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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-03-14 - Board of Directors Meeting Minutes2002-23 MINUTES OF THE YORBA LINDA WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING March 14, 2002 8:30 A.M. The March 14, 2002 meeting of the Yorba Linda Water District Board of Directors was called to order by President Arthur C. Korn at 8:30 a.m. The meeting was held at District Headquarters, 4622 Plumosa Drive, Yorba Linda. Directors Present at Roll Call Arthur C. Korn, President John W. Summed eld, Vice President Mark Abramowitz Paul R. Armstrong Michael J. Beverage Staff Present: William J. Robertson, General Manager Lee Cory, Operations Manager Beverly Meza, Business Manager Michael Payne, Assistant General Manager Michael Robinson, Assistant Administrator Amelia Cloonan, Executive Secretary Visitors present: None CONSENT CALENDAR On a motion by Director Beverage, seconded by Director Abramowitz, the Board of Directors voted 5-0 to approve the Consent Calendar. Director Armstrong abstained from approving the minutes of the meeting of February 28, 2002, as he was not present at that meeting. 1. Approve minutes of regular meeting, February 28, 2002. 2. Authorize directors to leave the State of California prior to next meeting. 3. Approve disbursements of $639,582.94. 4. Approve Progress Payment No. 6 in the net amount of $192,243.78 to International Custom Enterprises for construction of the Richfield Plant Renovation Project, Phase 11. Arthur G. Kidman, District General Counsel, entered the meeting at 8:34 a.m. ACTION CALENDAR 5. Consider accepting the Financial Statements for seven months ended January 31, 2002. Beverly Meza, Business Manager, presented the report. Questions were asked, and a discussion was held. On a motion by Director Beverage, seconded by Director Armstrong, the Board of Directors voted 5-0 to accept the Financial Reports for seven months ended January 31, 2002. -1- 2002-24 President Korn stated the General Manager, William Robertson, requested continuation of items 6 and 7. On a motion by Director Beverage, seconded by Vice President Summerfield, the Board of Directors voted 5-0 to continue items 6 and 7. 8. Consider the scheduling of Committee meetings. President Korn stated this item was on the agenda at the request of Director Abramowitz. Director Abramowitz suggested that with respect to scheduling committee meetings, staff would first speak to the chairman of the committee about agenda items. Then staff would query committee members with respect to acceptable dates and come back to the Board to schedule the committee meeting. If there is a problem with a conflict for a committee member, staff would offer either some date options or options to continue. (In some cases dealing with the needs of the District, it doesn't make sense to continue.) The Chairman would then determine if it was to be brought back for rescheduling and contact the Board President or Vice President to substitute for a committee member unable to attend. There was a lengthy discussion of the issue. Vice President Summerfield and Directors Armstrong, and Beverage believe there is no reason to change the process of setting committee meetings and agendas. Director Armstrong added that if a Board member has asked that something be discussed in committee, an effort should be made to have that Board member present when the item is discussed in committee. The vast amount of items are brought up by staff. President Korn stated in the opinion of the chair, the meeting should move on. Vice President Summerfield and Director Beverage concurred. 9. Consider status report on active projects. President Korn stated he wanted to track the status of the long list that fell out of the workshop a year ago. This will be an on-going project of the Executive Committee. If a Board member disagrees with what is printed, it would be useful for the management and Executive Committee to be made aware of your disagreement. Director Abramowitz said there are a number of items that have never come back to the Board, for example, parking at Plumosa. President Korn indicated this item would be continued. The Executive Committee, the Chair, and management would be glad to entertain comments. The list can be used as a starting point. President Korn called a recess at 9:32 a.m. Beverly Meza left the meeting. The meeting reconvened at 9:43 a.m. with all Directors present. -2- 2002-25 GENERAL MANAGER'S REPORT 10. General Manager's oral report and comments. a) General Counsel Kidman had nothing to report but wanted to comment. The Board has done reasonably well in staying within the boundaries between management and the Board of Directors. As a reminder, citizens who are elected to be members of the Board of Directors do not have any prerogatives as individual directors. The District is governed by a board. All of the authority is in the board and none of the authority in individual board members. The board can delegate certain authority to certain board members. The president has certain authority, and the board has delegated certain functions to committees. Referring agenda items to the proper committees is the proper way to do it. The board can delegate to each board member the authority to call the general manager and have him place items on a committee agenda. If you have an item that has been delegated to a committee and the general manager has been asked to give a recommendation on that item, and that has not occurred, the board has the right to set a date when that item should be heard by the board. A courtesy would be to have an item of interest to a particular board member presented when that member is present. If a board member cannot be heard, then that would be a problem. Being heard does not indicate a board member should prevail. A director has a right to be heard, and there is a place on the agenda for a member to bring up items. The board then decides if this is an item it wishes to be heard. In General Counsel Kidman's opinion, the Yorba Linda Water District Board has done really well. The agencies that start becoming dysfunctional are ones where the line between management and board becomes blurred. Setting up a board president office with the person acting independently of the board and management and being involved in the day-to-day operation of the agency is an example. He congratulated the Board. b) Form 700. William Robertson, General Manager, gave a reminder that these forms are due before the end of the month. Ray Hahn, engineering consultant, joined the meeting at 9:48 a.m. c) ACWA Conference, Monterey, May 7-10, Prepayments. Director Armstrong has indicated he will attend. William Robertson, General Manager, asked if Director Abramowitz will, as he indicated he might, attend. There is a prepayment of expenses issue. d) District activities. 1) Ray Hahn, engineering consultant, reported Well # 18 has been drilled down to 1050 feet. He presented pictures and gave a report. Questions were asked. Will this affect any other wells in the area, does the District run a model, is there testing, does the District do a detailed analysis of results, who keeps the samples? Ray Hahn left the meeting at 10:02 a.m. -3- 2002-26 2) William Robertson, General Manager, reported the City of Yorba Linda had a sewer spill over the weekend and asked the District to respond to the spill. 3) Vice President Summerfield asked about the State of the District meeting. William Robertson, General Manager, explained this is an employee meeting. There are some issues that came up in the employee survey needing attention. 4) The toilet giveaway is scheduled for March 23 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the education and service center next to Yorba Linda City Hall. COMMITTEE REPORTS 11. Executive-Administration Committee (Korn/Summerrield) Report of meeting held March 6, 4:00 p.m. Prepayment of conference expenses, per diem for Directors, status report of projects. Director Abramowitz is doing a broader survey on per diem, which he will present to the Committee. 12. Finance-Accounting Committee (Beverage/Kom) Schedule meeting for March 27, 2002, 9:00 a.m. Accounting and Payroll software, review financials for the year. 13. Personnel-Risk Management Committee (Abramowitz/Armstrong) 14. Planning-Engineering-Operations Committee (SummerfieldBeverage) Report of meeting held March 5, 3:30 p.m. Presentation by Craig Gooch, PSOMAS, YLWD GIS implementation plan, SWEPI FFDCA's (includes Board agenda item continued from February 14), reimbursement to Vista Del Verde for transmission pipelines (includes Board agenda item continued from February 28), Pulte FFDCA. A meeting is scheduled for March 20 at 4:30 p.m. Fees for Bastanchury PRD. 15. Public Information Committee (Armstrong/Abramowitz) 16. Orange County Water District Ad Hoc Committee (Beverage/Kom) Meeting scheduled for Monday, March 25, 4:00 p.m. 17. MWDOC Ad Hoc Committee (Kom/Abramowitz) President Korn suggested it is time to start negotiating a meeting date toward the middle of April. Mike Robinson left the meeting at 10:09 a.m. -4- 2002-27 INTERGOVERNMENTAL MEETINGS 18. Yorba Linda City Council, Tuesday, March 5, 6:30 p.m. (Korn) President Korn reported there was discussion of retirement awards. The Yorba Linda Water District Executive Committee conferred with the General Manager on what is done at the District. The President believes the level is appropriate. There is a proper balance between employee relations and the use of public funds. Vice President Summerfield is satisfied after discussion of the issue with the General Manager. Director Abramowitz asked about the policy. William Robertson, General Manager, reported funding for two retirement parties is in the budget at $900 each for this year and $1000 each for next year. If there are no retirements, the funds are not expended. 19. Yorba Linda Planning Commission, Wednesday, March 13, 7:30 p.m. (Armstrong) There was nothing of particular interest to the District, and no Director attended. BOARD OF DIRECTORS ACTIVITY CALENDAR Authorization to attend meetings scheduled after March 14 and before March 28. Agenda is available at District office prior to meeting. Yorba Linda City Council, Tuesday, March 19, 6:30 p.m. Korn MWDOC, Wednesday, March 20,9:00 a.m. no OCWD, Wednesday, March 20,6:00 p.m. no Yorba Linda Planning Commission, Wednesday, March 20, 7:30 p.m. Summerfield BOARD MEMBER COMMENTSATEMS FOR FUTURE CONSIDERATION Director Abramowitz had the following items for consideration: 1) The General Manager's review needs to be scheduled. The Executive or Personnel-Risk Management Committee needs to begin the process. 2) The agenda for this meeting was on the website. However, on some older versions of some browsers, the website does not work very well. 3) There was some discussion by staff about the 301h waiver issue. The City of Irvine and the Irvine Ranch Water District had a joint meeting wherein they took a stand against the waiver. 4) At the last Yorba Linda City Council meeting, there was some discussion about the sewers in the City of Manhattan Beach. John Gullixson indicated the pipes in Yorba Linda are not old. 5) MWDOC is looking at how to implement some rate changes Metropolitan Water District is going to have. Director Armstrong reported the Yorba Linda Planning Commission approved the new wing to be built at the Nixon Library. There is an appeal by John Gullixson on this item. President Korn invited the Mayor of Yorba Linda to visit at the next Board meeting on March 28. The Mayor made some statements about the Orange County Sanitation District that could be useful to the District. President Korn declared a recess at 10:35 a.m. The Board of Directors went into Closed Session at 10:45 a.m. William Robertson and Michael Payne were also present in Closed Session. -5- 2002-28 CLOSED SESSION 20. Discussion of pending litigation to which the District is a party, (Subsection (a) of Section 54956.9), Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Central Justice Center, Case No. OOCC 14623, Keith Ranby Saul v. Yorba Linda Water District, et al. 21. Discussion of pending litigation to which the District is a party, (Subsection (a) of Section 54956.9), Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Central Justice Center, Case No. 815921 Huntington Beach vs. OCWD, and Case No. 818852 Fountain Valley vs. OCWD, before the Superior Court of the State of California. The Board of Directors came out of Closed Session at 11:31 a.m. The Board of Directors took action to authorize legal counsel, Robert Gokoo, to initiate legal proceedings to allocate damages in the Keith Ranby Saul v. YLWD et al litigation among the insurance companies. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Director Abramowitz, seconded by Vice President Summerfield, the Board of Directors voted 5-0 to adjourn at 11:32 a.m. The next regular meeting of the Board is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2002 at 8:30 a.m., at the District Headquarters. 0- I , INTI;,,, T AGO Secretary/General Manager (V" -6-