WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.520 All right, it is nine o'clock and we have a quorum, so a call to order the Public Utilities 00:00:10.520 --> 00:00:14.120 Board for the City of Denton on Monday, February 28th. 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:16.840 The first item is public comment period. 00:00:16.840 --> 00:00:20.800 Does anybody in the audience wish to speak? 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:24.640 Is there anyone on the phone that wishes to speak? 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:29.760 All right, I guess not. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.220 All right, then we'll go into the regular meeting. 00:00:33.220 --> 00:00:38.040 On the agenda, the consent agenda, does any board member wish to pull any items A through 00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:39.040 C? 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:42.040 Yes, Mr. Beck. 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:50.360 Okay, we'll have to pull it then, so we can get into the record. 00:00:50.360 --> 00:00:51.360 Yes? 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:52.360 C? 00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:53.360 B? 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:54.360 A and B? 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:55.360 Any others? 00:00:55.360 --> 00:00:59.800 All right, do we have a motion to approve item C? 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:02.680 Oh, you want B? 00:01:02.680 --> 00:01:03.680 I wanted to pull C. 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:07.480 Oh, you want to pull C. I'm sorry, and B? 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:08.480 Just C. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:15.760 Just C, not B. Okay, and did you want, no, so then, now, do we have a motion to approve 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:18.280 item B as in boy? 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:19.280 So move. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:20.280 Okay, in a second. 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:21.280 Okay, thank you. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:23.480 All in favor say aye. 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:24.480 Aye. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.840 Okay, motion carries. 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:35.280 Item A. My only comment is, thank you, Chair, was this ordinance, I guess it is, that we're 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.720 going to be considering, is this something that's going to be retroactive that would 00:01:40.720 --> 00:01:47.560 go back to freezes prior to today, in other words, this last winter and even winter storm 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:55.640 area. Good question. Yes, go ahead. 00:01:55.640 --> 00:02:00.440 Mr. Customer Service Manager, if I'm understanding correct, you're asking if this is going to 00:02:00.440 --> 00:02:05.840 be retroactive, like retroactive to cover past leaks. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.080 Yes, ma'am. 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:10.160 We couldn't write it for a retroactive. 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:14.040 It is going to be effective at the date Council makes the approval, and it will be effective 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:15.040 moving forward. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:19.200 I think it's great policy, I was just wondering if we could capture some of the damage we 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:20.200 had in the past. 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:21.200 Go ahead, Mr. 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:28.200 I didn't want you to sit down yet, I had a couple more questions about the ordinance. 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:29.200 Sure. 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:33.440 Currently, I guess, is the current leak policy informal or? 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:39.800 The current leak policy is a very explicit policy in ordinance. 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:46.040 It excludes the vast majority of leaks, we found that less than half of 1% of our customer 00:02:46.040 --> 00:02:50.680 base actually qualifies with the types of leaks that they receive. 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:59.360 We wanted to be able to expand that program to give customers actual access to it. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:05.880 Regarding the proof, I was curious what, it doesn't really, the ordinance seems to rely 00:03:05.880 --> 00:03:11.720 on the policy and the policy document we have doesn't seem to indicate what level of proof 00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:12.720 is required. 00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:17.760 Well, that's because proof of leak and leak repair can vary. 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:20.160 We first look for a plumbing receipt. 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:23.880 If we don't have a plumbing receipt, then we'll move to looking for what are the parts, 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:25.400 the receipt for the parts. 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:29.360 But there are those times where you may have that part in your garage, in which case, we're 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:34.560 going to ask you for a detailed letter so that we can gather something that says there 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:39.040 was a leak, we knew what it was, we fixed it, and this is how it was done. 00:03:39.040 --> 00:03:40.040 Okay, thank you. 00:03:40.040 --> 00:03:45.760 My personal experience with this was probably 15 years ago, I had a leak in the yard, an 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:53.600 antique compression coupler failed, and 50,000 gallons later, dug it up and replaced it with 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:56.600 the $5 part. 00:03:56.600 --> 00:04:06.920 It was a $200 water bill versus at least a $200 service call for a plumber. 00:04:06.920 --> 00:04:07.920 Sure. 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:10.720 It was easier just to pay the bill, so I was just curious if it was going to allow for 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:11.720 that kind of home remedy. 00:04:11.720 --> 00:04:15.080 Yeah, we will allow for that, and that's part of the reason we left it a little broad, so 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:19.920 that it does give us that little bit of flexibility to work with customers as we need to. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:20.920 Thank you. 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:21.920 You're very welcome. 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:22.920 So it's more flexible than it was in the past. 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:23.920 It is much more flexible. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:24.920 Okay. 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:27.800 It's much more consistent with what other cities in the area are doing. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:28.800 All right. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:29.800 Thank you. 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:30.800 Any other questions? 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:31.800 All right. 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:32.800 Do we have a motion to approve item A? 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:33.800 Mr. Beck motions? 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:34.800 And a second? 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:35.800 All in favor, say aye. 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:36.800 Aye. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:37.800 The motion carries. 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:38.800 Item C, as in cat. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:39.800 Is there someone here? 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:40.800 Oh, thank you. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:41.800 Hey there. 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:42.800 Okay. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:43.800 Yes. 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:58.680 So my question is maybe a couple of questions relating to each other. 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:06.680 So a lot of branded material seems like an awful lot of money for city dint and pens 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:10.960 and whatnot, so just wanted a little more detail on when and how these are used and 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:14.320 distributed to whom internally to the public. 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:15.320 Sure. 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:18.360 Hi, I'm Christine Taylor, the procurement director. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:22.280 So this contract is we're wanting to put it in place since departments are coming back 00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:25.040 since we are looking at holding more public events. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:30.400 It is a multi-year contract, so we are looking at capturing a three-year spend on this. 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:34.520 So we did try to list out on each of them, but the branded material and things like that 00:05:34.520 --> 00:05:37.220 are going to be for community engagement events. 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:42.000 If they do, I think Water listed a couple of examples for Water Week, various promotional 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:46.520 campaigns through Solid Waste, parks events, any event where we're interfacing with the 00:05:46.520 --> 00:05:51.520 public and want some promotional items to really hit home those visual cues to see and 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:53.960 remember those campaigns. 00:05:53.960 --> 00:05:59.040 But again, the contract is the dollar amount, not to exceed is not a requirement. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:03.800 There's no minimum spend that we have to obtain with this contract, so if events don't take 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:08.280 place or we don't purchase them, there's no problem with not spending any money on the 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:10.720 contract or exceeding it. 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.560 But we did try to work with all the departments to capture what they think they will engage 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.880 with the public over the next couple of years so we can have a contract in place that meets 00:06:18.880 --> 00:06:22.600 all statutory requirements and we can purchase those items easily. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:23.600 Okay. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:29.120 And if I understand correctly, everybody else used to do maybe a little bit on their own, 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:32.040 so this is pulling everybody together and that's... 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:33.460 Yeah, that's absolutely correct. 00:06:33.460 --> 00:06:38.160 We wanna pull that one commodity together and be able to easily identify what we're spending 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.680 and making sure we're all kinda have equity in who we're purchasing from and that it meets 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:42.680 purchasing requirements. 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:43.680 Okay. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:48.640 So does that lead to any overlap of shared expense or discounts or anything? 00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:49.640 Yes. 00:06:49.640 --> 00:06:53.920 Since we are going through the purchasing, a cooperative agreement, we get, I believe 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:59.720 it's a 10 or a five, it's a 10% discount on the items for each purchase that we do through 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:00.720 this agreement. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:01.720 Thanks. 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:02.720 All right. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:03.720 Any other questions? 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:06.760 Do we have a motion to approve item C? 00:07:06.760 --> 00:07:07.760 Okay. 00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:08.760 And a second? 00:07:08.760 --> 00:07:09.760 Second. 00:07:09.760 --> 00:07:10.760 All right. 00:07:10.760 --> 00:07:11.760 All in favor say aye. 00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:12.760 Aye. 00:07:12.760 --> 00:07:14.560 Did you catch that, Kim? 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:15.560 Okay. 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:16.560 Thank you. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:21.080 Next item is consider approval of the February 17th, 2020 minutes. 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:24.640 Do we have any changes to the minutes? 00:07:24.640 --> 00:07:29.040 Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the minutes for February 17th? 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:30.400 Billy moves. 00:07:30.400 --> 00:07:33.400 Oh, Ben seconds. 00:07:33.400 --> 00:07:34.640 All in favor say aye. 00:07:34.640 --> 00:07:35.640 Aye. 00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:36.740 That one carries. 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:43.440 Item B. Good morning, Cassie. 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:44.440 Good morning. 00:07:44.440 --> 00:07:53.000 Cassie Ogden, Director of Finance, here to seek your direction on a capital improvement 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.520 budget amendment for solid waste. 00:07:56.520 --> 00:07:59.680 So just briefly, I have one slide for you. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:05.240 We're proposing a budget amendment to increase the capital improvement program expenditure 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:11.520 by 4.4 million, and this is for the purchase of land for solid waste transfer station. 00:08:11.520 --> 00:08:15.800 Brian Boehner is here if you have operational questions, but I'm happy to take any financial 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:16.800 questions. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:24.280 And I do have the next item also in case there are questions about the funding of this item. 00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:30.360 And we have operational questions for Brian. 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.560 All right. 00:08:32.560 --> 00:08:36.960 Then do we have a motion to approve item B? 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:37.960 Billy moves approval. 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:38.960 Second? 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:39.960 Ben seconds. 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:42.080 All in favor say aye. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:43.080 Aye. 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:44.080 Motion carries. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:54.120 Item C. This presentation is a couple slides longer, so just talking about the funding 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.240 of the land purchase. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:01.280 So we are planning on issuing bonds, COs, for that purchase. 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:04.600 And so this is for a reimbursement ordinance. 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:09.720 We do these typically every October, but we can do them anytime within the year before 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:11.360 we sell the bonds. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:15.360 Basically, it allows us to pay ourselves back once the bonds are issued. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:21.440 So we'll use fund balance or cash available to make the purchase before the bonds are 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:25.720 issued because we aren't planning on issuing bonds this year until June. 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:30.160 And so this is allowed by our city's debt policy. 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:33.920 And again, this is the purchase that we are planning. 00:09:33.920 --> 00:09:40.160 It was a mid-year ad, so it was not included in the original CIP, so $4.4 million for that 00:09:40.160 --> 00:09:44.400 transfer station or the purchase of the land for the transfer station. 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:49.000 And then again, next steps, just like every year, this will come back to council a couple 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.640 of times before the actual COs are issued. 00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:56.960 So there's a notice of intent requirement that we have to post on the website and in 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:57.960 the paper. 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:02.880 And then there's also a parameters ordinance that will come to PB and council. 00:10:02.880 --> 00:10:06.280 And then the bond sale date will be in July. 00:10:06.280 --> 00:10:08.480 All right. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:09.480 Questions? 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:17.200 Yes, Mr. Beck, go ahead. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:19.160 I'm sorry, and I might have missed it. 00:10:19.160 --> 00:10:22.600 Where was this land at for this new station? 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.160 I'll let Brian answer that question. 00:10:25.160 --> 00:10:26.160 Just curious. 00:10:26.160 --> 00:10:32.440 Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, Brian Burner, Solid Waste Director 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:33.800 with City of Denton. 00:10:33.800 --> 00:10:42.260 This property is located on the west side of City of Denton, west of 35, very close 00:10:42.260 --> 00:10:44.640 to where the deck is located right now. 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:48.600 What we're trying to do is, you know, when we -- last year we would have included this 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:54.560 in our budget, but with the whole housing crisis and speculative purchasing of land 00:10:54.560 --> 00:10:59.320 and everything getting kind of apy here, we just wanted to make sure that we had some 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:02.980 property carved out to ensure that we could get through our permitting and everything 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:08.680 else and be ready in the 10 or so years it's going to take to really get the critical mass 00:11:08.680 --> 00:11:11.660 of businesses and residents in this area. 00:11:11.660 --> 00:11:16.360 So we're looking forward to the construction of loop 288, which will help us in our transportation 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:20.400 route and getting trucks from this transfer station into the landfill. 00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:21.400 Okay. 00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:23.720 So there's no zoning conflicts that we're going to -- 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:24.720 No. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:29.000 We've worked closely not only with the existing code, but also with the current updates to 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.280 the comprehensive plan to ensure that they are commiserate. 00:11:32.280 --> 00:11:33.280 Excellent. 00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:34.280 Thank you. 00:11:34.280 --> 00:11:35.280 Other questions? 00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:36.280 All right. 00:11:36.280 --> 00:11:42.080 Do we have a motion to approve item C? 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:43.080 Very clear. 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:44.080 And Ben seconds. 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:46.080 All in favor say aye. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:47.080 Aye. 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:48.080 Motion carries. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:49.080 Management reports. 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:53.280 What's up, Madam Chair and members of the PUB? 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:58.720 So it appears that we didn't attach the action item, but the only item that was still on 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:04.120 there was related to a past PUB member's request, and DME is still working on that. 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:07.720 We do plan to bring that back to the board. 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:14.180 And then just to pass on a couple of other items, so starting March 14th, our plan is 00:12:14.180 --> 00:12:18.920 to hold the PUB meetings in the work session room, so we'll be going back there. 00:12:18.920 --> 00:12:22.020 Hopefully that'll help with some of the sound and some of the kind of issues that you've 00:12:22.020 --> 00:12:23.020 had. 00:12:23.020 --> 00:12:28.840 And then as a reminder, I know some of you had problems with the agenda last week. 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.480 There was a number of items included in the management report. 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.780 If you have any questions about those, please email them to me or to Kim, and we'll get 00:12:35.780 --> 00:12:38.160 answers to you if we need to set up a meeting with staff. 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:41.040 We're happy to do that as well. 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:44.080 The next item is just budget items in general. 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.560 We'll report that back to you at the next meeting, but the budget office has a calendar 00:12:47.560 --> 00:12:50.040 already so that you can start making plans to be here. 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:53.320 We want to make sure that you don't miss out on any of those budget presentations that 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:56.880 will be coming up here before too long. 00:12:56.880 --> 00:13:01.560 And then finally, just because I had a question this morning, City Council did select Sarah 00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:07.160 Hensley as our permanent city manager, and they'll be taking up that contract consideration 00:13:07.160 --> 00:13:11.320 I think tomorrow, but I did want to pass that along to you, and we certainly look forward 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:16.800 to working with Sarah, and she's always available to you if you have any questions. 00:13:16.800 --> 00:13:21.000 So happy to answer any questions that you have, but that's really the management report. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:22.000 Questions? 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:23.000 Nope. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:24.000 All right. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.000 Thank you. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:26.000 All right. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.920 Any other board member wish to have a item placed on a future agenda or have any comments 00:13:29.920 --> 00:13:32.920 to make to the public? 00:13:32.920 --> 00:13:33.920 Seeing none. 00:13:33.920 --> 00:13:34.920 All right. 00:13:34.920 --> 00:13:35.920 We're into the work session. 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:40.560 Receive a report, hold discussion, and give staff direction regarding the audit. 00:13:40.560 --> 00:13:44.400 Project 025, Energy Portfolio Management. 00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:45.720 Good morning, Madison. 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.360 Good morning. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:51.760 I don't know how to get my presentation on here, Tony. 00:13:51.760 --> 00:13:56.320 Thank you, Cassie. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:01.240 Thank you, Cassie. 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:03.600 Great. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:08.080 All right. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:12.000 Hello, PUB. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.000 I'm Madison Rorschach. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:17.040 I'm Denton City Auditor, and I'm just here to present our findings from our audit of 00:14:17.040 --> 00:14:22.080 the City's Energy Portfolio Transaction Administration. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:28.280 So this report details our findings from the first phase of this project, and phase two 00:14:28.280 --> 00:14:34.440 will cover the Renewable Denton Plan reporting, and it should be released next month. 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:44.660 So this audit generally evaluated compliance with the City's Energy Portfolio Transaction 00:14:44.660 --> 00:14:51.640 Administration policies, including the energy risk management policy and the hedge plan. 00:14:51.640 --> 00:14:57.920 So annually, the City spends about $95 million in wholesale power costs, and these policies 00:14:57.920 --> 00:15:03.700 have been implemented to manage the risk associated with meeting the City's instantaneous electric 00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:06.040 demand through its energy portfolio. 00:15:06.040 --> 00:15:12.720 In order to meet this demand, DME's energy management organization must execute transactions, 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:17.600 including hedges, to ensure energy put on the ERCOT grid by generators is available 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:21.280 to be taken off the grid by DME to serve its customers. 00:15:21.280 --> 00:15:26.620 It's important to make clear that once energy is put on the grid, it's not physically possible 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:31.200 to keep track of each unique megawatt hour generated. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:36.080 So instead, ERCOT uses metering and a system of accounting to track and financially settle 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.320 the trade and use of electricity. 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:44.400 So I'll begin by just discussing the different types of energy portfolio transactions and 00:15:44.400 --> 00:15:48.240 if these were executed in compliance with the City's policies. 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.960 So in general, we reviewed three different types of energy portfolio transactions as 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:58.840 part of the audit, including physical and financial trades, power purchase agreements, 00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:00.640 and congestion revenue rights. 00:16:00.640 --> 00:16:06.400 In general, the front office is responsible for identifying a transaction to execute, 00:16:06.400 --> 00:16:10.120 including monitoring the electricity market to identify appropriate physical and financial 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:16.080 hedges, soliciting and evaluating generators to contract with for power purchase agreements, 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.120 and bidding as part of ERCOT's congestion revenue rights auctions. 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.960 The middle office is then responsible for ensuring these transactions align with relevant 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:29.080 energy portfolio management policies, such as verifying that physical and financial hedges 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:34.520 were executed with the proper authority, executing agreements with other market participants, 00:16:34.520 --> 00:16:37.000 and monitoring contract compliance. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.960 The back office is then responsible for processing received invoices and billing other market 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:45.000 participants for executed transactions. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.080 The back office also communicates these transaction settlement activities to the City's Treasury 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:53.920 and accounting divisions as needed to ensure that the transactions are recorded in the 00:16:53.920 --> 00:16:57.200 City's financial records. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:02.520 These duties and internal controls, including the effectively designed separation of duties 00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:05.960 and the creation of the risk management committee's governance activities, are generally laid 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:11.240 out effectively in the City's energy risk management policy and hedge plan. 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:17.100 And so the results of our review of each of these transaction types are summarized next. 00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:21.760 So beginning with physical and financial trades, we found that all 40 reviewed trades were 00:17:21.760 --> 00:17:26.560 generally executed, settled, and recorded appropriately in the City's financial records. 00:17:26.560 --> 00:17:32.480 However, there was no formal process for front office staff to approve trade transaction 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:35.780 transactions after execution to ensure that they were appropriate. 00:17:35.780 --> 00:17:40.840 In addition, we found that the middle office did not have a process to verify that trade 00:17:40.840 --> 00:17:46.680 transactions were made by authorized employees based on the transaction authority limits 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.940 set in the energy risk management policy. 00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:54.680 In addition, the middle office has established procedures for evaluating and monitoring the 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.200 financial health of trading counterparties. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:01.800 However, documentation of these periodic evaluations were not maintained, so we couldn't verify 00:18:01.800 --> 00:18:04.560 the adequacy. 00:18:04.560 --> 00:18:07.840 For power purchase agreements, we found that the City was complying with state procurement 00:18:07.840 --> 00:18:11.800 regulations when going through the solicitation process. 00:18:11.800 --> 00:18:17.000 That being said, we found that for 10 of 46 reviewed agreement payments, the quantity 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:22.880 delivered could not be verified based on the documentation provided by back office staff. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:28.600 In addition, we found that payments made for megawatt hours curtailed, which means that 00:18:28.600 --> 00:18:34.040 those megawatt hours that are not generated, but they could have been generated by the 00:18:34.040 --> 00:18:39.280 provider, they were curtailed by the City's direction, were very difficult to verify because 00:18:39.280 --> 00:18:45.700 there's not a physical commodity being delivered, and additionally, quantities can only be reviewed 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:50.700 in 15-minute increments while curtailment decisions are made instantaneously, basically, based 00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:53.120 on market price. 00:18:53.120 --> 00:18:57.640 And then finally, for congestion revenue rights, awarded CRRs are automatically recorded in 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:03.620 the City's Energy Trading and Risk Management System, or ETRM, and transactions are settled 00:19:03.620 --> 00:19:08.240 by ERCOT automatically in the City's CRR account with ERCOT. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:13.320 The back office has a process to monitor the City's CRR account and has established informal 00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:21.240 thresholds at which account replenishment payments are initiated. 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:25.360 Also as part of our review, we noticed several administrative issues. 00:19:25.360 --> 00:19:31.880 In particular, we found that data stored in the ETRM system was not regularly reviewed, 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:34.800 which resulted in some data inconsistencies. 00:19:34.800 --> 00:19:38.760 In particular, as I noted, we found that there were some CRRs awarded to the City that were 00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:42.740 not automatically recorded, but this issue has been fixed. 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:47.760 In addition, we found that while the ETRM system included data on energy generated from 00:19:47.760 --> 00:19:52.580 the City's Power Purchase Agreements, this data was not used to verify megawatt hour 00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:58.080 quantities billed, instead the back office uses ERCOT settlement data, however, there 00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:04.600 were inconsistencies between the ERCOT settlement data and what was in the ETRM system. 00:20:04.600 --> 00:20:09.280 In addition, we found that while the middle office has developed and implemented standard 00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:15.840 operating procedures, they had not been updated since 2017 and did not match current practices. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:21.160 Furthermore, the middle office has been charged with administering access to the ETRM system, 00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:27.200 but no criteria or procedures had been developed outlining how that access should be granted, 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:28.200 modified or revoked. 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:32.840 In addition, we found that the back office did not have any standard operating procedures 00:20:32.840 --> 00:20:35.140 for settlement activities. 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:39.600 We also found that the back office settlement activities were primarily performed by a single 00:20:39.600 --> 00:20:45.040 individual and the uniqueness and complexity of these settlement activities, along with 00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:50.200 the lack of standard operating procedures, further increases the risk that the City would 00:20:50.200 --> 00:20:54.440 be unable to adequately settle its energy portfolio transactions if that key role was 00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:56.600 vacated. 00:20:56.600 --> 00:21:03.360 So in summary, we issued a total of 12 recommendations to DME, all of which were concurred with, 00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:06.480 and so based on this response, we believe the identified risks will be appropriately 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:12.440 addressed, but we plan to conduct a follow-up review in 18 to 36 months, which is just our 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:14.720 standard practice. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.120 So there you go, whoops. 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:19.080 All right, questions? 00:21:19.080 --> 00:21:20.080 I can pull this down. 00:21:20.080 --> 00:21:25.080 Yeah, well, maybe pull the slide 6 up, leave that one up. 00:21:25.080 --> 00:21:26.080 This one? 00:21:26.080 --> 00:21:27.080 Yeah, thank you. 00:21:27.080 --> 00:21:28.080 That's not the right slide. 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:29.080 Sorry about that. 00:21:29.080 --> 00:21:30.080 There you go. 00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:31.080 Thank you. 00:21:31.080 --> 00:21:32.080 Any questions? 00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:33.080 Yes, go ahead. 00:21:33.080 --> 00:21:36.080 Thank you, Madison, for your report. 00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:41.680 I kind of empathize with you being the messenger of quasi-news. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:50.680 These lapses, though, do they seem to be more of an issue with training and staff, or are 00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:54.320 there technological problems with the system that are created? 00:21:54.320 --> 00:21:56.520 Oh, the data inconsistencies? 00:21:56.520 --> 00:21:58.160 Yeah. 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:04.840 I think it's more of just technological issues, but I don't know if Terry would like to speak 00:22:04.840 --> 00:22:07.720 to that if he's here. 00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:13.960 It was indicated that there wasn't enough staff, too, and that was probably an oversight 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:22.160 from just, what, COVID maybe going on, that there was some other factors that contributed 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:23.160 to it? 00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:29.720 Yeah, I think there might be a lack of staffing issues, especially at the back office. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.040 Like we mentioned, there's just, and it's a key role, right? 00:22:33.040 --> 00:22:38.240 So if nobody's there to take that place, then we don't know, how do we get those activities 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:39.240 done? 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:42.800 And if I read about it, you're going to take the next 18 months or so to? 00:22:42.800 --> 00:22:46.840 Yeah, I believe they said that they would have everything in this report complete by 00:22:46.840 --> 00:22:50.000 September 30th, 2023. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:52.880 So we'll come back after that date and have a follow-up review. 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:53.880 Okay. 00:22:53.880 --> 00:22:59.680 And again, one last one, and I know you probably can't answer it, but if we've lost the money 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:03.240 as a result of this, is there going to be any way to recoup it, or are we just... 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:05.840 Sorry, I say that again. 00:23:05.840 --> 00:23:10.240 As a result of these lapses, if the city's lost money of this, is there any way to recoup 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:12.240 that, or are we just dialed up? 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.080 It is what it is. 00:23:14.080 --> 00:23:18.640 Yeah, we didn't really find any losses, per se, just that the data was inconsistent between 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:23.400 what ERCOT was using and the ETRM system. 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:27.160 We did look at the PPA payments, and there were some discrepancies there with what we 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.320 could verify, megawatt hours. 00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:35.360 But what we actually found was that the city had not lost money, but had maybe not paid 00:23:35.360 --> 00:23:39.880 as much as it seemed like was verified, so it didn't seem like there were any negative 00:23:39.880 --> 00:23:40.880 effects financially. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:41.880 Okay. 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:42.880 Well, kudos to you. 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.720 I don't envy your job, so good luck. 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:49.600 Yeah, Mr. Beck, I'll just echo what Madison said. 00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:55.340 I think in her report, she was clear that it appears that we may have underpaid or maybe 00:23:55.340 --> 00:23:57.440 owing someone $80,000. 00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:00.840 I can tell you, nobody's knocking on my door asking for that money. 00:24:00.840 --> 00:24:06.520 But I think as, certainly I've incurred with all her recommendations, we're gonna be taking 00:24:06.520 --> 00:24:11.280 a look at not just the technical side of some of these transactions, but also the staffing 00:24:11.280 --> 00:24:12.280 side as well. 00:24:12.280 --> 00:24:15.480 And certainly we'll be bringing that back to you in the budget process if, in fact, 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:17.760 we feel that we need to shore up some of those resources. 00:24:17.760 --> 00:24:23.320 But I can assure you, if we are owed money, we will do everything we can to go collect 00:24:23.320 --> 00:24:24.320 that money. 00:24:24.320 --> 00:24:27.760 And I'm not as enthusiastic about having to pay money, but that's just the way it's... 00:24:27.760 --> 00:24:29.480 If they're not knocking at our door. 00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:30.480 Yeah. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:31.480 Okay. 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:32.480 Thanks, Tony. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:33.480 Appreciate it. 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:34.480 So I wanna be clear. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:36.640 We did not lose any money. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:39.840 You did not find anything that says we didn't get the money. 00:24:39.840 --> 00:24:43.920 I think there were a couple transactions where it looked like maybe we had lost a very slight 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:44.920 amount of money. 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:45.920 Yeah. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:47.920 Like maybe a couple thousand dollars. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:48.920 Yeah. 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:53.040 95 million, very complex system, a couple thousand dollars. 00:24:53.040 --> 00:24:54.040 Yeah. 00:24:54.040 --> 00:24:55.040 In material. 00:24:55.040 --> 00:24:56.040 In material. 00:24:56.040 --> 00:24:57.040 Things happen. 00:24:57.040 --> 00:24:58.040 Yes, go ahead. 00:24:58.040 --> 00:25:00.240 Thank you, Madam Chair. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:06.840 So I commend your auditing ability that you can look at a system as complex as this and 00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:07.840 come down to 12. 00:25:07.840 --> 00:25:09.240 Took us a while. 00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:10.240 Yeah. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:11.240 Yeah. 00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:19.800 And DME, I know DME has its challenges in the complexity of multiple PPAs, then additionally 00:25:19.800 --> 00:25:28.040 hedging, a lot of systems, a lot of electric systems use their own generation and ERCOT. 00:25:28.040 --> 00:25:29.040 That's it. 00:25:29.040 --> 00:25:31.520 They have, or everything is settled through ERCOT. 00:25:31.520 --> 00:25:32.520 Makes it much simpler. 00:25:32.520 --> 00:25:35.560 You just verify the ERCOT settlement. 00:25:35.560 --> 00:25:39.080 We're settling against multiple PPA counterparties. 00:25:39.080 --> 00:25:42.760 We also have the hedging, also have the forward purchasing. 00:25:42.760 --> 00:25:51.480 We're probably not quite big enough to, we're in the double bind of we don't have the staff 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:57.320 where we're, because we're buying gigawatts, to have lots of redundancy and we have pressure 00:25:57.320 --> 00:25:59.160 to keep our staff costs low. 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:04.480 So we don't want to have, you know, if you can be done in less than 40 hours, that's 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:06.000 one person. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:13.320 And then we have, and it's an expert salary probably, so hiring two experts maybe at 20 00:26:13.320 --> 00:26:17.480 hours of work, you know, that's a budgeting question, right? 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:23.640 But then we also need those controls and that redundancy in case of unexpected staff changes 00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:26.280 or, and control from a control aspect. 00:26:26.280 --> 00:26:34.120 So looking at this, I think this is, it's really great to see the audit and I think the 00:26:34.120 --> 00:26:41.760 results of it are, if anything, show just the challenges that DME faces in executing, 00:26:41.760 --> 00:26:44.480 you know, our 100% renewable plan. 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:48.200 And so I think, I think it's, I don't think there's anything to be faulted here. 00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:54.200 As far as data, I was, I'm fascinated by, I'm very familiar with, it doesn't quite 00:26:54.200 --> 00:26:56.600 match ERCOT settlement. 00:26:56.600 --> 00:27:02.120 In my job role, I see that a lot and, you know, I think there's, at some point it's 00:27:02.120 --> 00:27:09.560 going to be what is the expected rate of error, you know, and, you know, data, the best way 00:27:09.560 --> 00:27:16.800 to fix data issues, just on my soapbox, is to utilize the data day in and day out. 00:27:16.800 --> 00:27:22.120 Like, it becomes a performance report to see how far different we are from ERCOT and whether 00:27:22.120 --> 00:27:25.400 we think it's ERCOT's fault or ours. 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:28.240 But I mean, I don't know if that actually applies in this situation. 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:34.160 So I just wanted to say this is, it's really great to see an audit of this detail with, 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:39.120 I think, pretty strong findings and as complex as our system is, it's going to be challenging 00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:45.760 to have controls on every aspect of it, fully overlapping controls, so, but I'm glad we're, 00:27:45.760 --> 00:27:52.800 we want to move toward that while balancing, you know, overhead and staff hours and so 00:27:52.800 --> 00:27:53.800 forth. 00:27:53.800 --> 00:27:54.800 Thank you. 00:27:54.800 --> 00:28:02.800 So we went the right amount of controls, but not so many that it exceeds, the cost exceeds 00:28:02.800 --> 00:28:06.440 the cost of the, you know, but you know that. 00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:07.440 Yes. 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:08.440 Other questions? 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:09.440 All right. 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:13.440 And what is the action on this? 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:14.440 Just. 00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:17.280 I think, we don't usually take action. 00:28:17.280 --> 00:28:18.880 Oh, just direction. 00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:19.880 Yeah. 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:20.880 Okay. 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:21.880 Yeah. 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:24.680 Well, we're planning to go to the city council tomorrow with this exact same presentation. 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:25.680 Okay. 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:26.800 Good enough. 00:28:26.800 --> 00:28:27.800 That is the direction. 00:28:27.800 --> 00:28:28.800 Awesome. 00:28:28.800 --> 00:28:30.480 Thank you so much. 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:33.640 Thank you. 00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:38.820 And the next item is receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction 00:28:38.820 --> 00:28:44.520 regarding the options related to the creation and setting of metrics and goals related to 00:28:44.520 --> 00:28:47.480 the development of the comprehensive solid waste plan. 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:49.960 What we've all been waiting for. 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:51.520 Exactly. 00:28:51.520 --> 00:28:57.400 We have an exciting opportunity here and I appreciate the opportunity to stand before 00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:58.840 you and help lead this discussion. 00:28:58.840 --> 00:29:00.080 Again, I'm Brian burner. 00:29:00.080 --> 00:29:02.960 I am the solid waste director for the city of Denton. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:09.400 And again, this has been a long road to travel, but again, it's been an important one. 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:13.600 City of Denton has been working over a year now on the development of a comprehensive 00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:15.160 solid waste management strategy. 00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:21.760 And so we can see the finish line up just ahead where we've looked at different programs 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:29.040 across the nation, current, local, state, federal and global issues that stand in our 00:29:29.040 --> 00:29:33.320 way to potentially doing some really good work here and tried to set some realistic 00:29:33.320 --> 00:29:37.240 goals and metrics that will help define what our system will be, not only for the next 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.480 20 years, but over the next 40 years and springboard into the next 60 years. 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:46.600 And long after I'm gone, we will have a very comprehensive plan that will help promote 00:29:46.600 --> 00:29:51.440 diversion across the city limits or the city of Denton and most importantly, the North 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:52.440 Texas region. 00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:57.080 So really what I want to talk about today is just give you a quick status update on 00:29:57.080 --> 00:30:03.360 the strategy, review those metrics with the underlying goal that they have to be transparent. 00:30:03.360 --> 00:30:07.480 That's one of the big things that when looking at other plans across the nation, they aren't 00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:08.480 transparent. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:09.480 They're very confusing. 00:30:09.480 --> 00:30:13.400 And as such, you know, if we want people to be involved, they've got to know what's happening 00:30:13.400 --> 00:30:14.640 and what it's costing them. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:16.440 So transparency is going to be key. 00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:21.800 And secondarily, it needs to be representative of the city of Denton's efforts. 00:30:21.800 --> 00:30:26.440 We're not San Francisco, we are not Seattle, Washington, we are not King County, you know, 00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:27.440 we are the city of Denton. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:32.280 And granted, there's some commonalities in what we're talking about from a solid waste 00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:33.720 and trash management standpoint. 00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:38.960 But again, there's some unique things that allow us, I think, some opportunities to grow. 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:46.520 We're in the second to third fastest growing urban area in America. 00:30:46.520 --> 00:30:51.840 And over the next 20 years, I think that their growth is going to be phenomenal. 00:30:51.840 --> 00:30:56.200 And as such, we have to position ourselves to be able to manage not only that, we are 00:30:56.200 --> 00:31:00.560 the regional provider of solid waste management services, or at least disposal capacity in 00:31:00.560 --> 00:31:09.560 North Texas, and what we want to try to do is to maintain that diversion that we have 00:31:09.560 --> 00:31:14.000 and really be the driver of what's happening in the North Texas area. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:18.160 Taking a quick step back, just really talking about metrics and goals, when we talk about 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:22.120 metrics and goals, metrics are those sort of stepping stone things, those little bitty 00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:29.440 things that we put into place to help us in the not only development, but also reaching 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:30.600 these short-term goals. 00:31:30.600 --> 00:31:35.200 So looking at things from a daily, weekly, annual basis that we can wrap up into some 00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:39.880 long-term goals, things that are a little bit more on the future. 00:31:39.880 --> 00:31:42.320 You can sort of stand up and see on the horizon. 00:31:42.320 --> 00:31:45.120 And then we have lifetime goals, which you may have to get to the top of the building 00:31:45.120 --> 00:31:50.000 to look way out, but again, we're setting two sets of goals, and we're setting them 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.200 really as floors, not ceilings. 00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.360 It's what we want to do to reach as a minimum. 00:31:54.360 --> 00:32:00.000 If we exceed these things, great, it puts us well on the path to exceed what we're 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:01.000 doing. 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:06.880 But again, it gives us something that's not only attainable, but realistic and measurable. 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:13.040 So when we're looking at the metrics that are going to drive our diversion goals, there 00:32:13.040 --> 00:32:16.560 are eight things that we're actually looking at here. 00:32:16.560 --> 00:32:21.900 First and foremost, we want to talk about the waste generation rate, and that's really 00:32:21.900 --> 00:32:25.880 the amount of garbage that every man, woman, and child in the city of Denton, and possibly 00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:29.200 the North Texas region, produces on a daily basis. 00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:31.920 What we want to be able to do is drive that number down. 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:35.680 It's kind of interesting, when we first started looking at different programs across the nation 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:39.000 and what they're doing, you know, the city of San Francisco had a fairly aggressive diversion 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:41.400 goal and a zero waste plan. 00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:47.240 Well here recently, they've actually eliminated that goal. 00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:51.880 They've gone specifically to one goal, and that's waste generation rate. 00:32:51.880 --> 00:32:53.600 We're trying to drive that down as low as possible. 00:32:53.600 --> 00:32:57.200 They're not looking at recycling, they're not looking at diversion, they're specifically 00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:59.200 looking at generation. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:03.240 And to that fact, they're putting in different plans and programs, and I think that's important. 00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:06.240 And so that's an important metric for us to be looking at here. 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:13.120 Similarly, we want to be able to look at increasing the rate that we're recycling material at 00:33:13.120 --> 00:33:15.040 the residential and commercial level. 00:33:15.040 --> 00:33:20.640 We are the sole provider for these two services, at least from a programmatic standpoint. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:23.880 There are a lot of things out there that are recyclable that you can't put in your blue 00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:24.880 bin. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:27.400 What we're talking about here is what's in your blue bin, what we as a city are able 00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:28.400 to manage internally. 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:33.360 Ideally, what we'd also like to do as a caveat to this is manage those things that may not 00:33:33.360 --> 00:33:38.560 be your, you know, one through seven plastics, that may not be your tin cans, your aluminum 00:33:38.560 --> 00:33:41.720 cans, or your glass, and be able to report that material also. 00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:47.680 We have some wonderful partners, you know, Tetra Pak, Peterbilt, other large corporations 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:51.920 here in the city of Denton that have extremely robust recycling facilities. 00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:58.040 But again, they're not manufacturing or utilizing water bottles. 00:33:58.040 --> 00:34:01.400 They're not, you know, they're not emptying soup out of a can, you know, they're building 00:34:01.400 --> 00:34:06.200 trucks, they're making labels, and as such, you know, those two pieces don't align. 00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:10.760 So not only do we have to focus on what we as a city can manage from a programmatic standpoint, 00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:17.600 but what everybody else is doing and drive those two pieces together to help better communicate 00:34:17.600 --> 00:34:20.520 what's happening from a recycling standpoint. 00:34:20.520 --> 00:34:25.260 Consistently, also, what we want to do is drive down the contamination rate. 00:34:25.260 --> 00:34:32.080 We have been doing phenomenally over the past two years in light of COVID, the global markets, 00:34:32.080 --> 00:34:39.280 the Asian sword, which basically cut off, you know, all the markets in the Asian market 00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:46.240 for us to be able to send material to, and currently we realize that, you know, our current 00:34:46.240 --> 00:34:48.960 contamination rate is 61%. 00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:52.560 It's hoarded, but again, it's better than it was a year and a half ago when it was almost 00:34:52.560 --> 00:34:53.560 80%. 00:34:53.560 --> 00:34:58.760 You know, and the thing to remember, keep in mind, is if this had been three years ago, 00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:02.440 our contamination rate, we would not have to change anything as to what we're doing, 00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:06.240 but our contamination rate would have probably been down to about 25%. 00:35:06.240 --> 00:35:09.280 And it's all, you know, the quality of the material. 00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:14.040 Because the market is so much smaller here in North America, the material that would 00:35:14.040 --> 00:35:20.000 have normally been taken and utilized now is considered coal and contamination, and 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:21.200 we have to manage it as such. 00:35:21.200 --> 00:35:29.640 So again, what we're hoping to do is put in programs to increase quality, decrease contamination. 00:35:29.640 --> 00:35:34.640 The next goal that we want to be able to report, a metric we want to be able to report on our 00:35:34.640 --> 00:35:37.400 drive to diversion is the capture rate. 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:46.000 How much material is in the, or are we able to capture curbside to be able to divert as 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:52.640 opposed to what's going in the landfill, both residentially and from the commercial sector. 00:35:52.640 --> 00:35:53.900 Bottom line, landfill life. 00:35:53.900 --> 00:35:55.080 That's what this all comes down to. 00:35:55.080 --> 00:35:59.820 We want to be able to extend the life of our landfill as long as we possibly can. 00:35:59.820 --> 00:36:02.000 This is a tremendous resource. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.240 It's being utilized as a regional facility as it has been since the day it opened. 00:36:06.240 --> 00:36:10.920 And we want to be able to continue that, but again, make the life as long as possible. 00:36:10.920 --> 00:36:12.300 And then again, organics diversion. 00:36:12.300 --> 00:36:16.040 This is probably the low-hanging fruit in this entire argument is to be able not only 00:36:16.040 --> 00:36:20.640 to manage yard waste, but look at food waste diversion and other organic materials that 00:36:20.640 --> 00:36:26.560 are out there for us to be able to increase as we move forward. 00:36:26.560 --> 00:36:30.840 One of the really exciting things that happened back in November, there was finally, EPA finally 00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:34.880 set a national solid waste reduction goal. 00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:40.360 But as part of this report, EPA announced that they wanted to increase the U.S. recycling 00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:42.440 rate to 50 percent by 2030. 00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:49.200 So again, in the next 10 years or eight years, drive up that material or that diversion rate 00:36:49.200 --> 00:36:51.000 or recycle rate, excuse me, to 2030. 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:55.000 And we're talking about what they're looking at specifically, again, it's those programmatic 00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:00.400 materials, that easy stuff that we can capture, plastics, paper, cans, containers and glass. 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:02.520 Yes, sir. 00:37:02.520 --> 00:37:08.680 So the recycle rate, does that mean the 50 percent, does that mean 50 percent of all 00:37:08.680 --> 00:37:13.280 recyclable materials are then recycled or 50 percent of waste is recycled? 00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:17.140 Fifty percent of those materials that are able to be recycled programmatically. 00:37:17.140 --> 00:37:21.120 So again, you know, I listed paper, plastic, metal, cans, containers, glass. 00:37:21.120 --> 00:37:23.320 There are other things that are out there that are recyclable. 00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:26.680 I mean, wood, let's say, you know, scrap pieces of two-by-four. 00:37:26.680 --> 00:37:30.960 Technically, you can recycle and reuse those if you define it broad enough, but that's 00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:32.120 not included in here. 00:37:32.120 --> 00:37:37.000 So if, you know, if just to make the math easy, if the U.S. Container Council produces 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:40.880 a hundred bottles in this year, they want to ensure that 50 of those bottles are put 00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:46.180 back in the system and reused and recycled. 00:37:46.180 --> 00:37:47.180 I got a question. 00:37:47.180 --> 00:37:52.840 Maybe it's later in the presentation, but are you considering the paving products recycling 00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:54.080 at all in this analysis? 00:37:54.080 --> 00:37:55.080 I'm sorry. 00:37:55.080 --> 00:37:56.080 Paving products? 00:37:56.080 --> 00:37:58.280 Are you considering paving products recycling at all? 00:37:58.280 --> 00:37:59.280 Paving. 00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:00.280 Paving products. 00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:01.280 Yes. 00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:05.460 So that's part of the issue, or part of what we're looking at. 00:38:05.460 --> 00:38:09.960 What we want to be able to do is not only the city be the driving force, but we will 00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:12.560 look at the third party and the open market. 00:38:12.560 --> 00:38:20.440 Currently, there is a very robust concrete asphalt type of recycling community out there. 00:38:20.440 --> 00:38:22.800 What we want to do is to be able to expand that. 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:25.880 We don't need to be in the business where we're competing with the open market, but 00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:30.800 I think if, yeah, as part of this process, if we put in rules, regulations, and mandates, 00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:35.080 which will help drive that material into the third part. 00:38:35.080 --> 00:38:38.840 We have a tremendous amount of buying power here in the city of Denton, so riding our 00:38:38.840 --> 00:38:45.120 specs that says you have to have at least 50% recycled content as concrete aggregate 00:38:45.120 --> 00:38:52.360 or millings or whatever, then now of a sudden, we become a key in driving what that is. 00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:57.360 If we can set a standard type of specification now, not only is the city of Denton helping 00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:01.280 drive that, but let's think about these smaller cities that could use some of our help. 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:06.800 The Crumbs, the Argylls, the Aubries, the Pilot Points, the Ponders, the Prosper's. 00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:10.640 Now they can take this standard spec, throw it into their contracts, and all of a sudden, 00:39:10.640 --> 00:39:15.200 instead of one city out there standing alone, you've got this large purchasing conglomerate 00:39:15.200 --> 00:39:17.800 that will really help drive a lot of this. 00:39:17.800 --> 00:39:22.240 The city of Denton in recent years has gone away from allowing recycled products in their 00:39:22.240 --> 00:39:24.000 pavements, which makes no sense to me. 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:29.240 If you don't allow it in your engineered product, then it's going to be hard for you to recycle 00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:30.240 it. 00:39:30.240 --> 00:39:31.240 Exactly. 00:39:31.240 --> 00:39:32.240 Exactly. 00:39:32.240 --> 00:39:35.360 I think that's the discussion we have to have with our CIP folks, as well as some of the 00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:41.360 local educational communities, because a lot of what engineering across the state of Texas, 00:39:41.360 --> 00:39:49.080 they're relying on the TTI, Texas A&M, UT, North Texas, a lot of these powerhouse educational 00:39:49.080 --> 00:39:53.220 facilities to help define what some of these specs and standards are going to be. 00:39:53.220 --> 00:39:57.380 If we're in partnership and working with them to help move this forward, now we've created 00:39:57.380 --> 00:40:01.720 this huge opportunity that we're looking to fill. 00:40:01.720 --> 00:40:04.040 Yes, sir? 00:40:04.040 --> 00:40:09.040 Brian, could you just, and I don't want to drag you down too much here, but could you 00:40:09.040 --> 00:40:14.080 just, a little bit more input on organic waste, because I know that isn't a big part of your 00:40:14.080 --> 00:40:17.680 deal, but it may grow, and there's a lot of people out there. 00:40:17.680 --> 00:40:24.900 Is there conceivably an opportunity where there will be a separate bin for organic waste 00:40:24.900 --> 00:40:30.320 per homeowner, per residential, or something a little bit bigger where there's a dumpster 00:40:30.320 --> 00:40:36.200 type location within a community where people could take it and make it easy for the city 00:40:36.200 --> 00:40:37.200 to do that? 00:40:37.200 --> 00:40:41.640 I think we're talking both trying to answer the what and the how. 00:40:41.640 --> 00:40:45.520 From the what standpoint, we do want to divert as much organic materials as possible. 00:40:45.520 --> 00:40:48.520 How is the big question? 00:40:48.520 --> 00:40:53.400 Currently we do have an organics recycling container at your house, though it's a brown 00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:57.680 yard waste bin, and you can put grass clippings, you can put yard clippings, you can put tree 00:40:57.680 --> 00:40:58.680 clippings. 00:40:58.680 --> 00:40:59.680 The big brown bin? 00:40:59.680 --> 00:41:05.680 Yeah, the big brown bin, or even the paper bag, the craft bag, and uncooked vegetables. 00:41:05.680 --> 00:41:09.240 That organic material that hasn't been cooked, doesn't have fat oils or grease in it, that 00:41:09.240 --> 00:41:10.240 can go in there. 00:41:10.240 --> 00:41:16.520 And now we can manage that material and it's managed on a weekly basis. 00:41:16.520 --> 00:41:27.480 But let's say the spoiled food from your household, you finish Thanksgiving and you've got the 00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:31.880 rest of the turkey carcass and the little brown scrapings off the edges of the stuffing 00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:32.880 bowl. 00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:34.080 What happens with those? 00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:40.920 I can conceive at some point that you may have a bin on your counter, whether we pick 00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:46.400 that up curbside or set up some sort of regional type of collection dumpsters where you go 00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:52.440 maybe to a library or to a park or out to the landfill and pour that material in there, 00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:53.840 that may be what it looks like. 00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:58.560 So again, we're talking a lot of what now as we look at implementation, that's where 00:41:58.560 --> 00:42:00.160 the how questions will be answered. 00:42:00.160 --> 00:42:01.160 Okay. 00:42:01.160 --> 00:42:02.160 Thanks, sir. 00:42:02.160 --> 00:42:03.160 Thank you. 00:42:03.160 --> 00:42:05.600 We're going to go ahead and continue here. 00:42:05.600 --> 00:42:11.920 And again, looking nationwide, this is just a smattering of the few plans that we looked 00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:12.920 at. 00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:16.600 And again, locally, when we look at our partners here in North Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth, 00:42:16.600 --> 00:42:19.760 they've got some fairly aggressive goals. 00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:28.760 Dallas wanted to have 60% by 2030, but currently, and their plan started in 2013 and currently 00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:34.940 they're at 20%, but again, Dallas is a fairly large community. 00:42:34.940 --> 00:42:42.080 City of Fort Worth, again, 40%, they stated in 2017 and they're currently at 30% and that's 00:42:42.080 --> 00:42:43.080 by 37. 00:42:43.080 --> 00:42:47.260 Now put this in perspective, when I left Fort Worth back in 2010, we were at 28. 00:42:47.260 --> 00:42:50.160 So again, they've had just a little bit of a creep there, but again, I think there's 00:42:50.160 --> 00:42:53.560 some opportunities to continue to improve that. 00:42:53.560 --> 00:42:57.600 You look at Austin, Houston, San Antonio, similar type results, and then you get across 00:42:57.600 --> 00:42:59.280 the United States. 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:04.800 Some of these, when you get outside of the state of Texas, you see some fairly significant 00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:09.840 goals, 90%, 90%, 80%, 70%. 00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:14.840 One of the things you have to remember when these cities were setting these goals, first 00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:16.360 of all, it wasn't comprehensive. 00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:19.960 A lot of these are related specifically to the residential community. 00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:24.760 They do not address the commercial waste sector, and secondarily, they have a bullet in their 00:43:24.760 --> 00:43:30.480 pocket that we don't have, and a lot of that is state mandates with regard to container, 00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:33.880 bottle bills, buyback, things of that nature. 00:43:33.880 --> 00:43:40.640 In the state of Texas, currently there are no laws that allow us to limit bags and what 00:43:40.640 --> 00:43:46.520 kind of container you can bring your groceries home in and the nickel we used to get on the 00:43:46.520 --> 00:43:47.960 pop bottles. 00:43:47.960 --> 00:43:56.160 We don't have that in ... You got a nickel for it. 00:43:56.160 --> 00:43:59.920 We've got certain challenges that we have to face on this uphill climb, but again, I 00:43:59.920 --> 00:44:04.200 think as we go through this and look at this comprehensively, we've set some goals and 00:44:04.200 --> 00:44:07.800 looking at some opportunities here that are realistic. 00:44:07.800 --> 00:44:12.560 Based on everything that we've looked at, some of the opportunities and the crawl, walk, 00:44:12.560 --> 00:44:17.680 run mentality of nature, what we want to try to do is define a long-term diversion goal 00:44:17.680 --> 00:44:22.080 in the city of Denton of 40% by 2040. 00:44:22.080 --> 00:44:27.400 The 2040 period is important because again, from a comprehensive plan standpoint, the 00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:33.760 update, we're trying to align a lot of our plans and with 2040 being the comp plan date, 00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:36.000 we want to be on that same time period. 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:41.960 40% also, I think it gives us the opportunity to get programs in place, get funding in place, 00:44:41.960 --> 00:44:46.600 get mandates in place, get rules and regulations in place, get education in place, and really 00:44:46.600 --> 00:44:50.080 get that conversation and momentum started. 00:44:50.080 --> 00:44:54.640 Secondarily also, it gives us a good educational metric, 40 by 40. 00:44:54.640 --> 00:44:58.800 It just rolls off the tongue, that alliteration, it helps, it sticks in your mind, and you're 00:44:58.800 --> 00:45:01.560 going to be thinking about 40 by 40 the rest of the day. 00:45:01.560 --> 00:45:09.560 Similarly, we want to have a lifetime diversion goal of 75 by 75. 00:45:09.560 --> 00:45:10.560 Where do we come up with 75? 00:45:10.560 --> 00:45:13.960 Well, it goes back to that capture rate. 00:45:13.960 --> 00:45:22.280 Back in October of 2020, seems like a long time ago when it was, but we actually grabbed 00:45:22.280 --> 00:45:28.840 a couple hundred trash carts off the curb and tore them apart, weighed what was in there, 00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:33.800 identified specifically what the components were, and we found out that based on what 00:45:33.800 --> 00:45:39.440 we know now, we have the opportunity to capture about 75 or 73% of everything that's being 00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:40.440 thrown away. 00:45:40.440 --> 00:45:48.080 So, if we set an 80% goal, and we only had the ability to recover 73%, that's unattainable. 00:45:48.080 --> 00:45:53.320 But again, if we're working towards trying to divert everything that's possible, 75 by 00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:55.600 75 makes a whole lot of sense. 00:45:55.600 --> 00:46:01.720 So again, that's where that 75, and again, it's alliterative, 75 by 75, 40 by 40, 75 00:46:01.720 --> 00:46:02.720 by 75. 00:46:02.720 --> 00:46:05.960 So, what does that mean as opposed to where we are now? 00:46:05.960 --> 00:46:10.880 Well, currently, the city of Denton, and again, I'm just talking about our residents and our 00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:15.040 commercial structure, we're at about 15%. 00:46:15.040 --> 00:46:19.720 Not too shabby, not too great, but again, it's a good starting point. 00:46:19.720 --> 00:46:24.640 Currently, every man, woman, and child in the city of Denton, we produce about one and 00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:26.920 a quarter pound of garbage per person per day. 00:46:26.920 --> 00:46:30.260 What we want to be able to do is drive that down. 00:46:30.260 --> 00:46:36.840 Our current residential recycling rate is about 11% with a 61% contamination rate. 00:46:36.840 --> 00:46:41.520 From a commercial sector, and again, this is only the programmatic material, what you 00:46:41.520 --> 00:46:46.320 would put in your blue bin here is really what we're trying to recover from commercial 00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:48.600 sector right now is about 2%. 00:46:48.600 --> 00:46:53.760 But again, we don't provide recycling to everybody, so we don't have that number to really round 00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:57.280 that out, but that's everybody that we collect. 00:46:57.280 --> 00:46:59.880 Commercial contamination is about 55%. 00:46:59.880 --> 00:47:04.520 When we look at the residential capture rate at the residential curbside, we're at about 00:47:04.520 --> 00:47:05.520 50%. 00:47:05.520 --> 00:47:11.200 So we've gotten about half of everything, so we still have about halfway to go to be 00:47:11.200 --> 00:47:14.200 able to really clean up the garbage bins. 00:47:14.200 --> 00:47:17.360 Also looking at our landfill life with our current expansion and everything else, we're 00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:21.920 at about 50 years, a little bit more than that right now, and part of what's driving 00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:24.540 that is just the growth in this area. 00:47:24.540 --> 00:47:30.220 Not only our waste hauler agreements, but really the regional customers that are single 00:47:30.220 --> 00:47:35.100 pay that come across, that is just going up every day, and that's not just commercial 00:47:35.100 --> 00:47:41.160 customers, that's residential customers cleaning out their garages, moving in, moving out, 00:47:41.160 --> 00:47:42.800 things of that nature. 00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:46.400 From an organic standpoint, that's really a short-term success. 00:47:46.400 --> 00:47:50.120 Currently with the implementation of our carted and bagged program, we've been able to drive 00:47:50.120 --> 00:47:55.740 that number up to about 28,000 ton a year, almost 29,000 ton a year. 00:47:55.740 --> 00:48:05.200 We collect slightly north of 6,000 tons curbside, and then about 300 ton of organic material 00:48:05.200 --> 00:48:08.880 from commercial customers such as Walmart, Target, Sam's. 00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:14.060 They have special bins outside that we go and collect the spoiled vegetables and everything 00:48:14.060 --> 00:48:17.600 else that they have and put that in to be making dino dirt. 00:48:17.600 --> 00:48:22.520 One of the big successes is really the direct haul, so those people, those arborists and 00:48:22.520 --> 00:48:26.520 everybody else that's working in Denton and sort of in this North Texas region, bringing 00:48:26.520 --> 00:48:32.840 us material to make the dino dirt out of, almost 22,000 ton a year of direct haul material 00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:33.840 going up. 00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:38.920 Again, we have a good product, we have a system that can manage it thanks to wastewater in 00:48:38.920 --> 00:48:44.080 that group for beneficial reuse for driving that, but again, looking for some exciting 00:48:44.080 --> 00:48:50.480 opportunities as we look at commercial food waste diversion, food waste diversion from 00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:56.880 our university cafeterias and things of this nature, so really some exciting things that 00:48:56.880 --> 00:48:58.400 is going on now. 00:48:58.400 --> 00:49:02.440 If we look, if we wanted to take this as a regional diversion rate for everything that 00:49:02.440 --> 00:49:09.280 we're managing here through the City of Denton landfill, that drops to about 7.5%. 00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:12.880 But that number, I'm going to put an asterisk on that because again, we know most of the 00:49:12.880 --> 00:49:19.000 these that are being serviced by these contract haulers have recycling programs, but we're 00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:20.640 not able to capture that number yet. 00:49:20.640 --> 00:49:26.000 Part of what we want to do if we extend these waste hauler agreements is to require reporting 00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:30.480 of what those numbers are and actually create some sort of incentive that the more you recycle, 00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:34.920 the better rate you potentially get from us and create opportunities for them to divert 00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:36.800 within our system also. 00:49:36.800 --> 00:49:41.240 So again, there's some, we use the power of our dollar and our system to help drive the 00:49:41.240 --> 00:49:42.240 improvements there. 00:49:42.240 --> 00:49:43.240 So with that- 00:49:43.240 --> 00:49:44.240 Oh, go ahead. 00:49:44.240 --> 00:49:45.240 Yes. 00:49:45.240 --> 00:49:46.720 I have a question on the last slide if you could, Mayne. 00:49:46.720 --> 00:49:47.720 Yes. 00:49:47.720 --> 00:49:50.040 Okay, so commercial recycle rate is only 2%. 00:49:50.040 --> 00:49:51.040 Yes. 00:49:51.040 --> 00:49:52.440 Do you guys have any idea why it's so low? 00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:54.520 Well again, there's several things. 00:49:54.520 --> 00:49:58.240 First of all, we're only recycling programmatic material. 00:49:58.240 --> 00:50:07.200 So again, bottles, containers, cans, and if you're going to, if you're pulling the can 00:50:07.200 --> 00:50:11.680 at U-Haul, how many of those are they going to have? 00:50:11.680 --> 00:50:12.680 Absolutely nothing. 00:50:12.680 --> 00:50:16.280 A lot of this comes from the commercial sector, a lot of it, not commercial, a lot of this 00:50:16.280 --> 00:50:20.960 comes from the multi-family sector, which again is highly contaminated, you know, any 00:50:20.960 --> 00:50:26.080 port in a storm, somebody's walking out to their car to go to work, closest band it goes 00:50:26.080 --> 00:50:27.080 into. 00:50:27.080 --> 00:50:30.360 So we're currently, and again, these are 21 numbers. 00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:33.400 These are not the current numbers, but it's the last full year. 00:50:33.400 --> 00:50:42.520 But we're currently with lid locks and sized lids, we're really driving the multi-family 00:50:42.520 --> 00:50:45.000 contamination number down right now. 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:50.720 Working with schools and institutions to help rectify and really tighten up their janitorial 00:50:50.720 --> 00:50:55.540 services so that again, we've got people that are putting the right materials. 00:50:55.540 --> 00:51:01.120 So again, and again, from a commercial sector standpoint, the amount of material that's 00:51:01.120 --> 00:51:04.640 able to be recycled from some of these locations is minimal. 00:51:04.640 --> 00:51:13.160 Yeah, so I looked into getting like a recycle dumpster for our company a while back in it. 00:51:13.160 --> 00:51:15.640 If I remember right, you actually pay for it? 00:51:15.640 --> 00:51:16.640 Yes, you do. 00:51:16.640 --> 00:51:20.640 Okay, so have you all thought that might be a dissentive in any way? 00:51:20.640 --> 00:51:25.840 Well, you're going to pay for it either way, because I mean, let's say... 00:51:25.840 --> 00:51:26.840 For the service, yeah. 00:51:26.840 --> 00:51:33.880 I mean, let's say, well, but it's also mass balance, let's say you got 10 yards of garbage. 00:51:33.880 --> 00:51:37.560 If you can recycle 50%, you still have 10 yards of material to deal with, five yards 00:51:37.560 --> 00:51:41.360 in this can and five yards of this can, and it actually cost us twice as much to go out 00:51:41.360 --> 00:51:44.600 there to pick it up and service it. 00:51:44.600 --> 00:51:48.460 It's a little bit of a disincentive on the front end, but it's part of our recycling, 00:51:48.460 --> 00:51:52.600 the way the whole rate system's set up, you're not paying the disposal charge on the recycling 00:51:52.600 --> 00:51:53.600 dumpster. 00:51:53.600 --> 00:51:58.800 That's a net savings, utilizing that dumpster versus your garbage dumpster. 00:51:58.800 --> 00:51:59.800 That's great. 00:51:59.800 --> 00:52:00.800 Thanks. 00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:01.800 Oh, yes. 00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:02.800 Go ahead, Billy. 00:52:02.800 --> 00:52:03.800 So are you accounting for any... 00:52:03.800 --> 00:52:05.240 I'll do it like this. 00:52:05.240 --> 00:52:08.680 Are you accounting for any of the recycling that you're not doing? 00:52:08.680 --> 00:52:09.680 Does this take into account... 00:52:09.680 --> 00:52:15.620 No, this does not take into account any recycling that we do not have specific control over, 00:52:15.620 --> 00:52:20.080 and that's going to be step one here, is rewriting our Chapter 24 ordinance that will allow us 00:52:20.080 --> 00:52:21.320 to capture that material. 00:52:21.320 --> 00:52:26.480 The University of North Texas right now has a very, very robust, internalized recycling 00:52:26.480 --> 00:52:27.480 program. 00:52:27.480 --> 00:52:31.640 A tremendous amount of material is at the diverting, but we never see that. 00:52:31.640 --> 00:52:34.500 We don't know what that number is, but we haul all their garbage. 00:52:34.500 --> 00:52:42.280 So again, it's almost we get the denominator, but we don't get the numerator in the process. 00:52:42.280 --> 00:52:45.760 We shred almost every piece of paper that goes out our door, and it's recycled by the 00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:47.040 people we pay to shred it. 00:52:47.040 --> 00:52:48.040 Correct. 00:52:48.040 --> 00:52:52.760 Well, also, if you come over and look at that pile of black recycled asphalt that I have 00:52:52.760 --> 00:52:55.080 at my yard, it's about 50,000 tons. 00:52:55.080 --> 00:52:56.080 Yes. 00:52:56.080 --> 00:52:57.600 So we'll recycle every bit of that. 00:52:57.600 --> 00:52:58.600 Right. 00:52:58.600 --> 00:52:59.600 So anyway. 00:52:59.600 --> 00:53:00.600 That would help your numbers. 00:53:00.600 --> 00:53:01.600 Yes, sir. 00:53:01.600 --> 00:53:02.600 I think David had a question. 00:53:02.600 --> 00:53:04.800 Yeah, I was just trying to understand. 00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:12.080 So again, these numbers, the recycle rate is tons in the green bin versus tons in the 00:53:12.080 --> 00:53:14.280 blue bin? 00:53:14.280 --> 00:53:15.920 Net of contamination. 00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:20.240 So again, we've pulled out all the contaminated material, put that back over on the garbage 00:53:20.240 --> 00:53:21.240 side. 00:53:21.240 --> 00:53:29.760 So 11% of it actually is going to some third party to be reused beneficially in a new product. 00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:30.760 Okay. 00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:38.680 So contamination rate is tons of non-recyclable material in the recycle bin. 00:53:38.680 --> 00:53:44.260 So you're saying over half of what enters the recycling facility is not a recyclable 00:53:44.260 --> 00:53:48.360 material like our list of approved recyclables? 00:53:48.360 --> 00:53:49.360 No. 00:53:49.360 --> 00:53:52.360 It may be a material that is programmatic and recycling, but because of the way it was 00:53:52.360 --> 00:53:58.080 managed in your bin, it has become contaminated and we cannot manage it. 00:53:58.080 --> 00:54:07.520 Imagine you have half a bin full of paper and somebody absentmindedly throws a bag of 00:54:07.520 --> 00:54:09.620 dirty diapers on top of it. 00:54:09.620 --> 00:54:13.120 Now all of a sudden we have a half a bin of contaminated material. 00:54:13.120 --> 00:54:20.360 95% of that is a potentially recyclable product, but because it was contaminated, it has made 00:54:20.360 --> 00:54:23.920 it non-processable through our facility. 00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:28.880 And that may be even a better way to look at this, that 61% of this material is non-processable 00:54:28.880 --> 00:54:36.500 because, again, it has been contaminated by garbage, yard waste, aspirational recycling. 00:54:36.500 --> 00:54:38.240 It's material we don't take right now. 00:54:38.240 --> 00:54:41.520 A film, a -- Garden hose. 00:54:41.520 --> 00:54:42.520 Pardon? 00:54:42.520 --> 00:54:43.520 A garden hose? 00:54:43.520 --> 00:54:44.520 A garden hose. 00:54:44.520 --> 00:54:45.520 A tangler. 00:54:45.520 --> 00:54:46.520 Styrofoam. 00:54:46.520 --> 00:54:49.960 Styrofoam is notorious for this. 00:54:49.960 --> 00:54:52.960 Technically it is a recyclable material, but we do not manage our program. 00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:57.520 People see the recycle triangles, they put it in the bin, and we get it, and it has to 00:54:57.520 --> 00:54:59.900 go out the back door. 00:54:59.900 --> 00:55:06.440 And the way that number is captured is tons into the MRF and then tons out the MRF. 00:55:06.440 --> 00:55:17.160 And so, okay, and now 11% and 2%, how does that get to 15% diversion rate? 00:55:17.160 --> 00:55:20.040 It seems like your average would be 9 or 8. 00:55:20.040 --> 00:55:24.640 That's really good because, again, that's the recycle rate versus the diversion rate. 00:55:24.640 --> 00:55:30.000 Recycle rate is a term we're going to use specifically about programmatic material. 00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:33.640 Diversion rate is everything we have control over, so organic material. 00:55:33.640 --> 00:55:37.800 If we're using paving, you know, if we're able to be able to do paving. 00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:43.080 At some point in time, I would like to be able to capture all this donation boxes that's 00:55:43.080 --> 00:55:48.560 on every target and Kroger parking lot right now, we've got material going in there that 00:55:48.560 --> 00:55:52.360 could have potentially been waste coming to us, but it's being beneficially diverted somehow. 00:55:52.360 --> 00:55:56.600 So if we can capture that weight, then now that gives us a better understanding of what's 00:55:56.600 --> 00:55:58.200 happening in the city of Denton. 00:55:58.200 --> 00:56:02.840 And if we can define that third party, maybe instead of the nasty old box sitting out in 00:56:02.840 --> 00:56:06.720 that parking lot that's always overflowing and causing litter everywhere, create some 00:56:06.720 --> 00:56:11.240 sort of partnership opportunity that now we've got a little bit of a storefront maybe or 00:56:11.240 --> 00:56:15.200 an area that we can, you know, create that it's, first of all, it's aesthetically better, 00:56:15.200 --> 00:56:19.080 but secondarily, the material's not being damaged because, you know, it's being rained 00:56:19.080 --> 00:56:23.360 on or somebody's carting it off for this or that. 00:56:23.360 --> 00:56:28.520 And the contamination rate, has it always, you said it's, it was lower in the past? 00:56:28.520 --> 00:56:35.520 Well, it has been lower in the past because again, the quality standards were much more 00:56:35.520 --> 00:56:37.800 forgiving for lack of a better term. 00:56:37.800 --> 00:56:42.880 So you know, the higher spec stuff could go over here, but the lower spec stuff was, I 00:56:42.880 --> 00:56:46.760 mean, in all honesty was being sent to Asia where, you know, they had people that were 00:56:46.760 --> 00:56:49.280 secondarily picking through a lot of this stuff. 00:56:49.280 --> 00:56:54.440 So again, the quality of the material in the can has not changed significantly. 00:56:54.440 --> 00:56:59.720 Our ability to find a processor that would manage that quality of material has decreased. 00:56:59.720 --> 00:57:00.720 Okay. 00:57:00.720 --> 00:57:06.880 So then, and really this might be, this might be baled number six plastic that there's no 00:57:06.880 --> 00:57:09.880 market for and it ends up in the landfill? 00:57:09.880 --> 00:57:10.880 Correct. 00:57:10.880 --> 00:57:15.080 So it might, it might even be like fully processed material, like the MRF, the MRF in theory. 00:57:15.080 --> 00:57:19.520 At that city of Bend, we are not taking any fully processed material into our landfill. 00:57:19.520 --> 00:57:20.520 Okay. 00:57:20.520 --> 00:57:21.520 Okay. 00:57:21.520 --> 00:57:26.520 So again, you know, the initial calling happens at the, at the sorting floor. 00:57:26.520 --> 00:57:28.680 Materials dropped, it's carved out. 00:57:28.680 --> 00:57:34.640 We make a, we make an estimate estimation and then the tonnages are calculated on the 00:57:34.640 --> 00:57:35.800 backend. 00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:42.080 So but again, if it's processed through the MRF, it goes to a third party processor where 00:57:42.080 --> 00:57:43.080 it's been officially recycled. 00:57:43.080 --> 00:57:44.880 It is not thrown away. 00:57:44.880 --> 00:57:45.880 Okay. 00:57:45.880 --> 00:57:46.880 All right. 00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:47.880 That's good to know. 00:57:47.880 --> 00:57:55.640 Now, at these rates are, you've talked about the programs you've talked about to increase 00:57:55.640 --> 00:58:00.880 the recycling rate and diversion rate is to take credit for services that are being already 00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:01.880 performed. 00:58:01.880 --> 00:58:07.200 Like we talked about UNT, talked about the donation boxes, you know, I'm assuming like 00:58:07.200 --> 00:58:11.720 we want to make sure we do a full accounting of all waste in Bend. 00:58:11.720 --> 00:58:19.160 Are there any plans, is it feasible to increase commercial or residential recycling rates 00:58:19.160 --> 00:58:20.960 or decrease contamination? 00:58:20.960 --> 00:58:23.360 Like I guess I'm curious about those goals. 00:58:23.360 --> 00:58:24.360 Yeah. 00:58:24.360 --> 00:58:27.560 And I see where you're coming from and I apologize if I didn't make it clear. 00:58:27.560 --> 00:58:29.920 We're currently working in driving those numbers down. 00:58:29.920 --> 00:58:32.100 Again, these numbers are a year old. 00:58:32.100 --> 00:58:38.240 They're not into 22 and you know, we have a cart audit program right now that's extremely 00:58:38.240 --> 00:58:39.240 robust. 00:58:39.240 --> 00:58:44.080 We have auditors out there lifting the lid on recycling bins in neighborhoods before 00:58:44.080 --> 00:58:46.480 the trucks get there, so to speak. 00:58:46.480 --> 00:58:49.600 And you know, we've been able to drive this number down significantly. 00:58:49.600 --> 00:58:57.120 I think really in, you know, currently our monthly recycling average is about, contamination 00:58:57.120 --> 00:59:00.200 level is about 48% instead of 61%. 00:59:00.200 --> 00:59:05.000 The 61% is an annual from the past year when we started really high. 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:06.440 That number continues to come down. 00:59:06.440 --> 00:59:10.400 Part of that is just, you know, walking and talking to people in the neighborhoods, doing 00:59:10.400 --> 00:59:15.160 the point, the single point education says, you know, this is not recyclable. 00:59:15.160 --> 00:59:16.160 This is what we found. 00:59:16.160 --> 00:59:18.720 So and we've got people in the commercial sector. 00:59:18.720 --> 00:59:21.000 We've got people in the multifamily sector. 00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:25.920 We're running, you know, test routes, trying to identify what those materials are so we 00:59:25.920 --> 00:59:30.680 can create programs that will continue to drive that contamination level down and increase 00:59:30.680 --> 00:59:32.280 the quality of material. 00:59:32.280 --> 00:59:35.560 Because again, from a recycling standpoint, it's all about quality. 00:59:35.560 --> 00:59:37.160 It's not about quantity. 00:59:37.160 --> 00:59:38.400 Quantity has nothing to do with it. 00:59:38.400 --> 00:59:39.400 It's about quality. 00:59:39.400 --> 00:59:42.480 If you can get the highest quality, you can get the highest cost and again, the highest 00:59:42.480 --> 00:59:45.920 return and then the quantity follows. 00:59:45.920 --> 00:59:49.640 But until you've got quality covered, quantity doesn't matter. 00:59:49.640 --> 00:59:56.680 Okay, so you have current programs on like the cart audits in residential and you said 00:59:56.680 --> 01:00:05.120 you mentioned planning future programs to further residential, you kind of just said 01:00:05.120 --> 01:00:07.000 it in a sentence very quickly. 01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:13.000 Do you have future programs also to improve the recycle rate and contamination rate? 01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:18.360 Yeah, we're currently working on, like I said, the cart program, we're doing the audits. 01:00:18.360 --> 01:00:19.800 That's really what's driving it down. 01:00:19.800 --> 01:00:26.040 But then we're going to be looking at some other programs in the commercial and multifamily 01:00:26.040 --> 01:00:34.160 sector which will help clean up those bins also so that we can continue to reduce the 01:00:34.160 --> 01:00:39.080 contamination, increase the quality and also work with the community to help those people 01:00:39.080 --> 01:00:45.440 who currently don't have recycling containers, get them into the system also. 01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:49.760 Okay, so that really seems to be targeting contamination rate. 01:00:49.760 --> 01:00:50.760 Yes. 01:00:50.760 --> 01:00:51.760 Yeah. 01:00:51.760 --> 01:00:59.800 And that's a one person at a time education by cart audit in the residential. 01:00:59.800 --> 01:01:04.920 And I'm just trying to think of what other, like holistically you have a stream of generated 01:01:04.920 --> 01:01:07.600 waste, it goes to a lot of places. 01:01:07.600 --> 01:01:13.840 A lot of those are carts and dumpsters that then go to the MRR for the landfill. 01:01:13.840 --> 01:01:19.960 Other points of diversion, are you looking at anything landfill, at the landfill for 01:01:19.960 --> 01:01:20.960 diversion? 01:01:20.960 --> 01:01:22.000 Yeah, we are. 01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:23.000 We are. 01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:25.880 To be honest, and a lot of that goes to the direct hall. 01:01:25.880 --> 01:01:30.680 But anything that happens at the landfill will be for the mom and pop that pulls across 01:01:30.680 --> 01:01:32.280 the scale. 01:01:32.280 --> 01:01:38.120 And with the establishment of our new public disposal facility that we're currently constructing 01:01:38.120 --> 01:01:44.400 out at the site, that will help us further that recycling. 01:01:44.400 --> 01:01:48.160 When you pull into it, one side you'll be able to dump, the other side will have recycled 01:01:48.160 --> 01:01:49.160 containers. 01:01:49.160 --> 01:01:56.080 Metal, bigger metal that wouldn't be able to fit in your cart, steel, things of that 01:01:56.080 --> 01:01:57.080 nature. 01:01:57.080 --> 01:02:00.120 If you're bringing in a bulk paper or boxes or things of that nature, that will be able 01:02:00.120 --> 01:02:02.100 to be thrown over in those bins. 01:02:02.100 --> 01:02:05.760 So those are the diversionary tactics. 01:02:05.760 --> 01:02:12.080 But things like C&D and concrete and brick and rubble and things like that, that's where 01:02:12.080 --> 01:02:15.360 the opportunities on the third party exist and we're going to be working closely with 01:02:15.360 --> 01:02:21.240 economic development to create those synergies that not only bring jobs to the city of Denton, 01:02:21.240 --> 01:02:27.760 but also help provide opportunities to recycle that material before we even see it. 01:02:27.760 --> 01:02:31.720 Yeah, I mean, I definitely think the best option is it never reaches the landfill. 01:02:31.720 --> 01:02:32.720 That is correct. 01:02:32.720 --> 01:02:39.040 But if 15% of the waste is this product and it's getting to the landfill, it's entering 01:02:39.040 --> 01:02:44.560 the landfill, then it seems like you can educate all you want. 01:02:44.560 --> 01:02:47.000 It might be necessary to divert at the landfill. 01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:49.360 And so that recycling, I had no idea that program was there. 01:02:49.360 --> 01:03:04.960 That's a good, so that's MRF materials, the big four MRF sorted recycling. 01:03:04.960 --> 01:03:08.560 Material recycling or material recovery facility. 01:03:08.560 --> 01:03:16.640 No, it's the blue bin sorting, yeah, because recycling, like you said, recycling is concrete 01:03:16.640 --> 01:03:22.360 or asphalt or wood or all this other, but things that go into the MRF like... 01:03:22.360 --> 01:03:30.040 Material recycling facility. 01:03:30.040 --> 01:03:40.080 So I guess another question I have is how is this aligning with citywide plans? 01:03:40.080 --> 01:03:47.480 I think this is, you know, any city department can have the best intentions and plans. 01:03:47.480 --> 01:03:59.600 I'm curious how the sustainability board and city council, how much overarching support 01:03:59.600 --> 01:04:01.200 does this have? 01:04:01.200 --> 01:04:07.960 Like was mentioned earlier, if we don't use recycled concrete in our building contracts, 01:04:07.960 --> 01:04:11.240 there's no market for the concrete to be recycled. 01:04:11.240 --> 01:04:15.920 And so I do feel like this needs to be, not just like, you get the brunt of it. 01:04:15.920 --> 01:04:21.480 You are receiving it every day, like all the waste material comes to the door right outside 01:04:21.480 --> 01:04:23.320 your office. 01:04:23.320 --> 01:04:31.480 However, this does need to be approached systematically, you know, and with support from the greater 01:04:31.480 --> 01:04:34.040 city system. 01:04:34.040 --> 01:04:38.960 Have you presented this to the sustainability committee yet? 01:04:38.960 --> 01:04:43.880 No, and they will not really have a discussion or direction on this. 01:04:43.880 --> 01:04:48.600 Once we start implementing it, then that's when we will rely heavily on their feedback. 01:04:48.600 --> 01:04:52.920 We present this same thing to council tomorrow, but I think you hit the nail right on the 01:04:52.920 --> 01:04:53.920 head. 01:04:53.920 --> 01:04:56.160 We got to clean up our own house first before we really reach out. 01:04:56.160 --> 01:05:01.000 And part of this plan and really the job that I'm not really looking forward to over the 01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:04.520 next year, year and a half, is, you know, pulling other departments forward, kicking 01:05:04.520 --> 01:05:08.960 and screaming to align with what we're wanting to do here. 01:05:08.960 --> 01:05:11.780 Because again, this is not a solid waste code revision. 01:05:11.780 --> 01:05:13.680 This is a development code revision. 01:05:13.680 --> 01:05:15.800 This is a purchasing code revision. 01:05:15.800 --> 01:05:20.040 This is sustainability and environmental. 01:05:20.040 --> 01:05:22.120 This is a process right now. 01:05:22.120 --> 01:05:24.240 We have a wonderful partnership with water. 01:05:24.240 --> 01:05:29.040 How are we going to have to change that to ensure that we increase our opportunities 01:05:29.040 --> 01:05:31.280 from an organic recycling standpoint? 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:35.320 So there's a lot of moving parts internally that we have to get our arms around, and I 01:05:35.320 --> 01:05:43.440 think based on with discussions I've had with the effort management here, we're in alignment 01:05:43.440 --> 01:05:48.320 about where we need to go with this, and again, it will be small steps, but again, there will 01:05:48.320 --> 01:05:51.520 be critical steps that we will make. 01:05:51.520 --> 01:05:56.680 And once we get to that point, then we'll be reaching out into the community further. 01:05:56.680 --> 01:05:57.680 Thank you. 01:05:57.680 --> 01:05:58.680 Thank you. 01:05:58.680 --> 01:05:59.680 Other questions? 01:05:59.680 --> 01:06:00.680 No? 01:06:00.680 --> 01:06:02.800 Well, I'm impressed. 01:06:02.800 --> 01:06:03.800 Thank you very much. 01:06:03.800 --> 01:06:04.800 I appreciate it. 01:06:04.800 --> 01:06:05.800 All right. 01:06:05.800 --> 01:06:10.680 I guess that is the last item. 01:06:10.680 --> 01:06:13.680 So Billy, do we have a motion to adjourn? 01:06:13.680 --> 01:06:16.960 10.05, we are adjourned.