minutes

Regular Meeting

Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority

February 25, 2004

The Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority held a regular meeting on Wednesday, February 25, 2004, at the Sweetwater Authority Administrative Office, 505 Garrett Avenue, Chula Vista, California. Chair Doud called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

· ROLL CALL

Directors Present: Alkire, Doud, Pocklington, and Reynolds.

Directors Absent: Beauchamp, Inzunza and Welsh.

Others Present: General Manager Bostad, Operations Manager Rogers, Legal Counsel Sophie Atkins, Treasurer Avery, and Governing Board Secretary Farpón-Friedman. Staff members Hank Gaus, Mary Ann Mann, Bill Olson, Paula Roberts, Rita Schoonderwoerd, George Silva, and Jim Smyth. Also present was National City Representative Robert Valderrama.

· PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Chair Doud conducted the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

· OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT (Government Code Section (54954.3)
There were no members of the public present for comment.

· CHAIR 'S PRESENTATION
There was none.

Note: Director Beauchamp arrived at 3:31 p.m.

· ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN, OR REORDERED IN THE AGENDA

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Reynolds, that the Governing Board approve the minutes of January 28, 2004. The motion carried with Director Beauchamp abstaining.

2. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve Warrants 93070 through 93267 including all voided checks. The motion carried.
CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS

3. FINANCE AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE (Meeting of February 16, 2004)

CONSENT ITEMS

Director Reynolds made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve consent Items A and D. Item B was information only. Item C and E were pulled for discussion. The motion carried.

A. Approve a water bill adjustment for VLD Sweetwater LLC in the amount of $1,368.54.

B. Request for financial support from the Palomar College Water & Wastewater Technology Education Program: Management will follow up with additional information at a future meeting. No action was required by the Governing Board at this time.

D. Award a sole-source contract to Sterling Group in an amount not to exceed $44,000 to provide planning, design, and implementation of intrusion detection systems to accomplish specific recommendations of the Vulnerability Assessment.

ITEMS PULLED FROM CONSENT CALENDAR FOR DISCUSSION:

C. Biological Services Support - Award of Contract: Director Beauchamp expressed some concerns about the individual being a sole proprietor, and he had questions regarding insurance. General Manager Bostad answered Director Beauchamp's questions to his satisfaction.

Director Beauchamp made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board award a sole-source biological services support contract to Reising Enterprises, 5430 Baltimore Drive, #19, La Mesa, CA 91942, in the amount of $22,900. The motion carried.

Note: Director Welsh arrived at 3:35 p.m.

E. Suggested amendment to Board Policy No. 510 - Per Diem and Reimbursement. Chair Doud pointed out that staff was presenting a second alternative, as a matter of clarification, to the amendment recommended by the Committee regarding expense receipts. This amendment also puts in writing the unwritten law of non-reimbursement for alcoholic beverages.

Director Reynolds made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve the revisions to Policy No. 510 - Per Diem and Reimbursement as presented by staff in Alternative 2. The motion carried.

Note: Director Inzunza arrived at 3:38 p.m.

4. OPERATIONS COMMITTEE (Meeting of February 18, 2004)

CONSENT ITEMS

Director Beauchamp made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve consent item B. Item A was information only. The motion carried.

A. Degen Drive Pressure Zone Conversion. No action was required by the Governing Board.

B. Authorize staff to be a signatory agency on the Water Agencies' Standards Design Guide.

ACTION CALENDAR ITEMS

5. COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE (Meeting of February 23, 2004)

A. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve the payment of dues in the amount of $1,306 to the 2004 California Water Awareness Campaign from previously budgeted funds. The motion carried.

B. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Governing Board approve Sweetwater Authority's participation in the 2004 events for Creek to Bay Clean Up Day on April 3rd and Take Your Child to Work Day on April 22nd. The motion carried.

C. Staff report on public agency use of Fleet Advertising. No action was required by the Governing Board.

D. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve the 2004/2005 outreach theme focusing on efforts to inform customers that tap water from the Authority is safe to drink. The motion carried.

E. Review of 2003/2004 Communications Goals, Objectives, and Budget: No action was required by the Governing Board.

F. Information items; press releases, other items prepared for public information distribution, and update on major projects. No action was required by the Governing Board.

6. NEW BUSINESS

A. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board concur in the nomination of Wes Bannister of Orange County Water District to the ACWA/JPIA Executive Committee. The motion carried.

B. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board concur in the nomination of Bill Knutsen of Yuima Municipal Water District to the ACWA/JPIA Executive Committee. The motion carried.

C. Director Reynolds made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve the Merit Rejection letter to claimant Arline Pavlick. The motion carried.

7. REPORT OF THE SOUTH BAY IRRIGATION DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE AND THE CITY OF NATIONAL CITY REPRESENTATIVE TO THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY

Mr. Robert Valderrama presented his report on items of interest that would be discussed at the next CWA Board meeting under Administrative and Legal, Engineering and Operations, Public Affairs, and Planning and Environmental. He said that the Small Contractors Outreach and Opportunity Program is showing an increase in the small, women, and minority contractors being hired by the CWA. Another item was the eligibility and evaluation criteria developed to assess and select water-recycling products to be funded through the San Diego County regional recycled watershed. He also talked about the agreement with the Olivenhain Water District for recycled water development fund program incentives.

Director Pocklington mentioned the appointment by the Governor of Lester Snow as Director of the Department of Water Resources. He then reported on several issues that the Board would discuss at tomorrow's meeting under Engineering and Operations, Water Policy, Fiscal Policy, Executive Committee, and Administrative and Legal. He talked about the lawsuit between the CWA and MWD and stated that they expect the appeal to last about ninety days.

Director Pocklington reported on the recent meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to discuss the Governance issue. The Committee agreed that there would be three terms, two years each. Two of them would be outside the city and one within the city. The agreement with the group from the north that they would not come back to the Assembly or Senate in five years was changed to six years. He also announced that Larry Breitfelder would replace Paul Lewis on the Board.

8. APPROVAL OF DIRECTORS' ATTENDANCE AT MEETINGS AND FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

A. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Inzunza, that the Governing Board approve per diem for Director Doud's attendance at the First Friday Breakfast on February 6th. The motion carried.

B. CLE International - 6th Annual Colorado River Super Conference - May 13-14, 2004 - The Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas. Director Beauchamp said he would like to attend this conference. Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who wish to attend this event. The motion carried.

C. State of the City Address, City Council of National City, Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 140 East 12th Street, National City. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve per diem for any directors wishing to attend this event. The motion carried.

9. REPORT OF THE TREASURER - WANDA AVERY

Ms. Avery reported that interest rates at the Local Agency Investment Fund were still at 1.8 percent.

10. BUDGET REPORT - DIRECTOR OF FINANCE GAUS
Report of January 31, 2004

Director of Finance Gaus said that the water sales were still behind by $578,000. The other income has increased and is now $544,000 higher than what we budgeted. This increase is made up of three major contributions: $140,000 from Williams Electricity, which we did not expect to receive until March; $280,000 from the CWA; and $137,000 grant money from the Bureau of Reclamation. Interest Income is about $24,000 higher than we expected. The Operating Expenses are below what we budgeted by $394,000. As far as Operating Revenue versus Expenses, we have about $400,000 more cash than what we anticipated at the end of January. We project the revenues to be $36.6 million, and the Operating Expenses $28.4 million, which would give us $8.2 million. Mr. Gaus also reviewed the Capital Projects by Department. He said we had estimated spending about 45 percent at this time, but we have only spent 27 percent.

11. MANAGEMENT REPORT

A. Report of Rainfall and Reservoir Levels - Operations Manager Rogers: Operations Manager Rogers reported that Sweetwater Reservoir is 46 percent full. We had 900 acre-feet run into Sweetwater Reservoir this month and approximately 400 acre-feet went into Loveland Reservoir. The rainfall to date at Sweetwater Reservoir is 6.31 inches, and the average for this time of year is 7.71 inches. The average at Loveland Reservoir is at this time 10 inches and we have received 9.6 inches. He then displayed a slide showing the rain pattern. He added that the 1,400 acre-feet of water that we got into the reservoir amounts to about $450,000 in unnecessary purchased water costs.

B. Report of General Manager Bostad: Mr. Bostad referred to the monthly report of activities for January 2004 included in the agenda package and offered to answer any questions from the directors. He informed the Board that he would be out of town until March 9th. He will be in contact with the office in case of an emergency.

12. DIRECTORS' COMMENTS

Director Alkire said he wanted to give an "atta boy" to the staff for their handling of the Degen Drive water pressure situation. It shows we have dedicated staff that has procedures and follows them. They resolved the issue it at little cost to the Governing Board and it made 18 happy homeowners.

Director Inzunza said he had an opportunity to spend some quality time with one of the directors at a conference they attended, where he also had an opportunity to meet with the native American tribes that were there discussing financing and infrastructure. Sycuan spoke regarding water infrastructure and how they want to look into working with the local water district about the native-American water rights in other states and in California, and how they can exchange water amongst the tribes and more importantly, how they see it as a commodity. He has discussed with a couple of the Governing Board members as to how this could benefit the Authority.

Director Beauchamp said he wanted to apologize for not being at the last meeting. He got stuck in the hospital with what turned out to be a bunch of wasted time. He said that he had a couple of questions. One was when they would have a date for the National City Well No. 4 celebration. He also asked about the fishing saying that every Sunday at church Kyle Morgan asks about it.

Director Doud said he attended the WESTCAS conference in Las Vegas last week and he got some good information. Bob Johnson from the Bureau of Reclamation was a speaker there. He said that the budget looks good for the Bureau. He said he is sure that Congress will up the ante; they are over $900 million and they will probably bring it up to $1 billion. He brought a copy of the fiscal year 2005 budget overview documents from the Bush administration, which he gave to the secretary.

13. CLOSED SESSION

At 4:00 p.m., in compliance with Government Code Section 54957, the Governing Board recessed to convene in Closed Session to conference with Security and Emergency Management Coordinator concerning security issues pursuant to Government Code §54957(a). There were no minutes taken, and the session was not tape-recorded.

At 4:24 p.m., Chair Doud declared the meeting to be in open session and reported that:

Director Reynolds made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Governing Board approve awarding a contract for $474,064.00 to Johnson Controls, Inc., for an Integrated Security Management system to be installed at the Perdue Treatment Plant, the Richard A. Reynolds Desalination Facility, the Edwin Steele Operations Center, and the Sweetwater Authority Administration Building. The motion carried.

14. ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Governing Board, Chair Doud adjourned the meeting at 4:25 p.m., to the hour of 6:00 p.m. on March 10, 2004.