Soquel Creek Water District 09/15/26

Okay. Well, welcome um welcome to the September 15th uh board of directors meeting for the SoCal Creek Water District. And I don't see any one in the audience, but uh we have two remote attendees. Uh Dr. Tom Hugh is remote and so is Josh Nelson and Jennifer Melony is um not present today. Roll call. >> Director Daffy >> here. >> Director Lether. >> Vice President Christensen >> present. >> President Lew >> here. >> Right. Uh so I think we have an agenda uh agenda adjustment I guess you call it. Um we were gonna uh item 8.33 the the retirement of Pat Pace was on uh an item 8.3 and we will move that up uh to before we hold the close session. So that will be after public comment. Uh I don't think there are any other changes though, right? No. Okay. Uh there are no public members. Do any board members have a request? >> I have something. >> Okay. >> So, I came across this um mailer from uh Santa Cruz Water Department >> and I looked at their rates and proposed increases. Um, and for the 5/8 inch meter, they call it the ready to serve charge. Uh, next year it's going up 68%. And over the next five years it's going up 151%. And they've got a different philosophy on how to divide up the uh the charges. Um the um volumetric charge actually is going down about uh not a lot maybe um a few% over the next year for all the different tiers. They have three tiers 0 to 5, 6 to9 and greater than nine um CCF and but over five years there's still there is going to be an increase in the volumetric charge of 48% for the uh 0 to five and for the greater than nine it's 34%. So, it's just, you know, it's good to to see what other water districts are doing. And >> they have a they have a hypothetical. >> Oh, what the charge would be >> like a family of four. >> They don't. I kind of looked at it and even with those increases there for somebody using say 5 CCF, it's going to be less than what 5 CCF would be here. Um, we could I'm sure we could do that and but it is going up pretty steeply over the next five years especially for the for the uh ready to serve charge. So I would imagine there's going to be a crossover in a a year or two where 5 CCF in our district and 5 CCF at Sanre are going to be the same cost. So water is precious and cost money to uh to provide uh clean safe drinking water and to ensure that it will have that for many years to come. you know, they had a they swung from um they had a 10% water cost and then they tried to make it up in sales, >> but that really didn't work out either. So, it's interesting to study what other water districts have done to cope with this issue that how expensive water is becoming in California and probably the entire country. I've been looking at it in Hawaii and they have an abundance of water uh from aquifers but they are still in having pro different problems with uh overdevelopment. They're overdeveloping there's no interconnection between the planning commission and the water commission. So everyone is having problems. So anyway, any other comments? Okay, we can move on uh to item 8.3. So tonight we're here to honor a recent retiree, Pat Pace. Um she worked in our finance and business services department for 19 years and her last day of work with the district was September 8th. So we are recognizing her this evening by reading her resolution. um a resolution number 2620 of the board of directors. So I'll go ahead and read that aloud. This resolution of the board of directors of SoCal Creek Water District in appreciation upon the retirement of Pat Pace. Whereas Pat joined SoCal Creek Water District on April 23rd, 2007 as an account clerk, a position that has subsequently reclassified as accounting specialist. And whereas Pat is retiring after 19 years of dedicated service to the district, consistently demonstrating professionalism, reliability, and exceptional attention to detail. And whereas Pat developed extensive knowledge of the district's practices, policies, and procedures, particularly in the areas of payroll, and accounts payable, ensuring employees were paid accurately and on time, and that the district's financial obligations were met. And whereas Pat was known for her teamwork and commitment to supporting district operations, including ensuring adequate coverage for payroll and accounts payable functions and always being willing to assist her colleagues. And whereas Pat's co-workers greatly appreciated her hard work, sense of humor, distinctive personality, and dependability, often relying on her to help solve challenges and save the day. And whereas Pat shared her creativity and craftsmanship through her beautifully handsewn tote and grocery bags, which became wellknown and cherished by many district employees. And whereas Pat generously shared stories and photos of her beloved family and pets, allowing co-workers to celebrate milestones and follow the adventures of her daughter, daughter Jenny, son-in-law Victor, and loyal companion Satie and her cats. And whereas Pat often found the office too hot and kept cool by maintaining a consistent short hairstyle, a love of Birkenstocks and capries throughout her years at the district. And whereas Pat held herself and others accountable to establish procedures as a steadfast guardian of accuracy and consistency. And whereas Pat leaves a legacy of dedication, accuracy, collaboration, and friendship that will be remembered and appreciated by her co-workers and the district for years to come. And now, therefore, it be resolved by the board of directors of the SoCal Creek Water District that Pat Pace is hereby recognized for her 19 years of service. Please join us all in extending our sincere appreciation for PAD's dedication, efficiency, and many years of service to the district and its employees along with our best wishes for a well-deserved retirement. Resolution number 2620 dated this 15th day of September, 2026. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you, Pat. Pat, we also have a a slideshow. >> Oh, we do. Okay. That's my I it might be because of the way we set the thing. I know. >> Wow, Melanie, you had a lot more pictures of me than I thought you had. >> We were sneaky that way. >> Yes, we were able to go through Well, 19 years of service to the district. There's going to be some pictures, Pat, that we're going to catch either candid or in group shots. Um, we were able um last Monday, which was Pat's last day, to have a nice lunchon potluck for Pat. And uh she also received one of Taja's creations. So, >> oh, >> where's the picture of that? >> We we will we will share that in an upcoming uh bimonthly report. We'll put it in our finance and business one section. >> It was a beautiful It was a beautiful flower bouquet. >> Oh, >> that she doesn't need to water because it's made with waterworks infrastructure. >> Thank you for your service, Pat. >> You? >> Yes. >> Thank you, Pat. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll miss you. It's I thought thought you would stay forever. Mhm. >> Yeah. Well, I did too, but it was time. >> Yeah. No, there's a lot of the world out there beyond soal water district. >> I just keep retiring. So, you just find something else to do and then retire from that after. >> All right. Well, thank you guys so much. >> All right. Bye, Pat. >> Bye. >> Yeah. >> Yes, we have to pass the resolution. Okay, I'll move to pass pass the resolution. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? Oh, you had to do a roll call. >> Director Jaffy, >> uh, yes. >> Director Lether, >> yes. >> Vice President Christensen, >> yes. >> President Lew, >> yes. Uh oh, it's moving into close session. >> Yes. >> And how shall I manage that one? >> So, we will call you both on FaceTime. >> Okay. >> Okay. Bye. >> Okay. I think we can um Vice President Christensen, I think we can start with number five. We can start with number five. >> Oh. Oh, right. Announce. >> I already did number five, but did go on. >> You could request request. Um >> so we're having announcements from the closed session. Uh there are no >> there are no reportable announcements. >> Thank you Josh. >> Do it. >> On to number six items. Anyone items any other There's two minutes >> comments have a motion >> also. >> I'll move approval. >> Okay. >> Oh, I didn't hear it. I can't hear somebody. I can barely hear. >> So, it's u Michelle and me. >> Okay. I can barely hear Michelle. Um >> maybe because I forgot to hit the button. Oh, there you go. >> It's because you need your ears fixed. >> Yeah, I can hear. >> Um, >> okay. >> All right. Then what can do? We do vote voice vote. >> Yes. >> Director Jaffy. >> Yes. >> Director Lether. >> Yes. >> Vice President Christensen. >> Yes. >> President Lew. >> Yes. that period. Uh so number seven reports uh first one is 7.1 uh district council. >> Thanks Vice President uh Christensen. Um just wanted to um let the board know that we're in the process of updating our conflict of interest code. um after some review, we've decided that some um amendments are necessary really to reflect some um updated law and some other changes. Um on that point, um we wanted to to let you know that starting next spring when you file your um uh annual um form 700s, you'll we will start filing those with the state online um as opposed to locally. So, more information to come um including helping you set those up if if you haven't filed already um online. Um but just a heads up that based on some new legislation that'll be a requirement for the board and some very senior staff. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. >> But that'll be for 2026, which we usually do in the beginning of 2027. >> That's correct. >> Okay, >> Josh, I had a question for you. I was at the water reuse conference. Um was last month, right? Um >> yeah. >> Um the manager, I think it was the manager uh for San Diego was talking about a ruling about that would uh restrict tiered rates. >> Uh do you know anything about that? um whether it was specific to San Diego or whether it's going to apply to us as well. >> Yeah. Um that that's a a really good point. Um Director Jaffy, uh I I believe he was likely referring to the Otai case that we talked about a couple of months ago. Um, and you'll remember there's sort of been some back and forth between the courts on this about how um, detailed the analysis needs to be um, when looking at tiered rates under a cost of service approach under Prop 218. And some of those cases, and I'm exaggerating slightly, you know, would require us to really track molecule by molecule. Um, and it becomes very difficult in those cases um, or potentially difficult in those cases to justify um, um, tiered rates. Um the good news is there have been cases on the other side which have followed more of the traditional approach to this. Um in addition uh you may remember uh that there was a legislative push um to help guide courts in the future and and sort of away from that very restrictive analysis is into more of a traditional analysis. Um my recollection is that that um bill is currently on the governor's desk and I haven't seen a veto or signing message. Um but I will follow up on that and make sure that's included in my report in October. Thank you. Thank you. And I had kind of a followup. I wondered whether there was anything uh different since they're uh pursuing direct potable reuse and whether there be anything different with the indirect potable reuse on >> roles or it I don't imagine there would be but I was just wondering if you had any thoughts. Yeah, that's a really good point. Um I I think in some ways there there wouldn't be a difference because it's the same um you know sort of legal rules depending on which analysis the court applies. Um but I do think that highlights just how fact-sp specific um that sort of analysis is and you really have to look at each agency and and I haven't traditionally seen it between direct and or indirect but where there there has been a fair amount of um um discussion in the case law is on agencies that have multiple water sources um especially those that are relying on imported water which may be more expensive than local sources and how that analysis needs to be factored in the in the rates. Um, but I I will follow up on the on on that specific issue and I'll include that in the October report. >> All right. Thank you, Josh. >> Any other to uh the special board assignments report is >> we've just updated the special board assignment um which is included in your packet and if you have any questions I'm available. Oh. Uh did it was originally uh discussed with uh Dr. Jaffy. It was a system systemwide chlorine levels. Um, and we were talking about doing a it's not time sensitive obviously, but it reminds me every election cycle that uh it is something that comes up with our customers. That's that's usually when I talk to them and they are uh and it's my impression is that it varies what what they get are getting in their taps varies a little bit depending on where the water's coming from. So I just when we have a chance sometime it comes up I'd like emphasize doing that >> it might be a good time and I can note here that when we bring the consu customer consumer confidence report >> which is in the spring we might be able to >> give us a overall but >> but to add that on >> about how >> some discussion we bring >> my understanding is it's dependent on how close you are to where the chlorination occurs. If you're close to where it is, you have more chlorine as as you travel away from that place, the the chlorine levels decrease. >> It's trying to maintain a chlorine residual through our distribution system. And I remember though at one point when um there was water from the city uh when they gave us uh gave us a down gave us some water from their I don't know where the water came from their system but they had to chlorinate more than our district and so I think there are a lot of people asking me questions about that. There's a correlation between disinfection byproducts and then the formation of triholmethanes. >> There are some health issues associated with those but always better to those issues than pathogens. >> Okay. Uh any other >> Yeah. I want to thank uh Taj for the graphic on the age of the district pipelines. It was very interesting. A little scary that there's a lot of old pipelines. >> Yeah. and uh following up uh I don't know if that your email went out to all the directors or not about about the you know prioritizing the main replacements and um I totally understand the information now and it's it's there but there's a lot of things in front of it. So, um, and yeah, the October 6th meeting, I'm looking forward to the presentation by Cameron Donna about learning more about the modeling we've done for uh, Pure Water SoCal and and the different scenarios that we have run to see how at least what the models say the the how the system how the aquifer respond to the injection of the pure water kell water and um I'm glad that that we've got uh um the water shortage contingency plans. We're going to going to review those. So, thank you for putting that on and yeah, it makes sense to do that. the >> when the other information is being presented >> and then the information related to the current stages of the neighboring water agencies is included in the bimonthly report. >> I saw that. Yeah, that's all I had. >> I don't think there's I think there's an information. >> Yes. So >> standing >> on to item eight and uh business item. >> And the first one is just to >> hold on. >> I didn't know you were I thought you were going to go over the engineering report. I had a couple questions on that. >> Oh, you did? Oh, okay. >> Yeah, you >> Sorry. >> Oh, sorry. >> Leslie is available for any questions. first um standing at the podium if there's any questions on 7.2.2. >> There's just one item that really confused. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Leslie. >> Yeah, I just had a question on page five of the engineering and operations maintenance report. Um, it just said pure water so killed been offline since the 28th or ozone foam suppression system installation. I just wanted to see make sure I understand that system and what the timeline is or maybe it's done by now. >> Yeah, good question. Uh, it is really close to finishing up. Uh, we're going to be starting up uh next week. So, the whole plant has been down for about two weeks um since then. And we've been performing preventative maintenance and and installing that uh it's a spray nozzle system that will suppress uh foam in the ozone contact chamber. >> Okay. >> Um that we have experienced a problem. >> It has been a problem. Yeah. and start up uh episodically. It's not every day, but when it does, when the conditions are right, it does um it's something we're trying to prevent. >> Okay, great. Thanks. >> Welcome. I wanted to also highlight a few other things. Um on the Wiler, >> you do that to explain >> what the why foam is bad. >> Sure. There's a um an ozone destruct system that pulls a vacuum on the top of the ozone contact tank. >> And when um we have a foaming event, the destruct system is not intended to take in moist air or foam. It's intended to take in air or gas. Mhm. >> And uh so if foam or if moisture and foam gets into the ozone destruct system, there's a catalyst media that is not intended to get wet. >> And so we have to replace the media. >> So that's why. >> Got it. >> There. How do you prevent that? >> Um >> spray nozzle. >> Just spray nozzle like a mist of water. So, it'll be a a portion of the purified loop that we'll just continually spray on that water. It was a design that uh Black & Beach provided the district um at project completion and and now we're installing it. It it was a it was a possibility in their design. and they had um installed a flange into the top of the tank. It's just was, you know, unsure whether it would become an issue or not given our water quality. And so we found out it was and so now we're installing that. We can share some photos if if any of you are interested in seeing that. >> It's a simple system. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's not a very complicated system. Any other questions? Okay. Um, I wanted to highlight there is a will serve uh that's listed on page two. It's for a second down from the the par three u development which did go to the board of directors. The six lot subdivision um is something that you might say where did that come from? But uh the reason that it didn't get presented to the board is that it was uh it was under an acre. It was just at or under an acre, which is the trigger for a development to come to you. So, it's it's a medium-sized project, let's call it that. But staff was able to issue the conditional will serve letter. It's for six homes off of SoCal Drive. I also want to point out that we are um at the 60% design level for the Huntington Drive main replacement. That's one of those areas where we have 6 in AC main that is raising its hand and so we're focusing on it and we're going to replace a portion up to um Wallace. So from Monroe to Wallace is going to get replaced this winter. We're also um initiating a pre-construction meeting for the fairway tank reco project which also includes the Pringle Aqua View and Canyon Dell Soul tanks um spot repairs and exterior coatings. So that will go um we're going to get started here in basically October. We also wanted to report that the we did get another quarter or another month of uh levels for TCP 123 tricloral propane at the country club well >> and that brings our running annual average which is how the state uh determines our compliance with the uh MCL. The maximum contaminant level is five parts per trillion and and so far with this most recent result, we're at 3.1 parts per trillion. So, still looking uh good there with no anticipated treatment needed. >> Katage, one quick question. just e even though that's the running average, are there any months that you that made you raise an eyebrow or are they all pretty much below MCL anyway? >> They're all below the MCL. >> Okay, great. >> And then also we're continuing to uh for with construction of the chrome hexavalent chromium treatment plant, we're at about 9% complete. all the, you know, heavy lifting and excavating is is almost done and they're going to start forming up the back concrete backash tank. Another milestone was reached for the uh Pure Water SoCal Education and Operations Center that is um essentially reached uh occupancy this week. And so Jacobs will be moving in to set up their operations center upstairs. And then um Becca and Skyler are going to be working on the u education room and and exhibits for that. >> Great. >> We also um what we talked about pure water SoCal uh the treatment plant and then also we recently completed some uh underground vault lids just a wear and tear uh corrosion and things like that at two locations. And so Skyler did a great job um working with operations on that. We uh last thing I want to report is the tally on page eight uh seven of eight for the amount of water that has been recharged with pure water soel and we're up to 734 acre feet as of this reporting which obviously is a little behind. Any other questions? Well, the um I think the the I had one question that was about the was it a fire hydrant that someone wrote in drove into. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yes. Near AJ's on Park Avenue. >> You take keep a tally of those kind of things. >> Uh yeah, and I I can Nick can address that. I think we do. Um engineering has a table in here, but it's not meant to to report hit hydrants. It's meant to report like hydrants that have been replaced or installed as part of a a project. >> Yeah, there Nick's crew is they deal with fight hit hydrants probably too often. They seem to be this like tunnel vision when people aren't paying attention or under the influence. Just seem to steer right into them. So yeah, that happened. Um, is that Monday? Oh, that was last last Thursday. Yeah, we got some pretty good pictures of that. Maybe Melanie shared that with you guys. >> Yeah, it looked like it was a a geyser. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> I had a question on that. >> So, report on that. >> Okay. Thanks, Josh. Good evening, directors. >> Good evening. >> It's officially evening. >> It is. So my question was just um does it make sense to put post up around hydrants specific places that are more likely to get hit? And if so is that something that would fall upon the district? Yeah, we we do have posts in front of hydrants and more often the posts are there in actual areas of slower traffic. >> Um so if someone's backing up, they don't, you know, knock into it. Um in that situation, they're going to probably blow through the posts as well. >> Okay. >> I mean, the the hydrant, it's pretty astonishing the level of damage that it did. Um they I didn't see the car do it, but um they were going pretty fast. They must have been to do the the kind of damage they did. Yeah, we do consider that. Um and that might that'll be something that that happens when we think about we're going to have to break out the sidewalk and and do that. So, we might look into that, but there's also u you have limited space. Sometimes you don't want to block the sidewalk, right? Those but it is something that we do consider. I I at a conference saw ones that were designed to break away and not >> Yeah. >> spew out water. Have you looked at those? >> Yeah, they Yeah, we we we have some of those in our district. Um that is something that that that can be added on does change the the way it's constructed because they generally take up a large amount of space, but those those can be installed. This hydrant is it's the first time I've I think it's ever been hit. I'm not how old is or a long time. So, it's not a a common one. There are if if there are certain circum circumstances where there's a hydrant that gets hit multiple times, that's when we would start thinking, okay, this one's susceptible. So, drainage. Yeah. There's a place where there's potential that the hydro gets hit, it floods somewhere. That would also be part of that consideration. And so that'd be on the district the cost for doing that. >> Yeah. To put in Yeah. To put in a a break a breakaway check valve. Yeah. That would be >> or or the posts. >> Yeah. But the posts are that's a it's more of a does it fit in with the surrounding sidewall >> pedestrian access? Yeah. >> So in cases where it does, is it policy to to put them in? I don't know what that means. >> Our specs basically. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. When we when when we're considering a new one, that's that's it's part of our consideration for design is does it make sense to put some ballards in front of the hydrant to protect it? Yeah. And there there's a lot of them out there that have ballards. Does the car owner's insurance pay for the water loss and the >> Yeah, we calculated the water loss at about 167,000 gallons of water lost. >> So, all of the district time to respond to the leak to um to deal with the flushing and all of that has been tracked. We're tracking all the parts it's going to take to fix it. And we are going to seek to get reimbursement on >> flipping some ballards. I don't think they're >> We'll consider it. We'll look into that. >> So, yeah, I don't know anything about fire hydrants really except they're present. And how do you if someone drove bonks that it causes a geyser, then how do you prevent it? Does it cause >> Yeah. So, that's that was the tricky thing. That was the tricky thing about this one is that the hydrant shut off valve is is the key to how quickly you get the hydrant off. Now, this one just happened to be right in front of it. Sometimes they're they're on one side of the street and the hydrants's across so you you can walk up when the when the geyser is going and you can shut it down and get a round of applause from the neighbors. Um, but other times in like in this situation, we actually had to throttle down the main to bring the level of the flow down to where we could actually access the valve and then the valve was full of dirt. So, they had to excavate the dirt out of there. So, you know, people are wondering how come you can't get this water off and sometimes it takes a long time. So, each situation is different. Um, sometimes you can get it shut off very quickly and other times it takes a full team to respond. And this was one of those times where it took a full full team to respond. So we had to to valve the main on either side to bring the flow down, bring that geyser down to access the >> Is there a way to put a different shut off situation in the future for that particular one or is it somehow >> you could part of the Yeah, >> I think that would be better than putting in ballards. >> Yeah, >> because >> like you said, they're going to knock over the ballards with the with it. It's just added. >> Yeah, there was another one. uh last year I believe where u the driver actually went through a electrical pole and then through a hydrant. So they they made it through >> two key infrastructure pieces. >> Well, a community member who saw it said, "I'm not surprised the way people take that turn around uh AJ's with cars coming out of AJ's and the left turn." So >> yeah. Well, we'll we'll do some analysis. We'll look into whether a breakoff spool that um has a check valve in it makes sense. >> At least you can turn it off faster. >> Yeah. >> If that turns out to be a problem spot. >> Yeah, that might >> And then we are we are tracking it. We put it in the other section in distribute and maintenance for we where we track leaks and main brakes and we put in hydrant hit for August. So when you see the next board update, they'll be But it is something that we can track. >> Yeah. So my last question is so that when something like that happens, the water doesn't get contaminated and go back into >> Yeah. That's part of why we flush. So when you know the the great thing about our system is that when you valve it down, you can maintain positive pressure. And so as long as you don't shut it off completely, if you do, you have to flush. And which we did have an event because we brought the the the the pressure down so low. We did have cause, we call it a a turbidity event to where the sediment in the pipe got stirred up and we had a lot of dirty water complaints. So, we had to to send staff out to flush all the neighborhood above that was affected. So, that took a lot of staff time too which we tracked. So, yeah, a lot a lot goes into it and you know, we're working on other things and you just got to pivot the whole the whole day to that. So, that we we lost a day there. But we'll uh we're going to be diligent in our trying to make sure >> it doesn't happen more often. The way driving I saw in C going through capital. >> Oh my gosh. Things people did. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of water. >> Unbelievable. >> Just one. >> Yeah. We get we get, you know, probably anywhere from six to 12 a year, something like that. Thanks, Nick. Yeah, no problem, >> Nick. >> Thank you. >> So, at 7.2.3, >> right on now. Was it on to eight? Yeah. >> In a way, I've got too much information here. Thank you for this item. >> Recording in progress. >> It's interesting. >> Okay. Are we good? Okay. Still challenging with our technology here, but I think we have it. one um we've been anticipating. >> Yeah, we have um Alyssa Abby who's our staff analyst who's going to go over the uh proposed ordinances. Thank you, Alyssa. >> Good evening. So, um, yeah, I'm here to go over the changes that we made to two district ordinances to reflect, uh, changes on statewide rules to nonfunctional turf. And, um, this is all a result of AB 1572, which was adopted in 2023. And just recently, that's been kind of coming out in the paper. There's been talk about um you know grass isn't going to be able to be irrigated anymore. Um and it's a little more complicated than that. This regulation specifically for turf grass that is classified as nonfunctional at commercial institutional um industrial and like HOA common area. Um, so it's not relevant to residential single family, which I think is um a something we we hear that that's not quite true. And um this is going to start to go into effect next year. And so um that's why we're bringing these ordinances now so we can be ahead of that. Um, some examples of non-functional turf that are going to be covered by this restriction, um, are things like on roadway medians or the little bits of turf grass that are in front of businesses. And we don't fortunately have too much of that in our district. We do have water waste um, restrictions in place now that prevent uh, overwatering onto sidewalks. it's really hard to irrigate turf on those small little areas without um getting overspray. So um since the you know 2014 2015 a lot of that turf grass has already been replaced with shrub um or with with no landscaping. So um we don't think that this is going to be too impactful of a regulation for us. We are proposing to basically treat it as water waste um like we we do for for overspray or for anything like that. um the two ordinances that we incorporated language to. One is the the water waste ordinance. That's um draft ordinance 2601. And then the um the second one is 2602. That's our water conservation and landscaping ordinance that um is for new construction. Uh it was pretty unlikely that we were going to get non-functional turf in these applications. given what we already had in that ordinance, but just to be safe, we put it in there specifically as prohibited. So, um I'm happy to answer any questions about these changes. I think they're doing an enforcement on know in stages. That's what I so immediately it's median strips and things like that and then it's >> Yeah. So for next year the um compliance is for public um so any parks, schools, anything like that, government. Um the next year is for commercial businesses and then the year after that is for like HOAs and um the affected multif family residential. And so the we anticipate that we have the most in that third category that the common areas for HOAs is going to be the most impacted as far as our customers. Um but it's not too significant. We do track the dedicated irrigation meters through um a software program called water fluence and um they estimated uh for the single or for non-functional turf at residential dedicated irrigation meters that are part of this program to only have 1.1 acres. Um, I did take a look at some of those maps and, you know, they're they're bits of turf around the sidewalks and and stuff like that. So, our plan is to work with those people before this goes into effect and let them know of our turf replacement rebate and um, so that they're not caught unaware. Um, one good thing is this has been publicized um, and so the landscaping companies are definitely aware um, about it. >> Thank you. >> So, two questions. Um, is the specific language in here and this might be more for Josh than you. I don't know. Um, about recreational use Is that uh come from some place that um where it it's defensible where you know can somebody say oh I throw a frisbee on that that lawn once a year as recreational use or is it >> Yeah, we did work with BBK to draft this language. Um I have heard you know the last several years there is you know talk in the water community about who gets to define what functional means and so that's going to be evolving a little bit uh as we go. Um this a non-functional turf ban went to effect in Nevada years ago and so they've they've been through this. There's always going to be people that say letting their dogs pee on it makes it functional. So, it's just something we're going to have to to work with as we go. >> So, that leads me to the second question. What if somebody doesn't abide by these ordinances? How does the district u what actions, if any, does the district take? it would be treated as water waste and so it would go undergo the same enforcement process as water wa any of our other water waste which um I don't know off the top of my head what it is but you can be fined for every day that you are not in compliance >> we ever done that >> I don't ever done that >> what you Yeah, and we actually do have some experience with this because a couple of years ago there was an emergency regulation um put out by the governor that banned non-functional turf at these same locations. And so we went through the process of notifying those customers and and working with them to identify what was functional and non-functional. There was a time when this was um being proposed as regulations back in 2023 that agencies that were already complying with kind of conservation as a way of life and meeting the goals of the statewide conservation whether or not kind of these broad mandates of restriction should apply since we are already under. Um that was a public comment by several agencies very similar to ours. But when the regulations came out, it didn't matter if your customer base was already at 50 50 or 60 gallons per person per day compared to some of them that are in the 200 gallons per person per day. This this this came out broadly. And >> and Vice President Christensen, I just wanted to add in response to Director Jaffy's question. I agree with with with Alyssa's point. Um but the definition of recreational use area in the proposed ordinance actually comes from the legislation. Um and and I think you know just to the point that was raised I think that'll allow us to adapt um and fine-tune that over time um to the extent it becomes necessary and by using the state language we'll have the benefit of seeing how other agencies are also you know interpreting and applying that um and we can tweak it at if needed in the future. >> Makes sense. >> Yes. I I think it's a good uh I think we've had a good approach about this. Um in the past it looked like the ordinances were being tweaked, not having to start from ground zero. So >> looks like others are catching up with us. >> Yes, exactly. Um and the things that people really do value the most areas and not affected. Yeah, correct. Reassure them. Have any Tom, you have any com other comments or questions? >> Um, no, I'm I'm good. I thought it was well done. I But if you could when you talk, Carla, please like I can hear every other word and then it goes away. >> Sorry. Y Sorry. >> Okay. Well, then >> Vice President um Christensen, may I may I ask that before you um go towards the recommended actions? I did confer with um Josh. And what we'd like to add is for um the board to motion to open the public hearing, take public comment, and then close public hearing. We did not Oh, it's a public hearing >> because of the ordinance >> what Josh said. >> Do you need a motion to open public hearing? >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second there. Is there any public comment? >> I think we have to vote on that. >> Do we have to vote on that? >> Josh, do we have to >> vote on it? >> We're not required to vote on it, but we always have by practice. So, why don't we go ahead and call the role, please? >> Okay. Okay. Director Jaffy, >> yes. >> Director Leatherther, >> yes. >> Vice President Christensen, >> yes. >> President Lew, >> yes. >> Now that Okay. Is there any public uh comment or further comments on this? I see none. Uh then we would I would like a motion to close the public public hearing. >> I'll make that motion. I'll second it. >> Thank you. >> Do we have to do that? Really? >> We're we're we uh we are not required to do that, but we we always have by practice, but we could reevaluate that in in the future. >> I'm sorry. It just seems silly. >> Okay. Then um so we now we have vote on >> Director Jaffy. >> Yes. >> Director Lether, >> yes. >> Vice President Christensen, >> yes. President Leu. >> Yes. >> Um I'm happy to hear that this is going to be applying to everybody in the state. I happened to have somehow like bumped into this woman at Beer 30 one time and she said she was from Riverside or River. Yeah, Riverside. And I said, "Oh, you're like semierid desert." And she goes, "We are not. we can have all the grass we want in our yards and we water them all the time. And I'm like, "Okay, lady, I don't want to talk to you." And I turned her around. So, there's a lot of people out there that have no clue in other areas. We are very, you know, it's silly that we have to do it, but >> Well, Nevada did. It was astonishing. >> Yeah. cooperation they got, but they're >> of course you got to consider the source and where I was, but still, >> how much beer they had, too. Um, I'll I'll make the the motions uh to adopt both and 2602 ordinances. >> Um, I'll second that. I'll let you. So now we have to >> vote >> adopt the ordinance, right? >> Director call. Yes. Natural. >> Director Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Director Leatherther. >> Yes. >> Vice President Christensen. >> Yes. >> President Lew. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Alyssa. >> Thank you. Thank you for Okay, now I got I lost my place again here. Right. Oh, that's right. I had it there, but Okay, this is consider approving the district's 3 plus two strategic framework for fiscal years 2027 and 2029. uh that is uh it's a the direct outcome of a meeting we had on September 1st board workshop. >> Yes. I I don't have a formal presentation, but this item has been brought back to the board as an an agenda item. Just as Vice President Christensen mentioned, this is stemming from our September 1st board workshop where we talked about the upcoming priorities of the district and went through um I think a a an interactive workshop associated with identifying what our upcoming priorities are. So included in the packet is obviously the workshop slides and notes which describe um some of the content and material that we went over. And what really is being brought to the board tonight for consideration is to um review the outcomes of the workshop and the three strategic priorities which include number one the groundwater basin recovery and water supply resilience. um the second one being regional collaboration and partnerships and the third one being infrastructure reliability and replacement. One of the themes that came out of the workshop um and I thought was quite astute was that the other two that we were discussing which included fiscal sustainability and customer affordability and workforce excellence and organizational effectiveness. um there was a comment associated with that meaning that these are somewhat foundational and our goals that would help assist those um three priorities. So we're really bringing this back as um moreover as those bottom two being the core pillars to um meet and succeed uh the priorities of the board. So, we're calling this the uh 3 plus2 strategic framework. And um with the board's approval of this, the staff will be going forward and developing our work plan and our goals. Um the departments will be meeting and creating those work plans. And then what we'd like to do is have some periodic um um information brought back to the board throughout the year as we go forward with our our work plans. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Oh, >> I thought it was a good process of good job on the >> uh we'll open up for public comment right now. Um but since there is no person in the public uh move to you John to Tom >> to Dr. Oh, I was just >> I was just going to say I thought that it was really well organized and I and I I enjoyed getting to hear what everybody's priorities were and I liked including the managers as well. So, I just thought I thought it was a good idea. So, we'll I'll be interested to see how it kind of helps develop the work plan. >> I I felt the same way. I really enjoyed it. I was kind of not that excited when I first got there, but I got into it. So, I appreciate that you guys made it in kind of fun and um it was interesting to see what other people came up with because I think more like an engineer. So, it's quite fun for me to hear. >> I guess I'm next. Um I too look forward to see how this um shows up in the work plans in the next few years. It it's good to have uh guiding principles that we can and priorities that we can agree on. I did have a question on um the first one says the last sentence is continuing communication will also be important to reinforce that basin recovery is a long-term effort. Did did you mean communication in terms of communication to the public or within our agency or I think um for that statement specifically we've heard from the board on several occasions to reemphasize that we're not out of the woods yet and that um basin sustainability is an ongoing effort. So that is something that we will be working on both from communicating to the public and also to communicate to all of the other um media and outlets that we need to talk with. >> Yeah. Just shows an outreach effort is is um maybe >> communi continued communication and outreach or continued continued outreach. Yeah. Something. >> Sure. >> I just I was a little confused by it. But no, I I agree with with the three plus two. >> Yeah. And I I feel like uh the outreach is baked into all five of those three and the two. Um uh you know we're getting our water district is getting more and more complicated and going to have to keep things uh uh make more of an effort to communicate that complexity. I really like the slides too, the workshop slides. So I'm going to print them out and keep them. So no, I thought it was really worthwhile. >> I'll let Becca know. I'll let Becca know. >> And also a lot of uh good way to in two years or three well to say start thinking about it in two years but in three years compare how we've how we've succeeded I guess and our priorities in >> Is it okay to make a motion now? >> Yes. I was going to make a motion to approve the strategic framework and the second motion was to direct staff to develop the multi-year work plan. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. That's uh director Hugh and director. >> Director Jaffy. >> Yes. Director Lether. >> Yes. >> Vice President Christensen. >> Yes. >> President Lew. >> Yes. >> Shoot. >> All right. We're on to four, aren't we? >> Yeah. I'll go ahead and introduce 8.4. >> Okay. Thank you. It's 8.4 uh resolution for management employee group uh tentative agreement. >> Thank you. This item is being brought forth as um a resolution for the board to consider adoption which finalizes the uh recent negotiations and terms with the management group. Um as outlined in the staff memo, you'll see that theou with the management group expired in June um of this year. We've been undergoing negotiations with the management group that's founded on um several of the key items that were currently in negotiations with the other labor groups. um predominantly the class of compensation study that was commissioned by the district in 2025 where we evaluated um um salary schedules and also did a u entire survey of the job descriptions. So the key components during this negotiations with management um and as you can see uh we have reached a tenative agreement with them and the terms of that is included in attachment one primarily uh focus on the equity adjustments of bringing the management team to median. Um also includes a cost of living adjustment of 4% and we've also negotiated a cost of living adjustment for the following two years. It also includes some other terms um in attachment one. And of course, I'm here to answer any questions. Oh, that's very hard. We're opening up the uh public comment for this item. And since there's no person that is here, um, Director Lew, do you have any comments? >> I I I do not I'm I'm happy with it. >> I'm happy that our employees feel that it's there as well proving it. >> I'm happy. >> And I agree too. This is a long time coming and a lot of work involved in it. appreciate that. >> So I >> I'll make I'll make the motion unless there's other >> No, I think it's good that the motion is for resolution 2621. >> Yes, make that motion. >> I'll second it. >> Director Jaffy, >> yes. >> Director Lether, >> yes. >> Vice President Christensen, >> yes. President Lew. >> President Leu, >> you're on mute. >> Sorry. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Clipped my microphone off. >> I know it's really hard. Okay, on to item 8.5. Uh this is the last uh uh consider adopting adopting uh resolution 2622 recognizing water professionals appreciation week which is happens to be October 3rd to the 11th 2026. >> I'll go ahead and present this item. Um this is obviously um we like to um take the time whenever there's nationally recognized weeks associated with water and October 3rd through the 11th is a water professional appreciation week. Um, in the past what we've done obviously is to first adopt a resolution by the board and then Becca and our outreach uh will do some media associated on social media in articles um and a press release. >> Um it it actually happens fairly close to our 65th anniversary party. >> It does. Um, so we'll open up to the public. You won't have a comment from them. Um, so anyone else have a comment on this? >> We deserve it. >> Yes. >> Everybody. >> Yes, it is. It is a thing handed to us to celebrate. That is really nice. I'll celebrate in Bulgaria. >> Really? because I won't be here. But but they do have water there. >> They do. I appreciate it all. >> Okay. Well, can we have a motion then? >> I'll move approval. I'll second. >> Director Jaffy. >> I. >> Director Leather. >> Yes. >> Vice President Christensen. >> Yes. President Leading >> 5050. >> Okay. Well, that uh I think that is the end. Number nine is adjournment. The next meeting will be what? October 6th. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. >> It everybody. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Bye. >> Good night. Thank you. Thank you very much for >> Thank you, Carlo. >> Putting up with me.