Okay, I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Sacramento Area Sewer District for Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the rule and establish a quorum?

Directors Desmond, Dickinson.

Hume Caplin.

Kennedy.

Hull.

Oh, Hull.

Here.

Plucky bomb.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Is that me?

No, plucky bomb.

Oh, okay.

A keynote.

Here.

Robles?

Here.

Rodriguez?

Here.

Sander.

Here.

Soon.

Viegas.

Yes.

Karpinski Costa.

I'm here.

And Chair Cerna.

Here.

You have a quorum with the members that are present.

We're here.

Please read our statement.

Yes.

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 14 Live.sackCounty.gov.

Today's meeting replays Sunday, July 26th 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 the government of those governments.

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

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

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

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

If you would like to make a public comment in the Zoom, please raise your digital hand and the clerk will unmute you when it is your turn to make a comment.

You may send written public comments by email to board clerk at SACCounty.gov.

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

This concludes your announcements, Chair.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh Director Sander, will you please do us the honor of leading us in the pledge?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Salutes.

Pledge.

I'll read this to the flag of the United States of America.

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

Okay.

Uh again, I'd like to welcome everyone to this morning's proceedings of the Sacramentary Sewer District.

Uh we have another board member uh joining us here shortly.

And I know we have at least one member of the public that wishes to address the public or address the board on matters off agenda.

Uh so with that, madam clerk, our first item.

Our first item are the consent matters to approve items one and two.

Okay.

Uh do uh direct.

All right.

Apparently, directors do not have any questions or comments.

All right, we have a motion, second.

Madam Clerk, do we have any members of the public that wish to address the board on this matter?

Not on this item, but if you would like to make a public comment in the zoom, please raise your digital hand and the clerk will unmute you when it's your turn to make a comment.

You have two minutes to make your public comment.

I assume we have no one in the zoom.

You have no one in the zoom.

All right, very good.

We have a motion and second.

Uh please vote.

Your motion passes unanimously.

Very good.

Next item, please.

Your next item is comments from the public on issues not on the posted agenda.

We do have one speaker slip.

Okay.

Uh Ms.

Montero.

Or Mont, is it Montero or Montano?

Montano.

Montano, okay.

Morning.

Good morning, Chair Cerna and Board.

My name is Andrea Montano, founder of Rufa for My Heart, a nonprofit focused on research, consumer protection, and public education around alternative housing, including our work and open paths for movable tiny homes.

I'm here this morning simply to applaud you.

Your new treatment and resource recovery ordinance does something that matters a great deal to the families we serve.

We help make small residential units more affordable.

And your exempt accessory dwelling units from sewer impact fees.

You've assigned multifamily and age restrictive homes, fewer equivalent dwelling units that than a full-size home.

And you've waived fees proportionally for affordable housing.

Taken together, that is real leadership.

And you have been instrumental in it.

What you have done reaches beyond one fee schedule, a proportional approach to impact fees is part of a larger shift towards making small homes genuinely attainable, and that conversation is spreading.

We've now reached the city of Sacramento, where these same ideas are being explored, and we are grateful for the opportunity to help move forward.

We understand the final fee calculations are still being completed, and we look forward to seeing those soon.

We're not here to ask for anything today.

We simply did not want your leadership on behalf of smaller, more attainable homes to go unremarked.

On behalf of Robin Davis of West Sacramento and families who live in the small homes, I just want to say thank you.

Before I go, an invitation with my thanks.

I'm leaving a broad sheet with our mission and 10 complimentary tickets with your clerk before I leave.

Each one is good for up to two people.

If you like more, feel free to send me an email and the number of tickets that you need, and I'd be happy to leave it.

We'll call for you.

They're for the Tri-County Home and Garden Show for uh in Roseville.

That's taking place October 14th through 16th.

It's a personal favorite of mine.

They're expanding the garden goodies, the builders, the vendors, teas, local honeys, jams, among my favorites.

And I will confess that there are my weaknesses.

Plus, plenty of activities for kids and family uh fund for the whole family.

And so um we are doing a speaker seminar on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Um hosting a um open uh panel with QA uh more than builders, the people that are actually making tiny homes a real answer.

And we would love and be on it, we would be honored to have you in the room.

Thank you for your time and for your service to our region and our communities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Montillo.

Appreciate the uh the gesture.

Um if you could just make sure the clerk uh receives um the materials that you brought.

And uh please be aware we do have uh law that governs uh the acceptance of um freebies, so to speak, very generous of you.

So she'll make sure that we uh make sure our T's are crossed and I's are dotted.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

All right, that concludes our off agenda speakers.

Uh let me check in the uh if you would like to make a public comment in the Zoom, please raise your digital hand and the clerk will unmute you when it's your turn to make a comment.

You have two minutes to make your public comment.

And it looks like they're just listening in.

Okay, very good.

So we do have folks online that are monitoring.

Yes.

Okay, very good.

All right, with that, our next item, please.

Item number four is miscellaneous district district engineer matters presenter Christoph Dobson, district engineer.

Good morning, Chair and Board members.

Uh, this meeting should wrap up fairly quickly, but we do have a couple of critical items.

So I just want to mention that our next meeting, uh, the August 12th meeting will be canceled.

So August 26th will be our next meeting after this.

We will have a full agenda at that one, so we'll look forward to the attendance.

And that's all I have.

Very good.

Uh thank you, Christoph.

I'll take this opportunity to thank you for and your staff for um hosting uh a tour uh this earlier this week for uh for my staff.

I made the comment not too long ago that uh all of our directors should uh take um take you up on the opportunity to uh to the extent that we we have um district staff available.

Not all of us do, but some of us do, uh, that they should avail themselves to learn firsthand uh the operation and the magnitude of the uh uh the service that uh Secretary Sewer Service provides uh down in Elk Grove.

So I'm glad that uh I believe I had three members of my staff.

Yeah, there were three.

We had a wonderful time.

Yeah, terrific.

They they they came back very, very impressed.

Um and even uh Alma Munoz, my chief of staff, who was actually the clerk for this uh uh guest board for several years, had not seen it before, so she was uh had lots to to share um in the affirmative about her experience here.

So thank you.

All right.

Uh anyone offline that wishes to uh address the directors on the district engineers' comments.

If you'd like to make a public comment in the Zoom, please raise your digital hand, and the clerk will unmute you when it's your turn to make a public comment.

You have two minutes to make your public comment.

It appears we have two just listening in.

Very good.

Thank you.

Next time, please.

Okay, Mr.

Item uh Mr.

Chair Item Five is collection of delinquent sewer service charges on the property tax roll.

Presenter Tepa Banda, Director of Finance.

Morning, Tepa.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair.

Good morning, members of the board.

This item is um public hearing.

So on the May 27th, we had a uh this board um passed a resolution of intent to levy these uh delinquent sourcharges on the property tax row.

But before that happens, uh this hearing is required.

So uh part of this item would be to open and close a hearing um on this um on the decision to to to transfer the service the delinquent service charges to the property tax row.

Um as of June uh twor June 2026, which is just last month, when the last report was ran by our billing uh partners at Cobbs, there was uh 17,701 accounts that uh were identified as delinquent for a total of 15.3 million.

Um normally uh the good thing is this number is much lower.

The number of accounts is about 13 percent lower than last year, so which is a good trend.

Uh uh that less of our customers uh uh getting delinquent.

Uh the amount is slightly higher.

The average amount per customer is slightly higher, but I think the the number of accounts uh being that much lower is uh is a positive.

And normally by August, when when these charges are finally transferred to the property tax rule, these numbers tend to go down.

Um over the last few years, we've seen about two percentage decline in that number.

So we think uh the 17 might be much lower than you know, maybe 15 by the time it's transferred.

Um so that concludes my remarks.

Uh I will I will let the the clerk call the hearing and and the rest of the process.

Okay, is this a formal open and closed hearing protocol that I have to follow here?

Yes, okay.

Okay.

All right.

Uh first, before I do that, any questions of uh Mr.

Bonda?

Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing.

Do we have anyone that wishes to address the directors on this matter?

We do not have any speakers in public, but if you would like to make a public comment on the Zoom, please raise your digital hand and the clerk will unmute you when it's your turn to make a comment.

And we have the same two participants just listening in.

Okay, very good.

I'll close the public hearing then in that case and bring it back to the board.

Uh entertain a motion.

I look approval.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Please vote.

Your motion passes unanimously, 110.

Very good.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

Mr.

Chair, your next item is establish an ad hoc committee to address quorum issues.

Presenter Mike Hewitt, Director of Policy and Planning.

Good morning, Chair, members of the board.

Mike Hewitt, Director of Policy and Planning.

Um I'm here to recommend that we set a board ad hoc quorum subcommittee to increase our ability to meet uh quorums.

Um last month, Christoph presented recommendations to consider for helping to get quorums.

Um discussions ensued between uh board and staff and also amongst board members.

And there is an overall consensus to establish a subcommittee, really depending on the outcome.

Later in the day, Christoph had a meeting with uh Mayor Kevin McCarty to talk about it as well, and that also supported um having a subcommittee.

So what would a quorum subcommittee look like?

Well, the purpose of it would be to provide a forum to collaborate and brainstorm ideas to enhance board attendance, and also to consider um a process, establishing a process for onboarding new board members if the SAC sewer annexes other cities and counties.

Uh the length of this committee, an outdoor committee uh can last for up to a year.

We expect this one to conclude by December, maybe a meeting or two.

And uh the committee members.

So we suggest that the quorum subcommittee include a supervisor from the county of Sacramento, the county of YOLO, one council member from the City of Sacramento, and Elk Grove, and then a council member for one of the uh remaining smaller cities.

That would be at least five members.

And so it the schedule, if we get that approved today, the committee itself and get the members identified.

We'll go ahead and schedule a meeting.

The first meeting is soon as schedules line.

So with that, I'll turn it back over to the Chair Cerna to help facilitate the board's um proving of this committee and then also establish the members.

Okay, very good.

Thank you, Mike.

Uh, before we do that, uh do we have anyone uh offline or online that wishes to address us on this matter?

Uh let me check.

If you'd like to make a public comment in the Zoom, please raise your digital hand.

The clerk will unmute you when it's your turn to make a comment.

Apparently we still have the same two listening in.

Okay, very good.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh Mike, you're gonna have to just remind me as we go along in our um brief discussion here about the composition that you're recommending.

Yep.

Uh so I uh I'll start.

Uh I feel uh some responsibility for uh uh uh bringing this um uh matter before us.

Uh so I would certainly volunteer um as uh a Sacramento County supervisor to uh participate.

Did you say one or two Sacramento County?

One county of Sacramento board member and then also one from Yola County.

Okay.

However, having said what I just said, if there's uh a passionate colleague of mine that wishes to participate, I'm I'm certainly willing to let that individual uh be the committee member from Sacramento County, seeing none.

Um you said one member from Sacramento?

Sacramento.

I would nominate my fellow council member Phil Pluckybaum who's watching online.

All right.

That's why that's why I wanted to get public comment uh first, right?

So public comment is now shut, Phil.

Okay.

Um then uh you uh also mentioned Mike uh one member from either Citrusites, Rancho Cordova or Elk Grove.

Is that right?

So one from Elk Grove and then one from one of the remaining agents or cities.

So one from Elk Grove and one from Ranch Cordova, Folsom, Citrus Heights or West Sack.

Okay.

Um how about let's do uh check with Elk Grove.

Okay.

Um Folsom is happy to do it as the Okay, very good.

Thank you.

Unless David is jumping at the interest from citrusites.

No.

David?

Oh, we just need one.

That's why I needed Mike to guide me here.

All right, so do we have it?

Are we set then?

If we can get one from Yale County, Yelp would be great.

Mr.

Viegas.

Trying to hide over there.

How many choices do we have there?

All right.

Very good.

Okay, so uh the commitment is uh one, maybe two meetings between uh now and December.

That's what I foresee, yeah.

Okay, very good.

In preparation for those meetings, I assume staff will be very prepared um with things like uh scheduling for these chambers.

Um what it uh what it entails uh when uh we don't have a quorum.

Uh for instance, the frequency that we have must do's that are very time sensitive would be helpful for us to kind of understand the um the time sensitivity in general uh relative to our duties here.

Um so I think you get my drift is that we want to be fully armed with uh everything that affects um uh our uh ability to an expectation for us to perform here and the time commitments, et cetera, et cetera.

Uh Director Kennedy.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to when you go into your deliberations, I just wanted you to be aware of the fact that um up until recently, two members of the Board of Supervisors and one member of the Sacramento City Council who were on this board uh also served on the the continuum of care, which was a fairly new thing to have to do.

Good point.

And that is changing.

So good.

That should that shouldn't be an issue there.

Perfect.

So that's very good uh to know that we don't at least we've can check the box that that conflict is now um uh over.

Uh Director Dickinson.

I I just gonna say in case um council member Pleckibaum has difficulty scheduling on uh I'm willing to be a backup.

Great, thank you.

All right, I think you have what you need, right?

Yes, uh we don't uh Diane, we don't need any formal action.

Okay, very good.

Um Christoph, you look like you wanted to say something.

Well, I just maybe want to check and make sure because we we did ask that we that the board uh approve the formation of the committee.

Is that okay?

We don't need to do that.

Is there a mo is there a motion?

We'll we'll belt and suspenders this.

Is there a motion?

Okay, it's been moved.

Oh second.

It's been moved in second, please.

Are you taking comments on this?

Sure.

So I you know, I uh I just want to give my opinion.

I think this is one of those situations where it's over processing instead of maybe uh on the administrative level, figure out what is happening.

Um that is prohibiting people from being able to attend the meeting.

Um so what I do, I I I'm an alternate for many of my colleagues, and I have my executive assistant check in to make sure that I'm not gonna be needed to in case they need to have um someone on RT or say COG.

So I think maybe doing some of that work first, um, and then now we know that now we know that the COC is changing, so it appears that now we're not gonna have a problem getting those two uh supervisors and the one council member.

But this is I think one of those situations where I think we are over processing and overcomplicating the problem instead of uh addressing it on the uh on the level of what is prohibiting people not using their alternates to attend the meeting and is there enough communication happening?

So um I'm gonna vote no, but I I do support the you know them getting together, but I just think um yeah, all right, thank you.

Yeah, sure.

Uh before I uh go to uh Director Kerpinsky Costa, I would respectfully disagree with that because um and maybe that's attributable to newness on this board.

However, um not all of us have similar meeting schedules, not all of us are coming from the same jurisdiction, not all of us are investing um at the time that for instance I don't um give it much consideration because I come here to do my my job as a supervisor.

It's kind of the the home base, right?

We all got into our districts and our communities.

But we have others that are traveling from uh much greater distances, investing the commute time to and from the meetings.

So there's there's I I understand why on the surface someone might say, really, you need a committee for this?

Well, it's to get the affected parties.

I think that's why uh Mike suggested the composition as he did to have that conversation, not uh amongst the totality of the directorship here, but through a committee, and plus it's it's hopefully it's one, not two meetings.

Uh one meeting.

So I don't think it's asking a whole lot.

Uh Director Karpinski Costa.

Well then I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you and agree with Supervisor Rodriguez.

It's it's it seems to be that the people who are not here are the people we should say, why aren't you here?

What's the problem?

And then you could just attack that problem.

Now that you have less conflict, I'm on another board that meets the same time as this.

For the other board, I send my alternate.

And so I'm happy that you're canceling August 12th because I can go in person to the setup board advisory board.

And so I I consider this to be my primary duty, and and and I'm here first.

So I just think that you need to ask the people who aren't here why they aren't here.

And I think the two vacancies on the Sacks City Council create a an opportunity for lack of a quorum.

And so if that was fixed and the people who have conflicts, I mean it seems to me you don't need to go through this rigmarole of a of a I agree with Supervisor Rodriguez.

Understood.

So I will be voting no, and that's for the reasons.

Thanks.

Okay, very good.

Did not anticipate this to be controversial.

Um Mike, I assume that the we'll also be looking um at the policy to the extent that we have a robust policy, which I don't know that we do about alternates and when they get triggered or absences and if you're absent so many times, perhaps then you go back to the well at that respective jurisdiction for someone who may be um better capable of making the meetings based on their personal schedules or interested because perhaps they're new on that um uh member jurisdiction.

So there's there's more to it than just hey, you know, the continuum of care is moving their board meeting, hey, it's problem solved.

There's like I said, there's more to that, and I think out of respect for uh for those that have given of their uh their time to uh participate, um I think it's worth at least having the one conversation again.

It's one meeting.

We're not talking about a year-long committee structure here.

That's correct.

Uh you know, we do we'll look at the alternates um who can be alternates, how many, and uh what type of alternate you can have.

That's that's part of the evaluation that we'll bring to the first meeting.

Okay, very good.

Just to add just to add to that, that particular fix is legislative.

So there potentially is more to this than just getting everybody to come.

Thank you for that.

That's important.

All right, we have a motion second.

Please vote.

Your motion passes nine zero with two voting no.

All right, very good.

Next item.

Item number seven is miscellaneous board member matters.

Oh wait, did we did I ask for public comment on the last one?

You did earlier comments.

Just making sure.

All right.

Um I'm sorry, I interrupted.

Just for the record, it's the same two people that are in the Zoom.

If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your digital hand.

Okay.

Again, they did not respond.

Okay.

All right.

Again, uh item number seven is miscellaneous board member matters.

Um that's the board member.

All right.

Uh any board members have anything to contribute.

All right, see none.

Do we have anyone that wants to raise their digital hand?

Same two online with no response.

All right.

And then the last section of our agenda is uh communications received and filed.

Is it not?

That's correct.

All right, very good.

All right.

Oh.

Sorry.

Whoops.

Hit the wrong.

Okay.

Roger.

Uh thanks.

Um I just wanted on the uh on the legislative summary, uh, if you could put the status of the bills.

Not not just what they would would do and whether there's support or opposition, but what's the status?

Is the is the bill pending in committee?

Uh committee, is it dead?

Is it it's uh it's not terribly helpful to read a list of bills uh and not know what where they are in the process.

Okay, so we'll do it.

If I could just make that request for the next one, no, it's it's a good recommendation.

Thank you.

All right.

Um if there's no further business in front of this board, then we are adjourned.