Okay, I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Sacrament Area Sewer District Board of Directors for Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll and establish quorum.

Yes.

Directors Desmond.

Dickinson.

Here.

Hume.

Here.

Jennings.

Kaplan.

Kennedy.

Orozco.

Plucky Baum.

Rafel.

Here.

Robles.

Rodriguez.

Sander.

Cerna.

Here.

Soon?

Here.

Vegas?

Here.

And Karpinsky Costa.

And Director Rodriguez has just joined us.

Oh.

And do we do that?

Director Guerra here is the vacancy.

Oh, very good.

For Plucky Mom.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

That's right.

Okay.

And Rodriguez.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Okay, very good.

I was going to announce that we were going to take things out of order so that we can make use of the time, absent a quorum to hear some uh non-voting presentation items first.

Uh but I think we'll now revert back to the original uh agenda schedule.

And uh just for the record, please note that uh I am acting as chair today in light of the fact that our chair uh uh chair Karpinski Costa is uh not with us.

She's attending a league event.

Uh so I'm happy to uh assume chair responsibilities this morning.

And uh with that, if you could please read our statement.

I'd appreciate it.

Yes, Mr.

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 Uverse Cable Systems.

It is also live streamed at Metro 14Live.satCounty.gov.

Today's meeting will be played Sunday, October 12th at 9 a.m.

on Metro Cable Channel 14.

Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at YouTube.com forward slash Metro Cable 14.

SAC Sewer board members are compensated 100 for their participation in board meetings.

Compensation for Sacramento County Supervisors and City of Sacramento and Citrus Heights Council members is paid to the county and cities respectively to partially offset the cost of government of those governments.

Compensation for the other agencies is paid directly to the individual board members.

Compensation for these league legislative body meetings is verbally disclosed at each board meeting in accordance with California government code section 54952.3.

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 send written written comment by email to board clerk at SACCounty.gov.

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

This concludes your announcement.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh Director Dickinson, would you please do us the honor of leasing the pledge?

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God's divisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right, thank you.

Again, I'd like to welcome everyone to this morning's uh secondary sewer district board of directors meeting.

Uh we have a full agenda, and so I will ask the clerk if you can please uh read the first item.

Mr.

Chair, item one is the consent matters, items one and two for approval.

Okay.

We have a motion and do I did I hear something?

We have a motion and a second.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone's time to speak on these?

We do not have anyone speaking.

Who was the second?

Uh Supervisor Diegus.

And the first uh direct uh City Councilmember Dickinson.

Thank you.

Okay.

You may vote.

Please vote.

Your motion passes unanimously.

Very good.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

Mr.

Chair, the next item is public comments, not on the uh posted agenda.

And we do not have any speaker slips, nor do we have any online.

Very good.

Thank you.

Okay, item number four is miscellaneous direct district engineer matters by presenter Christoph Dobson.

Good morning, Chair and Board members.

Uh just a couple of quick things.

I I first want to mention the um the items that you just approved.

One of them was the uh Echo Road Septage uh station project.

It's a kind of a small project, but I just wanted to give some appreciation to our staff for uh completing that.

So less than zero percent.

Um they also did the design in-house, uh, worked with our subtage haulers and uh our operations staff to cite the location and then develop the plans and specs for it.

So it's very small but s successful project.

So thank you.

Um and then the second thing is just our meeting schedule to let you know uh October 22nd will be our next board meeting.

So we'll have both more meetings this month.

And then of course, November and December are just one meeting each month due to the holidays.

Um I do want to apologize.

Some of these I these meetings, the agendas are fairly short, but we have some critical items that uh need to go forward for our operations.

So we're just doing the best that we can.

On that last uh matter, um, Mr.

Director, are are we doing uh what are how do how are we managing the agenda so that we're trying to consolidate as best we can uh those critical items so that um we can kind of looking forward um attempt to uh minimize the number of total meetings.

Not that we don't love being here with all you great staff to do good things for the sewer district.

Uh but as you know, we uh we all have very, very full schedules uh serving on other boards of commissions and certainly our our principal uh places of of service in our cities, counties.

So are we do we do that on a regular basis where you're working with the clerk of the board's office to consolidate uh kind of on a look forward basis?

Yeah.

So the the way we do that is in our uh executive team uh weekly, we have a meeting weekly.

We don't always go over the long range agenda every week, but uh most meetings will go through the long range agenda, and we're always looking for opportunities to cancel a meeting and move some either up or down.

But some of them you you end up not being able to move without having some kind of a financial uh impact.

So that's it.

Yeah, we do do that regularly.

Just as a preview of coming attractions, I'll have the well, I won't assume, but uh I may have the opportunity to serve as chair again uh next year um as vice chair this year.

Uh but what I I would like to do is uh try and seek the record for the fewest number of meetings in 2026 in a good positive way.

I like it.

Uh in the interest of efficiency.

So just put that on your to-do list, please.

All right.

Uh any questions for our executive director.

About those of us who want more meetings.

I I I was gonna be disappointed if uh Mr.

Dickinson didn't make that that precise statement.

So uh seeing nine, uh, Madam Clerk, we have no one's time to speak on this matter.

We do not have any public comments.

All right, very good.

Next item, please.

Okay, Mr.

Chair, item five is approved memorandum of understanding with Sacramento Area Sanitation District Employees Association representing employee group two.

Good morning.

Uh just in an abundance of transparency, since these are um employee salaries, uh we have uh been keeping these on the timed calendar rather than consent, just so that uh there is an opportunity for the public to hear it.

Um but basically, as as you know, we've been through uh we have four uh recognized employee organizations.

We've been through two of them now that uh your board has already approved the MOUs with those organizations.

Those were our uh engineers and scientists, and then the field staff uh through local 39.

So we have two left, and those are on your calendar today.

This uh this first one is the administrative uh employee group.

Uh it's a I'd say modeled very similar to the previous MOUs that you have already seen.

There's uh some classifications that are getting equity adjustments uh to bring their salaries to the median for our market uh over a three-year period.

Um there are some others who uh uh actually you know are right on on the market already, so they're not getting equities.

Um there's actually in uh in this case a couple of classifications that will not receive uh colas because they were significantly above market.

So it's kind of a range of different um uh uh outcomes, I guess.

And did did you have a question?

Yeah, I do.

Sorry.

Uh so when you that last statement um you uh if I heard you correctly, we have employees that are above market, so they didn't receive a colour based on that.

Does that mean that as a matter of policy that you will keep them from or there will be something in place to restrict uh receipt of cola adjustments up and until they are at market?

Exactly.

Okay.

That's right.

And that's this is something that we actually I promised to staff a few times in meetings going way back when we were doing the transition, which was that if you're below market, you'll get adjusted to the market.

And if you are above market, then you wouldn't receive a pay cut, but you're gonna have to kind of wait until the market catches up to you.

What would you say, Christoph, is the longest duration that we can expect for whatever uh unit or uh classification that they would have to wait to get there.

Are we talking years?

Well, the the life of the agreement is three years, so it would be three years at least, but it really depends.

Uh it depends on what happens with the market and with those colas.

If those colas are very high, then they're going to catch up.

I have never known the market to go except anywhere but one direction.

So, yes, but how how quick you know, how much it moves up would would very would vary, yeah.

Um so the uh the other items um of note in these MOUs, uh we've added a longevity uh to two and a half percent uh longevity pay uh at 15 years of service.

Um we've basically put all the employees at on our medical subsidy at 90 percent of Kaiser.

And um I think those are the main uh the main changes.

So thank you.

Any questions for our director?

Seeing none.

Thank you.

Anyone's time to speak on this matter?

We have no public comments.

Okay, very good.

Uh sorry, I lost my place.

Are we voting on anything here?

Yes.

Okay.

I need a motion.

I'll go ahead and move approval.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

Who's the second?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Your vote is unanimous.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

Michael.

Next item, Mr.

Chair, is approved memorandum of understanding with Sacramento Area Sanitation District Employees Association representing employee group three.

I will keep this extremely short.

Same story, uh, but these are the supervisors.

That will be our last uh MOU.

Very good.

Any questions?

All right, seeing none.

I'll go ahead and move approval of the item.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone sign up to address this matter?

Thank you.

Please vote.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone sign up to address this matter?

We do not have any puppets.

All right, now you can vote.

Okay.

Your vote passes.

Thank you.

Next item.

Next item is Confluence Regional Partnership Program Annual Report for fiscal year 2024-25.

Presenter Carolyn Balaz.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair and members of the board.

My name is Carolyn Balaz, and I am the environmental sustainability coordinator with the policy and planning department.

So I would like to present to you today the Confluence Regional Partnership Program's annual report for fiscal year 24-25.

So I first want to start off with providing a background about the program.

It is uh it utilizes discretionary funding.

There you go.

And that discretionary funding does not come from rates or fees.

It actually comes from other sources like the sale of our assets, the biogas, uh recycled water, just to name a few.

So in 2017, we developed a policy that directed staff on the use of this funding.

And your board approved it in 2017, and then in 2024, we brought back some changes to the policy in which you will see today.

Okay.

First off, I want to say that we have received two nationally acclaimed awards just this year.

So in January, we received the National Environmental Achievement Award, and you can see a picture of it there.

And the Confluence Program was recognized for community leadership for its efforts.

And then just recently, last week, we were awarded the Utility of the Future Today Award for the watershed stewardship.

And that was just last week.

And that is awarded by uh five different agencies and associations.

That's the Water Environmental Federation, the Water Research Foundation, NACWA that also provided the National Environmental Achievement Award, uh, which is the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, Water Reuse, and the U.S.

Water Alliance provided those awards.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

So as you can see, the table shows the various categories that make up our program.

And we've provided the annual allocation for those categories, and then also the total amount that was provided within 2425.

So as you can see, the sewer lifeline rate assistance program, we provided just over $2 million.

We have increased participation for that program, and I'll talk about that in another slide.

The American River Parkway category, we approved $272,000 in funding.

And then for the watershed management, as you can see, we provided over $384,000 in funding, which does exceed our annual allocation.

So what we did in order to provide that funding is the policy provides the district engineer the ability to move funding from one category to another.

So we removed uh or we moved 150,000 from the American River Parkway for the watershed management, and I'll talk about the project a little bit later that necessitated that move in funds.

I have a question before you leave this slide, and others may have uh similar questions.

So I need um a refresher.

I I recall going way back when we had kind of a um wholesale revision to our uh our uh treatment of uh discretionary funds going as far back as uh at my insistence and at others, uh the inclusion of the American River Parkway line item that we see here, uh as well as others.

But uh refresh my memory, and I'm kind of looking at both uh both of you, um cleaning our director here.

What's the policy?

What is uh the policy uh written policy about uh the exercise of the director's discretion to move funding uh when you have under subscription versus over subscription between the light items?

It's pretty generic in that I have the ability to move uh money from one to another.

In this case, though, it's not like we took it away from something else.

So it was just happened to be that there was a lot of extra money available there.

Um give me an example, sorry, Christoph, to cut you off.

But give me an example.

So for instance, American River Parkway annual allocation, 600,000.

Total grant amount is less than half of that.

So where did the other is it does the three hundred does the 300 plus thousand sit in an American River Parkway fund?

No.

So it doesn't, it doesn't roll over from year to year.

Maybe that's where you're getting.

Yes.

So it it sits there.

Um next year we have the same limits again.

Okay.

We also have reserves.

So at any point in time, if there's something that goes that exceeds all of this, all of these funding numbers, we can always come back to your board and ask to use some of those reserves if there is a particularly important project that you would be interested in.

What is the what is the policy if there is one on uh before you uh uh uh go off and make these changes between the line items?

Um what's the policy for you, for instance, uh reaching out to Liz Bellis, our regional parks director, and saying, hey, by the way, there the total um allocations X uh we're at a grant uh amount of less than half for some annual cycle, I assume.

Um, you might want you might want to understand that.

So is there is there or it doesn't have to be just regional parks, but for any of the other potential beneficiaries and the related management that comes with, you know, whether it's economic development or public education, whoever would be interested in in understanding the fact that there is this resource base out there, how do we communicate to those interests before our executive director is going to make those changes uh administratively?

So as far as outreach goes, we always and in particular, Liz Bellis, we we reach out and ask if there are things if there are projects coming that they are interested in.

Okay.

Um but we do, especially to those that we know about, so kind of the the ones who have participated before, um, we do ask them about uh whether they have projects coming that would fit.

So we do have to do a little bit of prediction when we move money, because if it's not the end of the year, in theory, um you could be taking it from a pot that might need it in the future.

So we're we're trying to balance that as we go through the year.

But like I said, um we also have the ability to get additional funding from the board if we needed to, and we haven't run into that problem yet.

I I'm not uh gonna ask necessarily for us to like revisit some policy that gives the board perhaps greater authority to help you with that uh reallocation or redistribution because I think you need some latitude to operate independent of the of the board to be nimble here.

However, I'll speak for myself.

I would love to know at some point before a decision is finalized for the year that um, especially as it relates to American River Parkway, um that there's been uh an under-subscription or under um uh stated interest in the use of the uh budgeted amount for the for the year.

Um and it's not just not not because I don't trust our regional parks director to act on understanding that there's some resources out there.

It's just that uh it's just the nature of the beasts.

Elected people sometimes know what some of those needs are more so than our even our executive staff, um, just because that's what's expected of us.

We're supposed to have our ear to the rail a little bit uh in in finer grain detail um listening to our constituents' needs.

So I, for one, would love to understand that um and and have it kind of be almost uh a set expectation that hey, we're gonna reach out to Supervisor Chernobyl American River Parkway uh matters before we close the books on confluence funds that might um might close for the year.

I I think that's a great idea.

Um maybe even like a mid-year where we check in and say here's how much has been funded.

Yeah.

And others others may have that a shared interest and maybe it's not at the parkway, maybe it's some other maybe some other category here, but uh I think that would be healthy for that check-in to to happen with your board members.

So one thought is that I do a quarterly district engineer report, which you see.

I wonder if we could tuck it into that and just have the status, then anyone, any board member could look at that and say, oh, there's there's um some money available there, and I know of a program that would be worthy of it.

Could could that be part of like a slide or two part of a presentation?

Uh of this presentation.

No, no.

So when you do that report, um that's a report you do in public here, right?

No, no, that's just uh on I send a link to it.

It's online.

Okay.

That's okay, that's fine.

Okay.

Uh Director Dickinson.

Uh I was just curious what the process is for setting the amounts each you do this annually um setting the amounts each year for the categories.

Is that something you decide on at a staff level?

Does that come to the to the board?

Uh however that's uh done in that respect, what's the process you use to uh set the amounts?

So your your board set the the amounts and they they stay static uh year to year uh except when we come forward and and propose some changes if there's some you know something changes, but those numbers are the same each year.

Okay.

So maybe that's something that just in whether it's the course of the budget process or otherwise that we we do more deliberately and and uh look at it each year with uh with an eye on it to see if if we want to make adjustments or or not.

Okay.

Yeah, and that is in the policy.

The pol the policy um dictates the the numbers.

So if um if there were any changes, we would bring that policy forward.

We we've had past rich conversations about that here in these chambers.

So thanks.

Yes.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Sorry to interrupt your flow.

Go ahead.

No worries.

Um I can pick up with the septic conversion program.

Uh we do have an annual allocation of the 600,000.

As you can see, we provided 230,000 in grants.

Again, we'll go into more detail at later slides.

For the economic development category, we actually reached our allocation for the year.

So that occurred in the beginning of April in 2025.

Um and the sewer impact fee waivers was incorporated just this last fiscal year.

It is a program that we've had for quite a while.

Um, but as you can see, we granted just over $900,000 for that.

For public education, we provided over $340,000 in grants.

And for the other projects, which are projects that don't fall into one of the other categories, uh, but do meet our mission and vision for SAC sewer.

We will provide funding for that at the district engineer's discretion.

Excuse me, I'm going to interrupt again.

Yes, thank you.

And maybe follow up some on what are what are the outreach efforts on those areas.

I know uh we've done a lot of effort to try to connect folks, but uh maybe if we could follow up afterwards on that on how how those grants get allocated and addressing the the water pressure or not the water, but the the pump pressure issues on the studios as well.

So that was it.

Thanks.

Our executive director is taking copious notes.

Yes.

I I noticed that.

Yes.

Um, excellent.

Uh as you can see, we provided uh just over 4.9 million dollars in last year in grants.

Okay.

Oh, I I'm sorry, I forgot to um show that there's also the map where all the projects were located, so you can see where they um are located throughout our service area.

I'll just note the parkway is not just a dot, but it is uh a linear feature.

Okay.

Um the sewer lifeline rate assistance program, it has preceded the confluence program.

As you can see, it was initiated in 2004.

What it does is provide rebates uh to our low-income customers that are eligible, and they can save up to 195 per year.

It's available to homeowners, renters, and all and also homeless shelters.

And the enrollment actually increased from 23-24 due to our outreach efforts and also coordination with SMUD and PG ⁇ E with their rate assistance programs.

So as you can see, the number of enrollees is slightly different for the treatment and resource recovery and the collection, and that's because the service areas are a little bit different.

So the number of enrollees um is slightly less for collection, and you can see we provided over two million dollars in grants.

Before you leave the slide, uh question for Christoph.

Do we um do we have any level of coordination with County Department of Human Assistance to help uh explain this opportunity to folks, for instance, that may, you know, uh call or use our website or go actually go into one of our numerous DHA bureaus, um folks that uh might be on GA or otherwise need you know every helping hand they can to kind of make ends meet during any given month.

Do we have any kind of outreach that we coordinate with our DHA to do that?

I'm not sure about DHA.

I was gonna ask Nicole maybe to just share what types of outreach we are doing, and then Mike may even add some something to add as well.

Okay.

Good morning.

Um so in terms of outreach for the rate assistance program, uh most recently, as Carolyn mentioned, we did a targeted outreach to um SMUD customers who are on their rate assistance program because we have the same thresholds, and same for PGE in the city of West Sacramento.

So that outreach uh resulted as Carolyn mentioned in a substantial increase in our enrollment.

In addition to that, we um have a rate assistance program bill insert that goes out in every customer's bill.

We take that bill insert to all of the outreach events that we participate throughout our service area throughout the year and have an opportunity to connect and talk with all of our customers.

And then in addition to that, um we share the information on our website um and any during any you know Prop 218 rate increase processes.

Um we have not coordinated directly with D uh the department that you mentioned, but we would be happy to coordinate with them and even perhaps um we've done this with other um board members before, provide a stack of those rate assistance bill inserts, and then when they run out, they can certainly reach out and we can provide some more.

Yeah, I think it's a missed opportunity if we're not doing that.

It's it's a bit of um uh self-selection.

I mean, you you have folks that are uh engaged with the DHA for one reason or another.

Not everyone is uh got the same scenario or needs.

However, one common denominator typically is the fact that they might be economically struggling.

And so I think uh we ought to do more than just rely on uh bill inserts.

I'm not saying that that's a bad thing.

I think it's great that we're doing that and that we're given, you know, even our um district offices a stack of these things to give out and we're tabling and we're doing all the other outreach, but um I think specifically taking advantage of what uh DHA is designed to do and the clientele that they are designed to serve, um we should we should maximize that coordination and and uh if we do that, uh I assume we will.

It would be interesting to see uh if there's a change in the numbers even more so just because of that uh advantageous uh connection.

So I'd be happy to follow up with your office after the meeting to get a contact if that's okay.

Absolutely.

Wonderful, thank you.

Director Rathel.

Um I'm assuming the 10,253 enrollees that are in collection are also in the treatment of resource recovery.

So that it does seem like a very small number of folks that are in Sacramento, West Sacramento, and and Folsom.

Um maybe that's because that billing is handled uh by those agencies.

Um do we give the bill inserts uh to those other agencies to be included in there?

So do they go out across the whole system or just where your SACS sewer is doing the billing directly?

Yeah, no, great question.

So we work with four contributing agencies, Folsom, City of West Sack, City of Sacramento, and then um Cubs for the county of Sacramento and surrounding areas, and all of them receive the bill insert.

Thank you.

Cubs is uh uh combined uh utility billing system consolidated.

Go ahead.

Okay.

The next category is the American River Parkway.

And the American River Parkway frontation received 125,000 for their Protect the Parkway project.

And the purpose of this project is to remove the trash and debris from the islands and the waterways, and they also dispose of the invasive plants.

Um that project is located between um Discovery Park and Hazel Avenue.

So for the watershed management, uh we have the Franklin Channel Rest reforestation and restoration project.

And so we provided over $300,000 over three years uh to the Sacramento Tree Foundation so that they can plant over 800 native trees and shrubs along the Franklin Channel corridor.

And in addition to that, they've also planted uh milkweed, so that um over 300 rhizomes of that to um encourage a monarch butterflies and other um pollinating um species as well.

Okay.

The septic conversion we approved over 21 grants for individual properties and warranties for the low pressure pumps.

I'll talk about that in just a little bit.

And those grants totaled over 230,000.

So for qualifying properties on a septic system, they can receive the grant funding for design and construction costs, and there's some examples here: the engineering, the sewer impact and tap fees, the sewer main construction, sewer system demolition, and also the upper and lower lateral construction.

Uh just last year we decided to add a new um criterion, which is the low pressure pump system repair and replacement.

And we made that funding available for customers that have already received a grant um for their sewer system uh under this sewer uh the septic conversion program, but the equipment is malfunctioning.

So the money is being used to either repair or pull uh replace that dysfunctioning equipment.

Next is the economic development.

So commercial and industrial customers, they can receive a 50 percent discount on their sewer impact fees.

And the only requirement is that they have to create at least one full-time job.

And so what we did is we approved 25 grants, which totaled the $650,000.

That is the annual allocation.

Um that over uh 763 full-time jobs were created.

And the largest grant was given to Grove Florent Homeless Shelter, which also uh created 15 full-time jobs.

Director Seon.

Yes.

Thank you, Chair.

I saw I was just taking note of this, and I I appreciate the mission.

I appreciate the award to getting uh a homeless shelter built, but I was just wondering in terms of economic development, um, perhaps, and you have limited funds, so perhaps maybe a little higher threshold than one creating one job might be appropriate.

Would you be be able to maybe explain how how we evaluate and maybe do you get a lot of applications for uh for for this program?

So for um for the let me go back to the previous slide.

Okay.

So we ran out of funding in the beginning of April, um, and it paid for a partial grant.

Um typically we have not run out of this allocation previously.

In some years, uh we get very few grants, and other years we might get quite a few.

It really does depend on the market.

So what we had in place at the time uh when we first had our program is we had a tiered level in which there were um if you created so many jobs, you would get a certain percentage off your sewer impact fee.

And that was a little tedious to try and verify how many jobs were being created.

Um if it's something like an industrial customer, you know, because they're permitted with us, you know a little bit better about the jobs that they have.

But for uh a commercial customer, it's it's much more difficult to try and uh make sure that they are creating the number of jobs that they said.

So one of the things that we took a look at is making just a flat amount of a percent, which is at 50 percent off the sewer impact fees, and then removing the different levels of need to create X number of jobs.

So that's where we were, and then in 2024, we made adjustments to that.

So, how much outreach do you do about with with this program?

This is available to um any commercial customers that receive a quote, a sewer impact fee quote.

We make them aware of this um.

Okay.

It's actually on their fee quote, it has a number to contact.

So they are being um aware of this at the time that they're receiving a quote.

Okay.

That that's good to know.

Yeah, I I just want to make sure obviously we're we're leveraging every dollar and you know just for one job, it just sounds like uh it wasn't a very high threshold.

Uh I get um the point that you're making.

This was this is a little bit of a one-off in terms of it's not like a a common thing, and as Carolyn pointed out, it was the first time that we actually bumped up against the top um the the cap.

But I think it is something that bears some just l uh, I think monitoring to see um what's happening there and whether there needs to be a higher threshold for job creation.

But when we talked about it before, one of the things that we were because we we had, as Carolyn said, a sliding scale, and you got a higher percentage if you created more jobs, um, but we started to think about it in terms of is it better to help five businesses with two employees each or one business with 10 employees, and we kind of came to the conclusion that those are pretty much equal.

Um and we all took that's why we ended up with just a straight 50 percent um as far as the the grant.

So we've been thinking about that, but certainly we can monitor it and see if we need to to make it make a threshold there.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I mean, as we talk about our small businesses, I mean there's a lot.

Sewer impact fees, all the utility fees are are very significant for for people trying to get off the ground.

And so again, I know you have few dollars for these, so being very judicious in in their usage is is important.

So thank you for for investigating that and keeping an eye on it.

Appreciate it.

Okay, uh the next category is the sewer impact fee waivers.

Again, this program has been in place for uh a long time, decades, but it was just newly incorporated into the confluence program last year, and this is the first time that I'll be presenting on it.

So sewer impact fees are waived for low-income or affordable housing projects that are eligible.

It's in our ordinance.

Um we approved over $900,000 in grants, and that represents five different residential uh projects.

And we also that's the equivalent of 231 equivalent single family dwelling, so ESDs that were waived.

Um and then we have the public education.

So we're just highlighting one of the projects that they provide funding for.

There are many wonderful projects.

That's that's a mouthful.

So they call it SLUs for short.

So the Center for Land Based Learning was provided a grant uh over $200,000 through the fiscal year 26-27.

And what this funding does is provides high school students with the hands-on kind of the real world, you know, habitat restoration you can see in the pictures, um, those projects.

And it also exposes those students to college and career opportunities in both agriculture and also natural resources.

Okay, and lastly, we have our other projects.

The one that we're highlighting here is actually the only project in this category is the Sycamore Trail Project.

So we provided $50,000 in funding to the Rotary Club of West Sacramento, and they provided or they use this funding to plant 400 fruit trees and expand the irrigation in a half um half mile area along the Sycamore Trail.

So what this does is it's bringing that fresh fruit to the community in that local area.

And if there is extra fruit, it will be distributed to local food donation centers and will also go out to farmers markets.

So very exciting project.

I just want to mention something on that.

Just that that Sycamore Trail is very closely aligned with our interceptor.

And there's been um complaints from residents over the years about odors, and um, you know, it's not always the some of our facilities aren't always the best looking.

And so we really tried to step up and and do something in that same area.

So that's part of the reason why that project came to fruit to fruition.

See, that's not intended.

Okay.

Um here I just wanted to highlight some multi-year projects because even though we talk about this report in just one fiscal year, we're actually doing a lot of work on projects that are multi-year projects.

So uh the first one is MOSAC, the Museum of Science and Curiosity.

We are providing them one point for almost 1.5 million dollars.

It has been approved to date.

The Protect the American River Parkway, the project that um I mentioned earlier.

Um we've approved $282,000.

The North A Sanitation Program, um, we've had that uh provided funding for that for eight years, and we provide over $860,000.

And then, as I mentioned previously, the Franklin Channel Reforestation and Restoration Project, in which we provided over $300,000.

And finally, one of the things that I wanted to talk about is that we continue to receive letters of appreciation for this program.

Um, in addition to emails and conversations that our project managers have.

Um, the most recent letter of appreciation we received was from the American River Parkway, thanking us for the funding for their Protect the Parkway projects.

Um then through this program, we also strengthen our relationship with other organizations and agencies.

For example, the Sacramento Valley Conservancy, our regional water board, um, local law enforcement agencies for their uh abandoned vessel and vehicle programs.

Um that's just to name a few.

So to close, I just want to say that we foresee another successful year.

Um we have been receiving quite a few applications already.

And then we look forward to coming back next year, but um it sounds like maybe in six months to provide um an update to you on where we stand in terms of the obligative funding.

So that concludes my presentation.

I want to thank you for allowing me to present this to you today.

And do you have any questions for me?

Great job.

Thank you.

Um I don't have a question.

I I think we all managed to interrupt enough to give you plenty of questions already.

Uh but I do have a suggestion and I'm looking at our outreach folks specifically.

If you could pro proactively uh reach out to the River City Water Alliance.

American River Parkway Foundation does a lot more than just cleanup.

They do clean up, they do do that.

But uh River City Water Alliance um does some extraordinary extraordinary work, especially in the lower reaches of the parkway.

Um I want to make sure that their leadership understands that there's this resource available and that if they're interested, they should be, you know, spinning their wheels to uh figure out how to um apply for uh for the grant.

So I believe that we've partnered with them and the public name is very familiar, but um we'll definitely definitely do that.

I just want to echo that.

But I believe we're fairly conf I'm fairly confident.

Carolyn, do you can you speak to that actually?

Uh the River City Water Alliance.

Um, if you can't, that's okay.

I don't want to put you on the spot.

But I thought you could.

Yeah, we uh we have provided funding um even this year for the River City Water Alliance.

Um it is something that we could take a look at, trying to um provide you know more opportunities that they may have than just uh cleanup.

Very good.

Thank you.

Director Viegas.

Thank you thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you, Carolyn, for the presentation, and I'll just uh you don't have to respond to it, but I I couldn't help but notice uh I know we've been committing uh resources to the Mozac Science Center by design and purposefully because of so much uh uh thousands of kids go through that science center and are exposed to the constant change of our science and technology.

And if you go in there on Saturday by the following Saturday, you see different displays changing because of the science and how quickly things are changing.

I say that simply because I know education is a big component of our confluence program, and I I can't help but think that if there is anything that our youth are exposed to every single day, that is flushing toilets, washing their hands.

And so the system that they are exposed to every single day, I think the display should reflect the the sort of the technology that's that's embedded in what happens when they flush a toilet every day.

And I I couldn't help but when I was there recently, I looked at the display and it didn't really represent what I think I would want to see if I was a seven or eight-year-old trying to figure out how to learn more about what the work that we do here.

And I don't think there's anything more important than us educating seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven-year-olds around the importance of our stewardship role.

Um I just I put that in there because I know there's money in the education, but I just think we could probably do better, and so I'll just leave it at that.

I don't need a response.

I just if I was a kid looking to try to get excited about science, I'd probably be looking to learn a little bit more.

So as a as a former MOSAC board member, I I can appreciate uh your comment and suggestion, Director Viegas.

I think it's a good one.

And I think at the very least, making uh uh maybe a bolder connection between not maybe not just our mission, but just kind of the I think the fast fascinating part of how yeah, you you you get from uh uh you know a residential restroom to to our sewer uh plant.

Um and uh uh I know for a fact that uh many uh exhibits and displays in the past have focused on different aspects of water quality and riparian habitat preservation and uh all things kind of water.

Uh so I think that's where the intersection was seen very early in terms of the appropriateness of MozAC being uh beneficiary of of confluence resources.

But I I think your point's very well taken that uh maybe uh working with uh the administration um of the museum uh to uh see if we can't make those exhibits a little more uh declarative in terms of um uh what your sewer district is doing and how it relates to the science and technology of uh what it is that we do on an hourly basis would be I think appreciated.

Director Guerra.

Yeah, th thank you.

I mean, uh I just wanted to say, and uh as a as the father of a seven-year-old, I mean the concept of a toilet and and washing hands.

I mean, we hope washing hands.

Yes, yes.

Believe me, that's always a constant.

Like, you know, yeah, I didn't hear the wash, I didn't hear you washing your hands.

Like, and I'm looking at Darren over here because we're not so we've all gone through all of us have come to the but the point is it grabs their attention and I I and so one uh elevating exciting it, I think is yes uh important on that piece.

But as a matter of of necessity for this organization, for this entity.

Um, you know, the uh in science, many times uh what draws a lot of uh uh of young people is exciting things that are happening, and many times in there in the private sector.

But public engineers, and as someone who went to become studied and my first uh uh my first uh uh entrance into the engineering world was for a public agency.

Um we need more public engineers.

And and it's it's hard to attract people to at a young age to recognize, hey, this is not only a very well-paid, uh well-compensated career, it's a fun one, but doing that at a young age, and you know, it's hard to tell someone being a civil engineer or electrical engineer how what that could be.

But you could definitely make it fun with uh with uh a toilet that ends up saving the river and also making electricity, you know, because that's what we're doing now with the sewer district is is creating you know biomethane and electricity and everything else we're doing.

So I just think there are just so many ways to do that.

But I also agree we have to up the, I think um the ante and the support from this entity in its flexible funds, not so much because we you know, yes, we have an obligation for our youth, but because from a workforce component, we want our local kids to say, hey, you know what?

There's a major employer there, and I can stick around in Sacramento.

I know there's a lot of SAC state alums at uh at at the Echo Uh Water Project and got a chance to meet a lot of them.

You know there's a lot of the UC Davis alums, too.

But there's a lot of SAC state engineer alums there, you know.

And so uh anyways, to that point, I think from an economic development perspective, our employment perspective, it's one that I think with uh Mozak, we have to just you know uh uh pump that up a little more as well.

Point well taken in our uh uh strategic plan addresses this to some degree, and I think that's a good connection back to the public education part of it.

Yeah.

Any further comments or questions by uh board members?

All right.

Again, thank you for your presentation.

Well done.

Thank you.

Uh Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak on this matter?

We do not have any public comment.

All right.

Next item, please.

Mr.

Chair, item number eight is miscellaneous director matters by Mr.

Christoph Dalton.

Directors.

Uh no, I don't see any of the okay.

And number nine is communication received and file.

All right, very good.

Want to thank everyone for uh your attendance and participation in today's uh meeting.

And we will see you back in 20 seconds.

20 seconds.

Uh I do have one board member comment to make here.

Sure.

If that's okay.

Please.

Um one first I do want to thank the SAC sewer staff here.

Uh and also uh Joe Phil Borges from government relations.

We had a very uh long and contentious card meeting um that affects uh many municipalities.

And um I do want to thank SAC Sewer because their engagement along with some of our local partners at SMUD and and Roseville really helped influence uh and make um a point about how the state is looking at some of its mandates and being respective and responsive to the impacts that it could mean to our ratepayer, our residents, and particularly the the issue of uh rate increases can be uh extremely regressive uh in some of these regulations.

So I just wanted to make sure that before we adjourn, we recognize uh the staff at SAC sewer for their quick and prompt response and uh helping me in in my local role as a rep being able to address those issues.

So just uh thank you to your staff on that one.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Sorry for that.

No, no, great comments and again thank you for your service on CARB and thank City Council Member Dickinson for passing the legislation that permitted it.

So all right.

If there's nothing further, no further business be uh in front of this board, we are adjourned.