minutes

Regular Meeting

Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority

June 11, 2003

The Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority held a regular meeting on Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at the Sweetwater Authority Administrative Office, 505 Garrett Avenue, Chula Vista, California. Chair Doud called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

· ROLL CALL

Directors Present: Beauchamp, Doud, Inzunza, Pocklington, Welsh, Wolniewicz and Wright.

Directors Absent: None.

Others Present: General Manager Bostad, Operations Manager Rogers, Legal Counsel Cowett, Treasurer Avery, and Board Secretary Farpón-Friedman. Staff members Hank Gaus, Michael Garrod; Mary Ann Mann, Bill Olson, Paula Roberts, George Silva, Jim Smyth, and Tom Woodrum.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Director Wolniewicz 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 no presentation.

ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN, OR REORDERED IN THE AGENDA
There were none.

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A. Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Wolniewicz, that the Governing Board approve the minutes of May 13, 2003. The motion carried with Directors Inzunza and Wright abstaining as they were absent from that meeting.

B. Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve the minutes of May 28, 2003. The motion carried.

2. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Wolniewicz made a motion, seconded by Director Wolniewicz, that the Governing Board approve Warrants 88896 through 89101 including all voided checks. The motion carried.

CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS

3. OPERATIONS COMMITTEE (Meeting of June 3, 2003)

CONSENT ITEMS

Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve consent Items A and B. The motion carried.

A. Approve the funding of $138,500 from the Repair and Replacement Reserve Fund for the replacement of the 4-inch cast-iron water main on Pepper Tree Drive.

B. Approve the request by the National City Community Development Commission to quitclaim the blanket easement at 2131 Harrison Avenue, National City.

4. FINANCE AND PERSONEL COMMITTEE (Meeting of May 2, 2003)

CONSENT ITEMS

Director Wolniewicz made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve consent Items A, B and C. The motion carried.

A. Approve the membership renewal for 2003-04 in the AWWA Research Foundation subject to a review by Director of Finance Gaus of the annual commitment not to exceed $9,887.

B. Approve the extension of the contract with Thomas Walters and Associates for two years beginning July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2005, at a cost of $4,000 per year.

ACTION CALENDAR ITEMS

5. FINANCE AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE (Meeting of June 10, 2003)

A. Further discussion of directors’ benefits. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

B. Further review of Fiscal Year 2003-2004 budget. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

6. NEW BUSINESS

A. Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve the Merit Rejection letter to Ms. Melody Gomez. The motion carried.

B. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Beauchamp, that the Governing Board approve rescheduling the meeting of June 23rd to June 30th at 3:00 p.m., and the meeting of July 25th to July 30th at 3:30 p.m. The motion carried.

7. OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Further consideration of ACWA Region 10 Leadership Candidates for Region Officer and Board Member Positions for the 2004-2005 term.

Director Welsh made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board nominate Director Wolniewicz as a candidate for the ACWA Region 10 Board. The motion carried.

8. ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS

Upon a motion made by Director Welsh, seconded by Director Beauchamp, the following Resolution:

RESOLUTION 03-10

RESOLUTION OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF
SWEETWATER AUTHORITY AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF A MASTER LEASE AGREEMENT, EQUIPMENT SCHEDULE NO. 01 AND RELATED INSTRUMENTS, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH

was passed and Adopted by the following vote, to wit:

Ayes: Directors Beauchamp, Doud, Inzunza, Pocklington, Welsh, Wolniewicz, and Wright
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstain: None

9. APPROVAL OF DIRECTORS’ ATTENDANCE AT MEETINGS AND FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

A. Director Welsh made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who attended the First Friday Breakfast, June 6, 2003, with RADM Jose L. Betancourt Jr., United States Navy Commander as the speaker. The motion carried.

B. Director Wolniewicz made a motion, seconded by Director Wright, that the Governing Board approve per diem for Director Pocklington for attending a reception hosted by the Chula Vista Center to preview its Shark & Ray Experience construction project on June 5th, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The motion carried.

C. Council of Water Utilities Breakfast – June 17, 2003, 7:15 – 8:45 a.m. at StoneRidge Country Club. All except Director Beauchamp will attend this pre-approved event. No action was required by the Governing Board.

D. Director Wolniewicz made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who wish to attend a Regional Clean Water Summit, Friday, June 20th, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Point Loma Nazarene University. The motion carried.

10. REPORT OF TREASURER – WANDA AVERY

Ms. Avery reported that the Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) interest rate was 1.8 percent today and she placed $1,000,000 for three and a half years at 2.05 percent.

11. MANAGEMENT REPORT

A. Report of Rainfall and Reservoir Levels – Operations Manager Rogers: Operations Manager Rogers referred to the article in today’s newspaper about the Oroville Dam and the possibility of 100,000 acre-feet of MWD’s water spilling. He said he had immediately contacted our Metropolitan representative and asked if we could alleviate the water going over the top by taking water into the Sweetwater Reservoir. Unfortunately, the pipes are full and there is no way that they can move any more water down into the South Bay.

B. Report of General Manager Bostad: General Manager Bostad briefly reported on a Bureau of Reclamation meeting he had attended last night in which they discussed a new era of limited water supply. They were looking at interim surplus guidelines and now they are planning to develop shortage guidelines because of the lack of water on the Colorado River. They said the probability of filling the reservoirs on the Colorado River by the year 2010 is 20/25 percent. He also reported on a meeting with staff on seawater desalination opportunities at the South Bay power plant site. It has not yet been determined when any action will take place towards moving forward with that project. There are still issues with the Port, the environmentalists, with whether or not there will be a power plant at that location, and certainly there are concerns with taking water from the bay and discharging to the bay. The CWA is looking at developing a feasibility study in South County for desalination that includes the South Bay power plant site. He briefly mentioned Senate Bill 407, and said there are indications that there is interest in transferring additional funds from Special Districts along with cities and counties, and they may not be looking just at taxing districts but also enterprise districts.

Director Wolniewicz commented on the same subject and said that letters had been sent to Ducheny and Vargas requesting their support to prevent the State from taking money from local governments. He added that the great majority of the special districts had sent letters to Government representatives.

12. REPORT OF CALFED/BAY-DELTA OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE AND NWRA REPRESENTATIVE - DIRECTOR WRIGHT

Director Wright said he had no report on CALFED. As far as NWRA, he said there is a lot going on about environmental conservation credits, which started off in California. They create banks, and that gives them bigger areas to accommodate more species. We will be hearing more about this, which seems to be a very successful way to accommodate the Endangered Species Act.

13. DIRECTORS’ COMMENTS

Director Pocklington said that one more crisis in the State of California is going to be natural gas shortage. Yesterday’s paper talked about the U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham calling an emergency meeting of the National Petroleum Council to figure out how to deal with the U.S. natural gas shortage. He said U.S. gas stockpile in March was the lowest since the Department of Energy began tracking it in 1976. We are looking at increased prices for natural gas, not this year but next year. He added that the Senate plans to offer a subsidy for new nuclear reactors.

Director Beauchamp thanked Chairman Doud for covering for him at the Operations Committee meeting. He announced that he has taken over as the General Manager of Ferrocarriles Peninsulares del Noroeste, which is the Mexican railroad between Tijuana and Tecate. The General Manager, with whom he had been working for probably eight years to get the Eastern Desert line open, had just passed away. He noted that he is going to be very busy because he is working two jobs. A piece of interesting news was that he had just received notice that the pipe for construction of the Mexican aqueduct was on its way and it would be here in a couple of days.

Director Wolniewicz said he noticed in the new roster with directors’ addresses that the only two people on the Board who are not on the Internet and e-mail are the Chairman of Sweetwater Authority and the President of South Bay Irrigation District.

Director Wright said he went to Sacramento yesterday to attend the ACWA Legislative Symposium and he had returned only about three hours ago. Fifty-five people signed up, but there were only about 37 in most of the sessions he had attended. He brought information on how to approach senators and also on some of the bills, which he was turning over to staff. Included in this information is a summary of the legislation. He noted that more staff than directors from water districts attended the Symposium, and there were fewer than last year. There were four senators and four assemblymen. He gave an overview of the six sessions held yesterday, which included a report by the California Commission on tax policy on the new economy. During that particular session, they provided background on different taxes they would like to see happen and asked the attendees to vote. There were twelve proposals: Collect use taxes on remote sales; expand sales tax to include selected services; establish a single statewide telecommunication tax; periodically reassess commercial property to market value; establish a State tax court system; establish a flat tax for business and personal income in lieu of all other taxes; constitutionally protect the existing local revenues from State appropriation; swap sales tax for property tax at the local level; create a budget reserve account; implement State spending caps; and create a multi-year budget cycle. He voted for a couple of them but they did not have time to announce the results. He asked staff to take a look at AB 208, AB 1209, and SB 418. Machado from Contra Costa was there and they talked about the new bond issue next year. He referred to the article in the paper today about MWD, and he said that it looks like MWD is finally going to have to get with it or it will lose a lot of water and a lot of money.

Chairman Doud read an anonymous piece: “The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong things at the tempting moment.”

14. CLOSED SESSION

There was no need for a Closed Session.

15. ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Board, Chair Doud adjourned the meeting at 6:44 p.m., to the hour of 8:30 a.m., on June 19, 2003.