pools as they're filling up with the rain And the males will fertilize those eggs And then they'll head back To their upland burrows and then the eggs will develop in these pools And so these pools can be seasonal ponds roadside ditches or slow-moving creeks And these habitats because they've become more rare through time. These are the same habitats that the plants use That the the population of tiger salamanders is dramatically dropped through time So if you have a mitigation bank, you have to have both upland habitat and the wetland habitat to preserve this species Next slide, please So just kind of an example of a few projects that we have coming up in our our our cip planning is a flood wall around the laguna treatment plant may need upwards of 40 acres of tiger salamander credits The actual amount will depend on the exact location the final location of the flood wall And the mitigation ratios that will get assigned by the regulators It's a bit of a negotiation process For that to happen. So they could we could say it's two to one ratio They might come back and say three to one ratio. So the most conservative would be 40 acres of credits for that We also have a number of sewer lining projects throughout the Santa Rosa Plain And you wouldn't think that a sewer lining project would have an impact to Tiger salamanders But it turns out a part of that process is we have to disturb a lot of soil around the manholes where we're doing the work so that we can get in there and line the sewers and so These projects typically have a tenth of an acre of impact But could add an additional year onto the project Delivery schedule to go out and purchase these credits. So some of these smaller projects Well, it's not a big dollar figure. It's sort of a procedural hurdle that makes these these um Purchasing of the tiger salamander credits challenging And then we may have other projects At the city farms or or the treatment plant here. And this is all Prime california tiger salamander habitat. So any projects we do in these areas would need to have credits Next slide, please so Instead of just building a bank there are other ways that we might be able to get these credits and get Regulatory approval to build our projects One is the sonoma county is developing the scope for a habitat conservation plan What a habitat conservation plan is it a planning document associated with land Land development decisions where they will preserve some habitats Uh and develop basically their own mitigation banks for Others to buy into and pay. It's a sort of government option for meeting Your mitigation requirements So this was originally driven by developers to kind of pull together and see Instead of them having to do project by project Permitting if they could work with the county to get a region-wide permitting Scope to develop a habitat conservation plan So we wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be in conflict with this effort. So I reached out to the To the county to see if if they thought us developing a private Mitigation bank for the city of santa rosa would affect that and they said it wouldn't and indeed they They thought it would be a good idea for us to move forward on our own process But they also invited us to be involved in their process. So when once they begin the public process and scoping of this Habitat conservation plan, whether it be countywide or something just for the santa rosa plane They'll invite the city to participate in that and they're not anticipating even on the fastest track the completion of of a habitat conservation plan that we could use until 2025 But most likely it'll be much later Next slide, please Of course, we could continue doing what we've always always been doing which is To just purchase our credits through private mitigation banks One of the drawbacks to this is that there are not that many credits available at any one time So if we needed 40 acres of credit for our flood wall We may or may not have those credits on the market available for that project to begin and we'd have to be Looking at some other way of meeting that compliance So could add additional time to that But also we would begin competing With the limited amount of credits for the private developers So private developers trying to get their projects built are going after the same limited Tiger salamander credits And also when we go to purchase these credits, it's a complex transaction That has both environmental Review as well as sort of real estate implications Because it's it's basically a real estate transaction and it could extend the project delivery time and we have seen projects Have to wait an additional year to be built because we've been waiting on getting the tiger salamander credits purchased So those are some of the drownsides to the private mitigation Next slide, please So we started looking at what other alternatives might occur might be available for for the water department and We took a look at some of our farm properties and i'll just highlight what we know about kelly farm It's currently leased for hay crops about 85 dollars an acre per year spread through two different farmers on this property The lease for the proposed mitigation area will expire in fall of 2021 We do Use this farm and and supply it with recycled water use, but we are unable to spread biosolids on it anymore due to It being california tiger salamander habitat And it is the only farm of all the farms that we have that have documented California tiger salamanders found on it and i'll talk a little bit more about that a little later And so if you could click next slide, please And here outlined in red is the 100 acre section that we've identified as being ideal For setting up a conservation bank. So what we're talking about is just a portion of kelly farm not the whole component next slide, please So the other benefits of kelly farm there already is some natural ponding that occurs on the farm So it does have the clay soils that that could easily be converted into These vernal pools that we would need for the breeding habitat next slide Some of these pools are a little more developed and probably if should we develop a bank most likely they would need to be sort of Deepened a little bit so that they hold water for longer periods of time and some areas might need to be compacted with clay Because of the many years of agricultural tilling might have destroyed some of that hard pan that is important for retaining the water Next slide And we do have some interesting plants existing already on kelly farm So we do have the common metaphor over here on on the left of the screen Growing in a wetland area and we also have found some hayfield tarweed out there It's interesting that these plants are still existing in this well Tilled agricultural production field, but that just shows the The strength of the potential habitat that exists at kelly farm Next slide, please Okay, so here's Just kind of a graph comparing the different options as and if we look at costs So back in 2014 the city had a project where we purchased a couple acres of tiger salamander Credits and that came in at about 89,000 or came in exactly at 89 500 dollars per acre of credit In 2020 we had another project that required credits about the same magnitude about two acres again Came in at 168 thousand dollars a credit We have seen prices on the market at 200 thousand dollars a credit We were told we were getting a special deal a government rate, which Seems funny, but you know, they're selling us stuff But 168 thousand is almost double over six years And we've had some small projects That where the impacts are less than an acre We've paid up to 210 thousand dollars per acre of credit And then when you compare that against us just building our own bank Our estimates of building a bank came at 78,750 dollars a credit And what I'd like to do is skip ahead two slides and break down that that so could we go one more? Thank you so We worked with a consultant to kind of come together with a um An estimate of the of a fort building a 40 acre bank So Here's what they came up with the studies fees permitting and design would be about 450 thousand dollars Construction we're estimating at about a million dollars. That would be the improvement of the wetlands the removal of the irrigation in that area and Building of a fence to keep People out of that area And then some interim monitoring and management whenever you set up a bank you need to prove that it's working So we'd have a consultant do that work for us And then the a big ticket item is we'd have to set up an endowment What the endowment would do is the returns on that endowment would be what we'd be using To for the long-term maintenance of the site So as fences need to be repaired and things so when we talk about the total cost of three million dollars 3 million 150 thousand dollars that would include all future costs as well um Then we compare that number that three million to the cost to currently buy the 40 acres of credit at The price that we recently got which would be six point seven million dollars And so the potential savings on one project alone with the 40 acre would be three and a half million dollars on tiger salamander credit So if we could go back one slide So Just to kind of reflect the mitigation bank options are to continue purchasing our credits per project In these costs are and as these costs are continuing to rise And we'd have greater competition with development projects. This might not be a preferred option Uh, the the next thing we could the second item we could think about is building the 40 acre mitigation bank Uh with the possibility of expanding it up to a hundred acres um The reason why we kind of capped it at a hundred acres is we'd have to look at a different area Um, and we thought a hundred acres is probably as much or more than we would use in the department um And that could uh, if we built a hundred acre mitigation bank, it would be more cost effective I gave you the cost for the 40 acre But some of those costs are fixed whether you're doing 40 or 100 acres in the incremental cost The construction wouldn't be that much more by setting up the the hundred acre parcel versus 40 and so, um We think that would be a good opportunity. So if we could skip forward two slides Perfect. Thank you. Um, so the potential next steps Should should the board decide to develop a mitigation bank of 40 to 100 acres Would be for us to hire a consultant to help develop a restoration plan And this would give us the precise elevations that we would need for each of the pools to Guaranteed that we get enough water for the california tiger salamander life cycle Uh, and that we have the appropriate amount of brass lands as well to support the upland habitat um And then we would work with uh, regularly once we have that plan work with the regulatory agencies To develop and improve a maintenance plan So that would set the amount that we'd have to put into, um Uh to set aside for the maintenance of the long-term maintenance of the project And then we would uh by 2022 we could begin the construction of new wetlands Install the required fencing and begin the removal of that irrigation which wouldn't be allowed in a mitigation bank Uh, and that probably would put us on target for about 2023 Uh to complete that process And the initial monitoring requirements and begin, uh using that bank for credits Next slide, so where are we now? Um We have projects that will need tiger salamander credits and may need some wetland credits And we might be able to develop wetland credits at the same time is tiger salamander credits Through this process. So we would be able to use those both here For these projects and the city has evaluated all the different city farms back in 2003 We we did uh extensive, uh drift net surveys where we basically put up blocks at times when we knew tiger salamanders would be migrating And we had collection buckets. So they were Be dropped it. They had to walk through the area and they fell into these buckets and in the morning biologists would Collect look in all the buckets and they did this for two years Um Or two wet seasons in a row and the only place we found tiger salamanders was on kelly farm and we found 36 So we feel that's the best place for tiger salamanders Um And uh, it's the only place that has them and part of having a mitigation bank You need to prove that you have the the animals on site Uh, we did look at the conservation easement to make sure that we would be able to conduct this activity given the conservation easement that we have on our city farms Uh, and indeed we could the only limitation is that we would not be able to sell these credits Uh commercially, uh, which is fine with us. We don't want to compete with the private bankers We just want to get a good deal for our ratepayers. Um The city has developed a draft prospectus for creating a mitigation bank on kelly farm And we took that draft prospectus, which kind of just laid out a lot of the information that I shared with you today to the mitigation banking interagency review team. It's a pretty long team name, but uh, it consists of california deficient fire California department of fish and wildlife The official wildlife service from the feds and the army corps of engineers and the water board All kind of sit on this banking Team and they review it. We got favorable support for this Proposal and they they would Like to see us develop a full prospectus and move forward. They were encouraging and so now we're at the point of Bringing this to the uh board of public utilities to to Let you know what we've learned about this opportunity And to get your guidance on whether or not we would want to move forward with this So if I could move to the next slide, please So the staff recommendation would be to um begin the process and design The mitigation bank up to the full 100 acres Um, it's an estimated cost on that item about $150,000 Oh, and then once that design is complete and we've been able to um Have some more discussions with the regulators make sure that it's a pretty good, you know, that it would work Uh, and then develop some, uh A better cost proposal based on that design Bring that back to the bpu for, uh Uh review and guidance on whether to develop a 40 or 100 acre um, or some portion of 100 acre uh mitigation bank So with that next slide, please Answer any questions Thank you. Deputy director mcneill. I'll open it up now for any questions or comments from members of the board Vice chair Arnone Yeah, thank you. Um, my only question is is there a life span for these credits if we develop them? I mean Is there any expiration date on and how long we could use them? I know we have problems with expiration of credits in other fields. Uh, So I just want to make sure we don't have that problem with this kind of a mitigation bank Yeah, so um, they don't this the credits don't expire, uh, but in the unlikely case where the california tiger salamander gets taken off the endangered species list Uh, we wouldn't need them But they're not going to come off the endangered species list right That's that's that's that's pretty clear unless projects like this were extremely successful Okay, I answered my question. Thank you Uh board member right. Did you have a question? You need to unmute yourself Sorry about that Anyway, uh, could the credits the credits you say we can have both wetlands and the tiger salamander credits Could the same acre be a credit for either one? So could uh So in the in the unlikely event the tiger was taken off then you could have wetland credits Yeah, so I I didn't go into too much the way the credits work But they there's some stacking allowed but but basically when you need a tiger salamander credit You need to determine if it's a breeding habitat credit that you need which would be uh Like the wetland or if it's upland habitat So mostly what we would do is all the upland habitat we would would be um Our tiger salamander credits and then we'd have the wetlands Could be what they call stacked so we could have tiger salamander credits in there as well as wetland credits and if we did get uh some of the endangered plants moving in We could have uh endangered plant uh credits as well Though I don't see a great need for us to actively go after um Propagating those plants that creates a it's it's a harder project and adds more expense And we typically would avoid any occupied habitat with our project Now regarding the endowment, I assume that 1.5 million dollars Spins off money and that just funds it forever Right. Is that the way it works and then uh would the would it be maintained by city staffer? Would that be something we would bid and have contractors do? What what are we thinking? well, I think um It would be open. We'd have to see as we go through this process what the actual maintenance requirements are I think there would be a mix of of Things that our staff would do and other things that we would hire consultants to do We'd have to maintain fencing. My guess is we could do minor fencing repair But when it came to a full fencing replacement, we would probably bring a contractor in for that um So originally when we first set up the bank We would most likely have an outside biologist Dealing with all of that the paperwork and monitoring associated with that But then we could probably do the monitoring with our own biologists from then on out after that first um Approval process is complete Thank you Uh, so uh deputy director mcneil is a hundred acres pretty much the extent of cali farm that we can use or in the future would be be able to expand that mitigation bank if needed We we could expand the mitigation bank. Um, there there is a road that goes through there They don't like roads inside your your um bank. So it would be a separate area typically um but In kind of accounting for our projects. We don't see a need that this Water department has for more than a hundred acres of tiger salamander credit at this time But we need set up more if that need changes over time Thank you. Uh other board member questions or comments Board member mullen Thank you, mr. Chair. Um, I have a few a few questions. Um First of all, I support the the effort to to set up our own mitigation bank If you will because anybody that's been in this county for the last few for decades knows the the offsite mitigation programs that have been used throughout the county. It's kind of the wild west and um Prices greatly fluctuate as you've indicated Just with our projects, but it's been all over the county And so I support the efforts to hone in on a on a program that's going to benefit The the city and its ratepayers um A couple of my questions related to The endowment just following up on board member rights question We're we're going to set it up at a million and a half at the outset But we all know that over time costs change Just because and so if we find out that our 1.5 million Over, you know, 10 years or so starts to dwindle How would we replenish it would it just be an expense out of the the ratepayers? Out of operational expenses, or is there some other bucket of money that we would be using? so, um Yeah, it would be it would have to fall on the bank Proponent to maintain the infrastructure Should the endowment? Crash for some reason I will say that the endowment in the way that they set it up is is very conservative on the returns um That you typically would get and how much money we could spend so um The one and a half million dollars at this point is an estimate It's not until we actually have the design the bank and agreed upon maintenance and Management measures that we developed that but it is a pretty conservative tool that's used but ultimately The responsibility relies with the bank owner. So that would fall on the ratepayers Thank you, um Regarding the scaling of it from 40 up to 100 acres I I would assume that The the cost to set up the 40 versus the 100 is just a scaled operation So it's just the increment up if we settle in at say 50 acres And then we later we want to go up to 100. It's just a scaled increase Or would we be going forward with an overall program that says up to 100 acres and then we scale it internally? Yeah, so phasing it is I think how we might do it um because It's actually really expensive to have the california department efficient wildlife approve a bank And it's like a hundred thousand dollars. So we'd want them to approve the whole thing um And then we could scale it in as we need it or as it fits our needs But we'd have to describe the the whole Project as we say, you know as we phase it in So the first phase would have to have The the all of the pools for the breeding that would be required Uh, and then the second phase is could just be additional upland habitat Making them less expensive Sure. Thank you. Um, so the the conservation easement that basically limits it to Um, as you described that it limits it to are the city's use We couldn't if a for instance if somebody came to the city and wanted to develop a Large affordable housing project And they run into this the issue with the tiger salamanders mitigation We couldn't provide any assistance to them as far as providing this bank to their use Um, I think that would would take a legal opinion To do that right now the the language that holds us up in our our easement is that We're not supposed to have non ag commercial development on the farms And so if we're not selling it to a commercial These credits to a commercial entity and we're using them for our own operations That that wouldn't be considered commercial. So I don't know we would need to in the case that you laid out We would need to um To bring that typically what we've seen with uh luther burbank has done a lot of their own mitigation Banks they set up their own in instead of buying them on the market usually The reason I raised that is We all know that affordable housing projects or similar projects that are community benefit projects Are really running on a real tight margin. And so If if you provide a so-called government option, which is obviously going to be less Then what the market could be at the time of project like that comes through The the planning process that we could provide, you know, some relief If it's a project that we want in our community So that's the one reason I asked that question and I for one would support at least exploring the opportunity for In the sole discretion of the city we could offer it to certain projects For that reason I would support that that That Exploration just a couple more questions and thank you for your patience Will with this project Once built and in service would it also include our sub regional partners? Since the land that we're using is part of the sub regional system I'm supposing Kelly farm is part of the sub regional system So would the sub regional partners also be able to be able to utilize this mitigation bank if they needed it So I don't know 100 if the city farms are owned by the sub regional system or by the city of san rosa And I think there's a distinction there. Um, I I don't so That's a great question board member mullen The technically all the properties are owned by the city But um, we these are all great questions This is why we're having this study session to get some board direction and the questions on what you're interested in So that we can go back and do more research. So My understanding is it Is that the funding from the sub regional system has been? Part of some of these properties in terms of maintenance We'd have to go back and do the research though to see exactly how this was acquired and with what funding To see if it was by all the partners or just some portion of the sewer system But um, but technically the property is owned by the city of santa rosa Okay, thank you. Um, my last question and again, I appreciate the patience is In our exploration of this site Have we have we also or maybe the county is doing this looked at some other sites for possible banks If we're looking at regional sort of or large-scale mitigation banks and in particular I I call attention to sites like the The open space lands that are basically dedicated to stay open without development. However There may be an opportunity to partner with them With wetlands because the land remains open and there's no development on it except some pond and the same could be true in The community separators same thing is the the land stay open. It just Provides an opportunity to have some joint use or some win-win type of uses. So those are all my questions I appreciate you You responding to them. Thank you so, um So we haven't really looked at developing on another property Um For our purposes that that is the goal of the county's project that we will be participating in would be identifying not based on On who owns what but based on what's best for the individual species of concern That the habitat conservation plan would use Our analysis really was what assets does the city have that? We could utilize to our best interest And so that's kind of where we went with that our analysis And thank you for that and the the main reason I raised that issue about open space or separators is Land costs when you're setting up a bank like this is one of the major expenses. And so If we can utilize For sort of joint use with land. It's already Owned by the the open space or or a part of a community separator that that reduces the overall development site costs Quite a bit because the land is already covered. Thank you Thank you any other board member questions or comments Okay, not seen anyone will now take public comments on the study session If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary etha do we have anyone There are no hands raised at this time Thank you. That will then conclude the study session. Thank you again deputy director mcneill appreciate it Item 4.1 are the minutes from october 15th We'll take public comments now on the approval of those minutes if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone. Please dial star nine to raise your hand Do we have anyone Or no public comments. Thank you. That will conclude the minutes. They'll be approved and entered We have no staff briefings. We have one consent item item 6.1 I'll move the consent calendar second motion by Vice chair ononi seconded by board member mullen At this point. We will take public comments on item 6.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary etha do we have anyone There are no hands raised Very good. May we have a roll call vote on the motion, please Yes, chair galvin. Hi Vice chair ononi Board member badenport Board member grable board member mullen I Board member wads A point of order. Are we allowed to have discussion on this item? If you have comments you can certainly make them Did you want to pull it from the consent calendar or you just had a comment? We had a public comment that was sent in this morning In a letter and it was emailed to board member grable and myself and some staff I'm not sure if everyone else received that comment, but I wanted to make sure that we discussed that item I think we all did receive it If you have specific issues you want to discuss go right ahead. Thank you. I just wanted to You know, I think there's a few a few items that were brought up in this letter I think there was actually seven different specific concerns that this resident had My question is um, specifically just the You know, the overall concept was that this is going to be a very long project and there were several items that you know, the residents will be dealing with based on the two-year length of this project and If there is any, you know staff have I think been working with this resident for a while to try to mitigate any of these concerns, but one of the A few things I just wanted to bring up was around fire safety if that has been, you know, discussed all being You know, we've discussed this with other projects, but with the size and location of this item If if that has been Discussed and I tried to review The bid documents and wasn't sure if I could find anything as well if any staff have Comments about that Okay, director Burke. Do you want to take that or do you want mr. Dwyer to Join us uh, sure and just, um I'm assuming we can go ahead and call staff up to Speak in response to this request. Is that correct? Um Mr. Maddow, I just want to make sure we're doing this right from my consent perspective or do we need to The board has a wide field of discretion latitude in terms of how it Chooses to Deal with the questions that are being raised by board member watt Okay, great. Thank you. So yes, so so we have a pending motion which we're will in effect table until we Get through the comments and then we can go back For a vote Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so Yes, board member watts great question. There has been a lot of work And a lot of public outreach and fire safety has been discussed at length With the fire department and the public and I would like to ask Our associate civil engineer Greg Dwyer who is the lead on this project and to address this specifically As well as any other questions you have Greg you are muted Okay, how about now? Yes, we can hear you now. Thank you Good afternoon chairman Galvin members of the board. I'm Greg Dwyer with transportation public works I'm also the project manager for this project We've we've spent considerable efforts Coordinating the traffic control that's going to be implemented on this project with city traffic engineering in city fire We've come up with a proactive approach To be ready in the case of any sort of emergency to facilitate any traffic control needs immediately So the contractor may be directed to immediately pull his traffic control We may send traffic control one way or the other depending on how fire wants to Implement emergency access There's emergency access Lanes available as well We had an extensive public outreach meeting where city fire took part in that as well We sent out 15,000 mailers. We've had very few questions. So the the video Is available on our project website as well for viewing And this was discussed in in great length The important thing here is to understand that we're aware of The conditions that it is an emergency evacuation route And we have a proactive plan in place to address any emergencies that may come up Thank you very much that that's helpful information. Um, my only other question on this letter was in regards to the noise and hours of operations and I was wondering if you could clarify if it is correct and the the resident's letter that there is a possible High noise levels from 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. And then again from I think it was 12 a.m. To 6 a.m. The overnight Yes from 12 a.m. Can you can clarify if that is correct as far as those noise concerns? Yes, the the work hours will be Monday through Friday 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. With the exception of work being performed on menacing or avenue Which will be done at night between 10 p.m. And 6 a.m. That includes the biz there's a business where we are a private business where we will be installing sewer and water lines through their lot and that allows the business to stay open And allows it avoids potential massive impacts to traffic flow We are sensitive to the needs of residents and we understand, you know Especially everybody's at home now with school and work and in the noise and we are aware of that and we are You know willing to work with all the residents and and an option is to Place give them a hotel voucher if need be if if if if it's too much of a burden on them Oftentimes people choose to stay in the residences, but this is an option that's available And we did weigh all of these we don't we're trying to keep the project going as smoothly as possible And to minimize the impacts to the residents and we felt this was the best plan in place And this was worked in conjunction with city traffic engineering as well Thank you very much for your work on this and and outreach and and really weighing all the options. I appreciate it I think that answers all my questions from this letter if you want to resume the motion Thank you all. Let's just make sure if there's any other board member questions or comments Not seeing anyone. Thank you. And just so i'm clear Secretary atha did we have any public comments? We do not have any hands raised Thank you. If you would you go ahead and do a roll call vote on the motion, please Yes, chair galvin. Hi Vice chair Arnone Hi Board member badenport Hi Board member grable Board member mullen Hi Board member watts Hi Board member right Hi Thank you very much That'll take care of the consent calendar. We'll move now to the report item item 7.1 director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.1 is a refund of water demand fee To identified multi-family properties that paid an additional irrigation demand fee And deputy director administration kimberley zanino will be making the presentation Excuse me Good afternoon chairman galvin and members of the board We are bringing a request for a recommendation to city council to refund developers Who purchased water capacity for irrigation as well as paying an irrigation capacity that was incorporated in the per unit fee for some multi-family units Next slide, please Today, I will go over the multi-family demand fee the irrigation demand fee the proposed refund and the recommendation Next slide, please In august of 2014 city council approved the water and wastewater demand fee study and adopted the demand fee schedule The table shown here indicates the amount of demand or capacity to be purchased for connections to the public water system The amount of demand is listed here by type of development And the peak volumes associated with each type of use shown in thousand gallons These factors are developed using city of samarosa customer usage data I won't go through all of them, but you can see that condominiums apartments and mobile homes Which have a peak demand volume here of 9 000 gallons of water Which is the basis for the dollar value of the fee So the fee is calculated by multiplying the peak volume times the per thousand gallon rate When adopted the price per thousand gallons of water demand was 244 dollars So based on this table multi-family units would have paid nine times the 244 dollars per unit And this is where we found the issue that we're bringing forward to you today Next slide, please Staff was working with a couple of developers that were proposing construction in samarosa that was different than the typical multi-family unit These were high density buildings that included some very small units This type of construction is becoming more desirable to address city council tier one goals for increasing housing and affordable housing in samarosa So working with the developers staff was trying to determine Where they would be categorized based on the current demand fee structure and the fee schedule And discovered that the amount of the demand that 9 000 gallons looked incorrect for certain multi-family developments Demand fees are only listed in systems as dollar values without associated volume So staff had not realized that the volume was likely too high So while reviewing they realized that the 9 000 gallons incorporates an irrigation factor per unit And if a multi-family developer also installs a dedicated irrigation meter They pay irrigation demand separately as well as their per unit fee I will point out that the 9 000 gallons is the correct amount for those properties that do not install a separate dedicated irrigation meter We began researching and found that there was a category that was not included in the previous chart There should have been also a category for multi-family units with a dedicated irrigation meter When that incorporated irrigation demand is removed the correct volume per unit for these specific developments is 4800 gallons and not 9 000 gallons So for those properties with a dedicated irrigation meter They pay a separate demand fee based on the volume of water that they need for their landscaping And a per unit fee. So for example, if they needed 10 000 gallons of peak use for irrigation They pay 10 times the 244 dollars And their per unit fee should be 4.8 times the 244 dollars for their total amount of water demand that they need to purchase in order to connect to the system Staff has already corrected the fee in the system and immediately began the efforts to find a solution While refunding is not required to be transparent about the issue Staff went through the process of identifying every permit that was pulled to connect to the city water system That had paid that multi-family per unit rate and the additional irrigation demand fee We determined what they did pay what they should have paid and the per per unit and calculated a refund for these properties Next slide please In all there were 14 developers that were affected which pulled 42 permits in total Many of these were single multi-family projects, but they just had multiple permits pulled for one project All of these developments also set a separate and dedicated irrigation meter and paid an irrigation demand fee separately as well as that per unit fee So specifically we are proposing refunding the cost of the irrigation capacity that's incorporated in that per unit fee to each of these developments The total amount of the additional irrigation demand since the fees went into effect for all multi-family units with a dedicated irrigation meter Is 545 thousand dollars six hundred or 545 thousand six hundred and seventy four dollars Next slide please So it is recommended by Santa Rosa water that the Board of Public Utilities recommend by resolution that the city council approve a refund in the total amount of 545 thousand six hundred and seventy four dollars and 80 cents For water demand fees collected from multi-family units Who paid an additional demand fee for separate irrigation demand and authorized the chief financial officer To pay these refunds to the individual properties from the associated funds Thank you deputy directors and eno Board member questions or comments, please Hearing none and seeing some shaking heads Um, we can go ahead. Do we have a resolution if somebody would like to make a motion to approve the resolution? I'll move that we approve the resolution to refund the half a million dollars Overcharge for demand. I don't have in front of me for uh overpayment of demand fees All second Motion by board member right seconded by board member watts At this time we'll take public comments on item 7.1 if you wish to make a comment Please uh via zoom. Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary etha do we have anyone There are no raised hands Thank you. Would you do a roll call on the vote, please? Yes chair galvin. Hi vice chair arnone Hi Board member badden fort. Hi Board member grable Board member mullen Hi Board member watts. Hi Board member right Oh, hi. I'm sorry. I had my mute wrong All right, motion passes unanimously. Thank you Deputy director Zanino. Thank you for the presentation We'll move on to item eight which is public comments So we're now taking public comments on item eight if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone. Please dial star nine Do we have anyone There are no public comments Thank you. We have no referrals We have no written communications Subcommittee reports Yes board member watts So the budget subcommittee we met again on october 29th And we had staff and consultants provide additional information on the current rate setting process Including an overview of the methodology and the cost of service study The cost of service study analyzes the various components of the Proposed water and wastewater rate increases including the specific effect to each tier of the water rate And effect to the commodity and fixed rates as well as examples of the total bill costs And impacts per family household and those types of Bills So in addition information was presented on the community outreach that will be accompanying the process for in 2021 And we will have more meetings that we will Probably give you guys in a few more months Thank you I'll report that the contract review subcommittee met on october 20th and reviewed two professional Service agreements of which they were unanimously supported by the subcommittee The first is an amendment to the contract with corolla engineers to provide engineering services During construction of the uv disinfection project and the second contract Was for construction management and inspection services with somas for the uv disinfection project as well Both contracts will be coming to the full board on november 19th Do we have any other board member or subcommittee reports? Excuse me subcommittee reports Any questions for either of the subcommittee that we're reporting? Very well We'll now take public comments on item 11 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 Secretary etha do we have anyone there are no hands raised? Thank you. Are there any board member reports? Very none We'll move then to the director's report Thank you chair galvin and members of the board. I have a couple things to report to the board today Pardon me First a little bit of bad news The board may recall that the board gave direction to staff in february and closed session regarding price in terms parameters for the potential purchase of 1400 acres in south county for biosolid application Uh, since that time, uh, the real estate manager and her team has diligently tried to negotiate a purchase and sales agreement with the five owners Unfortunately, we were notified last week that the family has received other offers And has accepted one of the other offers Uh, the staff does believe that the timing for the environmental process that we would have to go through was the main sticking point for our contract So unfortunately, we were unable to um be successful in trying to acquire that property Um, I wanted to let the board know some good news The sonoma moran saving water partnership which represents 12 water utilities in sonoma and moran counties Including the city of san rosa Uh continues to be recognized for our region wide efforts in implementing watery sufficiency programs This year the us epa recognized the partnership with two of the 29 awards given out Nationally under their water sense partnership program So really quite a big deal The partnership received the sustained excellence award for our qualified water efficient landscaper program are also known as qwell The qwell program provides landscape professionals with certifications in water efficient and sustainable landscaping practices And this year the partnership increased the local certifications by creating spanish language course offerings in addition to partnering with Santa rosa junior college And then the second award that we received as the partnership was the excellence award Which recognized the partnership's efforts in promoting water sense labeled products the partnership Continues to seek innovative ways to promote water sense labeled toilets faucet aerators shower heads and other promotional offerings And this marks the 12th and 13th award issue to the partnership by the epa water sense program And the eighth year in a row that we have received awards. So really quite an achievement For the partnership and all of the member agencies that participate And then last I wanted to let the board know that the 2020 a bond series for the uv project funding and the 2012 bond series refunding was approved by city council on october 27th So big thank you to the board and the council for their support in this item Both bond issuances will be a significant reduction of expected debt service for our rate payers We are expecting to price the bonds on november 10th. So next week But we will be watching for the most favorable timing to receive the biggest advantage for our rate payers And that concludes my report and i'm happy to answer any questions Thank you director burk any questions or comments from the board for the director Hearing none. We are now taking public comments on item 13 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand Secretary atha do we have anyone we have no public comments? Thank you very much that will 13 which brings us to item number 14, which is adjournment So I wish you all a good afternoon and we'll see you in a couple weeks. We are adjourned