Board of Public Utilities

Council Chamber City of Santa Rosa 100 Santa Rosa Avenue Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final Thursday, March 21, 2024 1:30 PM 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Galvin called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Present 5 - Chair Daniel Galvin III, Board Member Lisa Badenfort, Board Member Robin Bartholow, Board Member Yvonne Sierra, and Board Member Glen Wright Absent 2 - Vice Chair William Arnone Jr., and Board Member Christopher Grabill 2. STATEMENTS OF ABSTENTION BY BOARD MEMBERS None. 3. STUDY SESSION 3.1 FY 2024/25 WATER, LOCAL WASTEWATER, REGIONAL REUSE AND STORMWATER AND CREEKS FUNDS OPERATION, MAINTENANCE AND CAPITAL EXPENDITURE REQUESTS Santa Rosa Water manages the City of Santa Rosa’s water, local wastewater, regional reuse, and stormwater and creeks enterprise funds under the general policy authority and direction of the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) pursuant to Section 25 of the City Charter. The BPU annually recommends these enterprise’s proposed budgets to the City Council to be included in the annual City budget adoption. The study session will provide an overview of all FY 2024/25 budgets. Nick Harvey, Acting Deputy Director - Water Administrative, and Lori Urbanek, Deputy Director- Engineering Resources, presented and answered Board Member questions. 4. MINUTES APPROVAL 4.1 March 7, 2024 - Regular Meeting Minutes - DRAFT City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 6 Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2024 The March 7, 2024 regular meeting minutes were approved as submitted. 5. STAFF BRIEFINGS None. 6. CONSENT ITEMS A motion was made by Board Member Wright, seconded by Board Member Badenfort, to approve Consent Item 6.1. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 5 - Chair Galvin III, Board Member Badenfort, Board Member Bartholow, Board Member Sierra and Board Member Wright Absent: 2 - Vice Chair Arnone Jr. and Board Member Grabill 6.1 MOTION - APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT NO. 2 TO PROJECT WORK ORDER WITH BRELJE AND RACE CONSULTING ENGINEERS - ROCK CREEK AND MANTANZAS WATER AND SEWER MAIN REPLACEMENT ENGINEERING DESIGN SERVICES RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department and Santa Rosa Water that the Board of Public Utilities (Board), by motion, approve Amendment No.2 to Project Work Order No. A010135-2016-15 with Brelje and Race Consulting Engineers, of Santa Rosa, California, for the Rock Creek and Matanzas Water and Sewer Main Replacement Project to provide additional engineering design services and engineering services during construction, increasing the contract amount by $174,390 to a total authorized amount of $670,641. This Consent - Motion was approved. 7. REPORT ITEMS 7.1 REPORT - SONOMA WATER 2024/25 WATER TRANSMISSION BUDGET AND RATE INCREASE BACKGROUND: The City of Santa Rosa purchases approximately 95% of the water supplied to our customers from Sonoma Water, the region’s water wholesaler. Sonoma Water is proposing to raise the wholesale rate of water by 9.88% from $1,173.09 per acre-foot to $1,289.02 per City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 6 Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2024 acre foot. There is a Water Advisory Committee (WAC) made up of elected officials of each of the eight prime contractors, including Santa Rosa, that purchase water from Sonoma Water. The WAC is an advisory committee to the Sonoma Water Board of Directors. The City’s WAC Representative is Mayor Natalie Rogers. On April 8, 2024, the WAC is scheduled to vote on whether or not to recommend approval of the Sonoma Water proposed 2024/25 budget and rate increase to the Sonoma Water Board of Directors. The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is made of technical staff of each of the eight prime contractors that purchase water from Sonoma Water. The TAC provides technical analysis and recommendations to the WAC. The TAC considered Sonoma Water’s proposed 2024/25 budget and rates on March 4, 2024 and voted in favor of recommending the proposed budget and rate increase. RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended by the Water Department that the Board of Public Utilities consider Sonoma Water’s proposed 2024/25 Water Transmission Budget and rate increase and, by motion, make a recommendation to the City Council regarding Council’s direction to its Water Advisory Committee (WAC) representative for the April 8, 2024 WAC vote on the proposed 2024/25 Water Transmission Budget and rate increase. Nick Harvey, Acting Deputy Director - Water Administration, Jake Spaulding, Finance Manager Sonoma Water, and Lynne Rosselli, Administrative Services Division Manager Sonoma Water, presented and answered Board Member questions. A motion was made by Board Member Wright, seconded by Board Member Bartholow, to approve the recommendation by the Water Department that the Board of Public Utilities consider Sonoma Water's proposed 2024/25 Water Transmission Budget and rate increase and, by motion, make a recommendation to the City Council regarding Council's direction to its Water Advisory Committee (WAC) representative for the April 8, 2024 WAC vote on the proposed 2024/25 Water Transmission Budget and rate increase. The motion carried by the following vote: City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 6 Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2024 Yes: 5 - Chair Galvin III, Board Member Badenfort, Board Member Bartholow, Board Member Sierra and Board Member Wright Absent: 2 - Vice Chair Arnone Jr. and Board Member Grabill 8. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA MATTERS None. 9. REFERRALS None. 10. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION (AND POSSIBLE BOARD DISCUSSION) None. 11. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS Board Member Wright reported that the Budget Review Subcommittee met for a second time on March 19, 2024 where the 2024/25 proposed Water budgets were discussed, which was heard in a Study Session on today's agenda. This item will come back to the Board for consideration in April. Chair Galvin reported that the Contract Review Subcommittee met on March 20 to review the proposed professional services agreement with Hazen and Sawyer and approved the recommendation to bring the item to the full Board. 12. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None. 13. DIRECTORS REPORTS Director Burke reported: Starting this week Local crews will be completing several tasks needed to start up the Farmers Lane productions wells. These tasks include necessary water quality testing, equipment adjustments, and a large valve removal on Farmers Lane. The treatment plant will begin the flushing process and our operators will slowly start ramping up production. We anticipate operating the wells at 1800 gallons per minute by April 1st. The wells will continue to operate throughout the normal season City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 6 Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2024 (April-October) at their highest productive level possible. Although these wells only produce about 7% of our annual demand, they do allow us to achieve a significant cost savings each year they are operated. Santa Rosa Water has been working with a number of businesses to monitor disease agents in our wastewater. The diseases tracked includes COVID, RSV, MPox, Norovirus, and different influenza strains. The latest addition to the monitoring is looking at the amount of certain drugs in our wastewater. The drugs that are being screened include Nicotine, Fentanyl, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, and Naloxone. The data is analyzed by Biobot, which is the first company that the City started working with on tracking diseases agents in our wastewater. If interested in receiving ongoing variant detection reports specific to Santa Rosa, contact Biobot support email and they will set up an account for you. The email is support@biobot.io. Two staff members will be speaking at the Salmonid Restoration Federation Conference starting on Tuesday, March 26. Steve Brady, Senior Environmental Specialist, will be leading an all-day tour of the creek restoration sites in Santa Rosa and Sean McNeil, Deputy Director - Environmental Services, will be presenting on regulations in the Laguna de Santa Rosa and on restoration activities in the Laguna Watershed. Last week Director Burke, along with Mayor Rogers, Vice Mayor Stapp, Council Member McDonald, City Manager Smith, and other City Staff were in Washington D.C.The Water Department received a $19.4 million Water Resources Development Act authorization for water and sewer improvements, and staff has been working to get an appropriation into the Army Corps. budget for an environmental infrastructure project. After meeting with the local office, the request was revised to request $1.7 million for the design and environmental of the Llano Trunk project. Staff met with Congressmen Thompson and Huffman, as well as with the staff of Senators Padilla and Butler, and the staff of Army Corps. and the Bureau of Reclamation to City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 6 Board of Public Utilities Regular Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2024 continue to confirm this is a top priority project and are trying to be in this fiscal year's budget. If not, work has been done to make this top priority project for fiscal year 2025/26. 14. ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING Chair Galvin adjourned the meeting at 2:55 p.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 4, 2024. Approved on: April 4, 2024 ___/S/_________________________ Michelle Montoya Recording Secretary