Central Virginia
Rivanna Authorities
RWSA Board of Directors Meeting 11/15/2022
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RWSA Board of Directors Meeting
11/15/2022
Attachments
RWSA BOD PACKAGE 2022_11_15.pdf
RWSA Minutes 2022_11_15.pdf
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. AGENDA APPROVAL
3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS BOARD MEETING ON OCTOBER 25, 2022
4. RECOGNITION
5. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
6. ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
7. RESPONSES TO PUBLIC COMMENTS
8. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Staff Report on Finance
b. Staff Report on Operations
c. Staff Report on Ongoing Projects
d. Staff Report on Wholesale Metering
e. Approval of Board Meeting Schedule for Calendar Year 2023
9. OTHER BUSINESS
a. Presentation, Public Hearing and Vote on Approval – Sale of 1880 Buck Mountain Road
b. Presentation and Vote on Approval: Financial Update – Year End Results
Joint Session with the RSWA
c. Presentation and Vote on Approval: Remote Participation Policy and Amended and Restated By-Laws
d. Presentation and Vote on Approval: Strategic Plan 2023 Update
e. Presentation: Safety Program Update
10. OTHER ITEMS FROM BOARD/STAFF NOT ON THE AGENDA
11. CLOSED MEETING
12. ADJOURNMENT
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:00
First item is the agenda approval.
00:00:03
We have a motion
00:00:06
Any discussion?
00:00:09
Hearing none, all in favor?
00:00:11
Aye.
00:00:12
Okay, we've approved the agenda.
00:00:14
We can move forward.
00:00:16
Minutes of the previous board meeting on October 25th, 2022.
00:00:21
Are there any comments or changes to the board minutes?
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:27
If there are no changes, I move adoption.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:29
Okay, we have a motion to approve.
00:00:32
Second.
00:00:33
and a second and I will abstain as I was not here at the phone meeting.
00:00:39
So all in favor of the motion?
00:00:42
Aye.
00:00:43
And opposed?
00:00:45
Okay, motion carries.
00:00:47
Minutes have been approved.
00:00:49
Bill, any recognition this month?
00:00:51
No, sir.
00:00:52
Okay, we'll move on to the executive director's report.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:00:55
Yes, sir.
00:00:56
Thank you.
00:00:57
So we do have two employees we want to recognize, Allison Henry, who passed her Class II water operator license,
00:01:04
and Allison is a unique operator for us.
00:01:06
She is licensed both in water treatment and wastewater treatment.
00:01:10
Last month we recognized that she increased her licensing in wastewater.
00:01:14
So she is dual purpose for us.
00:01:18
Dennis Barbieri got his class two wastewater operator license recently.
00:01:23
So we congratulate Dennis.
00:01:25
And again, these are exams given by DPOR from Richmond.
00:01:29
And so all the operators statewide have
00:01:36
many of the plants.
00:01:38
We as I mentioned for solid waste we celebrated our annual employee appreciation day on November 2nd and and using an abundance of caution we did not go to Mickey Tavern and we celebrated here in that parking lot with a picnic and some service awards and a nice picture.
00:01:56
I also restarted my welcoming program with new employees and quarterly I meet with new employees and have like a box lunch here just to meet and greet those people.
00:02:07
We put that aside during the pandemic but we're getting it going again now.
00:02:11
Recently, the Virginia Water Wastewater Authorities Association had an election and I've been serving on that board for a couple years and I was promoted to first vice president, elected to that.
00:02:23
So our president retired and so Ben Shoemaker is our president now, but as you can see, we have quite a nice group of over 30 some authorities, Fauquier and Frederick Water,
00:02:38
Winchester, Louden Water for all officers.
00:02:41
So we have a good group and we have a web page and we try to promote the interests of the water and wastewater authorities, particularly in Richmond, when legislation is considered and funding issues, the Arclima dollars coming down and try to support the water and wastewater authority.
00:02:58
So I'm pleased to serve on that as an officer in that group.
00:03:04
We're poised to shut down the observatory water treatment plant if all goes as planned on December the 5th for three months strategically while the students are gone and demand is lower and it's winter time so demand is lower and have a concentrated effort by our contractor to renovate the facilities at the observatory treatment plant.
00:03:26
so fortunately with the tragedy yesterday at the university and there was a lot of concern even up at our work site but the contractor continued to work we did have the gate closed and we're monitoring anyone that would come around so fortunately
00:03:42
we had no issue with that but we're trying to move that forward to expand observatory from 7.7 to 10 mgd in treatment capacity as well as to rehabilitate the 1950s vintage facility yeah so i guess the university knows that yes sir we're coordinating though the water is coming through the city
00:04:04
It'll all be coming from South Rivanna Water Treatment Plant during this period.
00:04:09
So South Rivanna operates 24-7 every day and so most of the water is coming from South Rivanna anyway, but one to two MGD typically comes from observatory.
00:04:20
So we've substantially completed the renovation of South Rivanna Water Treatment Plant.
00:04:26
So we're going to maximize that and zero observatory for three months and have a concentrated construction.
00:04:33
We're coordinating with Don Sundgren and facilities on that shutdown.
00:04:39
So we're hopeful it's going to go as planned.
00:04:42
Let's see, other major projects, we continue to work on the piping projects from Rivanna to Ragged and from Ragged to Observatory and also then from Observatory to Free Bridge.
00:04:53
So we have about 18 miles of major piping.
00:04:57
When we complete that loop to increase our water supply and improve our reliability of our water treatment and our drinking water program.
00:05:09
We also, Shanks Branch has been an age-old project around.
00:05:14
It was a consent order project and a lot of discussion even when I started six years ago but we were trying to revitalize that project which would replace the sewer line along McIntire Road over to
00:05:29
Preston, and we're working with the city on that project.
00:05:33
It is funded by the city, and we've proposed, we've sent information to Lance about a potential easement across the county property to install that fight.
00:05:44
So we're trying to get some wheels and move that forward.
00:05:47
We did also get official notice from the Virginia Department of Health that we received a $3.18 million grant from VDH to construct additional granular activated carbon vessels at our three waterfins plants.
00:06:03
So that is the good news.
00:06:06
The challenge to that story is though it's about a $20 million project as we envisioned it.
00:06:11
So we would have to move that forward in our CIP in order to utilize the grant dollars.
00:06:17
So we're still strategizing and need to talk to VDH about maybe phasing the work and maybe doing Croze with the initial grant money.
00:06:25
We have four more years we're eligible for additional grant funding.
00:06:29
It's a five year,
00:06:31
program, federal program for emerging contaminants.
00:06:35
It's dedicated, the state got $50 million over five years, 60 million, 60 million, 12 million a year.
00:06:47
And so they've allocated the first year and we got 3 million of those dollars.
00:06:52
It might be noteworthy if you read the paper that the Roanoke River and the Western Virginia Water Authority found PFAS in its reservoir and then recently they found a chemical company that we they're pretty sure was putting that PFAS in the water so hopefully that'll take them out of the competition for these dollars with us as we try to build more GAC vessels.
00:07:17
So that's the plan, you know, we built GAC, the authority built GAC to reduce disinfection byproducts from chlorination, but technology says it's one of the leading filters to take the forever chemical PFAS also out of
00:07:33
The raw water as we make drinking water.
00:07:36
So that was the submittal we submitted to VDH about six months ago.
00:07:41
And we recently got the letter that we had an official award of $3.177 million.
00:07:48
So we have to accept that we're working on the strategy of okay, can we bring 20 million forward and do the whole project?
00:07:54
Or how can we best leverage these dollars?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:07:59
Bill, do we obligate ourselves to spend 20, 21 million if we take the three?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:08:06
Well, that's the question.
00:08:07
That's what we're going to have to talk to them about.
00:08:10
And we'll be talking with Gary and Lauren in early December about our draft CIP and what the impact will be to our CIP if we do pull that $20 million forward.
00:08:20
We have it out in around
00:08:21
2035 or 38 now to add more GAC vessels because we don't have capacity to GAC treat 100% of our water and we'd like to be able to do that and so we think it's a good thing and it takes out the disinfection byproducts, emerging contaminants like PFAS and at this point who knows what else it's taken out so
00:08:42
We were an advocate to moving that project forward but we've got to reconcile it with the rates that could come from it for the city and the service authority so we'll be having that discussion soon and as I said I'm going to ask VDH whether they'll let us use the three million
00:08:59
and say just do Crozet and then if we get more money from them in subsequent years then we could do South Rivanna and Observatory.
00:09:08
That would be ideal but I don't know if they're going to go for that.
00:09:12
They want it spent within like five years so that's... Is there a commitment to any future year funding or year having to reapply?
00:09:21
We have to reapply every year.
00:09:23
We have to reapply every year so we have no
00:09:29
No knowledge of what the likelihood would be we would get additional dollars in the future.
00:09:35
Sort of the good news is we don't have very little PFAS in any of our drinking water.
00:09:39
So even VDH has said we have a weak position going forward for getting more money.
00:09:46
But I think it's a function of how many applicants, what the need is based on those applications.
00:09:53
So they called us about it.
00:09:55
In fact, they came up and met with us and told us about this program and encouraged us to apply about six months ago.
00:10:01
So we jumped on it and did an extensive application process.
00:10:06
And so we were pleased to get the 3.18 million, not quite 20, but it's something.
00:10:11
So we'll see how that'll move forward in the future.
00:10:14
And then we'll keep you informed.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:10:16
Let me ask a follow-up question.
00:10:18
Excuse me.
00:10:20
I understand from recent seminars and things that a redesign of the GAC something is what's required to actually catch the PFAS components.
00:10:31
And I don't know what redesign means.
00:10:33
So when you figure that out, could you share it with us?
00:10:36
I would like to know.
00:10:37
I'd like to understand.
00:10:38
Do you know about that, Dave?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:10:39
It's been on the anti-based contact time, so how long before?
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:10:51
So it's not a, it's a timing thing as opposed to a size of the particles or something more specific than that.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:10:59
It can be both.
00:11:00
Okay.
00:11:01
How about we keep it in contact with the GAC material, granular activated carbon material.
00:11:07
Okay.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:11:07
Well, that's a good start right there.
00:11:09
Thank you very much.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:11:09
And that's my report, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:11:13
Okay.
00:11:13
Any other comments or questions for Bill?
00:11:20
All right, we'll move on to the items from the public.
00:11:24
So we'll open board meetings for people to give us public comment.
00:11:33
And I would ask that if you do come up, please identify yourself for the public record.
00:11:39
Do we have anyone who would like to speak at this time?
00:11:44
Okay, we'll close the items from the public.
00:11:48
Note there's no responses for public comment.
00:11:51
And on the consent agenda, are there any items board members would like to call for comments or questions?
SPEAKER_09
00:12:08
Okay.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:12:10
Do we have a motion and a second to approve?
SPEAKER_04
00:12:13
Motion to approve the consent agenda.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:12:16
Second.
00:12:18
So we have a motion and a second.
00:12:20
Any discussion?
00:12:22
Hearing none, all in favor?
00:12:24
Aye.
00:12:25
Opposed?
00:12:26
OK, the consent agenda is approved.
00:12:30
First item on other business is the presentation public hearing and vote on approval of the sale of 1880 Buck Mountain Road.
00:12:40
Thank you.
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
00:12:42
Good afternoon.
00:12:51
I'm here to talk to you about the Buck Mountain Management Plan and specifically the sale of the Elliott House and property, which I'm going to explain.
00:12:59
As a reminder, here's Albemarle County.
00:13:02
The authority holds 1300 acres.
00:13:05
We own 1300 acres, approximately.
00:13:07
in the northern part of the county that was going to be built into a reservoir and has not today.
00:13:15
So that's what I'm referring to when I talk about Buckman.
00:13:25
Thank you.
00:13:30
So this is just a graphic you all have probably seen before of our Buckmount property and the different parcels of these parcels we presented.
00:13:39
I'm going to talk a little bit more about this in a minute, but we have presented that there are three different locations on this in the property that we are very concerned with as liabilities and things that need our attention.
00:13:51
One of them is the bridge, which is located in the northern part.
00:13:54
One of them is a pond and dam.
00:13:57
And one of them is the Elliott House, which is on this parcel right here.
00:14:00
And that's what I'm going to be talking about today.
00:14:05
So a little bit ago, a few months ago, and I'm going to have a chronology here in just a few minutes, but the board approved the sale of improved and unapproved real estate based on certain criteria.
00:14:18
For Buck Mountain, the criteria is that the property must be above the ground elevation level of 474.
00:14:24
And that's because normal pool elevation at the planned reservoir is 464.
00:14:30
and that we would sell anything in a process and we would offer the property to the public for sealed bids.
00:14:37
Solicitation will specify the minimum bid to be submitted based on the fair market value determined by RWSA and we would conduct a public hearing before approving the sale.
00:14:47
We are here today to ask for a public hearing to approve the sale and I'm gonna talk to you in more detail.
00:14:52
Here's the house, here's some of the inside of the house, there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
00:14:57
This parcel is approximately, it's nine plus acres and Rivanna, we subdivided that and have a 2.2 acre lot here that is located out of the normal pool elevation or the 474 elevation.
00:15:15
It's located out of it.
00:15:16
It does not have any of our deed restricted areas in it or preservation areas.
00:15:20
And that is what we offered up for sale in a bit.
00:15:25
So just to back up a little bit, I know there's a lot of history here.
00:15:29
In the 1980s, Rivanna acquired about 1300 acres for a water supply reservoir.
00:15:35
Due to the presence of the James Spiney muscle, which you hear about in the news today, the reservoir was not permitted.
00:15:42
In April 2019, and one thing I should say before that is after it was decided that we weren't going to build a reservoir, Rivanna leased a lot of the properties back to the original landowners.
00:15:54
So in April 2019, a former property owner requested the board to sell him the property acquired from him by condemnation.
00:16:02
And this started the ball rolling and in June of 2019, the staff came back to the board to share more information about Muck Mountain property.
00:16:13
And the board requested that we do a master plan to optimize the use of the property.
00:16:19
So in August 2020, we hired a firm, LPDA, and they worked with us to develop the master plan.
00:16:27
In August 2020, we presented the master plan to the board.
00:16:31
The board concurred with staff recommendation to develop a more detailed property management plan.
00:16:38
So we went back with LPDA, we worked on this property management plan, and we came back to the board in March of 2021 and identified some of these issues that I was talking about, the pond,
00:16:48
the dam, the bridge, et cetera, and leasing and leasing other properties.
00:16:54
And one of the topics that came up was how are you gonna fund this?
00:16:58
So we went back and the board provided us guidance to consider how we're gonna fund this.
00:17:03
So in February, 2022, we updated the board on the leasing and sale of the specific properties.
00:17:09
In March, we held a public hearing and received comments about our policy on the sale.
00:17:15
and then in April, 2022, you guys approved the lease and sale procedures and asked staff to consider rehabilitating the house as an option of any sale.
00:17:25
So that's Elliott House that's on that 2.2 acre parcel.
00:17:28
So in August, we advertised for a bid.
00:17:31
We did not get any bids and we advertised again and did not get any bids.
00:17:36
And the third time was the charm and we've got some bids.
00:17:42
So these are just our,
00:17:44
The different dates that we did these, August 14th, September 18th, and October 18th, we read the bids on November 8th, the last ones.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:17:52
And Andrea, each time we re-advertise, we reduce the minimum price.
00:17:58
Yes, we did.
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
00:17:59
And you can see that, I think in this, you can see it in the next one.
00:18:05
Yeah, so here's the minimum bid rehab requirements.
00:18:08
This is if you are going to rehab it, the first bid we said would be your minimum is 250,000.
00:18:12
If you weren't, it's going to be 300,000.
00:18:15
So the historic or the rehab was kind of lower to provide an incentive to restore.
00:18:23
And you can see we went all the way down to a minimum required bid of 124 and 149 for this most recent one.
00:18:35
So in total, we received four bids.
00:18:40
We considered two of those responsive and responsible bids at $124,136,501 to purchase a 2.2 acre property.
00:18:50
The highest bidder was Matt Lucas.
00:18:53
Based on these details, the highest bidder was Matt Lucas of 1966 for Union Road.
00:18:59
And we would like to ask to conduct a public hearing so that we can enter into a contract on the House with Mr. Lewis.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:08
Is it possible to talk about the other two bids and why they were disqualified?
SPEAKER_09
00:19:12
Yes.
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
00:19:16
The highest bid was disqualified because it was listed as wanting to historically restore, but it did not go into any detail which was requested in the bid to restore.
00:19:27
how they were gonna go through that process.
00:19:30
The second highest bid was not delivered on the appropriate bid form.
00:19:34
It was delivered on the form from the second time we ran the bid, not the third time.
00:19:39
And that was disqualified from that.
SPEAKER_09
00:19:42
That's the two reasons for those two.
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
00:19:44
And that brought us down to the third, which is met.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:49
Okay.
00:19:50
Are there specifications about what rehabilitation looks like?
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
00:19:54
We did include those into our bid.
00:19:57
They were not, we got them from the Department of Historic Resources and reviewing of that and talked about keeping the house in context with the area and there was a level of detail there.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:20:08
Let's show them the RFP, if you can call that up.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:20:13
We'll show you quickly the request for bid document.
00:20:21
We worked extensively internally and with our lawyers to put this bid package together.
00:20:27
So it's got terms and conditions like most bids that we do.
00:20:31
We put it typically for construction.
00:20:32
So this was unique in some ways.
00:20:35
We're looking for the high bidder, not the low bidder in this case.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:20:42
Is there an agreement in terms of how long the house has to stay there?
00:20:48
Is it in perpetuity?
00:20:49
No, sir.
SPEAKER_09
00:20:49
There was no specification on that.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:20:52
just for the buyer, the current, if there's a buyer that they were trying to require them, we offered them, they could rehabilitate the house or they could not rehabilitate the house and they could bid accordingly.
00:21:04
All the bidders of the bids we received offered to rehabilitate the house.
00:21:10
So as Andrea said, we had the same question, what specifications would that include?
00:21:15
And we went to Virginia Star Preservation
00:21:18
Department, and they have a specification about what rehabilitate means for historic structures and we included that in our RFP there.
00:21:30
I don't have to, I mean I believe you.
00:21:31
Okay and then their RFP was very specific about what was required to make a valid bid, it needed to be on the correct form, it needed to describe what the rehabilitation effort was going to be,
00:21:45
because each time we issued a new bid form we changed some of the terms and conditions that is the minimum price was reduced and on the last request for bids in October that we just opened.
00:22:01
We tried to stimulate the market even further by offering realtors a 1% finder fee if they brought a bidder to us.
00:22:09
So the first bidder that seemed to be the highest did not tell us how he was going to rehabilitate the house.
00:22:19
He was silent on that.
00:22:21
The second bidder used the incorrect form.
00:22:26
They used the form that we had used previously, which has
00:22:29
Higher minimum prices, different submittal date, and no indication about 1% finder fee for the realtor.
00:22:39
We have an ability to waive informalities of a bid but in our view the bid form was instructions to the bidders were very specific that they needed to address all these points and unfortunately for the two bidders they did not do that so to try to preserve the integrity of the whole process
00:23:02
It's our recommendation that they be declared non-responsive is the term.
00:23:07
They did not properly respond to the bid request and that's what takes us to the number three bidder.
00:23:15
Okay, thank you.
00:23:17
We did have actually a fifth bidder who showed up 10 or 15 minutes after two o'clock and we would not accept his bid.
00:23:25
Right.
00:23:31
The lease and purchase procedures that the board approves says that we will get a bid then you would have a public hearing to hear comment and then you would decide what you want to do.
00:23:47
That public hearing will be today or yes sir right right now and we included that information in the big packet that the board would have a public hearing today so all the bidders should should be aware of that.
00:24:05
So Mr. Chairman, if you want to open a public hearing, that would be the next item.
00:24:11
Did we need to vote today?
00:24:13
No.
00:24:13
Let's just open it.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:24:15
OK. At this time, we will open a public hearing for the purchase of 1883 Union Road, or 1966 Free Union Road.
00:24:25
No, that's Matt's.
SPEAKER_12
00:24:26
So it's 1880, right?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:24:28
We can't sell Matt's house?
00:24:32
Are there members of the public who would like to speak at this time?
SPEAKER_12
00:24:40
Good afternoon, my name is Peter Weiland and I am here because I cannot seem to follow directions.
00:24:51
My bid was for $151,000.
00:24:58
I used RFV form number 402, 401 instead of 402.
00:25:04
All the information in that form, all the relevant information in that form existed that would allow that form to transfer over to a contract to purchase all the necessary information.
00:25:20
I am a real estate agent.
00:25:21
I was not asking for a real estate commission.
00:25:24
So that our bid, my bid would have been $15,000 or $14,999 higher than the next bid.
00:25:37
And I would point you all to section general provisions, the
00:25:48
or C of the RFP which says the authority reserves the right to lay informalities and or to accept bids which it deems most favorable to the interest of the authority in accordance with the DPPA.
00:26:05
So I assume a higher number is within fiduciary responsibility of the group.
00:26:12
And I think some of you all know my interest in preserving properties.
00:26:18
served with Ms. Malek on the historic preservation committee and actually documented this property for you all with Dr. Ed Lay in 2019 as a service to the community.
00:26:32
So if you all would consider, there is a mechanism to consider my bid, even though I did, and I was sent the proper forms, but I filled it out, I'll be incorrect.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:26:47
Thank you.
00:26:50
Are there other members of the public who'd like to speak at this time?
00:26:56
All right, I would like to close the public meeting.
00:27:01
Carrie, can you tell us about the informality that the speaker was requesting?
SPEAKER_09
00:27:11
Sure, is it Bill?
00:27:12
In, I think, four C's.
00:27:18
The Authority reserves the right to waive informalities and bids, to reject any or all bids after all have been examined, or to accept the bids which is deemed most favorable to the interests of the Authority in accordance with the DPPA.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:27:34
So is this in keeping with his request?
SPEAKER_09
00:27:37
That's leading straight from the RFP.
00:27:40
Yes.
Michael Rogers
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority / Vice Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:27:42
Fundamentals to public procurement is that the bidder or proposer be responsive and responsible.
00:27:52
Meaning that they submit in accordance with the terms that have been outlined by a government agency.
00:28:01
What it's proposed as an informality, I don't think is an informality.
00:28:09
the bidder did not follow instructions in terms of submitting on the form and that's fundamental to what the agency requested and that constitutes one's responsiveness to the bid so he did not qualify.
00:28:24
Notwithstanding the fact that his bid was higher he simply did not meet the threshold of being responsive and should not be considered.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:28:40
Any other comments on the...
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:28:43
Presumably our council agrees with that.
SPEAKER_09
00:28:47
I think that our discussions with Bill have been consistent with Mr. Rogers' statement that fairness requires uniform application of the rules to all that are...
00:29:10
Okay.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:15
If there's no other comment, is there a motion and a second to approve the sale of 1880?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:29:23
We have a resolution for you.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:25
Oh, we do?
00:29:26
Okay.
00:29:26
Yes.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:31
The only comment I will add is I know both these people and I appreciate that there are rules to follow to fall back so we don't have to make any other decision.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:42
Do we need someone to read the resolution?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:02
resolution for the sale of property 1880 Buck Mountain Road, Earlyville, Virginia, and Albemarle County by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:14
Wait a minute.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:15
Earlyville is a free union?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:30:16
Should be free union.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:17
Okay.
SPEAKER_09
00:30:20
This is in the packet, but it's not the first one that you have there.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:22
Okay.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:29
You threw that in because I live in Roseville?
00:30:33
Whereas the board of directors authorized the sale of improved real estate in accordance with the lease and sale of Buck Mountain real estate procedure approved by the board on May 24th, 2020.
00:30:46
And whereas the authority publicly advertised a request for bids to consider the sale of property with an address of 1880 Buck Mountain Road, Free Union, Virginia 22936 in Albemarle County, tax map
00:31:01
and parcel number 029000035H3, 2.2 acres with an existing house and all improvements and whereas the authority received two responsive and responsible bids on November 8, 2023,
00:31:21
and conducted a public hearing for the proposed sale of property to the highest bidder on November 15, 2022 after advertising the actual date fixed for the public hearing in the daily progress on October 24, 2022 and October 31, 2022.
00:31:41
and now therefore be it resolved that the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority hereby authorizes the sale of property with an address of 1880 Buck Mountain Road, Flea Union, Virginia.
00:31:52
McIlwee, and Abemarle County Tax Map Parcel No.
00:31:58
02900-000035H3 2.2 acres with an existing house and all improvements for an amount totaling
00:32:12
$136,501 to Matthew Lucas of Perunion, Virginia, and authorizes the executive director to execute all documents required to complete the transaction.
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:26
I will second that we need to make a correction.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:29
We need a motion.
00:32:32
No, I just read the resolution.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:34
I move that resolution.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:36
OK. And I see the correction.
00:32:39
Ann wants to change the first address, which has the 22936 early spill.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:32:44
Make sure the zip code is correct.
00:32:47
OK. And do we have a date in there of 2023, of November 2023?
00:32:52
Because that should be 2022.
00:32:54
No.
00:32:54
OK. Maybe I'm uncertain.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:57
Good.
00:32:59
So the resolution in the book was
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:02
The resolution in the book was not correct because it had originally had early so.
SPEAKER_09
00:33:08
We get to that we had the one previously and then we were number two.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:20
So we need one from Friday.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:33:27
reflects what you said, mentioning Mr. Lucas, Greg, Mr. Lucas of early still.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:35
So I made the correction on here and I'll give it to you.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:39
And it's just the zip code.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:40
Just the zip code on the first part, the zip code on the second part was correct.
00:33:45
So we have a motion.
00:33:47
Do we have a second?
SPEAKER_09
00:33:48
Yes.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:49
No, wait, you made the motion.
SPEAKER_09
00:33:51
I made the motion.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:53
We have a motion and a second.
00:33:55
All in favor?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:56
Aye.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:33:57
Opposed?
00:33:58
OK, motion carries.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:34:02
Mr.
SPEAKER_04
00:34:07
Chair, I'd like to thank the staff for their hard work on this.
00:34:10
It's taken a while, and it's kind of other duties as assigned.
00:34:15
Yeah.
00:34:16
And thank you very much for the hard work on this.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:34:18
Thank you.
00:34:19
It was unique to be selling a house and property, feeling like a real
00:34:28
as did Carrie and Valerie Long.
00:34:31
So it was a team effort and Andrea of course drove the way for us.
00:34:36
But we appreciate the board's foresight and strategy in allowing us to do this.
00:34:42
And we want to maintain that property for future reservoir, but there may be some parcels that we can not keep.
00:34:49
Thank you.
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
00:34:53
At the end of each fiscal year and after the auditors have finished their field work we review the operating cash account of the authority at June 30th and share it to our policy target.
00:35:11
Our policy target is 60 days of cash on hand, which is on the board there.
00:35:18
based on the year's current budget.
00:35:19
So this year's target is $6.8 million.
00:35:23
And our actual cash, reconciled cash balance is 6.3 million, which gives us a shortfall of about $480,000.
00:35:32
We then compare that shortfall to our net revenues at the end of the year, which is a very similar deficit.
00:35:48
We set our budget and our rates in six different rate centers.
00:35:55
That's how we keep track of the separate cash for each rate center and each rate center has its own reserve.
00:36:03
Reserves are for many other purposes and one of them is this which is at the end of the year you reconcile your deficits and your surpluses.
00:36:11
This year each rate center has a deficit but some years
00:36:21
This is an effort to keep all the buckets of money straight, try not to commingle things and bring the operating cash back up the hole.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:36:33
This is for the end of this past fiscal year.
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
00:36:40
So what this board action is doing is actually taking out of some of our reserve accounts, actually all of our reserve accounts this year and moving these funds from the reserves to the operating account to keep it going.
00:36:54
We use 60 days of cash on hand for a normal two month business cycle.
00:36:58
So in July we pay bills to employee paychecks, debt service, suppliers.
00:37:05
We bill out the city and the service authority at the end of July for the rest
00:37:11
That's roughly a 60-day cycle.
00:37:14
So in a nutshell, this is consistent with their financial policies, and it's consistent with what we've done for the past 15 years.
00:37:23
From my understanding, in January, we'll get into a little more deeper discussion on reserves and how our debt service policies and our financial policies and bond ratings are affected by all that.
00:37:35
So I'm glad to answer any questions.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:37:42
So this table here that has the yellow one, it has the reserves listed.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:37:49
The current reserves.
00:37:50
The current reserves.
00:37:53
The reconciliation of each call center and what the new total will be.
00:37:56
And it adds up that we have over $28 million in discretionary reserves.
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
00:38:03
Right.
00:38:04
So it basically is taking money from the reserve accounts and moving them into the operating account, which is shown here, and then shows you
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:13
So basically this is a 2% shift of your reserves, is that right?
00:38:21
Yeah.
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
00:38:25
Some years it can be a couple million.
00:38:29
So if you look at the second page of the memo, back in fiscal year 18, we actually had to
00:38:40
Plenish, the operating account $1.3 million.
00:38:44
And that year was a year that was very dry, which urban waste water flows go down, revenues go down in a very dry year.
00:38:54
Plus, I believe, if I remember correctly, there were quite a few line breaks.
00:38:58
Line breaks are hard to predict, so we budget a number for what we think it'll be.
00:39:04
Sometimes they're higher, sometimes they're lower.
00:39:07
And that's what the reserve's accounted for,
00:39:10
So you don't have to next year charge an outrageous amount for your operating fund to replenish what you overspent last year.
00:39:17
So this is to kind of keep things balanced out.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:39:20
Thank you.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:39:22
And just so the board knows how good a position we're in and what Lonnie has helped us with over all these years, that Lonnie can confirm that I think in 2002 our total
00:39:39
Reserves were the 500,000 indenture restricted minimum.
00:39:44
And that's all we had.
00:39:47
And it was only because the banks required that as a result.
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
00:39:53
That's a 1979 agreement so that the amount hasn't been updated.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:39:56
Yeah, don't tell them.
00:39:59
All right, so we need a motion and a second to approve.
00:40:06
Motion and a second.
00:40:07
All in favor?
00:40:08
Aye.
00:40:09
Opposed?
00:40:10
Thank you.
00:40:11
Motion passes.
00:40:13
Okay, so we are going to open up the joint session with the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.
00:40:19
Do we need a motion, Valerie, to bring solid waste back in
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:40:35
The General Assembly in September passed a change to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to allow organizations like the Rivanna authorities to have remote participation by a board member under certain conditions.
00:40:56
It's limited to 25% of our normal meetings rounded to the next highest number.
00:41:02
So that number would be two for the solid waste authority because you have six, 25% is 1.5.
00:41:08
We round up.
00:41:10
It's three meetings for the water and sewer authority, 12 divided by four is three.
00:41:15
And earlier on the consent agenda, as you approved the calendars for next year, and we designated March and September.
00:41:23
to be the two months that we would have virtual meetings for the solid waste and water authorities.
00:41:29
And then in December, we would also have a virtual meeting for water and sewer, right?
00:41:35
Yeah, yeah.
00:41:36
But so the code has a number of provisions and requirements.
00:41:41
I won't go through every single word.
00:41:44
But
00:41:46
You know, our bylaws already allowed remote participation by a member, but our council tells us that this new code of Virginia over-arches that, and so we need to pass a new remote participation policy to allow a member to participate remotely by virtual means or by phone in order to do that.
00:42:10
and some of the rules are that the member has to have a temporary or permanent medical condition or disability or a member of their family have a similar situation or the member's principal residence is more than 60 miles away from the meeting location.
00:42:26
The member needs to notify the chair in advance of that situation.
00:42:33
There needs to be
00:42:39
within the board to approve the member to participate remotely.
00:42:44
And then it would have to be reflected in the minutes where the member was and why they couldn't physically be at the meeting.
00:42:53
So that is the general gist of our remote participation policy along with the virtual public meeting section, which has 10 conditions.
00:43:05
I won't go through all of that,
00:43:17
to participate, they have to be able to hear and see the members and we have to let the public be able to speak virtually at the public meeting as we did again during the post pandemic, during the pandemic procedures, emergency procedures.
00:43:34
So I'll list our questions.
00:43:40
Number nine condition is that talks about no more than two times per
00:43:45
calendar year or 25% and they can't be in consecutive months.
00:43:50
So that was some of the strategy and what we proposed on the schedule for next year.
00:43:56
So also we then need to amend and restate our bylaws because the new remote policy needs to be incorporated into our bylaws to override what's already in the bylaws.
00:44:11
We need all the members present
00:44:13
from each authority to approve any change to the bylaws.
00:44:18
So the amended and restated bylaws are going to incorporate the remote participation policy into the bylaws.
00:44:27
And in there, we're going to clarify that being remote or virtual constitutes being present for the meetings because the bylaws say that in order to amend
00:44:40
To amend the bylaws, all members have to be present.
00:44:44
So if we want to amend the bylaws in the future and Mr. Rogers was remote and it was approved by the board that you could be remote, then you could be present and help us amend the bylaws under that circumstance.
00:44:59
You don't physically have to be here.
00:45:01
Okay.
00:45:02
Are we also in the bylaws?
00:45:15
Those words are added and they would include things like deeds of sale, easement transactions that we do.
00:45:23
It allows the executive director to authorize those on behalf of the board.
00:45:28
The bylaws do limit the executive director and give the executive director authority to process procurements like construction or engineering contracts up to $200,000 and no more than for
00:45:46
And mostly what we do when we come to you to award a construction contract, it might be $40 million in the board recommendation.
00:45:53
We say approve the award and authorize the executive director to execute the documents.
00:45:58
Otherwise the chairman would have to get an office over here and be here to sign these things.
00:46:04
So we appreciate him visiting, but we didn't want to put that on him, that burden.
00:46:11
And we also at the council's recommendation,
00:46:15
approved and added about that our board meetings would be conducted in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order and gave a precedence of the Robert's Rules, our bylaws, and the articles of corporations.
00:46:28
And I think they say that articles of corporation govern if there's any conflict between the precedent.
00:46:35
So it goes articles, and then the bylaws, and then the rules.
00:46:39
Is that right, Carrie?
00:46:40
Yeah.
00:46:40
OK.
00:46:41
So we declare some administrative cleanup within the bylaws also.
00:46:47
So Mr. Chairman, if there are any questions, I'll be glad to answer.
00:46:49
Otherwise, we need each board to separately approve the policy, the remote participation policy, and then approve the amended and restated bylaws both
00:47:09
To be in virtual, it's March and September for solid waste.
00:47:16
For water and sewage, March, September, and December.
00:47:21
So January, we could have new members that didn't really want to be virtual in January.
00:47:27
We have to team up with Solid Waste which is meeting every other month so that takes us to March when you would both be together.
00:47:34
We didn't want to bring water and sewer in in person but not solid waste since most of you are joint so and then they can be consecutive and we're doing the public hearing on our budget in May, you're doing my evaluation in July usually so we're one of those to be live meetings here so it's sort of
00:47:54
narrowed the field down to which ones were eligible.
00:47:58
So that's what was included in the consent agenda for both of the two boards for virtual meetings.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:48:07
If we don't have, I just think it's going to be confusing to us.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:48:14
What would be confusing?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:48:19
whether we're virtual or not, how the public would participate and just knowing they need to come here.
00:48:27
Maybe that will be pretty simple, but obviously I've seen some confusion during the virtual meeting process.
SPEAKER_09
00:48:38
Ma'am?
Ann Mallek
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:48:38
Question.
00:48:39
Are we required to pick dates now, or can we say that with proper notice
00:48:47
A month in advance, or if there were extenuating circumstances during Joe Blizzard, heaven knows what, then with proper notice, one could choose to have that much virtual, but it would still have to meet all the other requirements.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:49:00
So you approve the schedule for next year, but we could
00:49:06
like March was you wanted to come here because it was really cold and you'd like that to drive in.
00:49:11
We could do that.
00:49:14
We could change it, but we are restricted to the rules of consecutive months and only three per year.
00:49:20
And then only six other waste meetings.
00:49:23
So you have six months unless we do them separately per board.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:49:31
Yeah, I would tend to agree with Mr. O'Connell.
00:49:33
What is the sort of advantage of building in a set of virtual meetings?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:49:39
So that we all know what they're going to be going into the next year.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:49:43
But I mean, why do we need that option?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:49:46
You don't need to have it.
00:49:47
It just helps to people to plan.
00:49:50
If you wanted to be out of town you would know what month you could be out of town and still participate in our meeting as an example.
00:49:59
If you wanted to be on vacation you would know what month you could be at the beach but still participate in our meeting virtually.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:50:07
Or how to go to the beach.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:50:14
Just forgive my ignorance, because I'm new.
00:50:18
In the past five, 10 years, have there been any reasons for special meetings to be held?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:50:23
We had one in 2017 when we had a drought, and we had to issue mandatory conservation measures.
00:50:30
And the Water and Sewer Board had an emergency meeting on four hours notice.
00:50:37
And we were also going to open the Rivanna Pump Station the same day.
00:50:40
So the board was here, and we brought them in for an emergency meeting.
00:50:44
So that's the only time in my six years here.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:50:47
And just bring it up because it's also maybe a convenient tool to be able to do a Zoom meeting if we needed a special meeting, and this would preclude that.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:50:56
Yeah, we can do that.
00:50:57
The chairman can call a special meeting whenever you would like, and we can have an emergency meeting with four hours notice to the public.
00:51:03
Of course, we hope not to have those, but this is more in our normal planning of when you would have virtual meetings, somewhat of a hybrid of
00:51:14
where we used to be all virtual for two years and now the public is supposed to be all in person and the General Assembly said, well, maybe there's opportunity for a hybrid.
00:51:26
So you can be all virtual, 25% of your meetings if you choose to, you don't have to, we can be here every month if you'd like.
00:51:36
One of our greenhouse gas initiatives is not to have so many miles but you guys drive it back and forth.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:43
and you had cake.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:51:47
We've gotten down to it.
00:51:50
That was an exception.
00:51:52
You're not going to miss out on the cake very often, I don't think.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:56
I guess I see the rationale to sort of sprinkle these out through the ears so people can complain that they have other commitments.
00:52:05
So if that, I don't have any huge objection.
00:52:10
It is something I'll have to think about.
00:52:12
Hopefully I'll put it in the email.
00:52:15
Please remember, this is virtual.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:52:17
Every month when I send you the preface email, I can remind you when the virtual meetings are.
SPEAKER_11
00:52:24
A couple of practical questions.
00:52:26
I remember discussions in the beginning of COVID when we went virtual at the cost to the organization to conduct those virtual meetings.
00:52:35
I'm wondering, is there a cost that we should
00:52:42
There is a cost to understand.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:52:46
If it hadn't changed, it was about $6,000 a year in order to have virtual meetings and allow the public to speak at those meetings, which we bore that during the COVID period.
00:53:00
And that's why we didn't start off like today.
00:53:03
The public cannot speak to us.
00:53:06
we're not going to have public input, but then when the General Assembly allowed us to have three virtual meetings and we have to have public comment, if you choose to have the virtual meetings, we're gonna provide the technologists to have them at every meeting that we could have online comment from the public.
00:53:26
So that's how it's evolved from all virtual to no virtual now to hybrid.
SPEAKER_11
00:53:35
in person meetings when someone can participate remotely.
00:53:39
That's been very helpful to Albemarle County in the last six months.
00:53:45
It does require that you think through your audio visual technology really well.
00:53:51
We've had at least one instance where we had Mr. Andrews participating remotely.
00:54:01
So is that something you considered?
00:54:04
Do you think that it would be necessary to have some upgrades in this room in order to avoid reverb, make sure everyone can hear everyone?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:54:17
Those are good points we'll have to work on.
00:54:19
I've not heard of any major issue.
00:54:22
Obviously, we had you guys virtually for two years.
00:54:25
So we got a lot of practice at it.
00:54:27
And we had the public that could speak during those virtual meetings for two years.
00:54:31
So that's not a new concept for us.
00:54:34
Any technical things that you are aware of?
00:54:37
Yeah.
00:54:43
We have some things
Michael Rogers
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority / Vice Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:54:50
So as I understand it, there are two actions you're asking us.
00:54:55
You're asking us to approve this action on virtual meetings and asking us to
00:55:09
to participate virtually due to certain set of conditions.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:55:15
Yes, the policy, the remote participation policy will allow remote participation and virtual meetings.
00:55:22
Then you need to adopt the policy into the bylaws.
SPEAKER_04
00:55:25
OK. We do it board by board?
00:55:30
Yes, sir.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:55:31
OK.
00:55:32
So which board would you like?
00:55:36
Water and two.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:55:39
So here's the resolution for the adoption of the remote participation policy of the Water and Sewer Authority.
SPEAKER_04
00:55:47
OK, Mr.
00:55:48
Chair, I'll make a motion if we approve the resolution of the Board of Directors of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority regarding adoption of remote participation policy.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:56:00
Second.
00:56:00
We have a motion and a second.
00:56:02
Any discussion?
00:56:04
Hearing none, all in favor?
00:56:06
Aye.
00:56:08
So the resolution has been approved.
00:56:11
So now we should do the bylaws approval for water and sewer.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:56:16
We have a resolution for amended and restated bylaws.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:56:23
Do I have a motion?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:56:24
I move the resolution of the board of directors of the Revena Water and Sewer Authority adopting amended and restated bylaws.
00:56:32
Second.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:56:33
We have a motion and a second.
00:56:34
All in favor?
00:56:36
Aye.
00:56:36
Opposed?
00:56:37
Okay.
00:56:38
Motion carries.
00:56:39
So now solid waste authority.
00:56:44
I want to make the first motion.
00:56:46
I move that we approve the resolution of the board of directors regarding adoption of a remote participation policy.
00:56:55
Second.
00:56:56
We have a motion and a second.
00:56:57
All in favor?
00:56:58
Aye.
00:56:59
Opposed?
00:57:01
Motion passes.
00:57:03
So next, Bill, you want to go to Mitchell?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:06
Next one, Deborah.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:07
Yep, it's there.
00:57:08
Someone want to make that motion from Solid Waste?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:12
I move the resolution of the board of directors of the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority adopting amended and restated bylaws.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:22
Do we have a second?
00:57:23
Second.
00:57:24
OK, motion and a second.
00:57:26
All in favor?
00:57:27
Aye.
00:57:28
Opposed?
00:57:30
The resolution for the amended and restated bylaws have been approved.
00:57:35
So we are not doing anything with scheduling today.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:57:39
We did approve the schedule today.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:42
With the remote?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:57:43
Yes, sir.
00:57:46
With the virtual.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:47
So for some reason we want to change it.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:57:50
Yes.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:57:53
Let's move on to presentation vote of approval of the strategic plan 2023 update.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:58:06
Darren Thomas has been here twice to tell you about it.
00:58:13
I look forward to getting to where we are.
00:58:15
I'll give you a brief update.
00:58:18
I really responded to your comments in September where you said more metrics were needed and our measures and our greater emphasis on local regional communications.
00:58:30
We've added both of those things.
00:58:33
So our vision, mission, and values are the same really as for the last five years from our original
00:58:44
Wordsmithing, but they're generally the same.
00:58:48
The goals for the next five years we've told you are the same five goals of communication and collaboration, environmental stewardship, workforce development, optimization and resiliency of our systems,
00:59:02
and planning and infrastructure.
00:59:04
Five very similar goals to what we've had for the last five years.
00:59:08
If you recall, we had a sixth goal, which was solid waste services.
00:59:13
We merged that within all of these five goals, rather than keeping it a separate goal going forward.
00:59:21
So the highlighted parts of this slide show you what we've
00:59:26
We created and revised in response to your comments two months ago.
00:59:31
We added in the strategies of communication collaboration that we would collaborate with local regional partners and that was a benchmark in our prior five years.
00:59:42
We really worked hard on that and it was an omission leaving it out of the next five years, but we added that in.
00:59:49
and then we have increased the metrics on the measures that we commented on two months ago and try to put some metrics with how we're gonna measure how successful we are in meeting these strategies.
01:00:05
Some of the percentages don't appear too large when we talk about a 1% or 2%, but it is per year, it'll aggregate over five years and further when you
01:00:22
20-some measures that we're going to, 19 measures that we'll be working on.
01:00:27
And the aggregate of all of that is a resource issue for us and our staff.
01:00:35
So unless you have any questions or further suggestions about the metrics that we've added to our student plan, I'd be glad to go through any of them that you want to talk about.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:00:47
Could you please, the last comment,
01:00:51
Impact your staff in terms of tracking these or?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:00:55
No, I'm doing these when we say, let me give you an example.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:01:01
That's sort of the net result of all of these metrics means.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:01:04
Yeah, yes, yes sir.
01:01:05
So like in the measures support community education outreach events by increasing staff participation hours two percent per year.
01:01:12
Well two percent doesn't sound like so much but when you look at each every one of those yellow percentages and it's the same staff that it applies to and over five years
01:01:28
And so the aggregation of all that becomes a staffing challenge.
01:01:42
While it seems small at one or two percent, when you do it over five years and you do 19 goals, it starts to add up.
01:01:48
Do we have capacity for that within existing staff?
01:01:52
And clearly we're going to ask for some more
01:01:57
with some of these strategies that the plan includes, like communication.
01:02:03
We don't have a communication person.
01:02:05
So Deborah helps with that, but it's one of her many duties, so you probably can
01:02:16
What's the baseline of the two percent?
01:02:20
That's going to be one of the first.
01:02:24
So to implement these we put together a goal team for each of the five goals.
01:02:30
We have six or seven
01:02:33
staff members on each of the goal teams and one of their first duties is going to be to determine what is the baseline to your question.
01:02:40
How many hours for communication have we been spending and we have an idea on a number of those.
01:02:56
For example, provide resources to foster involvement with our community and collaboration number three there.
01:03:03
We estimate right now that we spend 480 staff hours a year on that and number four enhancing their website actually expanding community service initiatives at one percent a year we estimate we spend 240 staff hours now on that so we have some baseline information and where we have any any lacking data we're going to have to create that
01:03:28
And that'll be the goal team's first task is to assess their baseline and then use the percentages to go forward.
SPEAKER_04
01:03:42
Bill, not in any way to be contentious, but rather just make a statement.
01:03:51
This also assumes that you keep doing every single thing that you've done in the past and that you don't stop anything.
01:03:58
But there are opportunities to revisit stopping things that aren't as effective or reducing hours in certain areas to create capacity for staff to focus on things that are yielding more meaningful results.
01:04:11
So it's not just adding on.
01:04:12
Is that a fair statement?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:04:13
That is true.
01:04:14
And that's part of the goal for optimization.
01:04:16
How can we do better in the future of adding things and subtracting things?
01:04:22
One small example is we advertise every month in the newspaper that we're going to have Rivanna board meetings.
01:04:30
The bylaws already say when our board meetings are.
01:04:35
The water is every fourth Tuesday at two o'clock.
01:04:40
then and our lawyers have said you don't have to advertise yet so but we do have to advertise a public hearing we're going to have a public hearing or if we have a special meeting we would have to advertise but Deborah's come up with an estimate of get us
01:04:57
$1500 a year that we would save and not advertising every month if we don't have to.
01:05:03
We're looking at every nickel we can find just like that, that still communicates to the community.
01:05:11
I mean, and that's one reason we bring to you now.
01:05:14
with the schedule for next year.
01:05:15
So it's up on our webpage.
01:05:17
We put it up there.
01:05:18
The community, if they have a question about when we're going to meet, they can go there and see it.
01:05:24
We wouldn't necessarily have to put it in the daily progress every month to remind people.
01:05:28
So we're looking at every opportunity to optimize and reduce our costs.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:05:34
Thanks.
01:05:37
Any other comments or questions?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:05:40
So Bill, you'd like a vote to approve the strategic plan?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:05:44
Yes, sir.
01:05:46
That would be your willingness to do that, but it'd be great.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:05:50
And Gary, we need to do this separately?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:05:53
Yes.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:05:53
OK. Can I get a motion from the Water and Sewer Board to approve the strategic plan 2023?
Lonnie Wood
Director of Finance
01:05:59
Mr. Chairman, I move the motion.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:06:02
OK. We have a motion and a second.
01:06:04
All in favor?
01:06:05
Aye.
01:06:06
Opposed?
01:06:07
And can we have the same motion for the Solid Waste Report?
SPEAKER_00
01:06:14
A motion to approve the proposed treaty plan.
01:06:18
Second that.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:06:19
And a second.
01:06:20
All in favor?
01:06:21
Aye.
01:06:22
Opposed?
01:06:23
Okay, that is passed as well.
01:06:26
So now we have a presentation on the safety program update.
01:06:29
Thank you.
01:06:32
Yeah, I think we got what we did.
01:06:39
Thank you for staying.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:06:41
Yeah, and I apologize for having to leave.
SPEAKER_09
01:06:46
Thank you.
01:06:46
See you tomorrow.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:06:53
And I apologize for leaving early.
01:07:03
Thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the board, good afternoon.
SPEAKER_10
01:07:18
I'm Liz Coleman and it's my pleasure to manage the safety for Ragged Mountain Authority staff.
01:07:27
As a reminder, OSHA describes safety as a continuous improvement process that protects staff and reduces the number of workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses.
01:07:40
Safety is a part of our strategic plan involved in our goal of operational optimization.
01:07:45
And there are two strategies to help us meet these goals, enhance our culture of safety, protect our workforce and the public through continually growing the culture of safety.
01:07:58
So what makes up a safety program?
01:08:00
We have our written manual, our safety training, equipment purchases, job procedures, new employee orientation, contractor safety, and emergency management.
01:08:13
This slide displays the 25 chapters in our safety manual, and we have everything from fire prevention to outdoor safety to chemical hygiene.
01:08:29
to update the manual.
01:08:32
This slide displays, we have seven departments that perform a variety of tasks and training requirements include annual required training from OSHA, periodic required training every three years and annual best practices training.
01:08:48
But each department has specific training needs.
01:08:51
Not every department gets the same training.
01:08:54
Administration gets different training than maintenance and so on.
01:09:01
Safety training as all training takes time.
01:09:04
The average hours spent in all types of training.
01:09:06
This is all types of training for companies of comparable size to ours.
01:09:11
63.9 hours in 2021 were spent per employee each year for a small company.
01:09:18
and these hours are broken down into our safety training and the annual hours per employee spent.
01:09:26
Solid waste 23 and it goes down to maintenance with the most at 27.7.
01:09:31
Although COVID-19 has given us difficulty in scheduling and hosting,
01:09:41
In-person trainings, we have managed to deliver virtual and in-person required trainings necessary to our industry and job performance this year.
01:09:49
To our hazardous chemicals for managers, for example, were delivered virtually.
01:09:55
And the equipment training for solid waste, we do get hands-on staff now and their trainers.
01:10:03
And OSHA annual training, we do a biweekly presentation to keep us updated.
01:10:13
We've purchased a few much needed items this year.
01:10:16
Spill containment for chemical storage drums, new 55 gallon drum dollies, the $4,000 from Verso we received.
01:10:23
We purchased manhole guardrails for maintenance and anyone going down into a manhole.
01:10:29
And solid waste, we received $2,000.
01:10:31
And the headset, which we're getting soon, and I'm hoping they love them.
Andrea Bowles
Water Resources Manager
01:10:38
I want to wear them all the time.
SPEAKER_10
01:10:44
This year we enhanced safety in several areas.
01:10:48
Convex mirror at Ivy to help with traffic there.
01:10:53
Steps were replaced at South Rivanna.
01:10:57
Smoke detectors were put into floor building, break room and sludge pump building here at Moores Creek.
01:11:03
So where we can find, we try to enhance safety everywhere.
01:11:08
This is thanks to safety suggestions provided by our staff, which we appreciate.
01:11:14
and board members, we appreciate the suggestions from you all too.
01:11:20
Here we had a contractor inspect the interior of our methane sphere using a drone.
01:11:25
This is an example of safe work practices.
01:11:28
And so as a response, we ventilated for approximately 18 hours, we measured levels of methane continually, and the drone entry went well.
01:11:41
I think Santino, one of our new engineers, was
01:11:44
in charge of that.
01:11:46
I thought you might enjoy that picture.
01:11:48
It's really beautiful from up there and probably not a view most of you see.
01:11:55
Maybe you've seen it.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:11:56
Looks like a place for the remote board meeting.
SPEAKER_10
01:12:02
Nice backdrop, women's heights, I'll be calling it.
01:12:07
Another example of safe work practices is presently going on over at South Rivanna.
01:12:12
and there's some lead paint abatement occurring there.
01:12:16
So we're measuring air levels of lead and so far it's been below two micrograms.
01:12:25
So they've been able to sandblast the lead paint and still maintain safety for our staff.
01:12:35
So what do we maintain our safety program with?
01:12:39
What are our resources?
01:12:40
We have one full-time safety manager, staff safety committee, which is one individual from each department.
01:12:48
So we have about eight.
01:12:51
We have a budget of $103,000 approximately from water and sewer, $26,000 from solid waste, and we've received $6,000 in grant money.
01:13:05
So here is to show you the declining water and sewer incident rates.
01:13:12
So if you notice in 2018, we had 1.98.
01:13:15
Now that's in the blue.
01:13:18
If you look over to the right where the yellow, that's the industry reported average from 2019, which I think is the last real average that you can depend on 2020, most people were at home.
01:13:30
So the industry average for water and sewers 2.8, 2.8 total recordable injury reported.
01:13:41
So we are already below that at 1.98, but we did reduce down to 0.93 in 2019 and maintain that about 0.9 through 2021.
Michael Rogers
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority / Vice Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:13:53
Do we get a rebate on our insurance?
SPEAKER_10
01:13:56
Shouldn't we though?
01:13:58
If I showed you the numbers that we have saved our insurer over $200,000.
01:14:02
That's good.
Michael Rogers
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority / Vice Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:14:03
That's what I wanted to know.
SPEAKER_10
01:14:04
And no, we have not gotten a rebate.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:14:07
We're having a conversation with them about it.
SPEAKER_10
01:14:09
And that's water and sewer.
01:14:12
Now this is solid waste.
01:14:14
We've actually done better here.
01:14:16
So the industry average 2019 was 3.6.
01:14:22
Total reportable injuries reported.
01:14:25
And in 2018, we have 13 went up 2019 to 22 injuries reported and back down to 8.7 in 2020.
01:14:36
Now we're right about the industry average from round four.
01:14:43
So in summary, many safety program improvements have been completed.
01:14:46
We need continual updates for our,
01:14:51
to protect our valuable human resources to keep providing a safe workplace, to enhance our safety culture through safe work practices, and to maintain VOSH requirements and avoid non-compliance problems.
01:15:06
What does VOSH stand for?
01:15:07
Virginia Occupational Safety and Health.
01:15:10
Speak it loud.
01:15:10
Virginia Occupational Safety and Health, and we did get a surprise inspection this year from VOSH and it went well.
01:15:16
Good.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:17
Yes, excellent.
SPEAKER_10
01:15:18
So any questions?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:27
Okay, so for the Water and Sewer Authority, are there other items from Board or Staff not on the agenda?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:15:34
No, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:35
Any reason for a closed meeting?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:15:36
No, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:37
Okay, this is Water and Sewer.
01:15:39
Can we have a motion and a second to adjourn?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:43
So moved.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
01:15:43
Second.
01:15:44
All in favor?
01:15:45
Aye.
01:15:46
Opposed?
01:15:47
Motion carries.
01:15:48
Okay, so for the Solid Waste Authority, any other items from Board or Staff?
01:15:56
Can I have a motion and a second to adjourn?
01:16:03
All in favor?
01:16:04
Opposed?
01:16:05
Motion carries.
01:16:06
We are adjourned.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
01:16:07
Thank you all for a long meeting.