WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.120 Okay, it's nine o'clock. Let's call to order the November 11th Public Utilities Board. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:21.240 Can you hear me? Hello. It's nine o'clock. November 11th. Let's call to order the Public 00:00:21.240 --> 00:00:26.880 Utilities Board of November 11th, 2019. Before we jump into the work session, I just wanted 00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:33.320 to thank any of our veterans who are serving or have served. Today we honor them, but we 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:38.760 should really honor them every day for keeping us safe and keeping our democracy in place. 00:00:38.760 --> 00:01:04.560 With that, let's hop into the work session. Brian. Well, good morning, Madam Chair, members 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.640 of the committee. My name is Brian Burner. I'm Director of Solid Waste for the City of 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:12.040 Denton. I do appreciate the opportunity today to come before you to talk about a proposal 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:17.320 to create a comprehensive solid waste management strategy for the City of Denton. You may remember 00:01:17.320 --> 00:01:21.160 about two years ago, the City of Denton hired a consultant to basically come and look at 00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:27.320 its solid waste program, STEM to Stern. And over the past 18 months, we've come before 00:01:27.320 --> 00:01:31.760 you with several business case analysis talking about the effectiveness of certain programs, 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:37.160 some programs we've enhanced, some we've actually dismantled, and just because they weren't 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:43.160 cost effective, they weren't effective in meeting the goals and objectives of the of 00:01:43.160 --> 00:01:49.040 the plan or of the program initially. And they've been done sort of piecemeal. What 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:56.120 we want to do today is to really talk about coming together to develop this strategy to 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:00.920 define really where we want to go over the next 15, 20 years. The purpose of today's 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.840 presentation, again, is to define what a comprehensive solid waste management strategy is, talk about 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:10.280 the process, identify potential funding sources, and at the end of the day, set a schedule 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.320 for completing this process. So really, what is a comprehensive solid waste management 00:02:15.320 --> 00:02:21.160 strategy? It is a forward looking, futuristic thinking document, for lack of a better term, 00:02:21.160 --> 00:02:25.680 that allows us to ask some very serious questions about what we want to do, where we want to 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:32.480 go, how we want to actually affect solid waste management over the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years. 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:38.800 We'll be identifying trends, you know, looking at markets, establishing baselines, forecasting 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:44.400 waste streams, and all this is going to come together to basically create some very, very 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:49.760 strong goals. And from those goals will flow our ability to put into place programs and 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:54.880 ordinances to potentially affect the way that we look at solid waste strategy. A couple 00:02:54.880 --> 00:02:59.240 of weeks ago, I was in Arizona at the what was called WasteCon, which is really the big 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:07.280 solid waste conference in North America. You know, you don't think about going to conferences 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.360 for this or that, but who would think about going to a garbage conference? Well, we spent 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:18.160 about four days there, and it was really an exciting conference. If for no other term, 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:23.120 they focused on really future thinking. You know, we've gotten into a place now looking 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.960 at recycling programs, garbage programs. We keep doing the same things over and over, 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:30.400 and they said, if we're going to break this cycle, we've got to look at things differently. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:33.520 There was a very pointed question that was asked, and really affects the way that we 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:39.600 do recycling today, but really how we may do it tomorrow. You know, with the national 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:47.160 sword that China cast here two years ago, the question was, what is our next China? 00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:51.800 Where is our next China? And at the end of the day, it may be here in America. It may 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:56.560 be in North Texas. We don't know. But by putting into place this strategy and asking those tough 00:03:56.560 --> 00:04:01.720 questions, what it does is it allows us to be sort of on the front end of being able 00:04:01.720 --> 00:04:07.240 to react or to steer ourselves so that we're not caught behind, we're not looking at diverting 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:11.840 materials to where we don't want them to go. That's really the purpose of the strategy. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:15.720 Now when we look at strategies, these are just words on a list. There's no order or 00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:21.360 whatever to them. It's just things that we consider. We look at garbage, recycling, residential, 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:26.520 commercial, multifamily. We look at ordinances. We look at states and federal laws. I know 00:04:26.520 --> 00:04:30.880 that, you know, between council and public utilities board and other committees, we've 00:04:30.880 --> 00:04:35.100 talked about our recycling program and things that we would like to see. We talk about food 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:39.400 waste and organics diversion and things we like to see. We've talked about zero waste 00:04:39.400 --> 00:04:43.120 concepts and things that we would like to see. At the end of the day, we'll develop 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:49.840 strategies around these and a whole lot more of our diversion and goals. And from that, 00:04:49.840 --> 00:04:54.120 create this plan that will move forward. How will we strategize this? Again, it will not 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:58.240 be done in a vacuum. This is going to be a very open, very transparent process starting 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:03.280 with this committee, with the council, with committee on the environment. We'll be looking 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:09.440 at citizens, city council staff inputs. We're going to be evaluating city and regional growth 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:14.040 demographics. This will be a solid strategy for the city of Denton, but from that could 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:19.840 flow things that actually affect bigger. Denton County, the small cities around here, even 00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:23.280 the way that we manage garbage in the North Texas area. It's going to have a very, very 00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:29.860 heavy sustainability aspect, looking at market dynamics, constraints from regulations. Going 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:34.880 back to WasteCon, there was a discussion that right now, you know, we talk about packaging 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:41.600 and recycling, but a lot of our packaging is related on federal regulations that were 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.720 cast 30 years ago. So we may have to work with our federal legislators to look at some 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:51.320 of these health and safety packaging issues to help drive what we're going to be doing 00:05:51.320 --> 00:05:56.760 in the future. From a funding standpoint, we're at a point of potentially a perfect 00:05:56.760 --> 00:06:01.420 storm, so to speak. Every biennium, the North Central Texas Council of Governments on behalf 00:06:01.420 --> 00:06:06.320 of the TCEQ actually administers a grant program. The source of the funding is actually our 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:11.400 landfill tipping fee. Every ton of garbage that comes across the scale, 94 cents of that 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:16.000 actually goes to the state to help fund state processes, but part of that goes back into 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:22.940 a fund to help put back into the community to help define grants that will help manage 00:06:22.940 --> 00:06:29.120 source reduction, and part of what one of the eligible -- or actually two of the eligible 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:33.960 categories include solid waste management, planning, and technical studies. Again, you 00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:37.960 know, this strategy actually falls within both of those two, so we feel fairly confident 00:06:37.960 --> 00:06:46.620 that we would actually be able to win one of these grants if it was applied for. Each 00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:51.960 of the grants that we can apply for is up to $200,000 per project. We anticipate that 00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:57.440 the funding for this would be in the $100,000 range. Save for that, if we're not successful 00:06:57.440 --> 00:07:01.560 in getting funding from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, we would be 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:06.520 coming forward mid-year for a solid waste budget amendment to help fund this. From a 00:07:06.520 --> 00:07:13.240 timing standpoint, this will be about an 18-month process. Part of it is dictated by the grant 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:17.280 funding cycle, and part of it is just dictated by the amount of effort that's going to go 00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:23.600 into this. The grants are due to the COG in January, and they will take about two or three 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:28.720 months to actually evaluate and award these, so it will not be until about the beginning 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:36.960 of Q2 that North Central Texas Council of Government is in place to actually start contracting 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:41.700 with eligible agencies that were successful in the granting opportunity. We'll know in 00:07:41.700 --> 00:07:46.400 late February whether we were successful or not. So in this six months between now and 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:52.160 basically end of Q1, we'll go ahead and start developing our RFQ, start shopping it out 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:57.360 on the street, getting all the front-end stuff that we need to have done so that come Q1, 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:02.400 we can go ahead and contract with them with our funding source in line. From there, it'll 00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:07.520 take about a year for us to go back and do all the things that we had discussed. All 00:08:07.520 --> 00:08:15.320 the COG projects have to be completed by May 2021. So again, we hope to be done well before 00:08:15.320 --> 00:08:19.600 that so that we can turn in all the grant information that they need and move forward. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:25.960 So again, about an 18-month process from the time we hit the go button. With that, I'm 00:08:25.960 --> 00:08:29.920 here to answer any questions that you might have. This was presented to the Committee 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:35.540 on the Environment last Monday and to the Denton City Council last Tuesday. We're going 00:08:35.540 --> 00:08:42.000 to be coming back to the Council with our RFQ or excuse me, our RFP once that's developed 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.960 and then we'll get the go-forward to put that out on the street here probably in December 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:53.000 sometime. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. On the grants, what kind of requirements are 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:58.000 there for a report? Sometimes grants have so many requirements that it's not worth the 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:02.480 hundred grand that you just got. Correct. And this is a little bit different. This process 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:07.560 has been in the North Texas area now and across the state for about a dozen years. On a quarterly 00:09:07.560 --> 00:09:14.120 basis, they're basically looking for metrics that we set. So it's not anything like you 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:19.600 have to hold on to a piece of equipment for 15 years or use it for 80 percent of the time. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:24.200 We define the metrics in conjunction with the Council of Governments and really it's 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:32.400 the 2021 time period that is important for us to report those. Other questions? So the 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:38.400 grant would cover the consultant and other expenses or just the consultant? Consultant 00:09:38.400 --> 00:09:43.640 and other expenses that we outline require to create this strategy. But mainly the consultant? 00:09:43.640 --> 00:09:48.000 Mainly the consultant and again that building process. So if we have to, I mean, let's 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.600 say printing and travel and things of that nature, but if we're going to be renting 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:57.560 a place to have a community meeting, that could go in there, things of that nature. 00:09:57.560 --> 00:10:04.120 Mr. Sopac, question? Actually, I have a comment and that is that I'm very pleased with the 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:12.320 broad focus of this and the fact that it's proactive rather than reactive. And I applaud 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:22.400 you for initiating this process and I hope it comes to fruition as planned. Thank you. 00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:32.520 So the results of the study will be built into the rate payers' fees, correct? From 00:10:32.520 --> 00:10:37.760 these goals, from this strategy, we'll create goals which will create programs which will 00:10:37.760 --> 00:10:45.280 define what we put on the street and what will face the rate payers. So in a very lineated 00:10:45.280 --> 00:10:51.880 way it will, but part of that, you know, once we start with the implementation, it comes 00:10:51.880 --> 00:10:56.680 to the staff to probably and again that triple point of sustainability where not only do 00:10:56.680 --> 00:11:00.680 you affect the environment and affect the people, but you also have to look at the financial 00:11:00.680 --> 00:11:05.720 piece of this and how do we do it, you know, in the least cost possible with the highest 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:10.360 quality and customer service at the end. You don't want it ending up in the ditches. 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.960 Yeah, I guess the really I was getting at is that this, the grant, is going to pay for 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:20.560 the study and the direction for staff to take into consideration, but in the end it's we'll 00:11:20.560 --> 00:11:26.200 all be paying for whatever this costs. Correct. Okay. Mr. Brecker. On your list you mentioned 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:29.960 that it was just a list of different areas for concern, but there's three of them that 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:35.640 are highlighted. Is there a reason for highlighting on those three? Yes. You know, I've been the 00:11:35.640 --> 00:11:39.640 Solace Director for about six months and coming to this committee, coming to Committee on 00:11:39.640 --> 00:11:45.240 Environment, coming to Council, these are just programs that have been brought up in 00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:49.160 part of the discussion. So we wanted to highlight that yes, we've heard you, we understand that 00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:52.720 these are important, but again there's other things that will be considered as we move 00:11:52.720 --> 00:12:03.920 forward. Thanks. Other questions? Oh, all right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The 00:12:03.920 --> 00:12:11.540 next item is the consent agenda. We have items A through C. Does any board member wish to 00:12:11.540 --> 00:12:23.560 pull one of the items? I would like to pull B. Okay. Item B? I would like to pull C. Okay. 00:12:23.560 --> 00:12:31.200 Item C. Do we have item A? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve item A? I move we approve 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:40.360 item A. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item B. I'd just like to 00:12:40.360 --> 00:13:02.280 hear the discussion about this. Okay. Is there someone available for item B? Yes. Good morning. 00:13:02.280 --> 00:13:07.360 Terry Nalti, Assistant General Manager at DME. I've got a quick presentation I can run 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:26.360 you through just to give you an update of what the Black Start service is. Okay. Here's 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:32.440 what we'll just cover real quickly. What it is and why it's needed, our role during the 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:47.440 process, the requirements, and then benefits. So what it is, blackout is a system wide interruption 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:56.280 of power. And here you can see in 2003 we had a major blackout in the eastern interconnect. 00:13:56.280 --> 00:14:04.000 This is what it looked like when the blackout took place. The blackout actually lasted between 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:14.720 seven and 14 days. It took 14 days to restore power completely to all communities impacted. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:22.000 So in the event that we do have a failure like that in ERCOT, the Black Start units 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:31.200 would be called on for specific service to bring the grid back online. The recovery is 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:38.440 managed by ERCOT, who's the reliability coordinator for Texas. And the Black Start agreement is 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:44.280 a bilateral contract between the market and a resource entity. In this case, it would 00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:51.400 be the Denton Energy Center. It is one of the few generators that has the ability to 00:14:51.400 --> 00:14:58.160 start completely front with no outside resources. So it has its own generator on site that can 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:03.880 bring the units online to power air compressors and other critical equipment to bring the 00:15:03.880 --> 00:15:13.240 units online. The process is very coordinated with ERCOT. It defines a specific path that 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:19.200 we have to be able to energize. And in this case, we would energize certain gas compressors 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:28.680 because we need gas in that line to continue to burn gas. And it requires for us to staff 00:15:28.680 --> 00:15:33.840 the facility on a 24-hour basis, and that means we'll be adding two additional FTEs 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:43.360 to bring our complement out there to, what's the total, Jason? 16 people, okay. Here's 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:49.480 what we have to do. We had to pass a test to ensure that we were capable of providing 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:58.320 the Black Start service. Again, as I mentioned, we have to run without any external support. 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:05.040 We have to operate at a stable, low output and flexible levels, and then ramp up as we're 00:16:05.040 --> 00:16:11.480 called upon. We have, there's a competitive bidding process for these, so there are a 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:16.000 number of units that have the capability to do it, and it's a declining auction. So we 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:21.240 start at a high price, and it goes down until the lowest price no longer is willing to provide 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:29.960 the service, and that's the price that the auction clears at. Can I ask a question? Yes. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:39.000 Can you explain how an external electric supply would affect the deck? I don't understand 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:44.160 what that... So the deck is configured so that it can be completely isolated from the 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:51.120 grid, and it can start up without any electric. So think about starting up a power plant. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:57.400 You have air compressors, pumps, motors, all those run on electricity. So we have a small 00:16:57.400 --> 00:17:04.160 generator out there that supplies enough electrical output to start the equipment that we need 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:16.360 in order to start the bigger engines. It's a two-year contract. It begins in January, 00:17:16.360 --> 00:17:26.720 and we receive a standby fee for this, and the fee is to compensate us for the 24-hour 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:36.640 availability and the equipment that's necessary in order to do the testing. So here's the 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:43.760 fee. So the contract starts in January, and that's why you see the higher fee in the second 00:17:43.760 --> 00:17:49.480 year of the contract. We don't have a full fiscal year. We have a full fiscal year next 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:57.600 year. We have included this revenue in the budgets, and it is curious to note that if 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:06.120 we do have a blackout situation, the control moves from ERCOT to DME for our control area, 00:18:06.120 --> 00:18:11.240 for the city itself. And so as we power back up the grid, it's very likely that we'll be 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:20.240 able to, which is termed island, we island the Denton and we're able to provide power here. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:25.520 Again it does not increase our operating hours. If it is called upon, we'll all be glad that 00:18:25.520 --> 00:18:30.520 it's there to be run, everyone in the state would. So any questions? 00:18:30.520 --> 00:18:38.400 You have a question. I'm just curious. ERCOT's a pretty big area. How many Black Star facilities 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:48.400 do they have? I think the award, do you remember the number, Jerry? 13 units. This is a good 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:55.280 thing in my opinion. It's something that the citizens of Denton get revenue for just being 00:18:55.280 --> 00:19:00.480 there. I commend DME for putting this together. And in a major blackout, they're the first 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:06.720 ones with the power back on. It's a good thing. Keeping the lights on, keeping the water running. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:15.920 Any other questions? Thank you. Move approval. Do we have a second? All in favor say aye. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:28.720 Aye. Motion carries. C. Good morning board members. Frank Pugsley, water utilities director, 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:35.040 here to answer any questions you've got about the RPR phase services contract for free syndicals. 00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:43.120 So this is an amendment to a 2017 contract and the amendment amounts to almost a third 00:19:43.120 --> 00:19:48.480 of the original contract. Was there a way to predict this? The way we plan construction 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:54.720 phase services really has to start after we have the design or near completion. We have 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:59.360 been negotiating this with free syndicals since about February or April I believe, but 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:05.920 we're just taking the construction contract today on the IC and then to council tomorrow. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:12.000 And this actual, their RPR phase actually covers two construction contracts. The Lake 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.560 Louisville phase two improvements as well as the Lake Louisville treatment plant dewatering 00:20:16.560 --> 00:20:20.640 improvements. So their personnel will be our eyes and ears and inspector on the ground 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:27.280 for both of those contracts, which total about 23 million. Would it have made any sense to 00:20:27.280 --> 00:20:33.440 predict this in the original contract or does it make more sense to just kind of keep adding 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:40.720 amendments? It's since this contract, you know, the design phase runs about a year and 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:46.320 there's lots of scoping items that occur. We could make some estimates in the outset, 00:20:46.320 --> 00:20:50.640 but it'd be difficult to really hit a good target number. We'd end up taking a larger, 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:55.360 probably conservative fee to be approved up front. I was just really surprised at the 00:20:55.360 --> 00:21:01.040 amount of the amendment compared to the one and two. Well, those were small design amendments 00:21:01.040 --> 00:21:05.760 and this one is someone to basically be a resident at their water treatment plant for 00:21:05.760 --> 00:21:10.320 I think 18 months essentially. Yeah. No, I was just, I was just curious about the amount. 00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:18.160 Sure. No, no problem. Thank you. Yes. Just what, what, what do they do to 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:24.240 hopefully keep zebra mussels under control? In this project, we are adding zebra muscle 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:30.160 control at both raw water intakes and we are installing a copper ion generators. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:36.640 So they will put a very low dose of copper ion into the raw water line to make it uncomfortable 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:41.120 for the zebra mussel larva to attach to the pipe. So they run on an intermittent basis, 00:21:41.120 --> 00:21:47.440 kind of a pulse basis to stop them from attaching. Does it work? 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:54.720 This is, yes, it works. The copper concentration is something that zebra mussels don't particularly 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:59.520 like. And there are other utilities that are installing this same technology as we speak. 00:21:59.520 --> 00:22:07.040 I come from up north where zebra mussels are everywhere. And the last time I was 00:22:07.040 --> 00:22:12.000 talking to a biologist up there, they were like, the only way I've killed them is boiling them. 00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:19.760 They can, if you've got something that, that works, that's a, that's a good thing. Yeah, I think like 00:22:19.760 --> 00:22:23.600 Tarrant Regional Water District has been doing a pilot study on this and they've seen success. 00:22:23.600 --> 00:22:28.880 Since the lakes have had zebra mussels, they had a kind of a peak and they've kind of subsided. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.760 We haven't really seen too much impact lately, but we want to be prepared so that we don't 00:22:33.760 --> 00:22:41.200 end up with a problem in the future. All right. Do we have a motion to approve? Oh, I'm sorry. 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:44.800 I've almost forgotten my question. 00:22:44.800 --> 00:22:55.600 I remember when these came on board and there was a public awareness. Are we doing, are we continuing 00:22:55.600 --> 00:23:02.560 on about telling people that use their boats to check, do whatever's necessary to make the public 00:23:02.560 --> 00:23:06.480 involved in this? Right. We rely primarily on Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and their 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:16.880 clean, drain, dry campaign for, for boating. We should have that water plant fixed after this, 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:21.440 you've been working on it. A lot of deferred maintenance, if I recall. Correct. This is, 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:26.000 there is a lot, this contract, the, the primary construction contract we'll talk about in a minute 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:30.800 is, is a lot of major maintenance at the plant. Nothing new, no new processes, major maintenance. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:39.760 Any other questions? Do we have a motion to approve? Move approval. And a second? Second. 00:23:39.760 --> 00:23:47.520 All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Next item is approval of the minutes of October 28th, 00:23:47.520 --> 00:23:56.720 2019. Did anyone have any changes or suggestions? No. I'll move approval of minutes. Do we have 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:03.760 a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. That carries. Next item is consider recommending an 00:24:03.760 --> 00:24:08.880 adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton, Texas authorizing the expenditure of funds for 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:18.000 payment of wholesale transmission charges in the amount of $7,219,975 and 36 cents. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:26.000 I have a couple of questions. Well, who's, let somebody say, oh here comes Mr. Fuentes. 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:34.160 Tony, point to the Chief Financial Officer. I was wondering just for my own education, 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:38.000 do you have a map that shows the location of these eight different 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:43.440 transmission service providers, their lines, their substations and so forth? 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.960 I'm sure we do. I don't have it with me today. Could we get that or can you 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.800 give me a link or something? Absolutely. Okay. Another question, it says that in the 00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:00.720 agreement here that DME is going to be going to receive payment from other people 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:09.440 for their distribution. Who do you have that you provide other distribution services for? 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:14.560 So any investment the city makes on any improvements for its transmission 00:25:14.560 --> 00:25:20.800 service in our service territory then gets allocated out as well to all the other recipient 00:25:20.800 --> 00:25:25.360 organizations and then those payments come back to us through ERCOT and so there's a netting that 00:25:25.360 --> 00:25:30.960 occurs. I know that there's been some questions that the PB has had about T COAS and so our plan 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:36.320 is to come back to you in November, later in November or December when we provide you an 00:25:36.320 --> 00:25:40.720 update on the budget and also give you kind of a T COAS 101 and kind of go through that process 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:48.000 at that time. That'd be good. I just have one question comment with respect to this. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:54.880 It's very possible I missed it. I'm assuming this is for last fiscal year, the true up, 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:59.120 the seven million dollar expenditure. No those are for this current fiscal year. 00:25:59.120 --> 00:26:01.840 For this current fiscal year. These are payments that we're going to be making this fiscal year. 00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:09.840 Okay. I looked for some kind of a dating to say this seven million dollars applies to this period 00:26:09.840 --> 00:26:15.840 of time and it didn't find it. If it's not there it seems like it would be a good idea to clarify 00:26:15.840 --> 00:26:21.440 that. Okay. But in looking through the city packet and the ordinance itself I didn't see where it 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:26.080 referred to a specific period of time. I assumed it was for last fiscal year. It sounds like it's 00:26:26.080 --> 00:26:29.040 budgeted for this coming, this current fiscal year. Correct. These are payments that we're 00:26:29.040 --> 00:26:33.360 going to be making in the current fiscal year. Correct. But for services provided during what 00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:38.880 period? No it's for investments that were made probably in previous years and so there's a number 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:45.120 of investments that are made that are amortized over a 20 or 30 year period and so that's what 00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:49.040 these payments reflect is investments that were made in previous years that are now going to be 00:26:49.040 --> 00:26:58.320 recouped going forward. That we need to pay for. Yes. But this expenditure applies to usage during 00:26:58.320 --> 00:27:03.600 the current fiscal year? It's not it's not usage it's an investment in capital that was made 00:27:03.600 --> 00:27:07.760 and it's a return on that capital investment. The transmission cost of service. Yes. So it's. 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:18.960 Microphone please. Historically what happens is as transmission companies provide investment 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:25.040 to the transmission grid that's authorized by ERCOT those chargers are then we term peanut 00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:34.800 buttered across the entire market and so it's the load ratio share of our component it's 0.5 percent 00:27:34.800 --> 00:27:42.240 of the total cost annual cost of the total transmission system in ERCOT so in each fiscal 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:49.360 year the reason why we forecast this is nothing new comes in this year it would have came in last 00:27:49.360 --> 00:27:55.680 year so we're paying for costs that were incurred last year and prior to that over a 20 year period 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:01.920 30 year period any new investments that are made would be recurred recouped in the following year. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:08.480 Got it. Are these calculations made based on megawatt hours in the current fiscal year or are 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:15.360 they based on physical dollar expenditures? It's it's actually um. I mean obviously it's to recoup 00:28:15.360 --> 00:28:19.760 the capital from prior years I get that. So it's supposed to. I'm just talking about how the 00:28:19.760 --> 00:28:24.480 calculations how we come up with the seven million dollars net. So that's actually calculated by 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:31.520 ERCOT it's a it's our rate load ratio share of the total operating and fixed cost expenses 00:28:31.520 --> 00:28:38.560 including debt and interest expense for the entire transmission grid in ERCOT. Got it. Load ratio 00:28:38.560 --> 00:28:42.480 share for what period of time? For the year. So the load ratio. For the current fiscal year? 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:47.760 The prior year. For the prior year? Yeah. Okay so this is based on what we used in a prior year. 00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:54.880 Yeah the actual load ratio share is calculated based on our contribution to the what's called 00:28:54.880 --> 00:29:03.440 the four CPs the four coincident peaks that occurred through the last fiscal year. Got it. Okay. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:16.400 Other questions? Motion to approve. So moved. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:22.560 Next item is consider recommending adoption of an ordinance for the city of Denton a Texas Home Rule 00:29:22.560 --> 00:29:27.520 Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Archer Western 00:29:27.520 --> 00:29:32.640 Construction for the construction of Lake Louisville water treatment plant phase two improvements 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:37.120 providing for the expenditure of funds therefore and providing an effective date 00:29:37.120 --> 00:29:43.920 award the Archer Western Construction LLC and not to exceed amount of fifteen million five eighty eight 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:50.320 eight eighty. Thank you. Good morning again. Frank Pugsley water utilities director. Just a brief 00:29:50.320 --> 00:29:57.600 recap on this project we bid this project previously in the year and the base bids came in above our 00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:04.720 budgeted amount so we broke it up into multiple ad alternates with a base bid and based upon the bid 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:09.040 we received again from the original contractor Archer Western was the only one to bid the first 00:30:09.040 --> 00:30:14.400 time and as well as the second time even though we tried to solicit additional local qualified 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:20.000 contractors we were going to select the base bid which is the major maintenance items at the 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:25.360 Lake Louisville water treatment plant the two chemical facilities and zebra muscle control at 00:30:25.360 --> 00:30:31.280 the Ray Roberts intake and the Lake Louisville intake as well as select bid alternate a two which 00:30:31.280 --> 00:30:37.920 is improvements to the Lake Louisville raw water intake structure the we have two levels of intake 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:43.520 at Lake Louisville and the lower intake is currently silted in and we're going to clear that up and 00:30:43.520 --> 00:30:49.040 provide some siltation protection so that we can have that access to the lower water in the event 00:30:49.040 --> 00:30:54.880 we experience a severe drought in the future some of that scope like we mentioned is a new 00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:59.360 electrical building and electrical improvements for the plant currently all the electrical equipment 00:30:59.360 --> 00:31:05.520 is inside the original building that was constructed in the 50s it's tight and it's constrained and 00:31:05.520 --> 00:31:12.160 there's no way to upgrade or repair any electrical equipment and keep it under current codes replacing 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:17.200 the treated water meters the large diameter meters that measure how much water we're sending to the 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:22.800 distribution system that will help us tighten up our water audit making drainage improvements 00:31:22.800 --> 00:31:29.120 around the clear wells just to prevent standing water there replacing large valves as valves age 00:31:29.120 --> 00:31:34.080 they get more difficult to operate and it's difficult for our staff to maintain and replace 00:31:34.080 --> 00:31:38.800 very large valves some major maintenance on the high service pumps the pumps that actually send 00:31:38.800 --> 00:31:44.960 water to the distribution system and an extensive amount of basically structural preservation and 00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:50.000 maintenance as concrete ages it does develop cracks and surface deficiencies that we're going to 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:55.840 again to take care of under this contract and Archer Western as I mentioned was the the one 00:31:55.840 --> 00:32:04.080 bidder we received we reviewed the bids and feel that the prices is is a fair price and additionally 00:32:04.080 --> 00:32:10.080 alternate a2 we find to be much cheaper than some of the other contractors we discussed that 00:32:10.080 --> 00:32:14.320 piece of the project with it's our understanding that Archer Western currently has a barge on Lake 00:32:14.320 --> 00:32:18.320 Louisville and so this would probably be the cheapest time we'll ever get these intake 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:22.560 modifications done without having to have someone mobilize a new barge in the future I think they're 00:32:22.560 --> 00:32:27.520 about half the cost of what we had heard from other contractors we're discussing the project with 00:32:27.520 --> 00:32:33.600 and there's a site map we will be at three locations stretching north to south across the 00:32:33.600 --> 00:32:40.080 city entertain any questions you may have I have a question about the motor control centers yes sir 00:32:40.080 --> 00:32:46.160 you're installing a new motor control center or more than one we're constructing a new electrical 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:52.240 building to house new motor controls for the pumps all the large pumps okay do you have 4160 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:58.320 volt motors or are they all 480 volt or you know I don't have that information on the big I believe 00:32:58.320 --> 00:33:03.760 we're running 480 at that plan I know we have some 4160s at Ray Roberts but I think the way 00:33:03.760 --> 00:33:09.360 the Louisville plan is set up it's all 480 I was just curious why there was only one bid because 00:33:10.800 --> 00:33:17.040 the 15 and a half million dollars and I know a little bit about motor control centers 00:33:17.040 --> 00:33:25.360 a lot of people it's almost a commodity anymore the cubicles and the motor starters and that kind of 00:33:25.360 --> 00:33:30.160 stuff what we're seeing right now in especially the water and wastewater utility construction 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:35.760 industry in north Texas is there is so much work that the contractors aren't really that eager to 00:33:35.760 --> 00:33:41.360 bid and provide construction services on all of the projects that are going on there's a lot of 00:33:41.360 --> 00:33:46.320 projects going out there from our other similar utilities are only getting one or two bids as well 00:33:46.320 --> 00:33:50.160 it's just the market is so flush with work the contractors don't have to try very hard at the 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:56.720 moment and the 15 and a half million dollars that includes the relays and motor starters and so 00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:03.280 forth inside the cubicles or not it's a full new electrical facility to house all of the electrical 00:34:03.280 --> 00:34:09.280 distribution and motor control equipment for the pumps all of the old equipment is obsolete we 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:12.080 can't you can't obtain parts for the old equipment anymore 00:34:12.080 --> 00:34:21.440 okay other oh you're done with it mr cheek just a follow-up question with that also I 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:26.960 noticed that you mentioned the ll you uh included the llc members I wasn't clear as to why 00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:32.480 that was oh that's a council direction council has requested that whenever uh anyone coming 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:36.320 to be awarded a contract that is an llc we are required to provide the members of the llc 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:42.400 okay archwestern is such a big company that's why I was pretty interesting it's transparency 00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:48.240 all right other questions do we have a motion to approve 00:34:48.240 --> 00:34:57.520 move approval second all in favor say aye aye motion carries okay I'm not going to read this 00:34:57.520 --> 00:35:03.920 whole one um next item is uh consider recommending adoption of ordinance the city of denton 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:11.920 regarding well right-of-way construction and other things is that that's fully legal 00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:18.880 looking for my icon here 00:35:27.520 --> 00:35:28.640 you know what I can do this 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:43.680 all right well I'm pulling this up um good morning my name is Hayley Salazar and I'm 00:35:43.680 --> 00:35:48.160 with the traffic engineering department at the city of denton and here we go 00:35:51.920 --> 00:36:00.000 sure all right and so I'm here today as part of our efforts to move forward in the adoption 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.960 of article two the construction portion of a new comprehensive right-of-way ordinance 00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:12.480 and so as a city our main priority has always been to ensure the safe travel of pedestrians 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:18.400 and vehicles in our right-of-way and that includes during times of construction but currently we lack 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:27.120 the tools we need to make sure that that happens um we've been operating under uh what you see here 00:36:27.120 --> 00:36:34.800 this is our current um article two not only is it not very robust but it's lost some of its relevance 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:40.240 since it was created over half a century ago as we all know dentons changed quite a bit since the 00:36:40.240 --> 00:36:46.480 60s um as have the players in our right-of-way and the technology we use to track and monitor the 00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:53.360 activity in our right-of-way so what we're proposing to do is repeal this right here and replace it 00:36:53.360 --> 00:37:00.000 with this much more robust article two you see to the left um and this is also much more relevant 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:05.280 and I want to be really clear though that we are just talking about the construction in the 00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:10.240 right-of-way so boots on the ground backhoes barricades that's what we're talking about right 00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:16.160 now we're not talking about um storefronts or patio furniture walkability within our right-of-way 00:37:16.160 --> 00:37:20.560 that's a different portion of the right-of-way ordinance that we're going to get to at a later 00:37:20.560 --> 00:37:28.080 date um but a little bit about the methodology that we use to draft the right-of-way ordinance 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:34.000 in order to save time and money we sought out other texas cities who had recently been through 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:39.120 the exercise of adopting successful right-of-way ordinances and we took the parts that were relevant 00:37:39.120 --> 00:37:43.760 to the city of denton and used that as our foundation and then of course went through 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:50.400 extensively to ensure it was cohesive and part of this ordinance to give us the authority we need 00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:57.200 to enforce the rules um does include fees but once again we did not do this in a vacuum we sought out 00:37:57.200 --> 00:38:04.160 other cities um as a yardstick with which we set our fees by and so the next steps are we hope to 00:38:04.160 --> 00:38:10.960 move forward and adopt this so that it's in place by the first of the year so do we have any questions 00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:22.800 questions could you show that previous slide again please yes 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:34.400 can you give an example of the situation maybe that brought this to a head that you felt like 00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:40.880 you needed to change the ordinance absolutely um oh okay um there was over by the central fire 00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:46.320 station off of mulberry we had planned construction in the right-of-way um i forget the intersection 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:49.760 but it was a planned activity we knew was going on to improve our infrastructure 00:38:49.760 --> 00:38:58.160 okay so stormwater of the sycamore and there was unplanned activity also in the right-of-way farther 00:38:58.160 --> 00:39:04.160 farther down but mulberry was that was that a franchise utility or that was the unplanned 00:39:04.160 --> 00:39:10.720 is that what you would refer to unplanned so we have this occur all the time construction 00:39:10.720 --> 00:39:15.840 going on right away several things happen all at one time one we don't know about it 00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:22.320 because it was a vertical construction project somebody forgot that that might have to tie into 00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:26.400 water which then has to get out across the sidewalk and into the street and you start 00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:31.920 tearing up all those components the example that hayley's referring to is kind of the perfect storm 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:36.000 we were out there working on a project on sycamore we had sycamore shut down we were doing 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:42.480 stormwater improvements to the system at the exact same time nctc started going to construction on 00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:46.800 both the their building the building of the old dental chronicle building and then the 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:51.920 parking structure that's on the other side of mulberry so they're right across the street 00:39:51.920 --> 00:39:57.600 from each other they shut down mulberry so the segment of mulberry they shut down is the back 00:39:57.600 --> 00:40:03.520 entrance to the fire station they have a large crane sitting out there so what our ordinance 00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:09.280 allows us to do today is it says i as a city engineer can go out there and say would you 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:15.120 please move your equipment you're in the way and you didn't ask for a permit and if you don't move 00:40:15.120 --> 00:40:20.000 i'll be back here tomorrow and i'll ask you to do the same thing again and then somewhere down 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.880 the line would you finally move i'll send you a bill for any damages potentially you made to the 00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:33.200 right-of-way the only teeth we have to that is that if it's over 500 you can pursue it in court 00:40:33.200 --> 00:40:38.720 that's really the limit of what our current ordinance allows us to do what the proposed 00:40:38.720 --> 00:40:42.080 ordinance will allow us to do is in the event something like that happened 00:40:42.080 --> 00:40:48.800 that person for doing any kind of work within the right-of-way or that company would have to go get 00:40:48.800 --> 00:40:54.800 a permit if they don't get a permit it gives the city real teeth to be able to say you don't have 00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:59.840 a permit you must stop all activities within the right-of-way till you get a permit and until you 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:07.520 get a permit you're going to pay a fee or a fine per day so in this case where they were right 00:41:07.520 --> 00:41:12.720 behind the fire station it wouldn't be just a an inconvenience in the right-of-way which would be 00:41:12.720 --> 00:41:18.720 up to 500 this is more a safety and welfare concern so it'd be uh be something we could 00:41:18.720 --> 00:41:23.680 potentially go up to two thousand dollars a day and if you ignored us then we'll come back tomorrow 00:41:23.680 --> 00:41:28.000 and we'll give you another one and another one until at some point it does have enough teeth 00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:34.720 that you're ready to quit and you say this happens all the time all the time yes and we find out about 00:41:34.720 --> 00:41:39.440 it through various means it's important yes so and part of what we're trying to do is have a 00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:47.200 mechanism for keeping tabs on where everything is right question what kind of turnaround time do you 00:41:47.840 --> 00:41:55.200 would you expect between the time contractor applies for a permit and your granting of the 00:41:55.200 --> 00:42:01.440 permit depends on the type of permit so there are a variety of types of permits this would apply for 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:08.720 city utilities as well as it would to anybody else turnaround time can be is very quick depending on 00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:13.280 what is they're doing if they're just going out there to say turn a valve or do some kind of 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:21.360 modification to what they have in in place that we could turn around in a day or less 00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:25.680 depending on what it is other types of things where they're going to be in the right away for 00:42:25.680 --> 00:42:29.280 longer where it might have more impact to the right away say they're shutting down an 00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:34.800 entire lane or the entire roadway then we would go through a process of reviewing what their plans 00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:39.840 are making sure that we understood the impact to the transportation network that could be five to 00:42:39.840 --> 00:42:49.760 ten days depending on how extensive their application is go ahead berber you described that 00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:54.720 a lot of times this happens when you get into one thing and then something else happens it's an 00:42:54.720 --> 00:43:01.120 emergency yes you don't know about it and so pre-planning might not have been possible 00:43:01.120 --> 00:43:06.400 and there's provision in here for those emergency scenarios if there is an emergency that crops up 00:43:06.400 --> 00:43:12.160 we understand that happens i mean atmas has issues or we have a leak in a line we're not saying don't 00:43:12.160 --> 00:43:16.880 go do it go take care of it but as soon as you get it under control come get a permit we're not 00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:22.240 going to find anybody for taking care of emergency work there is provision within the ordinance that 00:43:22.240 --> 00:43:27.520 allows them to go do the work you need to do just come back and get that permit as soon as you 00:43:27.520 --> 00:43:32.320 possibly can so because typically they're doing other things you fix the problem now i've got to 00:43:32.320 --> 00:43:35.840 start putting the asphalt back or the concrete back and they're going to be back out there a 00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:41.120 little bit longer than that and what kind of public outreach are we going to do so that 00:43:41.120 --> 00:43:46.480 they know this is changing and they start being a little more proactive i think hayley can address 00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:50.000 that probably better than i can but we have been through a process of making sure we reach out to 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:55.040 franchise utilities to the development community folks know this is coming it's this has not been 00:43:55.040 --> 00:44:00.400 done in a vacuum we actually talked about this for the first time with council in its draft format 00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:06.320 in february so they knew where we were in that process and then we spent the last seven eight 00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:12.720 months going through revisions as we got feedback from the utilities good enough telling me to know 00:44:12.720 --> 00:44:19.920 could you explain the barricade fee a little more what exactly is that barricade fee 00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:24.320 it's actually a deposit on our end 00:44:27.520 --> 00:44:33.120 so if you look at the other cities that we're comparing against they have actual fees we're 00:44:33.120 --> 00:44:38.400 charging a deposit with the intent of returning the deposit and it's just an incentivization to 00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:45.600 remove the barricades in a timely manner so that's why it looks a bit higher than what you see with 00:44:45.600 --> 00:44:54.640 san antonio is that a 500 deposit per project or per barricade per project per project if a project 00:44:54.640 --> 00:45:03.760 has four requires four barricades the cost is 500 deposit is that true yes what about the other 00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:11.280 cities i'm asking because i don't know how they do this they charge per square foot what does that mean 00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:20.560 so that's typically per square foot of what you've shut down in the right away 00:45:21.200 --> 00:45:26.480 so if you've taken up a thousand feet and it's 12 foot wide that's what's under construction and 00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:32.320 you've blocked off they're going to charge you by square foot for that area you're basically leasing 00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:40.960 the right of way for that period of time it's a half million dollars in it it could be ouch typically 00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:45.520 it's going to be a you're not typically going to see that kind of fee for an overall construction 00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:50.800 project that's going to be a limited space our biggest problem here is really the the barricade 00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:55.280 fee where you're attempting to use it like hailey said as a means of making sure that you come get 00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:00.000 your stuff i don't know how many times you walk through the downtown area especially you look down 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.640 the sidewalks there are signs there are barricades that are left and get the construction and the 00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:11.040 contractors long gone so how do we at least get them to pay attention enough to come back and get 00:46:11.040 --> 00:46:18.240 their signs when they're done sometimes what does happen is the barricade company most of your 00:46:18.240 --> 00:46:23.040 contractors will hire out to a barricade company to come set up signs and barricades for a 00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:28.320 construction zone and that barricade company may know they've got another project that's just a 00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:33.120 week or two out so they don't want to come pick up everything take it back to dallas or fort worth 00:46:33.120 --> 00:46:38.400 and then haul it right back a lot of times they will just attempt to leave it and then come pick 00:46:38.400 --> 00:46:44.800 it up when they're ready to move it to another site it seems to be it might be smart to wrap this 00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:50.240 include this in some way with your purchasing procedure to have some kind of hold back with a 00:46:50.240 --> 00:46:56.720 contract to prevent final payment until he retrieves all of his but it's not always our project 00:46:56.720 --> 00:47:02.640 yeah it's not always our project it could be a private developer and that's really where this fee 00:47:02.640 --> 00:47:10.160 is geared towards is towards the private developer mr parker you gave us the perfect storm example 00:47:10.160 --> 00:47:16.960 and i think we clearly all agree that it's a bad idea to have a crane blocking access to fire trucks 00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:21.520 to and from the fire station yeah that's kind of a no-brainer let's talk at the other end of the 00:47:21.520 --> 00:47:28.480 extreme where do you see this application fee start and again i'm a little naive on this but 00:47:28.480 --> 00:47:36.560 for instance a typical water meters are those typically located in the often located in the 00:47:36.560 --> 00:47:42.240 right away there's a lot of variability there sometimes it is in the right away just on the 00:47:42.240 --> 00:47:48.080 extreme edge of the right away so it's out of the sidewalk it's out of the roadway if you're just 00:47:48.080 --> 00:47:54.720 setting a meter you're typically not going to be getting that permit because we're even if you are 00:47:54.720 --> 00:47:59.600 it's just us knowing that you're in the right away this is really geared towards your blocking 00:47:59.600 --> 00:48:04.320 access to the sidewalk the roadway you're going to be impacting the roadway or the sidewalk in 00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:10.960 some form or fashion where people can't walk they can't move through the area okay so at the most 00:48:10.960 --> 00:48:18.000 benign if you mentioned the example of turning a valve earlier if somebody needs to turn a valve 00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:24.880 in a residential street obviously for shutting down teasley lane i agree this kind of enforcement 00:48:24.880 --> 00:48:30.000 should apply if you're talking about a residential street or a lightly traveled street or a sidewalk 00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:38.000 at what point does this kick in if you're planning on closing any lane of traffic 00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:44.800 anywhere for any period of time we need to know you're going to be there so the problem you all 00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:51.920 invariably run into is you have a vehicle out say a city vehicle it's just like a city vehicle 00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:57.040 they go out there's a valve right in the middle of the road they're wanting to do something 00:48:57.040 --> 00:49:01.200 typically you're not turning that valve just because they want to turn the valve if they're 00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:06.720 going to do that just to exercise the valve yeah that they're not even going to be there more than 00:49:06.720 --> 00:49:11.760 five minutes i mean they're going to hop out turn it and move on we're not worried about that 00:49:11.760 --> 00:49:18.400 what we're worried about is if they're really going to be there for some period of time it's 00:49:18.400 --> 00:49:23.440 going to say like a fire flow test so they may be shutting a valve here and shutting a valve here 00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:27.760 or they're shutting one valve and then turning a fire hydrant but they're closing off lanes of 00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:34.080 traffic for an hour two hours long enough that i'm probably going to be getting a phone call anyway 00:49:34.080 --> 00:49:40.320 that something's going on in the right away did you know about it today we have really no mechanism 00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:45.600 of knowing when things like that happen but they absolutely do impact people and what they're doing 00:49:45.600 --> 00:49:51.360 so are we going to catch everything probably not there will be things that happen within the 00:49:51.360 --> 00:49:57.840 right away that we'll miss but this does give us the better chance right if you're impacted for an 00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:03.120 hour by the time you make a phone call say a citizen calls i'm probably going to get out there 00:50:03.120 --> 00:50:08.000 and look at it and they're gone we're really targeting those types of things where they've 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:14.080 shut it down to the point where you can't access your house or your business or you can't move 00:50:14.080 --> 00:50:19.680 through the corridor for hours on end this is really what we're talking about is shutting down 00:50:19.680 --> 00:50:26.720 mulberry for months and not having direct access to the backside of the fire station or i have a 00:50:26.720 --> 00:50:32.800 whole lane of traffic that's shut down for a week and a half with no cover over the top because 00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:38.000 atmas is doing some work or dme is doing something in the right away and they have a truck parked out 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:42.000 there for four or five hours where they're trying to make adjustments in the line i need to know 00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:48.080 that's there because i absolutely am going to get phone calls about that that's why this is all in 00:50:48.080 --> 00:50:55.760 place okay i guess my concern is a local plumber needs to go shut off water to something he shuts 00:50:55.760 --> 00:51:01.120 off water he's back out of the right away in 15 minutes he does his work he goes back out he turns 00:51:01.120 --> 00:51:06.800 it on is that the kind of case that he would not be required to do a permit application fee and an 00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:13.360 annual registration fee etc it would it totally depend on what he's doing uh a lot of time valve 00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:18.880 for 15 minutes i understand it very much depends on what he's doing if he's repairing something 00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:23.120 in your house there is a valve on the back side of the meter which is on the private side of the 00:51:23.120 --> 00:51:30.720 property he's doing that work he's going to do that work and it's not permanent i mean it now 00:51:30.720 --> 00:51:35.600 if he's doing something where he's re-plumbing the house that's a whole different set of permits 00:51:35.600 --> 00:51:40.560 that typically goes through building inspections uh we're just purely talking about stuff that's 00:51:40.560 --> 00:51:44.880 in the right way it yes we do need to know but most of your contractors already know they got to 00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:49.520 go pull a permit anyway for that kind of work right pulling a permit i'm just trying to add 00:51:49.520 --> 00:51:56.240 to avoid adding a new permit to a small contractor who's trying to do a relatively small job 00:51:56.240 --> 00:52:01.360 obviously if he's shutting down a lane of street for four hours yeah you need to be involved let's 00:52:01.360 --> 00:52:05.840 be clear blocking a sidewalk for 15 minutes well let's be clear this is not a new permit 00:52:06.560 --> 00:52:12.880 this is a permit that has always been exists been in existence since 1966 as a requirement it's just 00:52:12.880 --> 00:52:19.280 we had had no teeth to enforce nor the time to enforce a lot of these things over our history so 00:52:19.280 --> 00:52:27.280 it just was the way it was the policing powers of the city right exactly it's always been there 00:52:27.280 --> 00:52:34.320 i've got a couple of questions uh i know i don't mean to imply at all that the various departments 00:52:34.320 --> 00:52:39.440 the city might not get along and argue over these things but uh does this apply to other 00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:44.640 departments in the city yes okay the mechanism by which they make the application will be a 00:52:44.640 --> 00:52:49.120 little different just because it is internal but they have to pull a permit they do today 00:52:49.120 --> 00:52:55.360 uh this but and they won't be any different okay okay and my second one was so you have public 00:52:55.360 --> 00:53:02.080 works contracts hypothetically that uh the city directs the contractor to do some work how does 00:53:02.080 --> 00:53:07.120 how might that be complicated well now you shut them down obviously you have the right to you're 00:53:07.120 --> 00:53:12.320 the owner you can shut them down but well and when you get into a large public works project like that 00:53:12.320 --> 00:53:17.920 it is a little different so much of that they're still going to pull permits but it's a longer no 00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:23.280 the permits there in the contract that's what i'm saying it's still a permit it's just a variety of 00:53:23.280 --> 00:53:30.240 it's a different variety of permit because okay the review that we go through on a capital project 00:53:30.240 --> 00:53:35.360 is very different and much more extensive since we're doing the design ourselves we're also looking 00:53:35.360 --> 00:53:40.240 through every piece well we're not physically doing our consultants designing it we're reviewing 00:53:40.240 --> 00:53:46.000 it with a fine tooth comb and then we go through the overall purchase process as well as ticket to 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:50.800 council for awards so there's no other permit that you're going to pull in the city well i 00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:54.960 probably shouldn't say that there's probably some others there's very few permits that you'll get 00:53:54.960 --> 00:53:59.520 within the city that requires you to go to council before you ever take action out in the field 00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:06.800 every one of our construction projects absolutely does okay okay thank you oh 00:54:06.800 --> 00:54:14.080 yeah i see where where uh there were two opportunities for the public to comment on 00:54:14.080 --> 00:54:18.960 this do you have any sort of sub summary of what the results were of the public comments 00:54:18.960 --> 00:54:22.960 yes and i'll let hailey answer that because she was wrangling all of this thanks 00:54:27.600 --> 00:54:33.120 so first what we did was we brought this in front of the franchise utilities at our franchise 00:54:33.120 --> 00:54:37.760 utility meeting that we have once a month we brought that in front of them twice then later 00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:43.120 i worked with the public affairs department and we got a draft version of the ordinance online 00:54:43.120 --> 00:54:49.520 for a um two and a half week comment period every comment we got whether or not we accepted the 00:54:49.520 --> 00:54:53.440 comment or we thought well it's not really applicable we kept track of it in a comment 00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:58.400 log and then not only do we keep track of it we listed out what the action was whether or not we 00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:05.360 accepted the comment applied it or um didn't and why um then we took the draft version of the 00:55:05.360 --> 00:55:10.080 ordinance off of the website and applied all of the comments from the first round and then put it 00:55:10.080 --> 00:55:15.920 back up again for a second period of comment and repeated that exercise one other time just in case 00:55:15.920 --> 00:55:20.800 not everybody got the word that it was out the first time and then once again we combed through 00:55:20.800 --> 00:55:25.760 all those second comments and um kept that log up to date and then that's what we used to make 00:55:25.760 --> 00:55:34.400 sure everyone's voice was heard other questions it just looks like you it's a lot of good house 00:55:34.400 --> 00:55:40.000 cleaning is what you did here so it's good good job updating 50 years of something 00:55:43.760 --> 00:55:51.440 do we have a motion to approve oh and a second second all in favor say aye aye 00:55:51.440 --> 00:55:58.640 okay motion carries on to city assistant manager update good morning uh madam chair members of the 00:55:58.640 --> 00:56:06.960 board you have several uh memos in your acm update uh this morning one of those um and again we can 00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:12.960 certainly answer questions if the board has has um any certainly questions uh to those but one of 00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:18.800 those was brought up last month about the schedule for the pub and i've included a memo believe it 00:56:18.800 --> 00:56:24.560 or not it was almost exactly to the day two years ago when the request was made to to move our 00:56:24.560 --> 00:56:31.920 meetings uh to split one in the morning one in the evening and so really um it's just purely 00:56:31.920 --> 00:56:37.760 informational um we'll continue doing what we've been doing we can certainly entertain making a 00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:43.680 change it's really up to the board uh at the last meeting when i looked back at the minutes and there 00:56:43.680 --> 00:56:49.360 was no formal action it was just a work session and then you all just through consensus or the 00:56:49.360 --> 00:56:53.920 board at the time through consensus just just recommended making that change and we started 00:56:53.920 --> 00:56:59.920 that that change i believe january the first meeting in january that way finish out the year 00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:04.000 and then start the new year with that revised schedule so however you want to do it we're happy 00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:11.600 to oblige i was trying to think back who else was on the board two years ago besides me at the time 00:57:11.600 --> 00:57:21.200 we made the change you were no okay i it's you it's me it's all my fault no i saw i mean i see 00:57:21.200 --> 00:57:27.200 the reasoning yeah well this doesn't seem to have any pertinence right at the time it seemed like 00:57:27.200 --> 00:57:31.760 that would increase transparency and that we wanted people to have the opportunity if they 00:57:31.760 --> 00:57:38.000 worked that they could attend the evening meeting but it just doesn't seem to be working that way so 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:45.760 i it's probably better we go back to 9 a.m but i i think does that impact you greatly i've got 00:57:45.760 --> 00:57:51.840 lots of vacation time i mean i i do actually have to take time off from work okay but it's 00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:58.720 i'm a good person yes okay i think probably everybody else in the room would find it more 00:57:58.720 --> 00:58:05.360 convenient yeah right i mean i do think the impact of the staff i mean i mean i know that 00:58:05.360 --> 00:58:13.360 you always say it doesn't matter but it does it does matter during work hours yeah okay well and 00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:19.040 you know as you mentioned transparency in the previous month we had included statistics 00:58:19.040 --> 00:58:26.720 regarding the the viewership these meetings and many of our board meetings are streamed 00:58:27.440 --> 00:58:34.480 live streamed they're also through the the app that you can download or through the city's website 00:58:34.480 --> 00:58:40.400 or dtv and then also as you know they're recorded so a member of the public a lot of time staff goes 00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:46.720 back and reviews the the previous meeting and its index so member of the public or really any anyone 00:58:46.720 --> 00:58:52.400 can go back and go to an item that they specifically wanted to see and i have to fast forward so it's 00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:57.520 it's fully recorded and it's uh and it's archived in that way as well and any item that we are 00:58:57.520 --> 00:59:04.880 seeking public input we would we could move it to a time period where the public could attend so 00:59:04.880 --> 00:59:14.560 my preference is to go back to 9 a.m both meetings that's okay that's fine with me all right so that 00:59:14.560 --> 00:59:20.320 being said um just if that's the wishes of the board then we would if that's okay we would make 00:59:20.320 --> 00:59:26.960 that official january january 2020 uh if you look into your uh future calendars there are no more 00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:32.640 evening meetings for november and december because of the thanksgiving and and uh christmas holiday 00:59:32.640 --> 00:59:39.040 so uh it would be effect uh come january 2020 okay so we'll start at 9 a.m for the second and 00:59:39.040 --> 00:59:46.640 fourth monday of the month okay good thank you uh in regards to the other items um again we've got 00:59:46.640 --> 00:59:50.720 staff here that can answer specific questions that you all may have there are several things on here 00:59:50.720 --> 00:59:57.440 and certainly can entertain any questions about any of these uh uh memos we've got the energy 00:59:57.440 --> 01:00:04.720 center quarterly report as requested from before uh we uh included an item here just informational 01:00:04.720 --> 01:00:10.560 just because of the timing of some contracts uh solid waste cost of service detail based on the 01:00:10.560 --> 01:00:16.320 reduction in rates um and then of course we've got the future agenda items and then new business 01:00:16.320 --> 01:00:20.560 and i believe the new business a lot of those things and again we can get direction from the 01:00:20.560 --> 01:00:25.360 board can either come off because some are being answered through the solid waste management study 01:00:25.360 --> 01:00:31.120 that's about to uh we're about to embark upon uh we can leave it on the matrix if you would like 01:00:31.120 --> 01:00:35.440 or we can bring it up or we can take it off and then bring it back forward uh bring it up again 01:00:35.440 --> 01:00:39.280 whenever uh those results come back from that study so it's really the wishes of the board 01:00:39.280 --> 01:00:44.480 however you would like to do that well i know it was mr solfe's request so i'd really look to him 01:00:44.480 --> 01:00:51.680 how comfortable he is taking it off there and if it's going to be covered in future presentations 01:00:51.680 --> 01:01:01.840 i see no reason to keep it on yeah yeah sounds good so for the the facility tours i know most 01:01:01.840 --> 01:01:09.280 people got the tour of the solid waste water treatment is there a possibility for a recycling 01:01:09.280 --> 01:01:16.560 facilities tour to be added i would also be interested yeah we can do that uh certainly 01:01:16.560 --> 01:01:21.040 we can do a recycling tour and i believe there was a request to do a dead energy center tour as well 01:01:21.040 --> 01:01:26.640 yes so we can i think that was through email so we can certainly schedule that it's just a matter of 01:01:26.640 --> 01:01:33.280 just getting it on the schedule and potentially posting it for quorum so if that's okay uh i'll 01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:39.520 lean over to kim mankin to help coordinate schedules with board members on doing both the 01:01:39.520 --> 01:01:46.480 dead energy center tour and a tour of the recycling facility is that okay that's good 01:01:46.480 --> 01:01:55.120 so on that i think same line we talked about earlier that dme was going to do some education 01:01:55.120 --> 01:02:00.240 on t-cost and other other relationships to urcon is that going to be away from the board meeting 01:02:04.240 --> 01:02:08.800 i think more of an orientation to the budget process okay it would be through the budget 01:02:08.800 --> 01:02:13.760 process if that's okay it would be but we can also do a work session if you'd like to do it 01:02:13.760 --> 01:02:17.760 ahead of time it's just it seems like it ought to be an orientation and not part of the board meeting 01:02:17.760 --> 01:02:24.080 i would agree with that it it's hard to ask informal questions when you're on tv and you 01:02:24.080 --> 01:02:29.520 have a posted agenda if the objective is learning and continuing education and getting the board up 01:02:29.520 --> 01:02:36.000 to speed i think i understand we want to stay away from public meetings oh no we want to stay in 01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:42.480 public meetings well stay in public meetings we want to stay away from illegal public meetings 01:02:42.480 --> 01:02:49.440 and we would still have to post that as a quorum so i guess really if if we have four i believe 01:02:49.440 --> 01:02:54.080 mr four more members of the board present at anything is going to be posted 01:02:55.280 --> 01:03:01.520 our preference would always be that it get videoed so i mean i think the end of the day it's just 01:03:01.520 --> 01:03:06.640 if you want to do it with smaller numbers we can certainly do that it just requires more scheduled 01:03:06.640 --> 01:03:13.680 meetings but um regardless it's going to be done in this room we can do it in another facility but 01:03:13.680 --> 01:03:19.360 it would just require the the videoing minute taking agenda posting etc etc so 01:03:20.720 --> 01:03:27.040 is there not an education continuing education available if requested i mean if he wants to 01:03:27.040 --> 01:03:32.080 meet with someone by himself for an hour or two people be fine absolutely yeah okay yeah we'll 01:03:32.080 --> 01:03:38.080 anyway we can do that to help educate board members uh about the intricacies of our various 01:03:38.080 --> 01:03:43.440 utility system we'd love to do that i mean we can do it all in in a session like this work session 01:03:43.440 --> 01:03:48.080 we can do it privately it's just really your preference but honestly and i'm not so sure some 01:03:48.080 --> 01:03:54.560 of that isn't appropriate to be public because we want the public to understand too sure so but i 01:03:54.560 --> 01:04:01.280 understand that you'd want some detailed questions asked too i i understand that we can do we can do 01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:05.120 it however you would like so if we would like to do it privately we can do that as well okay in 01:04:05.120 --> 01:04:11.280 addition yeah all right i think that brings us to concluding items is there a board member that 01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:18.240 wishes to have anything added to the future agendas okay not at this time do we have motion 01:04:18.240 --> 01:04:24.080 to dismiss adjourn all right we're adjourned