Zone 7 Meeting - May 27, 2020
Proposed Two-Year Budget Fiscal Years 2020-21 & 2021-22
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ZONE 7 Meeting MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ZONE 7 ALAMEDA COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT SPECIAL BOARD MEETING May 27, 2020 The following were present: DIRECTORS: SANDS FIGUERS DENNIS GAMBS SARAH PALMER DICK QUIGLEY ANGELA RAMIREZ HOLMES OLIVIA SANWONG MICHELLE SMITH MCDONALD DIRECTORS ABSENT: NONE ZONE 7 STAFF: VALERIE PRYOR, GENERAL MANAGER OSBORN SOLITEI, TREASURER/ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER, FINANCE JARNAIL CHAHAL, ENGINEERING MANAGER DONNA FABIAN, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE GENERAL MANAGER ALEXANDRA BRADLEY, COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST COUNSEL: DAVID ALADJEM, DOWNEY BRAND Item 1 - Olivia Sanwong, Vice President, called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. Item 2 - Roll call was taken and President Figuers and Director Palmer were absent. Item 3 - There was no public comment. Item 4 - Proposed Two-Year Budget Fiscal Years 2020-21 & 2021-22 Strategic Plan Workshop Valerie Pryor, General Manager, presented the draft five-year Strategic Plan for the Board's review, which was developed earlier this year through a series of interviews and workshops with directors, managers, supervisors, and employees. Ms. Pryor introduced Ed Means from Means Consulting LLC to review key items; 24 major strategic initiatives that support the Agency's approved vision, mission, goals, and values. The Board proceeded to review and discuss the draft document. ZONE 7 WATER AGENCY'S GOALS Director Sanwong asked to incorporate water supply and demand to address conservation methods. She also wanted to include the value of Zone 7 providing a safe water supply for sanitation purposes as it relates to the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic. A discussion took place about how these points could be highlighted within the plan. Director Sanwong's feedback about demand and conservation were in response to comments received earlier that day from Bruce Daggy, a resident of Pleasanton. The following are key points of his comments; the terms conservation or demand reduction could be more crystallized throughout the document, Statements about the California WaterFix, desalination, potable reuse, expanding reservoirs, snowpack, fixed rates and charges, the Del Valle Dam, and seismic sensors. GOAL A Initiative #1 The directors had questions about the bullet point Convene an Independent Advisory Panel to review technical studies and inform decision-making on Potable Reuse. Ms. Pryor explained that the purpose of an independent panel is to help the public understand that not only engineers and planners are involved in the process, but scientists or experts also review the technical study. They discussed the possibility of referencing the Carollo report to avoid misinterpretation. The suggestion was made to modify Complete the groundwater investigations for Potable Reuse to the effect of "continue the groundwater investigations for potable reuse for Board consideration" to clarify that the decision-making process will be open to the public. Initiative #2 Questions arose about the points under Anticipated Activities and how they could be written to provide the notion that there are fiscal and environmental sustainability issues to consider and not only progress towards attaining new water supplies. They also decided it would be a good place to include the component of conservation, water supply and demand combination. Initiative #3 Director Quigley asked to include a time and cost element in Implement capital projects in the CIP. Ms. Pryor suggested a phrase like "effectively and in a cost-efficient manner" as time and budget are sometimes out of the Agency's control. Technology was also asked to be captured under effective operations. President Figuers joined the meeting at 4:59 p.m. Public comment was received from Pleasanton resident, Laurene Green and she expressed appreciation of the conversation that took place about potable reuse in Initiative One. She also agreed with using terms such as "sustainable" and "evaluate" in the description of Initiative #2. GOAL B Initiative #4 The directors discussed including communications and ozone benefits. Initiative #5 Questions arose about ".internal water quality goals that surpass State and federal primary standards by at least a margin of 20%..." and the background as to where the definitive percentage came from. Ms. Pryor stated that Zone 7's water quality standard is 80% of the MCLs. Jarnail Chahal, Engineering Manager, confirmed, and added that the Agency has a Water Quality Policy that was adopted in 2014. Mr. Means was asked to reemphasize the Agency's efforts to providing high quality water in the description. Director Palmer joined the meeting at 5:11 p.m. Initiative #6 Ms. Pryor confirmed that the results of the Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Chromium (Cr6) treatment feasibility study would be available soon, and Board discussion of the outcomes will take place shortly thereafter. They discussed shortening the Initiative Description and adding a communications component. Laurene Green asked if potential funding through state or federal means should be added in the section. Ms. Pryor responded that information about pursuing state and federal funding could be found under Goal G, Fiscal Responsibility Initiative 23. Initiative #7 Director Gambs recommended simplifying the Initiative Description about how Agency manages the groundwater basin. Initiative #8 Director Quigley suggested including collaborative efforts with quarry operators on the basin management plan. Ms. Pryor proposed incorporating the Chain of Lakes studies into groundwater studies. The directors then discussed collapsing the first two bullet points under Anticipated Activities. Explicit references in the section would also be rephrased. President Figuers asked how dependent the studies were on the geologic data and whether they work with already existing broad strokes. Also, if there is any benefit to increasing the details of the geologic cross sections. Ms. Pryor responded that more data or current information is better, as it can relate to geologic data and the monitoring well data. The information would be refined while the study is developed. Laurene Green inquired about the refined models in the first two bullet points and whether it be more effective to reference a simulation instead. A discussion then took place about the details of the description. Ms. Pryor stated that the section could be refined to be broader and less specific. The activities were to reevaluate and update, if necessary, the safe and operating yield to confirm that decisions are based on current studies. The directors agreed to reconvene on June 4. Goal D Initiative #9 Director Ramirez Holmes asked to include existing level of regular activities. The directors discussed several key points. It was then decided that the section be separated into two initiatives to incorporate day-to-day activities and a statement to the effect of continuing public outreach and engagement efforts to increase the understanding of flood protection to assume it included trails, Living Arroyos, and other Agency programs. The Board agreed to continue discussing and adopting the Strategic Plan at the next Regular Board Meeting. Item 5 - There were no verbal reports. Item 6 - The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
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