General

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GREEN BAY WATER COMMISSION Meeting of the Water Commission held at 8:30 a.m., Monday, November 13, 2017 at the Water Utility office. Present: James F. Blumreich, Kathryn M. Hasselblad-Pascale, Leon R. Engler, John C. Heugel, Nanette M. Nelson, and Doug J. Martin Also present: Alderman Sladek, General Manager Quirk, Comptroller Mueller, Engineering Services Manager Powell, Communications Director Lodes, Attorney William Vande Castle (arrived 8:45 am) Distribution Maintenance Person Denor (left 8:35 am), Distribution Maintenance Person Vandervest (left 8:35 am), and Recording Secretary Smith. Absent: Lisa M. Bauer-Lotto (excused) Action Items 1. A motion was made by Martin, seconded by Engler, and unanimously carried to approve the agenda with the modification of Item #7 being taken before Item #3. 2. A motion was made by Hasselblad-Pascale, seconded by Engler, and unanimously carried to approve of the Commission Meeting minutes of October 9, 2017. 3. General Manager Quirk noted that at the October Commission meeting AECOM had presented the 2017 Master Plan; its findings, deficiencies, replacement schedules, etc. Engineering Services Manager Powell shared that since the meeting, a few minor tweaks had been made to the plan, such as adjusting several water main ratings. Heugel had examined the full plan. He stated it was well done. The Commissioners expressed that they wanted the Master Plan Executive Summary placed on the Utility website and sent to the City Aldermen. A motion was made by Heugel, seconded by Hasselblad-Pascale, and unanimously carried to approve the 2017 Master Plan. 4. General Manager Quirk recommended upgrading the position of Engineering Services Construction Coordinator to Water Utility Engineer. This would require the position to have a four-year degree and be a professional engineer instead of the current two-year technical degree. The knowledge skill and abilities the Utility needs more closely adhere to a professional engineer position. The current person in the position is a professional engineer. It was helpful to have a third engineer in house as one is the General Manager; it may be critical to the utility due to a lot of upcoming construction. The position would receive a one grade upgrade on the salary scale because of the four-year degree. The current person in the position has put in their notice to leave. The job is currently posted, as President Blumreich gave General Manager Quirk permission to post, with the agreement that no one would be offered the position before the approval of the Commission on the upgrade. A motion was made by Martin, seconded by Nelson, and unanimously carried to upgrade of the position of Engineering Services Construction Coordinator to Water Utility Engineer. 5. General Manager Quirk presented the pay increase proposal for 2018. She handed out the grade order list created in collaboration with Patrick Glynn of Carlson-Dettman. It was determined that it would be best to do a “meeting or not meeting expectations” review for 2018, with the goal of establishing baselines for a more advanced performance-based system in 2019. She proposed the following step increases:  Steps 1 - 4.9: 1 step increase.  Steps 5 - 6.9: .5 step increase  Steps 7 – 11: 1.5 % increase  Steps 11+: No increase  No increase if not meeting expectations The market adjustment would be at a 2% rate, which is what the City is doing. A motion was made by Heugel, seconded by Engler, and unanimously carried to approve the 2018 pay increase as proposed. The ad hoc Budget Subcommittee met October 26th and went over the budget line by line. Comptroller Mueller presented the Commission with a summary of budget assumptions and major changes from prior years. The projected year end cash balance is $3,930,000.00 Mueller suggested 9% then 3% water rate increases. The rate increase application will be sent to the Public Service Commission (PSC) after the budget is approved. The Utility will be hiring the consultant Trilogy to assist with working with the PSC on the rate increase. The last rate increase was November of 2015. The Utility would prefer to increase the rates by small amounts yearly, rather than one large rate increase every few years. The Utility will be increasing the amount of construction in compliance with the Master Plan and due to working with the Department of Public Works to pick streets for resurfacing projects which have a high number of lead services to be replaced. Therefore, the amount of footage the Utility is replacing will be greater than in previous years. The costs of water infrastructure construction in the City of Green Bay have almost doubled over the last three years. Everything in the Master Plan is included in this budget proposal. A motion was made by Hasselblad-Pascale, seconded by Engler, and unanimously carried to approve the 2018 budget including the 9% increase. 6. As requested by the Commission, the Utility sent out Requests for Proposals to six different auditing firms. The Utility received three back and reviewed them. It was determined that Schenk has the lowest costs of the qualified proposals. A motion was made by Nelson, seconded by Martin, and unanimously carried to approve of hiring Scheck for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 financial audits. Information Items 7. New employees Corey Denor and Luke Vandervest –both Distribution Maintenance Persons- introduced themselves to the Committee. 8. Comptroller Mueller presented the 2016 Operations and Efficiency Report. The Utility still has the lowest water rates in Brown County. The Commission discussed the increased number of customers per front office employees. They also noted that unaccounted-for water is going up. The Utility is remediating this by having the leak detection consultant come in twice a year and by purchasing leak detection equipment to check for leaks in- house and year round. The Utility also recently found a leak in a pipe under the East River; fixing it will lower unaccounted-for water. The Utility is installing more meters, for example at the Lake Station and at the pressure reducing valve stations going into each pressure zone, to combat unaccounted-for water. The Commission expressed that in the future they would like to see actual main replacement compared with projected main replacement in the Master Plan in the report. 9. Comptroller Mueller gave his financial report. The projected sprinkling load was lower this year because it rained more than usual. 10. General Manager’s Report. For the 23rd year in a row, the Utility received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting award from the Government Finance Officers Association. The Utility is working with Attorney Vande Castle to prepare an agreement with Trilogy to help the Utility with the rate increase with the PSC. Letters were sent to those remaining people with lead services to remind them how to mitigate lead while they still have a lead service line. On the private side, 122 lead services have been replaced. There are 17 homes which are getting a contractor lined up for replacement. An additional 49 private lead services have been found that will be replaced with the next round of funding from the WDNR. The Utility has been awarded $300,000.00 for the fiscal year to replace lead service lines. There is a proposed bill in the legislature which would authorize utilities to sign financial aid and assistance for private lead service line removal. The Utility has 234 homes left to inspect for private lead service lines; 20 of which are abandoned. There are 1,025 Utility-owned lead services left to be replaced. Approximately 411 Utility-owned lead services have been replaced in 2017 thus far. The Utility is getting results back from the second lead sampling for the year. Of the 60 sample results received, 8 have been above the lead limit. While the lead numbers are lower overall, if there are more than 10 over the limit the Utility will have to create a public education program in compliance with the Department of Natural Resources. The Utility conducted second interviews with the top Business Manager candidates. The candidates were also taken out in a casual lunch with a group employees to see if they would fit into the culture of the Utility. City Human Resources is conducting the reference checks now. The Utility conducted interviews for the Customer Service Technician. City Human Resources is reference checking the top candidate now. Interviews for the Water Operator Intern were held on November 3rd. The position was filled and the intern will be starting November 20th. The Water Engineer position was advertised. They are expanding postings to the American Water Works Association to get the word out. Short Elliot Hendrickson will begin the space analysis study for the Utility starting November 16th.  The Utility did an outreach at the H.O.O.A.H Suicide Prevention March; volunteer employees passed out water to walkers along the Fox River Trail. The Utility did outreach with the water table at both a Casa ALBA event and a Hmong leaders group. Many of the people reached were under the impression that the water from their faucets is not safe to drink; the outreach gave the Utility an opportunity to clear up this misconception. The Utility also showed the cost effectiveness of drinking water from the faucet vs. purchasing bottled water. Several people at both events confirmed they would drink the water straight from the tap and spread the word to their community. The Utility will be doing outreach at an upcoming Optimist club meeting, neighborhood association meetings, and a low income event at the Children’s Museum. Customer Service Manager John Mahoney will be retiring December 22nd. Comptroller Keith Mueller will be retiring January 2nd. Equipment Maintenance Coordinator John Lake will be retiring January 2nd. Engineering Services Construction Coordinator Jeff Wolford’s last day will be November 30th. The Utility and the Central Brown County Water Authority (CBCWA) attended a session about regionalization. Eric Rothstein explained different levels of regionalization. The Utility and CBCWA may hire a third party to show them their opportunities for regionalization. The Utility met with Green Bay Water Utility’s wholesale technical group to discuss the meeting and assure them that any regionalization steps would be made only in the best interest of the customers. AECOM is working on a study to determine whether the Utility could meet both the Utility’s and CBCWA’s water demands for a one week emergency at the same time by 2035. State legislature for lead service funding by utilities for private water line services is currently pending. This would allow utilities to pay up to 2/3 of the cost. The House amended it from 2/3 to 1/2. This would be useful for the Utility in the future after all the grant money is used up. That way, if a private lead service is found, the Utility can help the property owner replace it. The PSC introduced language in a rule that would not allow utilities to pay for public relations advertising that would not directly benefit the customer. The rule will be going through a second public hearing. Meeting adjourned 10:20 am. Respectfully submitted, Leon R. Engler, Secretary