All right we're on. All right it is nine o'clock and we do have a quorum so we'll call to order
the Public Utilities Board of the City of Denton for Monday October 12, 2020. First item on the
agenda is our consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull an item?
Really? Yeah I pull consent agenda item number G. G all right. Any others? All right do we have a
motion to approve items A through F and items H through J? I move. And a second? I'll second.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay carries. Item G. I have a conflict here
so if you want to knock me out. Okay are you just going to abstain?
You have to you know I'm abstaining I probably if there's any discussion I need to leave the room.
I'll move approval of item G. Do we have a second? I second. All in favor say aye.
Aye. And then Billy abstain? Okay that one carries. Motion carries. Next item is items for
individual consideration. Consider the approval of the September 28th 2020 minutes. Do we have a
motion to approve? I move. That's moving approval. Do we have a second? Second. Okay all in favor say
aye. Aye. Opposed? All right next item is item B. Consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance
of the city of Denton the Texas Home Rule Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager
to execute a professional service agreement with Burns and McDonald Inc. for the supply of a solid
waste management strategy for the solid waste and recycling department providing for the expenditure
funds therefore and providing an effective date RFP 7281 awarded to Burns and McDonald Inc.
and the not to exceed amount of $155,250. Go ahead Brown.
I think you're muted.
If you'll give us a second we're having some technical difficulties.
Pull in the entire IT department and turn the mute off.
There's Barbara. Good morning.
I think he's back.
Well good morning Madam Chair. Yes Madam Chair, members of the board. My name is Brian Berner. I
am director of solid waste for the city of Denton. Appreciate the opportunity to come before you today
to talk about our comprehensive solid waste management strategy and the proposal to go with
Burns and McDonald. So let me pull up my presentation here.
All right can everybody see that? Yeah very good. All right what I want to talk a little bit about
today is what a comprehensive management strategy is and how it differs from a plan.
Talk a little bit about the process we went through to identify the consultant complete the
strategy. Go about how a little bit about how we're going to go about completing the strategy
and then talk about our time frame. So with that let's talk about a couple of concepts here first.
The difference between a strategy and a plan. Strategy is a framework for making decisions
about how you're going to play the game and the plan is a detailed proposal for for doing
or achieving something. So identifying creating that that framework identifying those issues which
may affect us as we move down the pike and then the plan is really what we want to do how we want
to do it and in what order. So strategy we're identifying resources identifying the constraints
we have to operate in whether they be something specific to the city of Denton whether they be
legal regulatory and what we're trying to do is bring value to the undervalued assets as we're
moving forward and then that plan is how we're going to win the game what we're going to do to
take that hill as opposed to which hill are we going to take. In our comprehensive management
strategy we're working to identify the materials we're going to manage the markets that are available
and if there are no markets to manage those diverted materials how do we go about creating
those markets or identifying how we support that marketplace. We're going to be looking at waste
diversion and disposal opportunities not just in the city of Denton but region wide so we can
understand what part we play in the whole waste shed in the marketplace as we move forward. What
are our operational priorities? We're going to look a little bit about fiscal management
developing benchmarks and performance indicators branding marketing outreach and then as I talked
and what's really going to be important is the legal and regulatory opportunities and constraints.
A lot of what we operate in right now are rules that have been written back in the 80s and the 90s
and we know that you know between technology advances things that have been happening in the
global market the national sword out of China basically shutting the entire Asian peninsula
off from from our recycling waste stream or our product stream it has really constrained us and
we have to look at doing things differently you know I sometimes jokingly say you know solid waste
1.0 was back in the 80s and the 90s we're really getting into recycling we were gearing it up
and then back in the early 2000 it was solid waste 2.0 we were we were doing things in carts
we were getting away from from you know separating things out we were commingling this is really
solid waste 3.0 it's the cutting edge of identifying how solid waste is to be done not locally but
potentially statewide and nationally as we move forward in the 21st century so we're going to be
looking at at resource recovery policies programs and services and really setting identifying
attainable goals to to anchor a solid waste management plan as as we move forward in the
in in the process we had selected bernsley mcdonnell as the most qualified firm to complete
the project for several reasons first of all they work not only locally but statewide and nationally
to create solid waste management strategies they have innovative outreach and stake
processes and stakeholder engagement they had probably had the best understanding of really
what we were looking for there was there were other companies that said yeah we can do a solid
waste management plan for you but again we were looking for something a little bit deeper
with their synergy and and and leverage they do waste characterization studies all across the
state and across the nation so they have a unique understanding of of what the city of denton may
bring to the table and again their experience and relationship statewide and nationally helps
bring some stuff so if you look at this graphic here off to the right i think it really best
demonstrates what we're looking for we're looking to the future we're going to be data driven looking
at metrics and focusing on the people to create alignment provide new ways of thinking and
identifying those critical ends to really help us forward with that strategy that we're developing
for the city of denton this is going to be unique a lot of other people have have developed plans
and they've been successful and some have not been successful but again what we're looking
for is that that basic foundation as we move forward with this process you know as we look
at the at the burns mcdonnell leadership scott pasternak who has many years of experience
leading solid waste projects will be the project manager seth cunningham an engineer as well as
bob craigs who's senior vice president burns mcdonnell will round out the leadership team
they will be partnering with both the recycling partnership as well as future iq which is an
innovative outreach and focus-based task force uh synergistic building community to help identify
the education the outreach the the communications the task force but again this is going to be very
data driven so again reengineering deconstructing reconstructing what this solid waste program
should be considering as we move forward if you look at what they've done in relationship to what
we're looking for they worked you can see in the city of austin dallas frisco georgetown
paso phoenix denver i mean just all across the state and the nation trying to help you know in
the planning identifying waste quantities doing business and financial uh implementation looking
at waste minimization policies uh collection so again it's it's soup to nuts what we're what
we're really looking for that to help us identify our strategies we're moving forward uh
specifically they actually gave us reports from work they've done with the cog georgetown city
of georgetown the tceq as well as ohio department of natural resources and the city of columbia
missouri with city of columbia specifically they had done a strategy a study related to their
organics waste management uh program and again not only that the capability of what they were
looking at but also environmental impacts greenhouse gas generation uh so of all the
organic streams so again we're really excited about them bringing this this amount of of of
expertise to the table our key focus areas again you know landfill waste reduction zero waste
philosophies waste management diversion promotion of ingenuity and reuse and recycling so again i
think we're seeing a lot of of those those key aspects of what it's been asked for over the past
year and as we're moving forward uh they have fulfilled that need and and and appear to be the
best qualified firm as we move forward so really over the next 12 months there's several tasks that
are going to be taking place first and foremost is the waste stream characterization they're going to
go into our not only our residential uh units but also multifamily and commercial units and really
identify what we're throwing away and in what volumes you know exactly how much plastic is
ending up in both our recycling stream as well as our solid waste stream what sort of organics are
are in there what sort of a mixed material that if it was separated out better or if there was a a
legislative change which would drive uh how this material was was produced on the front end it would
create a commodity on the back end so using that information to help us you know uh uh
create and move forward in our strategy from that we will springboard into visioning workshop
workshops again structured engagement so again in in addition to individual surveys uh creation of
a think tank uh developing not only you know convening not only those that are interested
in recycling diversion but also uh let's just say the naysayers people that may not support the
program because again we got to get buy-in from everybody to be able to move forward effectively
so figure out exactly what it looks like for the city of denton what the hurdles are
and as we move forward there collect the data create the identify those marketplace opportunities
and again you know how does this coalesce and fit in with our sustainability plan what are
those environmental uh uh impacts looking at the education outreach opportunities again you know how
we educated people back in the 1990s and 2000s uh early 2000s about uh diversion is significantly
different than the tools that we have today so what does that look like as we reach forward and
then finally you know the the financial management how do we how do we fund a lot of this what will
it be able to cost and that will help us identify how we move forward in in the the uh implementation
of these programs all across the city so with that i would like uh like to answer any questions
that you might have and uh uh move for approval if if acceptable questions yes i think this sounds
really really promising and the only the only question i have really is um what's the time
frame or how far out is this strategy going to be looked at a 2030 2040 i'm just curious as to
to how far into the future that this is going to project well again that you know that with just
just like investing and everything else you know you sort of look at the past to help predict the
future here though we're going to be looking at the fast at the past but trying to future think
into the future so you know the further out we go that the fuzzier the vision is so we don't want
to go so far that again we have no confidence in what we're looking at so we're looking really at
a 15 20 year time period and in about seven to ten years actually go back in do a a a gut check you
know where our assumptions are right where our variables correct and then do a course correction
in that time period so you're saying you're looking ahead 15 to 20 years 15 to 20 years i
think that is that that is a very safe uh uh window for us to be looking at uh from an investment
standpoint as well as an implementation standpoint and by that time technology is going to change
have changed significantly and hopefully uh what we're doing uh from a diversion standpoint has
changed significantly and the variables will need to be recalibrated for us as we move forward from
that point okay thank you you're welcome go ahead karen i just uh i wanted to echo and i think this
is looks like it's going to be pretty comprehensive and broad i think it's really important to focus on
the buy-in as you said because if people won't recycle you know your wonderful plans aren't
really going to be any any use and at least you know word on the street is in austin is that they've
had a really hard time getting buy-in you know they're they're sort of feeling overloaded by
bins at the curb and they're having a hard time getting the the residents to actually participate
so i'd be interested in participation rates in dentin um especially potential participation rates
for commercial recycling i'm sure they're going to cover all of that but i don't want that to get
lost in the weeds because that's that's the bottom line is how do you get people to participate
so anyway otherwise it sounds great thank you i want to echo karen to both karen and add the
participation is important multifamily housing is very difficult to get participation rates so we
really need to get some buy-in in that particular sector as well as the food waste and organic
that's going into the landfill if people don't recycle it ends up in the landfill anyway so
we need them to participate but it does look like a real good plan burns and mcdonald
is probably one of the best in the country so yes go ahead and yeah i'm just a little
institutional memory i was involved in the community committee to initially establish
curbside recycling here and there were all sorts of problems raised by people i don't want to carry
the carts out and and you know we all know the know the scenario but i think that with a with a
strong educational component uh just as was done with with the initial recycling program i think
that uh that this will be very successful especially from a commercial aspect i think
these a lot of these folks are would be very very happy to have this kind of service
yes billy you know we had the same problem we wanted to put our trash bags in a can in a
dumpster and once people saw it and saw how clean it was and how how much more efficient it was i
think that they took to getting them there is the problem right and and i was on the pb we
instituted recycling by the way too so i'll take a look that old yeah yeah no they put me on there
when i was 15 any other questions comments all right do we have a motion to approve
thank you ed it's a motion do we have a second second billy second all in favor say aye
aye opposed all right thank you brian thank you very much management update
good morning everyone uh we have a memorandum and this was in response to i think it's a question
that barbara had on related to amherst and so we've provided in your backup but i have
premium deshmuth is on the phone if if there's any questions on on that memo
any questions barbara i've been challenged this weekend with lack of internet and also my ipad
is not working so would you talk a little bit about that uh yes i'm gonna ask premium if he
can jump in premium are you on the phone um yes everyone hear me yes yes hi good morning uh this
is premium deshmuth deputy director of water wastewater chair members of the board thanks for the opportunity
uh i really want to highlight uh quickly highlight or summarize what was written in the memorandum
as i understand the question on this particular topic was amherst it was recently done by the
streets department it feels brand new and why are we going at a later date and putting in
water and wastewater or doing these uh upgrades to the water and wastewater line and the memo
pretty much outlines what exactly was done there are several types of maintenance that street
department does and one of the lower and maintenance uh which kind of lasts for anywhere between a year
and three years is a micro sealing it's a type of a asphalt emulsion that you just lay on top of the
surface so uh it kind of seals in the cracks and and releases moisture to penetration into the
pavement and uh that was done a year ago uh typically the life um the life line for for this
particular type of treatment is about a year anywhere between a year and three years so that's
why uh we believe that this street or this segment of the street was cleared for us to move in as this
was very low maintenance low cost option that was conducted recently yes the surface does look uh
nice and it does feel that it's completely redone but it's a very low cost quick fix
after the water wastewater utilities along this segment are completed we'll come back and redo
a segment uh rehabilitate a segment of that particular uh amherst street and then also repatch and redo
the remaining amherst and that's what all is lined out in this memo thank you
okay so um the next item that we have for you is just future agenda items
i did want to point out that on december 14th we are planning to come
to you to give you a wrap-up of where we ended the year with the utilities and then just have a
wrap-up discussion about rates going forward certainly um it'll all be contingent upon
where we ended the year you may recall we started doing that last year um you know primarily because
of the deck and kind of wanted to get a full picture where where we were with with the dme
but uh we'll be covering all the utilities for you on december 14th um and and not that there
won't be other items there'll be other items um on agendas as we're just trying to highlight at least
one of the major items and then on the new business action matrix uh we've completed uh the uh the
discussion on on the dme lawsuit um that's been completed and then there was also a request um
well there was a discussion in pilot project on recycling and resident residential compost composting
as um brian mentioned this morning um that'll be rolled into the discussion on this comprehensive
solid waste study so hopefully that that provides a response that you need um but if you have any
questions on that or any of these items just let us know that's all i have any questions charlie
do you have a question yes uh tony you mentioned that the uh um the update on the lawsuit between
grim and the city of denton was complete we talked about what was going to happen not
we did not get an update on the lawsuit we talked about what the update on the lawsuit would look
like and so i think we still have things to go in the future on that and second uh larry i think
you were going to get us links to uh see the public data on that lawsuit and uh that was two
weeks ago we haven't gotten those links yet so if we could get those links i'd appreciate that but
no i i disagree that the status is complete we talked about what we were going to talk about we
didn't get the update itself okay and i i'd like to keep that date of march 9th on the date requested
okay right we can do that we'll get the links out to you it was my understanding that we were
going to do that in conjunction with another report but i'll go ahead and do that independent
of what's going to happen and i'll go out to you all this afternoon thanks
all right then that leads concluding items does any board member wish to
uh have anything added to a future agenda or have some words to say
barbara would you give us an update on the bonnie bray station what the timeline is for that
are you talking about the um the gis electric substation uh so um so we recently had some
some discussions with the with the council on that and um that that is proceeding it is included in
the fy 2021 cip budget for for dme uh we uh did recently send the council a informal staff report
i i will i will forward that to you today i do apologize i did not include that and send that to
you um earlier that but um but the plans are still moving forward um as previously discussed the
eagle substation is is not a project that we're going to be doing so there's some additional
distribution components that we've added to the gis substation but it has no impact on the
architectural design or the footprint of that substation from what was previously discussed
with that neighborhood committee any other board member i just want to thank kenny dr kenny banks
for 20 years of service here at the city of denton you will certainly be missed but congratulations
to you is he on the line i wanted to ask him he's on the line he is yes i am can you hear me yeah
yes just wanted to see thank you so much season you want i just wanted to see if you were going
to be doing any bird watching down in rockport i absolutely will be it's a great place for it
and uh i just uh i i do want to take just a second and um thank all the board members uh and and
previous boards for all their support through the years it's a um you know it's an interesting uh
place to be in life and we have been planning to uh to come down here to rockport for quite some
time and circumstances aligned and so uh here we find ourselves but i greatly appreciate all the
support uh through the years and um and uh thank you for your service and um i um you know just
really appreciate um all your thoughts and kind words your talents will be missed yes
thank you very much just been a pleasure to work with you and see your dedication and your caring
about what you actually do yeah it's been a pleasure to work with you thank you i appreciate
it definitely all the way back to unt thank you thank you all yeah ed and i have been working
together all 20 years but i've been there yeah all right so then do we have a motion to adjourn
so moved second i guess we're adjourned 926 thank you thanks