Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District Meeting

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR BOARD MEETING CENTRAL OKLAHOMA MASTER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT Thursday, September 7, 2023 6:30 P.M. Location: 12500 Alameda Dr. Norman, OK 73026 A. Call to Order President Amanda Nairn called the meeting to Order at 6:30 pm. Roll Call Board Members Present: President Amanda Nairn Vice President Michael Dean Treasurer Jann Knotts Secretary Dave Ballew Edgar O’Rear Espaniola Bowen Steve Carano Board Members Absent: None Staff Present: Kyle Arthur, General Manager Kelley Metcalf, Office Manager Tim Carr, Operations & Maintenance Supervisor Others Present: Dean Couch Paul Streets Carrie Evenson Mark Roberts Alan Swartz Charles Wadsack Jay Snapp Kraig Fryar Claudia Browne Cole Niblett Rachel Croft 1 Virtually: Chris Mattingly Mike Watts B. Statement of Compliance with Open Meeting Act Kelley Metcalf, Office Manager, stated the notice of the monthly board meeting had been posted in compliance with the Open Meeting Act. C. Administrative 1. Public Comment None 2. Recognition of Charles Wadsack for his service to the District Ms. Nairn introduced Mr. Wadsack. Mr. Wadsack was the District’s bookkeeper for over 50 years. Ms. Nairn thanked him for his service and presented him with a plaque. 3. City of Norman Indirect Potable Water Reuse Project update Ms. Nairn stated this presentation is another installment in the educational speaker series. The City of Norman, along with Garver, have been working very hard for several years on a pilot study for advanced water treatment for purposes of indirect potable reuse into Lake Thunderbird. Ms. Nairn stated that the District had begun studying this option for water supply augmentation several years ago, but ultimately the City of Norman took on the project and a pilot scale study was commenced. This presentation today is an update on that project and their findings. No action is being requested of the COMCD Board at this point in time; Ms. Nairn emphasized this was only for informational purposes. Mr. Dean remarked that he had never had an update and was looking forward to hearing this presentation, and that it would be beneficial for everyone. Ms. Nairn then introduced Cole Niblett. Mr. Niblett is the manager for this project and is with Garver Engineering. Mr. Niblett introduced Mr. Chris Mattingly, Norman Utilities Director, who has 23 years’ experience. He also introduced Dr. Michael Watts. Dr. Watts has been Garver’s water reuse practice leader for the last 10 years and has 20 years’ experience in the advanced water treatment field. The presentation included the project history/background, results from the pilot study , and recommendations for the next steps and future work. T The presentation can be found in the Board meeting file and made available upon request. 2 Specific discussion was held regarding one particular motivation for the idea of indirect potable reuse, both originally by COMCD and now by the City of Norman. In recent years, the firm yield of Lake Thunderbird has been recalculated and remodeled by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) which has resulted in a decrease in that value. A firm yield calculation is a best estimate of the minimum amount of water that would be available for water supply during the historic drought of record. Mr. Arthur explained that the original yield value of the Norman Project (Lake Thunderbird) also considered the groundwater supplies that each of the three cities had at that time. It was this value that formed the basis of the current 21,600 acre‐feet permit from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB). The latest value for the firm yield, however, is now calculated to be 12,700 acre‐feet. The most recent decrease was primarily due to the utilization of what the Bureau believes are more accurate, representative evaporation values. While the most recent modeling results did show that the 21,600 acre‐feet would have been available in over 90% of the years, it did estimate that much less water would be available during the drought of record than had been previously calculated. Additionally, the BOR is currently remodeling the firm yield based upon paleo droughts to help better characterize the magnitude and probability of water shortages over a much longer period of record. One option for mitigating the impact of droughts and compensating for the lower firm yield is to augment the supply in the lake. It was determined that indirect potable reuse was likely the most feasible option for doing that, but required much, much more study. As mentioned previously, the decision was made by Norman to continue to research this possibility. Ms. Nairn and the rest of the board thanked Garver and Mr. Mattingly for the presentation. 4. Treasurer Report‐ June and July 2023 Ms. Knotts first discussed the June 2023 end of fiscal year financials. Ms. Knotts pointed out that the net income total of ‐150,277.55 is not a loss. Depreciation is a noncash item, and it is normal accounting practice to appear this way. Finely and Cook will perform the annual audit and may recommend some adjustment entries be made. Mr. Arthur presented a document titled Budget vs. Actuals FY 22‐23 Profit and Loss. The results show the expenses equaled 97.92% of the budget. Ms. Knotts then gave a brief overview of July 2023 financial statements. She noted that July was the first month of financial reports being done solely by Paxus CPA Group. Ms. Knotts walked the Board through the new format, highlighting some of the new ways in which things are shown and grouped. Mr. Arthur briefly mentioned that the profit and loss statement has been reorganized a bit to better show the income that directly funds the budget. Other non‐budgeted income is now shown separately below the budget section and does not figure into the net income/loss for the budget. Additionally, non‐budgeted expenses, such as those approved by the Board as surplus fund expenditures, are shown separately as well. 3 Ms. Knotts asked the Board for feedback on the new format and types of reports. The Board all agreed that they liked what had been generated for July. On another matter, Ms. Knotts reported that she and Mr. Arthur, upon the recommendation of Mr. Dean, consulted with the District’s Investment Advisor and the decision was made to liquidate two bond funds. With those proceeds one CD was purchased with a 2‐year maturity date at 5.10%. D. Action: Pursuant to 82 OKLA. STATUTES, SECTION 541 (D) (10), the Board of Directors shall perform official actions by resolution and all official actions including final passage and enactment of all resolutions must be approved by a majority of the Board of Directors, a quorum being present, at a regular or special meeting. The following items may be discussed, considered, and approved, disapproved, amended, tabled or other action taken: 5. Minutes of the regular board meeting held on Thursday, July 6, 2023, and corresponding Resolution Ms. Nairn asked if there were any additions or corrections. Mr. O’Rear requested a correction on page 5, paragraph 3, to change the word “return” to “recapture”. Michael Dean made a motion seconded by Jann Knotts to approve the minutes as amended, and corresponding Resolution. Roll call vote: President Amanda Nairn Yes Vice President Michael Dean Yes Treasurer Jann Knotts Yes Secretary Dave Ballew Yes Member Edgar O’Rear Yes Member Espaniola Bowen Yes Member Steve Carano Yes Motion Passed 6. Contract between Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District and Rush Pumps, LLC for Pump Rehabilitation Project, ARPA Grant No. ARP‐23‐0019‐DPG, and corresponding Resolution Mr. Arthur explained the process of the Invitation to Bid. The Invitation was published in the Norman Transcript and The Journal Record on July 19, July 26, and August 2, 2023. Bids were due August 25, 2023. Mr. Arthur sent seven entities notification of the Invitation to Bid, to ensure compliance with federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) requirements. The American Resue Plan Act (ARPA) program is federally funded, and one of the conditions of federal grant awards is for recipients and subrecipients make a good‐faith effort to award a fair share of work to DBEs who are small business enterprises 4 (SBEs), minority business enterprises (MBEs) and women’s business enterprises (WBEs). Mr. Arthur also sent the Invitation to five companies, out of the five, four requested the bid packet. Additionally, Mr. Arthur received three inquiries from “bid hunter” entities. Two of those requested the bid packet. Only one bid was received, and that was from Rush Pumps, LLC. Rush Pumps has previously done work for the District and does a great job. Mr. Arthur stated he unconditionally recommends Rush Pumps. Mr. Dean suggested calling some of the companies to inquire why they did not submit a bid. Mr. O’Rear stated that in the future for a job this size, it may be wise to consider an outside consultant to provide assistance. Mr. Arthur explained that the Invitation to Bid was divided into three Units: A, B, and C. Unit A was for the pumping units at the Main Plant, Unit B for the associated pump components at the Main Plant (shafts, gears, bushings, etc.) and Unit C was for pump rebuild components at the Relift facility. A bidder could bid on one, two or all three units. The rationale was to hopefully elicit more bid responses if, for example, a company might be particularly qualified to provide services for one particular unit, but maybe not all three. Mr. Arthur stated that this contract does not include Unit C. Mr. Arthur explained that his reasoning for that recommendation was based upon a number of factors, including the incremental cost of the items in Unit C relative to the criticality of the current need for that work to be done—especially considering that three of Midwest City’s pumps have been rebuilt over the last year and that Del City only uses one of their pumps. Furthermore, it has come to his attention very recently that the parts for many of the District’s variable frequency drives (VFDs) are becoming unavailable. He believes a more urgent need for these funds would be to begin the process of replacing the District’s aging VFDs. Finally, he believes further pump rebuilds could be paid for from existing budgeted funds. Michael Dean made a motion seconded by Steve Carano to approve the Contract between Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District and Rush Pumps, LLC for Pump Rehabilitation Project, and corresponding Resolution. Roll call vote: President Amanda Nairn Yes Vice President Michael Dean Yes Treasurer Jann Knotts Yes Secretary Dave Ballew Yes Member Edgar O’Rear Yes Member Espaniola Bowen Yes Member Steve Carano Yes Motion Passed E. Discussion 7. Legal Counsel’s Report July 5 review Pump Rehab bid pricing sheet & other bid documents & send to Kyle 5 July 6 attend monthly board meeting July 7 review P&K Tractor repair events information sent by Tim Carr July 11 additional review of Pump Rehab project bid documents July 12 review notice of advertisement of Pump Rehab Project July 14 email communications with Kyle about draft contract between Norman and Del City regarding surplus and excess surplus water Aug 16 review information from Kyle regarding SCADA telemetry upgrade project Aug 17 review email communication about single agency audit requirement Aug 18 provide draft liability waiver and indemnification document relating to CEC project and Halff use of District lake transport for sampling Aug 21 communications with Kyle about ARPA requirements and brand name equivalent and evaluation of pump rehab bids Aug 22 additional review of documents and requirements for ARPA pump rehab project bidding Aug 23 communication with Kyle about SCADA telemetry upgrade project and example bid document from Texas municipality upgrade Aug 25 communication with Kyle about receipt of only one bid for Pump Rehab Project Aug 30 review Rush Pumps bid document and initiate draft of contract for Pumping Rehab Project after Clearance by OWRB Kate Burum about accepting single bid Aug 31 send draft contract for Rush Pumps to Kyle for comment and edits about matters including down payment that might be needed by Rush Pumps 8. General Manager’s Report Please see document titled “Manager’s Report” in the packet. 9. President’s Report Ms. Nairn stated the Fish Fry is on Friday, October 13th. The invites will be going out very soon and she encouraged everyone to come and bring their family. The staff works very hard to make it a nice event. Mr. Arthur stated the Invite will have a survey and to please RSVP via the survey. 10. New business (any matter not known prior to the meeting, and which could not have been reasonably foreseen prior to the posting of the agenda) None F. Adjourn There being no further business, President Nairn adjourned the meeting at 9:23 P.M. 6