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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - Water Services Advisory Commission - Meeting Date: 9/3/2014��. Water Services Advisory 0 � Commission Oasis Water Campus 7070 W. Northern Avenue September 3, 2014 6:00 P.M. FINAL MINUTES APPROVED PENDING APPROVAL OF ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I. CALL TO ORDER — 6:00 p.m. IL ROLL CALL: Present: Chair Ron Short, Vice -chair Jonathan Liebman, Commissioners Robert Gehl, Ruth Faulls, Roger Schwier ohn and John Sipple Absent: Commissioner Paul Romanek Staff: Craig Johnson, Jennifer Campbell, Javier Setovich, John Henny, Doug Kupel, Amanda McKeever, Dan Hatch, Mark Fortkamp, Sam Garza, Rocco Pontrelli, Thomas Relucio, Sally Melling, Teresa Hernandez, and Hayme Amaya III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JUNE 4.2014 — Motion made by Comm. Schwier ohn and seconded by Comm. Faulls to approve the minutes. Voice approval was unanimous. Action: APPROVED 6-0 IV. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT — Craig Johnson, P.E., Executive Director • Introduction of new Water Services Administrator Ms. Amanda McKeever • Conservation and Sustainable Living group has a new rain garden at main library. Rain Water Facebook page video is getting several views. • Arrowhead Ranch Reclamation Facility Ultra Violet Upgrade Project has been selected as an award nominee by the Arizona Ford Environmental Excellence Awards. o Award will be presented on September 20, 2014 • City Manager Brenda Fischer has scheduled a City Council workshop on Urban Irrigation. o Workshop will take place at City Hall, City Council Chamber room B3 on September 16, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. o Staff will present the history of this topic, overview of the current activity, and actions by the Water Services Task Force and Water Services Advisory Commission Action: No action taken, information only V. CALL TO THE AUDIENCE — Chair Ron Short reviewed the opportunity for audience members to address the Water Services Advisory Commission. Two people chose to speak on non -agenda items. City of Glendale Water Services department • 7070 West Northern Avenue 9 Glendale, AZ 85303 • (623) 930-4100 September 3, 2014 Water Services Advisory Commission Final Minutes Page 2 Robin Berryhill- Stated she would like to ask commissioners on the Water Service Advisory Commission to request that staff include citizen participation and allow citizens to ask questions they have and receive a response from the commission and/or staff. She also addressed rates with Central Arizona Project versus Salt River Irrigation rates. Jessica Koory: Thanked the Commission for its service to the citizens of Glendale. She asked for clarification of information provided about what cities have irrigation today, on Urban Irrigation account number 518200, who is responsible for providing maintenance to the irrigation system, why Salt River Irrigation has two accounts and she said would also like to have more public meetings with management and commission members where citizens can have more input. VI. URBAN IRRIGATION PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN PRESENTATION Information presented by Doug Kupel, PhD, Water Service Deputy Director At June 4, 2014 meeting WSAC directed staff to: • Draft a Public Participation Plan that outlines future discussions of Urban Irrigation. Staff made a study of Public Participation Plans that are used by other city department in Glendale and also by other government agencies. Tempe's experience was particularly useful as they are also considering urban irrigation issues in that community. • Prepare draft report summarizing current information regarding urban irrigation. • Prepare a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the staff report. • Schedule an information -only WSAC meeting on October 1, 2014 to solicit public comments on urban irrigation issues identified in the staff report. • Publish a notice in the Glendale Star newspaper prior to the meeting noting the date and time of the information -only meeting, 20 days before meeting. • Issue a press release two weeks before the meeting; post press release on the WSAC web page under urban irrigation heading • Notify direct interest stake holders of the meeting by USPS mail and by email Glendale homeowners associations, registered neighborhood groups and other interested parties. Distribute notices two weeks prior to the meeting. Keep track of the number of individuals that were mailed notices, who were on the master email list, attend meetings, submitted written comments and gave public comments. Staff worked to: • Create a master urban irrigation e-mail interest list. Interested persons may register to be placed on list. • Create an urban irrigation heading on the WSAC web page where documents can be posted, meeting announced and on-line comments submitted. Post a list of FAQ's and answers. • Provide opportunity for written comments on October 1, 2014 meeting and provide WSAC with a summary of comments received. September 3, 2014 Water Services Advisory Commission Final Minutes Page 3 Discussion of any changes to urban irrigation rates will be brought to the WSAC in conjunction with future comprehensive discussions of overall water/sewer rates. Commission questions/concerns: • Does staff feel a 20 day advanced notice and two weeks to get all the information is a reasonable timeline? o Staff clarified yes staff will be able to meet those deadlines. • How do you determine who direct interest stake holders are? o At the start of irrigation season there is a number of potential customers who make up the 400 or so that is mentioned in the SRI contract. As of this year, there were about 350 that signed up, so those would be the direct interest stakeholders • How does the mailing list get generated for the letter and the stakeholders are they just the 350 who received the letter this year or the 400 or so that get the letter at the beginning of the season? o The 400 that would receive the direct mail notice. • Is the City of Glendale looking at service boundary or is the city looking at customers are within that service boundary who we have been servicing the 350- 460? o The Commission's recommendation would be the list of 400 that is made by the city's billing department that we send those letter to each year. • The notice in the Glendale Star, is this going to be a legal notice or will this be an ad that is a fairly good size? o Would that be a single column, double column, triple column on that notice? • It is a larger area than the legal notice? o A legal notice is a very small type; it is in a very small space. Meeting notifications are somewhat larger, in a larger font, easier to read and somewhat more noticeable. The ad that would be purchased would be sized by the square inch. The Glendale Star sells ads by the square inch so staff could buy as many inches as needed within certain limits, so they can size it and place it anywhere in sight. • Will the Glendale Star have two different notices, one notice that is 20 days and another notice that is two weeks prior? o The press release would be to invite press coverage. The press release may or may not encourage the writers or editors at the various newspapers to print an actual article saying there is going be a meeting and this is the subject because of the general interest to their leadership perhaps. There will be a published notice in the newspaper. • The December meeting is on rate structures. Would talking about other policy issues such as Urban Irrigation during the December meeting be confusing? o The discussion for the plan of how all this is going to work in the overall rate structure will probably take place the first of the year during the budget season and all of the detailed rate discussion that staff will have September 3, 2014 Water Services Advisory Commission Final Minutes Page 4 with the city council after the first of the year. Irrigation will be folded this in to that overall discussion. • Will other policy questions relative to Urban Irrigation be allowed? o Yes • Besides only fiscal matters, will it open it up to other policy matters? o At that time, staff is going to give the WSAC an idea of how staff analyzes the overall rate structure on the program. It will give the WSAC an idea of what staff is going to be going through during that discussion with the city council members and workshops after the fust of the year. • Location of meeting requested to be changed and information requested. o Staff will work on changing the location of the October 1St meeting. Six people chose to speak on this item. Action: MOTION MADE BY COMM. SCHWIERJOHN, SECONDED BY COMM. SIPPLE, WITH ALL PARTICULAR SUGGESTIONS MADE, FOR STAFF TO PROCEED TO SET UP THE URBAN IRRIGATION PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING APPROVED 6-0 VII. FY 2014/15 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN BUDGET PRESENTATION Information presented by Dan Hatch, Water Services Administrator/Budget and Finance • Council approved the City's 10 -year CIP in June • Total of 5 -year budget is $365 million, which includes $103 million for water service projects • 5 -year schedule CIP FY2015-FY2019 include: projects of rehabilitation, replacement of water and sewer lines, improvement to process and redundancies, expansion to the infrastructure and securing water rights for future demand. • FY2014 Budget total of $17.6 million dollars balance as of April 2014 • $16.5 million was not spent this amount was carried to FY2015, $19.6 million to make a total budget of $36.1 million. Total includes $6.7 million for water rights for payment of the White Mountain Apache water rights quantification agreement. Anticipated conclusion is by the end of this fiscal year. • Available amount for 2015 will be reduced by $931,594 for expenses that were incurred between April 2014 and the end of the fiscal year June 30, 2014. • Staff has started working on this next year's 5 -year and 10 -year program. Each project will be evaluated for priority, cost, cash flow, length of construction and resources available to complete the project. Future budgets will likely be pushed out to out to long-term years. Commission questions: • In the 2014 budget were five projects partially completed? o Staff answered only $1.4 million was completed in the 2014 budget and the remainder of $19.6 million is carried to the 2015 budget amount. • Why all the money wasn't spent to improve on all these other projects? September 3, 2014 Water Services Advisory Commission Final Minutes Page 5 o Staff needs to reserve it for the federal system to approve White Mountain Apache water rights quantification so those funds must be available. Action: No action required, for information and discussion only VIII. NEXT MEETING: October 1, 2014,6 p.m. IX. ADJOURNMENT — Motion to adjourn - Comm. Schwie&hn, seconded by Vice Chair Leibman. Approved by voice vote 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 7:24 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Hayme Amaya, Recording Secretary