Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 meeting of the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the role to establish a quorum?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Tanakella.

Commissioner Gasperd.

Present.

Commissioner Zito.

Present.

Commissioner Burdock.

Present.

Commissioner Steinbaum.

Present.

Commissioner Nelson.

Commissioner Rogers.

Present.

Commissioner Shambé.

Present.

Commissioner Olson.

Absent.

Commissioner Everly.

Present.

Commissioner Johnson.

Is I'm apologize.

Uh Commissioner Cook.

Present.

And Chair Tron.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

I'd like to remind the members of the public in chambers that if you'd like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip before the item begins.

After the item is called, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

You will have two minutes to speak once you're called on.

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Please rise if you're able for the opening acknowledgments in honor of the Sacramento's indigenous peoples and tribal lands.

Okay.

To the original people of this land, the Nissan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintun peoples, and the people of the Winton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous people's history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Please be seated.

All right.

And before we uh start with today's agenda, I want to take a second to acknowledge that we have a new commissioner here today.

Umok.

Would you like to say a few words and uh thank you?

Uh great to be with you here this evening and grateful to Mayor McCarty for entrusting me with this responsibility.

Looking forward to working with city staff and with my fellow colleagues.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to the consent calendar.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

I don't have any speaker slips for this item.

Okay.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on the item?

Okay, seeing none.

Uh is there a motion second to accept the consent calendar?

So moved.

Aye, second.

Second.

Okay.

We're doing voice voice vote tonight, so all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Gotta be sharp.

Any opposed.

Any abstain?

Motion passes.

Okay.

Uh, we'll now proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item number two is the water wastewater rate adjustment, community outreach, and core messaging.

Is there a staff presentation?

There is.

All right.

Well, good evening, Tran.

Good to see you in your new role.

Uh Commission members or a nice full commission.

My name is David Levine, long-range financial planning manager for the Department of Utilities.

For tonight's item, we shift our attention to the development of a strategy and outreach for communicating the rate adjustments needed to ensure continued financial viability and address the most critical operational, administrative, and capital needs in the water and wastewater funds.

Department of Utilities staff and consultants are currently planning outreach efforts to help inform community groups and engage in two-way conversations about the rate planning process.

Nearly 200 groups have already been identified, which includes business chambers, property and business improvement districts, and neighborhood associations.

These groups will serve as the core of the department's outreach strategy alongside communications efforts to the general public and more targeted outreach to difficult to reach communities in the city.

All of you here play an important conduit between the department and community members in this outreach process by leveraging what you have learned about our financial, operational, and deferred maintenance challenges over the last nine months.

I realize some of you have had shorter terms, but we've been talking about this for just about nine months.

Tonight's presentation seeks direct feedback from this commission on core messaging that will work best in your communities to communicate the rate goals.

We are joined this evening remotely by our consultant from RAFTELUS, Samantha Villeagis.

And RAF Tellus is the firm who we are working with to support our rate planning efforts.

She will be taking us through the remainder of tonight's presentation.

She will be joining us online.

I think they'll do some magic in the back, and there she is.

I say, welcome, Samantha, and I will uh advance your slides, and you just tell me when you're ready.

Okay, great.

Thanks, David.

And how's the audio?

Is it okay?

Good.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, um, good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to be with you.

It's good to be with you coming to you from Charlotte, North Carolina this evening.

And um, yeah, as David said, my name is Samantha Viegas.

I am a uh communications and public outreach consultant with RAF TELUS.

Refteless is the uh company that's been hired to assist the city with the utility rates study.

And my team in particular provides, we're not the financial folks, we're the comms and outreach folks, and we help uh provide strategic communications and outreach consulting services.

Um, and I'm actually standing in today uh for Matt Whittern.

He's if we uh come before you again in the future, it'll be my colleague Matt Whittern.

He's he's out of our Denver office, and he's been working with David all this time.

I'm standing in because Matt had the audacity to take a little vacation this week with his family.

So I'm happy to be here with you.

Um, just by way of background, um, I am a professional communications and outreach consultant.

This is my um core passion, my core work.

I've been doing outreach and communications mostly for public works for over 35 years, um, mostly in the DC area, but as a part of the RAF Tellis team working in communities all across the country.

And I've specialized in water since 1999.

I've had a focus in water, wastewater, and stormwater, and an additional focus on rates.

So I speak your language, I know what this is like, and I'm happy to be here to help you.

Next slide, please, David.

Um, just by way of a little bit of background about our firm, RAFTELUS.

We are uh one of the most experienced utility financial and management consulting practices in the nation.

Um have served over 1,700 public agencies in the country representing 25% of the population, and and that includes the agencies that serve 41 out of the 50 of the country's largest cities.

And utility rate studies and the communications that support them is a core competency of our company.

Um with that being said, next slide, the agenda.

Yeah, so um, real briefly tonight, it's really two things before you, maybe three.

The first is let's talk about the rationale behind the rate study, as this serves as the basis for the core messages.

So I want to I want to hear from you all about what resonates in terms of rationale, and then we've got some of the key core messages, and again, just to get feedback on the word choices, making sure with your perspectives from your networks and the folks that you represent in the community, what what rings true, what sounds right, what maybe could be an issue.

Um, and then we'll wrap with a brief discussion about what you all can be doing, as David said as conduits into the community.

There's a number of things that we think you can do.

We're gonna share some, and then maybe you have some ideas as well.

So, with all that good stuff being said, um, next slide, please.

The communications challenge, or as we say, an opportunity that's before you.

Um, first the reality of things.

And residents may be feeling the pressure of inflation and rate fatigue, and the city is catching up after eight years without an increase.

So this means that the work's gonna be very highly visible and closely scrutinized.

And even though it's been nearly a decade since the last time rates were increased, we still have to be sensitive that many families are struggling financially.

The good news is we have a very strong story to tell about protecting public health, fixing aging infrastructure, and noting that utility funds cannot be used for general funds like police, fire, and parks.

So we need to tell the story very clearly and consistently to establish the value for the services.

And finally, the strategy.

So by using those existing channels, instead of forcing people to attend new meetings, we build on established trust and reach more people efficiently.

So you can expect to see messages about the rate study, the work being done by this commission, and other details in places like the city website, its social media platforms, City Connect mixers and e-newsletters, community meetings, among other places.

With all of that being said, let's kind of dive in now to uh the reason why we're here this evening.

This slide is about the core rationale.

Um before we can figure out exactly what the words are that we're gonna use, we want to come to some consensus on the strongest logical reasons for the rate adjustment.

These the following things that I'm going to read are all true statements.

I'm gonna go ahead and read through them and then have some questions for you, such as as I read them, I want you to be thinking which of these sounds most convincing to you, um, not from your personal perspective per se, but from the folks that you represent on the on the dais.

Which do you think your neighbors will care about most?

What's gonna ring true and resonate well?

And are there any here that we should avoid using?

So while you think about that and you put your you know customer representation hat on here, let's walk through these.

So, first we've got, and these aren't in any particular order.

This is not a priority order list, aging infrastructure.

Some of the city's water and sewer pipes are over a hundred years old.

The systems that clean our drinking water and move wastewater treatment elsewhere are old and they need major repairs or replacement.

The cost of delay.

So planned upgrades are much less expensive than paying premium prices for emergency repairs when systems suddenly fail.

And the cheapest investments you can make are the investments you make today.

Anytime we cause delay, we cause an increase in the cost to do that work.

Rising costs.

Since the last rate change in 2020, prices for materials, chemicals, and labor has significantly increased because of inflation and other factors.

Stricter regulations, state and federal rules set increasingly stricter water quality and environmental standards.

Meeting these rules costs a lot of money.

And finally, resiliency.

Not only does the city need to adjust current issues, but it must also prepare for future water needs to avoid service disruptions and prepare for drought years.

So let's sit with that for a minute, and I encourage the commissioners to share again the questions before you are which one of these is most convincing to you, and which do you think your neighbors will care about most?

And is there anything in here that we should avoid talking about or using?

I don't have any public comment for this item.

Commissioners.

Greetings, everyone.

I looked over everything, and uh I have to say that uh the water uh resiliency sticks out with me on the uh pro side.

I just want to know if that maybe uh there can be something uh mentioning about protecting future generations.

I think that might uh get a uh I think more of a group to feel that that's necessary as far as taken out or not mentioning uh when you mention strict regulations, I believe that that should be taken out because uh I know in my district it may sound like there's just more taxes, and you know California is the king of taxes of all of the 50 states, so I think that if that was left out, it would have more of a um acceptance to the general public.

Thank you, Commissioner Steinbaum.

I guess first I would be very curious to know um what the city thinks uh are the best messages, like what their communications team believes is the best messaging, because I do feel like you guys have a lot of experience working in the city, and you have experience with all of the residents here, you have experience communicating about so many different issues.

Um, that yes, I I think that you guys have a lot to say about this, and I would like to learn more about what you guys think.

Um, but that being said, I I think that I mean, from my opinion, I think that people can relate um to like rising costs.

That is something that people talk a lot about.

Um, I mean, without getting into detail, you know, about specifically what the costs are, like we've talked about in these meetings.

I I think people generally understand that prices for things are increasing.

Um, and I would also say people understand that infrastructure is old and it's a lot of infrastructure here and across America is old and needs to be updated.

Um I think some some of the messaging might not be as popular, like um, you know, the second point, the cost of delay, I think is perhaps not as relatable to the average person.

Um, and for someone who is just thinking about how this impacts them, you know, today or this year, uh, they might not really care that in the long term it's more cost efficient.

Um, some people are more focused on you know the more immediate future and are not thinking about like a decade or decades from now.

Um but yes, overall, I think I would really love to hear uh some of the I guess just from the city about what they think the strongest messaging is as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Azito.

Um yes, I want to agree with uh Commissioner Chambey on the strict regulations.

I mean, California is probably one of the most regulated states, and we're just tired of hearing about it.

It's gonna happen whether you like it or not.

So it's really not anything that we can really negotiate or debate.

Um the water resiliency though, you know, I I know that's an issue, prepare for the future, but people are tired of hearing about the future, especially with environmental things, so it's in the future.

You're saving the future, you're saving the future.

That's probably why we're paying over five dollars a gallon for gas now for the future.

Well, my future, you know, is not gonna be be, you know, 20 years from now.

This is this is not gonna happen in any short order.

So I think that kind of, you know, most people they're like, I don't care about them.

I'm caring about right now because I'm paying right now.

You know, I filled up my gas tank this morning, I didn't need gas, it was down a quarter of a tank, but I thought I better buy it now because it's gonna be more expensive tomorrow.

You know, so it's like I'm I'm not worried about, you know, you do those kinds of things.

So that would be my only suggestions.

I think the others are, you know, everybody knows things need to be replaced, and you know, with your properties, you you have to maintain them, and you know if you wait, it's gonna be more expensive.

It always is.

Um, so I think I I don't know, that would just be my opinions on those.

So your comments um Commissioner Rogers.

Thank you.

So uh I just have one small suggestion that's kind of piggybacking on what Commissioner Steinbaum said.

So the rising costs is gonna be the main thing.

And Cher Zito's right, people think and vote with their wallet for the most part.

The only silver lining, and I mentioned it in the first meeting I was a part of back in December that I could think of that is personal for me, is that a lot of this work matter of fact, I got offered a job call the other day for sex or out and outgrowth biogeneration plan.

Union men and women in Sacramento, their wallets, their bank accounts are gonna be getting filled, they're gonna be getting paychecks to keep uh the roof over the head to feed their kids with these improvements.

The infrastructure has to be built by local tradesmen.

And I think it'd be smart uh if this consulting firm or the city taps in with the local unions.

I myself can be a connection with the IBW.

If you get the union boots on the ground, unions are pretty popular in California.

We could probably help shape the messaging, you know, that this is a good thing, it's a necessary thing.

But you add the personal part.

Hey, my brother who's an electrician is working in fixing the city's, you know, uh the switch gear at the biogeneration plant, whatever it's going on, that could be extremely helpful for messaging and maybe ease some of the pain that they're gonna be thinking of with the rate increases.

It's not gonna completely fix it, but there's one silver lining, I guess, here vice chair Nelson.

Yeah, thank you, madam chair, and and thank you Sam for the presentation, and also just want to acknowledge it's almost 9 p.m.

where you are, and so appreciate you being with us late.

I'm sure you would rather be on the couch watching something more entertaining than us.

But um something that sticks out to me, and I I'm not a communications professional, it's not, I think, probably our role to shape how this message is is related to the public, but we are a pretty good cross section of Sacramento.

Um the city is using this platform called uh Flash Vote.

Um, and I don't know if any of you have uh been signed up before.

I don't really even recall how I became signed up for it, but they sent out uh uh a vote um you know request related to the the public's interest and uh openness to water and sewer rates going up.

Um and the the thing that I like about the survey platform is that once you fill it out, they send you the results so you can see what everyone else said.

So they got 400 responses, and I got this emailed summary of what everyone felt.

And I was actually um I was I I feel optimistic based on the the results.

One of the questions that they asked was um about you know how willing people would be to support a vote increase and almost 60 percent of Sacramentans who responded so that they would support an increase if it was you know justified and and and backed up with a third party, which is what the city is doing.

And going through the the other comments, that's it's a fascinating cross-section of humanity.

Um but something that stood out to me is one of the most common comments from folks was about how the city is using this rate increase to plug their hole in the budget, um, which to me is good news because that is that is an opportunity to increase that 60% number with education because people don't understand how Prop 218 works, how their utilities are paid for, and you don't need to explain it to everybody, you need to explain it to enough people to make it politically viable.

So I think we're starting from a good foundation.

It seems to me that the city is doing the right steps by bringing in experts um to help with that.

And I also think that the public wants to be treated with respect and wants to be treated with um the sense that they can be brought along on this process in the way that you've brought all of us along.

And so there's enormous opportunity to fill in some of those knowledge gaps to support the rate increase that I think the city so desperately needs.

So I I'm feeling more optimistic than I think maybe I was a year ago.

Thank you.

Any further comments.

Oh one more from Steinbaum.

Um, yes, I guess I was going to respond to that comment.

And uh, yeah, I guess thank you for sharing that information because that is helpful for all of us.

Um I would also say just that we should keep in mind that I guess I don't know exactly what the results of the survey are, but um sometimes your data can be biased, uh, just by the fact that you're only you know collecting responses from people who want to respond, which is a a certain subset of the population, it's not like the general population, and so sometimes that kind of might skew uh yeah, what your responses are or the percentage, you know, for what response you get.

If I could respond to that, I think that this is just one of many things, right?

And and that's really why we're here tonight.

Uh we know we have this mechanism, um, and we still have it, right?

We can leverage it in other ways too, but um we're here to get the feedback on the development of a of a more comprehensive plan.

So this is something we were able to do rather quickly and and put that together.

Um, but I just want to assure all of you that um you know it's a much larger effort than that.

So um, especially you know, direct talking with people.

Um I know Sam had more to cover in kind of the next slide, so um maybe if there's no other feedback, I we can keep going.

Or Sam, I don't maybe you have uh questions, follow-up questions for anybody, or I know you're just jotting things down.

Um I'm jotting things down as I know you you guys will have an official um meeting minutes of tonight's meeting as well.

Um I I thought the comments were were very interesting.

Uh appreciate all of you weighing in as you did.

Um I thought it was interesting that you know there was some sense of you know, maybe this idea of the rationale cost of delay isn't very compelling.

And then I heard one of you say, Well, I got gas today, even though I didn't need it because I know the cost is gonna go up tomorrow, and that's the argument you'd be making with with these rates.

So give give that, I would just say give that a little bit more thought.

Um I heard you you kind of you kind of mixed on resiliency, rising costs is definitely a winner, aging infrastructures sounds to be a little bit of a no-brainer.

Uh good comment in there about the job opportunity and invoking unions as part of your advocacy for for the rate increase.

Um so I thought that was all interesting.

One thing on on the regs and the comments someone made about increasing taxes as a result of the regs hearing you that there's some you know, increased regulation, there's a little fatigue there within your state, and maybe your community on that.

Um, but the costs associated with treatment for emerging contaminants is real, um, and those are some of the higher ticket costs that the utility will will face.

Um so um definitely noodle on that a little bit, but all around uh really appreciate the thoughtfulness and the comments.

Um so if we could, I want to move into the rationale to actual messages that would like to get some of your feedback on, and also you know, hearing from one of the commissioners that the city should weigh in on their knowledge too of the community and the and the communications that they typically do, what resonates.

But let's David, let's go to the um slide six.

Yep, so you have it up testing the core messages, testing the core messages.

Yep.

And um, so these are simple public-facing translations that align largely with the arguments we just discussed.

Um these fall into four general categories value safety, the need for action, accountability, and affordability.

And um we do this, you know, you'll hopefully notice this is very plain language.

We do this in a lot of communities uh for a lot of utilities, and we know that the the average American has a six to eighth grade reading level, so we try to keep the language as simple as possible and really use accessible words.

So for value and safety, clean water and reliable sewers, protect our health and make modern life possible for need for action, much of our infrastructure is aging.

We delayed updates to keep costs low, but now those bills are due for accountability, state law requires your bill to only pay for water and sewer services, getting to the the one gentleman's comment about Prop 218.

We don't have to say that, we don't have to get really technical.

The utility does not make a profit, it can only collect what it costs to run the system, and finally affordability.

Help is available through the Sacramental Utility Rate Assistance Program for families who need support paying bills, and that's one of those messages that's just good practice to have in there because we know that there'll be folks that are struggling and are gonna want to know where can they get help?

And that's one of those messages that's just good practice to have in there because we know that there'll be folks that are struggling and are gonna want to know where they can get help.

So my questions for you on this slide, as you're looking at it and digesting it, does this language make sense?

And are there any points or local concerns from the folks that you pres you represent on the dais that we missed in this phrasing?

I think Sam I can kick us off.

Um I think looking at these messages, a lot of them are really powerful.

Something that I feel like we could add alongside them are um a note about economic growth, uh water being like a prerequisite for more economic growth and housing infrastructure.

It's been a big talking point in Sacramento, and in order to grow and build, we're gonna need clean water and sewer services.

Um and to the point about sort of accountability and affordability, there's um a quote that Denver Water uses something along the lines of uh the rates are as low as good service allows.

So we can charge you less for water, you're just not gonna have as good of service.

And is that something that you know people are willing to pay less for?

Is that something like the consequence basically of uh lower rates?

Some other folks in the queue.

Um I'm not sure if it's Commissioner Rogers or or Sean Bey.

No, okay, might be an old one.

One of you, okay, Steinbaum.

Um, so for this, I in general, I think it is wise to keep the messaging positive.

Um there are a few of these that get a little bit more into the negative, but yeah, I think framing it as a positive that we want to protect health, yeah, make modern life possible, that we want to encourage economic development, housing opportunities, that's all positive.

Um there's one particular statement that I strongly dislike, um, under need for action that's we delayed updates to keep costs low, but now those bills are due.

I would say it that feels a little passive aggressive, but also for for some people, maybe they didn't live here, you know, years before when uh those costs were were put off, right?

And so maybe that person then feels like, hey, it's not fair to me that I have this cost now, but someone who lived here five years ago didn't have that, and now I have to pay more because you know that wasn't accounted for then.

Um yeah, I think sometimes like those types of statements that then cause like comparisons are not particularly helpful.

Um but yes, I another thing I I think that would be helpful that uh maybe is a detail, um not a core message.

I I think it would be very helpful to be able to give just the average resident an idea of what the average bill is, and then what like what the average bill is now and what the average bill would be including the proposed changes because yeah, I think for the average person, all of these messages are nice, but most people just want to know.

Well, if this changes, how much am I going to pay for my next bill?

And what does that mean for me?

So, yes, I think that you guys will be able to come up with that and and what that number would be, but um, I think that would be particularly helpful.

Great point, thank you.

Commissioner Eberley.

Uh thank you.

Um, one of the things that I think should be considered is that uh, particularly in my district, there's a long skepticism that certain neighborhoods or certain areas, particularly midtown or downtown, uh, receive the bulk of any kind of improvement.

And I think it's really important to make sure that this is stressed that this is universal for all residents of the city, that all neighborhoods will be impacted, all neighborhoods will be improved.

Uh, you know, wastewater is one of those things that people can can understand, even though it's completely you know underground or hidden from them, but um people do know it's important to make sure things go somewhere else than their front yard.

So I think that's that's something that needs to be stressed that this is this is for all people in the city and not just this, we're not just trying to because particularly like downtown, there's so much construction, there's so much improvement.

This is not for this is for all parts of the city.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um to kind of comment on what you were saying, Commissioner Steinbaum.

I think that that's a really good point.

I feel like if uh we were to you know bring to the public the the notion of raising rates for all these good reasons.

The the top two questions I feel like that come right after that are by how much and to pay for what?

And I feel that when you know when the rate study comes out um is finalized in June, that should be something that you know all the commissioners across the board should feel very comfortable answering, and with help from the city, of course.

And we do it with words and pictures, just so you guys know there's infographics we use that are very effective in helping communicate those rate impacts.

Thank you.

I don't see any other comments from commissioners.

Okay, back to the next slide.

Yeah, one more.

Uh so this idea that you guys are uniquely positioned to be of service in this exercise.

The public trusts its its neighbors, its friends, its families, the volunteer residents, far more than they trust consultants or government agencies.

So here is a menu of options we developed for your participation, uh, different ways that each of you can get involved in helping us build that awareness and support.

So this idea of ambassador pairings where you know joining a community ambassador at a local event to answer questions about the rate study and the need for smart investment, the neighborhood road shows, so you know, taking uh the talking points along and a brief update at a neighborhood association meeting.

Uh number three, uh the helping the city create informal content for social media where maybe it's a direct to video for one of you or several of you where you talk kind of from the heart, explain your your own experience on the URAC and what how this has been for you.

Um another one is a guest editorial for co, you know, just a co-author of an opinion piece in the local paper, explaining the rigorous process that we've been through to get to this point.

And um, so these are these are some of the ones we've come up with, and the questions I have before you are does this sound like stuff you would be interested in.

Um, do you have other ideas of ways that commissioners can help share this info with the community?

Um and one thing we would note is that at least one of you has expressed the desire to engage with your council person, and we were curious what um something like that might look like um just a quick example.

I just met with councilman Gera for a lunch.

He's who nominated me to this seat, and uh he specifically asked all the commissioners, but this just comes out of interesting timing that uh he wants us to go to his, he has like food trucks and a little community event.

That right there is probably perfect opportunity for me in my district to go talk to people.

Um but I think your main engagement's gonna be on social media, not even the newspaper.

I mean, SACB's paid wall uh paywalled for the most part.

Most people aren't subscribed.

So I think commissioners doing some kind of uh events like that, and I don't have to be the only one there.

I mean, if you want to come to Guerra's event, anyone all you know come join me.

But um only up to six.

What's up?

Only up to six of us.

Oh, okay.

That's right.

Forgot about that.

Um, and um, yeah, but social media, I mean, that's the key.

Thank you, Vice Chair Soren, Nelson.

Yeah, suffice chair, Tiffany.

Um yeah, so I I think these are good options, Sam.

I appreciate you giving us a menu.

Um, you know, I I don't know about you all.

I get a lot of my sort of news about what the city is doing through my neighborhood associations.

I think that's a really good avenue.

Um as infuriating as it can be to go attend those meetings sometimes.

It is a really great way to interface with your your neighbors on what the city is doing.

Um I also met with my council member staff to talk about this, and at least at the staff level, they had no idea that this was a process that the city is going through, what Prop 218 is, what it means, the fact that these funds are siloed from the rest of the the city's budget woes.

So I do think that our council members would benefit from hearing directly from us just uh to help start to socialize it.

Great.

Um could I maybe see a quick show of hands for if commissioners are involved or know of when their local like neighborhood associations meet?

Are you active in that sort of a venue?

Okay, okay.

Just to seeing where the room is.

Okay, and then um show of hands.

Anyone else have any outreach with their council member prior to this meeting?

Keep them up.

Okay.

And any interested in talking to their council member?

Show of hands.

Yeah, it's a good system.

Okay.

Good to know.

There's so um, if you can't see in the room, uh good show of hands for folks that are connected and interested, um, and at least those two sorts of um engagement opportunities.

Um, another opportunity I'd like to throw out there is you know, uh DOU throws some really great tours, and I think that those have been really great opportunities for commissioners and council members to get to know the city better, get to know the staff better, have that FaceTime, um, look at some pipes and and kind of see you know what the money's going towards.

So um, yeah, maybe we can talk about this as one of another one of the opportunities.

Um but I'm excited to see the the level of engagement so far.

Okay.

A couple more in the queue.

I didn't know if it was either of you two.

Seinball.

I guess excited to be part of this process, and I'm excited to see what we all end up doing and how we support you guys.

But I'd also like to hear a little bit more from the city about um, you know, your experience with other outreach efforts and the types of activities that you feel have been successful, um, and it would be interesting maybe to get into a little bit of data about like when you send out email blasts, um, how many people are opening those emails, uh, and then how that results in attendance at at meetings or events.

Um, yeah, it would be interesting to just like go through some of the specifics of examples of other outreach efforts that you guys have led and the yeah, the types of activities that you feel have been most successful, because I think we can learn a lot from those experiences, um, especially if there are you know similar-ish topics.

Um, yeah, hopefully we hear more from you in the future.

Okay, and Commissioner Shonbe.

Uh so to answer the question earlier about uh other means uh here in Sacramento, there is uh community engagement.

So during that time, I have uh brought up on the three meetings that I've attended that uh the public needs to come out and uh participate and be aware how things are affecting uh their uh rates and why it is affected our rates.

So the other ones weren't mentioned, but I have been attending those in my area.

Thank you.

Uh another one is some of the uh festivals that happen throughout the uh city of Sacramento.

Uh some people may be affiliated or have friends or someone where they can also get the word out.

Um I know one that uh I'm uh personally affiliated with Sacramento Water Festival, and uh we haven't as of yet mentioned that, but uh maybe uh as long as I can find out from the uh city attorney that is not a conflict of interests or anything like that, maybe I can uh go ahead and mention something like that.

Yeah, Commissioner Burdock.

Um, this is interesting to get us involved in this.

I was wondering, I mean, the city's presented as over these meetings with PowerPoints and tours and uh speeches, but could you guys prepare a white paper just or a fact sheet something with some of these talking points, data that backs them up?

You've talked about what is the we talked about uh inflation is like what is the rate of inflation for construction projects.

Um we've had uh legislative um authorizations to incre increase services.

What is the cost of that?

So if you could produce something that in one sheet of paper that we could take with us and have in our back pocket um to share some to expand on some of these facts, um that would be very beneficial, I think for all of us.

Go ahead, Commissioner Steinbaum.

This is kind of a random thought, and I'm not sure if this is done.

Um maybe we could also have some kind of information at like farmers markets or a place where people are going frequently.

Um farmers market, I think would be somewhat geographically biased because you're getting you know more people who live like mid in midtown or closer to downtown.

But something like that could also be a nice venue for the city to share information because you know people go frequently and so they could hear about the process over time, uh, because also I think generally the public if someone is actually interested, they don't just want to hear from you once, they want to hear about the progress through you know through time, and if they provide feedback, for example, they often also want to know how their feedback was included in the process and if it was actually listened to for whatever the outcome is.

Any other any further comment from the commissioners?

Good ideas.

Oh, got one more.

We would like to see the numbers first before reaching out to the public and participating in those meetings are neighborhood, uh, whatever the association meetings everywhere.

So it was I don't I cannot say you promised something like that, but we are looking for the numbers and what are the services we are targeting to fix, actually.

So those things still we are looking into that one.

We want to see those things.

Uh in our next meeting, at least if we can see that, then it will be it would be nice to go to those meetings with the data.

If I could answer that, uh Commissioner Tennekellett, yeah, yes, absolutely.

Um, what we're trying to do right now is lay the groundwork for the development of a plan, and with that plan, we insert the information through from the cost of service and the and the rate study.

Um so that will be presented before all of you at our June URAC meeting.

Um and at that point in time, we're gonna have a lot of material developed and ready uh so that we can be out in the community.

Um but this is really a planning stage for us right now.

Um we are gonna start briefing council members, and you know, it's it's really now is the time.

So it's kind of a build-up now, getting ready, and then the that information then comes to the URAC, and then we go hard for the summer months through the targeting this uh messaging part then.

So after you present the rates to us, what is the increase after that when you are targeting this messaging part?

Or you are planning to do the messaging before that presentation.

Um so we are preparing messaging, we're preparing who we're outreaching to.

Um there's no materials that will go out before it's made public here, um, but we are ready to go once that happens.

Okay.

So if there's a desire from the URAC to see some of that information at the meeting when we come back in in June, we can certainly do that.

Um but you know, we would be re we would be prepared at that time to fact sheets and and some of the other pieces of information to help get out into the community.

But I think um, you know, right now is a good time to to listen to what folks have to say and their concerns about potential for rate adjustments.

Um that came out in the in the budget meetings uh last few weeks, so it's kind of out there.

The Sacramento B ran something, so there's definitely you know news out there, and so I think people will be talking about it even before we start putting uh rates and other messaging.

So, at least if we don't have that information handy, the first question will come if we meet any of the community associations uh to the people, right?

They will ask the question.

So what is the uh estimated increase?

So we won't answer the question definitely.

And we don't have a final yet on what those rates look like.

We're still going through the rate piece.

Um you know, the hope is to have that soon.

Um, but we want to make sure that the outreach materials are lined up so that when that information does go public, then we're right behind it with messaging.

Um the danger of putting messaging out there too soon or putting rates out there too soon without messaging is and I'm not a communications person, but I am a rate payer, and I could say I would just shut down if I knew my rates were going up by a certain amount, and I didn't have any backup to understand that through a uh outreach.

Uh hi, Valley Fuddle, director of utilities.

I also want to add that we really are doing this outreach in multiple layers.

So even though you guys are not gonna see the numbers until June, uh, we already did the community survey to just get a pulse for you know the communities um, you know, uh will enlist you for a rate increase.

Uh we are doing interviews with um certain groups in the community that we feel like um you know we want to engage.

So these are like some uh special stakeholder groups that we reached out to and we offered them interviews.

So we're doing those currently uh we went out with a first request and and uh we doubled down to the second request just to make sure that we can reach to some of these specialty groups.

Um and they represent all sorts of interest groups with like affordability, um, you know, some NGO interests and stuff like that.

So we have that going.

Uh we also have retained the consultant that will help us with some other stakeholder groups like business communities and things.

So we're in the process of putting that contract in place.

Um that's all gonna be happening concurrently uh while we put together the material uh for you guys to use.

So and then internally, we need to also do our due diligence of going through our process of you know, uh getting buy-in from the city manager, uh briefing our council members so that they're not surprised by stuff being public before they had an opportunity to see it, and then we when we present that to you in June, after that, you guys can hit the ground running, we'll hit the ground running with the public messaging, the public meetings, the HOA engagements, and things like that.

So it's a multi-layered uh approach.

I don't want you to feel like we're just sitting around until June not really doing much.

We're doing all of that behind the scenes, and then once June hits, we'll give you the numbers, we'll give you the fact sheets, all the info you need, and we'll just all concurrently be working um together to get the word out there.

So I hope this helps.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so it seems like a kind of a quick timeline.

You know, we're we're talking about it now, um, but we have a little bit of a break while DOU works tirelessly on the fact sheets and the rates, and it seems like at the June meeting, we'll have both the final rates and the the materials to kind of go into the community and and kind of disseminate the information.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Okay, so and then from here until then, it seems like what the commission is gonna do is sort of think think about these venues and the contact points in the community that once you have the information, it makes sense to kind of plug in.

So if it's you know doing early outreach to uh get an agenda item on your neighborhood association agenda, you know, in July, or um, to reach out to your council member before, then that's that's kind of something you can do in the meantime.

Think about what are the venues that it makes sense, uh, and then you'll have information in June.

Go from there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sam?

Yeah, and I just had one last uh slide, which uh madam chair, thank you.

I think you guys have kind of hit this in terms of next steps.

Um really appreciate your advice tonight in hearing us.

Um again, this is part of the fact-finding and the research to just ground truth our thinking on the rationale that we'll present to people and the messaging, we will take all this back, refine those messages.

Um based on what you've said.

Um we will be supporting David's team with the digital tools, bill inserts, the formal prop 218 notice.

Um, I'm not sure what else their scope to do, but this is kind of all we do in our wheelhouse.

So um we'll be ready to get that done.

Bill comparisons, verbally, imagery, infographics.

And yeah, once those final rate numbers are ready for public viewing, we'll be back to looks like in June with that and those materials so you can hit the ground running in July.

And with that final slide, I want to thank you very much for your input and your engagement tonight, and remind you that should a representative from my team be back with David in June, it would probably be Matt, who's been working hand in hand with him up until this point, and will continue to.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, are there any uh speakers of the public or members of the public that like to speak on this item?

Yes, I have one speaker, uh Viet Long Wynne.

You'll have two minutes.

Good evening, Commission members.

Um, my name is Viet Long Wing, Sacramento resident.

Um really thank you to city staff and the consultant on the work on this.

It's really cool to see like this process as it plays out and not just hear about it all the way at the end.

Um I wanted to share some thoughts on some of the messaging that was presented.

Uh the first one is on the need for value in safety.

Um I have a thought that I wonder how much of the infrastructure improvements can be also tied to the need to adapt to climate change.

Um, I would imagine you know, upgrading infrastructure would really help with you know precipitation that is falls in much more intense periods like wetter storms, more intense storms.

So I wonder if that can just you know add a little bit more, like using a framing that residents might feel really familiar with.

You know, I definitely relate to climate change and all the ways it's impacting us.

So that's one thought there on the framing on the need for action.

Um I think as a resident, I would be wondering, you know, rates haven't been increased for a while.

Why all of a sudden now?

Because the the drivers for increasing the rates, you know, I would think they've existed in the previous years as well, you know, regulation or rising costs.

I would wonder, you know, why didn't we smooth out rate increases over the past couple of years?

Why all of it now?

And the last point on affordability.

I think as a resident, I would just be concerned about fairness and how the rate increases are distributed, you know, across different levels of income.

But um, yeah, really appreciate the opportunity to comment here today and looking forward to the results of this process.

Thank you.

And thank you to city staff.

Thank you for your comment.

That's all the speakers that I have.

Thank you.

I know we've had a lot of discussion, but are there any other commissioners that wish to speak on the item?

Yeah.

Commissioner Stammel.

I have one last thought or question.

Um I guess I'm curious if you guys have ever done like a true willingness to pay study.

Um, where you know you ask people like what they would be willing to pay for services, or you know, what increase they would be willing to pay.

Um, and yeah, I guess I don't know if you have done that, but it could be interesting, and if you haven't, then I'll just share that as something to consider for the future.

Thanks.

Okay.

All right, I think that concludes that item.

The next item is member comments, ideas, questions.

Uh are there any commissioners who wish to speak?

Okay, I will go.

Um, so one of the items we mentioned earlier is uh a form of outreach is I've been in contact with uh my city council person, and I think that that's been a really rewarding kind of dialogue to open up and something that I feel that most commissioners here, you know, would like to be engaged in the community and and by the raise of hands earlier are interested in that and would love to empower you to meet with your council person.

Um I'm curious uh if you know the pathway or um if there is support that you know, like as other commissioners, like we can or support or guidance that we could put in, and as a suggestion, um something I wanted to consider is maybe writing as URAC a letter to city council generally to sort of invite them to into this process.

I know that they're already they've already been made aware um through council meetings that a rate increase is coming, but I think as you know, mostly appointed folks from their council members, it's a great opportunity to reach out.

And if there were you know a letter to be written by you RAC to council members, um that'd be one vessel to kind of say like here's what's happening, here's the timeline.

I'd love to meet, um, chat about it, and um kind of get you up to speed, builds a connection between you and your council person and um one more way to get feedback back to DOU staff.

So um I actually wanted to ask uh our city lawyer, is that okay?

And like it was if there were multiple commissioners maybe working on that letter or reviewing it, what is the venue to produce a URAC work product?

Or are you talking like creating an ad hoc committee to draft a letter?

Um it doesn't have to be a full committee, but like just an opportunity for review, maybe something that goes on the next agenda, um a letter for review by council or by commissioners to sign and send.

You could well, you just obviously cannot have a meeting outside of a publicly noticed meeting where you'd have a group of more than six meeting to discuss what would go in a letter.

But if you have one or two who met and then prepared a letter and then agenda is it, that should be fine.

Okay.

Okay.

Um is that something that you guys might have an appetite for if there were a letter that you could then send to your council person and then invite them to to meet with either them or their staff.

Is that something that would kind of lower the burden of meeting with your council member?

Something that you'd be helpful as a tool.

Um to clarify, are you uh suggesting a like template letter that we could all fill in with our own name to our own council person, or is this a letter from the entire commission to all council members?

What do you think is better?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

I I'm asking the questions here, lady.

Um I I think both are good, um, but they they are to me different things.

Creating a template letter that you can use to invite your council member um to have a one-on-one is to me different than the corpus as a whole, reaching out to the the council as a whole.

Um I think if your idea is to empower all of us to reach out individually to our own members of the the council, then I would suggest a template letter that we can customize to our own member.

But I'm hoping.

Uh we have a couple speakers.

Uh Commissioner Gispart.

Um yes, I was kind of under the impression that our function as a commission was to inform the city council and the mayor of a decision that we would reach, whether this uh raise is equitable, and if not, why not?

And if so, why so I think the uh a letter would be kind of redundant, don't you think?

It's more of an invite to to let them know that where we are in the process, kind of in our in our in some of our conversations, um, council members have so many things on their plate, you know, a water or sewer rate increase might not rise to the top of the list, and I think um this is one more venue that you know there could be a personal touch that their appointed commissioner is reaching out to to inform them that it's ongoing process.

Um my council member has quarterly meetings with all commissioners that he's appointed, and at that point in time we do update and uh um if I felt a need that my council member needed to be informed, I would not hesitate, nor would he deny me that hesitation.

You know, he'd invite me into his office and we'd speak about it.

So great.

I I think that um that's maybe not an across the board policy.

So I think that that's great that you have that venue, and maybe a letter's not as necessary if you've already got that open door.

So thank you.

Uh Commissioner Zito.

Um, yes, I think um before I would send a letter, I would just call them and say, I want to arrange a meeting, tell them who I am.

Um, if you look at their websites, they seem to want to invite you to do that.

They seem to encourage you, they give you you know, email places you can email them and stuff, and I think um basically just to talk to them about how would they want to spread this out to the community or just let them know something's coming up.

Um, but I would probably try just with a phone call first.

If you tell me your commissioner, they're probably gonna return the call, you know.

So the other thing too, and and this just is is kind of off topic, but I mentioned it months and months ago.

Um, when we're talking about the rating rate increase, it's going to be heavy in the beginning and taper off at the end.

And I think I mentioned then it might be worth thinking about going easy in the beginning and having it gradual rather than just this is a lump for this time, then this next period here's the increase here.

You know, like you get your bills, and oh, it went up this much, oh, it went up this much.

But if you had it more graduated, like not heavy duty, not front loading it, and I know the reason why you were doing that, but it it's more palatable if you have smaller increases maybe more often than a huge chunk, periodically.

I'm just it's just an idea.

Because a lot of times you don't notice that smaller increase as much as you do.

Oh my god, it went up $50 then, or whatever it would be.

You don't have the figures yet, but you know, you know what I'm saying?

You mean smaller than an annual increase?

Yeah, we'll spread the annual increase over, you know, like you'd have to graduate it.

So I don't know what the increases are, but you know, you can you can probably slip by a ten dollar monthly increase more so than oh, let's just do I don't know what the percentage of even, you know, let's say it's five percent.

Maybe you do two and a half now and two and a half or three later on.

You you'd have to figure it out mathematically how it would work, but um, I just think spreading it out over more time than just here and here and here, and it's gonna be lower at the end.

Because it was gonna be front loaded if I'm not mistaken.

I think that's what they talked about doing.

So just maybe ease that front loading a little bit over time.

Uh thank you for the question.

Um, so yeah, there's there's reasons why um we all use your words front load, um, put a higher amount up front, is that the the revenue compounds over time.

So if we are starting with a lower adjustment and we get bigger over time, then there's less time at a larger rate where we generate more money.

But up front, then you add a little bit more, and that continues to grow.

Number one, um, number two is as we've talked about um our number one priority is continuity of operations.

Um, and we have a 38 million dollar deficit in the water fund in FY26.

And so um part of also um having larger upfront allows us to correct um those challenges more immediately as opposed to letting them linger because we just don't know what's gonna happen down the road.

Um but we can certainly look at that you know, and kind of you know, it's it's it's a challenge.

We understand that.

Um our goal ultimately is to get to uh an uh you know, a policy adopted by city council that you know it's small adjustments every single year.

We come back and we we explain where we're at through a rate study, um, so that it is not something that has gone eight years, not something that's gonna hit people large in their pocketbooks.

Our challenge is we can't do that until we get caught up.

And um, you know, our hope is that we can do that over a you know multiple five-year rate cycles, but that is the goal is to ultimately get to something that is more stable, tied to like you know, cost of living, that sort of thing.

You know, well you have to hope people can afford to pay it.

That's the difference.

If you don't get the money in, you can't save it to reserve in reserves anyway.

So just just thought thank you.

Commissioner Rogers.

Um, I still have a question for the city.

Um, sorry.

Um I guess um what I was what it's been on my mind a lot of for the duration of this meeting is people have mentioned, and it was mentioned in the PowerPoints delayed updates.

I think that's gonna be a big question from the public.

Why was this why was the can kicked down the road for so long?

I think um I'm not saying the city needs to eat crow and just be like, yeah, we messed up.

I don't know if that's the case, you know.

I'm only lived here for six years.

However, people are gonna assume the worst, assume mismanagement, fraud, whatever goes on in their heads.

So has the have you or the consultants spoken about that with the messaging like a brainstorm of like, hey, this is what we're gonna, I don't want to say blame it on, but this is the reason we're attaching to it.

Sure.

Uh good question, Commissioner Rogers.

We've covered that.

Um, it might have been in a presentation prior to your involvement.

Um, so I would uh encourage you, maybe Jordan, you could send out um that uh presentation, but just kind of to address it um here publicly.

Um 2020 was the last year of our rate adjustment.

We know COVID hit in 2020.

People were struggling to just stay in their homes.

Um so we had that situation.

Uh residents were dealing with.

Um, there were also other utility rate adjustments that happened in that period.

Solid waste in 2020 had a four-year rate adjustment that was approved.

Solid waste services are billed on the same invoice as water, storm drainage, wastewater.

Um, you know, and and then on top of that, we needed a storm drainage rate adjustment in 2022 because we hadn't had one since 1996.

So we um, you know, and again, during a time with COVID and inflation, we were hitting residents' pocketbooks, whether it be DOU or uh recycling and solid waste with rate increases at a time in which the utility funds, water and wastewater had sufficient fund balances.

Um, was that the right decision?

You know, I don't know.

You know, a lot of people were involved in those that aren't here to talk about them.

Um those are some of the factors in which led to the place where we are now.

We recognize that this is not the place we want to be, but um, those will get highlighted, those have been highlighted.

Um, and you know, we certainly that's the position that we're in, and we can own up to that.

But those are the factors.

Thank you.

Uh I think good evening, uh Chair Art Tran and Commissioner.

Uh my name is Ryan Fam.

I'm your business services division manager.

I'm the only remaining person from that previous uh rate adjustment that was here.

So uh first and foremost, uh the rate adjustment process is very comprehensive.

It took approximately about five to seven years, and I would like to go further detail for you as far as the process.

So rest assured that the Department of Utility are doing everything we can to make sure that we are dealing not only with rate fatigue as well as the regulatory compliance that we need to follow.

Uh, for the state law, it rate adjustment uh only allowed for five years.

Uh for us to come back to you.

We have to do uh in the past that David mentioned in the 1996 uh drainage rate adjustment.

We did an independent uh uh review with our city auditor.

That took a year or two, and after that, then you add five more years.

So that will basically get us where the eight years that you mentioned.

Uh we are really appreciate the fact that you brought that up.

That had been discussed significantly within our executive team.

There is the right message for for all of us, and and those are the things that happen and decision was made in the prior year.

So I think want to make sure we acknowledge the fact that it's challenging every time we do with a rate adjustment, and we are restricted by multiple uh factor, not just you know, us have a rate holiday like it has been uh communicated in the past.

So hopefully uh we can provide that information to Commissioner Roger, as far as we did present that for the challenge we have is Commissioner Rotate, and we briefed the the previous one, and then we had to brief a new one.

So it I'll go to make sure that you are fully informed.

Thank you, sir.

Um, yeah, makes sense.

Um I'm sure there's uh like you said, these things take time.

You can't just snap your fingers.

I do understand all that.

Um that's all I got.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you.

Commissioner Steinbaum.

I just want to say I think that the messaging that you provided is very strong.

And it's it is a little similar to what we saw on the slide about we delayed updates to keep costs low, but now the bills are due.

But I think that the way that you explained it shows that the city was considering residents and wanted to make things good and better for residents and put a lot of thought into that.

Versus, you know, I I felt like that particular messaging on that side was a little bit of like you know, we just kind of like didn't do it, and now we have to do it now.

But yeah, I think from your messaging, it shows that the city put a lot of time and care into that decision, and I think that people would appreciate that perspective.

I think that's all the speakers we have.

The last item is public comments matters not on the agenda.

Uh, Madam Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on public comments?

I do not have any speaker slips for this item.

Okay.

Well, this concludes today's agenda.

Thank you everyone for your participation.

The meeting is adjourned.