Jul 25, 2022 Public Utilities Board on 2022-07-25 9:00 AM

Okay, it is nine o'clock and we have a quorum, so we'll call to order the Public Utilities Board for the City of Denton for July 25th, 2022. The first item is presentations from members of the public. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to address us? Seeing none, we'll move on to consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull item A, B, or C? Okay, seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Okay. I didn't catch who was seconding, but okay, Barbara. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item is consider approval of the July 11th, 2022 minutes. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes? Larry's moving. Do we have a second? Second. Billy's second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Carries. The next items are the approval of the budgets and their presentations are available if anybody has questions. Otherwise, we'll just go through and approve each item. The first one is the approval of the solid waste fiscal year 2022-2023 operating budget. Does any board members have questions on the solid waste? All right. Do we have a motion to approve? Ben is motioning to approve. Lee is seconding. All in favor say aye. Aye. Did you have a question, Lee? I had a question, but I'm too late. No, that's fine. We can go back, can't we? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. I thought you were seconding. No, I was trying to get my hand up. Okay. My question is, has anything changed in this budget presentation since we last saw it? No, sir. Nothing has changed. It's 100 percent same as it was. Yes. Let me back up. Danielle Stanford and her own budget manager. The only thing Mr. Rybeck that has changed is we did adjust the supplemental requests. We were double counting 630,000. We reduced the supplemental requests to accurately reflect what is moving forward as a recurring cost. Okay. What was that amount? What's the new amount? The recurring cost is $620,065. It was 1.2 million. That was previously 130? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. No problem. I have no further questions. Thank you. Do we need to re-approve it, Marcella? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the fiscal year 2022-2023 solid waste budget? Okay. Second. And Lee's seconding. All in favor this time? Aye. Okay. It carries. Next item is considered the approval of the water fiscal year 2022-2023 operating and capital budget. Okay. This one, Mr. Beck has questions. I notice you say no rate increase, which is good, but considering the serious warm weather we've had, the drought weather, are we capable of doing that? I noticed there was a surplus of about $24 million from last year or this last fiscal year. Is that the reason we're able to hold rate increases steady? I'm concerned that the dry weather, the drought weather we've had, is that susceptible to change that prognosis of no rate increases? I'm actually going to let Nick help me with that one. Okay. One comment I'll make is when we do have drought weather, we sell more water. Yeah. So we usually have a surplus of sales. Okay. But if we're using more water, then we're depleting our resources quicker too. So I guess that's where I was going with that. This projection takes all that into account? Good morning. Nick Vinson, Assistant Director of Finance. Mr. Beck, you're exactly correct. This forecast does take that into account. So a couple of the major projects in water and wastewater for this fiscal year is replacement of the existing infrastructure, that aging infrastructure. So I think to your point, the more water we use, the more demand on that infrastructure. Yeah. Okay. But we're okay. No rate increases this fiscal year. For water, correct. No rate increases. That is correct. Right. Thank you. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the water operating capital? Yes. Mr. Beck is moving. And do we have a second? Okay. Ben's seconding. All in favor say aye. Aye. Carries. Next one is consider recommending the approval of the waste water fiscal year 2022-2023 operating and capital budget. Are there questions on this budget? All right. I see no hands going up. Do we have a motion to... Oh, okay. Now I see a hand going up. Mr. Rybett, go ahead. Same question. Has anything changed in this budget from the prior presentation? No, sir. Nothing has changed from the prior presentation on wastewater. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Mr. Rybett's moving. And do we have a second? Billy second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Consider recommending the approval of the electric fiscal year 2022-2023 operating and capital budget. Questions on this one? Mr. Beck. I'm not sure if it goes here, but going through all these reports, we had talked about in the past that we were going to hire new people and some of that's in here, but there was the gas well inspector. Would that fall under this domain? Yes, sir. I believe that's part of the water as sustainability. Okay. So there was a person in there that we intend on hiring for that purpose. Go ahead. So great question. That question actually came up last week with a council presentation. So that position, if I'm not mistaken, was actually scheduled to start today, it'll be their first day at the city. Okay. So I just missed it all. I'm just glad it's there. Thank you. All right. Other questions? Do we have a motion to approve the electric fiscal year budget? Billy's moved. And Mr. Rybett second. All in favor say aye. Aye. That carries. Consider recommending approval of the customer service fiscal year 2022-2023 operating and capital budget. Are there questions on the customer service? Mr. Rybett. We had a very nice presentation on the customer service budget review previously, but I have a question that occurred to me afterwards, which is one of the things they wanted to do with this budget is to add personnel, but they're also pushing very hard to have everything done online. So I'm modestly confused about we're adding people, but we're trying to get everything automated. So I just thought I would pose that question before we go ahead and say to approve the budget. I don't know if you can answer that or not. That's a good question, Mr. Rybett. It doesn't look like someone from customer services here, but they do have metrics that support the need for additional personnel that I'll be happy to share with Kim to send to you all after the meeting. Thank you. Oh, and then Barbara. Thank you. I just wanted to say, I know customer service is getting busier and busier, so I think there is probably a need for an additional person along with automating because now if you're trying to get through, you have a considerable amount of weight. And I will say those guys do a great job. Yes, ma'am. They do a wonderful job. And she does have a table provided in a different presentation that supports the need for additional staff. All right. Move approval. All right. Thank you, Barbara. Do we have a second? Mr. Beck, seconding. All in favor say, aye. Aye. That carries. Thank you. Thank you. Management reports. Christine. Okay. So on your, we don't have any items under the future public utility board agenda items, unless you'll have something you want us to look into and bring back to you. And then on our second attachment for the new business action items, we still have the item on there that Mr. Soph had requested back in 2020. I did meet with Tony prior to this meeting and he indicated he wanted to let you all know that DME anticipates taking that item to the sustainability committee in mid August. So they should have that information ready for public utilities board and an update after that. Okay. Thank you. Is there any other items we need to add or look into? Yes, sir. Yeah. So I know there's, we have the incentives for getting solar panels on your roof, which I know gets depleted very quickly. Has there been any thought to increasing that or removing it altogether or have we reconsidered anything with that recently? I'd be curious to know info on that. I will add that and bring that back. I do know that Michael Gagne, our sustainability director, has been working on that in conjunction with DME, looking at that program and what can we do additionally to either enhance that or what can we do? So we'll add that to our list and bring that back as an action item. Great. Thanks. All right, that brings us to concluding items. I think this is where I say I did get my absence approved for June 13th. So we can have that in the record. Does any board member wish to have anything else added or make any comments? Just want to make sure that everybody's going to be here because Susan and Barbara and both will miss the next meeting, which is the 8th. Everybody else ought to be here? Should be, yeah. Okay. I will be here on the 8th, but I will not be on the 22nd. Okay. And I will send an email to the secretary on that. And Barbara. Yes, yes. All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Okay, 910.