Video Description:
Water Board Meeting – October 2023
Read along below:
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Call me Nord
Speaker 1 0:07
Tom Mr. Scott hallway here Roger lane here Renee Davis here Dan Wolford you can use in your slavery your vote in there hope Bartlett your Christopher your mother many diaries here and then we have other staff with us Brian McGill Deena Doyle here for help
Unknown Speaker 0:45
approval of previous months. Any questions or comments? Or motion? Okay, next job, sir. Second. Second. All in favor? say aye? Aye. Very good. Okay. Sure. Well, st minus 16 ZFS. How many folks out here surprise 38 are calling St. James which has a priority data June calm in South America. The priority date on December sixth
Speaker 2 1:45
is full and spilling which is approximately six that 16,240 acre feet. Human reservoir is at an elevation of point 4.6 feet, or 10,003 45 acre feet and hands down approximately 2400 acre feet full basin reservoirs at the end of September were at 77%. Questions
Unknown Speaker 2:27
right, we heard you on yell
Speaker 3 2:29
G enough. The first thing you have to do is for those who might not have met him before Dave Walker’s down at the end of the table here he’s our utilities are made. Introduce yourself a little more.
Speaker 4 2:47
Yeah, I could, you could think of me having assumed a role like Dale, but without the parks and the open space part. So it’s just all utilities and public works, and so forth, and engineering. So just wanted to come in and say hi, again, thank you for all of your time and service here. Very, very important role. And so I’m just going to sit in and just listen and understand better what you know how the bees go. I do have another meeting at four. So I leave a little early. It’s not because of the meeting at meet. So I just want to call them stop and say hi. Thank you.
Speaker 3 3:31
Thank you they are a special presentation before may recall, as we’re looking at some of the issues surrounding our cash flow last month, a couple questions came up about exactly how we fund the different aspects of warm water system. And Becky’s girls strategic Integration Manager and as some of our folks whether they are the ones who really kind of help work through all of our financial aspects of the department. And so they’re gonna give us a presentation on how to use different ways we find. I think that’ll help answer a lot of questions that came up through the cash flow because cash is really just part of the overall budgeting system. Turn it over to Brian Brian’s gonna give our presentation today and go from there.
Speaker 5 4:32
Okay. Hello, everybody. My name is Brian Gill. I’m the utility rate and analysis manager with strategic integration. And I apologize in advance. We did have a raven Martin, our radar analyst originally was going to give this presentation but she’s home sick today. So I’m pinch eating for her. So it’s not going to be as polished as we had hoped it would be but hopefully I can convey what we’re trying to present today. So did you want to say Are you thinking, Becky? Okay, so yeah, as Ken said, we’re going to give a presentation on the water, utilities, finances, and an overview of how those are put together. So this first slide is just a fun overview of the different funding sources for the water utility. There are three different funds, there’s the water cash acquisition fund, the water construction fund, and then the water operating fund. And so what’s inside those bubbles is the revenue sources for the different funds. And then to the far right, is what those revenues can actually what kind of expenditures, those revenues can actually cover. So the water cash acquisition fund, the revenue there is this cash in lieu fee that’s paid for by developers. And that fee is just an option for development, if they do not have their own water rights that they can bring with them. And that revenue can only be used for expenses associated with increasing the water supply. Then the water construction fund, that’s the revenue generated in that fund is the system development fees. And that’s paid for by developers for development and redevelopment within the city. And those fees are to buy into the existing system, the water system that currently exists, and we’ll go over the calculation for each of these in just a little bit as well. And then those revenues can only be used for the expansion of the water system. And then the final fund in the water utility is the water operating fund. And that has covered the revenue there is rates for the most part, and then there’s some other miscellaneous revenues that go in there as well. And then that revenue can be used for all other operating costs. One other note though, is the water acquisition Fund and the water construction fund, we know that those revenues are not sufficient to cover to cover the entire cost for increasing the water supply, and for expanding the water system. So portions of those type expenses are also built into the electric, electric and the watch rates. Sorry. Okay, next slide.
Speaker 6 7:28
So, I don’t know when it’s appropriate, as you go back to the previous slide, can you give maybe just like some examples of like, increased water supply expand water system? Right, there seems like there could be some overlap there. So part of the water system, for example, might be a dam or reservoir that would, you know, firm some of our water supply or something. So how did those distinctions get made? And how does that kind of tease apart things?
Speaker 7 7:58
I’ll take that question. When we say increased water supply, you’re going to need to purchase water rights or to undertake actions, that means you need to purchase water. Right. So conservation programs are often funded through cash acquisition. And that is the most restrictive. I wouldn’t say very rarely, and you know, exactly one time, had we used cash acquisition toward actual infrastructure, which was the firming project, which, you know, increase the firm yield above an existing water. Right. So that’s kind of a really special case. In generals
Speaker 6 8:38
that was CIO money was used for that. Yes,
Speaker 7 8:41
yeah, for a portion for our 40 percentage that we can tie back to that increase yield. The justification? Yes, exactly. And in general, that’s something that we do every time, we kind of think about what how we could share the costs between these funding sources to say, Okay, so we’re replacing a water tank, and while doing that, we’re going to increase the capacity of that tank by some percentage. So you know, if that’s going to increase by 20%, then we could use 20%, water construction funds. So the rest of you really be operating because it’s kind of a general thing. So having something to tie that justification back to is you know, we usually have a memo to the file, that’s part of the project documentation that talks about how that split occurs. Okay, so just give you an example of the construction, but it really is. So, when we say expand water system, we really need to increase the capacity of the system. So it has to be in tanks treatment capacity, or if we needed to increase the capacity of the larger transmission lies within the city. Those would be the examples we have for construction. So when you say system development is an expand the water system? Is there any element of buying into the existing system? Yes, that’s exactly how the system development is set. So it’s like with a hybrid of of new expansion costs and like buying it. So it’s set on the basis of the existing system value, check, the only allowable use of the funds is to expand the system. So it system value over remain capacity, no existing value over it, we’ll get we’ll get to it.
Speaker 5 10:40
Okay, so now we’re talking about how we set the rates and fees. So really great, see the red setting, sorry, rate setting process is really a cycle of looking at the plans we have. And then that flows into setting of the rates, which flows into the budget process and the implementation of those plans. And it’s really just a simple business cycle of continuing to do that over and over again. And so the business enablement team works with the project managers and engineers to ensure there are funds for plans for projects such as capital improvement projects, but also to cover the operating expenses associated with providing essential water services to the city. And then the rates ensure that sufficient revenue is collected in each year, when we set the budget for the upcoming year, we review the revenue and the cost of providing service to communities, as well as cost of desired projects, which can which includes increased costs due to inflation or material costs associated with meeting new state and federal regulations, then without sufficient budget, projects may not be able to be implemented and may need to delay certain projects, such as pipe replacement, which can be costlier in the future, especially if there’s a significant event affecting infrastructure. And then also the budget helps to determine which projects can be funded. And also helps plan for the future years as we go through the budget setting. process.
Speaker 5 12:25
So one of the financial basics is the fund balance. And so a fund balance each each one of those funds that we talked up above on the second slide, they all have their own fund balance. And so to meet the fund balance, kind of like to relate that back to personal finances is kind of your savings account. And so the way that’s calculated is on any given year, if your revenues are in excess of your expenses, your total expenses, operating capital and debt service, then that would be a contribution to your fund balance. If the expenses are more than the revenues you collect in any given year, then you would actually be using some of that
Speaker 8 13:08
balance. Yeah, so that’s really plus equals fund balance, right? Because the fund balance doesn’t start at zero every budget year, correct?
Unknown Speaker 13:17
Correct. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 13:19
And this is true for so each of the three funds are essentially distinct in this case. And so each one of them have their own revenues, their own expenses that are
Speaker 5 13:34
correct, correct. Okay, excellent. Okay, so now we’ll get into the actual calculations of cash in blue system development fee and the gap surcharge. So you all are familiar with the calculation of the cash in blue. And so it’s calculated by taking the cost of the parent windy gap projects plus the cost of the firming project, divided by the firm yield. And that’s how the cash in Lieu is developed. And then just a couple of notes here. Again, the revenue collected to cash in Lieu is restricted only to increasing the water supply. And again, it’s only a mechanism in the event that the developers are not bringing in their own water rights.
Speaker 6 14:30
So back when we were whenever we weren’t 18,000, or something that this was three years. Basically, today, I started whatever that was. So which one of these was not we were basing that 18,000 Only on burning Bronco? Because it was some most recently this decision was made that hey, well in order to have something different When we needed a project
Unknown Speaker 15:08
next slide, please.
Speaker 8 15:08
Just one more question. This formula is not statutory. But we can we can adjust it based on the market, for example, yes. Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 5 15:27
Okay, so system development fee. Again, these are the fees paid for by the developers, as they’re either during new developer match or redevelopment. And as Becky mentioned, this calculation is the value of the infrastructure. And it’s really the replacement value of the infrastructure minus any bond principal outstanding, divided by the single family equivalent units. And my understanding is a single family value, the equivalence is the average usage for a single family household.
Unknown Speaker 16:08
Just the number of households, okay.
Speaker 5 16:13
Okay. And so this revenue, again, is restricted for the expansion of the water system infrastructure.
Speaker 9 16:23
And the 6500 was the berries. What’s that? What’s the 6500 represent right now, for single family, I’m thinking a developing target,
Speaker 7 16:36
I believe, as a single family home with about 5000 square foot lot. So there’s a there’s a lot size component, which is why this is approximately 6500. The kind of the, the existing sort of indoor use component is about 3500. And then there’s a per square foot charge.
Speaker 5 17:00
Okay, next one is the windy gap surcharge. So the calculation for this one is the value of the windy gap infrastructure, both parent and affirming, again, minus the bond principal outstanding associated with that project. And then again, the budget by the single family equivalent units. And the revenue collected through this surcharge is restricted to paying back that windy gap bond.
Speaker 7 17:32
So my big question, though, is how is this not a double dip? Walk me through? So a double dip meeting charging twice for those same acid? Yes. So the windy gap surcharges really for to support payment of our costs are firming our existing water, right? The February project this generates are in the on the order of about $300,000 a year, which doesn’t quite get to the level of our debt payment for weeding out but it contributes toward it. So the difference between the windy gap surcharge, which is for our shared infrastructure, and the cash in lieu calculations, the cash in lieu calculation uses some of the same numbers. But it’s really thinking about what would be like a new unit of when the gap and the cost to get that to a user such as such as the city. So I think of it as you know, system development fees when the gap surcharge like that’s for the pipes in the infrastructure. Passion loop is for the wireless flowing through that. So it is a little odd that we’re using similar costs to get to both of those things, maybe but it really is for two different things that will make that water useful. So I’m trying to wrap my head around it because I want to get credit specific. So you’re saying that the cash in Lieu is for the water rights element? Yes. And that that portion of the asset, this windy gap surcharge is for the some hardware infrastructure, our share of that infrastructure, what we have today in the water right
Speaker 6 19:20
now also, though, like thinking kind of future versus past. So is it cash in lieu about going out and obtaining new supply if we need it? Yes. And this surcharge is about paying up the bond that we’ve already paid for the money that we’ve already paid to be participants.
Speaker 3 19:45
I can maybe go one step beyond that might be easier to think of the cash and cash in Lieu is not set up to pay for windy out or any other project. Cash in Lieu is to me. So some developers, many most developers come in with water, three acre feet of Acre, three acre feet, a lot of cash in Lieu is really just to say, Okay, everybody else has brought in three acre feet, you’ve only brought in two acre feet. So you don’t have water, you can give us cash in lieu of green that water. So really, the cash flow is only to bring everybody up the same level playing field at the time of annexation of having under property is just by happenstance, by policy, we made policy. So years ago, four years earlier, we base caching on the price of CBD, CBD cetera. So we made a policy decision that we would use. Parents when he affirming project, that letter will, you know, form for 10 or 15 years, and we decided really made a policy decision to use Marin project and the Fermi project as a complete water project. And that’s where the 14,000 comes from. But it’s not designed to go out and give you water rights or get water as much as it is designed to keep everybody loved, we could, we could go back to CBD water, we could use the basin, it’s really a policy decision that happens to be windy gap. And what that does is it brings everybody to the same level playing field, three acre feet per acre of land that you have in some developed and then once you have developed, then you have the actual costs buying into the systems. When you get up surcharge, did taxes, cash flow, it is really to help us pay off the bonds originally was to pay off the bonds of the bear project. Once I got paid off in 2017, we did it for two years. And then we ended up with more bonds because for me project smell we do that as an American, I think we’ll have
Unknown Speaker 22:20
30 years
Speaker 3 22:23
20 years to pay off that. That surcharge. So it’s really everybody buy into the same system at both levels. But it’s much more directed towards a physical component, and surcharges when the project as opposed to cash move, which we just made a policy decision to to use the windy gap. And it’s an it’s an index, it’s not directly paying for that now, once that cash only comes in, then we then the city has opportunity to use it for whatever he uses the word conservation we use it for buying water rights, we will use some of it for paying off the bonds when you get any expenses we have.
Speaker 8 23:21
Whenever we want to the waters can use it for downpayment assistance for low income.
Speaker 7 23:34
Even is narrowed down to a different font with a specific font with an even narrower purpose, right? Sorry, here. So the cache and loop is really basically for rights and rights firming. Okay, so it’s not necessarily for water treatment product. You can see how the calculation is different in the search right here is on like a purse per household or per equivalent unit basis. Whereas living with a passion and it’s kind of bringing it down to what would have been different acre foot look like trying to establish that market rate
Speaker 3 24:11
is really important. They help us think the calculation of cash flows based upon the index. What was it for water work? I suppose the other two calculations are basically what’s the system when you plug your your waterline into our system, you get the benefit of a very valuable system. So both of those calculations, moody after charging, construction are based on the value of the system that you’ve loaned to your client. The citizens have that it’s their their system and a value.
Speaker 6 24:51
I think the challenge here is like that. I don’t think that means a good thing. It’s not it’s not a child bottom line is this are proactive in thinking about our water needs in the future. That is not like we’re in some kind of situation where a new housing development goes up, they pay cash in lieu, and then we say, Oh, great. Finally, we have some money and we can go out buy water, right can feed that housing development, or provide that housing development water. Right. And so it’s not, there’s like separation and the transactions here. And so for example, I mean, I don’t know the answer to this actually was when was the last time that Baldwin just went out and bought some water? Oh, like, I don’t remember
Speaker 3 25:38
that discussion. We rarely just simply go out buy water, right? A lot of the water rights we quoted, but more recently, have been part of land acquisition, we’ve acquired land around union reservoir. So we bought a number of blocks of waterways around there are open space department, of course, when it was open space by his water rights, but that stays on the open space. But
Speaker 6 26:01
yeah. And then, and then, you know, whenever they can dry desorb, water ice, they do. And so then there’s just this separation in these transactions, you know, because we are kind of using what is supposed to be kind of almost what I think of in my mind has been kind of like, proactive, right? Like going out and getting water to provide like housing development, we basically just said, Well, we have that water already. And so then you’re free to use that cash in lieu to pass decisions in a way. So there’s a kind of disconnected
Speaker 3 26:44
a little bit. But keep in mind, the bulk of our cash in lieu least recently went towards paying off when you are very fortunate. So that gave us from water. And I can remember that he was three or $4 million dollars, cash and certainly, okay. So, you know, it probably took us 20 years to get that $7 million for the community camp. We also use it for water conservation. So that’s water. And now we don’t have to go back out to somewhere. So we can take that conserve water and use.
Speaker 8 27:25
Yeah, is respected Thomas project, prompt questions. Rather, I wonder if it doesn’t help to get away from the economic principle that we all grew up with this thinking of water as a free good. It hasn’t been that for a real long time. And so, because I think at the bottom of your question, on the whole, why are we charging so much for water we already have. And, and we’re we’re not what I think of it more like the cost of storage are the cost of electricity, you know, you have to pay to store it, we have to pay to firms, when you get water rights, you have to you have to pay it, you know, as you as you use it. And I like to think of this as an insurance policy, because a water right is not the same as water. Water Rights may or may not if there’s a change in weather, they may not flow in with the amount of like, what’s happening to the Colorado River now. I think that might help.
Speaker 6 28:34
Yeah, well, and just to be clear, I mean, I think that we are in such a good position that sometimes it causes problems I can imagine, right like that, that like that we have been so proactive. I say we like I took part in this, but but that you all have been so proactive, that you have done such a great job of securing a future, that that when we’re thinking about like what the future looks like, and the ways in which we kind of like program a future something that the way did that becomes like a difficult thing to kind of describe. If you’re not in a crisis all the time, it’s hard to decide, it’s hard to describe how you’re using the money that people are making. It’s like, it’s just like, going back to the household analogy, right? Like, if you’re saving, it’s hard to suggest how it is that you’re like, using money in a way you know, like so anyway, I mean, I’m, I’m, I’m impressed with the way in which we, you know, continue, continually plan for the future around here. And so, I just think that sometimes the marketing or something of that idea or that kind of get the word out kind of made me it’s a complicated business. So that means
Speaker 8 29:59
I hate To keep holding up this discussion to the last time the public got upset about the way we charged. It was when we changed the way the gap surcharge that women get formula. And they were on the opposite side of the discussion. They said, Hey, city, you’re leaving way too much money on the table here. CBT costs this much. RFP. Lou is way down here. You guys fix that. So I think the public has probably. Okay.
Speaker 5 30:35
Okay, thank you, Brian. Okay, so how do we spend the revenue that we collect. So this is a representation of an annual water utility budget. And the thing that we just wanted you to focus on was the pie chart, and that 63% of the total expenses go towards operating expenses, 19%, go to capital improvement program, or projects, and then the remaining 18% goes to debt service. Excited, please. So then this is. Okay, this pie chart is just a further breakdown of the orange slice of the pie from the previous chart. And so you can see that a lot of expenses go towards wages and benefits and some professional contracted services, and there’s just editable slices as well. Excellent. Okay, so then that 18% That goes to debt service. We did just earlier this year, make the final payment towards the State Revolving Fund loan. Then there’s also the 2021 revenue bonds, and those were used for treatment and distribution improvements. And then you can see the bottom one is the 2021. A revenue bonds, which, for the windy gap for Amin in June the hollow reservoir project. Excited. Okay, so how do we do our annual budget? Excellent. So this is a little flowchart of the actual budget process. We start the process by doing a revenue forecast based on the existing rates and the projected numbers of customers and projected consumption for the year. And then we work with leadership and engineers to develop an operating expense budget, and also a capital expenditure budget. And then we looked at make sure that the forecasted revenues are sufficient to cover those expenditures. And if we need to go back and adjust operating expenses as need be more if we noticed that the revenue is not sufficient to cover the expenditures. And that’s why we would undergo a rate study expenses. Okay. So these are the main drivers for when we go to do our capital planning. Not only do we look at the projected growth and water demands, but there’s other things that go into those plans as well. Making sure that we can meet regulatory requirements, make sure that we have funds to take advantage of technological and innovation advances. And then another big piece of is just looking at the aging infrastructure and making sure we’re able to replace that in a timely manner. Next slide, please. Okay, so these are the as we’re working with the project managers and engineers, we create that prioritization matrix. And these are some of the factors that go into that prioritization matrix. And then the percentages of the weighting that we’ve assigned to each of these different factors. And those factors are asset condition whether or not we’re able to meet regular reporting requirements, also trying to reduce risk and also meet the future capacity needs. And so then we look at this list sorry. Yeah, so then all these factors are taken into consideration while we’re preparing the annual budget and also trying to keep an eye on the future capital needs. Next slide, please. So this is just a visual representation of the various assets and also the forecast or replacement costs and based on the converted by current conditioning and life expectancy.
Unknown Speaker 35:23
What are the periodic peaks? Presumably those are planning horizon events.
Speaker 7 35:29
Yeah, so So the really large spikes you see there are higher intensity capital projects, I believe the pink ones are treatment, and the blue ones are water supply. So that big blue thing that we had kind of in that 2020 region that then is our investment in though in the gap permit project. And then we assume that there’s about a 50 year life before we may have to make another significant investment in redoing the reservoir. So kind of similarly, the those spiky pink things are really about kind of the original of treatment assets, according to their age, whereas most of the other kind of smaller things, and in particular, those that that wavy blue piece, there is the distribution line. And although the ages have different pipes coming out right to the pipe type send us
Unknown Speaker 36:31
we’re updating this continually.
Speaker 10 36:33
This is a snapshot of when did this last one,
Unknown Speaker 36:37
but it may have been a couple years, but we’re continually moving and readjusting based upon current expected. Our biggest one, obviously, is what treatment plants?
Speaker 7 36:51
Which is that pink when they’re around 2030? Yeah, we’ll also have a pretty significant investment probably a little sooner than that. They’re not going to get it done.
Speaker 8 37:03
The big orange storage bikes, which aren’t as tall, but they’re still significant. Are those blood tanks? Or are they like reservoir? Work?
Unknown Speaker 37:12
Tanks, reservoirs monitors? The dark blue?
Speaker 6 37:18
I would imagine that you just kind of train your eyes to know eat these things, as you’re looking at exist as an expert, of course. But But how do you then translate those episodic moments in time to kind of like to, to to the reality of the situation, which is essentially that that’s going to become presumably a bond that then gets paid over time, right? And so, so I guess you just kind of do that in your brain, you just say, well, that blue line, just kind of come down and on.
Speaker 7 37:50
What we do is, you know, annually, but very intensively, or when we do a rate study approximately every five years, we look at a 20 year horizon and say okay, here’s, here’s what we know is coming due for replacement within this 20 year horizon, are we on track to have revenue at a level of support either replacement or debt issuance if that’s required. So that’s
Speaker 3 38:17
point one thing up to one of one of the things that’s not quite as obvious in a water system is are underground pipes. They’re very near destroyed, don’t see them. But they, and there’s a lot of them, you know, every foot have a minimum word what a water plant is or a reservoir. But there’s so many feet of them that it’s a lot. If you if you look at this general, slide blue, how much of the expenses that is that real significant part in and that you know, how much you can replace the chair is a big deal. Also, if you look, you’ll notice what it does here. That’s the age of the pie. If you think about it, in 1965, they build IBM and Walmart started growing and we grew quite rapidly from the 60s to today. Well, those all those pipes in 2016 and 2090 or 200 years old. So that’s what you’re seeing there is the age of that pipe. And I hope you don’t have to replace at all once. You know, that’s that’s an interesting part of having a community that didn’t grow linearly over a few 100 years. But through that, you know, is there years of that growth and you have those spikes come do? I think for me, that was interesting.
Speaker 7 39:49
Oh, that dotted line there about the annual cost of sustainable ownership. That’s really just taking an average of who, you know, what should we be investing in the system just to manage the assets that exists today?
Unknown Speaker 40:01
We’re not quite there yet.
Speaker 7 40:04
I didn’t hear. So annual cost of sustainable ownership is really just sort of an average of what do we need to be spending over that whole time period in order to maintain existing assets should be a little north of 10 million?
Speaker 9 40:18
What is the health of our infrastructure? How would you categorize I mean, good shape, average shape. We take good care of our existing facilities.
Speaker 3 40:34
We’re average, right now that some assets have been maintained better than others. I mean, we have a fairly new water treatment plant and also play is very robust. Spend money over the last few years, those movies solvency and we haven’t seen it. So water plant is in very good shape. Obviously, our reservoirs and some of our broader infrastructure, we’ve been standing on that as well.
Unknown Speaker 41:02
Very good shape,
Unknown Speaker 41:04
historically, and made, it’s
Unknown Speaker 41:06
kind of shown in that graph there too.
Speaker 3 41:07
We have not put as much time, money and effort into our distribution system. So it is, it is not failing by any means. But it’s kind of
Speaker 9 41:20
when I see you in dewatering, race in Denver, I don’t get to concern but I wonder about I want to see many of those here in Longmont, which was a good thing.
Speaker 3 41:32
Fortunately, we’ve had a few, not not too many, but they could have been just a week or so ago, there was one of my family
Unknown Speaker 41:40
that our crews were very responsive to,
Unknown Speaker 41:45
to put back together and listen to. Most of them don’t
Unknown Speaker 41:50
disrupt distribution
Speaker 6 41:54
in life, so so they don’t become very popular. We don’t have
Unknown Speaker 41:59
very large lines.
Speaker 10 42:06
And we’ve had break a lot of losers, and we can’t stop thinking about it. But we have folly protection all over skew lines that are larger in monitoring.
Unknown Speaker 42:18
So it’s very well we can mention they were put into a
Unknown Speaker 42:26
while ago. Everything has a lifecycle.
Unknown Speaker 42:41
I trust staff.
Speaker 5 42:47
Green here. Okay. These are just some key financial metrics that we also take into consideration is going through the budget process. There’s the reserve or cash on hand, as well as the debt service coverage and the debt to capital ratio, which is an important metric considered and we are seeking new bonds for capital improvement projects.
Unknown Speaker 43:15
Is it really going up? Or is that just
Speaker 5 43:26
Okay, next slide cash reserve policy. So the cash reserve policy is important to have in place because revenue for the water utility can vary from year to year based on it, or dry year. So the wetter years, obviously, the revenues down on the water is much. However, the real cost can stays very constant from year to year because we still have to operate the system as usual. Some of the costs do fluctuate based on how much is used, but for the most part that expense stays level from year to year as opposed to the revenue which can fluctuate. And so having that healthy, that reserve policy then allows you to dip down into that fund balance in those years where you have less revenue. It just helps to ensure the health of the water utility after those highs and lows. Excellent, please. Okay, so then we just we’re going to end the presentation again by just given that fund overview of the three funds, what those revenues are they go into each of those funds, some of them are restricted expenditure types for those three different funds as well. This is just a repeat of the first slide just in a little different format. I think that’s that wraps up our presentation.
Speaker 7 44:55
I do have a question. So first, the system I’m gonna call it system development charges, but you call it system development fee. You’re gonna have assets in there. Right? And that’s where your other water rights assets are. No, I don’t believe that there are water rights assets in that calculation at all. Because we, we the city owned more assets in St. Louis. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. And all of that is is removed from that, because the, the cost? Well, first of all, our water rights are the single biggest asset, it’s a full stop. Yeah. And everybody’s contribution to that to our water rights portfolio is covered by the raw water requirements. So either providing that historic water, other water rights that we accept or paying cash, and so we don’t charge again for the water rights, because it all comes in that raw water requirement.
Speaker 8 46:02
And the city is looking for ways to incentivize behavior from residents, from developers from industry, all that, oh, the first thing we go to, is the Connect fees of various sorts for various utilities and water is right up there in the front of the line. How do we do the calculation where we decide whether fee waiver, which is terribly valuable thing, is going to be too expensive for for operational costs, if we offer it? And how do we project the uptake rate on it? Because, you know, it might be a little expense or might be a big expense, depending on how many waivers we were ended up getting?
Speaker 7 46:56
This is a great question. So, as we’ve been thinking about fee waivers, so Jimmy, and Brian’s team has been doing some projections on what we think that you know, based on our goals for affordable and attainable housing units, how many units that we think are going to come in at that level, and certain joints and stress testing, like, Okay, everybody comes in at a table level, we have zero revenue for assistant development. Well, but we have to, ya know, the kind of numbers on it right. And, you know, Brian talked a little bit about how neither the cash in lieu nor the system development fees can fully fund at either of those sort of permissible areas. So we’re always going to sort of depend on rates to make up the difference. In this case, they’re just taking up additional slack. And it’s, you know, that that additional funding will be reflected in future rate studies. You know, depending on the number of fee waivers will depend on what that additional rate increase. So we support that.
Unknown Speaker 48:15
And so in some ways, this is borrowing from the public.
Unknown Speaker 48:21
rapiers under
Unknown Speaker 48:22
under, right, any shortage and system
Unknown Speaker 48:25
development?
Speaker 8 48:29
That’s something that’s been bothering me for a lot. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 48:33
It bothers me as well.
Speaker 6 48:36
Yeah. So that’s, that’s always true. And I think when we hear about a waiver, it comes from increases in rates, that there’s not like some magical muddy pond out there that read a problem or something.
Speaker 7 48:56
Know, that’d be the whole concept of, you know, the enterprise right. Having that utility, that’s, we’re only charging what it costs to to provide the service that we don’t have.
Speaker 6 49:09
Yeah, what’s the next question that it digs into? I guess that’s what I mean, that was like there’s no slight padding to build up a fund that perhaps, obviously, we just talked about three times wasn’t included in what it is, right. Like, there’s not some small amount of padding that goes into building up some small amount of additional pool of money that then some of that comes from,
Speaker 7 49:35
there are the cash reserves that that the bride talked about. And we have some really specific reserve policies that dictate what what we keep in that fund. You know, it’s, it’s a policy decision also about you know, if we were to maybe require higher reserves for that purpose as well as the existing uses At one point in community housing was the backfill, it was CDBG funding, right? That affordable housing,
Speaker 10 50:14
or affordable housing, I don’t know that all those ones are available for longer.
Speaker 5 50:19
So any officer many of these fees
Unknown Speaker 50:22
are directly related to
Unknown Speaker 50:25
itself, future rates.
Speaker 7 50:29
And that brings up another point with when talking about rates, one of the big pieces you need to talk about and think about is the affordability of the rates for folks already in the community, keeping your rates appropriate and low, you know, giving good service and doing good water, we want those pipes replaced. But, you know, having having folks in the community, they might have affordability issues. And those affordability issues can be measured in different ways. And some of the measurements are scary.
Unknown Speaker 51:03
I’m not as familiar with Walmart’s but
Speaker 7 51:06
you know, and so don’t I really don’t like affording fee waiver costs to repairs because right here’s
Unknown Speaker 51:17
right, here’s sometimes have affordability issues.
Speaker 8 51:20
Well, a third of our ratepayers have affordability issues, we offer
Unknown Speaker 51:25
a bigger piece of the thing.
Speaker 8 51:27
Yeah, we have, we have good programs that are all free, or nearly free to help our ratepayers reduce their consumption, which helps with their individual affordability issues. But of course, they’re voluntary.
Speaker 7 51:52
You’re also fortunate to be able to offer a long term care program.
Speaker 8 51:57
That was the next thing on my mind. Oh, thank you for saying that. And, and because of something else, I was just wondering how, what we have scheduled here.
Speaker 9 52:11
I thought we’d take just a minute and ask Dan. Scott, if they have any questions at all.
Unknown Speaker 52:19
Any questions, guys?
Unknown Speaker 52:22
I’m good. Scott,
Speaker 10 52:25
as well, really nice presentation. Thank you all I don’t have any questions if you guys had some good ones. I’m all good, too. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 52:33
Okay. All right.
Unknown Speaker 52:34
We’re just wondering how
Speaker 8 52:37
we, how we fund the cares fund? Because, you know, that’s, that’s another thing that the enterprise should be kicking in something for the cares rebate?
Speaker 7 52:49
Yes, it is. Each of the enterprises that has a rebate, it’s funded through through the rates, in the case of water, okay, this is how much magic money there is ready. When we assume a super, very small percentage of our usage is really at that very, very top tier of, you know, we have the four tiers in the rate, only about 1% of our usage comes in at that. level. And when we project revenue from that, we don’t want to see usage share. We think that that is excessive use in in single family homes. So when we project the revenue from that usage, we project that it’s coming in at the next lowest tier. So we’re funding the rebates with the additional Yeah, with the difference in revenue between where where it really is charged and what we projected it when we are thinking about our long term
Speaker 8 53:54
subsidized trough look at users that are funding this because they should
Speaker 10 54:01
have you take into account when they have rainy years like last year. We did not have as many people over
Speaker 7 54:07
next to your yes, yeah, I wouldn’t expect that. Not going to have very much use in that tier at all. Yeah, we’re pretty low and ready. Do you have questions? For presentations. The time limitation is thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 54:52
Okay one
Speaker 10 54:59
more We included in your packet, we included the legislative principles, and we didn’t get the most updated. That’s the difference. And you point out the two differences. And it was from that very first guiding water principle. Now if it just speaks to support policies, these are changes that you all recommended last year, he used to say to support water policies, we it was asked to make it just policies, so we strike the water. And then the other one was in item number five, we added the word environmental and that was a your guys’s direction. So this reflects those two that didn’t get in the way. Those are the two changes we have.
Speaker 10 55:59
So what the board has in front of them is five different items, one of which required to happen first. The first one is the Villas at Spring Valley final plat to certainly proposal on system six and Sundancer. I started with some Lana was asked by all the sort of water rights for transit privatization it after that application have qualified by
Speaker 4 56:32
now from my next meeting, but pleasure just meet you briefly today and great presentation and amazing question. So thank you. I’ll be back at some movies.
Speaker 10 56:47
So those in Spring Valley final plateau legal clients with the city’s rollout requiring a policy on satisfaction of 1.799 10 the final plat approval. Additionally, just for your own information, what’s being proposed on this roughly three of your site is 28 Single Family attached residential units. And so this is the one we’re looking for more action on any questions
Unknown Speaker 57:24
that Boulder County city of Longmont
Speaker 10 57:31
66. One day north and south east face that’s going to be East Asia, Middle East and keep working is the next stream that connects to 66 is
Unknown Speaker 57:52
kind of where to go after that Fox golf course is meaningless. So
Unknown Speaker 58:04
just looking for recommendation on that.
Unknown Speaker 58:09
Any questions? Anyone make a motion
Unknown Speaker 58:20
I move that we recommend approval
Speaker 10 58:21
provided the satisfied so we’re looking to live in compliance by satisfies all right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay, all right. The next four are just for informational purposes with the policy does require board to look at these and that the first one which was Verizon Park shopping center replat G. Generally speaking, it’s it’s by Murdock’s and the old Kmart at North on 66. Zip compliance, what’s being proposed as the subdivision recladding seven new parcels I did not know what’s going to go into those but you might think of paving the parking lot being carved into some extra additional spots, being probably a surrealistic thing, some kind of business ability. Let’s do that one. The next one is Wallace addition, fifth filing, replied A. So it’s gonna be on the south side of pike Road, west of highway 287. It’s a compliance it was a proposed there is five new single family halls with mixed use. So it’s a combination of residential, retail and commercial. So let’s take the one that was already planted and just subdividing it into the Finding your
Unknown Speaker 1:00:04
development folder
Unknown Speaker 1:00:06
all the time.
Speaker 10 1:00:09
It’s got to be very close. There might be some honestly I’m not exactly sure little pieces still, but I think all of our big
Unknown Speaker 1:00:15
chunks Absolutely.
Speaker 8 1:00:19
thing that was said yes, if you’re hearing the apartment building that’s right next to this,
Speaker 10 1:00:25
so they’re there anytime they could re subdivide. That’s what you’re gonna see progress like as recladding really took a larger life subdivided into maybe smaller odds. The next one is mountain crest subdivision replant a. It’s generally located east of Patil road south south of maxvill Avenue. That was part of the conveyance plat back in 1999. What they’re looking to do, there’s 13 single family detached residential units in there 13 Lots and about two acres and their clients right now. And the last one is Connor subdivision reclad. See, it’s got it down my second and Martin Street. This particular one, actually, annex two puts two annexations, both of which were prior to the formation of one on one ward. So that’s why it’s in compliance. Now. They’re looking to do four apartments to the four stories leading up to 100 units within those four apartments. So as was being proposed, there’s four apartments that would include a total of 200. apartment units. Okay. All 50 of building okay. So all those four that I just spoke up or in compliance, but just wanted to give that to you guys. That’s all I have for
Unknown Speaker 1:02:07
you, thanks for
Speaker 6 1:02:14
business. Can you talk a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 3 1:02:18
we have before you today the only 24 legislative anymore. The we approve each year, these ones waterboard is approved and are forwarded to council along with the city’s broader water router legislating principles on the city council approves and direct staff to look at all the legislation that will come up starting January. Not too long from now. We generally do this in October so that we can get them together safely clerk’s office who then compiles them all, and they’re approved by city council, and they have a tear. So they’re ready for the new legislative session started in January. Very wadworth reviewed this every year for quite some time. But what it is give you another shot at looking at any additions or revisions of new light, we’ll be happy to add those before we are
Unknown Speaker 1:03:31
in our four star
Unknown Speaker 1:03:33
review the changes that
Unknown Speaker 1:03:35
are in the ones that we have. Right now.
Speaker 10 1:03:38
So So, Dan, and Scott, just if you’re looking at electronic version that was included in the packet, the difference again, what what I handed out into the revisions was in the first bullet item. Now I’d simply states support policies that protect flutter. And Scott, you’re the one that brought back to everyone’s attention last year at this time. And the second one was an item five, we’re now we talked about including we have a number of listed, but it also additionally includes environmental. So we’re supporting appropriate coordination of municipal water use with agriculture, recreation. We’ve now added environmental and open space sort of sobriety in that particular one. Those are the two differences in what you’re seeing on the electronic version right now.
Speaker 10 1:04:38
So I think what we’re looking for is to see if there’s anything else that you would like us to add or if you’re in support of what we’ve got in front of you and then looking for a flag or recommendation on these
Unknown Speaker 1:04:52
questions for what’s it all
Speaker 6 1:04:59
right No, I don’t know that this is a topic that needs to be resolved today. But I mean, at the very top, it expressly indicates that there’s no priority or rank importance in today’s. Of course, you know, the legislative world is all about priority, right? I mean, there’s limited. Limited budgets, of course, we wouldn’t prioritize anything, but we have limitations. And so I’m curious, just from a long term perspective, whether there is any interest in thinking about it priority or importance, of course, that’s just I mean, now all of a sudden, we’ve become as divided or something as a as a legislative body might be or something. And so, you know, this certainly is sufficient to me, of course, but I’m just curious about whether there’s in whether there would be any benefit in attempting to, for lack of a better word, these types of priorities?
Speaker 1 1:06:12
I don’t know. And then you start ranking and yeah. Prior to this version of these, that it was just a bulleted list. And the board asked last year for us to number 10. So it’d be easier for reference for races. Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 1:06:33
that’s why they are numbered, but
Speaker 6 1:06:36
yeah, yeah. Initially, when I did look at it, I kind of like I thought about some kind of inference associated with the numbers that we did it for kind of like a purely mechanistic purpose or something disobedient. Yeah, Guy numbers reference. But But please don’t read it. Alex at the top it almost. But But in any event?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:06
Then you got a comment?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:08
Yeah, it’s a very thorough
Unknown Speaker 1:07:16
were you talking
Speaker 10 1:07:20
about that. And, you know, as much as I guess the priorities change, depending on the topic and what we’re discussing. So
Speaker 2 1:07:29
I don’t really need necessarily to finally send in any given priority, because again, depending on the situation,
Speaker 10 1:07:38
or the circumstances around the discussion, priority.
Speaker 8 1:07:53
We’re here. Because asking permission to say something. We’re always 21. I observed in a pre pandemic, we had the climate Emergency Task Force, stuff like that, that senior citizens groups actually tried to recommend policies, which was properly rejected in most cases, in my mind, that would try and create policies that stood in the way of our ability to develop municipal water sources. Now, I think the political climate has changed enough for the post pandemic, we’re probably not going to get into citizen initiatives to do that for a while. But I would, I would wonder if there are times when the board itself in order to to, you know, adopt humane policies might want to do that. So for example, if we have, if we have a massive, less low water crisis, with the board say, we’re taking more than our share, because, you know, that was that was the presumption that the environmental faction had back in 2018. And 2019 wasn’t really true. But that could be true. You know, if if we you know, if the if the predicted drought from environmental was ever comes along, worse than the ones that were historically have been. So, do you need to think about that wording you need to need to Some help give the Board and the city pass to what most of transit not be grabbing, you know? Cuz consider not only welfare of this municipality, but also the general welfare state. I’m asking
Speaker 6 1:10:26
there are a few in here that can cover that type of thing. I mean, we could point to you if that was an interest, I mean, so ATM for example, future water supplies solution must benefit both the area of origin and the area of juice. Seems to me that that Westslope water is coming on an esport.
Speaker 7 1:10:54
I also think that like number one, and number seven, and nine all reference Colorado’s water resources, which is thinking of, you know, we’re beholding to our customers, which is city lawmakers. But our community is a big box. It’s Colorado. And so I think those speak to maybe some of that spirit already gives the board room to consider that. Yeah. Digger Colorado issues and you know, Colorado’s place in Colorado River
Unknown Speaker 1:11:32
prior to age
Unknown Speaker 1:11:36
four and above
Speaker 9 1:11:37
what communities? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look beyond ourselves,
Speaker 8 1:11:46
they’ll certainly so far the community has cooperated with with our efforts to make the big improvement. So it hasn’t come up.
Speaker 9 1:12:01
Well, Tom, back to your comments. Okay, comfortable with the way it’s laid out, I hear what you’re saying. What I think is when the legislature cranks up, probably at that time, if there’s any particular issues that come back at us, that would be the time to hone in on
Unknown Speaker 1:12:29
comfortable. I’m not saying I don’t want to listen to your comments, but I’m
Speaker 6 1:12:38
no, it was more. So just the topic for consideration. I don’t know, necessarily what my thoughts are. The risks that I like these, you know, kind of guiding principles, the problem that I always have with them, is that you just stack so many on top of each other, that suddenly they become less meaningful, because there’s because it says everything. It says we want to provide everyone with everything, and everybody should be happy. And the danger in that then is that it also says, right. And so I don’t know that we’re at that point, you know, I mean, but I’m sure that somebody or for any issue could find one of these principles that would cover them for in here. And so then that then then we become a hauled into interpreter of the principles. So that was my main concern. Again, I’m not necessarily advocating in one direction or another
Speaker 10 1:13:55
Scott Knight and when I wrote the law, I’ve got to check off you’re about to jump on a call in two minutes.
Speaker 5 1:14:01
I didn’t have any specific answers. We looked at these pretty hard last year. And I acknowledged the conversation not it’s not on advice in there that I wasn’t necessarily favorable to
Speaker 9 1:14:18
most got any other any other comments? I think we’re all you it is. We’re okay with modifications you may even move forward with.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:40
To make a motion to that regard. So I’ll motion to adopt the 2024. legislative year in schools. You amended? Okay. All right. Moving second. am all in favor signify by saying aye?
Speaker 9 1:15:04
All right. Very good. Okay, item to staff. Oops,
Speaker 10 1:15:16
yeah. So on off of the presentation, just we recognize that the next quarterly review is scheduled for December. But from the review last month, kind of following the board’s direction, we have started having conversations with other departments within the city of Walmart, the Public Works and engineering team and planning team and the communications team to try to figure out the best way we were going to be able to inform stakeholders, both internal and external customers have future changes. And so we’re working through that. Right now. We’ve, we have each one of those departments bring their own perspective and their own talent. So it’s good, it’s good, some good initial communication. So wanted to put that out there that we are working on that aspect of it. We I also wanted to mention that, as we go through the specifics, we talked about the number crunching the numbers related to the windy gap and stuff, we, we know that when you look at it in the center, you’re gonna find that there’s was a range of numbers that came through those eight units, that Platte River have the range from 3.8 million per unit to 4.5 million. And we know that there’s an average kind of close to 4 million. So we’ll be able to bring that specific data to you, in talking with P RPA. They are anticipating taking two of the three sales. So there’s five units that are represented through three different transactions, that are planning and thinking that probably the two of the three will go in front of the sub district board in December, and it would be just prior to your December meeting. And then the other one would be sometime in the first quarter. That’s what they’re thinking. So the PRP, a board has already given approval to accept these bids, it’s already in place. But the actual transaction, the authority to make these transactions comes from the three northern sub district board that doesn’t say yes, you can sell it, or transfer it to party A, B, and C. And so that’s the that’s their projected timeline for that. And then lastly, I was just gonna mention, but I need that said again, slower and differently. And maybe let me just ask the question. So the PRP, a board has determined which of those others they’ve already given the approval to accept all three, all three, three bids, or represent five units. Okay. And so they basically set the price and now they’re waiting on Northern to move those to approve those. Okay, but that gives us some fixed price, right? That’s, that’s correct. Great. Okay. Yes, that’s exactly right, Renee. And, and the, and I can tell you, they’ve shared with me told me that I can share this with you the the average price for the selected so of eight units that we’re bid on, so you have five ever people asking for a total of eight units. Okay, the average of that was $4,160,000 per unit. The average for the selected is so the three bids that represent the five units that they’re trying to sell was $4,037,500 per unit. So those are the numbers and the details will we’ll put back in writing in December, that kind of gives you a barometer. They have the lowest bid was 3.8 million, the highest was 4.5. And the average was so that’s where where they did that answer that question for you? Okay, so much. So let me go to number. Yeah, so I’m not hanging out. Right. And so just we continue to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on the CDT even though that doesn’t just abolition, or cash in lieu, that’s not the Baroque, that’s not what we’re using to base cash on the lawn, it’s nice to understand where that’s at. And in the in the past, those were those numbers were coming in at around $70,000, a unit somewhere in that, it’s looks like right now, that market is softened a little bit, it’s probably in the around the $65,000. Unit range. The thought was, what we’re hearing is that a lot of that has to demand as interest rates went up, there’s not as many people that are willing to take cash off the sidelines to buy it. And, and so therefore, there, the supply is out there can’t demand quite as high a price. So it’s kind of softening a little bit, but still close to where it was, it’s certainly not back down to the 20 or $30,000 unit. And just to remind, when we look at CBT, the credit and yield we give for a unit of CBT is point seven, six, so it’s still you know, it’s still in the 80 $90,000 per unit, or per acre foot range for CVT, it’s that number is still quite a bit higher than
Unknown Speaker 1:21:25
what a current gash was.
Speaker 10 1:21:27
So that was kind of just the update, not looking for any. Any action, just wanted to keep let you know that we’re we’re doing what you asked us and we’re working through that policy. And I expect next month, we’ll give you some further updates, where we’re coming through with the communication internally and how we might best feel like we’re covering everyone, or wanting to make sure anyone that might be affected is notice of any future change, no matter what size that might be.
Speaker 9 1:21:56
As far as the timing of us adopting Justin jumper using using think we will have the information we need to come up with a firm decision.
Speaker 10 1:22:12
I think that the December, December meeting your scheduled next quarterly meeting, we’re going to be able to have that number. And hopefully you guys feel like you have enough information that maybe you can make a decision what you want to do with fashion at that timer.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:28
Any questions? Okay, moving on over you down there. Ready? All right.
Speaker 1 1:22:46
All right. So since the last time we met, we did our kids, you can park faster garden project. So just as a brief reminder, this was a turf transition project that we identified with the help of art in public places. We received Colorado water conservation and state funding to do this project. And public places helped us identify this site at Kensington Park. Because there’s an mosaic there that’s being damaged by water hitting it and the mowers and weed whackers and all those sorts of things. So art in public places was gonna remove the grass anyways. And so we thought what a good example of a project to be cross departmental and put in some zero hours. So we had to work with Northern Mater, botanic gardens to create Derrick native plants, planting garden. And then we engage the community throughout the whole process. So we did a lot of community engagement. We had events on site so that they could be a part of the design process. They got to choose what content they wanted to see what they wanted the gardens to look like. And then on the 23rd of September, we had the planting event. So we invited all of the communities into Park community to come out and actually plant the plants in the ground. So we had 59 community volunteers come out. Yeah, it was really successful. That’s rock and roll. Yeah. We planted 354 plants, we gave away 99 plants, zero plants. And then so that we removed 3000 square foot of turf grass, and we’re estimating water savings of 180,000 gallons per year. And I just have some photos of the day that you guys would like to see. So that’s what it looks like before that’s the mural on certain file that green grass. They did not move the turf until like the Tuesday before our Saturday event. So we were a little nervous. But we had we had really good contractors they were they were right on it day. removed all the turf grass, amended the soil next time. Thank you and then put in all of the mulch, we use pea gravel, what we call the industry squeegee, which is the best management practice for their plants, as well as an ADA path so that folks in wheelchairs can get up to mural and all around in the garden. So lots of community members, lots of kids, huge families. And then you can just scroll through that, thank you. And this, this barren ground here will be grass. So that big area in the front is going to be where we’re going to do dog turf, which is a plant select hybrid from native grass in Africa. So super drought resistant and tolerant to dogs, which is why we call dog tough, and then some of your breasts as well. I put this in here because that’s the old man in the wheelchair to show that this is a compliant. She wrote her dad right up there. We had, that’s a joke cherry tree, which is one of the trees that were requested by the community, lots of youth, which was really great. And so those kids were really excited about the tree. And they kept saying, I can really see my tree and a couple of years and watch our tree grow. So it was really a special, really special event. We were able to partner with neighborhood group leaders association. So they’re the ones who did the boots on the ground community engagement outreach flyering, we use the new center to put fliers on every door in the Kensington neighborhood. And we were able to use ARPA funding. So we use this as a Community Enrichment event post COVID. And we were able to get some sweet cow and breakfast burritos and coffee and a bunch of other we did a resource fair. So sustainability was there and long on public for llama Food Rescue, all those type of things he did. Large resources are there too. And that’s what it will look like when it’s all grown and established. We’re thinking it’ll be about three years. And so right now, with each passing year with zero gardens, the water use decreases significantly. So this first year, we won’t see huge water savings, but that will increase and then after our third year, we’re expecting to not irrigate at all. So yeah, just wanted to share that successful project with you guys. It was really a wonderful example of our growing Water Smart initiative of how cross departmental work in collaboration is really important. I mean, being able to work with art in public places and neighborhood group leaders Association and sustainability and the youth center and parks and open space where their natural resources and our volunteer community or our volunteer coordinator was there it was just really a special event to her
Unknown Speaker 1:28:05
yeah
Speaker 1 1:28:08
I got one phone call and she was like why are you tearing out our beautiful grass? And all I had to do was explain that we’re gonna put something more beautiful in there and she was so excited she was worried you’re gonna tear out the whole part. Like no no just this part 3000 square feet seems like a lot of grass but it’s a huge part so there’s still lots of room to rock
Unknown Speaker 1:28:38
thanks a lot
Unknown Speaker 1:28:49
Ranger project
Speaker 9 1:29:06
anybody have any comments on the way this is laid out? Washing your comments
Unknown Speaker 1:29:26
all right
Unknown Speaker 1:29:37
informational items or
Unknown Speaker 1:29:38
positive stuff that was included in
Unknown Speaker 1:29:44
items was scheduled for future readings
Unknown Speaker 1:29:55
and they also they’re gonna cause Good morning
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