1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,240
 Okay, it's about 9.07 and it's time to call the Public Utilities Board of May 11th, 2020

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:08,240
 to order.

3
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:09,400
 We do have a quorum.

4
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:14,960
 I want to remind everybody to mute your microphones and just raise your hand if you want to be

5
00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,200
 heard and I'll call on you then.

6
00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,800
 The first item on the agenda is our consent agenda.

7
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:27,280
 Does any board member wish to pull any of the items A through G?

8
00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,160
 Okay, Ed?

9
00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:37,840
 Yeah, I'd like to pull C as in cantaloupe.

10
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:38,840
 And Billy?

11
00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:43,480
 I'd like to pull A as an antelope.

12
00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:52,680
 And Karen?

13
00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:57,640
 I'd like to pull B as in boy.

14
00:00:57,640 --> 00:00:59,020
 Anyone else?

15
00:00:59,020 --> 00:01:01,360
 All right.

16
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:02,360
 So item A.

17
00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:10,400
 Are we going to approve the other ones first or?

18
00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:11,840
 Oh, that's a good idea.

19
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,360
 Gee, we're a little out of sync today, aren't we?

20
00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:16,360
 Okay.

21
00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:21,200
 So do I have a motion to approve item D, E, S, and G?

22
00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:22,940
 So moved.

23
00:01:22,940 --> 00:01:23,940
 Second.

24
00:01:23,940 --> 00:01:25,680
 All in favor say aye.

25
00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:26,680
 Aye.

26
00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:38,480
 Item A is the rejection of bids to add bays to the fleet services.

27
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:44,160
 There's really not a lot of explanation that everything just come in over budget.

28
00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:49,680
 We have Cassie Ogden on the line, our procurement director, but I can give you a quick background.

29
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:55,880
 As part of the budget reductions that the city was looking at over the last few weeks,

30
00:01:55,880 --> 00:02:01,640
 those were one of the items that we looked at is to stop construction on some projects

31
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:02,840
 and facilities at this point.

32
00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:08,240
 It doesn't mean that that project can't come forward in the near future, but those were

33
00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:14,320
 part of our what we call tier one cuts for the upcoming future for the city operations.

34
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:16,320
 That's the only reason.

35
00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:17,320
 Okay.

36
00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:18,320
 That's great.

37
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,960
 I appreciate you guys being responsible with the budget.

38
00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:26,440
 I think the public needs to know that for sure.

39
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:27,440
 Correct.

40
00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:28,440
 Thank you.

41
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:29,440
 Thank you.

42
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:30,440
 That's all.

43
00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:33,840
 Do we have a motion to approve item A?

44
00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:35,480
 I'll move approval.

45
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,880
 I'll second.

46
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,200
 All in favor say aye.

47
00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:40,200
 Aye.

48
00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:41,200
 Aye.

49
00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:42,200
 Okay.

50
00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:52,820
 Okay, and Russ did, okay, all right, my motion carries.

51
00:02:52,820 --> 00:02:53,820
 All right.

52
00:02:53,820 --> 00:03:02,520
 Item B. I think that was you, Karen.

53
00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:03,520
 Oh yeah.

54
00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:04,520
 Sorry.

55
00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:11,560
 Same question as Billy, I understood the rejecting certain budget items, you know, during this

56
00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:12,560
 time.

57
00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:21,400
 Could I, stupid question as usual, do we have a handle on the total shortfall, predicted

58
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:26,880
 shortfall for this fiscal year?

59
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:34,580
 At this, specifically to solid waste or utilities in general, we are working with our, I'm sorry,

60
00:03:34,580 --> 00:03:39,000
 we are working with our, with David Gaines, our finance director, he's in the room here

61
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,440
 with me if you have some specifics, but we're working towards creating those forecasts.

62
00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:50,600
 It's still too early because of all the issues that occurred starting in mid-March.

63
00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:56,200
 So everything happened so rapidly with businesses closing and universities closing, et cetera.

64
00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,800
 And so while we're forecasting, we're still kind of playing a wait and see mentality until

65
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:06,280
 we get at least another four to six more weeks under our belt so we can try to understand

66
00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,840
 what the full impact is of the last two months or so.

67
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:17,520
 I was curious about our target numbers for cuts or whatever savings, I guess I should

68
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:18,520
 say.

69
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,960
 Sure, let me refer that to David Gaines, our director of finance, if you'll give him in

70
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:25,480
 just a few moments, he'll be on the call.

71
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,720
 Chairman Parker, before he starts, one thing I'd ask that you do when you take the vote

72
00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:37,200
 is to ask each individual member, their vote, since this is the only recording we have of

73
00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:38,200
 the vote.

74
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:39,200
 Yeah, I'll do that.

75
00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:51,200
 Thank you.

76
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:56,120
 David Gaines, director of finance, we took a forecast update to city council last month

77
00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,880
 where we touched largely on the general fund but also on each of the utility funds with

78
00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:07,680
 some very high level assumptions for revenue losses and then also what we've done so far

79
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,400
 with expenditure reductions and are kind of what we've phrased our tier one strategy.

80
00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:18,440
 So I can talk about a very high level of what that entailed and also what those revenue

81
00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:19,440
 losses were.

82
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:28,240
 We looked at a solid waste fund specifically about $800,000 revenue impact right now really

83
00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:35,260
 related to commercial revenues and revenues that we're anticipating to lose based on our

84
00:05:35,260 --> 00:05:39,800
 collections practices with deferring late fees and shutoffs.

85
00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:45,600
 So we had those with each of the utility funds of what we're anticipating and we've done

86
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:50,400
 the same tiered strategy of reductions with the utility funds that we looked at in the

87
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:56,520
 general fund as well and those were position freezes, merit increase, cessation of merit

88
00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:03,600
 increases, some one time expenditure reductions, things such as the fleet expansion that we

89
00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:09,000
 touched on with capital projects, reallocations and then we also have offered the voluntary

90
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,440
 separation program which was detailed with council which is currently ongoing.

91
00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:18,200
 That's open to all employees not just general fund out to all the utilities.

92
00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,800
 So those are the actions that we've taken thus far.

93
00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:30,680
 The revenue impact there is definitely preliminary and we're rapidly as we go forward.

94
00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:31,680
 Okay.

95
00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:32,680
 Thanks David.

96
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:36,520
 I was just wondering if things had changed since the report to council.

97
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:37,520
 Nothing.

98
00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:38,520
 Nothing yet.

99
00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:40,360
 We're still trying to monitor it.

100
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:41,360
 All right.

101
00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:42,360
 Thank you.

102
00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:45,480
 I'm fine with B. Okay.

103
00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:47,080
 Is it that your motion to approve?

104
00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:48,080
 Sure.

105
00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:49,080
 Yeah.

106
00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:50,080
 Motion to approve.

107
00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:51,080
 Do we have a second?

108
00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:52,080
 Second.

109
00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,080
 Was that Charlie?

110
00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:54,080
 Charlie says second.

111
00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:55,080
 And aye.

112
00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:56,080
 And aye.

113
00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:57,080
 Okay.

114
00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:58,080
 Ed?

115
00:06:58,080 --> 00:06:59,080
 Yes.

116
00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:00,080
 Billy?

117
00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:06,840
 Please click open Zoom meetings to save your system.

118
00:07:06,840 --> 00:07:08,720
 See the system dialogue.

119
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,520
 If nothing prompts from your browser, click here to launch the meeting.

120
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:14,960
 Russ?

121
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:15,960
 Yes.

122
00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:16,960
 Charlie?

123
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:17,960
 Yes.

124
00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,960
 And I'm a yes.

125
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:23,960
 All right.

126
00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:26,560
 The next item is C, cantaloupe.

127
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:27,560
 Ed?

128
00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:28,560
 Yeah.

129
00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:36,480
 If my memory serves me, as I recall, getting this survey done was contingent on getting

130
00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:41,520
 a grant from the North Texas Council of Government.

131
00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,880
 And I wondered what the status of the grant was.

132
00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:52,960
 If the grant was denied, then that is causing the cancellation of this bid, or little about

133
00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:54,960
 the background on this.

134
00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:55,960
 Sure.

135
00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,560
 I believe Brown-Burner, Director of Solid Waste, and then Alon, I believe he can answer

136
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:04,600
 some of those questions, Mr. So.

137
00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:09,400
 I think he is.

138
00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:12,880
 Miss Bryan, can you hear me?

139
00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:13,880
 We can.

140
00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:14,880
 Yes.

141
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:15,880
 Okay.

142
00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:16,880
 Very good.

143
00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:17,880
 Thank you very much.

144
00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:20,720
 Mr. So, you are correct that we did submit a grant application to the North Central

145
00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,560
 Texas Council of Governments to help fund this.

146
00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:28,000
 However, the completion of this was not contingent upon successfully getting the grant.

147
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,480
 It was the direction of the council that, you know, had we not been successful, that

148
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,120
 this was important enough for us to move forward.

149
00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:43,760
 However, in light of the COVID revenue reductions, at least at this time, we are taking forward

150
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,120
 this recommendation to reject this bid.

151
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,120
 And once we get a little more comfortable with where our revenues are, hopefully very,

152
00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:57,480
 you know, 90, 120 days down the road, we can reopen this bid and start this process again.

153
00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:04,520
 But right now, just, you know, in the -- where we find ourselves, it's a prudent thing to

154
00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:09,920
 do to at least defer this for a few months until we know where the funding is going to

155
00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:13,840
 be coming from.

156
00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:14,840
 Thank you.

157
00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:20,160
 Can you clarify, was the grant awarded or denied?

158
00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:21,440
 Or did you even submit it?

159
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,880
 No, it was denied.

160
00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,920
 We did submit it, and it was denied.

161
00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:28,920
 Not so much it was denied.

162
00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,080
 It fell below the funding -- the funding level.

163
00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:37,440
 There was like close to $4 million worth of applications that were submitted and only

164
00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,880
 about $1.2 million worth of grant funds available.

165
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,800
 So was there any -- We fell below the line.

166
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:49,360
 So there was no priority given to these grant applications?

167
00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:54,160
 It was simply the financial consideration?

168
00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:55,160
 That is correct.

169
00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:56,160
 Okay.

170
00:09:56,160 --> 00:10:01,160
 Thank you very much.

171
00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:02,160
 You're welcome.

172
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:03,320
 And I have one more question.

173
00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:08,480
 I assume that there's no target date at this point because of the state of affairs as to

174
00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:13,280
 when this will be re-solicited.

175
00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:14,280
 That is correct.

176
00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,920
 I mean, we're working close with finance, and once we get comfortable with where not

177
00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:25,520
 only our revenues are, but the total financial outlook, we will be putting together a plan

178
00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:27,040
 to take this back out on the street.

179
00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:33,520
 But as Mr. Gaines had previously noted, it's still just a little too early to really understand

180
00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,400
 where we are from a financial standpoint.

181
00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:37,400
 I see.

182
00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:39,400
 Thank you very much.

183
00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:40,400
 You're welcome.

184
00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:43,840
 And do we have a motion to approve then?

185
00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:45,560
 I move.

186
00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:48,200
 And a second?

187
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:49,480
 Second.

188
00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:50,720
 Okay.

189
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,720
 And to a vote, I'll vote yes.

190
00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,120
 Ed, we'll start with you.

191
00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:58,120
 Yes.

192
00:10:58,120 --> 00:10:59,120
 Billy?

193
00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:00,120
 Aye.

194
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:01,120
 Yes.

195
00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:02,120
 Karen?

196
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:03,120
 Yes.

197
00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:04,120
 Russ?

198
00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:05,120
 Yes.

199
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:06,120
 Charlie?

200
00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:07,120
 Yes.

201
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:08,120
 And Barbara?

202
00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:19,400
 Could you say that again, Barbara?

203
00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:20,400
 I said I'm sorry.

204
00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:22,240
 I am still dealing with problems.

205
00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:23,920
 I did not hear any of the discussion.

206
00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:24,920
 I will abstain.

207
00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:25,920
 Okay.

208
00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:26,920
 Okay.

209
00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:28,360
 All right.

210
00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:35,960
 So the next item is consider approval of the minutes of March 9th, 2020.

211
00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,440
 That was a long time ago.

212
00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,640
 Do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

213
00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:41,640
 I move.

214
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:42,640
 We approve.

215
00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:43,640
 Second.

216
00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:46,480
 This is Russ.

217
00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:47,640
 And Karen seconded.

218
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:48,640
 Okay.

219
00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:50,880
 Well, we'll start with Ed.

220
00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:51,880
 Yes.

221
00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:52,880
 Approve.

222
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:53,880
 Yes.

223
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:54,880
 Yes.

224
00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:55,880
 Billy?

225
00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:56,880
 Yes.

226
00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:57,880
 Karen?

227
00:11:57,880 --> 00:11:58,880
 Yes.

228
00:11:58,880 --> 00:11:59,880
 Russ?

229
00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:00,880
 Yes.

230
00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:01,880
 Charlie?

231
00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:02,880
 Yes.

232
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:07,320
 And Barbara, I'm assuming you still can't hear.

233
00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:08,320
 Okay.

234
00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,320
 All right.

235
00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:15,800
 Then on to management reports.

236
00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:20,200
 Good morning, members of the PB, Mario Canazares, deputy city manager.

237
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:25,120
 We have a few items here that we would like to review with you or at least just make it

238
00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:26,120
 available for you.

239
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:31,760
 We've got folks on the line that can answer specific questions, but because of the fact

240
00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:38,680
 that with COVID and the pandemic, along with the various emergency declarations that were

241
00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:43,360
 issued by the mayor and city council, we had a number of procurement items that normally

242
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:50,080
 would have gone to the public utilities board and other committees across the organization.

243
00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:54,920
 But as a result of the fact that we were no longer doing meetings for the remainder of

244
00:12:54,920 --> 00:13:00,640
 March and all of April, and some of these items required council approval, we went ahead

245
00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,360
 and proceeded with those items before the city council.

246
00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,400
 You should have a list in front of you.

247
00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,800
 And if you have any questions, believe Cassie Ogden, our director of procurement, is on

248
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:20,000
 the line to be able to answer any specifics you may have about those items.

249
00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,760
 Do any members have a question on one of the items?

250
00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:24,760
 Just raise your hand.

251
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:25,760
 Yes.

252
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:26,760
 Yes.

253
00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:27,760
 Okay.

254
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:28,760
 Russ?

255
00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:29,760
 I have one, too.

256
00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,380
 I have a question about the deck outage insurance.

257
00:13:33,380 --> 00:13:38,200
 Could you explain exactly what that covers?

258
00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:43,280
 Good someone?

259
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:44,280
 Good morning.

260
00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:45,280
 This is Cassie Ogden.

261
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:46,280
 Can you hear me?

262
00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:47,280
 Yes.

263
00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:56,440
 The deck outage insurance, and I can defer to Tony or Terry for more specifics, but it

264
00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:03,640
 basically allows us to have insurance in case we are we have an outage at the deck that

265
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,440
 we were unable to operate during the summer.

266
00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:12,720
 So it's some insurance to make sure that if we lose revenue that it was a policy to cover

267
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,440
 our lost revenue.

268
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,400
 So it's basically a business interruption insurance for the deck?

269
00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:20,400
 Okay.

270
00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:22,400
 That's very similar.

271
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:23,400
 Okay.

272
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,520
 Does that answer it?

273
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:26,520
 Yes.

274
00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:27,520
 It does.

275
00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:28,520
 Okay.

276
00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:29,520
 Okay.

277
00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:31,880
 Oh, I muted myself.

278
00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,640
 Any other board members have a question?

279
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:36,880
 All right.

280
00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:38,040
 Okay.

281
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:45,720
 And so in item number two, under management reports, as we've been providing to PUB here

282
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:52,680
 recently, we've got the Energy Center dashboard that just shows the performance for the last

283
00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:53,760
 quarter.

284
00:14:53,760 --> 00:15:00,200
 And so I believe David Gaines is here if you have any specifics, and Mr. Puente is on the

285
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,940
 phone as well.

286
00:15:03,940 --> 00:15:07,680
 Does a board member have a specific question on this item?

287
00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:08,680
 Yes.

288
00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:09,680
 Russ.

289
00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:10,680
 Yeah.

290
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:16,440
 The title of the spreadsheet I see there says January 2020, but I think you just told us

291
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:17,920
 it was for the first quarter.

292
00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:20,920
 Is that right?

293
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:31,520
 This is the first fiscal quarter.

294
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:37,960
 Mr. Bradford, our fiscal year begins October 1st through September 30th.

295
00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:42,600
 So the first quarter of the fiscal year would be October 1st through December 31st.

296
00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:45,600
 That's why you have it.

297
00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:48,600
 All right.

298
00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:50,480
 Okay.

299
00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:56,720
 Just to clarify on that, when it says January 2020, it means the quarter ending December

300
00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:01,520
 31st?

301
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:02,520
 That's an affirmative.

302
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:03,520
 Okay.

303
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,520
 Thank you.

304
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,520
 Mr. Stolf.

305
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:09,520
 Yeah.

306
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:16,640
 I don't know if this is a printer problem, but the last under plant monthly run hour

307
00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:26,820
 comparison, the last column for January 2020, is that green in color as opposed to blue

308
00:16:26,820 --> 00:16:27,820
 for the others?

309
00:16:27,820 --> 00:16:31,280
 And if so, why is it green?

310
00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:32,280
 This is Tony.

311
00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:35,840
 That's just to designate that that's the current month.

312
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:36,840
 Okay.

313
00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:37,840
 All right.

314
00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,440
 Thank you.

315
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,080
 Mr. Parker, let me make a correction.

316
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:50,080
 I was corrected by our finance director, the DEC dashboard year to date, January 2020,

317
00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,560
 is for the actual month of January, not the previous quarter.

318
00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:59,280
 My apologies.

319
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:00,280
 Any other questions?

320
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:01,280
 All right.

321
00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,280
 Then future agenda items.

322
00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:14,080
 Let me toggle to that screen, give me just a moment.

323
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:27,680
 I'm doing the same thing.

324
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:37,220
 Okay.

325
00:17:37,220 --> 00:17:44,040
 You should have at your next meeting in June, excuse me, in June, a water loss audit work

326
00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:45,040
 session.

327
00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:49,520
 So that'll be presented by one of our members of the water department to be able to present

328
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:55,200
 to you their analysis on any water loss that's happened within our system within the city

329
00:17:55,200 --> 00:18:04,000
 and also to you, while it's not listed, we'll be rolling into the budget season.

330
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:10,500
 So you'll start seeing a lot of these slots filled with budget presentations and discussions.

331
00:18:10,500 --> 00:18:16,520
 So we're having to accommodate based on that since we typically would meet normally twice

332
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,820
 a month and right now we're with the PUV and right now we're at this point doing once a

333
00:18:20,820 --> 00:18:28,440
 month meeting, so we're having to just adjust schedules accordingly until we get more in

334
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:30,400
 a routine.

335
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:32,600
 All right.

336
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,280
 And then onto new business action items.

337
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:36,280
 Oh, I'm sorry, Billy.

338
00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:40,280
 I have a follow-up question for Mario.

339
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:41,280
 Sure.

340
00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:46,440
 I've been thinking about BUVs here for the past few weeks and usually we're getting started

341
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:47,440
 already.

342
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:51,160
 It'd surely be nice to see some preliminary stuff and I know you'd hate to put it out

343
00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:57,320
 there, especially right now, because you don't know what your budget's going to be probably.

344
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:04,720
 But do you know when our first meeting, we'll have some information to review will be?

345
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:10,020
 I would imagine probably we'll have to start in June with those discussions.

346
00:19:10,020 --> 00:19:18,360
 So we'll start probably seeing some forecast and also trending from the past as well.

347
00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:24,120
 Well, okay, appreciate it.

348
00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:27,880
 Thank you.

349
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:28,880
 All right then.

350
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:30,600
 Onto new business action items.

351
00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,720
 Any discussion on that?

352
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:38,640
 All right, so then concluding items.

353
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:44,160
 Does any board member wish to have something added to a future agenda or have anything

354
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:48,320
 that they'd like to share now?

355
00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:52,320
 Doesn't look like it.

356
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:53,320
 Okay.

357
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:54,840
 Onto our work session items.

358
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:59,880
 The first work session is to receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction

359
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:18,520
 regarding emergency credit and collections measures and reopening strategy.

360
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:23,900
 Madam Chair, board members, Krista Foster, utility customer services manager.

361
00:20:23,900 --> 00:20:33,280
 This morning I'm here to be able to give you guys a bit of an update on an update on where

362
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:39,360
 we are with some of the credit and collections activities and statuses since the pandemic.

363
00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:43,460
 We're going to start with just a quick overview.

364
00:20:43,460 --> 00:20:46,960
 We're going to look at all active accounts that carry past due balances, look at the

365
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:51,720
 current state and what our reopening strategy that we're proposing is.

366
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,640
 Then we're going to look at other collections activities, again reviewing the current state

367
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,040
 and a proposed reopening plan.

368
00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:01,480
 We're going to look at the customer service recommendations for how we would like to move

369
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:07,160
 forward and then a quick update on some of the other collection activities.

370
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:13,220
 So in response to the pandemic, we did suspend all collection activities on active accounts.

371
00:21:13,220 --> 00:21:18,600
 We did not charge any late fees or interest since the 1st of March and we stopped all

372
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:22,040
 service interruptions effective March 13th.

373
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,120
 We also suspended any collection activities that we take on closed accounts.

374
00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:31,720
 This includes any calls or letters letting folks know that their final balances are past

375
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:36,560
 due and we've made no referrals to any outside collection agency.

376
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:42,440
 We have, however, made sure that all customers who have contacted customer service have access

377
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:46,240
 to basic utilities throughout the pandemic.

378
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:50,680
 So we've exhibited a lot of extra flexibility in working with customers to ensure that they

379
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,280
 have access to the utilities that they need.

380
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:59,600
 In addition to that, the city has created some partnerships with United Way.

381
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:04,640
 One of those things is for creation of a navigation line where residents and businesses can call

382
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:06,160
 for help.

383
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,820
 They can have someone who answers the phone or gives them a call back that can answer

384
00:22:09,820 --> 00:22:15,320
 basic questions or get them referral to subject matter experts in the community who are volunteering

385
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:20,320
 their time and expertise to help navigate some of the challenges with the CARES Act

386
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:24,840
 and resources that businesses specifically may need access to.

387
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:30,600
 We have also provided $100,000 in emergency funding that has gone to the United Way.

388
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:34,800
 There is still $48,000 of that assistance available.

389
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:39,920
 We have been able to assist 86 families with either housing or utility assistance.

390
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:46,840
 We added an additional $50,000 to our relief through interfaith ministries that is dogged

391
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:49,080
 for the emergency.

392
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:56,240
 We have given a total of $185,000 for this current year to interfaith ministries.

393
00:22:56,240 --> 00:23:01,360
 Just since March, we have been able to assist an additional 68 families, and there is still

394
00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:09,000
 $112,000 in available assistance funds for residents in Denton.

395
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:13,200
 Part of the reason that we're here to talk about this today is that as state and city

396
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:19,440
 charter prohibit debt forgiveness by a municipal utility, if we don't do something soon, as

397
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:24,160
 balances are continuing to grow for our residents and businesses, we are going to put them in

398
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:29,800
 a very bad situation in terms of recovery after the fact.

399
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:34,800
 So as we look at the delinquent accounts, this is looking only at active accounts that

400
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:37,740
 currently carry a past due balance.

401
00:23:37,740 --> 00:23:46,080
 We currently have, as of Friday morning, 2,660 postpaid accounts that are eligible for interruption.

402
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:52,640
 That is roughly 4.5% of all active accounts, where normally our interruptions run at about

403
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,520
 1.2% of average accounts.

404
00:23:55,520 --> 00:24:02,260
 We currently have $921,000 in past due balances, and for all of those accounts that carry a

405
00:24:02,260 --> 00:24:08,580
 past due balance, between the past due and current balance, that increases to $1.5 million

406
00:24:08,580 --> 00:24:12,880
 in outstanding debt for those customers who have a past due balance.

407
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:20,080
 We have 29 residential and multifamily accounts that currently have charges of over $1,000

408
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,600
 that will become due.

409
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:27,000
 We have 175 accounts that have made no payments in over 90 days.

410
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,400
 So this would include balances that would have made them subject to interruption prior

411
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:33,440
 to the start of the pandemic.

412
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:39,600
 We have an additional 215 past due accounts that have never made a payment on their accounts

413
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,640
 since it was opened.

414
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:42,640
 You can see...

415
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:43,640
 Yes, sir.

416
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:51,560
 Yeah, I just, sort of a silly question, but is interruption a euphemism for having their

417
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,040
 power shut off?

418
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:54,400
 Yes, sir.

419
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,520
 Okay, thank you.

420
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:03,000
 As you can see with the chart, you can see the month over month amount that we would

421
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:11,840
 normally cut services for throughout any month, and we've now gone from $76,000 in February,

422
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:19,920
 and we had interrupted services for, to currently $921,000 in outstanding balances.

423
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:26,340
 In addition to the postpaid active accounts, we also have prepaid customers.

424
00:25:26,340 --> 00:25:31,840
 Right now we have 160 prepaid accounts that are eligible for interruption, and that is

425
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:36,720
 28.5% of all of our prepaid accounts are currently behind.

426
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:41,920
 That is $22,000 in outstanding monies that are due that have them in the negative.

427
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:48,200
 And we do have 41 accounts with over $200 due, and about 50% of those owe in excess

428
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,200
 of $300 to $350.

429
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:58,680
 And you can see, again, the interruption statistics in terms of the dollar balance for prepaid,

430
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:03,400
 and you can see that that is continuing to grow.

431
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:10,480
 Our 60-day plan for reinstating collections on active accounts is if it were to start

432
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:15,360
 June 1st, then what we would like to do is in the month of June, we'd like to provide

433
00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:18,180
 a message on all past due bills.

434
00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:22,300
 We normally send two courtesy calls prior to interruption, but in June we would like

435
00:26:22,300 --> 00:26:28,020
 to make those courtesy calls indicative that they have a past due balance, that if it's,

436
00:26:28,020 --> 00:26:31,820
 you know, showing as a past due balance on the July bill, they would be eligible for

437
00:26:31,820 --> 00:26:37,120
 interruption in July, that the customer should make a payment or call for arrangements, that

438
00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:42,400
 we will first offer pay-as-you-go to allow customers who have deposits to relieve part

439
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,400
 of their outstanding balance, and we can work with them on moving some of the remaining

440
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,560
 balances into debt recovery.

441
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,840
 If they would like to stay on a post-paid plan, that we will offer up to a six-month

442
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:57,200
 payment plan for them to get back on track and current.

443
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,160
 If they need greater than six months, then at that point we would require them to move

444
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:06,560
 to pay-as-you-go so that we can put those funds into debt recovery so that they're

445
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,680
 continually making small payments as they keep moving forward without building up additional

446
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:12,240
 balances.

447
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,720
 We will still encourage customers to contact interfaith ministries or United Way for assistance

448
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:21,360
 as there is a large amount of funding available currently, and during the month of June we

449
00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:25,400
 would do no interruptions and we would assess no fees or interest.

450
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,880
 I do think it's important that we all know that once an arrangement has been made on

451
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:35,680
 an account, they would not receive fees or interest for the balances that are on that

452
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:40,380
 agreement as long as that agreement is kept and current.

453
00:27:40,380 --> 00:27:44,800
 In the month of July, we would again continue encouraging customers to contact interfaith

454
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,300
 ministries or the United Way if they need assistance.

455
00:27:48,300 --> 00:27:52,320
 We would revert back to the standard bill message allowing them to know that their service

456
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,980
 will be eligible for interruption.

457
00:27:54,980 --> 00:28:00,240
 We would begin interruption of services for past due balances showing on the July bill

458
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,160
 where no arrangement has been made.

459
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:08,480
 However, since we have not done interruptions since the middle of March, if someone has

460
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:15,080
 not made contact and is interrupted, we will work more flexibly with them and allow them

461
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:20,480
 to create an arrangement rather than forcing payment of all past due balances which caused

462
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,000
 the interruption of service.

463
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:28,720
 Again, we would charge no fees or interest so that we give every customer full opportunity

464
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:33,840
 to get on some form of an agreement and get payments started before they ever are assessed

465
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,260
 fees again.

466
00:28:35,260 --> 00:28:39,840
 In the month of August, now we have gone through alerting customers through the month of June.

467
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,080
 We have done interruptions for balances in July.

468
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:46,760
 In August, we are again going to continue to have them contact interfaith and United

469
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:53,280
 Way, but we will begin following normal processes including fees and interest assessed on any

470
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:58,680
 new past due balances or interruptions of service.

471
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:05,120
 As for other account collections, for activity on closed accounts, as you can see, for accounts

472
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:10,520
 that had a final balance due in January, those accounts should have gone to the collections

473
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,840
 agency at the end of March.

474
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:13,840
 That did not happen.

475
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,900
 As you can see, the black dates will show the time ranges when each of these accounts

476
00:29:17,900 --> 00:29:21,520
 should have received either the automated call or the letter.

477
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:27,000
 The red indicates that that is a timeline that is passed or will be passed.

478
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,600
 And then you see the count of the accounts that were in question as well as the outstanding

479
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:32,640
 balance.

480
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:38,280
 For February 2020, accounts that had the final balance due in February, most of those customers

481
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:43,080
 did receive their automated call and their collection letter, but were not sent to collections

482
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,240
 on the 30th of April.

483
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:51,520
 And then for balances that were due in March, they have had no activity taken on them, and

484
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:57,880
 you can see the difference that makes in the number of accounts and the outstanding balances.

485
00:29:57,880 --> 00:29:59,840
 Collection activities on return payments.

486
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,200
 We have not done interruptions of service for returned payments.

487
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:10,720
 We currently have $32,000 in outstanding returned payments, and 22,000 of that is for commercial

488
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,600
 accounts.

489
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:19,920
 In regards to reopening, our 60-day plan would be, again, to mimic a lot of what we're doing

490
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:20,920
 with active accounts.

491
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:26,320
 So for return checks, in June, we would send the standard return check letter, but we would

492
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,840
 not interrupt until July.

493
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:34,560
 Once July hits, then any of those outstanding return checks, we would begin interruption

494
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,440
 for those balances.

495
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:42,160
 For collections on closed accounts, we're recommending that both January and February

496
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:47,520
 customers, that in the month of June, they would receive a second collection letter to

497
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:53,240
 remind them that the balance is outstanding, and then collections activity be taken on

498
00:30:53,240 --> 00:31:00,000
 the 31st of July for the people that had balances due in March and April.

499
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,980
 We would be doing an automated courtesy call in the month of June, and then the collection

500
00:31:04,980 --> 00:31:09,000
 letter would go in July, and then you can see the respective dates for sending those

501
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:17,300
 to collections with the May 2020 final balances working off of the normal process and timeline.

502
00:31:17,300 --> 00:31:23,040
 So our recommendation is to go with a phased reintroduction of collection activities, effective

503
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:28,540
 June 1st, that we would like to do courtesy contacts only through the month of June, that

504
00:31:28,540 --> 00:31:33,880
 interruptions and collection agency referrals would begin in July, that we would begin resuming

505
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:39,960
 late fees and interest in August, and August would be a full return to normal operation,

506
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,420
 that we would allow up to a six month pay agreement for postpaid accounts and utilization

507
00:31:44,420 --> 00:31:50,240
 of pay as you go, debt recovery for longer arrangements, obviously noting that if we

508
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,920
 had outstanding situations that we would handle those on a case by case basis.

509
00:31:54,920 --> 00:32:00,080
 I also, oh, go ahead.

510
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:06,280
 Okay, just, are there any backup plans, I mean, just looking at the news and looking

511
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:15,160
 at projections and the uncertainty about what's going to happen with this so-called phased

512
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:27,600
 reopening of the economy, what's, are there plans in place that if there are spikes in

513
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:34,960
 the virus, as some medical folks are saying is going to happen, will, I assume that there

514
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:42,580
 will be other plans that will have to be reinstituted, and if there are, are there any, can you

515
00:32:42,580 --> 00:32:51,000
 share any, what would you say, different plans that would have to be put in because of growing

516
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,720
 severity of the virus?

517
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,520
 Ed, this is Mario Canazares.

518
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:06,080
 Are you speaking in regards to just facility openings or just in regards to the payment

519
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:10,120
 and billing of utilities?

520
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:14,800
 Payment and billing, in other words, you know, greater stress on the population?

521
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:22,160
 Well, obviously, this is a very unprecedented situation, and we would be having to go back

522
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:28,120
 and regroup and look at what is the best approach to continue working with our customers.

523
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:34,880
 At this point, as some things have begun to reopen, our concern right now is for continued

524
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:41,180
 growing balances and placing customers in an unrecoverable situation financially.

525
00:33:41,180 --> 00:33:46,360
 And since we do have a large number of assistance funds available, then, you know, we're hoping

526
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,700
 that we can help to get them back on track in the event that something does change and

527
00:33:50,700 --> 00:33:56,080
 we have to regroup and maybe pull back some of the activities.

528
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,640
 Thank you.

529
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:07,960
 You probably have this, or already said this, what is the debt for commercial versus residential?

530
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:14,420
 I'm assuming a lot of restaurants were impacted quite heavily by this, and, you know, chances

531
00:34:14,420 --> 00:34:17,360
 are some of them may not come back.

532
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,520
 Can you cover that a little bit?

533
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:20,520
 Sure.

534
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,560
 Right now, let me pull this back up.

535
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:32,680
 Well, let me see if I've got that on my printed stuff, give me a moment.

536
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:38,600
 Right now, about 14% of the accounts that are scheduled for interruption are actually

537
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:46,920
 commercial, and the average commercial past due balance is $1,200.

538
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:58,520
 We have 301 out of that 2,600 that are commercial accounts.

539
00:34:58,520 --> 00:34:59,520
 Thank you.

540
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,040
 You're welcome.

541
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:06,460
 Before we get finished, I wanted to go ahead and make sure that I gave a follow-up on some

542
00:35:06,460 --> 00:35:11,720
 of the write-off performance, obviously with a six-month lag between when accounts final

543
00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:17,960
 and when they're written off, any of the impacts that we see because of the pandemic will not

544
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:24,560
 be seen until as early as even 2021, depending on exactly how flexible we have to be with

545
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,880
 the actions that we're taking internally.

546
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,000
 Debt growth, as you can see, has slowed.

547
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,680
 We are still monitoring it very closely.

548
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:38,360
 What I've seen is the trend in the growth of debt as that's starting to level out and

549
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:44,200
 drop a little bit from what we saw last year also follows the same type of trend that we're

550
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:48,920
 seeing in late fees and interruptions.

551
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:53,560
 It looks very early on as though pay-as-you-go, as those numbers of pay-as-you-go customers

552
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:58,000
 has increased, that appears to be one of the major influencers.

553
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:02,240
 It's still a little too early to draw a direct correlation, but that is something that we

554
00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:04,800
 are also watching and monitoring.

555
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:09,040
 We are going to still recommend that we continue all of our current deposit and collections

556
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:14,960
 processes without additional changes as we're working on stabilization of debt and that

557
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:20,260
 we're going to focus on growth of that pay-as-you-go program as a containment strategy, which helps

558
00:36:20,260 --> 00:36:26,440
 us to control unrecoverable debt and additionally helps to relieve customer financial burden

559
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:31,560
 with no additional fees.

560
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:36,480
 And finally, this is other accounts that are not utility related, but I wanted to make

561
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:37,480
 sure that…

562
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:38,480
 Go ahead.

563
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:39,480
 Karen Devaney has a question.

564
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,480
 Oh, I'm sorry, Karen.

565
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:43,840
 Hi, Krista.

566
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,760
 I just want to backtrack a little bit.

567
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:52,640
 You had mentioned that there's a charter rule, city charter, and I think some other…

568
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:53,640
 And state.

569
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:54,640
 Uh-huh.

570
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,560
 That prevented you from forgiving any debt.

571
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,040
 Could you give a little bit of history on that charter?

572
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,800
 Is that the most recent rewrite?

573
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:09,480
 I can give you guys some follow-up information related to the charters, both city and state,

574
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:17,640
 but it is in… even in Texas state charter that we would not be able to relieve debt.

575
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,760
 I think the city charter mimics what was already on the books for the state.

576
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:24,280
 And that's been a fairly long-term policy?

577
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:25,280
 Yes.

578
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:26,280
 Yes.

579
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:27,280
 Okay.

580
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:28,280
 Thank you.

581
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,280
 All right.

582
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:31,280
 Charlie Parker has a question.

583
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:32,280
 All right.

584
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:33,280
 I just have a comment.

585
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:38,760
 I'm very encouraged that the city is using discretion in its collections, but I do think

586
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,960
 that people's utility payments should come ahead of their car payment.

587
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,320
 They should come ahead of credit card bills.

588
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:51,040
 I think that people should prioritize making their utility payments right up there with

589
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,000
 their rent or their house payment.

590
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:59,880
 With that in mind, I think there are people who will be opportunistic in this situation

591
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:02,840
 and choose to make other payments.

592
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:07,880
 And there's a lot of people that will have liquidity events in the form of the stimulus

593
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,440
 payment and unemployment.

594
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:14,680
 And it just seems to me that we need to remember that we are a business.

595
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:21,280
 I don't think we should have punitive late fees, punitive interest rates, but I do think

596
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:26,720
 we need to hold people accountable for the utilities that they're using and make sure

597
00:38:26,720 --> 00:38:33,560
 that paying your utilities is very high up on your list of priorities right up there

598
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:38,560
 with your house payment.

599
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:40,840
 Thank you.

600
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:45,840
 The only thing that I have in terms of other departmental utilities or collections is that

601
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:50,560
 we are working with Fire EMS, we're working with municipal court to make sure that we

602
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:56,720
 can streamline our processes so that we're presenting a unified approach.

603
00:38:56,720 --> 00:39:01,720
 Fire EMS will end up following whatever utility customer service does in terms of their collections

604
00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:06,000
 guidelines while municipal court as they fall under the Office of Court Administration will

605
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:11,960
 be following the guidance of the Office of Court Administration and the city judge.

606
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,240
 And with that, are there additional questions?

607
00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:17,820
 Yes.

608
00:39:17,820 --> 00:39:27,080
 I just want to say that I really appreciate your efforts to accommodate people who perhaps

609
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:37,140
 are less fortunate than we are and because the scope of the disruption of people's lives,

610
00:39:37,140 --> 00:39:43,320
 service workers and all, as you know, is just incredible and the future is so uncertain

611
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:50,800
 for so many people who are dependent upon service jobs, et cetera, that I think that

612
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:59,200
 these people should not be punished and that's why I think it's wonderful that the EME has

613
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:04,600
 these policies in place where people are not unduly penalized for something that's completely

614
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,420
 out of their control.

615
00:40:06,420 --> 00:40:07,720
 So thank you very much.

616
00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:08,720
 You're welcome.

617
00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:14,320
 I think it's also important to note that with the additional funding that has gone to interfaith

618
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:22,240
 ministries, the pandemic-related responses that they get from the public, they have loosened

619
00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:29,320
 some of the income guidelines so that it can be used for true emergency relief for some

620
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,600
 of those families that may not otherwise qualify.

621
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,980
 So they have loosened some of those financial restrictions to be able to assist a greater

622
00:40:36,980 --> 00:40:44,700
 number of people who are suffering because of income loss during the pandemic.

623
00:40:44,700 --> 00:40:46,560
 Mr. Baffert.

624
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:54,000
 Yes, I just – I think it's a very sensible approach, what you've laid out here, and

625
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:59,080
 I think it's very lenient, actually, all things considered.

626
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:06,040
 One thing I noticed is, if I understood this right, on slide number five, you've got 215

627
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:11,240
 accounts that have never made any payments since the account was created.

628
00:41:11,240 --> 00:41:13,260
 Did I get that right?

629
00:41:13,260 --> 00:41:16,280
 That is correct.

630
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:23,400
 And so that group and anybody that had a delinquent account prior to, let's say, the middle of

631
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:31,120
 March when all this corona stuff started here anyway, I'm thinking they probably ought

632
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:36,600
 to be looked at as a – with a separate set of eyes compared to people whose delinquent

633
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:45,440
 accounts only began from about the middle of March and later.

634
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:47,520
 So anyway, that's my two cents.

635
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:48,880
 It's a good approach.

636
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:50,600
 I think it's very lenient.

637
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:55,600
 Thank you.

638
00:41:55,600 --> 00:42:01,200
 Thank you.

639
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:03,200
 Any other questions or comments?

640
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:04,200
 All right.

641
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:05,200
 Thank you.

642
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:06,200
 Oh, yes, Maureen.

643
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:17,720
 Madam Chair, let me ask Krista, is this information going to be presented to City Council tomorrow?

644
00:42:17,720 --> 00:42:23,320
 So this is an opportunity if the PUB as a body would like to provide that input.

645
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:26,760
 Is there consensus around the information presented?

646
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:32,160
 It would be good for staff to be able to get that input from the board that they can be

647
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:37,320
 conveyed to council based on your consensus of what you saw.

648
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:39,080
 I heard comments that's too lenient.

649
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:45,500
 I heard comments that look at accounts in a different manner based on when those accounts

650
00:42:45,500 --> 00:42:46,500
 became delinquent.

651
00:42:46,500 --> 00:42:52,240
 So it would be good to be able to get that input from the board as a body.

652
00:42:52,240 --> 00:42:57,360
 And so that way Krista can present that to the council when the information is presented

653
00:42:57,360 --> 00:42:58,360
 tomorrow.

654
00:42:58,360 --> 00:42:59,360
 Okay.

655
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:06,160
 Then I'll just ask each member to just say what they think.

656
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:07,880
 I think it's a fair plan.

657
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:17,000
 I know a lot of businesses are suffering quite a bit in adding penalties and interest on

658
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:18,680
 top of what's already happened.

659
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:24,360
 I do agree with Russ that I think we look at the people who were delinquent prior to

660
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:30,720
 this happening and the people who didn't even make a payment first.

661
00:43:30,720 --> 00:43:37,760
 Because as Mr. Parker said, some people will take this opportunity to not pay their utility

662
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
 bill, but there are a lot of people who are hurting too.

663
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,520
 So that's my take.

664
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:52,800
 Yes, well, I stand by my previous statement and I also stand by what Russ said regarding

665
00:43:52,800 --> 00:44:01,080
 people who got accounts and then never paid at the very beginning before this actually

666
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:03,920
 the virus actually really impacted us.

667
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:15,240
 So again, I am very pleased with the amount of consideration that DME has for people who've

668
00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:18,480
 been impacted by this.

669
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,080
 Billy.

670
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:26,280
 I agree with the statements before.

671
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:27,840
 I know it's very difficult.

672
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:34,040
 It's sort of like in comparison to we all or a lot of people got stimulus checks.

673
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:35,840
 Some didn't need it at all.

674
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,040
 Others couldn't survive without it.

675
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:41,120
 I think this collection runs into the same problem.

676
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:45,800
 It's hard to tell the difference between who really needs it and who's taking advantage.

677
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:52,560
 I don't admire your task, but I think your plan is a good one at this point.

678
00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:54,320
 Karen.

679
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:59,120
 Yeah, ditto.

680
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:05,440
 I'm admiring the flexibility you're providing within the constraints of state charter.

681
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:12,840
 I think probably DME is doing the most it can considering there's a hard and fast line

682
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:18,720
 against debt forgiveness or anything that might be construed as debt forgiveness.

683
00:45:18,720 --> 00:45:28,920
 So yeah, kudos on the flexibility and otherwise agreeing with previous statements.

684
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:35,320
 Russ, anything more to add?

685
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,840
 Yeah, just a thought.

686
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:45,720
 Perhaps you might want to share with the council the total dollar amount is delinquent that

687
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:51,320
 existed prior to the middle of March before this corona stuff happened.

688
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:53,160
 That would be one amount.

689
00:45:53,160 --> 00:46:00,680
 And then the amount of dollar amount, total dollar amount of delinquency that began after

690
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:02,760
 the middle of March.

691
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:09,440
 And that might be an enlightening thing for folks to understand.

692
00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:15,160
 But it's a very lenient, very considered approach.

693
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:17,480
 Good job.

694
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:28,240
 Thanks, Barbara, unmute, you need to unmute.

695
00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:33,920
 Down in the right hand corner, you should be able to unmute.

696
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:36,280
 Okay.

697
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:37,280
 Now you're unmuted.

698
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:38,280
 Now you're unmuted.

699
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:39,280
 Go ahead.

700
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:40,280
 Thank you.

701
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:46,560
 I actually appreciate the punishing of it that because if you've got a bill, adding

702
00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:52,840
 on to it is just not the right thing to do.

703
00:46:52,840 --> 00:47:02,320
 But do I understand that if you have a utility balance, you can't open another account that

704
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:10,960
 you have to pay past for the people that open an account and have never paid anything.

705
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:17,720
 If they had a previous account, did not they have to pay that before they could open another

706
00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:18,900
 one?

707
00:47:18,900 --> 00:47:24,520
 Under our normal processes, under regular operations, yes, we require the balances for

708
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:33,460
 outstanding accounts or at least 50% and an agreement depending on that case by case situation.

709
00:47:33,460 --> 00:47:38,000
 Currently we are working with customers on those situations because we do not want someone

710
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:44,040
 to not have access to utilities currently.

711
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,280
 Very thoughtful plan.

712
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,040
 Thank you.

713
00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:49,600
 Charlie?

714
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:59,720
 I'll just agree with Russ's comment that it looks like a very lenient plan and that we

715
00:47:59,720 --> 00:48:06,920
 do need to have people pay their bills that are owed for services they received.

716
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:12,040
 This can get out of hand in a very quick way and I would hate to see us punishing the rate

717
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:18,880
 payers that are paying on time with people who have taken advantage of the situation.

718
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:23,320
 That being said, there are very legitimate needs right now and I realize those needs

719
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:28,540
 need to be addressed with compassion.

720
00:48:28,540 --> 00:48:29,540
 Thank you.

721
00:48:29,540 --> 00:48:32,400
 Mario, do you have your consensus?

722
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:33,400
 Direction?

723
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:34,400
 Yes, ma'am.

724
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:35,400
 We do.

725
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:36,400
 Thank you very much.

726
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:37,400
 All right.

727
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:43,520
 The next item is to receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the following with

728
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:48,680
 respect to Green Tree Estates, the actions taken and expenditures by the city in accordance

729
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:54,120
 with the mayor's declaration of disaster ordinance, existing conditions, the extension of the

730
00:48:54,120 --> 00:49:00,040
 declaration of disaster, water infrastructure improvement options, and city council direction

731
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,200
 received on May 5th.

732
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:06,400
 Madam Chair, Mario, I'm going to be actually making the presentation, so I'm going to step

733
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:11,360
 away from this workstation and go to the presentation workstation, so just bear with me just a moment

734
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,360
 as I transition over.

735
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:21,360
 I'm going to go to the presentation workstation.

736
00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:58,200
 Madam Chair, members of the Board, Mario Kenazares, can you see the screen?

737
00:49:58,200 --> 00:49:59,200
 Yes.

738
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:00,200
 Oh.

739
00:50:00,200 --> 00:50:01,200
 No.

740
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:02,200
 Which one is it?

741
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:03,200
 That one.

742
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:18,200
 All right.

743
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:19,480
 Okay.

744
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:20,800
 I think we're back in business again.

745
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:21,800
 Yep.

746
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:22,800
 You're back in business.

747
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:28,040
 Well, I wanted to take a few moments to make a presentation to the Board.

748
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:34,280
 This very presentation was given to the city council last Tuesday, and then so we just

749
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:39,560
 wanted to cover the slides that were made to the council, and then the last few slides

750
00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:45,640
 of the slide deck is the direction that city council provided us after the conclusion of

751
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:46,640
 the presentation.

752
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:52,200
 So we've got a number of slides, certainly I believe there's kind of a stopping point

753
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,080
 halfway through the presentation.

754
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:58,440
 If you'll let me get to that point, I can stop and then answer any questions of the

755
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:05,180
 Board, and then I'll continue for the remainder, okay?

756
00:51:05,180 --> 00:51:10,680
 As I mentioned, this was presented last Tuesday.

757
00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:18,240
 So overall, this all started back in November of last year, I believe Ryan Adams came to

758
00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:25,640
 you all now, it seems like a number of months ago, to cover this situation over at Green

759
00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:27,400
 Tree Estates.

760
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:33,500
 What had happened was back in November, a water well that was connected to a number

761
00:51:33,500 --> 00:51:39,680
 of homes, notice was given to those homeowners, property owners and residents, approximately

762
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:47,600
 14 of them, that their water service through the well would be shut down starting in mid-November,

763
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,280
 mid-November of 2019.

764
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:55,320
 The city stepped in, heard from the residents, the city stepped in as far as trying to come

765
00:51:55,320 --> 00:52:02,240
 up with a number of options, and one of those options was to provide water service to those

766
00:52:02,240 --> 00:52:03,240
 residents.

767
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:09,880
 As a result, the mayor and city council back at the, just before Thanksgiving holiday declared

768
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:16,040
 a disaster for the residents out there for approximately 100 days.

769
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:25,940
 That was to expire in May 2020, or May 22nd of this year.

770
00:52:25,940 --> 00:52:33,400
 One of the things that was done back in February was to begin making, requiring the residents

771
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:37,140
 to begin making payment of the water service.

772
00:52:37,140 --> 00:52:43,760
 So the way it works is you've got some residents that have one 275 gallon containers, you have

773
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:50,520
 some residents that have two 275 gallon containers, and so for those residents that have one,

774
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:54,000
 they are charged $20.59 a month.

775
00:52:54,000 --> 00:53:00,680
 For those that have two containers, they're charged $37.75 a month, and those costs are

776
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:07,160
 just to pay for the cost of water.

777
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:14,680
 Along with the extension of that time, back in mid-February, the city council also offered

778
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:22,600
 for city staff to do voluntary courtesy inspections, and offered to send information regarding

779
00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:29,920
 code compliance, and also to address any issues related to health, life safety matters of

780
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:32,600
 non-occupied structures there in the subdivision.

781
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:37,920
 We had heard complaints from the residents over those weeks that there were several structures

782
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:42,280
 that were unoccupied, basically dilapidated structures.

783
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:49,520
 They were having issues with rodents, vermin, other issues, concerns with fire hazards,

784
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:55,640
 or folks that maybe could potentially be using that as shelter, and just causing major issues

785
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:59,320
 for those residents that actually were living in occupied structures.

786
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:11,000
 So building inspections went out and inspected the subdivision, and began working with the

787
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:16,600
 respective property owners of those structure, those lots, and of those structures to begin

788
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:17,880
 the removal of those things.

789
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:21,600
 So that's been in the works for the last number of weeks, and I'll give you an update here

790
00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:25,280
 shortly.

791
00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:29,300
 As part of the courtesy inspections, one of the reasons why we offered that is because

792
00:54:29,300 --> 00:54:35,440
 those homes were connected to the well system, ultimately the residents wanted to be connected

793
00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:37,320
 to the city's water system.

794
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:43,680
 So before we did that, we wanted to make sure that residents, before they spent money on

795
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:49,960
 upgrading their homes, that the city perform basically courtesy inspections.

796
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:56,440
 And what that intended to do was just to identify any issues related to health and safety matters.

797
00:54:56,440 --> 00:55:05,800
 This is not about trying to condemn occupied structures or target those with any code enforcement

798
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:06,800
 issues.

799
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:10,440
 It was purely just to make sure that if you're going to connect to the city's water system,

800
00:55:10,440 --> 00:55:16,060
 that the infrastructure you have in your home is adequate and appropriate, that you have

801
00:55:16,060 --> 00:55:21,240
 appropriate backflow prevention devices so that you don't infiltrate our system on the

802
00:55:21,240 --> 00:55:26,800
 back end and then cause issues downstream for other residents connected to the same water

803
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:27,800
 system.

804
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:34,560
 To date, none of those inspections have been requested by the residents or performed by

805
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:36,920
 the city as a result.

806
00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:44,200
 However, in late February, the city reached out to Habitat for Humanity.

807
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:48,680
 We made those connections with that entity because they do this kind of work.

808
00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:52,840
 They work in sometimes rehabbing existing homes.

809
00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:57,280
 They also build new homes, so they're familiar with our codes, they're familiar with construction.

810
00:55:57,280 --> 00:56:02,480
 And so we wanted to make sure that if there was an opportunity to do this, could we work

811
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:07,800
 with Habitat as a partner to make that connection with the residents?

812
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:13,360
 Habitat was able to reach out to the residents and perform some inspections.

813
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:19,320
 They actually inspected five of the 14 homes, and the reason five, because those five are

814
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:20,880
 owner occupied.

815
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:27,040
 So they were able to do some inspections of those homes and create the list of situations

816
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:32,680
 that they observed that would typically be problematic for connecting to the city's water

817
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:33,680
 system.

818
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:38,700
 To this date, we are not aware of the details of those results.

819
00:56:38,700 --> 00:56:43,740
 We have a general understanding that some of the items that were identified were relatively

820
00:56:43,740 --> 00:56:49,760
 minor in nature and could be repaired within short order.

821
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:56,560
 Habitat and working with the sweat team, which is a nonprofit group or a set of volunteers

822
00:56:56,560 --> 00:57:01,760
 out of Denton Bible, they're coordinating those repairs, I believe, starting in the

823
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:03,680
 month of May.

824
00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:10,000
 And they would have started a lot sooner, but COVID stopped a lot of things.

825
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:15,560
 And so they were not able to get started as they had hoped, but they should be starting

826
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:18,320
 up here in the month of May.

827
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:24,360
 As I mentioned, the city was working with the property owners of those dilapidated structures.

828
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:28,000
 To date, 13 applications for demolition have been issued.

829
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:31,760
 Of those 13, 10 have been demolished, and the other three were still working with their

830
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:39,800
 respective property owner to get those sites cleaned up and cleared.

831
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:45,720
 As far as connecting to the city's water system, the city sent out a large packet of information.

832
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,640
 A lot of stuff was happening in the month of March.

833
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:52,880
 The city sent out a large packet of information, just under 40 pages of information, both in

834
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:57,200
 English and in Spanish, to all the property owners and residents at Green Tree.

835
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:04,020
 The premise behind it was to give them very clear, concise, and step-by-step information

836
00:58:04,020 --> 00:58:08,320
 on how to connect to the city's water system.

837
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:12,080
 And that was intended because at the request of the residents, they wanted to be customers,

838
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:14,960
 and so we wanted to make sure they had all the information they needed.

839
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:20,440
 To date, the city has not received any requests for the connection.

840
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:26,320
 In conjunction with that letter, we were planning on having a meeting with the residents, a

841
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:30,720
 face-to-face meeting with the residents at Subdivision, and it was scheduled for March

842
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:32,200
 21st.

843
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:38,040
 And that was to go over the letter to make sure they understood the OSSS, basically the

844
00:58:38,040 --> 00:58:39,040
 septic systems.

845
00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:42,240
 We had included a frequently asked questions component, inspections.

846
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:45,520
 I mean, it was very comprehensive, the mailer.

847
00:58:45,520 --> 00:58:50,000
 And so we had scheduled a meeting for March 21st to meet with the residents.

848
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:55,040
 Unfortunately, that meeting was canceled because of COVID, certainly at the request of the

849
00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:59,680
 residents, and it was a right call to make to not meet face-to-face because so much had

850
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:05,000
 started to, with the pandemic, so much started to happen by mid-March.

851
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,120
 And so folks were scared, understandably so.

852
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,320
 So we decided to cancel that meeting.

853
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:15,440
 We were also going to have a follow-up meeting in April prior to the presentation to the

854
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:22,240
 city council, but as a result of the stay-at-home order, along with the continued pandemic situation,

855
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:26,880
 that meeting was canceled as well.

856
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:32,600
 As part of the mailer, and again, just to kind of give you graphically what we included,

857
00:59:32,600 --> 00:59:33,600
 it was this graphic.

858
00:59:33,600 --> 00:59:37,340
 Again, not drawn to scale, but it allowed the residents to understand where the bank

859
00:59:37,340 --> 00:59:38,740
 of meters would be set.

860
00:59:38,740 --> 00:59:44,320
 If we were going to install 14 meters for those 14 homes, it would be set right at the

861
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:46,000
 neighborhood boundary.

862
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:52,320
 And so it gives sort of just an artist's depiction of how the project would work, and that the

863
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:58,640
 responsibility of the city, the responsibility of the owners, and so that way those things

864
00:59:58,640 --> 01:00:04,840
 could be outlined, and again, just more informative for the residents so they can understand what

865
01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:06,480
 was to take place.

866
01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:12,120
 Again, that was just one of the pieces of information that was included in the packet.

867
01:00:12,120 --> 01:00:17,720
 The next component was the fees piece, because one of the components is obviously paying

868
01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:26,640
 the tap meter and impact fee of $6,938, in which, as you can see, that fee is static.

869
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:32,960
 The other fee is a variable fee, and that is the component, if I go back a slide, and

870
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:40,400
 I believe my mouse is working, there is a component that there is to where my mouse

871
01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:46,160
 is, there's a section here where there is a water line, and then this piece here, this

872
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:51,640
 dash line, this double dash line to the bank of meters, is that variable fee.

873
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:58,840
 That is to connect the bank of meters to this water source here where my mouse is running,

874
01:00:58,840 --> 01:01:05,280
 and so that variable fee, it's contingent based on the $9,204, that's the estimated

875
01:01:05,280 --> 01:01:11,760
 cost of staff time and materials cost to connect that.

876
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:18,320
 Based on the number of meters that would be connected, as you can see, if one person connected,

877
01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:22,040
 that person would, in theory, absorb that entire cost.

878
01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:28,480
 If more people connected, then that cost would be shared amongst those that are connected.

879
01:01:28,480 --> 01:01:34,680
 But as you can imagine, more than likely, people will be connecting at different points,

880
01:01:34,680 --> 01:01:41,280
 and so trying to work out a payment system would just be proved very difficult.

881
01:01:41,280 --> 01:01:45,600
 So one of the things that City Council, we had brought to City Council back in early

882
01:01:45,600 --> 01:01:51,880
 February was would there be a possibility under the emergency declaration for the city

883
01:01:51,880 --> 01:02:00,000
 to cover the $9,204 that allows for that fee to basically be absorbed as part of the original

884
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:04,160
 $100,000 emergency declaration amount.

885
01:02:04,160 --> 01:02:07,400
 And so that way, it takes that piece out of the equation for the residents.

886
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:12,040
 So really, the resident would be responsible for the $6,938.

887
01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:17,280
 That way, the fee is fixed, they know exactly what they had to budget for, they know exactly

888
01:02:17,280 --> 01:02:22,280
 what the fee is to the city, and there's no variable cost for the residents.

889
01:02:22,280 --> 01:02:27,320
 And so that was one of the big concerns the residents have because if one person connected,

890
01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:33,240
 they would, in theory, would be responsible for nearly $16,000 of a fee.

891
01:02:33,240 --> 01:02:38,360
 That just seemed extraordinarily high, and then for the city to try to collect the remainder

892
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:47,080
 or for the resident to try to recoup his or her cost amongst 13 other potential customers,

893
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:48,160
 that would prove problematic.

894
01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:51,400
 So that was one of the options we brought forward to council.

895
01:02:51,400 --> 01:02:57,160
 The council seemed receptive as long as there was progress with residents wanting to connect.

896
01:02:57,160 --> 01:02:59,840
 So I just wanted to share that with you.

897
01:02:59,840 --> 01:03:04,840
 That was part of the information that was sent to the residents as part of the mailer

898
01:03:04,840 --> 01:03:07,320
 that was sent in March.

899
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:13,260
 Here is just a depiction of the subdivision.

900
01:03:13,260 --> 01:03:18,320
 There's 14 homes or 14 structures that are receiving water today.

901
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:26,800
 Of those 14, five, the homes in blue are owner-occupied.

902
01:03:26,800 --> 01:03:28,640
 Those in gray are renter-occupied.

903
01:03:28,640 --> 01:03:33,840
 So again, just mentioning that 14 homes are being served by water as we speak.

904
01:03:33,840 --> 01:03:39,360
 They receive water three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, including holidays.

905
01:03:39,360 --> 01:03:44,280
 And so that's done rain or shine, all weather.

906
01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:51,440
 So even during the issues with the pandemic and the stay at home, the water was still

907
01:03:51,440 --> 01:03:58,560
 being delivered to the residents, and of course, our employees were observing appropriate social

908
01:03:58,560 --> 01:04:02,880
 distancing requirements.

909
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:06,320
 As I'd mentioned, a lot was happening in the month of May, early May, excuse me, early

910
01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:07,320
 March.

911
01:04:07,320 --> 01:04:10,880
 By mid-March, things changed for everyone.

912
01:04:10,880 --> 01:04:15,740
 So a lot of momentum has been lost for the last six-plus weeks.

913
01:04:15,740 --> 01:04:20,720
 As you knew, the stay at home order by the mayor and council was issued back on March

914
01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:22,000
 25th.

915
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:25,040
 That technically ended April 30th.

916
01:04:25,040 --> 01:04:30,800
 As I'd mentioned, our employees were delivering water, however, we were having to maintain

917
01:04:30,800 --> 01:04:31,800
 split crews.

918
01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:37,200
 We were making sure that employees were observing social distancing, that we wanted to make

919
01:04:37,200 --> 01:04:41,920
 sure that we're keeping our employees safe and keeping them from having to be quarantined.

920
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:48,560
 And so far, so good, we've been able to manage that and not have any issues there.

921
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:55,080
 So services were not disrupted for the residents.

922
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:59,480
 As offered before, city inspections could be provided.

923
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:09,360
 We've been able to be able to do the inspections remotely through our building inspections.

924
01:05:09,360 --> 01:05:15,420
 So if a resident or property owner is ready to connect, the city is willing and ready

925
01:05:15,420 --> 01:05:20,480
 and able to do the inspections in some cases without even stepping foot on the home.

926
01:05:20,480 --> 01:05:25,420
 There may be some requirements with the residents to be able to utilize their smartphone or

927
01:05:25,420 --> 01:05:33,720
 an iPad or tablet device to be able to show the piece that needs to be inspected and the

928
01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:38,760
 inspector can be able to, through a variety of angles, be able to determine whether the

929
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:41,920
 improvement has been done appropriately.

930
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:46,480
 So we've been able to do a number of things, and as mentioned before, our inspectors are

931
01:05:46,480 --> 01:05:49,000
 doing inspections all over the city.

932
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:54,200
 So our city was open even though it was in a modified manner.

933
01:05:54,200 --> 01:06:00,840
 So with that, before I go into the staff recommendations, does anybody have any questions at this point

934
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:03,840
 that I can answer?

935
01:06:03,840 --> 01:06:12,360
 Go ahead, Charlie.

936
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:16,860
 First of all, kudos on the demolition permits.

937
01:06:16,860 --> 01:06:22,760
 After having visited there, there really were some really horrible problems with unoccupied

938
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:23,980
 structures.

939
01:06:23,980 --> 01:06:27,320
 So thank you for doing that.

940
01:06:27,320 --> 01:06:32,640
 You showed the 14 people who are receiving water, but as I looked at that neighborhood,

941
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:39,400
 that represents what, 40% or so of the total homes, do the rest of those homes have access

942
01:06:39,400 --> 01:06:47,200
 to utilities from the water well, from other sources or are they without water and unoccupied?

943
01:06:47,200 --> 01:07:01,680
 Actually, the remainder of the, and I can go back to that slide so you can see, can

944
01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:03,440
 you see that?

945
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:10,200
 The remaining are, with the exception of the actual owner of the entire subdivision, which

946
01:07:10,200 --> 01:07:18,080
 the gentleman, I believe approximately 50 or so lots in that subdivision, and the major

947
01:07:18,080 --> 01:07:21,000
 property owner, I believe, owns about 30.

948
01:07:21,000 --> 01:07:28,440
 The other 20 or so or 15 or so are owned by a variety of owners.

949
01:07:28,440 --> 01:07:34,760
 The others, actually, those are, they're not inhabited, there's no structures out there.

950
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:38,480
 Those that are living, those that are occupied, those that are shaded are the people that

951
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:39,800
 are actually living in the subdivision.

952
01:07:39,800 --> 01:07:44,800
 The rest of them, I don't know why the aerial map, the way it shows, shows these structures,

953
01:07:44,800 --> 01:07:48,980
 but there are no other folks living out there.

954
01:07:48,980 --> 01:07:55,720
 Some of those are just former structures, so no one else is receiving services with

955
01:07:55,720 --> 01:07:58,840
 the exception of the owner of the well.

956
01:07:58,840 --> 01:08:02,440
 And my understanding is he's receiving water through his own well, and so he just stopped

957
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:06,400
 delivering service to the rest of the residents that are living out there.

958
01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:09,720
 I don't know, I hope that answers your question, Charlie.

959
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:12,720
 That does, thank you.

960
01:08:12,720 --> 01:08:13,720
 Okay.

961
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:14,720
 Ed.

962
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:25,640
 Yeah, I, just a question, I see, if I'm correct, Habitat for Humanity inspected five

963
01:08:25,640 --> 01:08:31,120
 structures that were owner owned that weren't being rented, is that correct?

964
01:08:31,120 --> 01:08:35,600
 That is correct, sir.

965
01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:46,300
 So I find it curious that the rest of the structures, which were rented, have had no

966
01:08:46,300 --> 01:08:53,480
 courtesy inspections at all, and I wondered if, who was contacted about that, the owners,

967
01:08:53,480 --> 01:09:00,940
 the actual owners of the property or the renters, because I could see a situation where a renter

968
01:09:00,940 --> 01:09:09,080
 might be afraid to ask for an inspection because if something is found that needs to be fixed,

969
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:14,240
 that person has to go to the person from whom he's renting.

970
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:21,320
 Yes, you're correct, but our policy has been that we notify the occupant of the structure

971
01:09:21,320 --> 01:09:22,840
 along with the property owner.

972
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:23,840
 Okay.

973
01:09:23,840 --> 01:09:25,240
 So both.

974
01:09:25,240 --> 01:09:32,400
 And to follow up on that, is there any way to find out the results of Habitat's inspections?

975
01:09:32,400 --> 01:09:41,960
 Well, we could, except that Habitat, prior to them stepping foot on the properties, they

976
01:09:41,960 --> 01:09:49,760
 were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and so as a result, those results have not

977
01:09:49,760 --> 01:09:58,200
 been shared, which was surprising, and again, I want to speak for or against Habitat, but

978
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:01,320
 they were surprised by the fact that that needed to happen.

979
01:10:01,320 --> 01:10:06,360
 We had, I had reached out directly with one of the board members that was working as part

980
01:10:06,360 --> 01:10:13,600
 of the volunteer group to do so, and I had requested, once you start, if you would, please,

981
01:10:13,600 --> 01:10:18,640
 once you do your inspections and you've had the time to kind of create your list, would

982
01:10:18,640 --> 01:10:20,320
 you please share it with the city?

983
01:10:20,320 --> 01:10:24,000
 We're not gonna do anything with it, but it's just nice to know what are some of the issues

984
01:10:24,000 --> 01:10:29,960
 that you found so that if there are homeowners or property owners or residents that are willing

985
01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:35,520
 to and ready to start connecting, we can work directly with them and try to help move the

986
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:37,520
 process forward.

987
01:10:37,520 --> 01:10:43,000
 I waited a couple of weeks after the inspections, reached out to the board member, and he said,

988
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:47,680
 "I would love to be able to share it, but I can't because we were required to sign non-disclosure

989
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:48,680
 agreements."

990
01:10:48,680 --> 01:10:52,120
 And who were they required by to do that?

991
01:10:52,120 --> 01:10:58,500
 Well, the residents, they signed it directly with the residents, and it's my understanding

992
01:10:58,500 --> 01:11:03,680
 that there are some advocacy groups working with those residents, and I believe they were

993
01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:07,400
 they were advised to do that.

994
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:08,400
 Thank you.

995
01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:09,400
 Anyone else?

996
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:17,680
 Okay, can I go ahead and continue for the remainder of the slides?

997
01:11:17,680 --> 01:11:21,760
 Let me pull everything back up.

998
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:30,120
 Okay, everybody see it?

999
01:11:30,120 --> 01:11:39,840
 Okay, so can you hear me okay?

1000
01:11:39,840 --> 01:11:40,840
 Okay.

1001
01:11:40,840 --> 01:11:41,840
 Sorry.

1002
01:11:41,840 --> 01:11:45,160
 This is new, just trying to get used to everything.

1003
01:11:45,160 --> 01:11:53,680
 So what we did, knowing that the declaration was supposed to expire on May 22nd, just within

1004
01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:59,960
 a few weeks, and knowing that the pandemic had caused a lot of disruption, we knew that

1005
01:11:59,960 --> 01:12:05,680
 there had not been anything done, at least any connections with the city and the property

1006
01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:09,520
 and homeowners out there.

1007
01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:14,720
 We were going to be recommending from staff to City Council that the City Council extend

1008
01:12:14,720 --> 01:12:17,560
 the declaration through July 31st.

1009
01:12:17,560 --> 01:12:24,400
 This would give homeowners, property owners, additional time to go through the process.

1010
01:12:24,400 --> 01:12:29,640
 Again, keeping in mind, we don't know the extent of the details regarding the inspections,

1011
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:33,600
 but we knew that they were relatively minor in nature and that it would take a few weeks

1012
01:12:33,600 --> 01:12:35,120
 to complete.

1013
01:12:35,120 --> 01:12:39,840
 Some of them can be done, I believe, by the homeowners and property owners themselves.

1014
01:12:39,840 --> 01:12:45,600
 Some of them would require some help from outside sources for the sweat team.

1015
01:12:45,600 --> 01:12:55,640
 So based on that information, we wanted to indicate that if the inspections would be

1016
01:12:55,640 --> 01:13:03,640
 completed by mid-June, and if property owners would pay the fee by July 3rd, and the meters

1017
01:13:03,640 --> 01:13:10,880
 set by our staff by mid-July, it would give residents and property owners the ability

1018
01:13:10,880 --> 01:13:18,400
 to coordinate with each other, with contractors, plumbers, and to be able to get the work completed.

1019
01:13:18,400 --> 01:13:25,560
 We felt that if we can get in front of City Council early May, and then now that the PUB

1020
01:13:25,560 --> 01:13:33,640
 is up and operational again with you all, that it would give the residents approximately

1021
01:13:33,640 --> 01:13:37,160
 two additional months to be able to get a lot of this work done.

1022
01:13:37,160 --> 01:13:42,120
 And so again, within keeping the fact that the residents are wanting to connect to the

1023
01:13:42,120 --> 01:13:45,920
 city's water system, they understand what the fees are.

1024
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:47,960
 The fees have not changed.

1025
01:13:47,960 --> 01:13:51,160
 The city is willing and able and ready to start work.

1026
01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:57,920
 We just need to sit across the table with the residents and property owners to go ahead

1027
01:13:57,920 --> 01:14:00,840
 and begin planning for this work.

1028
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:06,460
 So as a result, we felt that adding some additional time was prudent and would give the residents

1029
01:14:06,460 --> 01:14:10,440
 the time that they needed to coordinate the effort.

1030
01:14:10,440 --> 01:14:15,800
 So that's what we were recommending, is to extend it through July 31st, the city would

1031
01:14:15,800 --> 01:14:22,520
 still, through its emergency declaration, cover that $9,204 cost of a line extension

1032
01:14:22,520 --> 01:14:25,480
 that I'd mentioned to you earlier, that variable fee.

1033
01:14:25,480 --> 01:14:27,840
 That way is to fix costs for the residents.

1034
01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:34,040
 And at that point, on July 31st, or in essence, August 1st, the residents would become regular

1035
01:14:34,040 --> 01:14:37,080
 water customers of the city.

1036
01:14:37,080 --> 01:14:43,040
 And then as a result, by July 31st, the emergency would end and we would stop the temporary

1037
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:50,160
 water service that we've been providing for the last several months, three times a week.

1038
01:14:50,160 --> 01:14:55,180
 We met with the residents a day ahead of time via a Zoom call.

1039
01:14:55,180 --> 01:15:01,240
 So we had a number of residents on the call, including some property owners.

1040
01:15:01,240 --> 01:15:06,280
 The residents expressed vehemently that they've experienced financial and employment hardships

1041
01:15:06,280 --> 01:15:09,080
 as a result of the pandemic.

1042
01:15:09,080 --> 01:15:14,160
 They did assert that they've been demonstrating progress by having Habitat for Humanity do

1043
01:15:14,160 --> 01:15:18,840
 the inspections of those owner occupied structures.

1044
01:15:18,840 --> 01:15:24,120
 So as a result, they had requested a longer range plan.

1045
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:30,120
 In fact, they had requested that the city council consider the input they gave us and

1046
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:34,920
 that we would pass along the city council is that the city council should extend the

1047
01:15:34,920 --> 01:15:39,020
 emergency declaration until May of 2021.

1048
01:15:39,020 --> 01:15:44,600
 So an additional year worth of time.

1049
01:15:44,600 --> 01:15:47,840
 We duly noted and got that information.

1050
01:15:47,840 --> 01:15:53,040
 The city staff in conjunction with the call and keeping with the amount of money that

1051
01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:58,840
 was set aside of the original 100,000, we were able to calculate that we could potentially

1052
01:15:58,840 --> 01:16:01,720
 offer sort of a mid-range solution.

1053
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:07,920
 And so one of those was to potentially have council consider an extension through mid-November

1054
01:16:07,920 --> 01:16:14,880
 that would give the city, excuse me, the residents additional time beyond July, but not all the

1055
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:17,320
 way into May of 2021.

1056
01:16:17,320 --> 01:16:22,500
 So both the long range, both the, well, all three, the three options were presented.

1057
01:16:22,500 --> 01:16:28,460
 The July 31st option was presented to city council last Tuesday, the mid-range option

1058
01:16:28,460 --> 01:16:34,100
 through November, mid-November of 2020, and then the long range option that the residents

1059
01:16:34,100 --> 01:16:39,460
 requested of May, 2021 was presented to city council.

1060
01:16:39,460 --> 01:16:43,840
 There was quite a bit of debate with the council and discussion.

1061
01:16:43,840 --> 01:16:47,240
 And so, and I'll cover that here in just a moment, but in kind of in summarizing, and

1062
01:16:47,240 --> 01:16:50,000
 I'll give you here what council ultimately directed.

1063
01:16:50,000 --> 01:16:58,280
 So in summary, services are still being delivered through May 22nd of this year.

1064
01:16:58,280 --> 01:17:01,040
 Utility payments are still being accepted and are ongoing.

1065
01:17:01,040 --> 01:17:07,640
 I believe there may be one or two folks that have not been paying, but that's as of recent.

1066
01:17:07,640 --> 01:17:11,720
 It hasn't been long-term, it just here have been a recent issue, but we're working with

1067
01:17:11,720 --> 01:17:12,720
 those residents.

1068
01:17:12,720 --> 01:17:18,880
 City, as I mentioned, is addressing and or has addressed many of the substandard structures

1069
01:17:18,880 --> 01:17:21,080
 out in the subdivision.

1070
01:17:21,080 --> 01:17:26,360
 We still yet have not received any inspections, but we're hoping that through the work that

1071
01:17:26,360 --> 01:17:31,800
 Habitat is doing beginning in May, that that will begin.

1072
01:17:31,800 --> 01:17:32,800
 And then we're ready.

1073
01:17:32,800 --> 01:17:33,800
 We're ready to work.

1074
01:17:33,800 --> 01:17:37,380
 We're ready to get going and connect those residents up with water once they make the

1075
01:17:37,380 --> 01:17:42,560
 requisite repairs and make the payments that are required.

1076
01:17:42,560 --> 01:17:47,560
 So based on all of this, this information was presented to city council last week.

1077
01:17:47,560 --> 01:17:53,040
 Ultimately, the city council gave the following direction from staff to staff.

1078
01:17:53,040 --> 01:17:58,840
 So again, as I mentioned, it was a lengthy debate and very lively conversation.

1079
01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:07,300
 So the staff, the council concurred with extending the declaration through the end of July 2020.

1080
01:18:07,300 --> 01:18:10,920
 They would also consider waiving the $9,200 fee.

1081
01:18:10,920 --> 01:18:16,080
 So really they concurred with everything that the staff offered originally in its original

1082
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:17,080
 recommendation.

1083
01:18:17,080 --> 01:18:24,920
 There were a couple of extra or two or three extra items that they added to the direction.

1084
01:18:24,920 --> 01:18:31,120
 They wanted to make sure that no new customers in Green Tree Estates could establish water

1085
01:18:31,120 --> 01:18:32,660
 after May 5th.

1086
01:18:32,660 --> 01:18:39,840
 What had happened was one of the renters vacated the property, moved to a different area, don't

1087
01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:41,600
 know where, they vacated the property.

1088
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:47,440
 That landlord then re-leased that property to another occupant.

1089
01:18:47,440 --> 01:18:54,160
 And so that was recent news that we found out literally the week of last week, the week

1090
01:18:54,160 --> 01:18:56,200
 of the presentation to city council.

1091
01:18:56,200 --> 01:19:04,440
 So the council was concerned that how could a property owner, landlord continue to allow

1092
01:19:04,440 --> 01:19:10,640
 other properties as they become vacant to continue leasing to folks that do not have

1093
01:19:10,640 --> 01:19:12,780
 and not provide running water.

1094
01:19:12,780 --> 01:19:19,680
 So as a result, that was one of the conditions that they made is that no new customers could

1095
01:19:19,680 --> 01:19:27,720
 be added to the city under the provision in which we're working in now.

1096
01:19:27,720 --> 01:19:33,360
 The other ones are pretty similar to what was presented before, the customer inspections

1097
01:19:33,360 --> 01:19:36,480
 to be completed by mid-June.

1098
01:19:36,480 --> 01:19:41,720
 The new one that they added was that a head of household living at Green Tree Estates

1099
01:19:41,720 --> 01:19:45,080
 must establish a utility account in their name.

1100
01:19:45,080 --> 01:19:50,920
 The way it was structured right now, it was literally account one, account two, through

1101
01:19:50,920 --> 01:19:52,600
 account 14.

1102
01:19:52,600 --> 01:19:57,420
 And so the premise was to understand not who's living in the structure, but just to make

1103
01:19:57,420 --> 01:20:04,000
 sure that accounts are made in their name so that, again, as I've mentioned in that

1104
01:20:04,000 --> 01:20:11,480
 first bullet, if something transitions out there, someone transitions out of the unit,

1105
01:20:11,480 --> 01:20:13,200
 they can't acquire a new service.

1106
01:20:13,200 --> 01:20:18,960
 So that's just another safeguard so that new accounts would not be added to the city's

1107
01:20:18,960 --> 01:20:21,720
 account system.

1108
01:20:21,720 --> 01:20:27,520
 And the last piece was really more a reporting item that on July the 14th that staff would

1109
01:20:27,520 --> 01:20:36,720
 come to city council because many of the deadlines as far as the payment and inspections by then

1110
01:20:36,720 --> 01:20:41,640
 would have been completed or should have been completed based on the direction that we had

1111
01:20:41,640 --> 01:20:46,800
 requested of council is that we would report at an upcoming work session to city council

1112
01:20:46,800 --> 01:20:50,480
 in July and just give them a progress on how things are going.

1113
01:20:50,480 --> 01:20:58,520
 And so that would give council an understanding is how serious is our property owners and

1114
01:20:58,520 --> 01:21:02,360
 homeowners willing to connect to the city's water system.

1115
01:21:02,360 --> 01:21:11,100
 And then by the end of July, if the declaration would stop and then we would cease with providing

1116
01:21:11,100 --> 01:21:17,280
 services there to Green Tree if people aren't connected.

1117
01:21:17,280 --> 01:21:19,200
 So that's really all I have.

1118
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:21,440
 That's the direction that city council gave.

1119
01:21:21,440 --> 01:21:24,860
 We are in the process of last week, late last week.

1120
01:21:24,860 --> 01:21:32,880
 We sent a letter to all property owners, tenants, homeowners, et cetera, that live out at Green

1121
01:21:32,880 --> 01:21:34,880
 Tree and own property at Green Tree.

1122
01:21:34,880 --> 01:21:40,600
 We sent them a letter with this information and these deadlines will be presenting to

1123
01:21:40,600 --> 01:21:47,920
 city council tomorrow afternoon a revised or new ordinance that extends the declaration

1124
01:21:47,920 --> 01:21:49,880
 to the 31st with these provisions.

1125
01:21:49,880 --> 01:21:55,320
 So that's what's being presented tomorrow and it will go into effect immediately.

1126
01:21:55,320 --> 01:22:01,640
 So that way we can continue providing that service at the end of July and hopefully make

1127
01:22:01,640 --> 01:22:05,800
 progress with the residents out at the subdivision.

1128
01:22:05,800 --> 01:22:06,800
 Any questions?

1129
01:22:06,800 --> 01:22:07,800
 >> Yes.

1130
01:22:07,800 --> 01:22:09,400
 Barbara, you go first.

1131
01:22:09,400 --> 01:22:18,900
 >> Yes, how are you -- you've sent the landlords the notice about not being able to connect

1132
01:22:18,900 --> 01:22:19,900
 with water.

1133
01:22:19,900 --> 01:22:26,000
 How are you going to monitor that to see that they do not lease a property if it becomes

1134
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:27,000
 vacant?

1135
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:37,000
 >> Well, as I mentioned, if a structure becomes vacant, they have to have water and the city

1136
01:22:37,000 --> 01:22:40,000
 right now is providing that water service within three days a week.

1137
01:22:40,000 --> 01:22:46,520
 So they would have to call customer service and set up an account.

1138
01:22:46,520 --> 01:22:54,880
 And so now I guess in theory a property owner could -- a landlord could release a structure

1139
01:22:54,880 --> 01:23:00,780
 out there, but then the resident that's living out there, when they connect to city water,

1140
01:23:00,780 --> 01:23:05,120
 it would be prohibited of connecting them or -- I'm sorry, not connecting them, providing

1141
01:23:05,120 --> 01:23:06,120
 that service.

1142
01:23:06,120 --> 01:23:10,840
 So they would be without water, and I would assume that they would then go back to their

1143
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:15,420
 landlord and complain.

1144
01:23:15,420 --> 01:23:23,320
 >> I can see that someone renting it and getting moved in will not necessarily know, and then

1145
01:23:23,320 --> 01:23:29,400
 by the time you try to work it out with the landlord, that person is there and has spent

1146
01:23:29,400 --> 01:23:31,320
 money to move in.

1147
01:23:31,320 --> 01:23:34,800
 And they, you know, are without water.

1148
01:23:34,800 --> 01:23:41,600
 And I can see a time lag in there that will cost the tenant money, and then ultimately

1149
01:23:41,600 --> 01:23:44,680
 they'll have to move out, so.

1150
01:23:44,680 --> 01:23:49,640
 >> Well, you know, that's one of the things is that's why we wanted to hurriedly send

1151
01:23:49,640 --> 01:23:57,260
 the notice out to all the residents and property owners out at Green Tree to make them -- make

1152
01:23:57,260 --> 01:24:03,880
 sure that they fully understand the council's direction and, you know, we can't be out there

1153
01:24:03,880 --> 01:24:12,680
 and fully be involved in those private transactions, but I would hope that the property owners

1154
01:24:12,680 --> 01:24:16,320
 understand that and then will abide by the council's direction.

1155
01:24:16,320 --> 01:24:21,160
 >> Russ, I think you had your hand up before, Charlie, so we'll do Russ and then we'll do

1156
01:24:21,160 --> 01:24:23,160
 you, Charlie.

1157
01:24:23,160 --> 01:24:24,160
 >> Okay.

1158
01:24:24,160 --> 01:24:32,960
 Yeah, it occurs to me that the $6,938 tap meter and impact fee, if you compare that

1159
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:40,060
 cost with the appraised value of the properties that you showed on the agenda item sheet,

1160
01:24:40,060 --> 01:24:51,640
 page 3, that cost is at least 50% or more of the appraised value of their entire property.

1161
01:24:51,640 --> 01:24:57,760
 And it seems to me it's going to be unlikely that -- or there's going to be a high likelihood

1162
01:24:57,760 --> 01:25:03,280
 that this is not going to get paid by the people who rent there or by the people perhaps

1163
01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:06,560
 who own the property.

1164
01:25:06,560 --> 01:25:13,880
 So I think the council needs to be prepared to say, okay, they're not going to pay that.

1165
01:25:13,880 --> 01:25:14,880
 They're not going to do it.

1166
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:21,100
 So we're going to stop giving them water or we're going to do something like that.

1167
01:25:21,100 --> 01:25:28,280
 So this is a tough predicament that the city of Denton finds itself in right now.

1168
01:25:28,280 --> 01:25:37,720
 And I think the council would be wise to figure out some way to make this $6,938 fee less

1169
01:25:37,720 --> 01:25:44,440
 or spread it out over two or three years, something like that.

1170
01:25:44,440 --> 01:25:51,880
 I think when a person has a property, living in a property that is valued at $10,000 and

1171
01:25:51,880 --> 01:25:57,800
 you tell them they've got to spend $7,000 to get water, there's a good likelihood they're

1172
01:25:57,800 --> 01:26:03,200
 not going to do that quickly, in my opinion.

1173
01:26:03,200 --> 01:26:07,320
 That's my thought.

1174
01:26:07,320 --> 01:26:12,480
 >> Charlie?

1175
01:26:12,480 --> 01:26:17,360
 >> My question had to do -- Rush, you read my mind on the valuation.

1176
01:26:17,360 --> 01:26:20,440
 I had not gone so far as to look up the property valuations.

1177
01:26:20,440 --> 01:26:28,560
 But, yes, spending $6,000 in impact fee on a $10,000 property does not make sense.

1178
01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:35,480
 My question, though, is it looks like from the diagram that the meters will exist at

1179
01:26:35,480 --> 01:26:38,760
 rolling green and ash, basically, in location?

1180
01:26:38,760 --> 01:26:39,760
 >> Correct.

1181
01:26:39,760 --> 01:26:46,260
 It will be within -- I'm sorry, Charlie, it will be within the subdivision, but in that

1182
01:26:46,260 --> 01:26:47,260
 vicinity.

1183
01:26:47,260 --> 01:26:48,260
 Yes, sir.

1184
01:26:48,260 --> 01:26:49,260
 >> Okay.

1185
01:26:49,260 --> 01:26:56,000
 And if I were to pay my $6,900 to get a tap there, does that mean that if I lived over

1186
01:26:56,000 --> 01:27:02,200
 on Hillcrest from Google Earth, it looks like it's about 1,000 feet, I would also have to

1187
01:27:02,200 --> 01:27:06,920
 dig 1,000 feet of water line to get to my property from there?

1188
01:27:06,920 --> 01:27:07,920
 >> That's correct.

1189
01:27:07,920 --> 01:27:13,480
 That's part of the reason is why we're wanting to work with the residents and literally sit

1190
01:27:13,480 --> 01:27:18,360
 across the table, and I know, obviously, this is different times, but the proverbial sit

1191
01:27:18,360 --> 01:27:23,680
 across the table and make sure that this effort is coordinated because we believe there's

1192
01:27:23,680 --> 01:27:29,960
 some economies of scale if the property owners -- and I'm using the property owners basically

1193
01:27:29,960 --> 01:27:35,080
 sort of synonymous with the owner-occupied structures and, you know, the district properties

1194
01:27:35,080 --> 01:27:40,200
 themselves, they're the ones responsible for coordinating this work that we can sit across

1195
01:27:40,200 --> 01:27:47,640
 the table and have this work coordinated so that they can, you know, utilize the same

1196
01:27:47,640 --> 01:27:52,920
 contractor to do the trenching, the same contractor to do the plumbing connections, et cetera.

1197
01:27:52,920 --> 01:27:57,000
 There's opportunities there for some economies of scale, but at some point, there needs to

1198
01:27:57,000 --> 01:28:01,880
 be a coordinated effort between the property owners and the city to make sure that it's

1199
01:28:01,880 --> 01:28:08,720
 done well so that there's not any incurred or additional costs that's unnecessary for

1200
01:28:08,720 --> 01:28:10,640
 anyone out there.

1201
01:28:10,640 --> 01:28:14,640
 So part of that is just literally just sitting across the table and working through the process.

1202
01:28:14,640 --> 01:28:22,920
 >> Billy, just as a ballpark, would -- if -- even if you were joint venturing the water

1203
01:28:22,920 --> 01:28:27,720
 lines, is five bucks a foot a safe minimum?

1204
01:28:27,720 --> 01:28:28,720
 Ten?

1205
01:28:28,720 --> 01:28:33,840
 >> Oh. No. Okay.

1206
01:28:33,840 --> 01:28:34,840
 >> I just don't know.

1207
01:28:34,840 --> 01:28:38,620
 I don't know the -- I mean, we can get that information for you and let you know kind

1208
01:28:38,620 --> 01:28:42,920
 of what that cost might be as far -- you talk about just the trenching itself or just the

1209
01:28:42,920 --> 01:28:43,920
 work itself?

1210
01:28:43,920 --> 01:28:48,120
 >> I'm just talking about putting in a one-inch water line deep enough to not freeze and make

1211
01:28:48,120 --> 01:28:49,120
 code.

1212
01:28:49,120 --> 01:28:51,920
 I didn't know if that was $5, $10, $15 a lineal foot.

1213
01:28:51,920 --> 01:28:54,240
 >> You can find that out, and I'll get back with you on that.

1214
01:28:54,240 --> 01:28:58,520
 >> I was just asking Billy because he's probably got the most educated guesses.

1215
01:28:58,520 --> 01:29:05,360
 >> Yeah, smaller scales like that, it is very difficult, and it's going to be very high.

1216
01:29:05,360 --> 01:29:10,120
 And it's not just going to be the one-inch water line, although the city's paying for

1217
01:29:10,120 --> 01:29:13,360
 some of the access for the service lines.

1218
01:29:13,360 --> 01:29:20,000
 But, you know, the impact fee is, you know, predicting down the road the eventual effect

1219
01:29:20,000 --> 01:29:25,920
 of that water, streets, drainage, sewer, the whole bit.

1220
01:29:25,920 --> 01:29:34,720
 And it's about a service line on a brand-new subdivision is going to be $1,000, $1,200.

1221
01:29:34,720 --> 01:29:38,440
 But to go out there and start in a new area where you don't have new infrastructure, you

1222
01:29:38,440 --> 01:29:43,200
 can probably double that in real cost.

1223
01:29:43,200 --> 01:29:44,960
 >> Okay.

1224
01:29:44,960 --> 01:29:51,840
 I guess I echo Russ's sentiment that it's an insurmountable obstacle for the people

1225
01:29:51,840 --> 01:29:55,560
 who live out there.

1226
01:29:55,560 --> 01:30:01,560
 They're talking about something on the order of $20,000 to get a water line to their house

1227
01:30:01,560 --> 01:30:03,440
 that's in and working.

1228
01:30:03,440 --> 01:30:09,160
 And when the properties are worth $10,000, that becomes something just about impossible

1229
01:30:09,160 --> 01:30:14,960
 for folks who would be living there to do.

1230
01:30:14,960 --> 01:30:16,920
 >> Agreed.

1231
01:30:16,920 --> 01:30:24,320
 I did hear or see that there's a charitable fund that's been established, too, so this

1232
01:30:24,320 --> 01:30:25,560
 is a tough one.

1233
01:30:25,560 --> 01:30:27,920
 It's really tough.

1234
01:30:27,920 --> 01:30:30,200
 Any other questions?

1235
01:30:30,200 --> 01:30:33,920
 All right.

1236
01:30:33,920 --> 01:30:34,920
 >> Thank you.

1237
01:30:34,920 --> 01:30:38,840
 Appreciate your time.

1238
01:30:38,840 --> 01:30:41,080
 >> That is the full agenda.

1239
01:30:41,080 --> 01:30:44,440
 Do we have our motion to adjourn?

1240
01:30:44,440 --> 01:30:46,680
 >> So moved.

1241
01:30:46,680 --> 01:30:48,880
 >> A second.

1242
01:30:48,880 --> 01:30:49,880
 >> All right.

1243
01:30:49,880 --> 01:30:52,000
 We are adjourned.

1244
01:30:52,000 --> 01:30:53,000
 Hopefully we get to see each other soon.