UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES Monday, April 11, 2016

Transcription

1 UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES Monday, April 11, 2016 A regular meeting of the Lompoc Utility Commission was held in the Council Chambers and was called to order at 6:03 p.m., Monday, April 11, ROLL CALL: Utility Commissioners Present: Staff Present: Audience: Chairperson Robert Holloway Vice-Chair John Linn Commissioner Robert Dunlap Commissioner Susan Gallacher Commissioner Ken Ryan Larry Bean, Utilities Director Tikan Singh, Acting Electrical Utility Manager Melinda Wall, Financial Services Manager Gene Margheim, Water Superintendent Rich Gracyk, Broadband Services Administrator Keith Quinlan, Solid Waste Superintendent Jennifer Main, Utility Conservation Coordinator Susan Segovia, Senior Utility Admin. Analyst Theresa Luna, Office Staff Assistant IV Robert Lingl, Mayor Jim Mosby, City Councilmember Manny Mora, Electrical Utility Engineer Carol Benham, Reporter for Noozhawk Jack Rodenhi, Resident Pam Wall, Resident APPROVAL OF MINUTES: On motion by Commissioner Dunlap and seconded by Commissioner Ryan the meeting minutes of March 14, 2016 were approved as submitted on a voice vote of 5 ayes. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATIONS: Pam Wall queried staff if there was lead in the water. Gene Margheim, Water Superintendent reported the City of Lompoc s water distribution is safe and the City is not aware of any lead in the City s water laterals. STAFF REPORTS: Larry Bean, Utilities Director introduced Tikan Singh, the Electrical Utility Manager to the Utility Commission. Mr. Singh introduced Manuel Mora, the Electrical Utility Engineer to the Utility Commission.

2 Page 2 of 8 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Electric Utility Update The Assistant Electrical Utility Manager reported humidity was detected in the City s load tap changers and staff is investigating the source of the problem. There were some dispatching problems with call-outs and staff is working to resolve them. 2. Water System Activities Update The Water Superintendent reported there was.85 of rain over the weekend, bringing the rain total for the season at The City s water conservation program continues. In February 2016 the City conserved 11% consumption since February In March the City conserved 23%. The City is on track and accumulatively is at 20.9% dated back from June Senior Utility Administrative Analyst reported that the draft 2015 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) would be discussed at the May 9, 2016 Utility Commission meeting and would be on the June 21, 2016 City Council meeting. 3. Wastewater System Update The Acting Wastewater Superintendent reported staff is working on the wastewater plant s 5 year permit for There were some fresh water sponges growing in the UV pre-filters at the wastewater plant. There are still two filters online that are treating the sewage. The Wastewater Plant will be hosting an annual SAMA meeting giving all of the local agencies a chance to meet wastewater staff. 4. Broadband Project Update The Broadband Administrator reported the manufacturer of Ruckus equipment needed the City to move to its most recent iteration controller software. This is the network server that controls, maintains, and reports on the outdoor radio equipment. However, the switch-over caused two days of downtime in the specific area these routers were installed. The business customers who were on those clusters were immediately addressed to minimize their outage.

3 Page 3 of 8 An update of the AMR meter reading project was provided. Over 90% of the radio-read meters are being read through the fixed network. There are 427 cell meters installed and 144 cell meters are in stock. Installation of cell meters are installed as requested. 5. Conservation and Energy Efficiency Update Utility Conservation Coordinator reported customers are inquiring about the landscape rebate. The Annual Water Art Contest is underway with 800 entries. The goal of the contest is to promote water conservation in the classroom. Mrs. Main asked the utility commission if they were interested in becoming one of the judges of the Water Art Contest. 6. Solid Waste Update The Solid Waste Superintendent reported the Landfill received a total of 4,391 tons of trash, recycle, and greenwaste for the month of March The total tons recycled were 767 and total tons disposed were 3,624. The Landfill saw a 20% increase in trash tonnage for March 2016 compared with March 2015 tonnages. For the 1 st Quarter 2016, the landfill has seen an average of a 10% increase in trash tonnages over 1 st Quarter 2015 figures. The Landfill is starting to recover tonnage levels prior to the recession; 2015 tonnages were approximately 37,500 approaching 2007 tonnage level of approximately 38, Finance Update Financial Services Manager reported the following: In May 2016, staff will begin a rate review for wastewater, water, and solid waste. Staff presented the Enterprise Reimbursement Study (ERS) to City Council on March 15, 2016 and will bring it back on May 17, Staff was asked to contact the consultant of the ERS for the following concerns and report back to City Council. They are: 1. Should the electric utility receive a street light cost reimbursement to the rightof-way? As it is a credit against the public service obligation. 2. Review the methodology to determine the wastewater utility fixed asset values.

4 Page 4 of 8 3. Evaluate a credit for the solid waste utility for their street cleaning services provided as part of the Utilities basic level of service. The contract with the City s provider has reached its limits and in order to do this, the City will have to make another contract with them. Staff is asking for a proposal and will submit to City Council. Commissioner Linn queried staff if the income side, for the various utilities, is on track and if the City has received, for the first six months, income that is required. Finance reported yes for water the 7½% instead of the 15%. The wastewater side was low. It has to do with the 6 year averaging. The handout of The Utility Enterprises Financial Reporting as of December 31, 2015 is on target. Review of utility rates will be completed in the upcoming months and will be sent to City Council. Vice-Chair Linn stated to be aware that revenue has decreased when reviewing rates. Increasing rates is a challenge to get businesses in the City of Lompoc. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Review and Comment the Enterprise Reimbursement Study (ERS)- ACTION (continued)- NB-1 Vice Chair Linn reported the Enterprise Reimbursement Study (ERS) is broken down into three sections, they are: The first section deals with reimbursing the police and fire departments for emergency services that they provide and there was an interesting methodology that was used which was different in the way Vice-Chair Linn would have approached it. Mr. Linn reviewed an asset and depreciation values report that was from the 6/30/14 City of Lompoc Balance Sheet. This report is from the Enterprise Reimbursement Study. The last column of this report is a difference column. The value calculated in the report is 38% greater than shown in the city records. Mr. Linn does not believe the way the study was done was accurate. He stated there are other ways of looking at the ERS. Mr. Linn stated the book value is a better way to look at the ERS. He stated regarding the utility cost reimbursement for police and fire, the ERS states Roseville validated reimbursements from enterprises to the general fund as long as the amount of reimbursement is based on cost.

5 Page 5 of 8 Vice-Chair Linn stated using the book value of the various enterprises is a fair way to do it, because as you can see looking at this report, that wastewater under the study within the reimbursement plan, would be paying $687,196 while solid waste would be paying $9,244. When you look at water, it needs to be protected and being taken care of, they have more than anyone else and they are in the mid-range of the fee schedule as opposed to electric who has very little and their fee is almost identical to water. And wastewater is paying a huge sum and yet they have far less to protect than water does. Mr. Linn stated the whole method of calculation is basically flawed. There needs to be a better way to do the report. The next section of the report deals with the office space used in the corporate yard, purchasing, and city hall. The methodology is from the Government Accounting Office. The problem was those space allocations stated from Water mentioned they do not have anything at the corporate yard and yet were being charged for it. Mrs. Wall stated they did take that into account. The next section of the report deals with street maintenance and there are several activities. The first one deals with the operations of vehicles on city streets. Mr. Linn stated it was completely out of whack because of the vactor truck for wastewater. He chose good numbers to work from and within the transportation cost benefit analyst done by the Victoria transportation policy institute quotes figures from the Department of Transportation. The inflation calculator for 1997 at 148% basically states a medium duty truck would be 21.6 cents per mile in a fully loaded road cost. Whereas they don t know what the cost per mile was used. The example for the vactor truck and divided the $35,741 that the study says it needs to pay, it would have to drive 167,467 miles a year and Mr. Linn doubts it goes 5,000 miles. See Handout 1 Surface Activities as Vice-Chair Linn read it verbatim. Mr. Linn stated the methodology is wrong on both sides of the ERS, the first section of determining the cost of police and fire figures. Chairperson Holloway reported the new part of town was all put in by developers and the city had nothing to do with fixing the streets. Streets were brand new. He can t understand why the city wants to charge for sewer, water, and electric lines that have never touched. Staff wants to charge for dry lines that had conduit in the line when there is nothing in them. The developer had to pay the City for the track. Mr. Holloway reported the sewer and water plants have extra office space and if utility employees at city hall move there they wouldn t have to pay rent at city hall.

6 Page 6 of 8 Mr. Holloway stated rates were raised to fix the city s infrastructure and he will not approve another rate increase. The utility bills will be so high that customers will not be able to live in Lompoc. Vice-Chair Linn agreed. Vice-Chair Linn reports the ERS has been kicked around and has been amended. The ERS was held open pending a new fire station. If the new fire station was approved, the numbers would have been higher. It is not fair to the rate payers that the City of Lompoc would raise the rates again until the City determines how the ERS will be done (it has been out in the wind for 2 years). Chairperson Holloway reported the enterprise funds (water, wastewater, electric, and solid waste) in 2 years would be paying $4,230,682 to the ERS which would instead fix a lot of pipes in the City. Mr. Holloway reported the pipes will begin to fall apart. Commissioner Ryan reported the pipes are already falling apart as old town is pretty bad. The infrastructure needs to be replaced. He read previous utility commission minutes and staff did indicate some of the lines are scheduled to be replaced, but it didn t specify when. There are sewer lines in storm drains all the way from A Street to V Street and up to the wetlands. They are bolted inside. People do not realize all of the utilities that are hidden because you don t see them. The City needs to establish an engineering firm and draw up plans. Staff indicated that will happen within the two year budget, the capital improvement for 5 years. If not, there will be big fines from the State of California. Commissioner Dunlap reported at the last City Council meeting, Mr. Wilke explained how funding was captured and presented line items that were budgeted and what wasn t used was carried over and that there was money in the water fund to do some of those projects. There were no funds available in Wastewater for infrastructure but could be available when it gets to the point of damaged pipes. Engineering would have to submit plans for bid. Commissioner Gallacher reported that she has been hearing the utility commission report over the last 4-5 years that the infrastructure needs to be replaced. Mrs. Wall stated when the Water/Wastewater Superintendent requests the infrastructure of water and wastewater needs to get replaced, that is when it this work will begin. Mr. Margheim reported staff was waiting for El Nino and since it really didn t come, designing of projects of the infrastructure will begin in the spring and summer months. Engineering is working on the design of the project and it will go out to bid. Wastewater places cameras inside the pipes which gives a good idea on how bad of condition the pipes are in. ACTION: Vice-Chair Linn stated with regard to the Enterprise Reimbursement Study, the Utility Commission makes the following recommendations (see Mr. Linn s Attachment 1). The motion was seconded by Commissioner Gallacher and it carried unanimously on a voice vote of 5 ayes.

7 Page 7 of 8 Mrs. Wall reported a portion of the money that is received from the ERS goes to the General Fund. A Road Fund was setup in this year s budget which is Fund 36 for road improvements. Mrs. Wall reported she will take this information back to the Finance Director. The consultant of the ERS will charge to review the study. COMMISSIONER REQUESTS: 1. Discuss Utility Billing Rules and Regulations with respect to vacant buildings. ACTION CR-1 Commissioner Gallacher questioned why a client with a vacant house that received a city bill in the amount of $ Mrs. Wall stated the bill was a minimum charge. Vice-Chair reported the minimum charge has gotten so high. Mrs. Wall reports the turn off fee is $ Commissioner Gallacher reported rates are going up and service fees are so high in the city. Mrs. Wall reported a new software program will help track if utilities are being used because right now, services are located on index cards. There will be no action on this item until the software is activated. To select the software, Mrs. Wall reported it will take a selection process, two vendors will be recommended and then it will have to go to City Council to negotiate with the vendor and a contract will have to be signed. It would have to be implemented into payroll and accounts payable, which will take two years before the software works. 2. Discuss past requests of the July 13, 2015 Utility Commission meeting. Larry Bean, Utilities Director reported Vice-Chair Linn s past requests of four items of the July 13, 2015 Utility Commission meeting were on the March 2016 agenda and were reviewed. Staff is at a loss of what additional items Mr. Linn wanted to discuss. Mr. Bean asked if Mr. Linn can provide staff with the list that Mr. Linn is requesting review of. Vice-Chair Linn stated the list of items that the other utility commissioners brought up. Mr. Linn will review his lists and will bring the items back at the next utility commission meeting. COMMISSIONER REQUESTS: 1. Chairperson Holloway welcomed Ken Ryan, the new utility commissioner. Mr. Ryan provided a brief overview of his background.

8 Page 8 of 8 2. Commissioner Ryan queried staff what is the City s involvement with the theatre project? Chairperson Holloway reported the City has no involvement with the theatre project. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION: a. City of Lompoc Above and Below Narrows Cachuma Water Storage Accounts with Monthly Rainfall Count and Static Level Totals - UB-2 b. City of Lompoc s Enterprise Reimbursement Study - NB-1 c. Vice-Chair Linn s Surface Activities/Enterprise Reimbursement Study- Handout 1 d. Vice-Chair Linn s Enterprise Reimbursement Study/Utility Commission s Recommendation to City Council- Attachment 1 e. Utility Billing Service Rules and Regulations-Vacancies CR-1 ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Vice-Chair Linn and seconded by Commissioner Gallacher for adjournment. The Commission adjourned the meeting at 7:40 p.m. ATTEST: Bob Holloway, Chairperson Utility Commission Larry Bean Utilities Director