WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.120 It's 9 o'clock and we do have a quorum so we'll call the December 9th Public Utilities 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:10.120 Board to order. 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:15.160 The first item on the agenda is to receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:20.160 direction regarding solid waste and recycling grant applications to the North Central Texas 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:21.160 Council of Governments. 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:24.760 Good morning Madam Chair, members of the committee. 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:25.760 My name is Brian Berner. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:27.800 I'm Director of Solid Waste for the City of Denton. 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:33.080 I appreciate the opportunity this morning to talk about some exciting, potentially free 00:00:33.080 --> 00:00:41.440 money coming from the COG to help us implement a couple of programs here in the City of Denton. 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:46.160 What we're looking for today is basically to provide you with a quick briefing on what 00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:50.080 the money is, what the grant program is, outline a few projects and then receive some feedback 00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:54.760 and direction on these proposed projects. 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:59.680 North Central Texas Council of Governments, every biennium goes through a process where 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:06.840 they fund a grant program to promote solid waste programs that support the regional solid 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:07.840 waste management plan. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:13.040 Ideally, we're trying to reduce waste, ensure materials are being used to recycle whenever 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:18.040 possible, trying to affect illegal dumping and then at the end of the day safely handle 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:22.520 any remaining waste at permitted facilities. 00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:32.240 Of the approximately $2 million allocated to the COG, about $1.2 million is allocated 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:33.720 to support local projects. 00:01:33.720 --> 00:01:37.840 The rest remains with the COG to support a regional project. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:44.200 There is some reporting requirements for those who are successful in getting one or several 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:47.360 grant awards. 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:53.400 There is a progress report that's due on quarterly basis at the end of August 31, 2021, 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.560 which is the end of this next legislative biennium. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:01.920 TCEQ, we have to report to TCEQ what our results are and then one year later we have to report 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:06.440 any sort of status update with regards to how the process is working, how the money 00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:09.920 is being spent, so on and so forth. 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:13.840 There are several project categories and again, these are broad categories that are eligible 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:19.240 for grants including but not limited to local enforcement, source reduction recycling, household 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:24.000 hazardous waste, litter abatement, citizens convenience centers, solid waste management 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 plans and on and on. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:32.480 In this grant cycle, the COG has seen fit to place a priority on increasing recycling, 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:37.360 looking at food waste diversion, pharmaceutical disposals, targeted education campaigns and 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:42.360 construction demolition debris because based on a survey that they did last year, this 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:47.680 appears to be the most underserved areas of solid waste management in the North Texas 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:48.860 area. 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:56.000 From a grant funding timeline standpoint, we are in Q4 here. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.880 We will be presenting today to the PUB the proposed grant packages that we would wish 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:02.880 to submit. 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:05.640 Tomorrow, we will be presenting those to council. 00:03:05.640 --> 00:03:11.200 The grant packages are due in January or January 6th. 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:13.680 So again, a fairly short timeline to get everything else together. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.640 We have been working on getting the data, so that's not an issue. 00:03:17.640 --> 00:03:23.520 We will hear back in March whether we have been awarded these grant projects. 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:29.760 In April, we will have contracts executed and then by the end of May 2021, we should 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:34.800 have all of the projects actually completed and all of the information back to the COG 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:40.520 about how successful and such that we were with the grant funding cycle. 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:44.560 So with this, I'm actually going to -- this is going to be sort of a cast of characters 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:45.560 today. 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:51.840 I want to turn the podium over to Ms. Tina Eck who is going to talk about the proposed 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:55.180 projects that we have here in solid waste and then we're going to turn the podium over 00:03:55.180 --> 00:04:04.640 to Deborah Viega to talk about a proposed project that they have in watershed. 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:21.840 Our first proposal that we would like to have you consider is the comprehensive solid waste 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:22.840 management strategy. 00:04:22.840 --> 00:04:27.560 We have spoken a little bit about that already, but what this would do would be to fund the 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:33.520 consultant that would come in and get that kicked off for us and there's an entire category 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:38.300 that's just focused on this award. 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:47.840 Our next one would be for recycling dumpster contamination reduction in lids and locks. 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:52.160 So what we've noticed particularly at our multifamily properties is some of the contamination 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:59.240 is for bulky type items specifically and so these restrictive size lids would reduce that 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:03.040 so essentially it would come down and lock onto the lid and then create an opening that 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:07.720 was essentially large enough for just a bin so that you could dump your loose recyclables 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.520 in there. 00:05:10.520 --> 00:05:17.960 One of them costs about, let's see, it was about $3,000 a piece I believe and that's 00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:23.720 without installation so this is a wonderful opportunity to have that done without additional 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:24.720 burden. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:28.080 They're technically two separate pieces so each piece and then the lock that comes down 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:34.900 over it but it's a gravity lock type system so once it flips back over it just closes 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:45.520 so there's not anything that you would have to do to lock or unlock it manually. 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:50.240 We have our submission that we would like for the public disposal area recycling center 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:52.760 improvements and upgrades. 00:05:52.760 --> 00:05:58.120 So what this is is kind of a bundled picture so we have our existing facility that's at 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:00.560 the landfill at the public disposal area. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:06.820 It will need to be moved by the time we develop the next landfill cell so this would cover 00:06:06.820 --> 00:06:11.920 the design costs to give a really thoughtful design to what that public area looks like 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:18.440 and how we construct it and then additionally our current site at North Lakes is being relocated 00:06:18.440 --> 00:06:22.320 but what this would do would be to and that's already funded in our capital program but 00:06:22.320 --> 00:06:28.540 what this would do would be increase the funding for cameras and also when litter fencing and 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:33.300 just some other type improvements to the site to make that more successful. 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:44.560 What do you think can be done to reduce illegal dumping not only in a place like North Lakes 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:52.200 but also with multi-family what you're talking about the restricted access on those dumpsters. 00:06:52.200 --> 00:06:57.460 What's to stop people from just leaving their stuff on the ground there just as they do 00:06:57.460 --> 00:06:58.460 here? 00:06:58.460 --> 00:06:59.460 Yes. 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:00.460 Yeah. 00:07:00.460 --> 00:07:06.480 That is very true so ultimately really with the drop-off site that it's a manned operation 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:11.880 is the most effective and or at least having hours of operation for it and then closing 00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:16.880 the gates but then it just goes the material goes right outside the gate so it's still 00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:21.520 a concern unless it's a manned facility which is what's particularly successful about our 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:22.520 Lee Enfield site comparatively. 00:07:22.520 --> 00:07:31.200 I didn't know if you had anything you wanted to add to that answer. 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:35.240 Again to reinforce what Tina said until you get a staff member out there actually checking 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:38.800 people in and out you will always have illegal dumping I think what we're trying to do is 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:44.320 raise the bar here by putting in video surveillance what that allows it it does add a level or 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:50.680 a layer of accountability so we can go back and prosecute or do we need to do to minimize 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:51.680 those those issues. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:57.280 I know there used to be a video camera out at North Lakes I don't think it's operative 00:07:57.280 --> 00:07:58.280 anymore. 00:07:58.280 --> 00:08:01.640 No it is not and again the quality of those are extremely poor and part of what we want 00:08:01.640 --> 00:08:04.760 to do and I think that's part of what what Deborah is going to be talking about illegal 00:08:04.760 --> 00:08:10.760 dumping around the city is some very very high quality where we can you know get facial 00:08:10.760 --> 00:08:15.000 recognition we can get you know license plates we can get the evidence that we need that 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.200 a prosecutor can actually take something forward and make it stick. 00:08:19.200 --> 00:08:24.320 Thank you what's sorry what's the penalty for illegal dumping. 00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:32.000 At this point I can't respond to that but we can bring that back to you if we need to. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:37.160 Is it a misdemeanor? 00:08:37.160 --> 00:08:48.160 Again I would have to bring that back to you. 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:52.120 We have our current home chemical collection program but we would like to enhance it to 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:58.200 include mobile events and so this grant request would be for a trailer especially outfitted 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:05.120 trailer so that they could go out into neighborhoods and have a public it would also have an education 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.880 component in it as well and an outreach component to have public collection events and so the 00:09:09.880 --> 00:09:15.880 request would be for the trailer a forklift to load and unload out of the trailer and 00:09:15.880 --> 00:09:20.000 collection and packaging supplies and then outreach material so this one is kind of a 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:26.900 combination of many different facets that would would essentially enhance this program. 00:09:26.900 --> 00:09:34.360 And then our final one is yard waste collection craft bags so as you all well know I'm sure 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:41.160 we began our yard waste collection program modifications on October 1st and so what we 00:09:41.160 --> 00:09:46.220 were thinking that this could accomplish would be to get an additional supply of craft bags 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:52.200 that we could give out that would have the educational material printed on them so kind 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:56.560 of give a boost to the program and hopefully increase the diversion and the participation 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:02.080 in the program. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:14.800 And that concludes ours and then there is one more. 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:21.560 If I understand if you elect to have the bags you can get additional but if you elect to 00:10:21.560 --> 00:10:27.280 have the cart people in the northeast that have so many trays that cart doesn't even 00:10:27.280 --> 00:10:31.800 begin to make a dent what what is available to them? 00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:36.160 Basically the cart service comes with unlimited craft bag collection at the same time so you 00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:40.360 can have one cart and 50 craft bags if you would like and they're all collected at the 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:41.360 same time. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:42.360 Okay. 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:43.360 Alright. 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:44.360 Thank you. 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:45.360 You're welcome. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:52.680 Good morning the Brevier Environmental Services I will be presenting for the remote cameras 00:10:52.680 --> 00:10:57.480 for the illegal dumping throughout the city we have identified sites especially the outskirts 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:05.800 that are prone to be magnets for illegal dumping due to the secludeness of the location. 00:11:05.800 --> 00:11:11.200 Illegal dumping is a it's not only a water quality issue because most of that trash end 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:16.960 up being on the creeks and being end up at the lakes where we take our water for portable 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:22.240 purposes but also it becomes an issue of safety welfare and health. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:30.200 Most areas are could if the trash end up being at the creek it can increase our flood conditions 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:35.560 that means that our drainage department will have to go out and get that cleaned up. 00:11:35.560 --> 00:11:42.320 It could be a breeding ground for mosquito related illnesses so it's a safety issue and 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:47.040 definitely is a welfare issue as well and aesthetics. 00:11:47.040 --> 00:11:53.560 So just to give you an update when we first put this together we were looking to get approximately 00:11:53.560 --> 00:12:01.080 $5200 as a grant as of last week when we met with COG they actually told us to bump up 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:11.120 our request because they have they have granted similar awards in the past and they recommend 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:16.760 to use a better quality high resolution cameras that tend to be more expensive. 00:12:16.760 --> 00:12:24.080 So the grant actually will be around $15,000 because each camera will cost around $3,000 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:25.760 to $4,000. 00:12:25.760 --> 00:12:31.920 Those cameras have higher resolution so we will be able to get better picture if we have 00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:38.800 the elements for prosecution and also they are more difficult to be stolen and dismantled 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:43.040 which is our experience with the current set of cameras. 00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:51.600 So people tend to either remove them or tamper and so this new set of cameras would be higher 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:53.800 quality and provide us with that. 00:12:53.800 --> 00:12:57.600 So if you have any questions for that program? 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:58.600 Questions? 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:00.680 I have one question. 00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:04.700 It looks to me like the use of this kind of camera would be pretty broad for a number 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:14.080 of people if there's not some compelling reason not to if you wouldn't mind sending back just 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:19.360 to the committee what you end up selecting and what you had planned on selecting prior 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:27.120 to the request for increase of the budget amount affected there's a lot of demand for 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:33.280 that and a nice you know stand alone system like that. 00:13:33.280 --> 00:13:38.680 There's probably other uses both inside the city and for other benefits that I think people 00:13:38.680 --> 00:13:42.640 would like to see what we end up with if we find an adequate solution. 00:13:42.640 --> 00:13:48.720 My question then is it looks like that's a Wi-Fi antenna on the housing do you anticipate 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:54.160 having Wi-Fi access for each of these locations or is it going to be cellular based or something 00:13:54.160 --> 00:13:55.160 else? 00:13:55.160 --> 00:13:58.680 It would probably be cellular based to be honest with you and depends on the location 00:13:58.680 --> 00:13:59.680 of it. 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:04.480 Most of the sites are more in the outskirts we have been in communication with the county 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:10.040 as well so in that way if we just happen to be taking pictures of something that happened 00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:14.960 nearby but outside city limits we can provide that information for them and then take it 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:19.520 from there that's a part of the coordination where other jurisdiction can actually benefit 00:14:19.520 --> 00:14:21.440 from it. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:27.640 We definitely if I'm not mistaken it would be similar. 00:14:27.640 --> 00:14:30.040 So the communication will be cellular? 00:14:30.040 --> 00:14:31.040 Correct. 00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:32.040 Yeah. 00:14:32.040 --> 00:14:33.040 Thank you. 00:14:33.040 --> 00:14:39.280 And we will bring more information later as you requested. 00:14:39.280 --> 00:14:46.640 We can respond to any additional questions you might have on these. 00:14:46.640 --> 00:14:48.440 Yes sir. 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:56.080 Yeah is there I don't know if this well I'll just ask it. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:03.100 With all the concern now about plastic pollution will there be an educational component in 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:12.280 this regarding educating people about single use plastics and all the stuff that we're 00:15:12.280 --> 00:15:15.040 having problems with? 00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:20.680 Within each of these grant applications no at this point but as part of our solid waste 00:15:20.680 --> 00:15:26.400 management strategy part of that education plastic or part of that education program 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:31.200 will entail some outreach regarding plastics, plastic diversions, single use things of that 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:34.960 nature so indirectly yes but directly no. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.080 Okay thank you. 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:42.080 Have we approached the county with collaborating on this? 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:43.080 No we have not. 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:47.640 When do you plan to do that? 00:15:47.640 --> 00:15:52.960 Well again I believe that with the with the illegal dumping camera yes that the county 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:57.080 has been approached on that one but the other one but the other programs from solid waste 00:15:57.080 --> 00:16:02.460 are specific to our operations within the city so there really isn't a need to bring 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:06.360 the county in at this time on those. 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:13.680 Two questions I have one pertains to the security of the installation of the camera itself and 00:16:13.680 --> 00:16:20.440 then the other is lightning do you anticipate putting these cameras on a pole or how do 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:22.980 you anticipate mounting them? 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:27.840 Traditionally with the illegal dumping they're mounted very similar to game cameras they're 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:34.200 put on posts they're put on trees and again they're not a static installation I mean 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:39.920 ideally we know where our high use you know frequent sites are they're used for illegal 00:16:39.920 --> 00:16:44.440 dumping but you move them around because once you start enforcing in one area they move 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:48.580 to another so you've got to be able to move those but again there's significant camouflage 00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:55.640 and other items so again you know they're not as just in your face so to speak they're 00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:57.880 out there collecting the evidence. 00:16:57.880 --> 00:17:03.000 From a lightning standpoint again these are fixed these are you know standalone units 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:07.400 just like any any other piece of electronic equipment that happens to get you know hit 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:11.480 by lightning then it's fried but otherwise there is no surge protection or anything else 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:13.920 because it is contained within itself. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:19.680 What's our record of being awarded these grants? 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:26.280 This program with the cog is well over 15 years old and while I have not been with the 00:17:26.280 --> 00:17:29.840 City of Denton for over 15 years you know having worked in the North Texas area that 00:17:29.840 --> 00:17:35.680 entire time I know that the City of Denton has been very successful anytime that it has 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:36.680 been awarded these. 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:40.960 Now you know sometimes the installation or the execution of some of these grants has 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:47.640 not been as well as done as well as we would have anticipated however you know we have 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:54.520 a very high regard for what's going on here and we are having talked with the cog staff 00:17:54.520 --> 00:17:58.840 there behind what we're doing here so we have a very good feeling that we will be awarded 00:17:58.840 --> 00:18:04.360 these if the grant application is put forward. 00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:11.640 Is there any record of progress made with past grants that the City has received? 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:16.800 Have we gotten grants from cog for this before or is this? 00:18:16.800 --> 00:18:21.200 Not for these no these are these are separate projects but in the past we've had household 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:27.080 hazardous waste we've had education and outreach we've had basic you know all the different 00:18:27.080 --> 00:18:31.280 categories just like every other city in North Texas area we've put in grant applications 00:18:31.280 --> 00:18:35.120 we've won those we've implemented programs we move forward. 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:43.920 And is there a requirement that you submit a report to the entity or is it like an arts 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:44.920 grant or anything else? 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:48.520 Correct I mean there is a reporting requirement so you know in the first quarter while we 00:18:48.520 --> 00:18:53.200 have it there is a reporting requirement at the end of the grant period we have to report 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:57.840 to the TCEQ how we've done and then we basically have to do a year later showing what the progress 00:18:57.840 --> 00:19:00.200 is. 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:05.880 Another question about the very first item you mentioned developing a formulating a plan 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:07.640 for solid waste. 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:08.640 Correct. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:18.360 Do you have any does your department have any plans of its own on what you think should 00:19:18.360 --> 00:19:24.600 be done or is this looking for a consultant to tell you what the best practices are? 00:19:24.600 --> 00:19:28.120 Well again this is actually this is not a plan this is a strategy so it's a forward 00:19:28.120 --> 00:19:29.120 looking document. 00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:32.400 What we want to do is look at the trends that are happening out there if we were putting 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:38.080 this together two years ago nobody would have envisioned that the national sword that happened 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:43.400 in China and we would have thought you know managing plastics the same old same old. 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:47.920 Where we sit here today at the end of 2019 we know that recycling is an issue and how 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:51.280 we did it even 18 months ago has to be addressed a little bit different. 00:19:51.280 --> 00:19:55.060 So what the consultant is going to come in and do is help you know through discussions 00:19:55.060 --> 00:20:00.800 with boards like this with the council with the public looking at what's happening across 00:20:00.800 --> 00:20:06.120 the nation trying to forward vision what some of these strategies are we'll take that information 00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:11.440 and we'll put together the plans to meet those goals to reduce the amount of material we're 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.640 sending to the landfill to try to increase diversion try to increase you know reuse and 00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:17.800 recycling of material that are out there. 00:20:17.800 --> 00:20:23.600 Now some of this may go back to you know just the way we manage physical you know material 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:27.720 that we pick up other may be some sort of a little more aggressive legislative type 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:32.920 plan because we are bound right now by several laws that are in place in the state of Texas 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:39.520 that don't allow us to do certain things or as I you know as I brought up here you know 00:20:39.520 --> 00:20:43.600 some of our food packaging laws right now are 20 and 30 years old and they require certain 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:48.080 things that may or may not need be needed right now from a health and safety standpoint. 00:20:48.080 --> 00:20:52.080 So going back and looking at those and trying to get changes in those which at the end of 00:20:52.080 --> 00:20:58.880 the day would affect the material that we have to recycle. 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:02.240 Other questions? 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:07.260 If not then you know our plan is to take this presentation tomorrow to council for their 00:21:07.260 --> 00:21:10.760 approval we will complete the COG grants and submit that. 00:21:10.760 --> 00:21:16.400 One other thing that you will see probably in the January time period is we are required 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:22.780 to submit to the COG a resolution from the council basically allowing us to accept the 00:21:22.780 --> 00:21:27.240 grants if they are awarded so we will be running that information past you and as part of that 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:31.880 we can share with you the grant application so that you can see specifically what pieces 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:39.120 of equipment we are specing out and things of that nature. 00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:45.600 I just wanted the illegal dumping is a nuisance violation it's a class C misdemeanor it's 00:21:45.600 --> 00:21:50.960 a max of $500 fine of $71 that goes to the state and taxes additionally. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.800 And that's $500 per day? 00:21:53.800 --> 00:21:54.800 Well per violation. 00:21:54.800 --> 00:21:55.800 Per violation. 00:21:55.800 --> 00:21:56.800 Thank you. 00:21:56.800 --> 00:21:57.800 Thank you. 00:21:57.800 --> 00:22:06.240 All right our next item is receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:17.660 regarding the Denton municipal electric budget. 00:22:17.660 --> 00:22:21.060 Good morning committee members David Gaines director of finance. 00:22:21.060 --> 00:22:25.760 This item is intended to give an update of the DME budget now that we have closed out 00:22:25.760 --> 00:22:29.120 the previous fiscal year at least preliminarily. 00:22:29.120 --> 00:22:35.040 For those of you who were on the board during the budget process you will recall that as 00:22:35.040 --> 00:22:40.800 we were going through the budget discussions for DME we pointed out that the ECA rate the 00:22:40.800 --> 00:22:44.680 portion of our rate which I'll touch on as we go through the presentation was significantly 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:50.040 underfunded at our current rates but we also had a significant fund balance so the discussion 00:22:50.040 --> 00:22:55.160 points with the board and with city council during the budget process last year were do 00:22:55.160 --> 00:22:59.500 we need a rate increase now do we want to hold off on a rate increase till possibly 00:22:59.500 --> 00:23:04.200 the next fiscal year or do we want to see how this year shakes out before we make any 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:09.840 of those decisions and ultimately that's where council landed was let's not have any changes 00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:16.280 to the rates during the budget process but come back to both the PUB and council once 00:23:16.280 --> 00:23:21.040 we see how we end the fiscal year and at least give the update and that would give that option 00:23:21.040 --> 00:23:24.160 to consider a mid-year rate change in our rates. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.200 So to kind of cut to the chase at the last slide we are at this time not recommending 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:34.240 any rate changes for this fiscal year as we go through the budget process for the 19, 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:38.520 for the 2021 budget we'll obviously be having those discussions and as we go through the 00:23:38.520 --> 00:23:43.280 budget process obviously it will be a much more detailed presentation, much more detailed 00:23:43.280 --> 00:23:49.480 information for everyone and we've also had those conversations about having a more in-depth 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:54.680 presentation just on T-cost itself and getting the board up to speed all of those so definitely 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:59.360 as I go through this very high level short presentation we have D&E staff here to answer 00:23:59.360 --> 00:24:02.520 any questions that you might have obviously we can get into any of the detail that you 00:24:02.520 --> 00:24:07.000 would like but this was really the intent of this presentation was really to give that 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:09.760 just update on how we ended the fiscal year. 00:24:09.760 --> 00:24:15.800 So this just lays out everything I just went over for the objectives of the meeting. 00:24:15.800 --> 00:24:20.560 So this chart basically says right what I just pointed out of where we thought we would 00:24:20.560 --> 00:24:24.960 end the year or where we ended up in finishing the fiscal year. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:30.240 So as we brought the budget to the board and to council during the budget process we estimated 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:37.320 that we would end the fiscal year with about an 18 million dollar deficit in our operating 00:24:37.320 --> 00:24:41.720 fund last year and which would be a draw down on fund balance and that the deck would be 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:49.960 about two and a half million from a net income basis under, with revenues under expenses. 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:53.920 We also said that we would have no increases as I just mentioned on those on either other 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:57.260 of the primary rate classes. 00:24:57.260 --> 00:24:59.200 We ended the fiscal year much better than that. 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:02.720 You know obviously as we're going through the budget process we come to PV early in 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:06.440 the spring and we even adopt we'll get to a point where we're ready to adopt a budget 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:11.520 in September having these discussions in the summer it does make it difficult with the 00:25:11.520 --> 00:25:17.120 water budget with D&E where we have our highest usage months in August and July and we don't 00:25:17.120 --> 00:25:22.240 have some of that data when we're making the estimates but August was a month that had 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:27.680 a significant impact on our fund obviously with increase significant increases in demand 00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:30.960 a couple weeks where it was kind of almost record setting in the amount of demand that 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:36.400 we had and also the cost of power had that significant impact to have us use the deck 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.400 more had us pay more in purchase power but also had us receive more in revenues. 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:45.920 From a fund level perspective it was a good in our net position of the fund balance where 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:50.200 we didn't have to draw down fund balance at all we actually added another two million 00:25:50.200 --> 00:25:55.080 almost three million to our fund balance as opposed to that that significant drawdown 00:25:55.080 --> 00:25:56.080 in fund balance. 00:25:56.080 --> 00:26:02.960 So that's this is again at the very high level fund balance perspective for where we ended 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:07.920 and then as we look at the ECA rate versus the base rates I'll touch on that briefly 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:12.200 obviously can answer any questions when we're talking about the ECA rate where the energy 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:17.160 cost adjustment rate so that's a rate that is really intended to fluctuate with power 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:23.880 costs so as the cost of energy increases that rate is intended to increase with it to fluctuate 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:28.720 directly where the base rates are really intended to cover those fixed costs those costs that 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:32.280 we can predict year over year. 00:26:32.280 --> 00:26:35.720 There are you know as we look at this you know this is obviously a very simple way to 00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:40.880 look at it we have the ECA separated there's a lot more that goes into base rates as we're 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:46.480 talking about this and a significant piece of that is our T-cost we know that we are 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:50.960 collecting significant amounts of revenue for our transmission cost assets over what 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:57.080 our debt service is so that that difference in what we're collecting allows us to somewhat 00:26:57.080 --> 00:27:02.400 subsidize our base rates here so when we show our base rates over collecting a big portion 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:06.960 of that is that T-cost is over collecting to some degree and helping us to not have 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:12.040 that impact on the base rate so that's kind of everything that goes into this simple slide 00:27:12.040 --> 00:27:17.920 but it is good to see this perspective that our ECA rates are under recovering significantly 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:21.800 and that's something that we will need to address as we go into the budget year and 00:27:21.800 --> 00:27:25.640 some of those options would be do we think about trying to get that ECA rate to where 00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:30.800 it fluctuates more in future years and maybe decrease the base rates to kind of to negate 00:27:30.800 --> 00:27:36.240 that impact and those will be the discussions that we're having but prior to this year 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:42.720 we didn't see this huge deficit in the ECA rate and that's really directly tied to our 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:47.800 debt cost we have our debt operating cost and our debt service cost that flow through 00:27:47.800 --> 00:27:52.240 the ECA rate so that's a big portion of why once we get that those first debt service 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.520 payments we started seeing the change in the ECA rate and why we probably have to have 00:27:56.520 --> 00:28:04.360 that discussion on how that impacts the total but again overall just good news in the sense 00:28:04.360 --> 00:28:09.480 that we don't have to have that mid-year change right now we can really just move forward 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:13.840 knowing that we're going to have a more detailed discussion as we go through the budget process 00:28:13.840 --> 00:28:16.840 here in a few months. 00:28:16.840 --> 00:28:20.640 So here are our highlighted revenues and it really just hits on everything I've just been 00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:27.600 saying that we did base rate revenues outperform our estimate and then also with ECA revenues 00:28:27.600 --> 00:28:30.960 and then we have a little bit more on the deck later on we have our deck dashboards 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:35.720 that we've been sending out and you can see that the deck was really used a lot more than 00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:40.640 we had used than we expected to use it as we finished the fiscal year you know another 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:44.680 important point that we talked about and a reason that we kind of decided to press pause 00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:49.640 after after meeting with council and the PUB was we had didn't have a full year of what 00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:53.300 does the deck even look like so we're still learning we're still getting data points and 00:28:53.300 --> 00:28:57.960 having that significant August what will help us prepare the future try to project in the 00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:03.000 future but also shows what it looks like when we have that significant usage of the deck. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:04.000 Sure. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:10.720 Quick question regarding the deck is its revenue because of a large adjustment that came in 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:17.200 the last couple of months of the year is its budget done as one twelfth of an annual estimate 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.880 each month or is that seasonalized? 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:26.600 It's seasonalized we seasonalize so even the budget was seasonalized it just ended up that 00:29:26.600 --> 00:29:32.120 August and September just happened to be highly profitable for it beyond normal seasonal adjustment. 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:33.120 Correct. 00:29:33.120 --> 00:29:39.040 Yeah it was more than we anticipated but again we hadn't even had an August so it was still 00:29:39.040 --> 00:29:43.900 trying to kind of guess what the usage would be with the deck. 00:29:43.900 --> 00:29:50.160 And then one more question on the deck net income you mentioned a couple of slides ago 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:57.760 you mentioned energy cost adjustments are those made within deck net income or are those 00:29:57.760 --> 00:30:00.760 outside of that? 00:30:00.760 --> 00:30:08.520 The impact on the ECA rate is from the debt the net debt cost so when we say the deck 00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:13.200 revenue really that's just kind of a part of our TNPA payment it comes in as a credit 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:18.560 in our TNPA everything that goes into what we pay in TNPA so the net of all that is what 00:30:18.560 --> 00:30:29.360 the ECA covers if that makes sense. 00:30:29.360 --> 00:30:34.400 So here's just a slide that we do that we show just try to make it as clear as possible 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:39.520 on what's in the ECA so you can see everything that's in the ECA our purchase power obviously 00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:43.520 everything that we pay out for our power then we have our operating cost for the deck our 00:30:43.520 --> 00:30:49.440 debt service any prior year balance and then we have then we subtract from that our ERCOT 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:56.400 revenue so the deck that's a net of any of the revenue that we see from the deck as it's 00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:01.600 out in the ERCOT market so it is a net from the revenue that we receive from the deck 00:31:01.600 --> 00:31:05.760 but there's still we still have to cover those costs with the ECA rate. 00:31:05.760 --> 00:31:13.400 Okay and you've got deck operating costs and deck net service obviously operating cost goes 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:21.040 into deck net income but the deck net income is that adjusted by ECA or does deck net income 00:31:21.040 --> 00:31:23.680 go toward calculating the ECA? 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:27.000 It goes toward calculating the ECA. 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:31.760 Can we get a copy of that slide there this is not that is not on our presentation. 00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:32.760 Absolutely. 00:31:32.760 --> 00:31:35.920 We have this slide in our budget presentations around the year but we can definitely send 00:31:35.920 --> 00:31:36.920 that out no problem. 00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:43.360 I know I've asked this question before but what is the reasoning of the debt service in 00:31:43.360 --> 00:31:44.360 the ECA? 00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:49.120 You know that's a discussion that we've continued to have that was a decision that was made 00:31:49.120 --> 00:31:52.800 when we started the deck it was made you know once the deck came on board as we were having 00:31:52.800 --> 00:31:57.080 those conversations to include it all so I think you know you can have that discussion 00:31:57.080 --> 00:32:03.240 in either way I think the idea of keeping the debt service in there is it's a ultimately 00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:08.920 the deck is a cost of power everything that we all the costs that we have for the deck 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:12.320 are a cost to purchase power if we didn't have the deck we'd be purchasing that power 00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:18.720 elsewhere so all costs associated with the deck should be in there even the debt service. 00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:23.440 I know that kind of goes against the idea of having a fixed cost so that is a discussion 00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:28.040 and we had that discussion during the budget process as we went through it and there's 00:32:28.040 --> 00:32:33.680 definitely you know validity on both sides but the justification for having it in the 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:41.040 ECA is we have we use the deck to purchase power so here's a total cost of the debt. 00:32:41.040 --> 00:32:47.320 One follow on to Billy's question you show ERCOT revenue including deck revenue is all 00:32:47.320 --> 00:32:53.820 of decks revenue included in it all all of the revenue comes from ERCOT and all of the 00:32:53.820 --> 00:33:02.160 right yeah it is and if all of our income is going to that the debt service should certainly 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:03.160 come out of it. 00:33:03.160 --> 00:33:17.560 Let's say revenue doesn't say income net income. 00:33:17.560 --> 00:33:21.840 But operating costs and debt service are there yeah again that when we show our net income 00:33:21.840 --> 00:33:27.080 or the dashboard we're kind of doing the operating costs deck and then taking out the so it's 00:33:27.080 --> 00:33:30.680 all mixed in there and we even when we say deck revenue I was I mentioned it's not we 00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:35.240 don't necessarily receive a check for that revenue or anything like that it's just netted 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:37.720 out from our ERCOT cost as they come through. 00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:45.240 I have a question about the budgeted revenue for deck for the next budget cycle it's a 00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:53.800 lot less than what it is for this year like 11 million dollars projected what's the reason 00:33:53.800 --> 00:33:56.720 is it going to be cooler next year? 00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:00.840 So you're talking about this number right here the deck revenue $25 million dollars 00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:04.480 well you know that just goes back to as we were going through the budget process we didn't 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:08.920 have August to project we didn't know what August looked like when we were projecting 00:34:08.920 --> 00:34:13.760 the revenue so we've tried to be conservative as we don't know that we haven't had the history 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.440 with the deck so I think it's two parts first being conservative and trying to estimate 00:34:18.440 --> 00:34:23.880 how much we think we're going to use the deck and second we don't even now I think it would 00:34:23.880 --> 00:34:27.440 I don't know that we would even say now we want to say 37 million dollars for our budget 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:33.680 because that August was somewhat extreme so we don't have that history to know so obviously 00:34:33.680 --> 00:34:37.680 I think it's a conservative estimate on the revenues there but that really flows down 00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:41.940 to the expenses as well I think so that's kind of where we stand. 00:34:41.940 --> 00:34:45.720 And David also wasn't the budget adopted in mid September? 00:34:45.720 --> 00:34:51.960 Exactly yeah it was adopted in mid September months ahead of that time. 00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:57.960 But as we gain more history with the deck we'll be able to project that a little bit 00:34:57.960 --> 00:34:58.960 better. 00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:02.840 That's a goal we have and even when we project it we can come and say you know here's what 00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:06.760 it would look like in a regular scenario here's what it would look like in an extreme scenario 00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:10.440 and go through that process so definitely I mean as we go through the year we'll see 00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:13.960 this budget and it's very you know likely if we hit what we did last year we're going 00:35:13.960 --> 00:35:18.760 to be exceeding it both on revenues and expenses but it all you know it all plays together 00:35:18.760 --> 00:35:22.940 and I think if Terry came up here and was talking about this as you have any questions 00:35:22.940 --> 00:35:27.000 he would say you know everything that when we use the deck that affects our purchase 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:40.520 power on our regular purchase power cost so it all really does tie together. 00:35:40.520 --> 00:35:43.760 Terry Nalti, Assistant General Manager at DME. 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:49.840 Anytime we look at a deck forecast revenue we have to remember that that's based on a 00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:55.940 set of prices in the future it's an assumption that we're making based upon the then currently 00:35:55.940 --> 00:35:58.680 traded forward market. 00:35:58.680 --> 00:36:04.280 So this was established in September based on a curve date that was actually in May of 00:36:04.280 --> 00:36:06.620 2019. 00:36:06.620 --> 00:36:12.160 Today the curve is significantly different higher for the summer months as a result of 00:36:12.160 --> 00:36:15.680 what we experienced in August and September. 00:36:15.680 --> 00:36:20.280 So if we were to recast that forecast today it would be higher. 00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:27.360 In fact the last time we looked at it a few weeks ago it's actually we would project net 00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:32.240 incomes that were in excess of what we achieved this year. 00:36:32.240 --> 00:36:39.800 But you will see that formally when we put the new budget together in early next year 00:36:39.800 --> 00:36:43.160 and you'll start to see what July time frame or so. 00:36:43.160 --> 00:36:45.160 Early spring. 00:36:45.160 --> 00:36:52.480 Really you all start the budget process for the whole city we started off here. 00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:58.680 We've kind of bounced around and we've hit most of the slides I will touch on the expenses 00:36:58.680 --> 00:37:02.540 and then a lot of this were the discussions that we had during the fiscal year. 00:37:02.540 --> 00:37:07.280 As you look at administration you can see our budget we significantly spent less than 00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:08.560 our budget administration. 00:37:08.560 --> 00:37:13.120 That's really tied if you recall for those of you who were here I can definitely bring 00:37:13.120 --> 00:37:14.960 everyone else up to speed. 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:20.760 We had budgeted 28 a little over $28 million to pay off our TNPA scrubber debt going into 00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:24.520 the fiscal year knowing that we had a fund balance and that was an option that we went 00:37:24.520 --> 00:37:25.520 forward with. 00:37:25.520 --> 00:37:28.760 We decided to hold off on that actually early in the fiscal year knowing that we had so 00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:36.480 many variables outstanding from debt performance, TNPA and that turned out to be a good decision. 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:41.280 So that's why you see a decrease in our total expenses and what we ended up doing with that 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:47.440 TNPA debt was refinancing it which saves us $2 or $3 million over the next five years. 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:52.320 We didn't extend the life of the debt it still goes away in five years for this specific 00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.240 TNPA debt but have $2 million less in expenses. 00:37:55.240 --> 00:37:59.680 So that's the biggest reason that you see for a decrease there in administration and 00:37:59.680 --> 00:38:04.240 then wholesale power you see increases which are really directly related to purchase power, 00:38:04.240 --> 00:38:08.960 the increased demand and cost that we had that were associated with that. 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:19.140 So those are the biggest changes that you see in our expenses for the fiscal year. 00:38:19.140 --> 00:38:20.140 We just touched on the debt. 00:38:20.140 --> 00:38:25.040 The only thing I'll point out you can see that our full debt service payments are now 00:38:25.040 --> 00:38:29.880 in the budget moving forward for the debt associated operations really. 00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:34.280 The biggest piece of our operations is the fuel that goes along with the debt and then 00:38:34.280 --> 00:38:40.120 you can see the other expense categories there. 00:38:40.120 --> 00:38:47.360 Just the salaries and benefits, yes, yeah, I've been trying to get us to switch to the 00:38:47.360 --> 00:38:54.820 spelling of personnel but it's hidden everywhere and it pops up. 00:38:54.820 --> 00:39:04.080 The previous slide showed the expenses for DEC going up roughly 50%. 00:39:04.080 --> 00:39:05.880 What's the reason for that? 00:39:05.880 --> 00:39:12.720 The expenses for the Denton Energy Center going up 50% next year. 00:39:12.720 --> 00:39:18.480 So they're the same numbers but this has more detail so I'll stick on this slide. 00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:28.360 And I guess do you want to talk about the energy expense? 00:39:28.360 --> 00:39:33.840 So one of the things that we have to forecast when we look at, again, dispatching the DEC 00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:39.080 against the forward curve is how many hours a year it's going to run and that's based 00:39:39.080 --> 00:39:45.520 upon the price of natural gas and then the price of electricity during that same period 00:39:45.520 --> 00:39:47.960 of time. 00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:56.520 So we assume that if the cost of the DEC is, say, $28 on a variable cost basis, any time 00:39:56.520 --> 00:40:02.540 that the forward market is above $28, we're dispatching the unit into the market and then 00:40:02.540 --> 00:40:05.080 purchasing gas for those hours. 00:40:05.080 --> 00:40:12.240 So when you see these numbers, you can see that the 50%, the biggest change here is this 00:40:12.240 --> 00:40:14.440 $14 million that was budgeted. 00:40:14.440 --> 00:40:20.760 We actually only spent about $7 million in fuel costs because we ran actually half the 00:40:20.760 --> 00:40:28.360 hours that we anticipated running in back in May of last year when we were doing the 00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:35.600 budget, May the previous year when we were doing the budget, and what we actually ran. 00:40:35.600 --> 00:40:39.480 So we only run the units when they're termed in the money. 00:40:39.480 --> 00:40:44.680 So if it's above $28, in my example, we'll run it. 00:40:44.680 --> 00:40:51.960 And this year, this past summer, August and September, the prices were significantly higher 00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:57.280 than we expected, but they didn't last as long as we expected. 00:40:57.280 --> 00:41:02.960 So we ran the units half the time and achieved a much greater margin in the hours that we 00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:04.200 did run. 00:41:04.200 --> 00:41:10.200 So our $12 million estimate, 12.5 for the next fiscal year is again based upon that 00:41:10.200 --> 00:41:16.440 May 10th, 2010, I'm sorry, 2019 curve. 00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:22.540 And that curve has changed significantly because of the performance in the summer. 00:41:22.540 --> 00:41:29.760 So while underlying power prices for the calendar year are relatively similar to what they were 00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:36.080 at this time last year, more of the value is now in the super peak hours in the summer. 00:41:36.080 --> 00:41:38.000 And that's why the big difference. 00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:40.400 I hope that answers your question. 00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:45.040 So the deck expenses includes the cost of the natural gas itself. 00:41:45.040 --> 00:41:49.720 That's the largest single cost, yes. 00:41:49.720 --> 00:41:53.040 One more quick question. 00:41:53.040 --> 00:42:00.120 You are showing debt service principal as an expenditure and subtracting principal debt 00:42:00.120 --> 00:42:01.760 service from net income? 00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:02.760 Yes. 00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:03.760 Okay. 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:04.760 Yep. 00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:05.760 Okay. 00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:06.760 But no depreciation? 00:42:06.760 --> 00:42:07.760 No. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:08.760 Okay. 00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:19.640 I just wondered how much would the deck have to run to where it couldn't run anymore because 00:42:19.640 --> 00:42:24.720 it had reached the limits to its pollution? 00:42:24.720 --> 00:42:30.440 I don't have that exact number, Mr. Self, but I can certainly get it to you. 00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.720 We don't see any time in the future where that's going to be an issue based on the current 00:42:34.720 --> 00:42:36.000 forward curves. 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:41.880 Prices would have to come up significantly for the non-summer months in addition to the 00:42:41.880 --> 00:42:44.280 summer months in order for that to happen. 00:42:44.280 --> 00:42:45.800 But I'll get you the number. 00:42:45.800 --> 00:42:46.800 Yeah. 00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:47.800 Thanks. 00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:48.800 Yep. 00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:56.400 So just to recap, obviously no mid-year changes. 00:42:56.400 --> 00:43:00.440 We'll be updating our forecast as we've been discussing just over the next couple months 00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:05.760 and then back to you pretty soon as we start talking about the 2021 budget. 00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:10.200 And then obviously we'll continue to provide those deck dashboards, kind of showing that 00:43:10.200 --> 00:43:11.200 net income. 00:43:11.200 --> 00:43:15.120 And definitely if you have any feedback on those as we go through the process, let us 00:43:15.120 --> 00:43:19.560 know and we'll continue to try to tailor those to get you all the information you need. 00:43:19.560 --> 00:43:23.120 And that's it for the presentation, but we can definitely stand for any more questions 00:43:23.120 --> 00:43:24.120 that you may have. 00:43:24.120 --> 00:43:25.120 Any questions? 00:43:25.120 --> 00:43:26.120 Okay. 00:43:26.120 --> 00:43:27.120 All right. 00:43:27.120 --> 00:43:28.120 Thank you. 00:43:28.120 --> 00:43:29.120 Thank you. 00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:35.480 Now we'll go into a closed session, deliberations regarding certain public power utilities, 00:43:35.480 --> 00:43:43.320 competitive matters under the Texas Government Code Section 551.086, consultation with attorneys 00:43:43.320 --> 00:43:47.440 under Texas Government Code Section 551.071. 00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:51.120 Do I need to read this whole? 00:43:51.120 --> 00:43:52.720 Okay. 00:43:52.720 --> 00:43:58.200 It's about 10.35 and we'll reconvene the regular meeting of the Public Utility Board. 00:43:58.200 --> 00:44:01.000 The next item is the consent agenda. 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:05.680 Does any board members wish to pull one of the three items? 00:44:05.680 --> 00:44:07.320 Wow. 00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:09.160 Wow. 00:44:09.160 --> 00:44:13.480 Do we have a motion to approve? 00:44:13.480 --> 00:44:15.040 Move for approval. 00:44:15.040 --> 00:44:16.040 I second. 00:44:16.040 --> 00:44:17.440 All in favor say aye. 00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:18.440 Aye. 00:44:18.440 --> 00:44:19.440 Aye. 00:44:19.440 --> 00:44:20.440 Motion carries. 00:44:20.440 --> 00:44:26.560 Items for individual consideration, the approval of the minutes for November 11, 2019. 00:44:26.560 --> 00:44:28.960 Are there any changes or corrections? 00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:29.960 Yeah. 00:44:29.960 --> 00:44:36.880 When I read that, there's some spelling problems there and some sentences are truncated, they're 00:44:36.880 --> 00:44:44.040 not complete sentences, so I think we should run a spell checker and a grammar checker 00:44:44.040 --> 00:44:47.400 on the minutes before we sign off on them. 00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:52.280 I also noticed that Chair Parker thanked the veterans for their work session. 00:44:52.280 --> 00:44:53.280 I did, huh? 00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:56.280 That was very nice of you. 00:44:56.280 --> 00:45:00.040 Well, I think the veterans, I think, but not for the... 00:45:00.040 --> 00:45:01.040 Oh. 00:45:01.040 --> 00:45:02.040 Yeah, I see that. 00:45:02.040 --> 00:45:07.000 I'm grateful for the work session as well. 00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:08.960 So, can you take care of that, Kim? 00:45:08.960 --> 00:45:15.160 Thank you. 00:45:15.160 --> 00:45:20.560 So note in those changes, would approve after. 00:45:20.560 --> 00:45:21.560 Okay. 00:45:21.560 --> 00:45:27.200 Oh, then we're onto future agenda items. 00:45:27.200 --> 00:45:28.200 Yes. 00:45:28.200 --> 00:45:29.200 Thank you. 00:45:29.200 --> 00:45:30.640 Good morning, members of the board. 00:45:30.640 --> 00:45:32.960 A couple of things to note. 00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:38.440 In your future agenda items, you'll be seeing in January a report and maybe an impossible 00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:46.320 action on an emergency declaration that was issued to do some repairs at the old Alton 00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:47.320 lift station. 00:45:47.320 --> 00:45:51.720 We'd had an overflow, and so staff's been working through that for the last couple of 00:45:51.720 --> 00:45:56.200 weeks, and so we're in the process of getting those repaired, and then we'll have a report 00:45:56.200 --> 00:46:00.000 to you all about what all expenses occurred on that. 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.880 And outside of that, as we close the end of the calendar year, just on behalf of staff, 00:46:04.880 --> 00:46:06.720 I'd like to thank the board for your service. 00:46:06.720 --> 00:46:12.160 Thank you for your interest in not only, certainly the questions that you all ask, but also just 00:46:12.160 --> 00:46:15.600 pure interest in our facilities and assets that we have. 00:46:15.600 --> 00:46:20.080 It's tremendous being in a community like this where we have electric, water, wastewater, 00:46:20.080 --> 00:46:21.080 solid waste. 00:46:21.080 --> 00:46:25.120 And I know you all have toured the energy center, I believe last week or a few of you 00:46:25.120 --> 00:46:26.120 did. 00:46:26.120 --> 00:46:32.920 And our solid waste facility and other utilities, and I believe you'll be touring our recycling 00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:34.360 facility here in January. 00:46:34.360 --> 00:46:38.040 So again, thank you, thank you for your service, and look forward to working with you all in 00:46:38.040 --> 00:46:39.040 2020. 00:46:39.040 --> 00:46:40.040 Have a great year. 00:46:40.040 --> 00:46:41.040 Have a great holiday. 00:46:41.040 --> 00:46:42.040 That was a great tour. 00:46:42.040 --> 00:46:43.040 Yes. 00:46:43.040 --> 00:46:44.040 Thanks for that. 00:46:44.040 --> 00:46:47.040 I appreciate you being able to see that. 00:46:47.040 --> 00:46:54.040 I had a question, speaking of future agenda items, is the green tree water situation going 00:46:54.040 --> 00:47:01.500 to be, is that something that we will have any advisory powers over? 00:47:01.500 --> 00:47:04.560 Well, actually, yes. 00:47:04.560 --> 00:47:12.600 We will actually be briefing the council tomorrow on kind of the status of that event and situation. 00:47:12.600 --> 00:47:18.320 We can certainly provide an informal staff report to the board on Friday, this coming 00:47:18.320 --> 00:47:22.480 Friday, because we would like to get some direction from council. 00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:28.520 And if you would all like, we can certainly bring further information to a future board 00:47:28.520 --> 00:47:31.720 meeting if you so wish, based on the information that we provide to you. 00:47:31.720 --> 00:47:36.120 And if you want a work session, we'd be happy to provide that for you as well. 00:47:36.120 --> 00:47:37.120 Yeah. 00:47:37.120 --> 00:47:38.120 I appreciate that. 00:47:38.120 --> 00:47:39.120 Thank you. 00:47:39.120 --> 00:47:40.120 Oh, go ahead. 00:47:40.120 --> 00:47:43.680 On a new business thing, just kind of a comment. 00:47:43.680 --> 00:47:51.520 We get asked to approve replacement of equipment, different pieces of equipment periodically. 00:47:51.520 --> 00:47:58.960 And I know that sometimes in the past when I ask, well, what is -- we get told the reason 00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:05.040 we need to replace this is because there's very high maintenance, it's very costly, it's 00:48:05.040 --> 00:48:06.040 excessive, whatever. 00:48:06.040 --> 00:48:14.480 There's a lot of adverbs used prior to the adjectives to describe how bad something is. 00:48:14.480 --> 00:48:20.980 When it comes to cost, I think it would be better to be objective in this and be able 00:48:20.980 --> 00:48:31.960 to state what the actual cost is, what the historical record was for spending money to 00:48:31.960 --> 00:48:36.760 repair a certain piece of equipment compared to other pieces of equipment, that kind of 00:48:36.760 --> 00:48:38.960 thing. 00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:45.000 Rather than just say it's high cost, excessive cost, poor maintenance, yeah. 00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:52.960 I think it would help us understand more objectively just how bad it is. 00:48:52.960 --> 00:48:58.160 I understand that everybody wants to have -- we all like to drive new cars. 00:48:58.160 --> 00:49:01.600 We all like to have new stuff. 00:49:01.600 --> 00:49:10.080 But I would hope that we can make this whole process a little more objective in identifying 00:49:10.080 --> 00:49:15.260 what the dollar cost is for these things and how that's changed over time. 00:49:15.260 --> 00:49:21.120 So that's just a comment. 00:49:21.120 --> 00:49:22.120 And we have all that information. 00:49:22.120 --> 00:49:28.800 We can certainly include that in the agenda information sheet as well. 00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:30.720 Concluding items, any other items? 00:49:30.720 --> 00:49:36.680 I'd like to formally thank the Denton Energy Center for hosting us on the tour. 00:49:36.680 --> 00:49:38.200 It was very enlightening. 00:49:38.200 --> 00:49:45.800 It's a great asset for the taxpayers of the City of Denton, as we have seen. 00:49:45.800 --> 00:49:49.800 And it's -- I think -- I don't know what the appropriate forum would be to do this or how 00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:58.860 to do it, but I think the City could justifiably crow a little bit about the beneficial effect 00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:04.600 that the Denton Energy Center has had for the ratepayers in Denton and the taxpayers 00:50:04.600 --> 00:50:13.160 in Denton, due to four days in August, four hot days in August, changed the whole budget 00:50:13.160 --> 00:50:16.200 complexion here. 00:50:16.200 --> 00:50:17.360 It's an important thing. 00:50:17.360 --> 00:50:19.720 People are going to continue to move into North Texas. 00:50:19.720 --> 00:50:22.840 Last time I looked, I see it all the time. 00:50:22.840 --> 00:50:29.800 They're going to continue to want to be cool when the August afternoon is 100 degrees. 00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:37.600 And because the City of Denton has the ability to generate power during those high peak times, 00:50:37.600 --> 00:50:41.160 that's an important asset for the City. 00:50:41.160 --> 00:50:44.440 Yes, it is. 00:50:44.440 --> 00:50:45.440 Any other items? 00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:46.440 All right. 00:50:46.440 --> 00:50:48.840 Do we have a motion to adjourn? 00:50:48.840 --> 00:50:50.840 So so moved. 00:50:50.840 --> 00:50:51.840 All right. 00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:52.840 Second. 00:50:52.840 --> 00:50:53.340 We're adjourned.