Aug 09, 2021 Public Utilities Board on 2021-08-09 9:00 AM

>> Good morning and welcome to the City of Ditten Public Utility Board meeting for Monday, August 9th, 2021. It is 9.02 a.m. We would like to see if there are any public comments. Anybody on the phone? >> Not today. Thank you. There's nobody here in the work session room. So we're going to rearrange things a little bit this morning and go straight into our closed session. And let me read this officially. Now we will convene the closed meeting under Texas government code sections 551.086 and 551.071 to receive public power information from staff and consult with the city's attorney as reflected on the agenda. Okay. Anybody not having anything to do with the closed session? Okay. That marks the end of the closed session. We will convene into open session. It is 9.38. And would any board member like to pull any items from the consent agenda? Mr. Jumper? >> Yes. Item D. >> D is in dog. I would like to pull item E. Would anybody like to make a motion to approve items A, B, and C? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion from Lee and a second from Devin. All those in favor, please say aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed, sign the same. Pass unanimously. Ben, what would you like to -- questions on D? >> Yes. So let me pull this up here. All right. So it says we're -- I just want a little clarification. It says we're wanting to purchase a new machine. I was wondering details about that machine. What is it -- is it a quick Google search makes it look like it's mounted on a truck or trailer or something. But then what kind of warranty does it have? What's the lifetime? How long would it last? Things of that nature. >> Good afternoon. This is Brian Burner, director of solid waste and recycling for the city of Denton. Appreciate your question regarding the hydro mulch machine. This actually pairs with item C, which goes before this. On June 15, the city council approved a settlement agreement with the two protestants to our landfill expansion permit. As part of that settlement agreement, a specific landfill alternate daily cover material was required to be used, which was the item C. As part of the application of that material, the machine in item D is required to apply that material to the working face. Additionally, we're able to use this machine to also apply hydro mulch to our existing slopes to increase the vegetative cover and reduce erosion that we are experiencing potentially at the landfill. So at the end of the day with the increased vegetative cover, we would have less maintenance on the slopes. With regard to the warranty, it's standard warranty that, you know, any wearable parts, that is our responsibility, but failure of the equipment as a result of production, that will be the responsibility of new waste concepts. In addition, these materials or these units when they're maintained have a significant lifespan. We try to get, along with all of our equipment, on a five-year rotating schedule, but if it's maintained and operated in the right manner, along with the preventative maintenance that our employees provide as well as fleet maintenance, we can get, you know, five to 10 years out of this machine. Thank you. You're welcome. Any more questions on item D? If not, would anyone like to make a motion to approve item D? So moved. Second. Motion and second from Lee. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Sign the same. Passes unanimously. Item E. My question is, we got somebody there? Yes, Mr. Chairman, I think we have Stephen Gay. Okay. Yes, I'm here. Okay, there you go. All right. Sorry for the delay. So you went, your bids came in really a lot higher than what you budgeted and you say you're going to use two, I'm assuming these are existing employees? Yes, sir, they are. So I appreciate the fact that you're watching your budget. That's very important, obviously, but what were these two guys doing before they're going to be doing this? Hi, this is Preetan, Assistant Director, Water Utilities, Vice Chair. This particular item, there were a couple of things happened in, this item was advertised, RFP was advertised back in May. There were a lot of items included on this particular contract and there was another contract that we were looking at, line locate contract. And then the other thing that was happening in parallel were some readjustment and reorganization of staff to move people around. Between all of these things happening, I believe at this time, we want to move ahead and reject this bid as we have repurposed the people that were being used for the line locate. Now that we have a contract, we're going to repurpose the staff that's allocated there for this particular job, maintaining fire hydrants. Well, perfect. That answers that question easily. Appreciate that, Preetan. Any more questions on that item that answered mine? If not, I'll entertain a motion for approval. So moved. Lee and Karen, thank you for the second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, sign the same. Passes unanimously. Okay, that's consent agenda. Now we'll go on to items for individual consideration. Tony, I guess you present the minutes. Are there any adjustments to the minutes? If not, I guess we'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. A motion. Second. And a second from Lee. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, sign the same. Passes unanimously. Tony, management reports. That's you. Yes, sir. So, Mr. Chair and members of the PUB, we have a memo from the finance department. Nick Vinson is here with you on a couple of follow up items that, some questions that you had that provided the responses. If anyone has any questions, Nick is here available to you to respond. Mr. Chairman, just a reminder, we have about 15 minutes left, so. I think we're going to make it, Lee. There's anything we need to take action on. So, okay. I want to give you a heads up again. Thank you. Mr. Taylor. I just wanted to thank staff for the added detail on my question. Thank you. So, going on to the future agenda items, you know, we do have on August 23rd, intending to bring back to you the utility rate ordinances. I will point out that that will not include the DME rate ordinance since we're not proposing any rate increase there. That will remain as it is today. And so, there's no reason for us to bring that back for approval. But the finance will be bringing back the other rating rate ordinances that you've already seen previously for your approval or your recommendation to the council. And then on September 13th, we do have a plan to bring to you the solid waste management strategy discussion. I know that's been on our radar here for a while. So, then moving on to new business action items, we have a couple on here. The first one is related to the solid waste management strategy that Brian will be bringing back to you. DME is working on an ISR that will be, it's an informal staff report that we'll be providing to the board and to the council to respond to the question that Mr. Soaff had. And I've assured Mr. Soaff that we've not forgotten about his question. And so, and then obviously the last item is just the legislative updates. As you know, the governor did call a second special session. We'll see kind of where things land on that. But we are planning to at least bring you back some information on items that did pass the legislature during the regular session. But again, we'll keep you up to date on any activity going on. And there's a lot of activity going on as a result of that special session, certainly PHCT and RCOT as well. But with that, I'm happy to answer any questions if there's any other item that we need to add. I'd be happy to do that as well. Is there any future action, future agenda items any board members would like to add? Not at this time, Mr. Chairman, but I would like to ask for definition of ISR because I forgot. Informal staff report. Thank you. Okay. If there are no more questions, Lee, would you like to propose that we shut this down? Mr. Chairman, I would be pleased to propose we adjourn the meeting. Second. All those in favor to shut down, say aye. Aye. Thank you so much, everybody. Have a good week.