Water Commission (now under Utilities Commission)

CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES Frank Martinez, President Robert Shannon, Secretary Arthur Levine, Vice President Gloria Cordero, Commissioner Christopher J. Garner, General Manager Richard Anthony, Deputy City Attorney REGULAR MEETING - 9:00 A.M. - REVISED FINISHED AGENDA & DRAFT MINUTES The Water Commission minutes are prepared and ordered to correspond to the Water Commission agenda. Agenda items can be taken out of order during the meeting. The agenda items were considered in the order presented. CALL TO ORDER The Board of Water Commission 4,126th meeting was called to order by President Martinez at 9:00 A.M. This meeting was held via teleconference pursuant to Executive Order N-29-20 issued by Governor Gavin Newsom. ROLL CALL Executive Assistant to the Board, Sandra Fox took the roll call and confirmed a quorum. Also present: Christopher J. Garner, General Manager; B. Anatole Falagan, Assistant General Manager; Tai Tseng, Assistant General Manager - Operations; Sandra Fox, Executive Assistant to the Board. Commissioners Gloria Cordero, Robert Shannon, Art Levine and Frank Martinez Present: Page 1 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES PUBLIC COMMENT 1. 20-167WA October 1, 2020 Board of Water Commission Public Comments. President Martinez opened the public comment period and asked if any written public comment had been received. Ms. Fox advised no written public comment had been received for the October 1, 2020 Board meeting. President Martinez then inquired if there was any public on the line who would like to speak. Hearing none, he closed the public comment period PRESIDENT'S REPORT President Martinez announced the presentation of the ceremonial gavel and sounding block to outgoing President/Commissioner Saltzgaver. Mr. Martinez also announced a resolution from the Board was being resented to Commissioner Saltzgaver. Ms. Fox read the resolution language into the record. At this point in the meeting Mr. Garner held up the gavel, sounding block and framed resolution from his office for all to view. President Martinez made congratulatory comments to Commissioner Saltzgaver and thanked him for his service on the Board. Commissioner Cordero spoke. Mr. Garner spoke. Commissioner Saltzgaver spoke. Commissioner Shannon spoke. At this point in the meeting staff attempted to troubleshoot Commissioner Levine's technical difficulties (he could be seen on the call but could not be heard). Ms. Fox directed him to call into the meeting instead so he could verbally participate. President Martinez welcomed his fellow Commissioners to their new positions on the Board: Vice President Levine and Secretary Shannon. Page 2 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES GENERAL MANAGER'S REPORT Mr. Garner provided his report. He reminded the Board that the first furlough day for most employees would begin on October 2, 2020. He explained that the department would still be staffed for emergencies, (same as problems/emergency calls are handled on the weekends). Mr. Wang, Director of Water Resources provided an update on a $750,000 grant the department had received from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for partial funding of the new North LB13 and LB14 water wells. He noted this grant required a 50% match in funds. He advised that due to time constraints established by USBR that they had needed signed grant documents from Long Beach Water by September 1st, 2020. He advised that normally staff would have come back to the Board before accepting the grant award but the timing had not allowed for this action. He advised to avoid any complications with the awarding of the grant staff had processed the grant agreement and forwarded to USBR. Commissioner Cordero thanked staff for continuing to aggressively seek grant funding for department projects. Mr. Garner spoke regarding grant funding. Mr. Garner advised the Board that the Mayor has established a program to disseminate good news to the public during the COVID pandemic. He noted the Mayor had reached out to the Water Department, Harbor Department, Airport and Economic Development to provide good news stories for the public. He advised the Mayor would be filming at the Treatment Plant regarding safe drinking water, and would also provide a highlight on the department's DIME program. Mr. Garner advised these videos would be about ninety seconds in length. Mr. Garner then called on Mr. Tseng for a Board follow-up report requested at a previous meeting regarding a Transfer of Fund item related to lab supplies. Mr. Tseng provided this report. President Martinez advised he echoed Commissioner Cordero's comments regarding grant funding. He requested that staff agendize an update report regarding grants once the new Page 3 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES Commissioner has been sworn in. President Martinez commented on the revised Board meeting calendars for October, November, December and January that had been e-mailed to the Board. He advised he would like the Board to try and adhere to these scheduled meeting dates. 2. 20-168WA Recommendation to approve July 23, 2020 & August 6, 2020 Board of Water Commissioner meeting minutes. President Martinez called for a motion to approve the July 23, 2020 & August 6, 2020 Board meeting minutes. He called for a roll call vote. A motion was made by Secretary Shannon, seconded by Commissioner Cordero, to approve recommendation. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4 - Gloria Cordero, Robert Shannon, Art Levine and Frank Martinez 3. 20-169WA Recommendation to authorize the General Manager to execute an agreement with HDR Engineering, Inc., to provide professional engineering services for the Water System Optimization and Supply Management Study, in an amount not-to-exceed $406,800. BUREAU: Water Resources Ms. Heather Rhee provided the staff report for this agenda item and reviewed a presentation with the Board. President Martinez called for any Commissioner comments or questions. Commissioner Cordero spoke. Commissioner Cordero requested that information regarding the department's groundwater be included on the LBWD website. Mr. Garner agreed that this could take place. President Martinez once again expressed his concern with the selection of Page 4 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES HDR as the vendor. He suggested that possible debriefs be set up with other vendors to coach them on developing a winning bid. He suggested that staff possibly develop a list of upcoming projects for the next year, and provide additional outreach to other vendors. He also requested additional scoring information be included in future board letters of this nature. He also requested that staff develop a section on the LBWD website to prominently display a list of upcoming projects for vendor reference. Mr. Garner advised the Board that Mr. Verceles and his staff are developing a report regarding Engineering bid processes and noted this item would be agendized on an upcoming agenda. President Martinez provided additional comments/concerns regarding the bidding process. Mr. Garner commented. Commissioner Shannon commented. Ms. Rhee made comments regarding the bidding process. Mr. Falagan commented. At this point in the meeting President Martinez inquired if staff had been able to connect Commissioner Levine to the meeting via telephone since his audio was not working on the video teleconference. Ms. Fox advised staff had e-mailed and texted him the call-in number. Mr. Garner advised that an IT staff person would be sent out to Commissioner Levine's house to trouble-shoot his audio problems for future meetings. President Martinez called for any public comment. Hearing none he called for a roll call vote. A motion was made by Secretary Shannon, seconded by Commissioner Cordero, to approve recommendation. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4 - Gloria Cordero, Robert Shannon, Art Levine and Frank Martinez Page 5 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES Note: Commissioner Levine's roll call votes were handled by a nod of his head due to his technical difficulties during the meeting. CONSIDER STANDING COMMITTEE REFERRALS President Martinez called for any Standing Committee referrals. There were none. President Martinez advised that once the new Commissioner is seated he will review and possibly revise members of the Standing Committees. He asked the Commissioners to submit their choices for Committees and he advised he would review these requests also. NEW BUSINESS President Martinez called for any new business. Hearing none he proceeded to read the Closed Session language into the record. He then called for any public comment. Hearing none he adjourned the Board to the closed session at 9:51 A.M. ADJOURNMENT President Martinez reconvened the Board meeting at 10:24 A.M. He advised he had nothing to report from the closed session. He adjourned the Board meeting at 10:25 A.M. to the next teleconference meeting to be held, Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. Page 6 of 7 CITY OF LONG BEACH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020 WATER COMMISSION VIA TELECONFERENCE/WEB, 9:00 AM MINUTES NOTE: If written language translation of the Commission agenda and minutes for non-English speaking persons is desired, please make your request by phone to the Office of the City Clerk at (562) 570-6101, 72 business hours prior to the Commission meeting. Kung nais ang pagsasalin ng nakasulat na wika ng agenda ng Komisyon at ang minutes para sa mga taong hindi nagsasalita ng Ingles, mangyaring isagawa ang iyong hiling sa pamamagitan ng telepono sa Opisina ng Clerk ng Lungsod sa (562) 570-6101, 72 oras ng negosyo bago ang pagpupulong ng Commission. Si desea obtener la traducción escrita en otro idioma de la agenda y actas de la comisión para personas que no hablan inglés, haga su solicitud por teléfono a la Oficina de la Secretaría Municipal al (562) 570-6101, 72 horas hábiles antes de la reunión de la comisión. Page 7 of 7