[0:02] Okay, let's call to order the finance and administrative administrations committee meeting. Both here, do we receive any public comment today? I do not receive any request for public comment, and I do not see any outside callers on the line. Thank you so much. Are there any additions to the agenda? There are none. Great. Thank you. With that, we have our consent items. Are you okay with the consent? Okay. So move consent is good. We're going to move now to our action items to alpha.

[0:31] Award Service Contract for Enterprise Asset Management System.

[0:35] Lisa, would you like to introduce this item?

[0:36] Thank you.

[0:37] This item will be presented by Manager of Information Technology, Angel Cisneros.

[0:42] Thank you.

[0:43] More than Angel.

[0:44] Fine.

[1:00] Wait, which one do you have?

[1:03] This one.

[1:04] I got an audit committee to finance.

[1:07] Is this one?

[1:09] This one?

[1:10] Not mentioned.

[1:11] Did you not?

[1:17] It's not in here.

[1:18] Do

[1:20] you have it on there?

[1:27] Sorry.

[1:28] No problem.

[2:08] Anybody's following us online?

[2:11] We're just having some difficulties here looking for the presentation.

[2:14] Give us a second.

[2:51] If it's easier, may I suggest we go to Bravo and then return to this item after?

[2:56] Would that be okay?

[2:58] Or did?

[3:05] Okay.

[3:06] Yes, yes sir.

[3:07] So we're going to move to to Bravo and return to to Alpha.

[3:11] So, two bravo is approved first-quarter budget amendment and adopt resolution number 2026-9-2, approving and adopting the amended budget for fiscal year 2627.

[3:22] Thank you.

[3:23] This item will be presented by Acting Budget Officer Cecilia House.

[3:28] Thank you, Cecilia.

[3:30] Good morning, please.

[3:33] I was thinking I was going to be second.

[3:37] Good morning, Chair Tooley and Director Hofer.

[3:40] This morning I will be presenting a recommendation to approve the first quarter budget amendment and adopt resolution number 2026-9-2, approving and adopting the amended budget for fiscal year 2627.

[3:58] The proposed first quarter budget amendment includes two requests.

[4:02] The first is to increase the annual budget for projects for a total amount of $12.4 million.

[4:09] The second request is to increase the total project budget for a project in the Recharge

[4:15] Water Fund by $1.1 million.

[4:19] In the following slides, I will go over the details for each of the amendment requests

[4:24] and for your reference, the details are also included in the background document and resolution.

[4:34] The first request is to increase the total project budget by $1.1 million for a capital

[4:40] Project RW1503 Recharge Master Plan.

[4:46] The additional funding is requested to support increased project costs due to construction

[4:53] delays associated with the dry year yield program in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' repair

[4:59] air work.

[5:00] Adjacent to the San Antonio Creek Channel.

[5:06] Construction delays associated with the DIY program were to ensure basin availability for the implementation of the program and to support regional water supply reliability objectives.

[5:20] The second and final request is for the approval of the annual carry forward of the encumbered and non-encumbered commitment items and their related budgets. Per agency policy, the staff can request to carry forward

[5:34] forward prior year encumbered and non-encumbered commitments.

[5:40] This year, staff is requesting to carry forward a total of 12.4 million.

[5:46] The total includes 8 million for capital project commitments and 4.4 million for non-capital

[5:52] project commitments.

[5:56] Staff recommends to approve the first quarter budget amendment and adopt resolution

[6:01] Question number 2026-9-2, approving and adopting the amended budget for fiscal year 2026-27,

[6:10] and this concludes my presentation, and I will be happy to take any questions.

[6:14] Great.

[6:15] Thank you.

[6:17] Dr. Hopper.

[6:22] The dry year yield, how's that impacted the budget?

[6:26] What are the problems there?

[6:29] I'm going to have Joel come up for me.

[6:38] It's a program that's established with Metropolitan Water District, which allows us to retrieve or receive additional water flows from Metropolitan, especially during very wet weather season.

[6:53] So, when the project was initiated for construction in the early 2022's, 2023, that's when we

[7:01] handle heavy rains and so metropolitan reached out to the agencies, especially IOA and especially

[7:07] Chino Basin Water Master to see if they would be willing to open up their basins to receive

[7:12] these available waters.

[7:14] Since our basins at that time was very heavily active with regards to other constructions

[7:20] like lower-day basin was under heavy construction.

[7:23] The only readily available basin was Montclair Basin.

[7:27] And so it was, so IOA, engineering was reached out

[7:30] by Tina Basin water master as well as the ground water

[7:33] recharged tea to see if we could help delay the construction

[7:37] of the Montclair Basin so that they could focus the delivery

[7:41] of DIY water into the Montclair Basin.

[7:45] And then the increases occurred why?

[7:48] The increases are basically a result of the delays.

[7:52] We've already anticipated higher costs going into construction as early as 2020.

[7:59] And then after COVID, we anticipated the cost even being higher.

[8:03] And so as of today, the numbers have increased because the project cost was initially established

[8:09] back in the 2020-19, it was the last dated updates for the projected construction costs.

[8:19] So we anticipated the costs to be higher when we were going to go into construction in

[8:24] the early 20s, but then we deferred it and then so now that we're in the process of finishing

[8:31] or getting ready to go into construction, we are now anticipating the cost to be much higher.

[8:34] So we've communicated this cost increase with our water master stakeholders, our project partners.

[8:41] So they are fully aware of the increase in the cost.

[8:44] So they are also anticipating this cost increase to be coming in their way in terms of their cost share as part of this project.

[8:51] Okay, thanks.

[8:54] Now that Met has changed the dry year yield, we have our improvements in now, what?

[9:01] But well, I think from our perspective, the dryer yield is, they've called the water from it.

[9:10] We're producing this year, we're asking the partners to produce for that water this year.

[9:15] Next year we'll be up to us and the committee as well, the operating committee to make the decision as to how to navigate that as we close out all of that water for the dryer yield next year.

[9:26] We're still in the middle of that, so we're making, we'll be having further discussions

[9:31] about whether, what offer two options there are, if there are any outside of performance.

[9:37] Right now we want to see the performance be of the agencies as much as possible.

[9:42] Did Met contribute any money to those improvements?

[9:47] To the Montclair Basin, no.

[9:50] But the actual, but they did contribute a significant amount to all the customer agencies when the

[9:55] draw your yield started so there was a significant amount of capital provided to them.

[10:00] A lot of money put in for improvements to be done. I don't know of all of them happen, but anyway, we've performed the way we would require to. Yes, correct. That is correct.

[10:14] Thank you. So following up on that, the Recharge Master Plan. Who's, who's, or who's doing that work on our behalf? What contractor vendor? The Recharge Master Plan. The Recharge Master Plan? Yeah, it says we're going to amend the capital budget for this project.

[10:32] And I'm assuming that's to redo the recharge master plan, am I right?

[10:36] My business, okay, if I'm supposed to get some clarification on that.

[10:41] I'm sorry, the plan includes several projects, many, many projects.

[10:46] And this phase, the Montclair Project is the last project on this plan.

[10:52] So this is for this increases for the Montclair.

[10:55] Right, there's a lot of sub-project within the first large project.

[10:58] I am sorry for not understanding your question, but yes, that is correct.

[11:02] The re-charge master plan is under a larger project, RW15003.

[11:08] This project that we're requesting for an increase is a sub-project to that.

[11:13] Gotcha.

[11:14] And is the Montclair Basin, is this the one that has potential impacts to the neighboring colleges?

[11:24] That's okay.

[11:26] Those are college heights.

[11:28] Those are called.

[11:29] These are for the south.

[11:31] These are for the south.

[11:31] These straddles the temporary way?

[11:34] Okay.

[11:34] These are the ones right at the conservation district.

[11:36] Yes.

[11:37] Okay.

[11:37] All right.

[11:39] That's all I had.

[11:40] Thank you for that.

[11:41] Appreciate it.

[11:43] Would you like to move this to the full board?

[11:45] Are you okay with approving?

[11:46] It would be good.

[11:47] Yeah.

[11:47] I think so.

[11:48] Yes sir.

[11:50] Okay.

[11:50] So we'll move this item to the full board.

[11:52] Thank you for the presentation.

[11:53] Are we ready to move back to item 2 alpha?

[11:58] Okay,

[12:06] so back to Alpha Award Service Contract for Enterprise Asset Management System.

[12:10] And we'll pull that up.

[12:11] Lisa, would you like to?

[12:12] Thank you.

[12:13] This item will be presented by Manager of Information Technology, Angel Cisneros.

[12:17] Thank you, Angel.

[12:18] Thank you.

[12:18] Thank you for your patience.

[12:19] Yes, sir.

[12:20] Appreciate that.

[12:21] Today, I'm requesting approval to award the contract of the Enterprise Asset Management System

[12:26] solution.

[12:28] This project is one component of our larger enterprise resource planning replacement initiative

[12:34] It is the result of a comprehensive effort with the operations and maintenance, asset management and contracts and procurement to modernize how the agency manages its assets and business processes before I get into the recommendation I would like to walk through how we came to this, sorry walk through the work that supports this.

[12:58] This

[13:01] slide may look familiar because it was presented previously on August 5th during

[13:06] the Strategic Plan update.

[13:08] It provides a brief recap of where the ERP initiative stands.

[13:12] Over the past year, the team has completed multiple tasks that move us forward to the

[13:17] agency's goal.

[13:18] We are now at vendor selection for the EAM solution.

[13:23] This is a significant achievement involving staff from operations and maintenance, asset

[13:28] management and contracts and procurement and information technology.

[13:32] The team understands the importance of replacing software essential to daily work with the

[13:38] best possible solution for

[13:44] background.

[13:45] Our current enterprise asset management system was implemented in 2007 and has served the

[13:52] agency for nearly two decades.

[13:53] Over that time, technology, the technology environment and business needs have changed.

[13:58] We will soon face increasing limitations to system support, continued reliance on manual

[14:05] workflows, and data reliability constraints, and reduced operation efficiency.

[14:11] Those limitations also make it more difficult to provide staff with real-time information

[14:16] for decision-making.

[14:19] The photo on the side is our original SAP implementation team from 2006.

[14:23] It provides perspective on how long the current platform has been in place, and how much

[14:28] both the agency and technology have evolved.

[14:32] The objective of this project is not simply to replace an old system.

[14:36] It is to collaborate with key departments to implement a modern platform to better that

[14:41] better supports our operation needs today and into the future.

[14:46] This

[14:55] initiative will improve business processes across the age.

[15:00] There are four primary areas I'd like to focus on first. We'll be the standardized workflows and reduce of manual effort and stream line of our core business processes. Second, we will enhance data analytics and real-time data reporting. A modern platform gives staff and management better access to information, which supports stronger decision making. Third, we are modernizing the underlying technology. The underlying technology,

[15:29] through greater automation and more user-friendly interfaces.

[15:33] For us, we will improve asset life,

[15:38] we will improve asset life cycle efficiency and

[15:41] strengthen assets assessments, giving us a clear vision of

[15:46] the condition and value and value of our assets over time.

[15:50] Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for staff to perform

[15:53] their work while improving the quality and accessibility to

[15:57] information used to manage assets.

[16:04] In October of 2025, the selection process began with a series of in-person sessions to review

[16:12] the agency's requirements for a modern enterprise asset management system.

[16:16] Working with SDI Presidents, our consultant supporting the project, and key staffs from

[16:21] O&M, asset management, and IT, we defined the business and technical requirements that formed

[16:28] the foundation of the request for proposal.

[16:32] The RFP was released in December of 2025 with the help

[16:36] of contracts and procurement, and by February of 2026,

[16:40] we received 20 proposals.

[16:43] The evaluation went well beyond reviewing written proposals

[16:47] in May of 2026.

[16:50] Seven vendors were invited to participate

[16:52] in a proof of capabilities demo.

[16:54] So rather than just giving a standard product demo, each vendor was asked to show over two

[17:01] days how their solution would address specific business requirements and operations scenarios.

[17:07] This process took a month and a half and involved staff from ONM Asset Management Cap and IT.

[17:14] The team also met with customers in July to better understand how the solutions performed

[17:21] in real-time environments.

[17:22] And here directly about their implementation experiences, ongoing support and day-to-day use

[17:29] of the system.

[17:31] Following the evaluation process, the selection was completed in August of 2026 and next

[17:37] gen asset management was identified as a recommended solution.

[17:43] Next gen provides several capabilities that align with the agency's modern objectives.

[17:48] the solution is purpose-built for enterprise asset management and includes tools and asset condition assessments,

[17:56] risk analysis, life cycle forecasting, capital planning, and investment planning.

[18:02] It also provides a modern user interface and robust mobile capabilities including offline functionality and for

[18:11] fill personnel. This will also allow staff to create update and complete work activities

[18:16] from virtually any location. From the technology perspective next gen is a cloud-based solution

[18:24] and provides integrated capabilities with our systems such as ERP, GIS, and SCADA.

[18:31] It also

[18:32] includes built-in reporting dashboards which support our goal in improving access to information

[18:37] and decision-making across the agency.

[18:40] Today, David, Hargadon is here from next gen,

[18:45] and he's available after for any questions.

[18:52] The project is planned to begin in October of 2026

[18:55] and targets a goal-life date of April 20, 28.

[18:59] In October, the team will begin to orientate,

[19:01] will begin with orientation training and core members

[19:05] and own them in asset management.

[19:08] From there, the project will move into design phase

[19:11] days, during which time detailed user requirements, business processes, and implementations plans

[19:16] will be documented. The application will be configured and integrated, and data will

[19:22] be prepared and transferred into the new system in December of 2027.

[19:28] The team from ONM and Asset Management will then perform user acceptance testing and training

[19:35] sessions leading to a go-live in April of 2028.

[19:38] Support will continue through the transition to help user adoption and new system, user adoption of the new system and address issues as we move into production.

[19:50] The approach provides a time to validate the solution and properly prepare data, train staff and reduce implementation risks.

[20:00] The total contract value for this project is approximately $2.7 million. The investment consists of three primary components. The first of approximately $2.8 million is implementation services that will include design configuration, design configuration, training, testing, and support to go live. The second approximately $3.8 million covers 10-year software licensing.

[20:30] agreement that locks in pricing for the next-gen platform.

[20:34] The third is 650,000 is a contingency roughly 10% of the contract.

[20:40] This provides flexibility during the implementation to address unforeseen requirements and changes.

[20:47] Together, these components bring the total to $7,229,121, the investment provides both service

[20:57] and service needed to successfully implement the new system and long-term licensing necessary to operate the system for the next 10 years.

[21:10] The staff's recommendation that the board approve a service contract to next gen asset management for the enterprise asset management system for enterprise asset management software.

[21:21] project number IS-20, Bureau-19, for a two-year period, for an aggregated not-to-seat amount

[21:34] of 7,229,121 and authorize the general manager not to execute the contract subject to

[21:51] I think

[21:55] you mentioned that you spoke with 4 other districts that are using their program.

[22:00] Correct.

[22:01] And were they happy with the support after the fact that?

[22:08] Yes, they were happy with the support, they were happy with how everything went after fact.

[22:14] But the amount of effort that next gen put into them and how they got things completed.

[22:20] So if they wanted something, it was completed and satisfactory to their business process.

[22:27] Thank you, yeah, I don't have any questions for you, but I'd like to recommend that this item should any of the other board members have any question go to the full board.

[22:35] That's okay because of the cost, it's a big figure, yeah.

[22:40] All right, you get to do it again next week.

[22:42] Hopefully it's smoother on that one, but yeah, thank you.

[22:44] Yes sir, yeah, thank you for coming out, appreciate it.

[22:47] So let's move now to our information items.

[22:50] We'll go through the three out for the fiscal year 2526, fourth quarter, budget variance,

[22:54] performance and budget transfer updates.

[22:57] Lisa.

[22:58] Thank you.

[22:58] This item will be presented by acting budget officers, Cecilia House.

[23:03] Thank you Cecilia.

[23:14] Good morning, Chair Tully and Director Hofer.

[23:17] Today I will be presenting the agency's financial performance

[23:20] for fiscal year 2526, fourth quarter, ending June 30, budget variance, and budget transfer updates.

[23:28] As a point of reference, at the end of the fourth quarter, we would generally expect revenues and expenses to be about a hundred percent of budget.

[23:39] Present it here.

[23:41] We have an overview of total sources and uses of funds and the net change.

[23:47] Revenues or total sources of funds collected through the fourth quarter were 354 million or 81 percent of budget.

[23:56] While expenses or total uses of funds were 509 million or 79 percent of budget.

[24:05] As you can see, expenses outpaced revenues resulting in a decrease in fund balance of

[24:13] $155 million.

[24:16] The decrease was due to the defecence or paydown of the 2020 B revenue notes in November

[24:22] 2025.

[24:26] Here we have the table that summarizes the 4th quarter operating and non-operating revenues

[24:31] and shows that the total revenues year-to-date were 354 million or 81% of budget.

[24:41] Operating revenues totaled 209 million at 92% of budget with the primary

[24:47] variance related to lower than anticipated MWD pass-through imported water sales.

[24:52] Non-operating revenues were 100%

[25:00] 44 million at 69% of budget, mainly due to lower than anticipated grant and loan receipts.

[25:09] Shown here, we have the primary categories included in operating revenues.

[25:14] Some of the major variances are, MWD, direct pass-through imported water sales,

[25:22] we're at 60% of budget, with total imported water deliveries of 42,970 acre feet.

[25:30] The variants can be attributed to customer agencies use of alternative water supplies, conservation

[25:37] efforts, and participation in the dry year yield program.

[25:43] Interest earnings were 167 percent of budget, and that was due to favorable portfolio investment

[25:50] yields.

[25:52] User charges, recycled water sales, and cost reimbursements were within the expected range.

[25:57] Here we have the non-operating revenues, connection fees included 2742 new EDUs or equivalent dwelling unit connections.

[26:13] Actuals for the year came in lower than budgeted due to timing delays with reporting from one of our customer agencies for the month of June.

[26:23] Grant and loan receipts were at 19% of budget, primarily due to the timing of

[26:31] reimbursable capital project expenditures, the timing to reimbursable

[26:38] capital project expenditures, project timing including contractor progress,

[26:44] permitting and construction schedules resulted in lower eligible expenditures

[26:48] during the fiscal year.

[26:51] Property tax and other revenues were within the expected range.

[26:55] This concludes the revenues or sources of funds.

[27:01] Here we have the table that summarizes the fourth quarter operating and non-operating expenses

[27:07] and shows that total expenses year to date were 508 million or 79% of budget.

[27:15] operating expenses were 187 million or 72% of budget and the variance was primarily due to

[27:25] O&M and reimbursable project timing differences as well as lower MWD water purchases.

[27:34] Non-operating expenses were 321 million or 84% of budget due to capital project scope and

[27:43] design revisions, construction and permitting delays and additional project evaluations.

[27:51] Shown here, we have the operating expenses.

[27:54] The major variances are wages and benefits, we're at 76% of budget.

[28:01] The variance can be attributed to normal organizational transitions and

[28:06] the timing of staffing alignment efforts.

[28:10] MWD water purchases were at 60% of budget and is consistent with MWD direct pass through water sales shown in revenues.

[28:22] Professional fees and services were at 68% of budget.

[28:28] The variance is primarily due to lower than anticipated utilization of professional and contract services.

[28:35] timing of expenditures and lower basin maintenance and repair activity due to limited storm-related maintenance needs.

[28:45] Utilities were at 85% of budget and the variance is attributable to lower than budgeted electricity rates.

[28:55] Approximately 45% of the budgeted electricity consumption was associated with the RP-5 expansion startup

[29:03] resulting in reduced utility usage and costs compared with budgeted levels.

[29:10] ONM, non-capital, and reimbursable projects were 48% of budget.

[29:18] Variances were primarily driven by project timing and schedule delays,

[29:23] multi-year activities, lower than anticipated as needed work, external dependencies, and project closeouts.

[29:31] The non-operating expenses are displayed here with capital project execution at 66% of budget.

[29:44] The variance can be attributed primarily to project timing, construction delays, and scope and design changes.

[29:51] debt service and other expenses were within the expected range.

[30:00] And this is the end of my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, the director, I hope you had any questions. I'm just real quick. Could we go back a couple of slides, please?

[30:14] One more. There we go. It's great that everything is under budget. But do we need to sharpen the pencil a little bit so we come closer, or is it possible to anticipate our budget that closely?

[30:34] That makes sense.

[30:36] I'm sorry, we're going into our new biannual budget and so at that time we'll be re-assessing

[30:42] the budgets.

[30:44] The departments will be creating their own budgets and then we'll re-assess them when they're submitted to us.

[30:50] It's great to wonder budget, that's always a good thing but some of them are pretty big.

[30:55] Director Hofer can add just a little bit to that.

[30:59] Go to the next slide, will you?

[31:00] Is this the one to the number eight, number eight, please.

[31:08] A good example on the capital projects, although there has been some delays in your aware of the projects that we're talking about there.

[31:15] We also have just, we've done all of the work here with our own staff.

[31:21] And one of the things that we've over the past couple of years been doing is analyzing ourselves in engineering.

[31:26] It's the one I know a lot about, so it's one of the ones that have been paying very close attention to with our staff and with Randy.

[31:31] The 106.1 million to 110 million is about what we can do with our staff that we have available to us.

[31:40] In order to get to the 162 million, we're going to have to staff up and we are planning an organizational adjustment here in a very near term to be able to address that.

[31:50] But just know that the answer to your question is yes, we can do better on our budgeting but also with the work that we need to be getting done from the asset management and obviously criticality and

[32:01] critical, critical nature of some of the projects, we're going to need to have more bodies to be able to do that work.

[32:06] In this year, this is a good example of just, we just don't have, we did not have the actual resources to actually deliver the complete budget that we had available to us.

[32:14] Thank you.

[32:18] Can we go back a few more slides to one displaying the connections?

[32:27] There we go, right there.

[32:28] So it's 27-42, that was the number of new EDU connections we budgeted, 3200 EDU's that now that's a number that we came up with internally.

[32:36] Yes, that's the number that we've had internally.

[32:39] How is that in terms of, is that close to what the members are projecting, are they still significantly higher?

[32:46] They're significantly higher, so we do a more conservative approach.

[32:51] Do you know that number by chance, what they were projecting?

[32:54] It was somewhere in the 9,000 range, but I can get that information to you.

[32:57] I think we have.

[32:59] Hi, Alex.

[33:04] Based on what I presented to the policy tech, based on the CCRE update, it was 5,732 was there projected.

[33:14] Okay.

[33:15] So it's come down significantly over the last few years.

[33:18] Great.

[33:19] Thank you.

[33:20] It's all the questions that I had.

[33:22] Any more questions?

[33:23] Great.

[33:24] Thank you for the presentation.

[33:24] Appreciate it.

[33:25] Thank you.

[33:26] Let's move to three Bravo contracts and procurement update, ESA.

[33:31] Thank you.

[33:32] This item will be co-presented by Warren Green, Manager of Contracts and Procurement and Susanna

[33:38] Schof, Supervisor of Contracts and Procurement, and she will be presenting for the first

[33:44] time.

[33:45] Thank you.

[33:46] Morning, Warren.

[33:46] Morning, Susanna.

[33:47] Good morning.

[33:48] Good morning.

[33:49] Good morning, Mr. Moore.

[33:50] Good morning, Mr. Moore.

[33:53] Good morning, Mr. Moore.

[33:55] for contracts and procurement supervisor, and we're here today to provide a contract

[33:59] procurement update as well as some information on our business outreach program.

[34:06] The contracts and procurement departments, primary goals, focus in the areas of fiscal

[34:11] responsibility and culture of excellence as a relationship to the strategic plan.

[34:15] However, due to the collaborative nature and engagement that we work with units throughout the agency,

[34:21] we are a part of the overall strategic plan implementation.

[34:24] With

[34:28] that, I'll turn over to Susanna to present a slide related to the value of the contracts and procurement department across the agency.

[34:39] Thank you, Warren.

[34:41] Good morning, Chair, Tulitha and Director Hover.

[34:45] Contracts and procurement serves as a strategic partner in every department across the agency.

[34:52] Whether we are supporting water reliability projects, capital improvements, operations and maintenance or finance and administrative services.

[35:00] Our role is to help departments acquire the goods and services and capital programs support

[35:04] they need to fair, competitive, and compliant procurement. One thing we encourage across

[35:10] the agency is to involve us early. The sooner we are brought into the project, the more

[35:15] we can help identify the best procurement approach, establish schedules, identify potential

[35:21] risks, and position the project for success. Our involvement does not end once a solicitation

[35:28] is advertised, we manage competitive procurement processes, help prepare board actions, support

[35:34] contract negotiations, and continue working with project managers throughout the life of each

[35:39] contract by assisting with amendments, contract administration, and procurement guidance.

[35:45] If you look at the graph on the right, you will see that contracts and procurement has continued

[35:49] to support a consistent level of agency activity over the past three fiscal years,

[35:55] while adapting to changes in how we administer contracts.

[36:00] The reduction in active contracts during the most recent fiscal year is primarily results

[36:05] of pandemic-related contract extensions, reaching completion and greater use of master service

[36:11] contracts, which allow a single contract to be used for multiple projects.

[36:18] At the same time, the number of new contracts and competitive solicitations has continued

[36:22] to grow, reflecting the agency's ongoing investment in capital and operational projects.

[36:27] These trends demonstrate that our workload is not diminished, rather the way we deliver

[36:32] procurement services has evolved to better support the agency's changing business needs.

[36:38] A board award is not the end of our work, in many cases it's just the beginning of the contract

[36:42] administration process.

[36:44] Ultimately our mission is to help departments deliver projects successfully, while protecting

[36:49] Public resources through fair competition, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability.

[36:55] That concludes my portion of the presentation.

[36:57] Now I'll turn the presentation back over to Warren Green, who will provide an update on our business outreach efforts,

[37:03] and how we are continuing to expand awareness and engagement within our vendor community.

[37:08] Thank you.

[37:10] Thank you, Suzanne.

[37:14] With respect to the agency's business outreach program, over the last 18 months we've really been ramping up and increasing

[37:20] the engagement through various different approaches and avenues.

[37:26] We participate in business expos, procurement fairs, small business events, as well as industry conferences.

[37:33] In addition to those types of events, we also host open houses just at the agency,

[37:37] as well as collaborative events with member agencies, as well as other water agencies like metropolitan water district.

[37:44] One example of that is last October we co-hosted with Metropolitan a series of four training sessions over four weeks with 25 contractors where we provided information on how to do business with IUA, Metropolitan Water District, as well as bringing in its their OCE, OCE small business development which provides resources to small businesses, free resources to small businesses in terms of professional development and other resources.

[38:14] So with that, kind of that transferring over to what we provide when we do these engagement events.

[38:22] We provide information related to IUA projects, procurement opportunities from an O&M perspective.

[38:27] We give information on how to register with planet bids at the agency, as well as information on our insurance.

[38:34] Our general insurance requirements and then helpful tips and tricks.

[38:39] So going back to those events, the training opportunities.

[38:43] So, as a small business, we would recommend when they register with Planet Bids,

[38:48] you have to identify your NIGP code, which is National Institute of Government purchasing specific to your type of work.

[38:54] As a sub, we recommend that they also include the NIGP codes associated with the general contractors that they generally sub for, so that they get the exposure to the opportunities that they could potentially find other contractors that they could sub for.

[39:08] So, we want to just encourage them and give them more information.

[39:12] We also encourage them to use a general email code or an email address.

[39:17] When they register, that supports having multiple people within their organization have access to this.

[39:23] So when a solicitation does go out on planet bids, if somebody was to leave their organization, they don't lose track.

[39:29] They still receive through other members of their company.

[39:33] So just helpful tips and tricks for them.

[39:36] The slide to the right represents the activity over the last 18 months on our third party solicitation software plan of bids.

[39:43] You can see the columns represent the number of hits that the plan of bids has received related to solicitations.

[39:50] The green line represents the number of new vendors, excuse me, that have registered over the last 18 months for each month.

[39:57] and then you can see just a little gold numbers.

[40:00] And there, that's the number of events we've participated throughout the year.

[40:06] So bringing that into, as we move forward, excuse me, over that timeframe, we had just under a thousand new vendors participate in the registration process. So we saw a lot of growth there about 20%. Excuse me, as Susanna mentioned, we've had over 215 contracts issued, new contracts issued, and then we participated in 28 events.

[40:31] So, it's, you know, we target bringing new firms into the agency through these events.

[40:38] But one of the things that we really want to measure is how are we measuring the effectiveness

[40:42] of these events?

[40:43] It not only relates to the number of new registrations that we get on planet bids, the number of people

[40:48] that participate in the events.

[40:49] We also ask them, how did they hear about IUA when they do register so that we can kind

[40:54] of track the success of the event.

[40:56] Additionally, with in-planet bids we're able to track the solicitation information, whether

[41:01] there are new vendor participating, how many documents get downloaded, how many people

[41:05] participate in the job walk, if you're a new bidder and you do bid, we're able to see whether

[41:10] it's your first or 15th time bidding on a project or projects, I should say.

[41:15] So we want to manage and monitor that so we can report that information to the board when

[41:19] items come to the board.

[41:21] And lastly, two parts, we want to measure the effectiveness of the relationships that

[41:26] we build in these efforts, as well as the effectiveness of project delivery.

[41:30] So we want to build upon the success of the agency through these events and through

[41:34] this outreach.

[41:41] So as we move forward, strengthening IUA's vendor network to increase competition, enhance

[41:45] supplier diversity, and then ultimately support our projects, we'll do this through expanded

[41:50] outreach events, increase vendor registration and participation.

[41:54] We want to improve competition, key component is, again, building stronger industry relationships and supporting project delivery.

[42:03] We have two really large events coming up.

[42:06] One is the agency's open house for consultants.

[42:09] It's going to be October 22nd at City of Chino Hills Community Center.

[42:14] It's two two hour sessions, one in the morning, one in the afternoon.

[42:17] Excuse me, secondly we have the Metropolitan Water District, it's 26 in 2026, it's all 26 member agencies participating in their networks event at the Pomona Sheraton Convention Center.

[42:32] We have two tables at that event, so we anticipate quite a great turnout in outreach for that event.

[42:37] And the pictures on the side, you'll see there.

[42:40] One is last year at the Mellorx event that was in the city of industry at Pacific Palms.

[42:45] The other two are just images from the contractor academy that we hosted with metropolitan water.

[42:52] This particular slide was a great event that we hosted last month, August 3rd at the Chinatown Community Center.

[42:58] It was a contractor open house.

[43:00] We had over 120 participants.

[43:02] We got great feedback from the contractors saying that a lot of them wish other agencies would do this.

[43:07] It was a great opportunity, we had, as you can see in the slides, I want to say there

[43:12] was eight different units participating.

[43:14] So great collaboration, great participation in setting the event up.

[43:19] And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

[43:22] Thank you, Mark.

[43:23] Do you have any questions for you, over?

[43:26] Yeah.

[43:27] No, this is great.

[43:28] The outreach has increased in a lot of different avenues on behalf of the agency.

[43:33] This is just being one of them, and then reaching out just to provide employment opportunities to our local constituents.

[43:40] So thank you for doing that, I appreciate it.

[43:43] So we have some, thank you for the presentation.

[43:46] And it is, it's great that you're increasing the outreach at the next one.

[43:51] Thank you.

[43:53] All right, thank you.

[43:54] We have a receiving file now, and with that we'll go to General Manager's comments, Lisa.

[43:59] Thank you. I have one. Last month, the board authorized staff to proceed with the activities necessary to begin collecting the fixed recurring charges through the county tax roll.

[44:14] I wanted to share that last week staff provided an update on this action item to the policy committee, which was then followed by discussion and comments regarding communications around.

[44:28] found our progress towards this effort.

[44:33] I wanted to share that staff communicated at the policy committee that they are providing regular updates to the committee, and also before the board's August action item.

[44:47] Staff invited all seven sewer collection agencies to a meeting in advance of that action item.

[44:56] and staff met with all six agencies in a group.

[45:04] And I also wanted to share that, you know, staff remain committed to providing proactive ongoing communication around the direct collection and other activities. And that is all I have. Thank you. Great. Thank you for the update.

[45:27] I think what was common was comments and feedback about the communication that was received

[45:42] regarding the progress on this item. At least one policy committee member felt that they

[45:50] I didn't receive communication on the status, and then other comments related to this item were in support of moving forward and being responsive to the policy committee's longstanding request to see this item move forward.

[46:09] All right, thank you for the update.

[46:15] Do we have any committee member comments or request for future genitams?

[46:20] Okay, and I don't have any either, so with that we are adjourned.

[46:24] Thank you, everybody.

09-09-2026 IEUA Finance & Administration Committee Meeting

Transcript