Good morning everybody.

I'd like to call to order the meeting of the sewer area district for May 14th.

Would you please call the roll and establish quorum?

Good morning, Director Stesman.

Here.

Dickinson.

Here.

Hume.

Here.

Kaplan.

Here.

Orozco.

Here.

Plucky Baum.

Here.

Robles.

Robles.

Here.

He's here.

Rodriguez.

Here.

Villegas.

Here.

Karpinski-Kaska.

Present.

And Gallegas.

Villegas.

Here.

And we do have a quorum.

Thank you.

And I got cut from the rolls.

I'm here too.

I'm sorry.

Rachel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Did they forget you?

Okay.

I would ask.

Director Mabel.

He's here.

I would ask.

Director Mabel.

He's here.

Yeah.

All right.

We're squared away.

Yep.

I would ask Director Rodriguez to lead us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which

it stands.

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

I feel like we pledge more than any other.

Who would have thought the road call would have been the toughest part of the morning.

Okay.

We're there.

Could you please read the public comment statement?

Yes, chair.

This meeting of the Sacramento area sewer district is live and recorded with closed captioning.

It is cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel, on the

Comcast and Direct TV U-verse cable systems.

It is also live streamed at Metro14live.satcounty.gov.

Today's meeting replays Sunday, May 18th at 9 o'clock a.m. on Metro Cable Channel 14.

Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com slash

Metro Cable 14.

In accordance with government code 54952.3, compensation for meeting of these legislative

bodies is required to be verbally disclosed.

The amount of $100 will be paid for each member participating today as a member of the Sacramento

area sewer district.

Compensation for Sacramento County supervisors and City of Sacramento council members is paid

to the county and city respectively to partially offset the costs of these governments.

Compensation for other board members is delivered to the individuals.

To make an in-person public comment, please complete a speaker request form and hand it

to the clerk.

The chairperson will call your name when it's your turn to make a comment.

You may also send written comments by email to board clerk at sattcounty.gov.

Your comment will be routed to the board and filed in the record.

Thank you.

Just a correction for the record is that the city of Citrus Heights, our council is directing

all of any pay we make on regional boards to go back to the city's general fund.

So we don't get the money anymore.

Thank you.

We'll make a correction to our statement moving forward.

And you know whatever paperwork that involves it might not have gotten over to your level yet,

but it's all up there somewhere in the transaction world.

Could you please read the first item?

The first item on our agenda is consent matters items number one through three.

Does anyone have any comments, questions?

I'll move consent.

I'll second.

Okay.

Rodriguez, Kaplan, all the, do we, there we go.

There we go.

And that item does pass unanimously with those members present.

Were there any comments for any of those items?

We did not receive any public comment.

Item number four is comments from the public on issues not on the posted agenda.

Do we have any?

I did not receive any.

Next item.

Next item is number five, miscellaneous director and district engineer matters.

Good morning chair and board members.

A few items for you.

Just wanted to do a quick plug for our walk on the wild side event, wild side event that's

coming this Saturday.

We, it's a great family event.

It's free out near the Freeport community.

And we did get some good TV coverage from Good Day Sacramento yesterday.

Actually a couple of segments.

Our natural resources supervisor, the buffer lines manager Steve Scott was interviewed and

he did a wonderful job.

So hopefully you may have caught that.

But, and in fact if you didn't and you're interested I can send the link out for that as well.

Let's see our next meeting will be May 28th.

We will have both of the meetings in May.

That's because we need to have the, this meeting we're introducing our budget and the next meeting

we would be hopefully adopting it on the 28th.

So, we will be having a meeting on the 28th.

And, let's see.

Then I have two section managers to introduce.

So our first one is Mike Redfern.

And you don't have to do anything special.

Just.

Uh, Mike is our environmental health and safety manager on the collection side.

So we have his equivalent as Deborah Celestri.

He actually met previously for the treatment plan.

Um, he graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies.

And he started with the county as a safety specialist, County Sacramento, um, back in 2008.

Uh, working with the Department of Personnel Services in their safety office.

And he transferred over to Sac Seward in 2009 and was promoted to senior safety specialist

in 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic.

And obviously that was very impactful for everyone.

But particularly for safety, uh, professionals.

They, uh, just got a huge extra burden of, um, work related, COVID related work that came

through safety regulations.

So that was not a fun time to be in the safety field.

Um, let's see.

His, uh, title was, he was actually converted to an environmental health and safety manager

when we separated from the county.

We made that, um, classification, just the change of the name.

So that's his official title now.

Um, he's, uh, responsible for the environmental health and safety program for collection system

operations.

And, uh, Mike's goal is to allow employees to work in a safe and healthy environment.

And I will say that Mike does a really good job of that.

Um, and both sides of our organization, um, safety is a very important part of our culture.

And, and they're very supportive.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Our next section manager is Patrick Schroeder.

And Patrick is a principal civil engineer, um, in the collections side of our organization.

He graduated from Sac State in 1993 with a civil engineering degree.

And, uh, just a disclaimer, what I'm going to say next, I'm a UC Davis Aggie, so this is

not my statement, but stingers up.

Stingers up.

We have a little back and forth going with the, those two organizations.

Uh, he started with the County of Sacramento in 92.

So before he even graduated as a student intern in, uh, water resources.

Uh, then he started working in the development section at Sac sewer in 1999.

And he's been with County of Sacramento and Sac sewer for about 33 years combined.

So there's a lot of experience there.

Um, Patrick enjoys working in an organization that wants to do better for the community.

It all begins working, uh, with working with a supportive board, district engineer, and

directors who want to improve the community they work for and to believe in doing the right

thing.

And absolutely, Patrick definitely embodies that doing the right thing.

So thank you, Patrick.

And that's all I had.

Roger.

And director Dickinson has a comment.

Oh, I just, Christophe, I'd be interested in more information about walk on the wild side.

So if you can forward that to me, that'd be great.

Yep.

Will do.

Okay.

Thanks.

Uh, are there any other comments or questions from, from the directors before we move on to

the next item?

Okay.

We'll move on to the next.

Any public comment on anything so far?

No public comment.

Okay.

So let's go to the next item.

Item number six is a resolution of intention to lean delinquent sewer service charges and

set public hearing for July 9th, 2025.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair.

Members of the board.

My name is Glenn Iwamora, Senior Accounting Manager for the district.

Today we're recommending the adoption of the resolution of intention to place the delinquent

sewer service charges onto the tax roll, as well as to direct the clerk of the board to

advertise the resolution of intention.

Thank you.

And to set a public hearing for July 9th to provide any objections for the proposed action

and the amount of charges.

The process of collecting the delinquent sewer service charges on the tax roll is provided

by the health and safety code 5473.3.

And once the procedures are complete, the delinquent sewer service charges will be placed

onto the tax roll as of August 23rd of this year.

On this chart here, which is providing your board packet, this shows the five-year delinquent

sewer service accounts comparison.

And as of April 26th, the amount of the delinquent sewer service charges is 13.7 million, which

makes up about 20,000 accounts.

And typically by the time this does go to the tax roll, there's about a 30% reduction in

the number of delinquent accounts.

So we're probably looking at about 15,000 that will actually be going to the tax roll.

And then on this chart, you can just see the blue bar on there denotes what is actually

going to what was placed on the tax roll in the past years.

So with that, we are recommending the adoption of the resolution in order to place the delinquent

service charges onto the tax roll.

I have a question.

Quick question.

As I look at the final accounts that are delinquent, which it shows that from the initial notice

to what is delinquent, we are seeing over the course of four years at least a percent increase

of delinquent accounts.

I know things are difficult.

But have we reached out to also talk to understand because this seems to be a trend, you know,

what are you finding out and how is this impacting the long term for the sewer district?

Interesting enough, before COVID, the delinquent amount was about $12 million.

And when COVID hit, the actual amount of delinquent charges went down kind of against what we

were projecting.

And so if you look about 2024, that's probably about where it has been in the past.

But yes, we're looking at 2025 and it does have that trend of going up.

But, you know, I think part of it is attributed to our rate increase as well.

Okay.

And then are we also, when we send out a delinquent notice, letting them know about how they can

join to do a low prepayment or get a break on any of the charges?

You're talking about our Lifeline Rate Assistance Program.

I don't know that those are connected.

Do you know that, Glenn?

They're not directly connected, but there's a reference.

So we're doing a lot of, an enhanced outreach for Lifeline itself, but it's not directly tied

to the delinquencies.

So that's another thing that we could, we could certainly work with our billing people for that,

with CUBS.

Yeah.

I'm really, it would be interesting of those who are accessing and using the Lifeline Sewer

Assistance who are actually delinquent.

Or if they had it, would it help them pay?

Just curious of that connection.

Yeah.

Just anecdotally, I've heard a lot of stories of people who just don't feel like paying it

at all, and they just pay it at the end.

It's an interesting phenomenon.

I hear you, but you know, just seeing this, I think it's good to look a little deeper.

And especially for those individuals who may be delinquent, it could be maybe it's a percent

we help, you know, but that's a little bit more of making sure because, you know, what it

does to their finances if it goes on to the books is not something that helps anybody.

Yeah.

Perfect.

We just, we're going through this process with SMUD, who, they have their own database

of those who are on their rate assistance program.

This is just another sort of a comparison to check and see are we getting the delinquencies

that are correlating with that as well.

So we can do that.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Director Orozco.

Orozco, thank you.

Orozco, I'm sorry.

Christoph, do we charge penalties, or I'm sorry, sir, do we charge penalties for late payment

or collect any type of revenue from any of the residents?

Typically, the county utility billing system is the one that handles our billing.

And then they do charge certain delinquent charges for those.

When it does go to the tax rule, there is an additional 10% that gets placed onto their

bill.

What efforts do we employ, if any, to try to recoup the delinquent charges?

I mean, for example, do we offer to waive penalties or do payment plans or anything like

that so we can get that back?

Typically, once it's just put on the tax rule, you know, that's a different revenue

for the rate payers to make the payment.

And so I think that gives them a little bit more options on how it's paid.

But they're really, I can't, you know, think of really much of a, you know, different avenue,

like a payment plan that we have for those type of payments, you know, late fees.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, if I could.

Yeah, I would just chime in a little bit on this because I think it's been an ongoing issue

for quite some time.

I mean, the dollar amount, it seems to be, I mean, that's a significant amount of money.

I don't know how much we spend on tracking it.

But it might be better for this body to have maybe some broad categories to begin to sort

of synthesize who are the folks that are either in need or additional assistance or

what can we do?

Because at some point it becomes cost prohibitive for us to continue to just sort of do the same

thing and magically expect the results to be different.

And I cited an example that I know in West Sacramento historically there's kind of a, you know,

cut off date where you have to mow your grass if you have large parcels.

Well, over time folks who figured out by not doing it the city would simply do what they always do

which is roll it onto your tax rolls.

And then they actually come out and do the mowing itself.

They have these big contracts.

They'll do the work itself.

They place it on your tax roll and you pay it.

Well, guess what?

That was cheaper for most of the large property owners to do it that way than to actually pay

your bill like everybody else has to do.

And the city ultimately determined it was costing the city more money to do that.

So I just, I want to use that as an example of what this body ought to be doing because

it seems like every year there's quite a bit of folks that are not quite, and there may be

a good reason and maybe we need to be thankful, thoughtful about how we address maybe going

further into the end of this situation to try to resolve it.

So.

Just a couple of things.

One, the delinquency fee is substantial.

It's enough to cover the costs of the program to do that.

So there isn't a loss of revenue there.

And the vast majority of this money is all recovered.

It's in arrears so it's, you know, it's kind of following a year later.

But a very large percentage of this is ultimately recovered by the district.

Very good.

Thank you.

Is there an estimate of how much is residential and how much is commercial properties?

The commercial accounts make up a very small amount.

Okay.

What is?

Probably about 2% of those charges.

Okay.

The last time we looked at that was in 2021, but I believe the percentage, the ratio is

still about the same.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

I need a motion for the resolution.

I'm going to do the staff recommendation.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second by him.

Um.

Him.

You.

Him.

Desmond.

He's been all over.

He's been all over.

Okay.

It's yesterday.

And later today probably.

Please, please vote.

Please, please vote.

Please, please vote.

Please vote.

Just use the big target.

And Director Villegas, I'm waiting for your vote.

Villegas, you got a vote.

Villegas.

Desmond, you got a vote.

Uh.

It's working.

Oscar.

Oscar, I'm voting.

Okay.

We're all there.

Good.

And that vote does pass unanimously with those members present.

Okay.

So now you need to advertise this resolution of attention in the publication on June 13 and

July 2nd?

We will do so.

And then we will set our public hearing for July 9.

Thank you.

Okay.

Item number seven is the budget workshop.

And we, for the record, we did not have public comment on item number six.

Item number seven is the budget workshop for fiscal year 2025-2026.

And I have a few opening comments while Becky gets warmed up.

Um.

The, the, probably the most significant factor you'll see is, in this budget is an increase,

an increase in labor costs.

And there's a couple of factors for that.

And I wanted to kind of explain, um, why and, and sort of where we're headed.

Um.

The first part of this is that the water sector is facing a shortage of workers.

And this is, varies in other, other parts of, of, um, you know, employment as well.

But I'm just focusing on water sector.

And this is not my opinion.

It's, it's, um, experts in this field are saying essentially that there's an imbalance

between the number of jobs we have in the water sector and the number of employees coming into that field.

And that that, uh, the, the deficit essentially is increasing.

Right now we're sitting at about a 13% vacancy rate, um, which isn't terrible, but it's certainly not good.

And it's not where we need to be to be fully operational.

So, um, in our strategic planning efforts, we are, um, developing a pretty robust program around re, attack, attraction and retention of new employees.

And you saw a piece of that last board meeting when, uh, Jennifer White's presented on employee engagement.

So that's keeping people here and to some degree attracting them as well.

Another piece of that though is, um, making sure that we have competitive salaries.

And that's what our compensation policy does.

Um, it is not, we're not paying at the top.

We're, we're just focusing on the median.

But our policy, um, makes sure that we are comparing ourselves with other agencies like us.

Um, so that people who do certain work, um, can look and go and see that in other agencies, if they're doing that same work, they'd be paid similarly.

Unfortunately, we haven't been compared with those agencies in the past.

So we're doing a salary study right now, again, follows the compensation policy.

And we're expecting there to be some increases, some equity increases within that, uh, salary study.

It's wrapping up.

Um, and so we have some, uh, additional, um, I would say cushion in there to account for potential increases.

We're also right about ready to jump into labor negotiations and we'll have to address our unrepresented employees as well.

So those factors, um, are leading to increase in costs.

The other one is that you'll see, um, 38 new positions.

Um, I want to kind of, um, uh, describe that a little better.

Of those 38, 20 of them were added mid year.

So we have last year's budget and we're comparing to this year's budget.

But in the middle, we actually added 20 positions that your board approved.

Those were not included in the budget.

So we were able to absorb that.

Um, so that's 20 of them.

The remaining 18, there are 10 positions we're proposing as growth positions that are really, um, they are entry-level field workers that currently are intermittent.

We have 14 of them and we're going to replace them with 10, uh, full-time employees.

So that's really a wash in that area.

Um, and then the remaining positions are primarily focused on, um, a program that we haven't, I would say, not paid enough attention to in the past.

And that's our interceptor program.

Those interceptors are kind of coming of age now.

Um, we, we built, uh, many of them back in the 80s when we built the, the plant, um, and pulled all the systems together.

And then also we had another expansion in the 2000s.

So these, these large pipelines are getting old or older and they're starting to need more attention.

So there's some staff focused on that.

And with that, um, I'm going to turn it over to Becky.

Good morning, Chair and members of the board.

How are you all?

Good morning.

Good morning.

Can everyone hear me?

Yes.

Rock and roll.

My name is Becky Schaefer.

I'm the senior admin analyst and the budget manager for the Sacramento area sewer district.

For which I will be referring to a SAC sewer for the rest of this presentation.

I will now be presenting the fiscal year 2526 budget for SAC sewer.

This budget will reflect the combination of operational and capital budgetary requirements for both the treatment and resource recovery and collection sides of SAC sewer in the budget book presented this year.

The combined recommended operating budget is approximately $338 million and reflects an increase of roughly 24 million or 7.5% over the current year's budget.

Salaries and benefits and non-labor expenses are the main drivers of the increase in this year's budget with roughly $215.6 million budgeted for treatment and resource recovery and $122.5 million for the collection system.

The budget operating budget is budgeted at $138 million, a $135 million increase in salary and benefits and consists primarily of a 4.5% cost of living adjustment, some equity adjustments, as well as increases in retirement, health insurance, and social security costs over the last year's budget.

Additionally, this year's recommended budget reflects an increase of 18 new positions for fiscal year 2526, following an increase of 20 positions approved by the board in December of 2024, bringing us to a total of 834 recommended staff positions, four of which are limited term and are listed in Appendix A of the budget book.

These positions are necessary for operational needs from the current year's budget as Sac Sewer continues to take on roles previously provided by the county.

Services and supplies reflect an overall increase of roughly $4 million and consist of the following primary drivers.

A $2.7 million increase in contracts for engineering, consulting, professional services, and temporary staffing.

A $2 million increase in maintenance, services, and supplies, and a $670,000 increase in electricity costs.

Some of these increases are partially offset by decreases of $2 million in personnel services and a $1.4 million decrease in biosolids and chemical costs.

Sac Sewer's capital budget is approximately $538 million and reflects a decrease of roughly $24 million.

From the current year's budget.

From the current year's budget.

For treatment and resource recovery and the collection system combined, capital projects and related expenses are budgeted at $389 million.

Debt service for treatment and resource recovery remains unchanged at approximately $135 million on outstanding bonds and state revolving fund loans

and is expected to be approximately, excuse me, I have a little frog in my throat, approximately $14 million on outstanding revenue bonds for the collection system.

Capital projects.

Capital projects.

The notable capital projects are the Harvest Water Project at $149.7 million.

The biogeneration facility project at $64 million.

The central interceptor rehabilitation project at $41.3 million.

The septic conversion projects at $22.6 million in the areas of Hood, Florentown, Franklin, Linda Manor.

And the Rio Consumnis Correctional Center pump station rehabilitation project budgeted at $11.5 million.

This next slide shows the financing sources for Sac Sewer.

The financing sources for Sac Sewer are derived from primarily the following on a reflective of both treatment and resource recovery as well as the collection system combined.

Monthly service charges of roughly $496 million.

Impact fees of approximately $32.5 million reflect an increase of $125,000 from the current year's budget.

Interfund offsetting revenues between treatment and collections of approximately $34 million.

Other revenue, including revenue from grants and interest income of roughly $200 million, and include grant funding for the Harvest Water Project.

Projected bond loan proceeds derived from treatment and resource recovery of $108.4 million,

and unreserved cash from collection system of $5.3 million.

This brings us to total financing source dollars slightly above $876 million for operating and capital uses.

And that concludes my presentation for the fiscal year 25-26 recommended budget for this workshop.

Are there any questions?

Anybody have questions?

Roger.

Roger.

Roger.

Roger.

Roger.

Oh, Karina's first.

Director Orozco.

Director Orozco is first.

Thank you.

Just brief.

We had a discussion, a pretty lengthy discussion maybe a year ago about the cost of chlorine.

Where are we now?

With respect to the supply.

The cost of what?

Chlorine.

There was an augment of a lot.

Oh, chlorine.

How did Sonny Lundy answer that?

Yeah.

Good morning, board.

Sonny Lundy.

The cost of chlorine has stabilized more recently.

Probably in 2000, 2001, up to 2003, the cost was increasing significantly.

And it wasn't chlorine.

I mean, it was all chemicals, really.

Sodium hypochloride chlorine was the most significant of those.

But those costs were increasing and we were chasing our budget, was chasing budgeting for

those.

But those have since stabilized.

So we've actually been able to reduce our budget.

And in addition to reducing our budget, we've also been able to have some savings in reduction

of chemical costs.

I know there was a desire by your board at one time to look into other avenues for sourcing

and potentially creating.

We did briefly look into those and those came with significant regulatory requirements that

we would like to avoid.

Similar to having gas storage on site, we got out of those regulatory requirements.

And there's concern if we were to get back into those type of regulatory requirements.

So because of the cost stabilization, we were able to reduce that cost.

Well, I know we were at a particular level that it doubled or close to tripled the cost

per, I don't know, per unit, I should say.

I don't know if it's per gallon or what.

When you say it's stabilized, I mean, it dropped down to where we were originally or are we just

not growing?

It actually dropped.

It was, I believe it was $2 and around $2 per unit.

And then it increased almost to $2.85 and dropped back to like $2.15 or $2.35.

So it stabilized, but it also decreased.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I was thinking we were somewhere in the $0.90 a gallon or a unit back in the day.

Maybe five to seven years ago we were.

All right.

And the suppliers, I knew there was a supply issue, right?

Had that recovered?

There was.

There was limited amount of suppliers.

So we had to, we had to work hard to go identify additional suppliers.

And we did.

We identified a local supplier.

I believe it's Thatcher, who's local to us and was able to provide that chemical at a significant

reduction in our cost.

Cheaper than most other agencies were receiving their sodium hypochloride.

That's awesome.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Dickinson.

Thanks.

I have a couple of questions.

It was alluded to earlier, but I was curious whether the lifeline program is reflected in

the budget.

I was looking through it and I didn't see it.

Did I miss it?

Is it there somewhere?

Oh, no.

It's there.

Yeah.

It's very, the lifeline, sorry.

The confluence budget is very hard to piece apart because there are different elements that

are paid for different ways.

But the lifeline program, is it, is there a specific line item for it?

Not in the budget presentation, but in the budget book, it does talk about it.

I was, I was looking, I could look that up.

I was looking through what you presented, not just the, the slides, but if this is your

budget booklet, and I didn't see it.

Can, can you just let me know if you, where it is or you don't, if you don't have it at

hand, you can just let me know afterwards.

I'm curious.

Yeah, you can do that.

Um, the, uh, uh, the second thing that I wanted to ask about is the septic, uh, conversion.

And, um, I'm curious, can you, uh, elaborate a little bit on, uh, what the nature of that

is and how we're funding it?

I'm going to let Mike Hewitt address that.

Good morning.

So, the, yeah, the septic to sewer, uh, conversion program, we have four communities that are in

line right now.

And actually under construction, we have the Delta communities of the Hood and Franklin,

and we have the, uh, uh, some more urban areas, uh, Linda Manor and Old Thorntown.

Um, and I can't remember the, uh, the dollars per se, but most of that is being grant funded.

And so, um, and we are still actually trying to close the gap of what, uh, actually we pay

for and what is grant funded.

Who is it?

What's the, what's the grant source?

The state.

It's the state loan that, or it's the state grant that we got.

Right.

You know, this is, uh, uh, a challenge in not just those communities, but in areas, uh, for

example, Robla, uh, that is in some parts semi-rural, other parts now urbanizing.

And, uh, so we've got pockets of folks that are on septic, even, even as new development

occurs, excuse me, which is hooking up to, to sewer.

Um, and I'd like to talk to you more about the, the, uh, ways in which we might actually

go through some additional septic, septic conversion in, in those areas.

Yep.

Because, um, it, it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be right there around the corner,

literally with sewer and you, and have people still, uh, down the block on, on septic.

It doesn't, it doesn't seem to me.

So, um, maybe, maybe we can set up a time to, to talk about that.

Yeah.

We'd be happy to talk to you more about that.

We, we've done a lot of research and have a lot of background knowledge on those programs

and why we chose the boundaries we have and how we can maybe branch out to maybe in the

future.

Well, and see, that's another aspect of this, which is these, these tend to be not community

wide at any time.

These opportunities come up on a, on a, on a, on a, a much more limited basis geographically.

Um, but, but if there's potential for state funding or another source, and frankly, it might

even, it might make sense to, uh, to have the district absorb, uh, cost of, of extension

of sewer over, over time in the greater scheme of things.

I, I, I'm not asserting that, but it's a possibility.

So, so I, I'd really like to explore it further.

Go ahead.

I was just going to mention, we do, we do have, I'd mentioned these community projects we

have.

Also part of the program is the individual projects.

So if we do get requests for, uh, conversions for individual property owners, we do have

a grant program for that through the Confluence program.

I think it's up to $20,000 we could offer depending on their, um, income levels.

So we've, we've used the Confluence program really to leverage this.

Uh, in the past, the septic conversion projects have been very challenging because they're so

costly and we didn't really have a way to pay for them.

Right.

Um, but the Confluence program has created a tool for us to leverage funding.

So we have individual projects that we can actually grant a significant portion of their

project.

Um, and then be, by bringing a little bit of this Confluence money to the table, we've

also been able to leverage it to get grants for those larger projects.

So if you have a, you know, a neighborhood or a, a, a community area, we can go after that

as part of a state grant funding and, and leverage the Confluence funds.

Or if you have little individual ones that you're aware of, we can connect, um, we can

connect with them and get them the materials at least so they know what potentially they're

eligible for.

Okay.

That's, that's, um, very intriguing to, to hear because for most people, they can't afford

financially.

They're not, they're not well off necessarily.

They can't afford to pull, pay the cost of, of connection with the extension of the sewer

line.

And so finding a way to write down that cost to make it affordable obviously is in their

interest, but I think it's probably also in our, in our community interest as well.

So maybe Christophe, we can find a time to talk about this more.

Thank you.

Mr. Dickinson.

I did find in the budget book.

Oh, thank you.

Yes.

Yeah.

I knew it was in here, but we've got 52 or 53 pages in this book.

So if you look to page 21, okay, under the finance program, uh, it talks about sewer lifeline

rate assistance in the very first table.

Oh, there it is.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I, I, I didn't see it when I was, uh, looking at the budget originally.

So, okay.

I mean, this is something you'd like to have addressed in the presentation going forward.

We can surely accommodate that.

Uh, you know, I don't know that it needs separate, uh, a separate conversation, but it's,

it's something a number of years ago we struggled to, to find a way to, um, establish and, and

with prop 218 to pay for.

Um, so I was, uh, especially curious whether we were still doing it and if so, how we were

doing it.

So, um, this is probably good enough, but I have more questions.

I'll get back to you.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Director Villegas.

I'm good.

He, he, he asked.

He asked it.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Then we're just processing this till next time.

That is correct.

Thank you.

Before we move on to the next item, I just wanted to note for the record that Director

Sanders showed up about 9 57 and has been here for the whole presentation.

Just put a pipe out to the river.

Are we ready to proceed?

Are we ready to proceed?

And then we go to the next item.

Item number 8 is to establish a Delta Conveyance Project and Ad Hoc Committee.

Good morning, Chair and members of the board.

Mike Hewitt, Director of Policy and Planning.

So we're here to recommend a board committee for the Delta Conveyance Project.

As you all know, we're in litigation right now with the state DWR's approval of the Delta

Conveyance Project and also a decision made by the Delta Stewardship Council and Sack Sewer

is a plaintiff in those lawsuits.

There are impacts to the district with the DCP in regards to environmental and economic

issues specifically for the harvest water project.

And so that the committee will help facilitate discussions with DWR and other parties and

also explore different options to resolve potential issues.

And then report out to the board as well and inform them.

So the committee would be made up of five members.

At least that's what we're recommending.

It'll be in place for up to one year.

And we do recommend that committee members be Directors Hume, Director Kennedy, Director

Soon, and Director Viegas, mainly because of their experience and their involvement in the

DCP previously.

And if the board chose to add another participant, that would make it five.

And so if that's approved today and the committee is approved, we will schedule our first kickoff

meeting in June if schedule's line.

So with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to the chair and to help, you

know, get a decision on whether the board approves this committee and also to help solidify

the members.

First, let's hear from Director Hume.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all, I would happily serve on this committee.

It is very timely to be considering this.

For those of you that aren't aware, the governor announced in his May revise today that he is

putting his thumb on the scale again, trying to bifurcate the project from robust environmental

review to undermine our remedies to work through the judicial process and essentially put the

taxpayer on the hook for the bonding authority that would ultimately attempt to be repaid

by water contractors that can ill afford it.

So I will happily serve on this committee, but just so that there's no misunderstanding as

to my position, I will not negotiate with terrorists.

I will not accept compromises.

And I cannot be bought off by a community benefits program.

I will fight this project till the dying day.

Hear, hear.

No.

Director Kaplan, you're next.

I am in full support of the four you nominated.

This heavily impacts the city, and I am the one that got left saying not me.

So I'll add to be the fifth person.

So the city of Sacramento was also represented.

Very good.

Good.

First off, if you need a motion, I will move to approve the recommended, the recommendation.

Second.

Any other discussion?

Any public comment?

We do not have any public comment.

And can I get that second?

Was that in the Plucky Bomb?

Viegas.

Viegas.

Viegas.

Okay, thank you.

And just so that we're clear, that motion does include member Kaplan as the fifth member.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Vote.

Vote.

Over, Reg.

Don't vote.

Yeah.

And I am waiting for a vote from, oh, Desmond is not with the, Desmond did left.

So if you don't mind, we'll take a voice vote.

If you don't mind, he did not log out, so we can take a voice vote.

So, member Dickinson?

Aye.

Member Hume?

Aye.

Member Kaplan?

Aye.

Member Orozco?

Aye.

Member Plucky Bomb?

Aye.

Rathel?

Aye.

Robles?

Aye.

Rodriguez?

Aye.

Sander?

Aye.

Viegas?

Aye.

And Carpensky-Costa.

Yes.

And that does pass unanimously with those members present.

Karina saved me yesterday.

I almost had a Bonnie Pennell moment.

And Chair Carpensky-Costa, that does conclude all of our items today.

The rest on the agenda are communications to be received and filed.

So we're going to adjournаяв all DAV cetera for we've got packed onto our table that Abram

without any drop of sleep or board members weren't involved.

I'm also calling for excuse me how fast the Çakeku is ahead.

Fast down lat sail to confirm operations are approved if

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Thank you.