Call to Order:
Welcome: Darton, President
Present/Quorum (yes): Darton, Todd, Clint, Matt, Gini, Paul, Dave (Manager). Guest: None
Consent Items
Approved? – Contents and order of this Agenda: Approved
Approved? – Minutes of November meeting: Approved
Information Items
Guest Speakers comments (if any): None
Board Member comments (if any): Morris mentioned that he drove by the Sandy Shores Filtration project and it looks very good.
President’s Report :
- No report needed.
Manager/Operator Report (Dave):
- Dave said we are in the count down to the annual board meeting in June and hopefully all will move smoothly getting there. He voiced concern because last year the steps, and when they happened, got a bit mixed up. He has put together a nice spreadsheet delineating the steps needed this year. Some adjustments will be made to this to make sure it is clear to all. Darton said he’ll take a look at the timeline and also add this info to the website for our members to see.
- While reviewing the steps listed in Dave’s spreadsheet Todd noted that in the April column it includes that after review we would put the Rate change on the ballot or take it to the shareholders for a vote. This is not the correct procedure – as a board we determine rates as a responsibility delegated by the shareholders to the Board. The rate change is incorporated into the budget and shareholders vote on the budget when it is presented.
- Todd mentioned that we need to be careful when tabulating the ballots. Normally with a ballot count the tabulation is only done immediately prior to the meeting so it doesn’t effect the decision of those voting. We will count immediately prior to the board meeting in June to avoid this.
- Dave said the new pump has been built and shipped and should arrive this coming week. This be classified as a preemptive action to avoid a possible emergency situation; it will be recorded as a contingency cost. When it arrives we will keep it in storage and will only use it when the failing pump drops to 80 gpm. Presently it is pumping at 100 gpm. When we install it we will order another pump to keep as a backup in storage. In the upcoming budget we should include a budget item for this replacement pump which will likely need to be bought this coming year.
- Dave says we have sold a water share. It has allowed us to buy back share 428 from a member who wanted to sell; therefore this is a neutral transaction for us although since it is an active share we will be selling water. We have one or two more members who are looking to sell water shares and we will use these if a no owner wants a share.
- Dave needs us to order a new steel exterior door for the building at Dockton Springs. The existing door is wood and has really deteriorated to the point where it must be replaced asap.
- The Sandy Shores project is moving along very well. Just slightly behind schedule due to the rainy conditions. The workers have been doing a great job.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee (Todd):
- Todd mentioned business operations costs are a bit high YTD due to legal and insurance billings and because we have added $500 to postage. Operations look high but that is because those expenses generally come in the fall. 15K of the 30K system replacement funds in the Operations Budget have been transferred. We are intentionally avoiding new projects until we know the Sandy Shores project is complete. During the month we have spent approx. 60K on the Sandy Shores project. YTD we have spent $253K of the $578K budgeted for this project. We are using our USBank savings account to fund this project at this point and will begin passing funds from the Kitsap account to the USBank account soon to cover new items. Although we are required to reserve $150K in the Kitsap Bank Money Market account, we should end up with more than $200K.
- Our reconciliation to cash looks off because there are a number of outstanding checks we have written that have not yet been cashed
- Darton asked Todd if he thought we would be needing to increase the water or share cost this year. Todd said a serious review of these should be done and that a slight increase may be called for. Darton suggested we should try to keep the costs steady. Morris mentioned that due to all the improvements done on the system there definitely has been an increase in value. Todd noted that King County Right of Way issue could really effect us down the road.
- Gini asked if Todd had found out if our PPP loan would be converted to a grant. He said he fully expect this to happen but due to renewed discussions in Wash. DC about pandemic-related financial aid, banks have pretty much shut down this conversion until things settle down.
Water Production Committee (Paul):
- Paul says the Sandy Shores Filtration project is going great. We are in the 3-5 week timeframe to finish the job at which point Warren will come out. We will need to plan for signage for the site. He mentioned we should plan on adding lights and cameras at this site and probably the Dockton Springs site too due to the increase in vandalism in Dockton lately. All were in agreement. Paul put forth a motion to start the process of getting pricing for this. All board members approved this motion. Dave will start looking into this.
- Paul said that Duncan will need to be contacted to see if we should step out of the Franchise Lawsuit with King County at this point because we will no longer be able to get a 20% reduction on the legal fees. The Bill for December was low but he thinks this bill will be increasing.
- Paul said the documentation showing the historical use of the land where our well heads are at Dockton Springs will go out to Duncan in the next few weeks and then we will see if KC will allow us to continue using that land and the well heads.
- Board needs to plan a meeting to discuss Operator compensation as well as compensation for the other DW staff. Dave said he and Angie both would like to be at the meeting. Dave hires and fires the staff that work in the office. When Dave went through all the accumulated paper work in the office he found a lot that relates to his and the staff jobs and will have this available to review. Dave said Angie has been keeping track of her job and hours, etc.
- Darton put forth the motion to have a compensation committee established and a meeting planned. All members approved this motion. The committee will consist of Todd, Darton, Mat, Paul, Morris and Clint. Darton said to expect there to be a meeting soon on a Saturday morning.
CIP and Planning Committee
- Darton said there are no updates to the CIP yet but plans to look at updating the 5 year plan. He said that anyone who is interested in participating please do. He did want Paul to participate in particular.
Old Business / Carryover Items
- None
New Business / Discussion Items
- None
Other Business
- None
What did we decide?
- Dave: Send out a new email to Board meeting about “to do” schedule (after Darton’s input), buy a new door for Dockton Springs, look into cameras
- Darton: Set up compensation meeting. Update CIP with whomever wants to participate. Help Dave set up timeline for Board meeting “to dos”
- Paul: Consult with Duncan regarding dropping out of Franchise lawsuit
- Gini:
- Todd: Check By-laws to be certain of protocol regarding rate changes
- Matt:
- Clint:
- Morris: