July 6, 2010
VALLEY CENTER MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT
Regular Board Meeting
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Place: Board Room
29300 Valley Center Road
Valley Center, CA 92082
The Valley Center Municipal Water District Board of Directors’ meeting was called to order by President Broomell at 2:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Board members present were: Directors Broomell, Polito, Aleshire, Stone and Haskell. Staff members present were: General Manager Arant, General Counsel de Sousa, Director of Finance Jeffrey, Director of Operations Hoyle, Project Manager Williams, Board Secretary Stetson and Manager of IT Pilve. Staff Members in the audience were: Sr. Administrative Assistant Johnson, Pumps and Motors Division personnel (R. Rutherford, E. Olson, C. Kratz, G. Salazar, T. Peter) and Construction & Maintenance Division personnel (B. Lovelady, J. Martineau, J. Thomas, L. Gonzalez).
AUDIENCE COMMENTS/QUESTIONS
General Manager Arant introduced Chris Johnson, Sr. Administrative Assistant, who was selected as the appointee to the position of Executive Assistant/Secretary to the Board upon the retirement of Kathy Stetson on December 30th. The Board extended their congratulations to Mrs. Johnson.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Upon motion by Stone, seconded by Haskell and unanimously carried, the following consent calendar items were approved:
▪ Minutes of the Board meeting held June 14, 2010
▪ Minutes of the Board meeting held June 21, 2010
▪ Audit demand check numbers 126057 through 126194
▪ Treasurer’s Report and Financial Statements for the period ended March 31, 2010
▪ Amended Employment Agreement Between the Valley Center Municipal Water District and Gary T. Arant
ACTION AGENDA
2. Report of Improvements at the Jesmond Dene and Pfau Pump Stations:
Construction and Maintenance Supervisor Lovelady provided a presentation on the improvements completed in Fiscal Year 2009-2010 at the Jesmond Dene and Pfau Pump Stations. The upgrades were completed by in-house personnel with the exception of some block work and paving. The work was completed by the Field Department personnel of the Pumps & Motors and Construction & Maintenance Divisions as well as Engineering Department staff. Mr. Lovelady reviewed a power point presentation of the completed improvements at the Pump Stations as summarized below:
Jesmond Dene Pump Station – Originally constructed in 1955, improvements include: acquiring additional easement, new subsurface piping, valves, pumps and pump motors, electrical controls and panel, lighting, block enclosure, paving and landscaping. The new pumps are operating at 101% of design efficiency criteria, up from a rating of 87% of design efficiency prior to the improvements.
Pfau Pump Station – Constructed in 1955, improvements to the site included redesign, installing the new package unit and removal of all active and previously abandoned subsurface piping, valves, equipment, along with installation of new valves, piping, electrical controls and panel, security camera and paving. With the improvements, the pumps at the Pfau Pump Station have tested at 102% of design efficiency criteria (replaced pumps were operating at 80% of design efficiency criteria).
In Fiscal Year 2010-2011, the West Pump Station which was constructed in 1963 will be re-constructed. At present, the pumps at this pump station are operating at 77% of design efficiency criteria.
3. Review of Proposed Amendments to the Administrative Code Article 220, Annexation Procedures:
A review of the District’s annexation procedures as codified in the Administrative Code Article 220 was undertaken in response to the current restricted water supply conditions. Proposed revised sections of the Article 220, Annexation Procedures, were reviewed as follows:
▪ Sec. 220.3 – Initial Water Supply Impact Analysis shall be completed upon a request for annexation that will determine the potential impact upon the water supply.
▪ Sec. 220.4 – Water Supply Conditions at Time of Annexation Request incorporates and references the provisions of Article 230, Water Supply Shortage Response Program, pertaining to the procedures and conditions for accepting and processing an annexation based on the water supply condition level of the District’s Water Supply Shortage Response Program.
▪ Sec. 220.8 – Water Conservation and Supply Demand Analysis establishes that an applicant for annexation will complete a Water Conservation and Supply Water Demand Analysis to assess total water demand of the project, evaluate utilization or development of local water supplies and to indicate how the project will meet the water demand supply requirements in effect.
▪ Sec. 220.9 – Facilities Necessary to Connect and Serve Annexing Territory sets forth that new facilities and improvements to serve the annexed territory will be determined by the District.
General Manager Arant stated that per Metropolitan Water District policy, upon a participant’s withdrawal from the Interim Agricultural Water Program, the customer’s IAWP allocation is transferred to the District’s M&I allocation. As such, the District’s M&I allocation increased by 450 ac. ft. due to the conversions from Metropolitan’s agricultural discount program. An analysis of the transferred allocation and how it can be assigned will need to be evaluated.
Further analysis of the proposed Article 220, Annexation Procedures, and incorporation of comments received will be completed and presented for formal adoption by the Board at a subsequent meeting.
4. Change of District Name:
General Manager Arant reviewed that during the review of the Strategic Plan in 2008, the Board had directed that the District’s name be transitioned to Valley Center Water District, eliminating the word “Municipal”. This was to be accomplished over a period of time due to cost considerations. The change to eliminate Municipal from the District’s name has been implemented since that time resulting in there being the two versions of the District’s name on printed documents. However, because the District was incorporated by the Secretary of State as Valley Center Municipal Water District, legal documents have not been changed, which include reports to state agencies and papers which are filed such as easements and other legal documents. In addition, General Counsel de Sousa has advised the District that having the name duality could cause a loss of certain tort process protections if the District’s informal name is judged to be so “inaccurate and incomplete” as not conforming to the Roster of Public Agencies’ requirements. As such, it was advised that a name change should be done in a formal and comprehensive manner. A formal change would necessitate legal filings with the State of California and County of San Diego, changing numerous signage and public displays, as well as references in the District’s Administrative Code.
Upon motion by Polito, seconded by Stone and unanimously carried, the Board elected to retain the name of Valley Center Municipal Water District.
5. Process for Selecting Governmental Relations Consultant:
The adopted Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget includes funding for governmental relations consultant services to provide federal legislative and regulatory support and to pursue federal funding for various District capital and resources development projects. General Manager Arant reviewed that Jacqueline Howells of Howells Government Relations analyzed the District’s identified resource development projects for potential federal funding sources in which it is felt that federal funding sources could be pursued for water and reclamation projects totaling approximately $25 million.
The District’s Administrative Code Section 135.3, Ongoing Professional and Consulting Services, sets forth the process for selecting ongoing professional and consulting service providers. The process entails seeking Requests for Proposals and a minimum of three service providers selected for the interview process.
Information and references have been obtained on three governmental relations firms currently representing water agencies in the region. They are: Van Scoyoc Associates, Capital Alliance Consulting/The Ferguson Group and Howells Government Relations. It is felt that, based upon the input from agencies represented by these firms; the three firms are qualified to represent the District. The Board was asked to provide direction concerning selection of the governmental relations consultant; that is, obtain formal proposals from the firms and proceed with Board interviews, or deem that the process undertaken to date has substantially met the intent of the selection process and make a selection based upon the information currently available.
General Manager Arant clarified that local funding participation will likely be required for Federal funding programs. The Bureau of Reclamation Title 16 loans for wastewater/water reclamation projects require that the local agency file a financial report demonstrating how the local share will be provided. As such, if Federal funding programs are going to be pursued, an increase in the District’s local share of the water rates, demand offset charges and other revenue sources such as financing will be evaluated.
Upon motion by Aleshire, seconded by Stone, and unanimously carried, the Board directed that a contract with Jacqueline Howells of Howells Government Relations to provide advocacy services for potential federal and state funding for the District’s projects be pursued contingent upon an affirmative response from ACWA’s Federal Relations Department regarding these services.
BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S AGENDA
6. Affirmation of Position on Legislation:
Letters opposing proposed legislation were forwarded to the appropriate legislative committees as follows:
▪ Assembly Bill No. 2776 (Huffman) – Bill as proposed would prohibit the State Water Resources Control Board and the Department of Water Resources from approving a transfer of surface water or water rights lasting 20 or more years unless an evaluation of the economic, social and environmental effects of the transfer upon the area is completed. The bill would also prohibit a water user from replacing transferred surface water with groundwater supplies.
▪ Assembly Bill No. 1955 (De LaTorre) – Bill would prohibit a person from holding two public offices if both agencies have the power of eminent domain and the geographic jurisdictions of the agencies overlap, or if either agency has the power to set a fee or a levy that may affect the other agency. This would impact agencies with representatives serving on Joint Powers Agreements (JPA) that serve their region.
The Board unanimously affirmed the positions of “oppose” on the proposed Assembly Bill No. 2776 and Assembly Bill No. 1955.
7. Funding Request from the Valley Center Fire Protection District:
Correspondence was received from Fire Marshal George E. Lucia, Sr. of the Valley Center Fire Protection District requesting funding to assist in offsetting the cost of fire suppression efforts in the removal of abandoned agriculture trees. Since the removal of trees is under the purview of the fire department, the District will not be an active participant in this endeavor.
8. San Diego County Water Authority Budget Adoption and Rate Increase:
General Manager Arant reported that the San Diego County Water Authority Board had adopted its mid-two-year budget and corresponding rates and charges for water purchased in calendar year 2011 to fund the adopted budget. Five agencies, the Olivenhain, Padre Dam and Rainbow Municipal Water Districts, Sweetwater Authority and Lakeside Water District, did not approve the water rate increases from the San Diego County Water Authority for 2011 though they had approved the budget.
CLOSED SESSION
9. A Closed Session was called by President Broomell at 3:24 p.m. pursuant to:
• Government Code §54956.9(c), Conference with Legal Counsel, Anticipated Litigation
Number of potential cases: 1
• Government Code §54956.9(a), Conference with Legal Counsel, Existing
Litigation
Name of case: Harbor Bay, Inc. v. Valley Center Municipal Water District
San Diego Superior Court
Case No. 37-2010-00050483-CU-BC-NC
RECONVENE
10. The Regular Board meeting was reconvened at 3:57 p.m. There was no reportable action.
ADJOURNMENT
11. Upon motion by Aleshire, seconded by Polito and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 3:57 p.m.
ATTEST: ATTEST:
___________________________ ___________________________
President Secretary