Good morning everyone. I'd like to call to order our meeting for November 12. We got up through almost through the year now.

And if the clerk would please call the roll. Make sure we have a quorum.

Yes, Madam Chair. Directors Desmond.

Here.

Dickinson.

Hume.

Jennings.

Kaplan.

Here.

Kennedy.

Here.

Orozco?

Here.

Pluckybaum?

Here.

Rachel?

Here.

Robles?

Rodriguez?

Here.

Sander?

Serna?

Soon?

Here.

Villegas?

Here.

And Chair Karpinski-Costa?

Present.

Thank you.

The upper quorum with the members that are present.

Thank you.

I'd like to ask

Director Villegas 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.

Please read the statement for public comment. Yes, madam 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 you verse cable systems

It is also live stream at Metro 14 live doc. SAC County. Gov

Excuse me today's meeting replays Sunday November 16th 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 those governments

compensation for the other agencies is paid directly to the individual board

members compensation for these 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

comments by email to board clerk at sack county gov your comment will be

ROUTIED TO THE BOARD AND FILED IN THE RECORD.

THIS CONCLUDES YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. NEXT ITEM PLEASE.

ITEM 1 IS THE CONSENT MATTERS TO BE APPROVED ITEMS 1-6.

DO ANY MEMBERS HAVE COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ON ANY MATTERS ON THE CONSENT?

ARE THERE ANY PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR THESE MATTERS?

WE DO NOT HAVE ANY PUBLIC COMMENTS.

MOVE APPROVAL.

SECOND.

moved by thank you please vote wait wait wait wait go ahead aye let the record reflect member

Dickinson is present now you may vote and your vote is unanimous with the members present

Oh, how do I get to wait a minute? Did you get mine?

No, I'll mark it down. I

Have it marked. Oh, there you go. Okay. All right. Thank you

Next item place

The next item is item seven comments from the public on issues not on the posted agenda. We do not have any speaker request slips

The next item is item 8, miscellaneous district engineer matters.

Presenter Christophe Dobson, district engineer.

Good morning, Chair and board members.

As you know, we do not have our second meeting in November.

Happy Thanksgiving.

And we have just one meeting left for the calendar year 2025, so that will be on December 10th.

And that's all I have.

Moving right along.

Next item, please.

Item 9 is revised employee benefits documents for employee groups 4, 6, and 9.

Matt Doyle, Director of Internal Services.

Actually, that should be me also.

Good morning, everyone.

This is our last step in locking in all of the salary structure for employees,

both the represented, which you've already seen the MOUs for, and now are unrepresented.

These are employee benefit documents.

They're essentially the equivalent of an MOU.

We took the exact same approach using the compensation study.

That was done for all classifications, and we are targeting the median of the market.

And then, of course, you have to set the appropriate spreads between different classifications.

that sort of thing to avoid compaction.

And so we took that same approach with the unrepresented.

The only difference here, slightly different,

is that there are two key classification series

that we asked a third party to review

and make recommendations on.

And that was our human resource classifications

because the human resource staff

were so involved in the compensation.

And as well as the executive team

because I was involved in the compensation as well.

So we had a third party review them and make recommendations

and we used those recommendations for the documents

that you have in front of you.

And with that, unless you have any questions,

we're just looking for a motion to approve the staff recommendation.

Are there any questions or comments from our members?

Then I'll second.

Moved and seconded.

I was proud.

And Director Sander just showed up. Thank you David

Thank you next item, please

Presenter Carolyn Belaz. Good morning, Chair and members of the board. My name is Carolyn Belaz,

and I'm the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for Sacramento Sewer. And today

I'm presenting on the Hovnanian Dry Pump Station Pollinator Project.

Can you bring up the presentation, please? Thank you. Okay. So today I will be discussing the

drivers and benefits of the project, the site selection, the design concept, we'll show you

some photos of the site both before and after, the signage that will be installed there,

the metrics that we will be using to evaluate whether or not the project is successful and

the next steps. Okay, so there are many drivers for this project. First, it aligns with our

core value of environmental stewardship. Secondly, it supports our land and natural resource

conservation efforts as part of our environmental sustainability program. And then it enhances the

pollinator habitat while improving the landscaping area on the outside of our pump stations.

And then lastly, it transforms areas that utilize plants that require high water usage into areas that are drought tolerant.

They will be low maintenance and also use California natives.

Okay, so for the benefits, it complements the surrounding community and the ecology.

It conserves water not only by reducing water demand, but also by minimizing the water that runs off the site.

And then it streamlines long-term maintenance.

Now, the benefit of this is not only does it reduce cost for the district, but also it minimizes the green waste that's generated at the site and then how you properly dispose of it.

Okay. So the Hovnanian Drive pump station, it's located in the Natomas area, and it's adjacent to Blackbird Park and its community garden.

And one of the reasons why we selected the site not only was where it was located, but also there was already water available to the landscape area in front.

A lot of our sites don't necessarily have water available to landscaping, so that would be an additional cost.

And then also, as you'll see in a few slides, the landscaping that was there put in by the developer really needed to be replaced.

And then as part of our planning process, we did meet and coordinate with the Four Seasons at West Shore HOA.

And we talked with them about the water usage and the signage because this is also butts their community there.

So we wanted to make sure that they were on board and supported our project, which they do.

Their only concern was if we could please put on the sign that's going to be out at the site.

If there's any issues with the site, who to contact.

We added that.

Okay, so this shows you the design of the project, and it's divided into four swaths.

The first one is the habitat hedgerow, and that's what you think of like your shrubs and trees.

That provides shelter to birds and small animals.

It also does provide some source of nectar for the pollinators.

Then we move over to the nectar bank, and that is pretty much self-explanatory.

That's made up of perennial plants so that that area will produce nectar year-round for our pollinators.

And then there's the oil and resin resource.

And those plants generate either oils or resins that native ground-nesting bees use to actually create their nests.

So a lot of our native bees are solitary and some of them are also ground dwelling.

So what we think of as a honeybee and how we're always seeing it and it's in groups, the native bees are just a little bit different.

And then for the grassland buffer, that is the grasses that do provide cover or shelter also for many animals.

In fact, one of the grasses that we use is called deer grass, and it got its name because mule deer fawn like to hide in it because that grass is so tall they can just hide in the middle of it, and then they're not seen by predators.

So as you will see at each one of your desks or places, you will have a seed packet.

And that's something that we put together, and it represents three of the seeds that are from plants that are used from our site.

They don't come directly from our site.

But what you will find are two plants from the nectar bank, the California poppy, also the foothill pinstemon.

And then also you'll find the Cleveland sage that comes from our oil and resin resource.

Okay, so here are some of the pictures of the sites.

As you can see before installation, it was just some like vines growing on the wall.

It was getting a little bit out of control.

There's also some weeds growing.

So as I said earlier, we really needed to replace that landscaping.

um underneath the photo 40 days after installation you can see where the plants are still pretty

immature and they're growing a lot of them look very similar um and then on the photo on the right

you'll see 120 days after installation the plants are really starting to mature and so in this photo

i just wanted to point out um in the background you'll see those tall um grassy that's that deer

grass I was mentioning. And in the foreground, you'll actually see California fuchsia. That is

a plant that the bees absolutely love. So there's always a lot of pollinators. It produces a lot of

blooms. And while I was out conducting a site visit, I actually heard someone walking by

and took a look at the California fuchsia and said, oh, these are beautiful. Wasn't even talking

to me, just kind of more to herself. So that made me pretty happy. Okay, so for the signage,

we will be installing a 24 by 32 inch metal sign out at the site. It is scheduled for installation

on the 20th. And as you can see, it talks a little bit about each one of those swaths, a little bit

about pollinator facts, it has at the very bottom a QR code. And if that's scanned, that will take

the reader to our website that talks about pollination, and I'll show you what that will

look like in the next slide. And then at the bottom left, that's the number that people can

contact if they notice any issues with the site. Okay, so we need to come up with some metrics to

determine how effective and successful is this site. So one of the first things that we do is we

go out to the site. We're not only looking for the appearance of it and the overall health,

but we're also looking at the pollinator abundance and the diversity. We're looking at which plants

that we see them associated with the most.

And we're also keeping track of, you know, passers-by,

how much maybe foot traffic we notice while we're there

because it is located right next to a park.

And then we're measuring the public's interest

by ones that actually go to our pollination station webpage.

So if they scan the QR code, it'll take them to that webpage.

where there's a lot more information that they can find out about each one of the swaths,

the benefits and really the reasons why we're doing this project,

and then it lists out each one of the plants that are planted out there at the site.

As you can see in the bottom photos, there are pictures of various pollinators.

The one on the bottom left, it's a little hard to see.

It's a bee.

It's really hard to capture a bee because they're usually always in motion,

so they turn out pretty blurry. Butterflies are much easier, so we were able to capture those

pretty easily. So our next steps is, as I mentioned previously, is to install the sign out at the site,

which is supposed to be installed on the 20th. And then one of the things that we notice in

already going out to our sites is we're already noticing a lot of pollinators out there,

and that they are using the various plants.

So it's showing us to be successful so far.

It was just installed at the end of June.

So we've had just a few months to try and assess.

And so far, it seems to be very successful.

And because of that, we're already looking and evaluating future pollinator sites

because I neglected to say that this is a pilot project.

So we really want to try and evaluate, is this something that we want to look at trying to do at some of our other SAC sewer facilities?

And with that, do you have any questions?

Terrific presentation.

Thank you.

Terrific project.

Director Kaplan?

I just want to say thank you for piloting in my district and meeting with the West Shore HOA,

because sometimes they can be a little prickly.

But what I love about this is in the area that it's not only benefiting in water conservation, but because it is next to a community garden, the extra benefits of the pollination with that.

So I'm really excited to see what comes of it.

And we've got plenty of areas in Natomas next to parks and some of your facilities that we'd be happy to host others.

But thank you for this.

the community is excited and that is an area that is high trafficked by because it's not only

Blackbird Park but next to a school so yes thank you yes of course I have a question so where did

the bees go after they visit the pollinator garden do they now their local hives um they they are

some um local hives but most of them that we're trying to attract um in addition to the honeybee

which we are trying to attract, are natives.

So they'll either go to other gardens, like the community garden,

and they'll pollinate there, or they may make nests,

like even in the bare ground that's in the local park or at the school.

So if there's anywhere that they have an area where they can nest,

they'll usually go there.

They're pollinating other plants, not necessarily making honey.

We're honey makers.

We just churned five gallons of honey in our yard.

Oh, wonderful.

Yes.

Director Sander, I think you're up next.

Yeah, I have a question about naturalization versus maintenance.

What is the strategy here?

In terms of trying to convert the project into...

So operation normal in our region is often a government will, you know,

do landscaping and set it up and then do next to no maintenance, walk away, and three years later,

it looks terrible. Yes, yes. So what's sort of our standard with regard to a project like this?

I think we've all seen some native natural gardens that maybe have not been properly maintained.

So I completely understand your concern. This site and any other site in which we do a project

like this is automatically put on our list for our landscapers, that they will be going

out to the site.

They will have to maintain it.

So they should be assessing it.

And then going forward, staff will be continuing to visit the site to track and make sure that

it's still meeting the goals of the project.

So if it's not, if some plants aren't making it, if some are perhaps overgrowing the site,

because that was a concern from the initial design, there were actually too many plants,

and it was just going to crowd it out as opposed to looking like a landscaped garden.

So what we did do is also reduce the amount of plantings that would go in there,

so there would not be that issue.

So we will be having it after the year maintenance period with the landscaper that put in the project.

After that period is up, which would be June of 2026, it will then go on to the list of sites that are being maintained by our landscaper for all of our sacks sewer facilities.

Did I answer your question?

I don't actually know what our standard is.

So three years from now, one of the significant plants dies.

Do we replace it or do we just remove it?

What's that standard?

Because this is a pilot project, we don't have that standard already determined yet.

That's part of the reason why we wanted to have one project look and see how it worked

before we actually installed any other projects.

So one of the things we want to look at is what is working, what's not working.

are there other plants that might be more beneficial than the ones that were installed at this site?

As well as, is there a better design, perhaps, than the one that was put at this site?

Right. I mean, that would be the real goal, if you could learn from it and see,

well, that didn't quite work, so let's try this species or this density of planting.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay. I'd just like to see maintenance of effort.

You know, there's so many parking lots and little landscaping areas where plants are put in,

and three years later it's random and dirty and half dead

and no one ever seems to go back and care for those places.

Thank you.

We can designate Director Kaplan to keep an eye on it.

Well, this is just one example of the wonderful things

that our district does besides process sewage.

So thank you so much for the presentation.

Look forward to seeing how it works out.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for the seeds.

You're welcome.

Next item please. Madam chair next item is item 11 receiver presentation on the operations

challenge team presenters Christoph Dobson and Dave Leamer. I just have a few comments

and then Dave will do the presentation. First I just want to appreciate our team. They've

put a lot of effort into this and have improved quite a bit in a relatively short period of

time and why we're having a little celebration for them. One of the really cool things that I

like about this program is that it trains a critical skill and that is that you're taking

essentially some complex tasks that you have to do in a certain order in order to complete a goal

and they basically have to break those down and figure out how to do them as efficiently and

effectively as they can also without cutting any corners because they can be penalized for safety

issues as well. So it really fits nicely with really what we do at the district as a whole,

no matter what part of the organization we're in. So it's training a really key skill. And I think

that also shows our superintendent and assistant superintendent were on the original team that we

had way back in the day. So it's a program that builds leaders as well. And with that,

I will turn it over to Dave. Thank you, Christoph. Can we get the presentation up?

There we go.

Good morning, Chair and members of the board.

My name is David Lehmer, Maintenance and Operations Assistant Superintendent.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to our Operations Challenge team and briefly explain what Operations Challenge is.

The Water Environment Federation, or WEF, started this in 1988 to showcase what operators do daily.

and what it is, it is the wastewater and water sector's

best professional development program

wrapped up in a competition.

This truly takes our one district initiative.

I have people from the treatment side,

I have people from the collection side

and we have to come together

and figure out how to do these tasks.

They're four man teams.

Everyone has the same set of tools,

the same amount of equipment,

the same steps and processes,

yet one team can do it in 10 minutes and we can do it in four.

So it forces you to work together.

It forces you to problem solve under pressure.

And it literally is the hardest thing we will ever do at work.

I told them that when we started this a year ago and they didn't believe me.

They thought I was talking about how hard practice was.

We showed up to nationals last year after just two weeks.

And it was deer in the headlights.

And they realized this is way bigger than I thought it was.

So they are timed events that simulate real-world challenges that we face daily.

There are skilled teams of professionals that compete in five events.

We have a collections event, a laboratory event, maintenance, process control, and safety.

The background a little bit is there's three divisions now.

Division III is for new teams, and it typically takes three years in Division III to move up to Division II.

unless you place in the top three in the overall competition,

they'll move you up.

Like I said, last year was our first competition.

We only had two weeks of practice,

walked into nationals against 56 of the world's best people in our industry,

and it showed we needed more than two weeks of practice.

But we stuck with it, pushed hard.

So we have Division II teams that once they're in Division II,

they stay in Division II until they place in the top three

in the overall competition, then they get moved into Division I.

And Division I is truly the best in the world of what we do.

They'd be like the NFL team going against a high school team.

They are highly skilled.

They are extremely smart.

And they're amazing to watch.

So we actually did have a team.

We competed from 1988 when this was developed until 2008.

We spent most of those years in Division I.

And then we restarted as Division III in 2024.

and there should be

there we go

there's a quick little drink from the fire hose

We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.

Thank you.

Boy, they work fast.

Yeah.

I wish they'd go that fast.

It's a little jumbled.

There was some practice thrown in there.

We tried to get video.

It takes a lot of time to practice some of those events,

like the one where we won pump last year when we started practicing,

we were doing it in 14 minutes.

We've done it in just over six minutes.

When we're cutting the pipe, that whole event,

you need to be doing that in a minute and a half or you're not competitive.

The safety event, same thing.

You've got to be in the five-minute mark to be competitive.

Where they were showing little in-line pictures,

all the tools and equipment starts in a certain spot,

in a certain order, in a certain box.

They have to end that way.

So you've got to get all that stuff set up, torn apart,

and do what you need to do.

It's a lot of work.

So for 2025 to prepare, California does not have a state event.

They're usually held at the CWA annual conference.

When we pulled out in 2008, there was no need to compete against L.A.

because L.A. was the only team.

They just get a berth in the nationals.

So to prepare for 2025, in May we went to a competition.

We placed seventh out of eight teams.

These smaller events that we went to out of the eight teams,

they do not separate you by division.

So we were competing against Division I teams.

And we still ended up getting third place in the maintenance event.

In July, we got fifth out of six teams, again, competing against Division I.

and there was the returning national champion

as one of the teams we were competing against,

and we got second in the pump event against them.

And then in Chicago for the nationals,

we took fourth overall out of 28 teams in our division.

We took first in the maintenance event.

We would have placed second in Division II.

We would have placed third in Division I

just within our first year.

So we're extremely proud and happy.

Our team members are Nate Fuwa, which is Senior Wastewater Treatment Plan Operator.

He was our team captain for our national event.

Gabe Avalos, Maintenance and Operations Technician in the collection side.

Efren Gutierrez, Treatment Plan Operator 2.

Chris Ticker, Maintenance and Operations Technician on the collection side.

Wendell Duncan, Underground Construction and Maintenance Supervisor.

He actually got hurt middle of the year, so he was our captain last year,

had to step down, and Nate stepped in, and, like, we didn't even miss a beat.

And then myself, I'm the coach.

And any questions?

Before I get into questions, I'd like to, we'd like to, if you guys ever,

all of you, one of you want to come to watch one of our practices,

I can arrange that for you guys to physically see how hard this is

and how much work goes into this.

I think you would appreciate and understand a little bit more.

and they love the pressure of trying to...

It's easy with me watching a stopwatch.

They don't feel any pressure,

but with Christophe and the other directors show up,

the nerves hit them,

and that's what I really need to test them under,

so you guys are more than welcome to come out and watch,

and I hope you do it.

The train backs up at our house.

Can you guys come over?

Yeah.

Be there in under two hours.

And they fix it in under five minutes.

Well, you don't think you want us to go that fast at your house.

So you have these team members,

And they do the laboratory, so you don't have any laboratory people on the laboratory team, correct?

No laboratory people on the team.

So they have to cross-train.

Right, and that's what's the hardest part is the process control test is a treatment plant-based test.

And it's timed.

There's a computer aspect of it.

I have two treatment plant operators, yes, but the event coordinator is on the East Coast.

So they're asking questions about how the East Coast treats sewage,

and they're so far behind the times that a lot of the stuff they're asking questions on,

we don't do and have never done.

So it's kind of we have to learn the industry frontwards and backwards

and our collection guys are getting better at it.

I mean, they don't know any, the treatment guys don't know anything about manholes and cleaning pipes,

but we don't know anything about treating sewage.

But now we're learning.

So it's a huge growth and development tool for everybody.

So do you have a long list of employees that want to be on this team and you have tryouts?

I mean, how did they select the team?

For this one initially, it was people requested it.

We didn't really have a tryout because there weren't a lot of people that were interested

because no one knows what it is.

Now they do.

Most of our staff weren't around when John and I were competing for years.

We have a couple people interested now.

We will have tryouts.

We are going to rotate people out if we get people in that want in.

But then it's hard because now you're starting over.

Each of the events, each year, one of the events changes.

So it takes time to get good.

Then once you get good, if you change the dynamic of the team, it gets hard to be competitive,

which we can afford to do in Division II.

We just haven't had the interest.

We have people that talk trash is a terrible way to say it because they think we're just

out partying and having fun.

But when they physically show up to practice and see how hard they are, it's very rare

that they're not bleeding by the end of a week if we're competing or practicing.

They get beat up.

And when people see that realizing I'm doing this and traveling on my own time, I'm doing this away from my home, and I'm not getting compensated anymore for it, they don't want any part of it.

They're truly selfless because none of the trophies have our name on it.

It has sack sewer on it.

So we're doing it for the district.

We're not doing it for us.

And thank you, Cable, for photographing our team back there and putting it up on the screen.

That was good.

Any other questions or comments?

Darren Suen.

There you are.

Thank you, Chair.

Hey, David, to your team.

I just want to commend you all for taking such pride in your craft

and doing so well in this competition,

representing Sac Sewer and this whole region.

So hats off to all of you, and please keep up the great work.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and thank you, team,

making our sewer district proud of you.

Job well done.

It's hot in here.

Next item.

Item 12 is miscellaneous director matters.

Oh, that's us.

Do any of the directors have any miscellaneous?

I always think of them as directors.

Do any of us have director items, any future items, any comments, questions?

Patrick Kennedy, Director Kennedy.

Thank you.

Just real quickly.

I know that Splash was on our consent calendar,

But I want to thank staff again for working with Splash during tough times.

But the work that's being done out there really showcases how we're good stewards of the property out at the buffer lands.

And just as a personal note, a special education teacher that I'm fairly familiar with was recently out there with her class and said it was just absolutely amazing.

And, you know, the kids learn so much.

So who, you know, these kids otherwise would not be exposed to these types of lessons.

So thank you for continuing to see that as a priority.

Yes, I just want to mention that Nicole and I were talking, we are going to be doing an

annual just review of the previous season of field trips.

So probably in the late summertime period between, because it follows the school year,

we'll probably be bringing back an item, just a presentation, say what happened over the past year,

so that you have that little bit of publicity around it.

So the other thing I'll just mention, I don't know the timing yet, but sometime in the next several months,

we're talking about working on a constructed wetlands out there that would showcase a lot of things.

We could use a recycled water, some partnerships with, I know Ducks Unlimited would be part of that potentially.

So there's some great opportunities coming.

That's just a little whetting your appetite.

Thank you.

So the Nicholas Dairy is closed in the winter, isn't it, for the AWE program?

Isn't it?

Not exactly.

It dies down in the winter.

When it's raining and muddy up there.

Yeah, but it's basically we're trying to fit the field trips within the school year.

So, you know, if it's not wet out there and they have opportunities, they would.

And I want to encourage any director who has not gone out on a tour to do so

because it is an experience you'll never forget and neither do the students forget it's kind of cool

Any other items

Just to receive and file just receiving file then we are adjourned