Recording in progress. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Recording stopped. Recording in progress. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to call to order the East Powell to Sanitary District Advisory Committee regular session. It is April 23rd and it's 5.40 pm. Thank you. And now we will do roll call. Chair to board, loose verges is absent as is Mario Mendoza. Committee member Grace Poppel. Vice Chair Stephanie Griffin. Present. Committee member Gail Wilkerson. Present vice chair Stephanie Griffin present Committee member get gale Wilkerson Committee member Diane Otterby present perfect Perfect. And the third item. The second item, we need to approve the agenda. The second item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. From February 26, 2025. It's for this meeting for April 23. Okay, sorry. Yeah. So we're approving the agenda. This for agenda. Yes, correct. And we know it. Okay. When I say it is added in, we would like to pull agenda item 8.1 because assistant general manager Sherry will be presenting a six month status update on the transition and instead of the normal general updates. However, the general updates will be consistently added to the agendas. If we could have a motion and a second, if... Make a motion. Okay. No, no, go ahead. Motion. Second. Uh-huh. Thank you. And then if we could please have a motion to approve the agenda as amended as well as a second. I make the motion to approve the agenda as amended. Our second. Okay. And then is it all in favor? Aye aye Okay The next agenda item Okay, the next agenda item is number three. It's the approval of minutes 3.1 East Palo Alto Sanitary District of IZ Recommittee meeting meeting minutes of February 26, 2025. I move maybe for the minutes from February 26. I second. All in favor then? I just thank you. I'm going to go ahead and I just thank you. I then. God the next. Yes agenda item number four is public comment. I do not believe we have any public comment. If there is anyone who would like to make a public comment on zoom, please raise your hand. No, I believe we're all set. Okay, so agenda number five is special presentations, 5.1 financial audit report for FY 2003 to 2000 I'm sorry 2023 to 2024. Just give me one moment to pull up the slides. I can go over that introduction while you're getting that slide. Good evening, committee members and member of the public. My name is Tomo Ooku, CD is finance director and district treasurer. Yeah, this item is to go over the result of financial audit for fiscal year 2023 and 2024. As a quick background, state law requires a special district to issue annual financial report prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principle also known as GEP. So the financial statements are available in public. And David Fernsworth, Certified Public Accountant, has completed the annual audit and the issue that district annual financial statements for fiscal year 2023, 2024. So we presented the results on March 18, 2025 to the board and the council. So because of the timing, we were not able to present it to community beforehand, so we are coming back to this meeting to go over the results. We have David and he's going to present that result. The slides are ready. Okay. Yes, they are ready. Go for it, yeah. My apologies. Hello, my name is David. As was said, I performed the financial audit of the district as of and for the year end of June 30, 2024. So what we'll do today in this today's presentation. We will cover a snapshot of what happened during the audit. We will review the statement of net position, which is the balance sheet. We'll review revenues, expenses, and the changes in net position. Then we'll look at some financial metrics. We'll review the audit findings, recommendations, and then management's response to these findings and conclude. As always, I always entertain questions while I'm presenting or until you wish until afterwards. So the next slide. Awesome. So there was an unmodified opinion, so that means a clean opinion. With that, there was four audit findings. These are internal control deficiencies, which will cover at the end of the presentation. There were indications and allegations of fraud. I had no difficulties with management and there was an abuse in the spending of the district. Next slide. Which is really the table of contents, which I reviewed already, so if we could go to the next line. Awesome. So our process really in a financial audit is to understand the processes of how the district pays its bills, earns its income. Then based upon that, we have to have a risk assessment of what could go wrong. Then based upon that we create what they call the audit program and we test. So for instance, we'll confirm cash with in this case the county and stuff like that. Then what we do is an audit is not 100% testing. So we don't look at literally every transaction. It's a testing so it's a sampling then based upon the results we provide an opinion in this case it was unmodified or a clean opinion. Next slide. So in the statement of net position you'll see that cash was 23.3 million which is about 33,000 increased from the previous period. Counts receivable was 600,000. Prepaid expenses was 450,000, 499. Restricted cash was 2.162 million. Notes receivable was 16,8633 note OPEB assets was 142,034 and then capital assets net of accumulated depreciation was 12.161 million total assets was about 38.89 million deferred outflows related to pensions was 1.2 million and then deferred outflows related to OPEB was 261,000. Next slide. So we'll look at the liabilities. So you'll see that accounts payable was 802,000, which was an increase of almost 700,000 compared to the previous year. Accrued liabilities was about 8,000. There was no under-income. And then this was the year that the debt was paid off, so that's why you don't really see any debt on there. The net pension liability was almost 800,000 dollars, and then compensated abs was almost $46,000. So total liability was 1.645 million. Deferred inflows related to pensions with 1.1 million. Deferred outflows related to OPEB was 143,872. Next line. So the net position, this is really just assets minus liabilities and then we break it up into three parts. What have the district in essence invested in its capital assets? What is it? There's anything restricted? What is that? And then everything else is unrestricted. So you'll see that net investment capital assets increased to 12.1 million. The restricted was 2.162 million and then the unrestricted was everything else at 23.1 million. Next line. So we'll look at the revenues which was you'll look at the sewer, sewer charges, I'll just say sewer service revenues. 4.7 million connection fees was 92,000 and then other revenue, which is everything else was 189,000 to about 5 million. Property taxes was 1.7 million investments. We finally started to get more in investment earnings. A lot of my other like cemetery audits and all that. When they have their cash with the investment pool, it was not very good since about 2020. So this year, last year was a little better starting to at least incur more investment earnings Then capital contributions was 2.2 million and then the total was around 10 million if you consider the capital contributions Next line Perfect so There was a special item. So I'll just say the total expenses was 3.5 million. It's not in your slides, but it was 3.556 million. Now the special item was 360,000 related to the misappropriation of assets. The net was 360,000. And then the change in that position, which really is just net income, it was 6.163 million. Now if we go to the financial metric section, chain slide home. The cash analysis, so you'll see that the cash in 2020 was 21.365 million and it increased to 2022 and then due to a lot of capital expenditures, Decre.6 million and then increased again and increased from 23 to 24 to 25.518 million. Next slide. So current liabilities, this is really just made up of accounts payable. So what is O divenders? So if a vendor PG needs a perfect example, they provide light, but they don't give you the bill till July. So it's an expense in June, but yet you don't pay it till July. So therefore it's an accounts payable. It's a liability. And then the other is what is O to the employees. And so you'll see it's had a huge decrease and in total mainly due to the, there is no debt. So I just included the current portion of the debt from previous periods. So that's why you see a huge dip. Next slide. Long-term liability. So you also see the long-term liability says decreased steadily. So now there's really just the net pension liability and then the net op-pap or actually know just the net pension liability. Excuse me. Next line, so the revenues have increased steadily from about, from 2020 to 6.6 million to about if you include the capital contributions to 10 million. Just keep in mind the capital contributions is not a current stream of revenue source. Next line. This is, you'll see that they stayed flat relatively from 2020 to 2022. It increased in 23 and then was reduced in 2024. I will say it was mainly due to the pension credit. So if you're familiar with pensions in actuary, computes, the pension expense, it computes. And so that's really an estimate. And so they pretty much estimated a pension credit in 2024. And CalPERS provides that. And so don't think that it was a decreasing cash, because it was an estimate. Next slide. So with recommendations and audit findings, so what happened as a result of audit procedures, we discovered assasciabilities, revenues, and expenses, material to the finance statements were misstated, so we had to propose an audit adjustment, which should have been caught during the year and a cruel entry process. We recommend the district implement internal controls and it's not on here but management response pretty much that has been fixed as of October 1st because the city took over the processes and procedures. Toma, would you like to intervene for a mantra response or was that sufficient? That's sufficient. Okay. If you guys have questions, but I'm happy to take. Yes. Okay. Next line. Or I was already changed. So during the year, June 30, 2024, district management discovered a disbursement check that was manipulated, dispersed to a vendor, not a failure with the district management failed to communicate the misappropriation of assets until three months after the misappropriations of assets occurred. We recommend implementing internal control policies, procedures to prevent misappropriation of assets, and that management communicates sensitive information to the board of directors on a timely basis. Next slide. So as a result of our procedures, we discovered the district failed to follow the procurement policy of the district and we recommend Management and boarded directors implemented to improve controls ensure the procurement policies followed and as of October 1st 2024 policies and procedures have been Implemented because the took over. And then this is the last one. As a result of the audit procedures, we discovered a board member use funds of the district to travel and attend conferences outside the scope of the district activities. We recommend that the district implement interim controls, interim travel and training relate to districts activities. And does anybody have any questions? Well, you said to wait. I'm sorry? You said to wait till the end. Oh, oh, sorry. And I entertain questions while I present or wait until the end. Oh, no, most definitely. would know most definitely. Oh no I would like to answer you. Well do my best to answer your questions. I will be fully transparent. Oh no no please because I'm actually at the concluding statements. Because it'll just interrupt. Because some of the things that you mentioned a lot of people have been curious about, and that's what I wanted to address. Oh, okay. Okay, so you would prefer me just to, okay. All right, next slide is the conclusion slide. Oh, there we go. So this presentation was a no overview of the financial highlights of the district. If you'd like to review further, you can review the audited financial statements. Was a pleasure working with Tomo Bowen and Marissa and team. And I think then for providing the information needed to complete the audit. Please feel free to with any questions that you may have to contact me. Does anybody have? I know that there are questions. Yes. Through the chair may I ask question? Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much for the report. I'm curious about something which I suspect is out of scope for you, but I'd like to have it confirmed. Okay. When you talk about the both the operating and non-operating revenues of the district, I presume it's the case that you are not checking calculations as to how much individual property, whether or not they actually paid those particular amounts, or how those calculations were required. That's correct. You simply look at how much in general was received, and you put it in the correct bucket. How was received or invoiced? How was invoiced? Yeah, so I look at what was invoiced, because with G have to have you know, there could be receivables So let's just say let's just say for instance like The like if somebody needs a connection and they would receive a loan right That was forget that was like 2% interest or something like that. I don't really I Don't really say yes or no to that. That's a management decision as long as it's followed. So like for instance, there was a related party transaction as you well know that's in the notes. So what I do is I check and say, okay, was this related party transaction? Did they receive the same terms as the others in the public, which they did? And if they did in twelfth, then there would be a lot of finding. Thank you. We had discovered that there were situations in which certain kinds of charges for certain kinds of properties are calculated based on things like water use, with information flowing from one of the water companies into the sanitary district and then rates of charges. I'm interested in whether in your audit you look into how that is done and whether the amounts are correct or that's not the scope of your order. No, I did not actually test for that. Okay, I understand. I didn't think it would be but I wanted clarity since you you'll hear now. And then we can. Oh, no, most definitely. The audit has a means of getting information about that. Does someone else want to ask a question before I ask another? I'll ask a question. I wanted to know because I'm looking at the revenues. So, So, pass through funds with that be considered revenues So pass through funds. Would that be considered revenues? Because pass through fund taxes that yeah, yeah, let me, let me get to the actual because you're looking at the actual audit report. That was reported the pass through funds you're talking about. That was reported as property taxes. Thank you. You're welcome. So to follow up on that, we have two different line items to do with property taxes, which are on the revenue side. One of them is reported as property taxes as the 1.7 million. And the other is the sewer service charges, which I believe are also charged on the property tax. Yes. The difference between the 4.7 and the 1.7. The 4.7 would be calculated by the district, like the district general manager, and then he would communicate that to the county to put that on the roll. As opposed to property taxes, that is assessed by the county. And then of course, there's a portion and I don't actually do this in the auditor's in case there's a question. I don't assess the like the county assessed the correct percentage that was then given to the district. What I do in the audit is say okay, county, can you, do you, did you actually provide this to the district? So I confirm it, it's just that I don't actually go to the point of evaluating whether the county was assessing the property values accurately. And if that percentage would go, the correct percentage would go to the district. Thank you. Thank you very much My question is who are the previous auditors? I Bailey Hi Bailey. Yeah, I just yeah, it you talk to them Almost have it in 2020 was the first year that I performed the audit of the district So it's an audit standard to communicate to what they call the predecessor auditor. So I actually did do that. Yes, ma'am. Well, okay. Because I'm wondering, when was the previous general manager hired because that would, uh, 2016? Oh, wow. Uh, 2015, 2017. It was before, it was when I, either I, Bailey or the firm before them, was performing the audit. Uh, I don't have that off the top. Tell me, you, do you have that? I'm sorry. I think that 2016 time,, 2017 around the time so round There is when the the general manager was hired the last one when it was dissolved Correct and was there a assistant general manager? there was what I was Where there were two positions and the general manager dissolved it the got rid of the other that was before I performed the audit so that would have been I Bailey or the firm before them because I think I Bailey did it for three years or it was a firm that was then bought out by I Bailey so I'll I'll just call him by Ibeyli. So, was it Friar? Come, sorry? The last one that- Ibeyli? Yeah, they were just consultants? No, they were financial auditors. And they provided the audit to financial statements. They performed the audit. For how long? Three years. Only? Yes ma'am. Only three years. I have another question if we would go here. So thank you very much for the audit that you've done and I recognize you mentioned that you have a number of cemetery clients I believe you've mentioned. Well they're only on cemetery clients I just said that because most a lot of them are small and so they have Cash no cash in the investment pool. Yes, I understand as opposed to maybe like There's I have other water districts stuff like that This is what I wanted to check with you. So you have other water districts. Do you have other sanitary districts as well? cell-seapoi this Yeah, or cell-seapoi days. I don't know how to say. That's the point of the sanitary district in Watsonville. Watsonville. As part of your audit, do you compare the ratios of investments and so on that different sanitary districts hold or is that not in what you do? Not so much in scope because the investments are held held by within the investment pool, which is compliant with investments for special districts. So what I do is, it's part of the audit, and it's in the notes. At least I believe, okay, no, it's not. So there's an actual, like the California provides allowed investments to all local governments. So what I do is I say okay, whatever the trial bounces, whatever the counts they have if it is investments, it has to be allowed. And so what I do is I just compare that. I don't actually compare the investments within that pool because the county investment pool is allowed by the state. So that's the cash investments, but the investments in the assets themselves. Well, I tell you like capital assets and all that. You don't make those sorts of comparisons, right? Not really because it's very different. I mean like a very small community is good to be very different than East Pole Walto Is this the only Work that you do with the city of East Palo Alto. Yes, yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much So Watson veal is smaller than East Pole Very much so it's a it's a suburb town close to Santa Cruz. No, I've heard it. It's work for the post office. I know all the city. Oh, okay. My other question, because the, and I'm glad they brought this up. I thought they were going to hide about the fraud. fraud and I want more information because there was a general manager and assistant and I'm trying to figure out how did our city, our citizens dollars got misappropriated and how it wasn't watched. It seems like if there was an auditor there at the time, we, well, somebody should have known before 2024. That's what I'm trying to get at. Who are the watchers of, do you know at that point? Because you said he started 2016, and I was told by the general manager that he was doing the job of two people and he had the title of District of Engineer along with the general manager. So he was serving two positions. Well I suppose yeah because middle of part I was told had two different ones. Okay, and then he claimed that he had He was saving the city money The citizens do the each house do you have a breakdown of the cost for each home? What do you call it? What are about the sewer rates? Yeah for for each home business. So district management should have that. So every year. Our citizens. What do you? Oh, the costs or like what they charge. Oh, what they charge. Okay. So yes, there is a whenever the sewer, the district, they'll provide a list to the county. So there is, there is, Tomo can be able to provide that to you. So Tomo? Yes. So the rate is a rateful resident is 600 dollars and that's multiplied by the water consumption of the previous. So the average cost was 600 dollars per household? No, that 600 is a set fixed rate for residential. It just doesn't matter how much water they use. Yeah, I multiply by water consumption. I'm sorry, I misspoke 660 dollars times previous year water consumption. Okay. And we get the information from the Vialia, the city's water operation. You get it from a water company? Yes. And that goes to property tax bill. Why is the water company giving that out and water and sewer are two different things? So to the chair, we think we're going to need to cover this in more depth. But I'm not sure if the auditor is, we're totally going to need to get into this topic. But I'm not sure that we need to do it with the audit. Okay, well, you know, Tellmo would have more since he's the, it's more of a management question. Sorry, I mean, just coming into this, we just started. So the financial auditor is here to pretty much test and make sure that the financial statements are in accordance with GAP, honestly. And then internal controls, if they are discovered, like some deficiency of checks and balances, they are discovered, then I am too, or the auditor is to communicate the findings, if there are any. So you found that yourself. Correct. Well, through inquiry is a management. It was a so as part of the audit, I have to inquire and things just didn't add up so I would ask. And so then it finally came. They found out can you tell us who discovered it besides you and who you took it to? So which finding? So it's on the alleged 500,000 K. And what I was minus standing is that they recovered what 300 of it? It was a net of 360. 360. So the loss total was 360. So that count was what bank of America or what bank. Black. So am I able to answer on this? There's a there's a current investigation. So I'm limited. What I got. So I don't think we're going to be going into the details. We prefer not to. We have a current open investigation. And we want to protect the integrity of that. So we're hoping the questions would relate directly to the audit. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm my hands are tied honestly with that. I'm trying to get the fill of you know what you can talk about and what Tom will can talk about. Okay. And everything because that makes a determination of the panel of what we We're supposed to listen for to advise the city council. That's why I went into that. Oh, no, no worries. Excuse me. We do have a hand raised on the Zoom whenever anyone would like to address that. Bring in for words. Who is it? You're too pretty to share. You want to see. I don't see anything either. Who is you? You have you have it on your screen Marissa? Yes. J H is the name. Let me change this one second. Do the chair mercy before we go to the public speaker. Are there any other additional board member clarification questions? Well, I do have one question. I was on the slide. There was zero dollars into the OPEB. I saw zero, but then the next year I saw monies. Oh, the net. Yes, that's actually a good question. So that is calculated by an actuary. So let me get to that slide. So you'll see that it was... All this means is that the investments in that account are greater than the estimated liability. That's really what it is. At the most basic level, there's investments that are technically estimated for the present value and then the liabilities. And in 2024, they calculated that, I guess, the ROI that the investments would grow at a faster rate than the liabilities. It changes because I think last year had a liability of $38,000. So it's probably going to go back and forth as my guess, but that's just a guess on my part. Thank you. I have a lot about flashed out of my head. You said, because I wanted to know, you said the $660 per house, because we need to know that because something went down. You said, doing a turn 2020, some costs went down. Are you talking about the bill? The liabilities? Yeah. It was the debt. So the debt was fully paid off. So there was two notes, two notes that was fully paid off in 20 or one note, one or two notes that were fully paid off in 2024. So they paid their bills? It was like a loan. Think of it like you have a mortgage or like a car loan and then you pay that off So you no longer have to pay the bank or whoever you have the loan with is very similar to that So it was a note that they owed it was an actual bond, but the concept is the same Thank you so the risk management part of it, what kinds of, could you just explain a little more about what kind of risk that they, that just are now is liable for or could be liable for. It's under notes on page 25. Of the audit to finance statements? Yeah. Oh, this is just saying that there's, there's, they're always exposed to different risks. It's hard to say what there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's to say that's outside the scope. But this is within this is within your. But the risk assessment note yes, it's really just to say the district has insurance because you know something can happen. So you need the insurance to be able to cover the costs. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, now move on to public comment as long as no one else has any other questions. I have a bunch of them. I'm a lot of more eliminated with the because my curiosity about the fraud. If it's anything else, do you have any other questions outside of that? No, because I got who's being charged how many suspects Let's say if it has any any questions that are not about Watson Bailey because I'm wondering why the previous auditors didn't catch all this. That's my thing, but that's talking about. I want to stay with the gathering information and being able to talk to the council, who probably hears this already and they're going to make up their mind or what they want to do, no matter what we come up with. That's been my experience being on commissions and committees and whatnot. But I guess the satisfy my curiosity and the people I talk to who wanna know what's going on. The audit, your auditor, you seem pretty, like a pretty nice guy, honestly. Thank you. But what about the auditors before? I mean, I don't think he can speak one more. No, I, Bailey's a national firm. I, I can't really speak to. They told us how, why they slipped up. Who dropped the ball? Because you did see that. How far did you go back? No, no, this is a one year So this was just July one twenty twenty three to June thirty twenty twenty four So there's always a risk assessment of what could go wrong either through air or fraud In part of an audit so the previous and so there's didn't Well, this is the first year that you know because normally something of that size Any especially I Bailey their national firm they would, that would really pop out. Like pretty much any CPA would review that. It should have caught it. There would. So I can't really speak to previous years. I, no, no, no, really, I really can't. But since 2020, I did not find anything since 2020 of that amount. You didn't find the chair. That. This audit, a sculpt, it doesn't cover, you know, finding fraud. So he didn't go all the way back. No, no, this was not a forensic audit. This is just a financial audit. So if there was a forensic audit, the scope of that is to try to find fraud. There's a financial audit, which is just to make sure financial statements are in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles. You sit for an... Financial. Not forensic. No, man. All right. And it's a different professional. I don't actually perform forensic audits. That forensic. Thank you so much. Are there any more questions or is that it? Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. We will now move on to public comment. J.H. We'll now be speaking. Thank you for recognizing me. I have two questions. The hard one is we are all interested in what is the spending presently and in future to investigate general manager misconduct. But the easy question is you described there were. Was manipulation of a disbursement check on what webpage could we learn details about that disbursement check? How was Johnny go into? Yes, as district council mentioned, the investigation is underway right now. I mean, under investigation. So we cannot talk about that so much for the integrity of the investigation. Yeah, and I would just add that I think there's a simpler answer, which is the there is no public facing or publicly available website or database that you can access to see that. I understand. Maybe we learn of how many dollars have been spent so far investigating the general manager? I don't know, this is the right place to talk about, but we retain forensic accounting service firm and I don't have the dollar amount of double my head but yeah so this is this is not all the questions so I don't know if this is a perfect place to answer the question. Thank you. I yield the floor. There are no other public comments. Okay. Thank you so much. So next is 5.26 month status update on transition of EPA SD to the city leadership. Good evening, vice chair. I'm going to go to the committee. I'm going to go to the committee. Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other? Thank you. So in 2024, as you all know, the San Mateo Lafko unanimously approved the city's application request. That EPA SDB made a subsidy area of the city and the city took that over, took the EPA SD over on October 1st. We came in with very little actual operational details of how the entity worked. And that's because this was sort of a less than friendly, we'll call it, takeover. And we didn't have as smooth of a transition as we would have liked. And the reason I say that is just to say this, our general manager came in on the first day and really opened up the books, opened up everything and we started from scratch on October 1st. I say that because we didn't have very much lead up, we didn't have a lot of information to go off of, and we began this whole process on October 1st. At that time, City Council became, as you know, the EPSD board, and the City Manager became the EPSD general manager. And so this is the update on that six month transition as of April 1st, that would be the six months. And I wanna give you sort of a broad high level overview of the different areas, as I mentioned in the staff report, and then we can start to dig into certain areas, and we can always come back to you with more details if there's particular areas that you're interested in. So the first area that was of big concern to us is the legal requirements and the regulatory requirements of our permits, the state entities that are interested in what information we have to share and the state entities that require us to share certain information. The sanitary sewer overflows are required to be reported monthly to the state. That is a legal requirement as well as a permit requirement and it was not done monthly since I don't know when. I don't know the background of when it wasn't done monthly. I will tell you that the state has only one reported spill from 2018 to 2023 and we know of at least three. our operator, West Bay Sanitary District, has documentation of when they were accidentally called into take care of three spills. I can't tell you how many other spills did or did not occur. There is not information on the state's database and there is not information or records in the district's database. I can tell you that it was more than one over the course of those five years. The city is now reporting spills, Richard Perez, as you know, is in charge of this and he is reporting monthly, whether we have spills or we don't have spills. We report every single month to the state as required. And we have had three spills and we did expect that we would have some spills because as I mentioned, we took over a sewer district without knowing all the details of the condition of the infrastructure and without having good record keeping of past spills. So we did have three that I noted in the staff report. One was last November 147 gallons spilled and West Bay was able to recover all of that and return it to the sewer system. In December we had a much larger spill, 1387 roughly gallons and a little over half of that was recovered. And then in February we had our third spill, 40 gallons spilled and West Bay was able to return the entire volume to the sewer system. All of that is in state documentation now and we are in good touch with the state and with the regulatory agencies. Should I pause there for questions on that topic or should I continue? What is spill? What defines a spill? Can I? Yes, I can help with that. Any spill of sanitary sewer overflow into our system, you know, outside of the pipes is considered a category one. And then as you spill more, you know, category four is 50 gallons or less. And then three, you know, so it goes up. Thank you. You're welcome. Can I introduce you here? You said there were three. I got November and February. One was the other one. That's February of this year. November 7th, 2024. December 6th, 2024. February 7th, 2025. Those are the three that we have had since October 1st, 2024. And West Bay was called in. Who called them? Yes. West Bay is our operator. So when we have... We are they are now and in the past, they were a nearby operator who was called in for these accidentally. They were called accidentally. I don't know them. I don't know more details again. If I had more information, you know, you don't know what you've been living with all this time. And I saw the midst of pipes and that there were clay pipes and they were all cracking everything. And I said, my God, you only got away with 500. That's ridiculous. As you all know, this district was taken over for multiple reasons. And we have learned more and more as we've taken over operations. But I cannot speak to what happened prior to October 1, 2024 in terms of spills. We simply don't have the records. Thank you. If we can continue to the next slide please. Okay, so it is common practice roughly every five years to survey the entire sewer system and we do that through CCC TV. You can see a picture of what that looks like. You basically put the camera in a sort of robotic, a robot that kind of goes through the sewer system. And it really documents the details of each pipeline, where there are cracks, where there are problems, anything, the condition of each pipeline. So we did find CCTV recordings dated August of 2022. We don't have complete recordings of our entire system. And so as part of our contract with our operator, West Bay, we have asked them to inspect our entire system within the first 12 months, and then they're going to do half the system every year thereafter. We want to constantly be checking are there problems, are there things that we need to know about, and then that information is compiled along with the operators information, the maintenance all of that is compiled together to form our asset management plan to replace pipelines and so forth in a timely schedule. So getting through this CCTV videos is part of the first step operationally. West Bay has inspected over 22 miles of the 35 miles as of what is that this week, last week. And so we information as we get more operational information as we get more information as we get more information as we get more information as we get more as afterwards and offer this introductory CIP. As we get more operational information, as we get more maintenance information as the CCTV inspections continue, we'll continue feeding that information to the CIP as the CIP is a living document. So over the years, the CIP will continue to change as we prioritize and reprioritize different projects. We do anticipate a large number of improvements. I am, I cannot quantify that or qualify that right now, but I can tell you we do anticipate a large number of improvements and I don't think that that's a big shock to anybody. May I ask a question about this? Thank you. The Chair, you've indicated a large quantity of improvements from what you're seeing at the moment. Do you expect that they will exceed the available cash in the sanitary district? I can't answer that question quite now. I'm sorry. So it's not all of this, yes, at least. I don't know. And the reason I don't know is, frankly, I personally have not, I'm not doing this work. So I'm not saying it's not clear. I'm saying I personally don't know. The public works director and his staff, the engineering staff are looking at this. and I don't want to sort of give you guys very very the public work director and his staff, the engineering staff are looking at this. And I don't want to sort of give you guys both very vague estimates. I just would rather if it's okay. Come back to you all in June and give you accurate data. Really, cheers. I have a question. Yeah, Melvin Gaines General Manager, I'll just affirm with Sherry just said, we're doing the study now and that will be the, let's call it the appraisal of all of the costs of different projects that are necessary to have the system functioning well. And at that point, well, no, whether or not the cost exceed. I believe you said what the general, I'm sorry, what the district has. And yeah, well, we'll have that number then when the study is complete. Thank you. Okay, through the chair. With him, with that's it, Melvin, do they estimate a cost of how much is going to be, how much is going to be passed on to the citizens or do you have enough money in there? You from well 23 or 25 million from 2024 and from the last meeting said that they didn't they said that they didn't include that they only look from 24 to 25 and not be so is that going to be a cost to the citizens so let me give you the big big picture of how this is done. First, we look at what are the actual repairs needed and the, you know, look at the all of the projects combined and quantify that into dollars and cents. We give your board and later the council the options for speedier versus slowdown sort of improvement options. And based on those policy decisions, we then determine how rates or how, you know, it's abortion to different entities. So I can't tell you right now the impact on residents. We are at step one, which is identifying the projects and step two, which is quantifying the projects. Okay. Well, that's fair, that's fair. But I'm just worried and concerned about the citizens and I'm one of them and then you know they're gonna pass it on landlords when it passes on. We have six percent ren the city, and they're going to be stuck with it. So that's why I asked that, but you don't, that's fair, you don't know yet. We share your concerns. And one thing that I'd add is just the way that the distribution of cost operates is the existing users of the system, who are ratepayers, through their rates pay for rates pay for maintenance and repair of the existing system. So anything kind of to return the system to functioning fully well, not expand it, but to replace any existing pipes that serve existing users, the expectation would be that the cost for that would be provided either through the rate payers or through grants. So the district will be going after grants and other opportunities to pay for those repairs. There's also the discussion of kind of expansion of the system and a frequent conversation that occurred in the past was, well, are these changes that then the city of East Palo Alto was saying need to happen in order to accommodate growth in development? And growth in development is something that is charged to developers. Existing ratepayers pay for the existing system It's repair and maintenance is to serve them. Similarly, if I were to give you an example of your personal vehicle, you have to pay for your vehicle's maintenance and repair and potentially replacement. However, you don't have to pay for my car. So that's it's likened to that. Okay. So what you're saying is that the developers are, they keep saying fair share, fair share. And what a lot of people like me for one, they're coming in to our city, making money off our city, and they're trying to pass it on to the citizens. And a lot of people don't make a lot of money like they do. Can you assure the citizens that they're not going to, at 660, I don't know how they came up with that figure, that flat figure, because it's supposed to be inflation. You supposed to go up a little bit at some time, but the one thing that people would be able to address that topic in a later meeting that we can agenda is today. Yes, we will. Yeah, agenda is that, because I want to know, and a lot of the people want to know, almost right down to the penny, to it. I mean, if you can come within a certain radius, a era radius is something like that. But that's very important to know, okay, I'm your turn. Thank you. And then I will say as we're preparing the CIP, as we're looking at the long-term and big picture here of improving the pipelines, we also have failing pipelines and problems that are happening in real time that cannot wait. So I've listed on this slide for you and in the staff report six such repairs. These are items that we determined could not wait until a later date. If there's a pipeline that is immediately failing or certainly if anything would lead to to a spill we have to take care of it right away. At one point the general manager did declare an emergency situation for the purposes of halting bidding and being able to immediately get a contractor such that we could immediately repair a pipeline that was failing. And then the rest of these repairs are being done as operations are happening. We do anticipate that these will continue to happen until we have a much better grasp on what we're working with operationally and at our plan of for improvements. As you know, failures and repairs happen all the time for any entity, but especially one that you don't know its condition going in. When you say general through the chair. You need to say general manager, you're talking about Melvin. I am. Okay, financials, you all just heard about the audit. Our finance department, led by our finance director, has done a comprehensive review of the financial processes and internal controls within the financial system. There are significant or there were, I should say significant weaknesses in financial operations, financial reporting, asset protection and compliance with laws and regulations. I've listed some of those examples for you. You know, vendor checks weren't stored in locked access control locations. There was a lack of segregation of duties. So when somebody was responsible for handling cash receipts, the same person was recording the transactions and the same person was reconciling the bank accounts. Those are sort of best practices in financial management that are required. They're either required or you could get an audit finding for it. Staff has now fully integrated the city's financial processes into EPA SD systems. So now they, you know, there is no such thing as one person accepting the check and the other person documenting the transaction. So now we have included these best practices into the city systems. As you heard also from the auditor, there was a fraudulent disbursement activity involving EPSD funds, and the related insurance claim had not been reported to the insurance risk pool. And so there is an investigation currently underway that I cannot give you more details on. However, staff was taken corrective action and has also submitted the claim to the insurance school, the risk pool. Staff has collaborated with our external auditor in preparation of the FY 2324 financial statements and And our staff now has reviewed the 2425 budget which was prepared by EPSD. So this is the budget in the current fiscal year that we're in, as well as our actual expenditures to determine whether those amendments are necessary. And our financial stuff is also developing a proposed budget for 2526 to be presented in May. It's awkward, but we are reviewing the current year budget that was presented by the prior entity, and then we're looking to the future. So that budget would come to us in our June meeting, along with the new capital improvement plan. Is that correct? Can I ask the financial finance director? Yes. So the reviewing of fiscal year 2425 EPSD budget is already agendas for May 6th board meeting. But I think advisory committee meeting is scheduled after the 7th. So I'm going to present that same information that I'm presenting on the 6th. And also I'm going to present the proposed budget for fiscal year 2526 on the same day on theth. When you say on the 7th, our next meeting would be June, right? I think we have the special meeting. Ah, that's the special one. Yes. Correct. Yes. Right. Next slide, please. So as to slide please. So, as to staffing, EPSD has terminated all contractual consultants contracts in addition to deciding not to extend the former general manager's contract. the current staff as you have noted the city manager is the general manager and you see his smiling face there. The city attorney is district council finance director is district treasure and so forth. So city staff is acting in dual capacities right now. West Bay staff, West Bay is our operational vendor. So they have hired operators to service our system specifically and they have been in close touch with us. They are very much involved in and we are very much in communication with them on a regular basis. And I, it's very chair. Can I expect a question? Do you, how long do you anticipate you getting legs and making leeway towards becoming, because they're supposed to be separate? Do you anticipate that happening this year or like when I come to council meeting and then they flip over. Okay, now we're sanitary district. That's confusing to a lot of citizens. So when do they anticipate it being separate or do they anticipate it being separate? No, lab co specifically mentioned that EPST board is the city council. So there is not a separation that I'm aware of anytime in the near future. There is this advisory committee of course, but this is not intended to switch. Are they going to make the public aware of that? My understanding is the public is aware of that but if we need to do more communications around that we can definitely do that. I'm glad all this came out okay but what they fed to the public is that they were going to be separate. The sanitary district was going to have a complete board of the sound but it doesn't look like when I come to the city council meetings they have a city council meeting then they adjourn and then they go you know what I'm talking you heard me talk and then they all of a sudden they switch over to sanitary district so that's not going to happen so so I think I don't know where the confusion might lie, but they are two legally separate entities. The city is overseeing a subsidiary district. So you can think of like a company that oversees another subsidiary company legally speaking. They are separate. So for example, we have two separate budgets. We allocate the funding cannot be commingled. Things are done as if we are holding two separate companies or two separate entities, but it is the same board or city council. I will say I joined the city in August. This is not uncommon. So where I was before the city council was acting as the housing authority, which was a legally separate entity, you know, there are multiple situations where city councils wear other hats and participate as the board of another entity. I can appreciate that, but what was fed to the public was going to be two separate entities and when they were asked about it. A couple of council members specifically say no we won't have anything we'll have one person on the. I'm going to ask Mr. Gaines to be I wasn't here when all this messaging happened I'm going to ask him to participate. This is needed information Mr. Manager. Committee member Dixon. Dixon right. Could you clarify your question, please tell me what you... She explained it as a heated protest, okay? I was supportive and I was bamboozled, okay? And we all were and I'm glad it happened. But you expressed to the public that it's on your website that it was going to be two separate entities. And I remember Carlos Romero specifically, he said, no, we're going to have one person on the board. We're going to have a total separate board. And yes, go back and it's on video, okay? I don't say anything that I can't prove. But the citizens out there are thinking we're gonna have a different board and we're gonna have a representative from the city to be on that board. But now where it's turning out to be that the board is the city and everybody sits on it. So to me, that's gonna be a problem. Somebody's gonna bring it up a size gal. And I don't tend to, I got a lot on my plate. Thank you for that. It doesn't explain it. It's two separate entities. I do. He's in one, acts in that. Yes. Because it happened with the rent board. They had money in the city needed money. This is some years back and they brought the money from the rent board and they gave it back. Then they went back to the call for us and they brought some more money from the rent board. They didn't give it back. It went to court and the judge ruled in the city's favor. They said because the city is the rent board. Does that make it clear? Because the way it seems now is like the city has caught blunt. They can go in and raise the rates. Take the money from the sanitary district and use it for their purposes. That's the way it appears. And everybody acts this specifically. Are you going to be able to touch the sanitary district's money? And it's not separate. Let me, hey, you got to ask these hard questions. And that's very important. And I'm not the only one thinking it. It's these. That's what they think. Okay, go ahead, go ahead. I'll cut my. All right. So to in reference to your point of what was communicated by the city throughout the laugh call process, the communication was always that laugh calls decision on a broad scale was just to remove the former East Palo Alto sanitary district board and to replace that board with the governing body of the city of East Palo Alto, the city council. So period, it's always been designed. The decision by Lafko, the entire subsidiary process was to insert the East Palo Alto city council as the governing board instead of the former East Palo Alto sanitary district board. However, East Pala, as Assistant General Manager Cleema said, East Palaute Sanitary District's assets are completely separate from those of the city of East Palaute. Even though they have the same governing board, they are segregated assets. The city, I cannot use space at East Palaute Sanitary District for city functions without paying East Palatol Sanitary District rent if it's the city function. Similarly the city of East Palatol cannot use East Palatol district dollars. You referenced an example which I don't I wasn't here for that I don't there's, I can't invalidate it and I can't validate it. But then in the event that the city could borrow funds from East Palatown, Sanitary District, the expectation would be that they pay those funds back. And yours and Nora, I believe you said that the city later forgave their debt to the rent board. And I'm not sure that that's, wasn't forgiven it was stolen. That shouldn't be used in those kind of words. Because it was in court. And it just said you had it. And I like to it. And the there there are an in government. There are ways to to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions that they make. And I imagine if in a scenario that you provided, if that occurred, then the voters had the opportunity to hold the city council accountable. Similarly, if the city council slash East Powell to Sanitary District Board were to make a decision that the voters disagreed with related to the Sanitary District funds, they could similarly hold the body accountable. Can I ask this question? Measure O and L and JJ, it was represented to the people that measure. This is a sanitary district meeting. Yeah, I know, but I'm trying to example, example what the city did. They convinced the public to push it through. And then they came back and for some reason, they said, we voted overwhelmingly for JJ they put it on a ballot And then they said this is to make us use the funds and measure our L See that's the confusion a lot of us out here are thinking and they use measure L Telling the public it's going to be used for tending that's the only problem I have You know the confusion. When people come to me, I want to direct them to Melvin. I'm not going to have anything to do with it because you represented to the public that you were two separate entities. I don't know if you remember the last meeting. I said, you guys could at least leave the podium and go and change your clothes or have a hat, you know, now we're like that. But you're trying to sure me and the public, because I know they're listening, that you're going to be honest and straightforward and truthful and everything, and not, I don't say misproperate, well, get in a pickle and then borrow money from the sanitary district. That's, and the accountability process includes the public, including the East Palace Sanitary District Advisory Committee and you all have an opportunity to, nothing is going to be done in a dark, everything will do will be public and you'll have the ability to chime in on any recommendations about appropriation of funds. So yes I can tell you what we're going to do under my leadership but then I also know that we have mechanisms in play including this body including the ability for East Palo Alto rate payers and customers and community members to elected officials accountable, but this body is part of that accountability structure. Can we move to the next slide please? Yeah. So with respect to governance and legal changes, the EPSD board has adopted revisions to the general governance employees and meeting ordinances with the advice and drafted ordinances by district council, past a fog ordinance, a fog again, as you know is Fats oil in Greece, and we're gonna talk about that more in detail on the next slide, but they've terminated the former board's compensation ordinance. This current EPSD board is not receiving any compensation for being that board and they've made changes to financial governance. They've amended the district code to ensure that the district complies with newly adopted purchasing ordinance that was adopted by the city. Your committee as you know outreach was done last November by both of the cities the appointment was done in January and Your first meeting was in February and so this board is new Your committee is new and we appreciate the service that you do for our community And the we are moving ahead with lots of changes in governance and legal. Next slide, please. And then as to fats, oils and grease, these are primarily when they're the reason that we sort of focus on restaurants is because they are the ones that will deposit fat soils in Greece more than you know residents and more than a lot of other businesses. And so as of December, staff compiled a list of the 47 local food services establishments or FSEs that pay the city's business license fee and we notified them of new requirements. We passed a new ordinance. We could not find an existing ordinance and we also had a very incomplete old list from about 10 years ago. So we had to start both of those from scratch. This new ordinance, the emphasis is on education and partnership. We are not trying to be punitive here. However, if a restaurant absolutely refuses but in the safeguards that are required, there are mechanisms for requiring them to put in these devices that will trap the grease. So as of January 26th of the 47 has been inspected, the majority of them are in compliance. And we don't know when the last fog inspections happened. We don't have good record keeping of whether they happened prior to October, but they will be checked every quarter. So every three months, there will be a follow-up to make sure that they have a grease trap device and that it's being cleaned regularly so that it continues to function as it should. And as long as they're in compliance, that's it. That's all that they need to do. If they are not in compliance, we will take steps to work with them, educate them, help them, and hopefully get across that finish line. There are five of them that currently have notices a violation for non-conformance, meaning they don't have devices. And then there are six entities that we removed from the list because they're not FSEs that require fog oversight. So we were intentionally overly inclusive in the group that we sent the mail or two and wanted to make sure that we remove them from the list rather than not covering a restaurant or not covering some sort of food establishment. Through you. I got a question before you get far ahead of it. I've been in the restaurant business like 31 years and it's always left up to the health department. So why is the city, the city can do whatever they want, but why they using resources, one they can get it free from the health department, you can contact the health, that's their job and their license by the state and they're supposed to come in, they're supposed to to locate the restaurant, go in and inspect it. I can't tell you how many times I've been inspected and the first restaurant was in Santa Clara and that man gave us hell there, Jack. He was nick picking. Jack, can we give an opportunity for the speakers to respond? Oh, well, okay. Yeah. Okay. I did ask the question. How come you're not allowing the health department to do it? So, um, first of all, the health department has its own rules and we are not stopping the health department. They can do whatever it is that they are mandated to do. We need to ensure that these devices are not only in place, but that they're properly cleaned for the safety of our pipelines. Regardless of what the health department does, and the health department is doing it for a different purpose. The regulations are different and they have a different end goal. Our primary focus is not with respect to the health of the food, the temperature of the food, anything like that. Our our interest is with respect to the products that they are putting into our sewer system that could damage our pipelines. Standable, but the health department, they, if you, um, health and safety, safety code, they do more than that. They, they cover the entire restaurant right down to the grease trap. Because like I said, I've been in the business three one years and they inspect it our grease traps. And that was their job and their license and that's what the state tells them to do. And I'm wondering why, I don't appreciate you guys doing stuff. I mean, but why waste your time when the health department is there to do that? That's their job. They do the grease inspection and they check it. Thank you committee member, Wooderson, let's move on. That is their job and this is our frankly. If you wanted, I mean you could have it. Thank you. I have one question for you. Recently, council meeting, there was a discussion of the mobile food vendors within the city and ensuring that they are all registered and known. And I wondered whether any of those come under the scope of the fog order. Are we determining whether or not they are potentially disposing of fat soils and greases down the city drains? Right. They are not under this purview. They could be under this purview, but because they are mobile, it's not clear where or how they would be disposing. They don't have a single kitchen or area where they would be disposing of this. So we do have to, and this is within the scope of what we're looking into with the mobile food vendors is looking at should they have some sort of grease trapping device that then they somehow dispose of in a way that is acceptable. I have a quick question too. Does the sanitation district provide the traps? No. No, we do not. That is something that a restaurant needs to purchase for itself. Also, the mobile, it depends on if you're talking about a truck or a push-carts. And they said that the city council meeting, they don't govern the mobile, the push-carts. And the catering trucks, They are monitored by the state and they have to have a commissary to go to. So we do monitor the mobile ones. We in that presentation, we were not focusing on the mobile ones. We do have oversight over different types of food trucks, the push carts, as you mentioned, the mobile ones and so forth.. But it's a different set of regulations that applies to different types of mobile vending and so different types of restrictions. If, for example, a vendor is, you know, it's an ice cream truck or an ice cream push cart, they probably don't need a grease strap, right? There's nothing to trap there. But it's so it really does depend on what they are selling, how they are selling it, and so forth. We will look into the details of all of that and it will be a part of the permitting process. The command states through the chair, only one. This is one little small question. The one you should be concentrating concentrating on and I have a lot of people in the business are the in-home hitchhands. They were approved and that scares me to know and will they help the department go into their house? Well the city go that's why where you should because there's about 30 of them out there. Okay. That's all I want to say. And they need greased traps too. So, if you can see, yeah, the recommendation here is just to receive and file this status update. If you have any further questions, we're happy to keep answering them. And we will be back again to give you all regular updates on these subjects. If certainly if there's other areas that you would like updates, we would be happy to add those. Just one more question through the chair, which is when is the next time that the West Bay contract would be up for renegotiation? And when would you expect to start the process of talking about that with us and then the Sanitary District? That is a good question and I don't know the answer that I'd have to top of my head The council know the answer. I was just talking. Can you repeat the question? Then what when is the West Bay contract up and when would we be initiating conversation? Do you know when the contract terminates? Not going. What space with us for a five year term? Okay. What about the vendors? Yeah. What about the vendors? Through the chair. So what about the vendors? I'm sorry which vendors? You call. Someone said that the old sanitary district had a list of vendors and one of the vendors wasn't on the list and that was the one who got the check. Now do you have a list of vendors here? So since the city. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I. Through vendors. Since the city has approved it's purchasing or a new purchasing ordinance, we are going to go through and start the effort of going through and finding all of the different vendors that we need for different needs. We will be doing that in a public bidding process, the way that cities and other public entities are required by state law to bid things out and we will be developing our contract list and so forth. And you heard also that the finance department has a very strict set of policies and operations in terms of how we allow renders to be paid and how we cut checks and things like that. That is all under the finance department now with very strict controls. So that will also apply to the EPA SD. And so as we will not be cutting checks to entities that do not go through our bidding process as is required by our ordinances and we will not be doing these things off on the side. Well that's good to know. Another thing that bothers me is pranianism and being clannish and arms-lint. Will that be a stipulation somewhere in the rules and regulations that whoever the vendor is cannot be a brother-in-law or a brother-in-law or a cousin and stuff like that? Because that has happened and he's followed out to a lot. So state law has, I'm sorry, people. I can go on. So state law has strict requirements, particularly in the area of contracting, has very strict public bidding requirements that we follow. And on top of that, the city has an ordinance that it has layered on top and the EPSD has adopted that same ordinance. So there are procedures. I'm happy to share those with you to send them to you. And those procedures are, you know, from all the way from the state to the city, the procedures are created so that we protect against things like cronism and so forth. Is it illegal for a brother-in-law to get a contract or for a brother to get a contract? Frankly, it depends on the circumstance. There are circumstances where it is warranted and it's perfectly legal and perfectly ethical. There are other circumstances where it's not and we follow state law and our own ordinances. Thank you. Thank you very much for all the work over the last six months to get this ship moving forwards in an orderly fashion. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Learn something today. Okay. There are no public comments or hand raised on the Zoom. Oh, thank you. So next is agenda item number six, staff committee or reports. There are none. Okay. Next agenda item seven, seven point one discussion and action. Change in the East Powell Auto Sanitary District Advisory Committee regular meeting start time. Yes, staff recommends by motion to approve a change to the Espoil To Sanitary District, Advisory Committee Regular Meeting Start time from 6.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. The Advisory Committee Regular Start time was currently set at 6.30 p.m. In response to committee members' availability and the interest of improving participation for all and efficiency. A proposal has been made to adjust that meeting time to 5.30 p.m. The proposed meeting time for calendar year 2025 is set to remove 6.30 to 5.30. The committee will continue to meet by monthly on the fourth Wednesday of even months with the digital meetings as needed. And this was all published outside as well as on the website. I propose the motion that we approve the change of the meeting time to 530 from 630. Next second. Thank you. Okay. So I understand the motion was made by community member Grace and may ask this for the second. Again. Yes. Well, it's index. Okay. Okay. Now, our second did. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, just what page are you on? All in favor? Hi. Yes. None of those. Okay agenda item number eight written communications 8.1 general updates that was amended and taken out of the agenda. Okay agenda item number nine future committee agenda items requests. I have some requests to make. Yeah, I have one. I have two. May I. Yes, you may. Thank you very much. I also want to disclose that I did have a conversation with our chair who is unable to be with us today about some of these topics before she was called away. So this is a result of a conversation between the two of us as well. We thought it would be useful to be able to understand a timetable working backwards from on the topic of fees and rates, from when the moment is that the staff has to issue input to the county to set the property tax amounts backwards through an appeal process for that from individuals who would be paying them. Backwards through the notice of what such amounts would be to those individuals who would be paying them. Back through the calculations of amounts to when the sanitary district would actually decide the formula that is to be used back to when we as an advisory committee would need to be able to provide guidance and advice and input to the city council. I think that this would be a useful topic to have an as agenda item soon so we can understand the schedule that we have towards a major annual moment, which is the setting and levying of rates and fees for the new year. And this is, I think something which is not transparent to us at the moment and may take some working out amongst city staff to come up with a proposal to share that with us in a report. That was the first topic that we had discussed and I should like to see it on an agenda if the rest of the advisory could we need to have support for the agenda items from everybody. Do we have to vote on having one what What happens next? Unless there's disagreement, I think it's appropriate to just add it to the agenda. There's no current process for it. As an analogy, I think with the council, there's usually a mayor, vice mayor, they decide. But if there's any sort of disagreement as to whether or not the item should be added, then perhaps a makes sense. Otherwise, I think just simply adding it should be sufficient. Is there any disagreement that we should understand that timetable? No, no. So that's that was my first request. May I make another request? How many do you have? I have four. Okay. So the next request is on a related topic to be able to understand the various formulae which could be applied to learning how, to how fees and rates could be set. What are some of the options for formulae trade-offs between different choices choices as it affects any given set of balance of the accounts? So understanding formally that could be used to calculate the various types of fees and rates that apply to individual properties, residential properties, commercial properties. To be able to engage and and listen to some staff report of options and be able to have a discussion on those trade-offs amongst the advisory committee. Are there any objections to adding that to an agenda item for the future? Anything that's going to educate us. No objection. Does staff understand the topic that I'm seeking to add to the agenda? Are you asking for how we set rates with the tax role in regards to strength, water consumption, and how we charge those? I actually had a separate topic to do with the inputs to the calculations, because I think some of the water consumption is talking about inputs. I see inputs as possibly a separate thing from the calculation, from the formula. I had divided them up. I think it's useful to think about them separately, but they could be part of a same item. That was the next one I was going to come to. So the third one I had on the list was indeed the inputs to these calculations to understand the data feeds that we receive about water amounts from the three East Palo Alto water companies and from whichever water company might serve our Menlo Park friends. How those data feeds come in and are used as part of an input to calculations. That's I think a different topic which order these are presented in I think is not so important but I do think we need to understand that topic, how this data comes, how it may be challenged issues in integrity of the data or gaps in the data from particular water districts and how those are handled. Are there any objections to having that agenda is from the rest of the committee? No objections. Yeah. Through the chair, I have a concern about the timing because the rate and calculation have to go to the tax roll by middle of July. Thank you. This was why I had a question of the timing because we would not know that. It may mean that our ability to solve for all of this this year will be compromised. Nevertheless, we are going to need to solve it for future years. I still think we need to cover the topic as a committee, even if we miss this cycle. This is not the only year. We can also discuss whether we need an additional study session. So my fourth point I said I had four was to understand the trends in the spend and capital requirements and how they will drive up or down the totals needed matching from revenues to understand how this balancing occurs and it sounds as though we will learn in the meeting in June about the capital improvement plan. I would like for us to learn about how that translates into operating expense line or or something else that we would see that needs to balance out on an annual basis with revenue. So we can understand any proportional changes in the total that need to come from all the fees and other sources of revenue. Are there any objections from the committee about agendizing, understanding that balance of payments, balance of flows in and out? No objections. I approve. I approve all educational means. So does staff understand what I'm seeking there to have on the agenda? We've taken notes and if we have questions we'll reach out. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And I use my four, but I do think it's a fair question as to whether or not we need additional study sessions, which was also something that was a concern raised with my discussion with our chair, who's not here today. In order to get our education level on these topics up fast enough to be of use, we may need additional study sessions, but I would need to turn to our vice chair to determine how we would set that up. And I'm done with my topics, thank you. It's my turn. Through the chair. Okay, I have, when I consider very, very important,'d like to have this person come when I was in a rent board. That was my whole concern. I was focused on educating the public and this person that I wanted to come to the rent board and talk and educate the populace. He was turned down because of personalities. I liked... to the Rinboards talk and educate the populace, he was turned down because of personalities. I like this person to come to one of our meetings who has spoken in front of the middle park and Palo Alto consoles. And he's very, you can go on YouTube and see his videos. very reputable, a very nice guy, and I like to bring him in to answer most of the stuff there. Some of the things, in fact Melvin has already spoken to him about this, but I like to have him come and speak and you'll be very intrigued. He's not boring but he knows his job so I'd like for him to come you know who I'm speaking about oh I'd like to know the name if we're inviting somebody to do it very professional he's been in business like 38 years or so and he knows it upside down way okay He, he was hooked winged too. Okay, because he didn't handle. He didn't sign the checks. But Dennis Schurser, he is very knowledgeable. He's a he's a honest man and he entertains children, educational, took the mentors and everything. And he knows the sewer upside down his sideways. So I'd like for him to come and you can be the judge. I think we likely all of us know the person of he was speaking. Okay. I would like to hear our city staff be able to answer our questions first of all while we're creating. Well, he can, he can push it along. it along. Old sanitary distance to the new so that we've established a baseline with our new team first before we consider bringing anybody back from the old team to. But it's, it's current and I see where you're coming from, but as Melvin can tell you, he, he does know his stuff. He's current and he's a, and he's a honest man. And he will help you get to that point. It's what I'm telling you. That's all from I know so much, okay? I would like to be able to have our city staff provide some advice first in order to be able to create that separation. I think it's valuable. There's not a separation. That's the thing. To the chair for me, just jump in for a second. So this item that we're on right now is to add agenda items for the future. One thing that we should probably discuss and to be able to remind the committee is the committee's charge. So some of the items you'll notice, Member Poppall had erased fit within the charge of the advisory committee and if the Committee's desire is to have an individual come speak on on some subject We would want to make sure that it fits within the current charge of the committee and that is that the committee is to advise the City Council, EPA, SDD, Centary Board on administrative, legal, operational maintenance and financial matters, including operations and maintenance agreements, annual budgets, capital improvement planning and service rates. I think it's a good recommendation, remember, coupled to start with, you know, sort of allowing this committee to get its sea legs before we start hearing from particular experts. That way you fully understand the charge that you have and so that you can proceed with any additional information that you want. And to member Poppels Point about having a study session, I think my recommendation there is to have staff take back the items that you've already recommended determine how much time is required for each and whether or not a particular topic merits a study session. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would also point out that we do have public comment at all of our meetings. And so any member of the public is able to come to raise a topic and they would get I think the two minutes that is typically the case in this forum to To present something to us. Okay, through the chair. Can I can I agendaize that solely because I have the right to do that. And I understand what you're saying. Yeah, I object to this. I was talking to the attorney, but I don't like things to be one-sided. And I'm pretty sure this would be an advantage for all that's here and your eyes will be open. It's going to court and like I said, he spoke to Melvin and I have a list of things right here. He's talked about what is necessary and it's probably the reason why they came up with some of the things they came up with tonight. And that's to advise they have to have regulations and fees and everything out by June and July. And so let me make a recommendation. We don't seem to have a very formal process for agenda setting. It should probably mirror what the council currently does, which is the committee chair and vice chair kind of decide what is on or off. I understand member Dixon that you want to add an item. I think what I'm asking that you do is you go back and give some thought as to the particular topic you want this individual to back and give some thought as to the particular topic you want, this individual to discuss, and share it with the committee so that we can discuss this at a future date, because at this point, it's not clear what this individual is going to be discussing. And I don't know that your committee members have had a chance to review what you currently are showing in your hand. So... No, they haven't. They haven't. and then I think I'm a little more advanced and they are too because I've been listening for almost a year. And there's a lot of things that would help them and not hinder them. And I don't want it to be personal personalities involved. I'm thinking about education. I care about this city and I want them to hear the truth. And so let's give your. Create information, accurate information. Got it. And so let's give your committee members an opportunity want you share the materials that you have and perhaps that the next meeting we can consider a future agenda item consistent with what you designed. So I have to wait until June because there's things that need to be filed and Melvin is aware of it by July and we have a meeting on May the 7th. May the 7th? Okay. So you want me to bring it up again then because it'd be totally current. Because what he gave me here is the filing of fees and whatnot current. Well, be that as it may, I think what we're looking for is a specific topic that he would address. It's not clear what that is at this point. And I think it's probably fair to the committee members that you share with them what those topics are before they decide what this individual is going to speak on. You can call a copy of it then. Okay, very good. I'll step back. Thank you for that. I think what she could do is share it with staff. And then staff could communicate the recommendation. This is addressed to Mr. Manager, legal counsel and city council members. You guys got it already? Yes, through the chair. Yeah, let me know what is I have communicated with Mr. Dennis Scherzer and he has opinions and the city has taken his opinions into account. And this regard, what you're mentioning is when the city needs to have the, or sorry, the sanitary just needs to have the sanitary district charges sent to the county to be placed on tax rolls and Staff has that under control It's a administrative process and we're taking care of it And it also seems to do too with the request. I think that can you remember? Pobble has already made so we'll address that in due course Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Item item number 10 adjournment. So, oh, sorry. Yeah. So we have upcoming meetings. The next upcoming meeting will be the special meeting on May 7th, as well as following that there will be in June, I believe the 25th. Yes, and then August 27th, as well as October 22nd. Oh, yes. Yes, there's also a meeting scheduled on December the 24th, and it needs to be rescheduled, I think. I know, I think many people would struggle on the evening of December 24th from staff and from the committee to attend. Would love it if we could do earlier, rather than later rescheduling of that meeting. So perhaps the committee members can give some thought to that and come back to the next meeting with some suggestions. Okay, well that is it for the East Malaltrow Sanitary District Advisory Committee meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. You did a good job. recording stopped Recording stopped.