1 00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:10,160 All right, let's call to order the Board of Directors workshop meeting, the Illinois Empire Utility Agency. Denise, will you please conduct a roll call? 2 00:00:10,980 --> 00:00:11,880 Yes, Dr. Camacho. 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:14,940 Dr. Hofer. Dr. Tulay. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:16,560 And President Eli. 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:17,000 Here. 6 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:19,540 All right, 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,000 let's go to the Flagselu Planning and Environmental Compliance Intern, Cathy Cordoba. 8 00:00:26,620 --> 00:00:28,060 We'll lead us in the Flagselu today. 9 00:00:28,060 --> 00:00:28,620 May 10 00:00:31,430 --> 00:00:33,810 in the pledge of allegiance, are they begin? 11 00:00:34,350 --> 00:00:41,090 I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic of which is passed. 12 00:00:41,690 --> 00:00:43,970 Well, nation, under God, indivisible. 13 00:00:44,850 --> 00:00:45,830 With the reading and justice. 14 00:00:46,670 --> 00:00:47,190 Thank you. 15 00:00:48,350 --> 00:00:49,010 Thank you. 16 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:53,240 Any public comments? 17 00:00:54,380 --> 00:00:56,240 I did not receive any request for public comment. 18 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,500 And there's no outside callers on the line. 19 00:00:59,300 --> 00:00:59,600 Okay. 20 00:01:00,380 --> 00:01:01,400 Any additions to the event? 21 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:02,280 Kevin Marty. 22 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:03,340 There are no. 23 00:01:03,340 --> 00:01:03,880 There are no. 24 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:04,040 Okay. 25 00:01:04,420 --> 00:01:04,620 Great. 26 00:01:04,940 --> 00:01:06,140 Let's go to action item 1A. 27 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:08,640 Approved joint exercise of power's agreement to join. 28 00:01:09,060 --> 00:01:10,840 Celebrity in a water in power of 30. 29 00:01:11,300 --> 00:01:12,960 Kevin, Marty, whoever's saying with. 30 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:15,680 I'll handle this one, Mr. President. 31 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:23,420 But before the board today is a proposed joint powers agreement for I.E. way to join as 32 00:01:23,420 --> 00:01:26,400 a member of the San Bernardino water and power authority. 33 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:42,220 This is a public financing entity that was created earlier this year in April between the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Fender Gap Mutual Water Company. 34 00:01:42,220 --> 00:02:08,000 As the board may recall on July 15, the board approved a resolution expressing intent to participate as a member in this joint powers authority for purposes of putting forward projects to raise finances towards power related projects, water related projects, things of that nature. 35 00:02:09,180 --> 00:02:17,480 So as such, we can just join the JPA blindly, we have to be invited, and we have to make 36 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:23,960 sure that the terms and conditions are palatable, so since the approval of this intent 37 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:31,340 to join, we have been effectively invited, and the terms and conditions are identical to 38 00:02:31,340 --> 00:02:39,740 initially presented to the board. As such, staff's recommendation is for the board to 39 00:02:39,740 --> 00:02:45,680 authorize signature and execution of the joint powers agreement and join and 40 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:52,340 authorize the general manager to sign on with no substantive changes and I'm 41 00:02:52,340 --> 00:02:59,440 happy to answer any questions. Questions? No questions but I want to thank our staff 42 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:01,720 for bringing this to us in a timely manner. 43 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:03,900 We've seen some things now in the state. 44 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:05,660 Most recently, there's going to be, 45 00:03:05,660 --> 00:03:07,300 we see our utility bills are going to go up 46 00:03:07,300 --> 00:03:10,080 because the utilities are now, 47 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,340 they're really going to come to Welfare mitigation and things. 48 00:03:12,940 --> 00:03:15,180 So the cost to this agency overall, I think, 49 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:16,760 although that's not directly related, 50 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:17,980 we'll have an impact. 51 00:03:18,220 --> 00:03:19,440 And so the fact that we're going out 52 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:21,400 and exploring these potential opportunities 53 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,900 for cure our own energy, our fantastic, 54 00:03:24,060 --> 00:03:25,420 and I really want to thank Staff for bringing 55 00:03:25,420 --> 00:03:26,640 this to us in the timely manner. 56 00:03:32,730 --> 00:03:40,490 I don't know if you mention it, are there others that are joining, and that was at the top. 57 00:03:41,550 --> 00:03:47,490 Currently, it is the county, San Bernardino County, the Fender Gatmuchua Water Company, 58 00:03:47,950 --> 00:03:56,890 and I don't know that there's been a formal joiner of anyone else yet, but I think that others are very interested in planning to move forward shortly. 59 00:03:57,470 --> 00:04:04,010 Is the representative here that is, I know there was a name on it that was kind of spearheaded 60 00:04:04,010 --> 00:04:07,950 with the San Bernardino County. Is that representative here? 61 00:04:08,410 --> 00:04:10,410 Not that I'm aware of today. 62 00:04:11,890 --> 00:04:17,470 So just for the board's information, I'm informed that at least two other entities are planning 63 00:04:17,470 --> 00:04:22,890 on putting it on their agenda this month, Victor Vali, and probably San Bernardino 64 00:04:26,210 --> 00:04:29,050 I'll make a motion to a proof stop recommendation. 65 00:04:29,950 --> 00:04:31,210 OK, we'll take it back. 66 00:04:31,430 --> 00:04:32,850 Let's see as our second. 67 00:04:32,990 --> 00:04:33,970 I'll second the motion. 68 00:04:34,230 --> 00:04:35,130 Go ahead. 69 00:04:35,530 --> 00:04:35,590 There. 70 00:04:36,610 --> 00:04:44,990 Is there like we will be a part of structuring it and will there be something where we would have 71 00:04:44,990 --> 00:04:50,910 to pay at any point in time or which is waiting till these contracts are developed and then we 72 00:04:50,910 --> 00:04:55,070 will be at the table, the impartial formative, is that so it works. 73 00:04:55,250 --> 00:04:59,970 So it will, the entity will be governed by a board, a board of directors. 74 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:12,360 Actors comprised of the members. So the Board President of IUA will nominate a member to serve on that board when it's time to get everything together and get the ball rolling right now. 75 00:05:12,460 --> 00:05:27,440 We're trying to get more members incorporated at this time. So I don't know how often the board is meeting, but we will have a vote at the table and it will be a project basis. So it's it's volitional. It's opt-in opt-out. 76 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:36,000 The members of this JPA that join are able to terminate and leave if they don't want to operate. 77 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:43,800 And the only thing that would hold you back is if you owe money, you've participated in a project and you still have an outstanding debt. 78 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:46,680 I have a question for you, Kevin. 79 00:05:47,420 --> 00:05:51,720 What is the resources of staff that you see that may be engaged? 80 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:58,240 As a good question, so the way we've sort of been playing this one is basically, we will 81 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:02,800 staff up once we, once we establish if we're going to go down that path, so you're aware we're 82 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:08,120 doing the energy study right now. As soon as those energy studies come back, we're going to end 83 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,740 in, so the energy study is going to tell us a little bit more about sort of the direction we're 84 00:06:11,740 --> 00:06:18,400 going to go with our energy consideration. This JPA allows us the option for financing of some of 85 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:22,780 equipment and other things through that, as we consider projects, one of them might be that 86 00:06:22,780 --> 00:06:28,220 type of a project. We would actually staff up at that time, and also we would actually want 87 00:06:28,220 --> 00:06:33,220 consultant help on that as well just because we need that experience with the energy markets 88 00:06:33,220 --> 00:06:48,380 in those type of things. Is it impact, is there be an impact to the budget? Not to the but not to 89 00:06:48,380 --> 00:06:55,260 considered now the road is having it part of that JPA, right? So it's sort of like we do with the IERCF, 90 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:02,320 where we have a staff that's tied to a specific, let's say, if it instead of composting, it would 91 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,680 be for energy. So it would be a separate staff for that. 92 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:10,000 Thank you. 93 00:07:12,350 --> 00:07:13,190 One, one, I add to that. 94 00:07:13,530 --> 00:07:18,610 So in the energy, during the energy study with that identify, I'm sure it'll identify opportunities 95 00:07:18,610 --> 00:07:21,470 is where this JPA could be beneficial to IEUA? 96 00:07:23,970 --> 00:07:29,150 The study that we have right now is not telling us exactly that, but we can add that to 97 00:07:29,150 --> 00:07:29,890 that if we need to. 98 00:07:30,430 --> 00:07:31,130 Thank you. 99 00:07:32,070 --> 00:07:37,570 And I think we had talked about identifying possible pockets or energy pocket loads or things 100 00:07:37,570 --> 00:07:39,730 that could potentially impact our operation long term. 101 00:07:40,210 --> 00:07:45,270 So if we can incorporate, I know there's some subland that we have that we could possibly 102 00:07:45,270 --> 00:07:50,270 here with the JPA, and what that would look like, but if we could look at that, maybe that 103 00:07:50,270 --> 00:07:51,270 would be a benefit to us as well. 104 00:07:51,550 --> 00:07:56,890 Yeah, the idea that we have is, is to look specifically at if we were going to generate our 105 00:07:56,890 --> 00:08:03,170 own power from our own gas, as a separate entity, this financing approach would allow us either 106 00:08:03,170 --> 00:08:07,670 to bring in operations, sort of, like, your question, separate of ours, could we just don't 107 00:08:07,670 --> 00:08:12,130 have the staff to run a power plant, if you will, for example, we would need to staff up and 108 00:08:12,130 --> 00:08:14,510 build up that organization to be able to do that. 109 00:08:14,510 --> 00:08:24,170 The other thing is, is we would be looking at our own land as a potential option for where to put that with this potential option for this JPA. 110 00:08:24,490 --> 00:08:38,170 So, most of the JPA right now is mostly from a, is mostly to support a financing option, where you can bundle financing opportunities together, and potentially in our case, be in a position to actually bundle together, for example, 111 00:08:38,170 --> 00:08:44,070 in the county with us, where we may be able to supply them power if we have excess from our gas 112 00:08:44,070 --> 00:08:49,490 or if we have excess capability to generate power here locally, and it's needed. 113 00:08:50,230 --> 00:08:54,010 It's something called Edison indicates that they're in need of power in this area. 114 00:08:54,610 --> 00:08:58,650 So if we could generate power from our bile gas, then it would be a great option for us. 115 00:08:58,870 --> 00:09:03,250 And that would help us as to our bile gas that we're flaring at. 116 00:09:03,510 --> 00:09:07,570 And then the windmill that will make our way, that we are not getting value from. 117 00:09:07,570 --> 00:09:11,410 So we'll be able to be part of maybe consideration. 118 00:09:12,890 --> 00:09:14,450 Yeah, I mean, I don't know. 119 00:09:14,890 --> 00:09:18,230 The big picture for us is we want to get value for our bio gas. 120 00:09:18,370 --> 00:09:19,510 We're not doing that right now. 121 00:09:19,750 --> 00:09:22,750 This provides us that opportunity to be able to, you know, 122 00:09:22,910 --> 00:09:26,170 to look at ideas or options for our bio gas to be able to do this. 123 00:09:26,490 --> 00:09:30,510 Was this the only option that was presented to us and we going with it or whether 124 00:09:30,510 --> 00:09:34,930 are the options that we were considered through the study at all? 125 00:09:35,510 --> 00:09:45,210 This is this this was not part of the study from that standpoint. So I don't think there was this this is an option it has come forward to us through San Bernardino County. 126 00:09:46,110 --> 00:09:54,050 And then like you'd say it's invite only type of a situation but knowing that us Victor Valley some of the other ones that have very similar gas production issues. 127 00:09:54,830 --> 00:09:59,910 And same thing right the city of San Bernardino Riverside all of them where we have this excess bio. 128 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:11,720 We're not getting any value for it. This right now is just an idea to see if there's a way for us to get value for that, and reduce our actual power costs, and ultimately our rates to our customers. 129 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:18,260 Would you see the timeline for us to be? How long, you know, joining us as part of 130 00:10:18,260 --> 00:10:25,250 JPA, them inviting others and being online, being prepared in a year from now to or... 131 00:10:25,900 --> 00:10:27,260 I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. 132 00:10:27,260 --> 00:10:32,260 We have a schedule. We don't. We do not have a schedule for that. Director Halls did this point. 133 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:39,240 Okay, thank you. Kevin, is it fair to say that staff believes this is a potential opportunity 134 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,900 that will develop as the next few months go by. 135 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:48,200 Yeah, yeah, I think over the next year for sure, it'll give us a chance, so at least see 136 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:55,520 if there's a way to jointly finance larger scale energy production from the bio gas within 137 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:56,020 the region. 138 00:10:56,560 --> 00:11:00,740 That's ultimately objective, and if we can help our rates to be honest with you. 139 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:04,200 And there could be other opportunities that we're not aware of yet that the county and 140 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,140 or the others in all of their working on. 141 00:11:06,220 --> 00:11:06,580 Correct. 142 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:07,880 Okay. 143 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:08,660 Thank you. 144 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:09,540 Any other questions? 145 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:11,760 All right. 146 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,260 We have a motion in a second, all in favor. 147 00:11:15,140 --> 00:11:15,160 Aye. 148 00:11:15,660 --> 00:11:16,280 Any opposed? 149 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:16,940 Distain. 150 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:17,640 Extain. 151 00:11:18,380 --> 00:11:19,300 Did you note that, Denise? 152 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:20,580 Okay. 153 00:11:20,580 --> 00:11:21,380 Thank you. 154 00:11:24,090 --> 00:11:24,230 All right. 155 00:11:24,330 --> 00:11:26,170 Workshop 2A engineering update. 156 00:11:29,210 --> 00:11:29,730 All right. 157 00:11:29,950 --> 00:11:32,190 This morning, we're going to have acting manager of engineering. 158 00:11:32,330 --> 00:11:33,490 Julianne for Beesio. 159 00:11:33,930 --> 00:11:34,570 Present this item. 160 00:11:34,870 --> 00:11:35,350 Good morning, Julianne. 161 00:11:41,590 --> 00:11:43,630 Good morning, President Eli and members of the board. 162 00:11:43,630 --> 00:11:49,350 My name is Julian Ferbizio, Acting Manager of Engineering, and today I'll be presenting the engineering update. 163 00:11:52,750 --> 00:11:59,290 So first we'll take a look at our performance over the 25-26 fiscal year. 164 00:11:59,970 --> 00:12:05,690 This is for the entire department, which includes the Engineering Unit, the Asset Management Unit, and the Chino Basin Program. 165 00:12:05,690 --> 00:12:09,450 So, on the left side of the slide, you have the budget performance. 166 00:12:10,430 --> 00:12:19,970 So the department spent $98 million or 63% of our $154 million budget, in the middle of 167 00:12:19,970 --> 00:12:22,350 the slide, you have the project schedule. 168 00:12:22,830 --> 00:12:28,910 So of our 72 active projects, we had 48 projects on time, 17 pending resolution and 7 169 00:12:28,910 --> 00:12:29,670 behind schedule. 170 00:12:30,570 --> 00:12:33,170 And to the right, we have our project completion. 171 00:12:33,170 --> 00:12:42,310 This last fiscal year we completed 15 projects which was one more than the previous year and we currently have three projects in substantial completion. 172 00:12:45,990 --> 00:12:49,950 So this is a recent picture of our staff allocations within the engineering department. 173 00:12:50,930 --> 00:13:01,470 So from the previous slide where you saw the Capital Improvement Program execution rate of $98 million this was actually supported by the 63 staff here in the first two columns, 174 00:13:01,470 --> 00:13:04,390 which is represented by the four units, 175 00:13:04,990 --> 00:13:06,030 engineering, asset management, 176 00:13:06,250 --> 00:13:07,070 Chino Basin Program, 177 00:13:07,270 --> 00:13:09,790 and our administration's administrative services. 178 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:13,790 I would like to point out that for the Chino Basin Program, 179 00:13:13,890 --> 00:13:15,870 while we have three full-time employees, 180 00:13:16,490 --> 00:13:19,590 they are supported in partnership with Jacobs Engineering 181 00:13:19,590 --> 00:13:21,910 as you know, which is not, 182 00:13:21,910 --> 00:13:23,530 they're not represented on here. 183 00:13:24,130 --> 00:13:26,270 In addition and unreported support 184 00:13:26,270 --> 00:13:29,010 that we also have at RP-1 and RP-5, 185 00:13:29,010 --> 00:13:32,330 our two largest projects is supported by our K-DIS. 186 00:13:34,070 --> 00:13:40,230 In addition, the Department Mentors 18 interns and this provides development and training 187 00:13:40,230 --> 00:13:42,190 opportunities for engineering students. 188 00:13:43,670 --> 00:13:45,210 And then we have nine-baked positions. 189 00:13:45,710 --> 00:13:51,750 This has been a unique time for us in the department due to retirements and movement throughout 190 00:13:51,750 --> 00:13:52,470 the department. 191 00:13:53,470 --> 00:13:57,930 All nine of these positions are actively in recruitment and will be filled by the end of 192 00:13:57,930 --> 00:14:04,270 fiscal year. And once those positions are filled, the department's total staffing level will 193 00:14:04,270 --> 00:14:06,090 be at 90 positions. 194 00:14:10,410 --> 00:14:15,890 Every cap of our Kia accomplishments the last fiscal year for the unit, the engineering unit 195 00:14:15,890 --> 00:14:21,930 itself. We had 10 goals that we achieved, but I just want to highlight the top three. 196 00:14:22,690 --> 00:14:28,010 We expanded our member agency outreach and coordination with our consultants and contractor 197 00:14:28,010 --> 00:14:34,830 outreach and we did this through we had a couple of IUA open houses. We participated in construction 198 00:14:34,830 --> 00:14:40,630 network quarterly events as well as participation in networks. So we had an increase in our 199 00:14:40,630 --> 00:14:47,110 industry engagement and competition and you may have seen them seen this evident in our recent 200 00:14:47,930 --> 00:14:55,310 more actions that have come through over the last months. We've had a lot of increased numbers in 201 00:14:55,310 --> 00:14:59,950 proposals. So one of those examples that we presented was the emergency incident. 202 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:08,040 Small Project Construction Master Services Contract. So on that one, we received 37 submittals and 14 of 203 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:15,880 those 24 qualified contractors that were awarded were actually new to the agency. So this is kind of a picture 204 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,360 of the outreach and the effect that's having on our projects. 205 00:15:20,540 --> 00:15:27,460 Just a comment. I appreciate that very much because one of the issues I've identified over 206 00:15:27,460 --> 00:15:33,040 years is that we tend to use the same people over and over and there are a lot of qualified 207 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:40,560 people out there. So Kudos to you all for getting all the more additional interest, if you 208 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:41,060 will. 209 00:15:45,140 --> 00:15:51,320 Second on the list, we improved our partial project close-out process for capitalizing 210 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:57,540 our assets as the inter-beneficial use and this allows depreciation to begin promptly and 211 00:15:57,540 --> 00:16:02,200 And this is important because it improves our timeliness and our accuracy when we do our financial 212 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:02,760 reporting. 213 00:16:04,420 --> 00:16:13,460 And third, we improved our capital call cash flow performance metrics to more realistic forecasting 214 00:16:13,460 --> 00:16:18,300 and this lengthens our financial planning as we move forward helps our finance department. 215 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:21,580 And we'll see some of the results of this on the next slide. 216 00:16:24,300 --> 00:16:26,980 So again, this is for the engineering unit itself. 217 00:16:26,980 --> 00:16:34,380 This is our monthly cash flow projections versus our actual spending over this last fiscal year 2526. 218 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:44,020 This is actually different than the first slide that you saw which actually reports are spending related to the budget. 219 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:46,880 So this is spending related to our projections. 220 00:16:48,820 --> 00:16:53,280 So the purpose of tracking this metric is to have accurate project expenditures, 221 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:59,820 and it allows the agency or the finance department specifically to keep our investments earning interest 222 00:16:59,820 --> 00:17:05,060 longer while ensuring that our projects are project funding is available when we need it. 223 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:10,360 So, the blue bars here represent our cash flow projections and the green bars show actual expenditures. 224 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,540 The goal is to have the two match as close as possible. 225 00:17:14,460 --> 00:17:19,500 So, for the first two quarters of the fiscal year, our cash flow projections were they were estimated 226 00:17:19,500 --> 00:17:25,580 optimistically and our actual expenditures were less than what we're projected. 227 00:17:26,380 --> 00:17:31,180 So for the first six months of the year, we had an average execution rate of 61%. 228 00:17:32,060 --> 00:17:38,220 So we kind of went back as a department worked with our teams to refine the process 229 00:17:38,220 --> 00:17:46,400 for 1.4 and we were able to improve our execution rate to 88% for the second half of the year. 230 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:59,400 I just would like to mention also that we had our recent cash flow report for August, and we were at 103% for execution, so that was a good win for us. 231 00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:09,320 Overall for the department, though, we executed 77 million dollars or 74% of the 104 million dollar capital call for the year. 232 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:21,500 So looking ahead to 26 fiscal year 2627, this is for the entire department, so all units were projected to deliver 233 00:18:21,500 --> 00:18:31,380 $140 million of capital work. This is actually $14 million less than last fiscal year, so this is a little bit more realistic for us based on our current staff and capacity. 234 00:18:31,380 --> 00:18:37,780 The engineering unit itself represents the largest share with a $109 million project to 235 00:18:37,780 --> 00:18:43,440 be spent over the year, and I'd like to point out that approximately $63 million of 236 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:52,980 that is actually allocated to three projects, which is RP5, the expansion project, our RP1 237 00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:07,780 So we have some significant investments being made for our projects to improve our infrastructure. 238 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:13,200 Overall, this spending plan aligns with our tenure capital improvement plan. 239 00:19:15,610 --> 00:19:22,350 Our goals for this coming fiscal year really primarily is to improve our project execution rate of our critical projects. 240 00:19:22,350 --> 00:19:29,810 So, focusing on our budgets, and our schedules, and our cash flow projections, and utilizing 241 00:19:29,810 --> 00:19:36,270 our project controls, which you actually saw recently as a board item that came, these 242 00:19:36,270 --> 00:19:40,430 consultants will help us with our forecasting and our reporting, our estimating and our scheduling. 243 00:19:41,410 --> 00:19:44,350 So we'll be working with them to strengthen these metrics. 244 00:19:45,130 --> 00:19:51,770 In addition, we do want to focus on our staff development, providing opportunities, training 245 00:19:51,770 --> 00:19:58,730 opportunities for their growth and expansion, developing some key performance indicators 246 00:19:58,730 --> 00:19:59,950 to track our project. 247 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:06,660 Proverbs and implementing accountability metrics for not only our staff but our consultants and our contractors. 248 00:20:10,330 --> 00:20:17,570 So now we'll highlight 2 projects for you here. The first one is the Wineville and the Groupour Force Main and Problance project. 249 00:20:18,250 --> 00:20:27,690 So this project is the six of 7 projects identified in the Recharge Master Plant update, and this is completed in partnership with the June basis of Watermaster. 250 00:20:27,690 --> 00:20:33,110 So, the purpose of these projects is to capture stormwater flows that would otherwise leave 251 00:20:33,110 --> 00:20:36,390 the region and divert the flows to support groundwater recharge. 252 00:20:37,790 --> 00:20:43,370 So, for the wineville basin project, the project constructed a new 30-inch pipeline that 253 00:20:43,370 --> 00:20:45,770 connects wineville and heropopasins. 254 00:20:46,330 --> 00:20:50,230 They install the new rubber dam, which is shown in the center of picture, and they build 255 00:20:50,230 --> 00:20:54,650 the new pump station with two new pumps to maximize the stormwater capture for the groundwater 256 00:20:54,650 --> 00:20:57,270 recharge, which is the picture on the right. 257 00:20:58,430 --> 00:21:00,090 And for her rubble basin, the project 258 00:21:00,090 --> 00:21:02,930 improved the diversion structure from the Sands of In-Channel 259 00:21:02,930 --> 00:21:06,550 and expanded the existing pump station with an additional pump 260 00:21:06,550 --> 00:21:09,470 for the same purpose of capturing storm water 261 00:21:09,470 --> 00:21:11,250 and conveying it to RP3. 262 00:21:12,250 --> 00:21:15,650 So for this project, it was 100% funded by Gino Basinwater 263 00:21:15,650 --> 00:21:19,190 Master and the project also utilized grant and state 264 00:21:19,190 --> 00:21:22,330 revolving fund financing with reimbursements 265 00:21:22,330 --> 00:21:23,230 made to the agency. 266 00:21:23,230 --> 00:21:28,650 So, this project was completed before the grant deadline of March 30th earlier this year. 267 00:21:29,550 --> 00:21:34,870 I would also like to mention that soon you should all be getting a save the date invitation 268 00:21:34,870 --> 00:21:40,510 for the ribbon cutting for this project, which is scheduled for November 10th. 269 00:21:43,460 --> 00:21:44,880 And our second project to highlight? 270 00:21:46,620 --> 00:21:47,620 Thank you. 271 00:21:48,540 --> 00:21:50,100 Question on this one. 272 00:21:50,100 --> 00:21:53,540 I know our stormwater catcher tends to be relatively low. 273 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:58,320 I think 9-12 percent is what we tend to catch a year over here. 274 00:21:58,740 --> 00:22:01,300 Do you know what the impact would be? 275 00:22:01,820 --> 00:22:04,780 I know it's hard to tell, right, because every season is a little bit different, but 276 00:22:04,780 --> 00:22:10,160 do we have estimates of what we anticipate this will contribute to our basin in terms 277 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:10,900 of that percentage? 278 00:22:12,460 --> 00:22:15,060 I don't have the answer to that, but I will go back. 279 00:22:15,220 --> 00:22:19,300 It's probably another question for water, as far as I was just curious, and I know it's 280 00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:23,460 something that we've been trying to work towards as a region for a long time, and just curious 281 00:22:23,460 --> 00:22:26,340 if we can track how this is going to benefit us in the future. 282 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:33,560 Just on a follow-up, I see, we're project closed out, so is it operational or when will it be, 283 00:22:33,740 --> 00:22:34,460 so that? 284 00:22:34,460 --> 00:22:34,600 Okay. 285 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:35,300 Is it as operational? 286 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,040 They're protecting this crazy storm this weekend, so who knows? 287 00:22:39,580 --> 00:22:39,720 All right. 288 00:22:39,860 --> 00:22:40,780 Thank you. 289 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:50,040 So our second project, which is the RP-1 secondary system rehabilitation project. 290 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:56,660 So, for this project, the existing parks and diffuser panels have reached the end of their useful life. 291 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,140 They know they're no longer being supported by the manufacturer. 292 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:07,000 And so, what's critical about these diffusers is that there are key component in our iteration process 293 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:11,980 and they remove nutrients from our wastewater and it's essential for us in order to meet our permit requirements. 294 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:20,440 So the scope of this project primarily is to replace these panels with SSI disk diffusers, 295 00:23:20,780 --> 00:23:24,860 which is shown on the right, and this is currently standardized across the agency. 296 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,640 They're currently operational at RP4 and RP5. 297 00:23:29,980 --> 00:23:36,860 While we're in the basin doing this work and it's offline and the flows are being diverted, 298 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,480 we will also be replacing other critical equipment that is at the end of their useful life. 299 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,300 So this will include valves, actuators, mixers, and analyzers. 300 00:23:46,900 --> 00:23:49,360 So this project is currently in the final design phase. 301 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,740 The 90% design submittal is completed. 302 00:23:52,860 --> 00:23:54,480 So we're working towards 100%. 303 00:23:57,130 --> 00:23:58,550 And that concludes my presentation. 304 00:23:58,970 --> 00:23:59,970 I can answer any questions. 305 00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:06,160 Thanks. 306 00:24:14,390 --> 00:24:14,750 All right. 307 00:24:14,890 --> 00:24:16,750 Acting manager of Human Resources, Sheila. 308 00:24:16,890 --> 00:24:18,510 As far as a human resources officer, 309 00:24:18,770 --> 00:24:21,210 Maggie West and Baker Tilley project director, 310 00:24:21,790 --> 00:24:22,870 Annie Rose, a favor. 311 00:24:23,010 --> 00:24:24,290 We'll present this item. 312 00:24:47,740 --> 00:24:51,220 Good morning, President Eli and members of the Board. 313 00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:55,900 I'm Sheila Sparza, Acting Manager of Human Resources, and today's presentation will 314 00:24:55,900 --> 00:24:59,360 be a collaborative presentation with Maggie West, HR Officer. 315 00:24:59,360 --> 00:24:59,940 and 316 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:12,720 Our consulting partner, Baker Tilley, who has been working closely with the agency to assess our workforce needs, and develops strategic recommendations that are reflected in the workforce development plan that will be presented today. 317 00:25:14,790 --> 00:25:28,370 Today's discussion is centered on how the agency is proactively preparing for the future of its workforce through workforce master planning, which recognizes people as a critical component of agency's long-term infrastructure strategy. 318 00:25:28,370 --> 00:25:34,790 The agency plans for a critical infrastructure, technology, facilities, and capital assets. 319 00:25:35,470 --> 00:25:38,390 The agency workforce should be planned with the same intentionality. 320 00:25:39,050 --> 00:25:44,330 The workforce master planning is about ensuring IUA has the people infrastructure necessary 321 00:25:44,330 --> 00:25:46,550 to support long-term service delivery. 322 00:25:47,730 --> 00:25:53,450 The master plan is supported by three coordinated initiatives, and today's presentation will 323 00:25:53,450 --> 00:25:55,290 highlight each initiative in its role. 324 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:04,420 Workforce Master Planning is about ensuring agency has a workforce needed to support agencies' infrastructure. 325 00:26:05,300 --> 00:26:12,180 The integrated staffing plan focuses on workforce capacity, helping us understand what resources are needed to meet future demands. 326 00:26:12,860 --> 00:26:24,100 The classification and compensation study focuses on workforce structure by ensuring positions are organized in the way that supports operational effectiveness, employee growth and market competitiveness. 327 00:26:24,100 --> 00:26:33,200 The workforce development plan focuses on workforce capability by preparing employees through training, leadership development and succession planning. 328 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:39,480 Collectively, these initiatives form the foundation of the agency's people, infrastructure strategy, 329 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:47,180 and help ensure we are prepared for future workforce needs while continuing to deliver reliable service to our communities. 330 00:26:48,500 --> 00:26:54,240 The first major milestone is a workforce development plan which was finalized in August. 331 00:26:54,760 --> 00:27:02,520 The plan establishes a long-term strategy for attracting, developing, and retaining the talent needed to support agencies' workforce needs. 332 00:27:03,100 --> 00:27:08,120 Additional details on the plan and its key recommendations will be discussed in the following slides. 333 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:18,420 Building on that foundation, the integrated staffing plan is intended to provide a comprehensive agency-wide assessment of current and future workforce needs. 334 00:27:18,420 --> 00:27:24,900 While every effort was made to maintain the original project schedule, the strategic importance 335 00:27:24,900 --> 00:27:29,080 of the work and the value of incorporating meaningful input from a costly organization 336 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:38,600 warranted additional analysis and engagement over the past several months, department 337 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:44,220 managers, senior leadership, and consultant team have participated in extensive discussions 338 00:27:44,220 --> 00:27:50,580 to evaluate organizational priorities, operational interdependencies, and long-term staffing needs. 339 00:27:51,340 --> 00:27:55,760 This collaborative approach has helped ensure that recommendations are well informed, 340 00:27:56,420 --> 00:28:01,060 strategically aligned, and reflective of the agency's delivery needs. The plan is 341 00:28:01,060 --> 00:28:06,240 anticipated to be finalized later this year and incorporated into the agency's upcoming 342 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:11,820 cost-of-service study. The final phase is the classification and compensation study. 343 00:28:11,820 --> 00:28:23,760 The classification component is anticipated to be completed in March 2027, followed by the compensation analysis which will be completed in March 2028, marking the end of the project. 344 00:28:24,500 --> 00:28:37,020 Together, these efforts will help ensure positions are appropriately structured, clearly defined, and competitively aligned with labor market, supporting the agency's ability to attract and retain a high performing workforce. 345 00:28:37,020 --> 00:28:44,980 The integrated staffing plan focuses on workforce capacity, and it helps ensure agency 346 00:28:44,980 --> 00:28:50,480 evaluate what resources are needed to not only sustain service levels, service levels, 347 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:52,720 but also respond to future demands. 348 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:58,160 The findings from the integrated staffing plan will also serve as a key input into the agencies 349 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:04,300 of coming cause of service study, ensuring future workforce needs are considered a long 350 00:29:04,300 --> 00:29:08,480 side long-term financial planning and service delivery requirements. 351 00:29:09,580 --> 00:29:14,540 As a result, the recommendations from this effort will be incorporated into the broader 352 00:29:14,540 --> 00:29:19,360 agency planning framework rather than being presented as a standalone board action item. 353 00:29:20,380 --> 00:29:24,580 I will now turn it over to Maggie West Human Resources Officer to provide an update on the 354 00:29:24,580 --> 00:29:26,580 classification and compensation study. 355 00:29:35,930 --> 00:29:40,530 All right, good morning President Eli and members of the board, my name is Maggie West Human Resources 356 00:29:40,530 --> 00:29:46,170 officer. As discussed earlier, the classification and compensation study represents the 357 00:29:46,170 --> 00:29:51,090 organizational structure component of the workforce master planning and helps 358 00:29:51,090 --> 00:29:56,470 ensures positions are organized in a way that supports operational effectiveness, 359 00:29:57,210 --> 00:29:59,970 employee, development, and long-term system. 360 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:08,180 Signability. Since our last update in August, we have continued to advance the study and are currently in the department review phase. 361 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:22,420 Proposed classification recommendations have been shared with agency leadership and are being refined through collaboration with directors and department management to ensure they reflect operational needs and organizational priorities. 362 00:30:22,420 --> 00:30:38,880 While the timeline has extended beyond the original estimate, the additional time ensures that classification structures support the agency's long-term needs and provides a strong foundation for the next phase of the project the compensation study. 363 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:46,260 The classification phase remains anticipated for completion in March of 2027 at which time the 364 00:30:46,260 --> 00:30:51,820 project will transition into the compensation phase with overall completion anticipated for March 365 00:30:51,820 --> 00:30:57,920 of 2028. I will now transition to an update on the workforce development plan which focuses 366 00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:01,320 on the capability components of the workforce master planning. 367 00:31:03,630 --> 00:31:05,530 The workforce development plan has now 368 00:31:05,530 --> 00:31:10,690 and finalized. And we are pleased to present the completed plan and strategic roadmap 369 00:31:10,690 --> 00:31:17,150 developed in partnership with Baker's Tilly. At the, as the workforce capability component 370 00:31:17,150 --> 00:31:21,930 of the agencies workforce master planning efforts, the plan focuses on ensuring employees 371 00:31:21,930 --> 00:31:28,210 have the skills, leadership development opportunities and succession strategies needed to support 372 00:31:28,210 --> 00:31:34,370 the agency's future workforce needs. Guide it by stakeholder input and organizational analysis, 373 00:31:34,370 --> 00:31:39,250 the planning includes recommendations for talent development, recruitment and retention, 374 00:31:39,990 --> 00:31:43,190 leadership development, succession planning and knowledge transfer. 375 00:31:43,910 --> 00:31:47,330 I will now turn the presentation over to Annie Rose from Baker Tilley. 376 00:31:57,610 --> 00:31:58,930 Good morning, President Eli. 377 00:31:59,030 --> 00:32:00,010 Members of the board. 378 00:32:00,150 --> 00:32:01,870 Thank you so much for your time today. 379 00:32:02,030 --> 00:32:05,430 I'm really looking forward to sharing more on this important project. 380 00:32:07,170 --> 00:32:10,590 So, in terms of this, the purpose of this work, 381 00:32:10,590 --> 00:32:15,430 As has been mentioned earlier, this project was really designed to take a comprehensive look 382 00:32:15,430 --> 00:32:20,750 at the agency's current workforce development activities, understand where the current 383 00:32:20,750 --> 00:32:24,490 strengths, where the challenges gaps and help to fill those in. 384 00:32:24,950 --> 00:32:30,550 And so this really focused in on succession planning, career ladders, employee development, 385 00:32:30,850 --> 00:32:34,170 talent pipeline, and that long-term workforce sustainability. 386 00:32:36,010 --> 00:32:40,330 In terms of the deliverables, there were five different pieces that we were working on here, 387 00:32:40,330 --> 00:32:42,830 but it really began with this needs assessment, 388 00:32:43,550 --> 00:32:46,710 where we were looking to understand the current landscape 389 00:32:47,650 --> 00:32:49,570 where again, where there are risks, 390 00:32:49,870 --> 00:32:51,870 where there are opportunities for improvement. 391 00:32:52,010 --> 00:32:54,250 And I will share a little bit more in detail 392 00:32:54,250 --> 00:32:56,130 some of the recommendations that came out 393 00:32:56,130 --> 00:32:58,630 of that needs assessment in one slide here. 394 00:32:59,390 --> 00:33:00,910 Once we got through the needs assessment, 395 00:33:01,150 --> 00:33:02,910 then the project really transitioned 396 00:33:02,910 --> 00:33:04,710 into practical application. 397 00:33:05,630 --> 00:33:08,930 We wanted to develop a succession planning toolkit, 398 00:33:08,930 --> 00:33:14,490 recommended guidelines and guidance around career ladders that can be developed, workforce 399 00:33:14,490 --> 00:33:20,090 development committee charter to help refine the purpose and use of that group as well as 400 00:33:20,090 --> 00:33:24,810 all of this culminating into an full implementation plan because there's a lot of different pieces 401 00:33:24,810 --> 00:33:30,790 here and we wanted to put them all together and have them in a phased approach so that you can be 402 00:33:30,790 --> 00:33:37,590 tackling that over the next couple of years here. So I'm going to share more on each one of these 403 00:33:37,590 --> 00:33:40,590 starting with the recommendations from the Needs Assessment 404 00:33:40,590 --> 00:33:43,750 and Voila that pink is coming across real bright today. 405 00:33:44,570 --> 00:33:46,370 So we have kind of four areas 406 00:33:46,370 --> 00:33:48,710 that our recommendations were grouped into. 407 00:33:48,950 --> 00:33:51,450 The first is on recruitment and talent pipeline. 408 00:33:51,910 --> 00:33:54,790 And the Needs Assessment resulted in these recommendations 409 00:33:54,790 --> 00:33:58,050 that are all very interconnected with each other. 410 00:33:58,110 --> 00:34:00,330 So we wanted to present them together here. 411 00:34:01,170 --> 00:34:03,030 In terms of the recruitment and talent pipeline, 412 00:34:03,790 --> 00:34:05,310 there are certainly opportunities 413 00:34:05,310 --> 00:34:11,010 to be more intentional about understanding which recruitment activities are really producing useful 414 00:34:11,010 --> 00:34:16,570 results for the agency. There's a ton going on in this space. You have a really fantastic team doing 415 00:34:16,570 --> 00:34:23,230 this work, but we want to be a thoughtful and strategic about how those resources are being used. So that's 416 00:34:23,230 --> 00:34:28,990 one that I would highlight there. There's also more of a focus on building talent internally through 417 00:34:28,990 --> 00:34:35,550 more structured things like establishing an apprenticeship program, other more structured cross-training 418 00:34:35,550 --> 00:34:40,950 opportunities, particularly for specialized roles where it's going to be very difficult to just 419 00:34:40,950 --> 00:34:49,470 hire someone directly into those positions. If, for example, that role does not have a higher education 420 00:34:49,470 --> 00:34:55,430 program that would directly feed into it in a very obvious way. So we also speak in the recommendations 421 00:34:55,430 --> 00:34:59,150 about identifying some of those positions themselves. 422 00:35:00,340 --> 00:35:18,020 In terms of training and development, the recommendations really emphasize leadership, development, power skills, and a lot of the work that would be needed to help ensure that as leaders are coming up through the agency that they are getting that understanding of the organization wide perspective. 423 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:23,960 You have a ton of folks who are real specialists in their particular departmental area and their technical function. 424 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:31,480 So, a lot of the training opportunities are around how do we bring in that coordination and make sure that it's happening in a non-silode way. 425 00:35:32,460 --> 00:35:38,460 The assessment also identified career ladders and employee development as areas where we could provide some more structure. 426 00:35:38,700 --> 00:35:50,820 Again, this is happening. This work is certainly taking place across the agency, but recognizing that some more structure and some more tools will help ensure that employees are having really consistent experience in those areas. 427 00:35:52,180 --> 00:35:59,080 In terms of our second set of recommendations, these were focused on succession planning and organizational effectiveness. 428 00:36:00,100 --> 00:36:05,900 And the major recommendation here is to establish an agency wide succession planning program. 429 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:12,780 Again, there is certainly succession planning happening within individual departments, different leaders have this in mind. 430 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:19,320 It's not that this is an area that's been forgotten in any way, but we want to have more structure around that and more consistency. 431 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:24,220 And so I'm going to talk a little bit more on the next slides about some of what that looks 432 00:36:24,220 --> 00:36:26,840 like, especially within a public sector setting. 433 00:36:27,860 --> 00:36:32,880 In terms of organizational development, we also really wanted to recognize and this will 434 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:37,540 be a theme that you'll hear in a couple different places, but workforce development is not 435 00:36:37,540 --> 00:36:40,340 an initiative that is owned solely by HR. 436 00:36:40,780 --> 00:36:45,780 This is really an organization wide activity and we want to be thinking about how we're building 437 00:36:45,780 --> 00:36:50,340 the structures to make sure that we're supporting that. And the workforce development committee 438 00:36:50,340 --> 00:36:55,620 is meant to be this cross-functional body that brings together representatives from across the 439 00:36:55,620 --> 00:37:00,840 entire agency to help support this work and make sure there's strong communication happening there. 440 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:07,420 So I'll talk a little bit more about that charter and how we are working to expand and develop that 441 00:37:07,420 --> 00:37:13,440 group a little bit further. And then finally, it could not end this without really recognizing the fact that 442 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:20,540 are you have a team that is very mighty and has a ton on their plate and this work is going to 443 00:37:20,540 --> 00:37:26,740 add more to that plate and so we really want to recognize and balance between how do we ensure 444 00:37:26,740 --> 00:37:32,060 that we're moving this work forward while also doing that within the capacity of in particular 445 00:37:32,060 --> 00:37:37,940 your HR staff but also all of the other members of staff that are going to have to engage in this work 446 00:37:37,940 --> 00:37:41,920 and so I'll speak to that a little bit more when we talk about implementation planning. 447 00:37:43,740 --> 00:38:03,280 So, succession planning, the first thing that I want to highlight here before we talk about the planning process that we did co-developed with the HR team is that succession planning is not about cherry picking a particular individual to go into a particular role. 448 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:07,780 That is absolutely not the focus of public sector's succession planning. 449 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:14,060 Succession planning is really about workforce readiness and employee development, 450 00:38:14,380 --> 00:38:19,000 so that when a role opens up, you have a really strong pool of internal candidates 451 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,300 who are all potentially prepared to step into that. 452 00:38:22,780 --> 00:38:29,720 So again, the focus is very much unemployed growth rather than picking individual candidates for a role. 453 00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:37,780 So this process starts in general by identifying high priority positions that we need to be focusing on. 454 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:43,200 Because you can't do succession planning for every single role within the agency, it wouldn't be a good use of resources. 455 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:51,540 So we start there with a scorecard to understand what are those rules that are going to be very difficult or a high risk if they are open. 456 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:58,720 Then we move through to think about what are those course skills and competencies that would be needed to be very successful in that role. 457 00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:07,780 And then we evaluate your talent pool, and that's when we're really understanding within our current folks that we have available who could potentially move into this role, 458 00:39:08,060 --> 00:39:14,300 where are they today, and what would they need to do in order to get to that next level so that they're really well prepared? 459 00:39:14,380 --> 00:39:17,160 And that's where those career development plants come into play. 460 00:39:17,980 --> 00:39:25,380 And then that moves into implementation planning, making sure that there's some very tangible actions and outcomes to help those employees develop. 461 00:39:25,380 --> 00:39:32,020 And then it becomes this continuous cycle where you're tracking that employee growth and reporting out on these efforts. 462 00:39:32,620 --> 00:39:37,780 So you'll see here this is very much meant to be a cycle and meant to be a continuous process. 463 00:39:38,060 --> 00:39:42,300 But the thing I want to stress is that again, we're not looking for a list of successors. 464 00:39:42,540 --> 00:39:47,680 That is not the end goal here. We are looking for a deeper, more prepared talent pool. 465 00:39:47,780 --> 00:39:50,940 And that's what all of this process is set up to do. 466 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:58,860 As part of that, we developed a planning toolkit that ideally can be used in a collaborative 467 00:39:58,860 --> 00:39:59,960 process between your... 468 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:23,980 HR team and the departments that they are working with to go through this process. So these tools are developed to help identify again what are those roles, what are the means here in terms of particular skills understanding what your current pipeline strength is and then going into that career development and implementation planning. 469 00:40:24,860 --> 00:40:30,480 Finally, there is a reporting element to this as well, so we have a sample dashboard here 470 00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:35,240 around making sure that especially when things are coming back to this group or to other senior 471 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:40,620 leaders within the agency, we have a good sense of where are we at in terms of upcoming retirements 472 00:40:40,620 --> 00:40:46,960 preparation, some of those items, so that you can be seeing this holistically across the agency 473 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:53,020 rather than just positioned by the position or department by department as well. So these tools will 474 00:40:53,020 --> 00:40:58,560 that repeatable process that HR and the departments will be able to go through on a regular basis. 475 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:05,800 So who, for example, besides HR, would have access to this dashboard that you're just showing here? 476 00:41:06,300 --> 00:41:11,700 Yeah, so in terms of the dashboard, I imagine that HR will be really in charge of ensuring that the data 477 00:41:11,700 --> 00:41:17,500 is going into that dashboard, but we've certainly seen that done in agencies where that can be shared fairly 478 00:41:17,500 --> 00:41:24,480 broadly because it is an aggregate of data. So there's no particular employee name listed on that 479 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:30,940 or anything like that, so it should be able to be shared. So, answer, is this dashboard actually implemented 480 00:41:30,940 --> 00:41:35,780 yet or now that this is a suggested dashboard? It is a suggested dashboard, but we know that all of 481 00:41:35,780 --> 00:41:40,040 the data is available, so it's figuring out the process to make sure that it can get to data. 482 00:41:40,580 --> 00:41:46,140 Because it's a delicate balance as to who it's available to, right? I mean, you want people 483 00:41:46,140 --> 00:41:51,000 to understand what the process would be and then to succeed and move up in the organization. 484 00:41:51,300 --> 00:41:55,140 But you also don't want a two-wide spread that, you know, 485 00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:01,600 A gets confusing and B is not really, this too much information for some people. 486 00:42:01,900 --> 00:42:06,020 Yeah, absolutely. And I would say for that report, it is very high level. 487 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:14,040 So it really wouldn't, I don't think, be super meaningful data to an individual staff member beyond the general 488 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:19,320 of kind of like water or retirement trends looking like across the agency as a whole, that type of thing. 489 00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:23,480 In terms of the rest of the planning tool kit though, one of the important things to note 490 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,780 is that this is meant to be done in collaboration. So it's not we drop the tool kit off with 491 00:42:27,780 --> 00:42:32,540 the department, the department does this on their own. This is meant to be collaboration where you 492 00:42:32,540 --> 00:42:38,480 have your HR experts who are working directly with the department to help them go through this process 493 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:43,780 and to ensure that it's going to be consistent and fair and all the rest of that and get 494 00:42:43,780 --> 00:42:46,180 useful meaningful results for the agency too. 495 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,480 So the toolkit itself will be something that will be really 496 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,860 held by department leadership and HR. 497 00:42:54,620 --> 00:42:56,700 Vice President, I had a question on this one, but I think. 498 00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,260 OK, sorry, so I understand with the aggregate of the information, 499 00:43:01,740 --> 00:43:03,760 but what I'm seeing here is that there's also a succession 500 00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,560 profile in career development plans that may be offered to the 501 00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:09,820 individual, employee themselves, and as they complete. 502 00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:13,500 Yes, so when we get to the career development planning place, 503 00:43:13,500 --> 00:43:19,080 that again starts with the department directors and department leadership, but then obviously that will 504 00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:23,900 be eventually communicated out to those individuals of saying and having those important career 505 00:43:23,900 --> 00:43:30,020 conversations as part of annual performance management. So those tools would fit into some of 506 00:43:30,020 --> 00:43:33,240 your current processes there. Thank you. 507 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:36,380 Great. 508 00:43:39,130 --> 00:43:42,690 I wanted to briefly touch on career ladders as well 509 00:43:42,690 --> 00:43:46,230 because one of the things that came up in the needs assessment is that there are certain roles 510 00:43:46,230 --> 00:43:51,970 within the agency that have very clear career ladders in terms of how to move up, and there 511 00:43:51,970 --> 00:43:56,790 are certain positions where there is a lack of clarity or there's many, many different possibilities 512 00:43:56,790 --> 00:44:01,710 in terms of how someone could move within the vertical of their department or even horizontally 513 00:44:01,710 --> 00:44:05,470 across the agency as well into other roles within other areas. 514 00:44:06,350 --> 00:44:12,990 And so as part of that, we wanted to both put together a process for how to identify when career ladders 515 00:44:12,990 --> 00:44:17,210 need to be developed, as well as focus in and develop specific career ladders for some of 516 00:44:17,210 --> 00:44:23,730 those high priority positions. So we worked with the department feedback and HR to identify 517 00:44:23,730 --> 00:44:30,830 some of those roles that really lacked clarity around where could this role go, and also thinking 518 00:44:30,830 --> 00:44:36,110 about how important is it for a particular roles to be able to see the future. So for example, 519 00:44:36,170 --> 00:44:40,370 when we're thinking about employee retention, this is a really important piece that we want to 520 00:44:40,370 --> 00:44:45,010 in there in terms of saying this is this is where your future could be within the agency. 521 00:44:46,030 --> 00:44:50,910 We assigned priority ratings to each of those roles and then for the top priority ones, 522 00:44:51,390 --> 00:44:56,930 we identified is there any current career ladder or idea of positions that we could be basing this 523 00:44:56,930 --> 00:44:59,970 on, and are there other ideas of who to go? 524 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,200 What we could bring into that career ladder. We did utilize some of the initial information from the class 525 00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:16,380 and comp work that is ongoing as well because there will be an element of that work that will help support when we're thinking about as someone moves up the formal structure of how those rules will be put into place. 526 00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:29,680 And then we've put together a series of career ladder recommendations for specific roles with the goal that as we get those fully implemented and put into branding for the agency itself. 527 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:32,800 that that will be something that can be shared out with staff, 528 00:45:33,020 --> 00:45:34,320 it's who are in those positions, 529 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,740 and staff that might be interested in this information, 530 00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,460 so that again, we can start seeing a lot more 531 00:45:39,460 --> 00:45:42,120 of what are those future pathways within the organization. 532 00:45:45,570 --> 00:45:48,170 I talked a little bit about the Workforce Development Committee 533 00:45:48,170 --> 00:45:51,210 earlier, and I did want to clarify that this is a group 534 00:45:51,210 --> 00:45:53,070 that has already been brought together. 535 00:45:53,170 --> 00:45:55,850 So this is a group that is in progress right now, 536 00:45:56,070 --> 00:45:59,290 and the focus of developing a charter was really to understand 537 00:45:59,290 --> 00:46:10,010 How can we formalize the work that's happening here and make sure that there's a lot of clarity and intentionality around how we're using the time of everybody who's part of this work? 538 00:46:10,790 --> 00:46:28,430 And so this is the team that is meant to bring people together from across the agency to coordinate on workforce development initiatives, share information back and forth and share best practices and they may also be helping to implement certain elements of the workforce development plan. 539 00:46:28,430 --> 00:46:37,570 So the charter really just describes what is the purpose of this group, what are the roles and responsibilities and those have been shifted and expanded a little bit based on feedback? 540 00:46:38,150 --> 00:46:45,930 How the committee is going to operate and what the committee is going to focus on. So I'm very excited to see where this group goes in the future as well. 541 00:46:47,980 --> 00:46:56,400 And then finally, I want to talk about the implementation plan and I'm not going to go into detail because it is a very large plan at this point. 542 00:46:56,400 --> 00:47:00,520 But I do want to highlight that we have identified through this work. 543 00:47:01,060 --> 00:47:05,120 We started with the recommendations then under each one implementation steps. 544 00:47:05,380 --> 00:47:12,560 We prioritized all of those items thinking about impact on the agency, but also the dependencies 545 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:18,000 with many of these other initiatives that are going on and where they'll need to fit, looking 546 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:26,380 at estimated timelines for each of these and also estimated hours or level of effort that will be 547 00:47:26,380 --> 00:47:32,320 our staff or staff in other areas of the organization, and also thinking about implementation 548 00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:37,080 roles, who's going to lead this work, who's going to support this work, and how will we 549 00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:42,180 know if we have been successful in this work as well? So that's all the elements that have gone 550 00:47:42,180 --> 00:47:48,300 into this implementation plan, and we have identified multiple years of work that are coming out 551 00:47:48,300 --> 00:47:53,700 of these recommendations. Our goal is not to tackle every single recommendation all at once, 552 00:47:53,700 --> 00:47:57,860 both for the sake of your HR team and for the sake of the rest of your employees. 553 00:47:57,860 --> 00:48:03,680 We really want to make this realistic and sustainable and make sure that we are pacing the 554 00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:08,520 release of some of these new tools so that folks have time to really bring them in, integrate 555 00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:11,020 them into regular areas of work. 556 00:48:11,980 --> 00:48:14,660 And some initiatives obviously will need to come before others. 557 00:48:15,020 --> 00:48:18,360 So we need to make sure that we're also spending that time. 558 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,460 we have the implementation plan as it sits today, 559 00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,740 but as new elements come into the HR world 560 00:48:24,740 --> 00:48:26,400 as new initiatives come up, 561 00:48:26,620 --> 00:48:29,220 we imagine that this is gonna be really a working document 562 00:48:29,220 --> 00:48:32,380 that will continue to shift and adjust over time 563 00:48:32,380 --> 00:48:35,480 to also account for some of those emergent needs. 564 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,080 So again, focus here is on developing 565 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,760 not prioritized implementation plan 566 00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:44,980 that reflects your capacity while also continuing 567 00:48:44,980 --> 00:48:46,740 to make sure that the agency is really 568 00:48:46,740 --> 00:48:50,720 making good substantial progress on all of these elements moving forward. 569 00:48:51,780 --> 00:48:57,340 So that's the final area that I wanted to touch on today, but our hope is that this project 570 00:48:57,340 --> 00:49:02,480 is really going to give IUA both kind of that current snapshot of where you are, but also those 571 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:07,940 sustainable tools that you'll be able to bring in and use on a regular basis to make sure that you 572 00:49:07,940 --> 00:49:13,680 have really strong workforce development practices in place and that you are kind of capturing 573 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:18,800 all the excellent work that is already happening and bringing it together in a consistent and 574 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:24,620 sustainable manner as well. So that's all I have for you any additional questions based on anything 575 00:49:24,620 --> 00:49:25,840 that I just shared. 576 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:34,260 Thank you. 577 00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:43,860 So as we look at these efforts collectively, they are all part 578 00:49:43,860 --> 00:49:49,820 of the broader strategy to align workforce with the agency's long-term direction. Master planning 579 00:49:49,820 --> 00:49:55,040 identifies where the agency is going and these HR initiatives help us ensure we have the people 580 00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:59,960 organizational structure and workforce development strategies in place to support. 581 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:19,480 Court that vision. This work also positions the agency for the upcoming 2027 rate study by providing a clear understanding of the future workforce needs, organizational capacity and resource requirements, helping ensure staffing and service levels remain aligned with long-term operational and financial objectives. 582 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:23,100 This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions. 583 00:50:23,100 --> 00:50:23,100 Thank 584 00:50:26,970 --> 00:50:28,870 you. 585 00:50:29,310 --> 00:50:32,450 Appreciate all the hard work that goes into that. 586 00:50:35,450 --> 00:50:37,950 All right, General Manager's comments. 587 00:50:41,140 --> 00:50:42,340 All right, just a few comments. 588 00:50:44,220 --> 00:50:45,480 The bear 589 00:50:48,330 --> 00:50:49,430 with me just a moment. 590 00:50:52,350 --> 00:50:58,890 Just a comment on what you just heard the long-term reliability for our agency requires strong infrastructure 591 00:50:58,890 --> 00:51:03,030 and workforce prepared to deliver and sustain our business. 592 00:51:03,030 --> 00:51:06,830 This clearly we have a lot going on with an agency and a lot of planning. 593 00:51:07,790 --> 00:51:12,190 We are planning intentionally for both an IUA is strengthening its capacity to meet future 594 00:51:12,190 --> 00:51:15,330 needs and continue delivering value to the region. 595 00:51:17,510 --> 00:51:25,550 Additional items compliance wise, there's no compliance or safety issues that are, sorry, no 596 00:51:25,550 --> 00:51:27,830 updates on those compliance or safety issues today. 597 00:51:27,830 --> 00:51:33,830 The only comment that I want to make and I'm going to highlight it here is I'm going to share 598 00:51:33,830 --> 00:51:36,070 with everybody and Scott sitting there smiling. 599 00:51:37,870 --> 00:51:42,290 We had at the Water Reaves California Conference, IUA staff competed in the inaugural 600 00:51:42,290 --> 00:51:48,230 reuse rumble at high energy challenging, testing the technical skills and teamwork required 601 00:51:48,230 --> 00:51:50,570 to support advanced water treatment operations. 602 00:51:50,570 --> 00:51:58,570 I want to thank the board and President Eli and Director Hall for attending with us as well. 603 00:51:58,990 --> 00:52:03,270 After battling through a series of the four time challenges against teams that included Monterey 604 00:52:03,270 --> 00:52:10,910 One Water, Jake Gibbs, so-called Creek, our team, Trans-Membrane Pressure, and one other team, I don't remember the other one. 605 00:52:12,470 --> 00:52:15,750 We actually claimed the title, so that was the highlight. 606 00:52:15,750 --> 00:52:43,850 The team included Ryan Love and Scott Lenning as our coaches, Noah Ball, Manual Estabes, and Carl Semantello, and myself were the team mates, and we're coached strongly by Ryan and Scott, and as we had some proud supporters, including Rival and Liz Herz that were there as well, and really a heartfelt appreciation to President Eli and Vice President Hall for attending and providing support. 607 00:52:43,850 --> 00:52:49,190 really, it was a lot of fun and actually being the inaugural one was a great, great, great to 608 00:52:49,190 --> 00:52:53,830 sort of rub it in a little bit to some of the other folks that were there, so appreciate that. 609 00:52:54,170 --> 00:52:57,770 Oh, well, you've never seen Vice President Hall so excited to carry him that sign, 610 00:52:57,970 --> 00:53:03,170 hearing you guys on. So that was, you know, that was, it was really fun. 611 00:53:04,050 --> 00:53:05,370 And yeah, they needed a cheerleader. 612 00:53:06,010 --> 00:53:13,310 Well, there you go. And now it was really fun. And in fairness, our Jacob's partners actually were 613 00:53:13,310 --> 00:53:16,170 rooting for our team a little bit louder than their own. 614 00:53:17,650 --> 00:53:21,990 So our royalty really showed and besides the weakest 615 00:53:21,990 --> 00:53:25,310 link General Manager, the rest of the team was spectacular. 616 00:53:27,270 --> 00:53:29,310 And yeah, I mean, you slowed them down a little bit 617 00:53:29,310 --> 00:53:32,550 kept it, but you made up for it with your guzzling 618 00:53:32,550 --> 00:53:33,310 of that water. 619 00:53:33,790 --> 00:53:35,270 I don't know where you're learning that skill. 620 00:53:39,690 --> 00:53:41,250 But it's not all over the world. 621 00:53:41,250 --> 00:53:45,810 It was really a fun thing, I've never been in a conference with anything like that I'd ever 622 00:53:45,810 --> 00:53:53,430 happened before, so it was a unique conference and the intermingling of operators, managers, 623 00:53:54,210 --> 00:53:58,450 board members, etc., at that conference, and that event was spectacular. 624 00:53:59,550 --> 00:54:04,090 So congratulations to our team and I suggest you guys retire and not do it again. 625 00:54:04,270 --> 00:54:04,850 That's right. 626 00:54:05,130 --> 00:54:05,650 That's right. 627 00:54:05,870 --> 00:54:06,190 Well, thank you. 628 00:54:06,570 --> 00:54:07,950 Leave them wanting more. 629 00:54:16,300 --> 00:54:21,720 Do we have any requested future agenda items from anybody in the board? 630 00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:22,360 Okay. 631 00:54:22,980 --> 00:54:23,380 Oh, God. 632 00:54:23,380 --> 00:54:24,120 Yes, I have one. 633 00:54:24,660 --> 00:54:33,040 So yes, yesterday at the Ontario board meeting under the consent items, they offered six acres under the SLA of the surplus land. 634 00:54:33,580 --> 00:54:38,060 And it's located here off of Philadelphia Street near the 60 freeway. 635 00:54:38,060 --> 00:54:43,940 And I'd like to explore if that's a property that the agency can possibly, 636 00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:51,040 If it would benefit us, I know we have some resources and some of the ground pipeline that are already in that area that may traverse through that. 637 00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:54,700 It's adjacent to the soccer fields, correct? 638 00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:56,340 Which is right by whispering like... 639 00:54:56,340 --> 00:54:57,420 Like by whispering like, yeah. 640 00:54:57,740 --> 00:54:59,960 And I would suggest that if we do go that route, it would... 641 00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:07,040 We'd be used either as a property for the JPA, for linear generators, but more importantly, I think it's better 642 00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:12,380 use would be as a repository, possibly to create a library for a lot of historic documents 643 00:55:12,380 --> 00:55:18,700 in the upper sentana watershed. I think that date back to the 1800s, a lot of these agencies have 644 00:55:18,700 --> 00:55:23,260 a lot of these documents in boxes. And just don't have the resources to really consolidate them 645 00:55:23,260 --> 00:55:29,380 so that would be, I think, a central place outside of a fire zone that we can historically preserve 646 00:55:29,380 --> 00:55:35,540 that documentation, but we can also work with the conservation districts to create a demonstration 647 00:55:35,540 --> 00:55:41,240 facility or an educational facility, possibly some recharge and maybe a safe harbor for the 648 00:55:41,240 --> 00:55:47,320 Santa Ana sacred fish under the HCP. I'm looking at the awkward news letter right now and 649 00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:52,080 then it's talking about collaboration in our region and I think that would further kind of cement 650 00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:56,200 that collaboration that we've been doing such a good job with. So that would be my request for 651 00:55:56,200 --> 00:56:03,740 So but I guess let me crystalize that that's kind of a request to staff, but is it something you won't brought back to the board or how do you want that Frank? 652 00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:07,820 Yes, I think brought back to the board at well first of all the explore the opportunity 653 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:14,640 For the available land and then then the other part of it was just me suggesting uses for that land 654 00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:19,420 Yeah, yeah, thank you for yeah for that. Okay 655 00:56:21,100 --> 00:56:23,020 Any any board comments? 656 00:56:23,700 --> 00:56:26,000 So, we'll move time to five. 657 00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:26,860 We're good. 658 00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:27,280 We're good. 659 00:56:27,340 --> 00:56:27,880 Thank you. 660 00:56:28,260 --> 00:56:29,620 I'll also get more comments. 661 00:56:29,780 --> 00:56:30,540 More comments. 662 00:56:31,720 --> 00:56:32,660 It's heard a rumor. 663 00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:35,180 And then I heard that it's actually officially true. 664 00:56:35,400 --> 00:56:39,180 So I want to thank Lisa for your years of service here at IUA. 665 00:56:39,660 --> 00:56:46,520 I know you're moving sounds like congratulations are in order to let out. 666 00:56:46,700 --> 00:56:49,040 But so thank you for your years of service here and congratulations. 667 00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:51,200 Thank you very much. 668 00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:56,640 It's really been my privilege to serve the board and the exceptionally talented staff at you. 669 00:56:57,240 --> 00:56:58,000 Thank you. 670 00:56:58,040 --> 00:56:58,720 Thank you. 671 00:56:59,020 --> 00:57:01,660 It didn't occur to me that we won't see what a board meeting you can. 672 00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:04,100 At least in that seat. 673 00:57:04,920 --> 00:57:05,080 Sorry. 674 00:57:05,700 --> 00:57:07,020 Well, thank you again. 675 00:57:07,860 --> 00:57:08,500 Don't be a stranger. 676 00:57:09,660 --> 00:57:10,020 Appreciate it. 677 00:57:10,020 --> 00:57:12,940 Appreciate all you've done in your service to our agency. 678 00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:14,320 Thanks for reminding me. 679 00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:16,060 Okay. 680 00:57:17,980 --> 00:57:21,140 Alright, with that, we will move to closed session. We have one item. 681 01:17:17,100 --> 01:17:18,700 Reporting at a close session, Marty. 682 01:17:19,180 --> 01:17:26,340 Thank you, Mr. President. During close session, the Board discussed item 6A on today's agenda with no reportable action.