minutes

Regular Meeting

Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority

July 30, 2003

The Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority held an adjourned regular meeting on Wednesday, July 30, 2003, 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: Beauchamp, Doud, Pocklington and Wright.

Directors Absent: Inzunza and Welsh.

Others Present: General Manager Bostad, Operations Manager Rogers, Legal Counsel Cowett, Treasurer Avery, and Board Secretary Farpón-Friedman. Staff members, Leslie Fillipi, Hank Gaus, Mary Ann Mann, Bill Olson, George Silva, Jim Smyth, and Tom Woodrum, and City of National City Representative to the San Diego County Water Authority Robert Valderrama.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Director Pocklington 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.

ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN, OR REORDERED IN THE AGENDA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

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Wright, that the Board approve the minutes of the Adjourned Regular meeting of June 30, 2003 and the Regular Meeting of July 9, 2003. The motion carried.

2. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Board approve Warrants 89559 through 89885 including all voided checks. The motion carried.
3. COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS TO REPLACE DIRECTOR JAMES S. WOLNIEWICZ

Chairman Doud announced that, with the Board’s concurrence, he would appoint Director Wright to the Chula Vista Interagency Task Force, and would delay all other appointments until the Board selects a new director. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that Director Wright be appointed to the Chula Vista Interagency Water Task Force, and that the other appointments be made when the Board selects a new director. The motion carried.

CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS

4. FINANCE AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE (Meeting of July 21, 2003)

CONSENT ITEMS

Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington that the Governing Board approve consent Items A through D. The motion carried.

A. Approve the Regular V membership for Fiscal Year 2003-04 in the amount of $2,060 in Western Coalition of Arid States.

B. Award a sole-source contract to Tesco Controls as the Authority’s SCADA integrator for as-needed SCADA Integration requirements, and that a one-year contract be approved for any additional projects requiring SCADA Integration work beyond those currently identified.

C. Approve a contract in the amount of $80,000 to ERCO Worldwide to conduct a chlorine dioxide plant test for a period of 120 days; that Sika and Raven Products be used for the concrete test work with a maximum combined contract amount of $20,000; and that funding for the chlorine dioxide test be made available by transferring $111,000 from Budget Project 03-03E to Budget Project 01-33W.

D. Approve the continuation of the current consultant agreement with Fox Lawson and Associates, LLC, by addendum, to complete a classification and compensation study for the Middle Management and Professional bargaining groups in an amount not to exceed $22,500 with funding from the Unallocated Reserve Fund.

5. NEW BUSINESS

A. Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) – Call for Nominations – Seeking candidates for President and Vice President positions for the 2004-2005 term:

This item was deferred to a future Board meeting.

B. Request for Municipal Water District of Orange County to concur in the nomination of Susan Hinman for the position of Board Member of ACWA Region 10:

This item was deferred to a future Board meeting.

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

Mr. Valderrama gave a brief report on issues discussed at last week’s Board meeting. These issues related to Public Affairs, Engineering and Operations, and Planning and Environmental Committees.

NOTE: Director Welsh entered the meeting at 3:41 p.m.

Mr. Valderrama also noted that there is a request from the City of National City to the CWA to have a public official from the City of National City sit as representative on the CWA board. The City of Poway has made the same request, and the issue will be discussed by the Board within the month of August.

Counsel Cowett clarified the proposal and noted that it would require legislation to change the Water Authority Act.

NOTE: Director Inzunza entered the meeting at 3:50 p.m.

Director Pocklington gave his report on items of interest to Sweetwater Authority, which included the Quantification Settlement Agreement, the importance of the Salton Sea issue in the negotiations, and the need for a treatment plant for the Northern agencies.

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

A. Chula Vista Nature Center Shark & Ray Experience Pre-Opening Celebration July 25, 2003. Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who attended this event. The motion carried.

B. First Friday Breakfast meeting with Renée Bahl, Director of San Diego County Department of Parks and Recreation as speaker – August 1, 2003, San Diego Country Club, Chula Vista. Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who wish to attend this event. The motion carried.

C. Ocean Water Desalination Workshop – West Basin Municipal Water District, Carson, CA – August 8, 2003: Director Wright will attend this event. Director Welsh made a motion, seconded by Director Pocklington, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who wish to attend this event. The motion carried.

D. Olivenhain Recycled Water Reservoir Dedication, Encinitas, CA – August 11, 2003. Directors Inzunza, Pocklington, and Wright will attend this event. Director Pocklington made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Governing Board approve per diem for directors who wish to attend this event. The motion carried.

E. Chula Vista Lemon Festival – August 17, 2003: Directors Doud, Inzunza, Pocklington, and Welsh signed up to host this pre-approved community outreach event.

F. California Special Districts Association, San Diego Chapter, Quarterly Dinner – August 21, 2003, Doubletree Club Hotel of San Diego. Directors Doud, Inzunza, Pocklington, Welsh and Wright will be attending this pre-approved event. No action was required by the Governing Board.

G. Urban Water Institute – 10th Annual Southern California Urban Water Conference – August 20 – 21- 22 – Hyatt Regency Islandia Hotel, Mission Bay, San Diego. All Directors with the exception of Director Beauchamp will attend this pre-approved event. No action was required by the Governing Board.

8. REPORT OF TREASURER – WANDA AVERY

Ms. Avery reported that the Local Agency (LAIF) interest rate is still 1.65 percent.

9. BUDGET REPORT – DIRECTOR OF FINANCE GAUS
Report as of June 30, 2003

Director of Finance Gaus said that at the end of the fiscal year we have $494,000 in excess water sales. The Other Income is $2.7 million less than what we anticipated. Of this amount, $2.6 million is a carryover to next year; $1.2 million was grant money that we did not receive this current year and $1.4 million is from a projected sale of some land to a state highway project that did not take place this year. The Interest Income was $98,000 lower than anticipated, and the Operating Expenses were $114,000 below what we had projected.

Director of Finance Gaus reported on the Capital Projects. We had a budget of $21 million this year and we spent $14.6.We will carry over roughly $5.8 million, which means that we are within $600,000 under budget for capital projects. Collectively, we are under budget for the year 2002-2003 by $265,000.

10. MANAGEMENT REPORT

A. Report of Rainfall and Reservoir Levels – Operations Manager Rogers: Operations Manager Rogers reported that early on in 2002 representatives from the San Diego Country Club asked us for some meters to get extra water. The San Diego Country Club has irrigated its system for years by using an alluvial, shallow aquifer to water fairways and shrubs, and potable water from Sweetwater Authority to irrigate the greens. Once a year they use potable water to flush out the fairways. The trees and shrubs over the years have not responded to that type of water because it is high in TDS. At their request, we put four extra meters in July of 2002, which has resulted in an extra $215,000 in revenue from water sales and has made the San Diego Country Club our second largest customer.

B. Report of General Manager Bostad: General Manager Bostad said he wanted to highlight the most recent ACWA bulletin, which has an obituary on Director Wolniewicz. He then referred to the Report of Operations for the month of July included in the Board package and offered to answer any questions from directors. There were no questions.

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

Director Wright said he had distributed several reports that he had received from NWRA Washington. As far as CALFED, he referred to another report he had provided that talked about the statement of Senator Feinstein on the need for Congress to pass a balanced CALFED bill. He thinks she will have problems trying to get it through.

12. DIRECTORS’ COMMENTS

Director Wright said that he had not been pleased with the NWRA conference. The facilities were under construction and he thinks that La Costa is a cold place. Also, he did not think that the subject matter was that pertinent.

He then talked about yesterday’s meeting on the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan overview. He said that on June 22 the board of commissioners initiated the master planning effort and requested that four different processes be included. The second one was the analysis of the feasibility of replacing the South Bay Power Plant and the electrical surcharge. The third one was the investigation of co-locating a desalination plant with a new replacement power plant. He said that if the participants in that room had the final say in this matter, there would never be a power plant on that site. He referred to the article by Bustamente on April 8, 2003, which says that Duke is meeting all of the requirements of its contract with the Port including updating the district twice a year on efforts to find a replacement sight. Duke has until June 2006, and he does not think anything is going to happen anytime soon as they have until that date to publicize the site selection as part of an application to the California Energy Commission for a new plant. He thinks that this power plant is currently part of the mix of energy for the State of California and if it is not approved, somebody has to come up with some kind of replacement for power. He read an article that said that Duke has looked at about two dozen sites, many of them with fatal flaws such as being too far from a natural gas source or a transmission facility. A site in Otay Mesa, which environmentalists have touted, is unsuitable because it is too far from a transmission facility. Disclosing perspective sites will alter real estate speculators who would drive up the property costs. What caused him to go back and get this article were the closing comments of the Chairman of the Port yesterday who alluded to this. He said that there is a contract in place, and he wonders what happens when you pull out of a contract. He thinks that this is a major concern.

He had a chance to talk to some of the Crossroads people on the way out, who told him that they had invited the Port to make a presentation on the power situation. The port declined saying that it was not that they were not willing, but they just did not have enough information at the time.

He then referred to a paper from Steve Castaneda who is running for City Council, and who has much support from Port Commissioner Compton, Tony McCune, Chula Vista Police Chief Winters, Ducheny, Schulenberg of Southwestern College, Marco Polo Cortez, etc.

Director Pocklington said that he would also talk about the meeting that Director Wright was referring to. This was a joint meeting between the City Council and the Port District and the people that put on the program out of New York gave a marvelous program on what could happen on our bayfront, but they did not talk about the cost of it all. They want to open up all of the roads from E to J so G and I would need to be built over the freeway, and they would remove the power plant. There was a good response from the crowd, but we will not know how good it is until we start looking at the cost and what the Port District decides to do. A number of people want to see a joint planning group between the City and the Port. They also want a separate workshop on just the power plant. The alternative water source is seawater desalination. He thinks a separate workshop would be good to enlighten some of the people who want to get rid of the plant that have no idea the crisis this state is in as far as power and water. He said that there were ways that the power plant could me moved further back from the shore and give the shoreline for something else. He said that there is also a 20-member working group of environmental agencies that want to add to that. He has lived in Chula Vista for over 40 years and doesn’t know how many times they have talked about the bayfront and what we are going to do about it, and it has failed every time. He stated they need to work together very closely to resolve the problems.

Director Beauchamp said that Supervisor Greg Cox appointed him to the Otay Valley Citizens Advisory Committee a couple of years ago and he has been tracking what is going on there. He said that they have been doing trails and it is starting to take shape. He noted that General Manager Bostad had shared with him a strategy relating to desalination and demineralization where you don’t have it all in one place. One of those sites was near the Otay River Valley because of the groundwater situation there. He said that the County has received state grant money to launch a comprehensive planning effort through the watershed management plan for the entire area that drains into the Otay River watershed, which is called “Special Area Management Plan.” He thought this was something that we probably should be watching. Putting his hat on as a railroad person, he said, we need to have a 24-hour rail connection so we are watching it. As a water person, he thinks it is something that we may want to watch.

13. CLOSED SESSION

There was no need for one.

14. ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Board, Chair Doud adjourned the meeting at 4:36 p.m., to the hour of 6:00 p.m. on August 13, 2003.