Mar 28, 2022 Public Utilities Board on 2022-03-28 9:00 AM

Good morning. It's 9 o'clock. I'd like to call the Public Utility Board of Monday, March 28th, 2022 to order. With that, we will accept any presentation from members of the public. Is there anyone out there that would like to address the Public Utility Board? Seeing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Would any member of the board like to move one of them out for discussion? Mr. Beck? Yes, I just want a little clarification on the wording in item A. Item A? Yes, sir. Okay. Any others? If not, we'll entertain a motion to approve item B. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? There being none, we'll move on to consent agenda item A. Thank you, Chair. The wording in it just kind of caught my attention. It says that this energy market price data, ETERM, is the sole provider of this software, which provides that procurement of commodities and service that are available from one source are exempt from competitive bidding. So are we saying that there's no other source and therefore competitive bidding isn't a factor or what? I'm Smith Day. I'm the regulatory risk division manager with DME and I've got a little bit of knowledge on this item. Okay. We're actually not saying that this is the only source of this data. There are providers. However, given the procurement regulations, it can be treated as sole source if it's, as a practical matter, the only practical way to get the data that works for us. And the reason that this data is in that category, that unique category, is because the ETERM system, and I don't want to kill you with acronyms, but it's energy trading and risk management system. That's the actual software and that's where we put our power and energy portfolio in to gauge it against the market. The only way that tool works is if we feed it market data. And this market data provider provides us market data, and they're not the only one, but they provide us market data in a unique configuration that would match when we implemented the software. So to get a different vendor means we would have to tear out the current configuration and get a great expense to get a different vendor. You said the key element, great expense. Okay. All right. Thank you. If there's any more questions, I can... Thank you, Smith. All right. Thank you. You okay with that, Mr. Beck? Everything okay for you? Everything okay for you on that? Okay. All right. Well, if there is no further discussion, entertain a motion for item A. Motion? Second. And a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Now we'll move on to items for individual consideration, the first one being item A, which is the approval of March 14th minutes. Any corrections or discussion on those? There being none, entertain a motion for item A. So moved. Motion to approve. We have a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. I'm going to recuse myself on item B. Good morning. Item B for individual consideration is to consider recommending adoption of an ordinance. The City of Denton, Texas Home-ruled Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Texas Materials Group DBA tech spit for the construction of the Southeast Denton Package A project consisting of 22 roadway segments, including water and wastewater main replacement located in Southeast Denton in the Southeast Denton neighborhood. I believe we have a presentation. Yes, sir. Good morning, board members. My name is Seth Garcia. I'm a program manager with Capital Broadchecks. As he stated, I have a brief presentation for you for Southeast Denton Package A. So just quickly, this package is a part of our neighborhood rehabilitation program, which is associated with the 2019 bond program. And this is for the award of the construction contract. So for a brief project scope, Southeast Denton Package A is reconstruction of the first 22 segments of a total of 72 segments we're going to be doing in Southeast Denton. It includes full street reconstruction, replacement of aging water and wastewater mains. We also have some improved sidewalk connectivity. So we're going to be filling some gaps. We're correcting all noncompliant ADA ramps on the segments that we're touching, as well as some various traffic calming measures. So currently on that section of Mill and Moore Street that you can see, the width is about 40 feet. So we're instituting some bump outs that's actually going to narrow the roadway to about 30 feet at the intersections to give the appearance of a smaller roadway to kind of discourage speeding there. So with this project, we did receive five proposals. It was bid using CSP. The highest ranked firm was Texas BIT, and their total base proposal was just over $6.3 million. So quickly to touch on the schedule of this project. So this is the first-- Excuse me, sir. Could you go back to the previous slide for a moment? Yes, sir. I just didn't see your scoring while you were talking. Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you. Absolutely. So quickly just to touch on the schedule of this project. So the first 22 segments we began design in March of 2021. We had made a commitment to city council and to the representatives in district one that we were going to advertise this project by the end of the year. So we did meet that promise. It advertised in quarter four of 2021. We opened bids in January. We are anticipating that construction is going to begin in quarter two of 2022. It's a 365 day project for substantial completion. And that would put us completing the project somewhere near quarter two of 2023, of course, pending weather. So with that staff recommends a contract between the city of Denton and Texas bit and just over $6.6 million. And this does include the 5% contingency. So it's the base bid of 6.3 plus the 5% contingency for a total NTE of 6.6. And with that, I can take any questions. Any questions? I do have one. I wasn't here for the initial project approval. I'm just curious on the very first map, first slide with the map, what are the red dotted lines? Yeah. So the red dotted lines represent wastewater lines that we're going to be replacing. So if you see a red dash line, that means the wastewater line was due for replacement. The blue lines represent the water main. So I believe of the 6.3 million, we had just over 1.7 million in water main replacement and 1.6 million in wastewater main replacement. And then the bond segments, sidewalks, all that was just over $3 million of the total contract price. And on the sidewalk connectivity, is it only where existing sidewalks were or will all of the streets receive sidewalks? No. So it's only we're filling a couple gaps. One of the major gaps was on Robertson. So we have continuous sidewalk coming down Bell. We had an area of about 100 feet left out on Robertson. So we're proposing to connect that gap. It'll provide then continuous sidewalk kind of going over to the Fred Moore High School. One other piece of sidewalk that we're installing that is not currently there is the little triangle shape on Y Street. So that's actually owned by Parks and Recreation. So we're proposing to put in two legs of sidewalk there with the thought that there may be a future community garden or something that could go into that small area. And so since we're coming in with the project, we're going to utilize the economies of scale to go ahead and put in a couple legs of sidewalk there for them. And does Mill Street currently have sidewalks? Mill Street does not. So it does behind the Fred Moore School. So that's where we're instituting those bump outs. We are putting ramps on the bump outs. So there will be a potential for in the future to put an on street path that will be protected by those bump outs. Thank you. Yes, sir. If there are no further questions and entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Great. Thank you all. We'll take just a moment to get our acting chair back in the meeting. Okay. Next item for individual consideration is item number C. Randy? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Item C and D need to be called together. Voted on separately. So Randy is going to present C and D together with one presentation. Yes, sir. Thank you. Randy Klingel, Treasury Manager within the Finance Department. I am going to speak a little bit about the notice of intent process for issuing CO debt for the city of Denton. This is a standard process we have for the CO sale anytime the city goes out for a bond sale. The purpose of a notice of intention is by the local government code chapter C of the Certificate of Obligation Act, which requires us to give the public notice of our intent to issue COs. We must publish this in the newspaper, our journal newspaper, the city of Denton will be published there along with our city website. The publication must be put out once a week in two consecutive weeks, which will start that around April 14th of next month, which we're almost on top of April. A passage of a bond ordinance, or sometimes we call it a parameter ordinance, it's kind of an interchangeable term, will be authorized in the sale of the COs for at least 46 days after the date of the first publication. So most of the slide presentation you'll see here are the list of projects for these CO sales. They are also listed in your AIS independently, depending on which utility that we're looking at. So the first one is the solid waste project list totaling $6.9 million, which is in your list. And these were also part of the CIP budget process. So it's not any new projects that you're seeing here, they are part of the process that you've seen throughout the year. So the solid waste total is at 6.9. There we go. Water is at 23.4 million. The wastewater projects usually take two slides, they're very detail oriented, so they have a lot going on over wastewater. They have $44.2 million coming up for the CO sale and rounding out with electric at 52.9, bringing the total of the three utilities at $120.6 million. And these are pretty close to budgeted items. They have a couple of months to tweak their process and see what they still need to come up in the bond sale that won't happen until June. So these numbers are most likely to reduce. So my next step is I'll come back in May to this board to do the parameters or bond ordinance. Well, you'll see a final project list to go out for the CO sale. Then we'll take that recommendation following to council. We'll look at a preliminary date for the bond sale in June and then actually close the sale and receive the bond proceeds in late July. And that is my presentation today. Open for any questions. And we do have the department here as well if you have any project specific. Yes, ma'am. What are the terms of these bonds? The terms, it depends on the project, anywhere from five years to 30 years. So even though we're authorizing a pool for sale, they vary in length. Yes, sir. Thank you. So just to clarify, the PUB has already approved all these things and this is now how to pay for it. Is that correct? Correct. The notice of intent is to show out what we can go out and get in the bond sale. But again, we'll come back with a hard number in June. Thank you. Any further questions? That should be good. So we're going to take item C for consideration or consideration for a motion. If anyone would like to make a motion. Move to approve. Pardon me? Move to approve. Okay. Mr. Ryback second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? There being no, we'll move on to item D, consider a motion to approve this. So moved. So moved, Mr. Jumper. Mr. Beck seconds. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item D and C, both passed unanimously. Okay, item E, management reports. So Mr. Chair, members of the committee, of the board, so we have a couple items for you. The first item, and members of the finance department are here if you have any questions. We've provided to you the deck update for the month of September. I will tell you that they are working on getting the most current months completed and out to you guys here in the next couple of weeks. But they're here if you have any questions on that item. The next item is just future agenda items. Of course, what we have on here is just some dates for budget presentations. And again, that'll include water, wastewater, electric, solid waste, and also utility customer service that will be coming to you over a series of meetings with ultimate requests to approve or make a recommendation to council on July 11th. And just for your information, the city manager's proposed budget is due to the city council by July 31st. And so those are the hard dates that we're kind of looking at. And then the final item is just new action items. Again, these are items that have been on here for a little while that we're working on. I will let you know that there is one additional item that we didn't put on here that we will be putting on here. And the chair has asked DME to come back to the board with a presentation on renewable energy, kind of a 101 on what a rec is and how recs operate and how that impacts our portfolio. So we are going to be working on that. We're going to shoot for the next meeting to have that for you. Really meant for your information only, but hopefully that gets you some good background and knowledge as we're preparing to eventually come back to you with a revision to the then renewable resource plan. So those are the management items. If you have any questions on any of them, we've got a number of staff people here that can address that. Okay. Anything for Mr. Puente? If not, item number two is future agenda items. Is there any future agenda items any of the board members would like to put on? No? There's none there. So new business action items. It appears we're going to move right along. I'm going to be -- Susan is going to be jealous how fast I can get these things done. So we'll move on to concluding items. I don't think there's any of that. Those should have been covered in the future agenda items. If not, take that motion to conclude this meeting. Way to go, Lee. Second? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. A lot of y'all here got you out here quick.