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HomeMy Public PortalAbout12-02-21 Minutes WSAC Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 919-732-1270 | www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov WATER AND SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES | 1 of 4 Minutes WATER AND SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Remote regular meeting 7 p.m. Dec. 2, 2021 Virtual meeting via YouTube Live Town of Hillsborough YouTube channel Present: Vice Chair Jenn Sykes, Paul Cough, Saru Salvi, Barry Weston, Daniel Rawlins, Barry Hupp, Commissioner Mark Bell Absent: Arthur Sprinczeles (excused) Staff: Utilities Director Marie Strandwitz, Administrative Services Director Jen Della Valle, Finance Director Tiffany Long, Communications Specialist Cheryl Sadgrove 1. Call to order and welcome of guests Vice Chair Jenn Sykes called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. 2. Agenda changes and approval No changes were presented. Motion: Member Saru Salvi moved to approve as presented. Member Barry Weston seconded the motion. All in favor. Vote: 5-0. Ayes:5. Nays: 0. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on Nov. 4, 2021 Member Paul Cough indicated it was Weston who brought up conservation in rates in Item 5B, and not him. Motion: Weston made the motion to accept the minutes with the amendment noted above. Salvi seconded. All in favor. Vote: 5-0. Ayes:5. Nays: 0. 4. Updates A. Director Strandwitz indicated the reservoir is getting low and thinks voluntary water restrictions may be necessary soon. She explained part of the issue was that COVID-19 delayed the contractor work by six months. During their work, there was plenty of rain that interfered with the work, but now that they are done, it has not rained. Water withdrawal restrictions have also required the town to release more than the minimum to meet demand and the demand is higher due to the many new homes being constructed with newly laid sod. The interconnection project is completed. The Civil Engineer position is still open until filled and the advertisement reach will be expanded. Weston asked about rain sensors for irrigation. Strandwitz said yes, sensors are required by the ordinance which she will share with the committee. This can also be found online. Sykes asked if all water samples have been submitted to the state to avoid the WATER AND SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES | 2 of 4 scenario of last year where the lab made an error which resulted in a violation. She also asked about drought conditions holding up any operations or maintenance activities. Strandwitz could not think of anything. The phased drought restrictions were discussed. Weston asked if we had any drought related surcharge. The group asked to tentatively discuss drought in the January meeting. B. Strandwitz reported that no new in-town applications have been received since last meeting. Cough indicated that he knew of one person who applied and will send a note with their name for Strandwitz to check. Some out-of-town applications were pushed our way with the committee as a second or third choice. C. Salvi updated the group on the outreach subcommittee activities. She and our communications group met. The suggestion was that there be a monthly message. The group should create a list of twelve, monthly topics with a takeaway. Sykes said to send a reminder to the outreach subcommittee to help. Also, Communications Specialist Cheryl Sadgrove will create a separate YouTube playlist to help find things regarding water and sewer. D. The customer count and class were provided in the meeting packet and is a recurring topic and educational item. Strandwitz explained the difference between class and rate code and the need to have the information correct if the rates will change by class. The information provided is for active accounts at the end of 2021. Salvi was curious about water only customers. Strandwitz explained that pulling only sewer only customers is difficult for the billing system, but she will find that number. Weston asked about rate codes and confirmed that now the water rates are the same for everyone. Strandwitz confirmed. E. Strandwitz went over the public meeting laws as a refresher. 5. Discussion A. Rate structure priorities 1. Strandwitz recapped the video from the link she sent out. She emphasized that data is very much needed in the rate decision making process to determine which way to move and to ensure the direction is representative of the rate payers and is unbiased. Also are there other ways to address the complaints besides a rate structure revision? Where is the driver? Salvi and Sykes say this has been of issue since they have been on the board. Sykes gets questioned about why the bill is so high at dinner parties. Her focus is on commercial though. She thinks a survey is a good idea, especially for commercial because it affects what they charge customers. There is a perception issue that may be resolved with education. People from other jurisdictions have said they know our rates are too high. 2. Salvi thinks we don’t know the in-town vs out-of-town costs. She wants to see this breakdown. Weston doesn’t think this can be done with any degree of accuracy. There is not a clear delineation between in-town and out-of-town as an in-town break does affect out-of-town customers. A discussion of taxes ensued with Sykes and Weston disagreeing with Salvi about how taxes play into reasoning for rate differentials. Sykes reminded the group of the reason for the matrix and does not think the board will reach consensus on this issue. Strandwitz indicated that out-of-town customers impact both the in-town and out-of-town assets and everyone impacts the treatment facilities. Salvi wants to call other water departments to see if they track in-town vs out-of-town costs. Commissioner Bell asked the purpose of the desired survey and expressed concern about the wording for it to remain unbiased. Would it be all users or a sample? Sykes thinks we do not cover all rate WATER AND SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES | 3 of 4 payers with the citizen survey and would like to reach out to all rate payers. She recognizes the need to design a proper survey and that it would cost money. Bell added the Board receives about a dozen complaints about rates each year around budget season. Strandwitz added the nature of complaints seem to lean towards the perception of paying for water not used that may be solved through education. Member Daniel Rawlins added that people discuss the differential constantly and it is not a problem. Being out-of-town there is no say politically and feels this is a waste of time for the committee. He thinks the board can impact in other ways and the committee should stop going around in circles and drop the rate structure revision discussion. However, he is fine with moving forward with other aspects besides the differential, but it is very frustrating. Cough and Sykes sympathize with Rawlins’s frustration. Cough wants to be effective and if rates are not it, he is willing to address other impactful tasks. Strandwitz mentioned there is additional data she sent late, and she shared her screen to discuss the in-town and out-of-town consumption breakdown. This data should be considered when making decisions to be the most impactful. Cough asks if there can be areas to drill down on for instance small businesses. What can we do to allow them to thrive? Cough will be speaking with Stephen Lapp at UNC tomorrow if there are any questions. Sykes asks if it is legal to target small and large businesses. Salvi says there needs to be a definition and it may not pull the facilities in that are intended. Commissioner Bell suggests focusing on similar sized utilities in the discussion with UNC. It was asked if the general fund subsidizes the enterprise fund. Strandwitz said no, but there are overhead costs for which the enterprise fund pays the general fund. The group discussed funding opportunities. 3. Sykes is going to skip Item 3, the memo to the Board, as the decision matrix is more of a driver to determine whether a meeting with the Board is necessary. 4. Sykes later suggested to table Item 3, the board memo, until January as she thinks the matrix will help decide our direction and that do nothing is one of the options to consider. Sykes offered to collect the data and collate before the January meeting. Strandwitz wants to verify the items along the top and side. Cough suggests a spot to comment. He thinks we are still missing critical data characteristics of the community. Sykes thinks the matrix will help guide this. Examples were discussed for rate setting between small and large businesses or based upon zoning. Commissioner Bell mentioned that he requested Strandwitz ask our attorney about the guardrails for rate setting. Cough brought up conservation but the point that water supply with the new Phase II reservoir completion is great. Strandwitz said to think about the impact of revenues if conservation were encouraged in conjunction with tiered rates that gave a decreasing rate with increasing use, that is a double whammy. Sykes indicated December 23 would be a deadline to get the matrix completed. Cough said he thinks the matrix would be better with words and not numbers, but others said that would not get a quick result. Sykes suggests Cough put his comments below. The group discussed the option criteria and scenarios. Salvi wants the scenario six language to be revised regarding out-of-town not helping. Cough thinks conservation and business friendly should be in rows. The group determined to replace the two bottom rows with encouraging conservation and is business friendly criteria. 6. Future agenda Items A. Rate structure prioritizations 1. Matrix results (Sykes) WATER AND SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES | 4 of 4 2. EFC conversation with Stephen Lapp (Cough) 3. Potential memo to Board 4. Citizen survey B. Drought surcharge (tentative) C. Outreach subcommittee (Salvi) D. Updates on customer counts E. January recurring items 7. Member reports Chair Sprinczeles was not present to report on the Board of Commissioners meeting. No other reports. 8. Assignments for other meetings All main assignments for upcoming meetings were accepted (Rawlins for Board Meeting on Dec. 13). 9. Adjournment Cough motioned to adjourn. Weston seconded. All in favor. Sykes adjourned the meeting at 9:23 p.m. Respectfully submitted, K. Marie Strandwitz, PE Utilities Director Approved: Jan. 6, 2022