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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWater Board - Minutes - 12/06/2007Fort Collins Utilities' Water Board Minutes Thursday, December 6, 2007 Water Board Chairperson City Council Liaison Doug Yadon, 484-3611 David Roy Water Board Vice Chairperson Staff Liaison Gina Jarrett, 493-4677 DeEtta Carr, 221-6702 Roll Call Board Present Chairperson Doug Yadon, Vice Chairperson Gina Janett, Steve Balderson, John Bartholow, Mike Connor, Eileen Domfest, Dave Pillard, Reagan Waskom and Gary Wockner Board Absent Johannes Gessler and Phil Phelan Staff Patty Bigner, Dennis Bode, Terri Bryant, DeEtta Carr, Laurie D'Audney, Kevin Gertig, Joyce Grenz, Brian Janonis, Jenny Lopez Filkins, Susan Smolnik, Susan Strong and Carol Webb Guests The "Instream Flow" agenda item resulted in substantial attendance at this meeting, including Randy Fisher/State Representative — District 53, and Eric Wilkinson/Executive Director — Northern Colorado Water Conservation District, among many others. Meeting Convened Chairperson Doug Yadon called the meeting to order at 5:12 p.m. Executive Director Update Customer and Employee Relations Manager Patty Bigner gave an update on the search for the Utilities Executive Director. There are four qualified candidates that will interview on December 11 and 12, 2007. Selected panels will interview the candidates on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, with a community reception from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in the Columbine Room at the Lincoln Center. An employee forum will be held from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, December 12, 2007, at City Hall. Employees will be invited to attend or watch via video, and then submit their comments. City Manager Darin Atteberry will meet with the candidates Wednesday afternoon. Water Board Meeting Minutes December 6, 2007 Page 2 Mr. Atteberry is looking for a candidate who is a strategic planner and will help Utilities with the significant issues we will be facing in the next few years. He's looking for a strategic thinker, rather that an operational thinker, and someone with a demonstrated track record at the executive level. He is very interested in someone with a commitment to sustainability and to operating a green utility. The characteristics Mr. Atteberry is looking for include someone who is proactive, energetic and collaborative. Mr. Atteberry wants someone who can serve at the VP level and provide executive consultation to him, and not necessarily on just the utilities level, but also on upper -management issues. Mr. Atteberry is trying to develop a team of top level managers in his management team and would like the person to be relationship and results oriented. He wants attention to benchmarking and understanding of best practices in the industry, while staying on top of the quality improvement curve. Instream Flows Discussion Linda Bassi and Jeff Baessler of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) provided a presentation to the Water Board on Instream Flows. In Colorado, water is a scarce resource with numerous competing demands placed on it by an ever-growing population. Balancing the rights of people to divert and use water with the responsibility to provide a reasonable level of protection for the natural environment is one of the most important challenges of today. In 1973, the Colorado Legislature created the Instream Flow Program with the passage of Senate Bill 97. The purpose of the bill was to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of our natural environment. This can be through new appropriations or acquiring water, which is acquiring existing senior water rights. An Instream Flow or Natural Lake Level Water Right is an "in -channel" or "in -lake" appropriation of water made exclusively by the Colorado Water Conservation Board to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree for "minimum flows" between specific points on a stream or "levels" on natural lakes administered within the State's water right priority system. By contrast, a Recreational In -channel Diversion ("RICO") is a minimum stream flow for a reasonable recreation experience placed to beneficial use between man-made control structures appropriated by a local governmental entity administered within the prior appropriation system. Since 1973, the Board has appropriated Instream Flow Water Rights on over 1,500 stream segments covering 8,500 miles of stream and 476 natural lakes. The Board has acquired over 20 water right donations or long-term contacts for water totaling 398.91 cfs and 8,651.7 AF. Instream Flow Water Rights on the Cache La Poudre and tributaries total 335.83 stream miles and total number of appropriations is 45. A number of key considerations were introduced, including but not limited to: 1) rights are awarded as either a new appropriation or transfer of an existing right; 2) the Instream Flow Water Board Meeting Minutes December 6, 2007 Page 3 Right is held by CWCB; 3) a Recreational In -channel Diversion (RICO) is not an Instream Flow Right; 4) CWCB must find adequate physically and legally available flow to support an Instream Flow Right; and 5) the Instream Flow Right must preserve or improve the environment (primarily the fishery, although other environmental attributes are considered to some degree). This introduction will provide a starting point in the Water Board's consideration of this topic as part of the new Special Committee on Poudre River issues. The Water Board anticipates learning more about Instream Flow Rights and their potential application to Fort Collins when Linda Bassi and Jeff Baessler are asked to come back for further presentations. Customer Survey Lynn Adams from R.W. Beck has been doing research in Fort Collins for quite sometime. This is the last round for market research and the first round for benchmarking. The criteria looked at were primarily "Customer Facing Functions", which included Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service and Customer Communications. Systematic sampling of Fort Collins Utilities' database of current, residential customers was done via a telephone survey from January 31 and February 27, 2007. A series of questions was asked of 402 residential and 400 general business and commercial customers, excluding Key Accounts. Customer satisfaction is the standard market research that has been done every two to four years since 1999. This creates a good track record of trends as they develop. R.W. Beck looked at customer information in electric, water, wastewater, and stormwater, as well as attitudes toward renewables and conservation, customer interest in new products and tracked trends different from the last survey. Ms. Adams stated it's really significant that Fort Collins Utilities is doing this kind of work. In the world of municipal utilities, this is best -of -class performance to do this type of research regardless of the findings, which are very good for Fort Collins Utilities. This kind of work puts Utilities in the top tier of utilities. The desired response for customer service beyond the utility world is world -class, best -in - class service, which is generally defined as 80 percent top tier ratings, or A and B ratings. Overall, customers ranked Fort Collins Utilities as high to very high (with 90 percent or more grading these programs as A or B) classifying at "world -class" levels of satisfaction. There is one exception, stormwater, that is not quite there. This is partially due to a serious stormwater fee. Satisfaction with stormwater service lags the others with respectable, but not world -class ratings. Customers perceive a higher level of "green" than exists and want even more renewables. Conservation is at the correct level although almost 25% prefer more conservation. Water Board Meeting Minutes December 6, 2007 Page 4 This presents a challenge both in terms of communicating the Utilities existing commitment and actions to sustainability and "green" practices, and in identifying and implementing further efforts as appropriate. In the future, Utilities will be providing more information to the public. There will be more effort put into educating the public on programs that will help them understand Fort Collins Utilities is an environmentally conscious organization. Customers need to know what the Utilities stands for. Some of the recommendations are to continue high- performance by monitoring and anticipating customer needs and to remain proactive, implementing effective programs that address energy and water conservation efforts. Benchmarkin� Lynn Adams from R.W. Beck stated that Fort Collins Utilities wanted to benchmark best practices in marketing and customer service to be in a position for continued excellence. Benchmarking is of great interest in high -performing utilities. The alignment of understanding customer perception, having a foundation for optimal performance, benchmarking to peer utilities and defining strategic direction creates a solid foundation. The methodology of benchmarking is to establish practices to be researched, including a design survey instrument; identifying electric, water, and wastewater participants; identifying stormwater participants; contacting participants from April/July of 2007; creating interest; building high levels of interest and analyzing data/draft report. When compared to other high- performance participants, Fort Collins Utilities is among the smallest, yet performs at a high level that meets or beats peer utilities, with stormwater performing at industry standards. This is no cause for concern. Staffing ratios show that Fort Collins Utilities is outperforming its peers. Overall customer service costs were at or below the averages reported, in comparison with other participants, showing Utilities is very cost effective. Under Products and Services, many of the study participants offer an array of additional services. There seems to be a gap in Internet -based services in comparison with the other participants. Internet -based services are essential, and Fort Collins Utilities needs to work on getting these services for account information, electronic account access and bill payment, on-line energy usage and online service requests. This is a gap that is being addressed right now. In the area of Market Research, Fort Collins Utilities reflects the survey norms with two exceptions, including regular transactional surveys and Internet -based research. In the area of Key Accounts, the majority have such a program with some having a program for mid -size customers. A few of the recommendations are to introduce Internet capabilities in customer functions for both residential and commercial customers; evaluate offering a Key Accounts program for mid -sized customers by sending an electronic newsletter and educational seminars; provide customer service training for employees with cross -training opportunities; develop a recognition program to reward teams/departments for outstanding performance; develop and implement the tracking of customers to make sure satisfaction targets are being met; and develop action plans to achieve the defined targets. Fort Collins Utilities has Water Board Meeting Minutes December 6, 2007 Page 5 positioned itself in a "stretch" group of peer organizations and that's really good. Benchmarking and best -practice efforts are hallmarks of industry leaders. Approval of Minutes — October 24, 2007 Board Member Reagan Waskom made a motion, seconded by Board Member Mike Connor, to approve the minutes from the October 24, 2007, meeting. Approval of the minutes passed unanimously. Staff Reports — Ouestions A. Treated Water Production Summary and Water Supply Outlook — Information is in the packets, and if there are any questions, please contact Dennis Bode. B. Legislative Policy — Information is in the packets, and if there are any questions, please contact DeEtta Carr. Stormwater Annual Report Environmental Regulatory Specialist Susan Strong presented an annual review of the stormwater program as part of the requirements of the City's General MS4 Phase II Permit and related construction activities and construction dewatering permits. This included how the required six minimum control measures (MCMs) of the MS4 permit were addressed during 2007 and future goals for the stormwater permits compliance program. The six minimum control measures are: 1) public education; 2) public participation and involvement; 3) illicit discharge detection and elimination; 4) construction site sw runoff control; 5) post -construction sw management; and 6) P2/good housekeeping for municipal operations. The future goals for this program include posting MS4 Permit information on- line, developing an "Adopt a Waterway Program", rewriting permit and program descriptions for the next permit term, and more training for project managers and contractors. The second permit term begins on March 9, 2008. The draft permit is up for public comment with a 30-day comment period. The staff is maintaining compliance with permit requirements with a comprehensive and aggressive program supported by various City departments, including Utilities. Committee Reports A. Water Supply — Reagan Waskont — Did not meet. B. Legislative, Finance, Liaison Issues — David Pillard — Did not meet. C. Conservation and Public Education —Eileen Dornfest — Did not meet. There was an open house that was well attended, and at the next committee meeting, a discussion on comments from the open house will take place. D. Engineering Committee — Steve Balderson — The committee met on November 30, 2007, and received a positive review from City staff on water production and wastewater projects. Mr. Balderson will send a brief update of what was covered at the meeting. E. Special Committee on Poudre River Issues — Gary Wockner — This is a new committee with Water Board Members Gina Janett, John Bartholow and Mike Connor meeting to discuss any issues concerning the Poudre River. Water Board Meeting Minutes December 6, 2007 Page 6 Other Business None Adjournment The Water Board meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m. i JX G nz, Water Board Secretary