minutes

South Bay Irrigation District
Minutes of the Regular Meeting

May 19, 2003

The Board of Directors of South Bay Irrigation District held a regular meeting on Monday, May 19, 2003, at the Sweetwater Authority Administrative Office, 505 Garrett Avenue, Chula Vista, California. President Pocklington called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Directors Present: Doud, Pocklington, Wolniewicz and Wright

Directors Absent: Welsh.

Others Present: General Manager Bostad, Operations Manager Mark Rogers, and Board Secretary Marisa Farpón-Friedman. Sweetwater Authority staff Bill Barsch, Hank Gaus, Mary Ann Mann and Jim Smyth.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

President Pocklington conducted the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT (Government Code Section (54954.3)

There was no comment from the public.

PRESIDENT’S PRESENTATION
Introduction of Scholarship winner Cristina Jimenez

President Pocklington introduced Cristina Jimenez, winner of the annual $1,000 scholarship, who is a senior at the Marian Catholic School. He said he had attended the school Graduation Ceremony yesterday and remarked that Cristina had gone up to the podium 14 times. Cristina was asked to speak to the Board about her future plans, which include attending the Claremont Pomona College. She thanked the Board for the scholarship.

Legal Counsel Paula De Sousa arrived at 3:39 p.m.

ACTION AGENDA

1. PUBLIC HEARING (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54954.3 (A))

The purpose of the public hearing was to provide opportunity for members of the public to address the Board concerning the proposed resolution fixing compensation paid to directors and amending Resolution 546

President Pocklington opened the Public Hearing at 3:40 p.m.

There were no members of the public to provide comments on the issue. President Pocklington closed the Public Hearing at 3:41 p.m.

Upon a motion made by Director Doud, seconded by Director Wright, the following Resolution:

RESOLUTION 551
FIXING COMPENSATION PAID TO DIRECTORS
AND AMENDING RESOLUTION 546

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

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

2. PRESENTATION BY GEORGE SILVA, INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER, SWEETWATER AUTHORITY, AND KEVIN JOHNSON, PROJECT MANAGER, EMA, INC.

Sweetwater Authority’s Information Systems Master Plan.

Information Systems Manager Silva started by saying that information technology plays a huge role in the effectiveness of any industry, and it will become more and more important in the future. He displayed a chart showing the development of the Sweetwater Authority’s Information Systems from 1984 to date. It started with the Wang Word Processors in 1984 and every year, one or two major hardware/software systems were developed. The implementation of each one of these systems was very successful, but there was little consideration to how each one related to every other application.

NOTE: Director Welsh entered the meeting at 3:43 p.m.

Mr. Silva stated that at the time these individual applications were implemented, Sweetwater Authority did not have an innovative data that all employees could have access to when they needed to make decisions. Two years ago, the Governing Board and Management approved the implementation of an Information Systems section, which has the responsibility of making sure that we will not run into the problem of having isolated data not accessible to all users in the future. In May of last year, the Information Systems section consulted with EMA to create a plan for the next ten years and to implement guidelines, policies and procedures in order to avoid running into problems.

Mr. Silva introduced Kevin Johnson from EMA. Mr. Johnson said that EMA is a consulting firm that focuses primarily on information system master planning for water, wastewater, and electronic business. Information technology is constantly changing, as is the business of water and wastewater utilities. The methodology used to implement the plan has six steps: establish and define a technology vision; assessment of operating processes; review existing information systems; perform needs assessment; prepare draft plan and implementation schedule; and finalize and implement the plan. They considered customer service, operation, and maintenance processes, and came up with a quick assessment based on some best practices under industry standards.

The third step was to look at the Authority's current information systems, including the SCADA and Geographical Information System (GIS), which are what we would call Enterprise Applications. They reviewed the information systems and worked with a core team of seven to eight people. They also did group interviews with key operating employees and prepared a draft implementation schedule of a ten-year plan.

Mr. Johnson discussed an American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF) project where EMA was the facilitator for over 200 utilities. The project identified what would be the top trends that may impact the water utility industry over the next five to ten years. These trends include population growth changes, increasing water demands, limited resources, more stringent regulations, expanding infrastructure needs, decreased consumer confidence with increased expectations, productivity demands and efficiency requirements, as well as utility consolidation and regionalization.

He stated that utility companies are becoming more customer focused, and over the last year or so water and wastewater industry have been trying to come up with common frameworks to deliver and categorize technology and services. They are using the AWWARF Model for creating effective IT solutions. This model includes seven different categories, with around 49 different recommendations.

Mr. Johnson talked about the seven categories of the AWWARF Model, which include the overall/common ones, infrastructure management, service delivery and sourcing, IT organization and directional oversight and planning, and finally, program and project management.

His company developed a Ten-year Implementation Plan, with a total cost estimate range of $3 million to $5.6 million over ten years. This breaks out basically to an investment of about one-quarter million dollars to about half a million dollars per year. The range in the dollar figure is associated with how much of that work would be done internally versus having a consulting firm providing support with that application. Generally, newer technology tends to decrease in costs, and improvements associated with technology for putting in a new application are wrapped around three things: the cost of supporting those applications; improvements in business processes; and organizational changes. There is a direct correlation between training and productivity, and technology gives the ability to be more productive.

General Manager Bostad talked about software programs, such as the asset management software, which can track all the assets on the same common platform throughout the company. Currently programs in the company are compartmentalized and do not readily share information across departments. Improved information sharing will improve efficiencies of the operation.

Mr. Johnson talked about the recommendations and how they did a prioritization exercise working closely with a core team of Sweetwater Authority employees. The result was unanimous and the top recommendation was for an asset and maintenance management system. The asset life cycle is critical to an effective asset management program. He explained how the integration would increase effectiveness and productivity. He stated that this is an enterprise project with a great deal of return on investment, but it requires some careful consideration because it is a fairly encompassing project. As part of the asset management project there are sub-projects or sub-activities, such as bar coding, fleet maintenance, information technology, etc., that get rolled into the whole umbrella called asset management.

Mr. Silva pointed out the projects that have either been approved in the budget or put on hold until the plan was approved. He gave as an example the replacement of our phone system, which will be completed within the next couple of months. We originally budgeted for a system that was similar to what we have now. Once we looked at the plan and what the technological features were, we realized we needed to buy a totally different system, which was probably 50 percent more expensive. By spending that extra money we know that the system will be capable of doing everything that we will need to do years from now.
3. ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN OR REORDERED TO THE AGENDA
(Government Code Section 54956.5)
There were none.

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Director Wolniewicz made a motion, seconded by Director Wright, that the Board approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 21, 2003. The motion carried with Director Doud abstaining as he was absent from that meeting.

5. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Wright made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that warrant numbers 9981 through 9993 be approved. The motion carried.

6. NEW BUSINESS

A. Consideration of Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2003-2004

President Pocklington said that the budget presented to the Board shows that we are still going to be in the red over the next year, if the interest rates remain the way they are. The budget would be reviewed in December or January for an update to see if modifications need to be done. He asked for questions from the Directors. Director Wright stated that in years past changes have been made through a committee, and he asked if anyone worked with the Secretary in the preparation of the budget. President Pocklington said that he did. President Pocklington stated that the estimated income is about $22,000 and our expenses are over $48,000, and that a number of items had been cut back to the minimum. Director Wright also asked about last year’s deficit, and President Pocklington said that the deficit last year was $15,000. The estimated income for next year is $10,000 less than last year due to the low interest rates.

Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Wolniewicz, that the Governing Board approve the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2003-2004. The motion carried, with Director Wright opposing.

B. Request from Helix Water District in support of Barbara J. Barber’s nomination in the upcoming LAFCO election:

After a brief discussion, the Board deferred this item to the next meeting.

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

Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve per diem for Director Pocklington’s attendance at the Marion Catholic School’s graduation ceremony on May 18, 2003 to present the scholarship. The motion carried.

8. REPORT OF TREASURER

Ms. Avery informed the Board that she would be taking $100,000 from the Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) and investing it with Pacific Trust Bank at 2.05 percent for one year.

9. REPORT OF LAFCO SPECIAL DISTRICTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER

Director Wolniewicz said that there was no meeting.

10. REPORT OF LAFCO SPECIAL DISTRICTS REGULAR MEMBER

President Pocklington said that San Diego LAFCO has a redesigned website at www.sdlafco.org. He also said they approved the budget, which is approximately the same as last year. He did not think there would be any significant increase in the cost apportionment to SBID, which was $120 last year. He said that Ramona Water District is considering again annexing and making itself a city. Diane Jacobs has asked a study group to get letters supporting the study from the Chairman of the Planning Group and Ramona Water Board. He thinks that she is supporting the recommendation to incorporate. As an information item, they talked about the Perdue Water Treatment Plant annexation for our sewer system. He assumes that if there is no criticism it will all become a reality in the next few months.

11. REPORT OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY REPRESENTATIVE

President Pocklington said that at the last CWA board meeting they passed Ordinance 2003-04, amending the administrative code Section 18.2 which amends the operating fund reserve policy from 60 days to 45 days. They went back one year and $14 million were going to be made available to the member agencies. The policy changed in 1997, and some of the smaller members said that they would rather have it recalculated back to 1997. President Pocklington said that, although it would mean losing some income, he had voted in favor because he thinks that is the right thing to do. The information came out last week, and the total income for Sweetwater Authority is $304,000, which the Authority has already received.

He referred to Assembly Bill 1385, which was being pushed by Raymond Haines. This Bill would change the voting procedure at the CWA. An Ad Hoc Committee is looking at the issue and he would expect a recommendation coming back to the Board in July or August.

12. DIRECTORS’ COMMENTS

Director Welsh said that it was interesting that the State Treasurer responded to the concerns that surfaced at ACWA. She said that many people were asking about how safe the LAIF money is so she appreciated seeing it in his handwriting.

Director Doud said he cut an article out of Readers’ Digest that said, “I do the water and sewer billing for a small city in Washington State. Customers complained about our postcard size bills, which they said looked too much like junk mail. So we decided to start sending full size bills in envelopes. The month before we made the switch I had a note printed on the cards announcing the change. Two days later I heard someone yelling at our receptionist. Is this some kind of a joke? When the customer threw his bill on the desk I saw his point. The note was printed ‘Coming Soon. New Larger Bills’.”

Director Wright said that yesterday’s Los Angeles Times had a special garden issue with many pictures and descriptions. He said that there have been many talks at Sweetwater Authority about the Mediterranean climate and why the time is right for California’s own plants. He said that on Saturday he went to the Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca and they had a very steady crowd. All of the participants that we are familiar with, five or six, had their banners up there except Sweetwater Authority. We are not a major contributor and he is still in favor of not having participated fully in the Garden. He thinks that the City of San Diego had a relatively large staff in attendance. He added that he would bring some of the handouts to the Sweetwater Authority Board meeting. He thought it was a good show and that they are doing a good job.

Director Pocklington said he was there Friday for a meeting. It is a very beautiful place, and over 100 Landscape Contractors were there. The event was hosted by the CWA and it was very well attended. He said that there are rumors that Otay wants to back out of it and let someone else be the lead show. He is sure we will hear more about that in the future. He said that it is certainly something that we need. It is a wonderful place and that is why they got the contractors and landscapers in there. If we can get them in the new production of homes and start out right the first time we can probably save a lot of water and use the Mediterranean plants that were discussed.

13. CLOSED SESSION

There was no need for one.

14. ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Board, President Pocklington adjourned the meeting at 4:40 p.m., to the hour of 3:30 p.m., on June 16, 2003.