Chairman. We are actually moving down to the portion, of course, and there are none, so we would now be ever marked the Chairman's remarks followed by board members. I'm trying
to get trying to get him to the flight on time, I apologize. All right, so we are now at Item nine reports, having none. Now we are at item 10 remarks. I don't have any. Thank you for the opportunity. I will now open it up for all board members to have any open remarks at this time on item 10? Hearing none. We'll move right along to item 11 of our agenda, which is our CEO report. And I will yield the floor to ms coffin,
Chairman, directors on page 98 of your board book. I will go through the front end, what we call the front end of the CEO report. And as you know, we are actively engaged in building the next generation of water professionals. This is something I have begun to say, because I can just see it. It's happening, right? We have had after COVID and tight labor market, these types of things, we have stood up a lot of programs. And so I'm just going to keep saying it that we are building the next generation of water professionals, because that's what we're doing. And our apprenticeship program and our internship program contribute greatly to this effort, and these two programs have reached significant milestones. This last month, we recently held a graduation ceremony during which a total of 15 apprentices graduated from three of our apprenticeship programs. These are the bullets on page 98 there 12 of the graduates were from our first class of the five year electrician apprenticeship program. So this is a big, a big skilled trade in demand these days. So very proud to see that two two also from our maintenance technician apprenticeship and one from our water technician apprenticeship program. The event was hosted in conjunction with our partner at Focus HOPE and the Michigan Department of Labor and economic opportunity at this at the ceremony, the graduates, wearing cap and gown, received their certificates of completion from the US Department of Labor, their training certificate from their educational institution and recognition from state leaders, local training directors and family members. There was even a video that included each of the graduates talking about how the program has impacted their lives. You can find full details of the ceremony and the organizational development section of the report, just to give some of my own commentary. Such an amazing, uplifting event. So five years is a long time to be an apprenticeship program. There's education that they're doing at their at their the colleges, they're working full time. They're actively rotating through our facilities. And to see these individuals give that type of dedication to really, you know, changing their life. This is a, I mean, an electrician, a maintenance technician, a water technician. These are careers. These are great careers. So for them to work through that and see that kind of dedication, outstanding, so uplifting, so nice to be there. It was a full room, packed with family, and I really have to thank Pat Butler and Dee may Dino May. These are two people in this paragraph that I put here in od that have a crazy passion for this program, and it is just so good. Jordy Kramer, our chief Organizational Development Officer, is here too, and she's nodding along. These are some of the times when our career really has a cross section with what we're doing as humans. And it was just an amazing time. So very, very proud of that, happy that they're coming in to work in the GL, W, a ranks. We need that. Of course, they're experienced electricians in our in our areas, but really happy for them as individuals, to see them achieve that milestone. It was just amazing. Our internship program is, you know, another very strong program we have, building our workforce. We onboarded 27 apprentices this this last month. This is our largest, excuse me, interns, 27 interns. And this is the biggest class that we've had of interns. This is another really amazing opportunity for us to get folks who have new ideas, a lot of energy coming into the employment market and working with us for the summers. They work are assigned to nearly all of our back office and front facing operational areas, things like financial services, research and innovation, even six. Security, you wouldn't think that, but yes, we have lots of different interns, and it's really an amazing program. So a fun fact on our internship program from the last class, four of them experienced it so much that they extended their internships to this year. And we sometimes will employ these interns and we see the great work they do, and they inspire us as we are inspired they we try to inspire them right, giving them some of what it is that they need to get into their career, but they do a tremendous amount of really good work for us. So excellent step forward in this, building the workforce, building the next generation of waterfront. Just
a quick comment on that point again, for as long as I've been on this board, it's been a few years now, this
issue of internship was a topic
of conversation, something that we wanted to see happen. Talked about it a lot, and that happens in a lot of organizations and with a lot of different companies. You talk about these internships, and I'm just so that under student leadership,
that she's really embraced this whole internship program and concept,
so much so that it's, you know, it's gotten to be a significant priority within her administration, and we can see the fruits of the labor right now. And I just want to commend you for you know that's not just talking to talk, but actually making it happen and making it to be an important cornerstone of your administration and your leadership. So thank you
for that. It's
really something that I know first day, I wanted to see happen, and
it's happened. So thank you.
Thank you very much. First off, I support director Hendrix comments, albeit I didn't, I wasn't part of the inception, but I certainly see the proofs. I certainly see what it's come to. My question is, is there any kind of a graduation for internships at the end of the summer, some kind of program or something where it would be an opportunity for a board member or something to stop in say hello and support the great work that's going on. I know most companies, we had an internship program. General Motors, diction dig at the end. To keep one hour organization
relevant to people coming out of the college environment, I
want to let them celebrate family members. I don't know if you do anything like that, so talk me through that. What do you guys do at the end of the internship,
then doing and perhaps these are some other ideas to expand. That is at the beginning of the interns time here, we spend some time with them, those plus the executive team, come in and we meet them, and we tell them a bit of our story and our professional story, right? And so that's good. They work all summer. And at the end of the year, we then all gather back together and they report back to us the good work they've done, presentation back to the executive team about the good work they've done through the summer. So we haven't yet expanded it as much as what you're saying with their families and that type of thing as an official graduation, but it certainly is a celebration, and I will tell you remarkable how inspiring they are to us. I know that we, we we went to we go to these events because we want to help inspire them. But I think, like you said, to make the organization, make sure it stays relevant this energy that comes from people at this stage of their career is pretty inspiring. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know if I told you the story or not before last time I might have, but it just continues to stick with me. So I met two interns that were in our asset management group last summer, and they had said, you know, Sue, we've tagged like 10,000 assets in the last, I don't know, it was like the last six weeks or something. And this is work our people would have to do. We put a QR code. This is a part of that next gen Asset Management program when in tablets. So when you come into the the area, you can the workers now all have ruggedized tablets. They don't do paperwork orders, and they they scan these QR codes, and it brings up their work order, and on manuals, videos, all kinds of stuff for them, but to have them come in and actually, these, these two gentlemen tag like something like 10,000 assets. They're all over our facilities, you know, identifying them, saying, hey, this assets here, but one right next to it doesn't have a tag. What do we do with that? And they felt very proud of that. I think Bill did a nice job of really connecting with them. You are changing the lives of our workers, helping us to institute this. So it's pretty inspiring. So I appreciate your commentary on it, both director Hendricks and director Miller and your ideas about what we do. I. Very much like when we did the apprenticeship graduation, it was family, there were there was food, there were a lot of speakers. It was really proud moments. So that's interesting. Okay, so continuing on all that good news, because certainly our workforce and our people are are for given the pace at which technology, such as artificial intelligence, is advancing. I thought it was important to put some structure around how GL, W, a approaches these advancements in our operations. Earlier this year, we formed an emerging technology council, this is internal to the organization, to tackle the important work of identifying, analyzing and recommending emerging emerging technology to be piloted for consideration for enterprise implementation. The Emerging Technology Council is comprised of team members from across GL, W A who are keenly interested in new technologies and how they might bring value to the organization. Now, one of the things I think is interesting about this, this isn't just a top down thing that our executive team is now doing this. We're saying, let's reach out, because there are people who are very energized by technology, all through the organization, and all through the organization, there are technological advances that might be able to be piloted. Well, we can't grab them all, and we have, you know, vulnerable assets. So we're very careful about what it is that we allow our team members to use in terms of things like artificial intelligence and new technology, because it can be something that increases our risk and vulnerability as an organization. But so we want to be really have structure and cautious around this, but we don't want to squelch the energy that comes from those people who are most interested in this. That group will soon be led by a director of emerging technology. This is one of our new positions that we had in the budget last year. It and this individual will lead this. As we all know, technology is advancing so rapidly that we now have to be able to manage our risk, which we have a lot of good cybersecurity embedded in our organization already. But this is about what's best and what's next, what will work for us and what won't. So we need someone leading that 2024, year in review is head off the process. You should have one at your place. So Michelle stradowski and our public affairs team did an absolutely outstanding job on this. And, oh, by the way, this was in 100% internally created this year, except for the printing. I think they send it out for printing. But all the pictures were taken by our team. Brett McDonald, he's on the public affairs team and and really the in house design was done by Michaela Evans, who also works on that team. And I think what we captured here is the essence of who we are through these pictures. And this is one thing I think that team did just an excellent job on these tap in recruitment. You've seen those videos. When you bring someone in from the outside. They don't know our culture really. They try, and they can do a good job of it, but no one can capture it like we can capture it if we have the talent. So congratulations, Michelle. I think your team did just an excellent job on this this year. And you can see it. There's a digital version and a link in here, but you also have have this, this fine book. So thanks again, Michelle. Good job. Why I look good. There's a good picture in there. There's a couple really good pictures in there, in the back, yeah, yeah,
you'll see where, where you guys are, yeah. This border
gorgeous.
Yeah, yeah, we can't have enough shout outs to this border. This year, it's been just absolutely excellent. Okay, so I'm going to close out the report, as I typically do, by recognizing some accomplishments of the team proud to report. Our public affairs team's been nominated for its third consecutive Emmy Award by the Michigan chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The nomination is for an animated educational video, fresh water to drinking water, a splash course in water treatment. It explains how our raw water becomes drinking water through the treatment process. And there's a link to the video, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that that'll be there. One of the important things that we really need to do in the water sector, and this is all over the water sector, is educate the public on what we do. We can't just be going to them when there's a problem or we want money, right? We have to help them understand what it is we do. These videos are an excellent example of how we're doing that, and sharing those with our other water sector partners. So very, very good to have those videos out there, and we use them all the time and refer to them all the time. It also gives me great pleasure to inform you that GL, W, A has been recognized for the sixth consecutive year with the government, government, finance officers, association certificate. Of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for our annual comprehensive financial report, annual comprehensive act. This is the highest form of recognition for excellence in state and local government finance reporting. So well done. Miss Nikki Bateson, our CFO and treasurer, while many groups and areas and teams contributed to winning the award, I'd like to specifically call out our financial report, bringing an accounting team including Jill Costers, Steve Hoover, Scott, Duran, Cindy czap and Kathy Smith, Roy so these individuals are just knocking it out of the park. And, you know, we had a new financial system this last year. We've had a lot of things that we're doing and juggling all that and continuing the Excellence in that reporting, I would say, is absolutely what we were hoping for when GL W stood up. So well done, you and your team and those that I named here. And with that, I'm happy to take questions,
great report, any questions or comments from any of the board
members. Mr. Wilson, that takes us to item 12.
The only other matter Mr. Chairman, is to let members of the public know that the board has closed sessions scheduled if they choose to go into closed session, but unlike our usual practice, this time, the Board may take action after the closed session, and with that there are no other matters. Oh, excuse me, Mr. Turner, there is one other the board meeting on June it will be
careful. Miss Wilson, Miss Coffey, did such a wonderful job, but I got so excited I forgot to ask for a motion and support for receiving file. So let's do that now. Any questions or concerns again on this conference report, hearing none all those in favor will vote by the sign of i for receiving found. Thank you again. Motion carried and approved and MS coffee, great work. Include other matters that now takes us to item 13, closed session, and I will yield to Attorney David Jones for our leadership in this place, and I will carry motions as approval.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you know, the Michigan Open Meetings Act permits public body to enter closed session to consider items that are exempt from disclosure pursuant to statute. In this case, the Freedom of Information Act exempts this item from disclosure, attorney client communications and personnel evaluation from disclosure. So we ask that you take a roll call and enter closed session to consider these matters.
Thank you, sir. We have two items for closed session today, and I believe Mr. Wilson, it is appropriate that I take a roll call for item A and item B. Would you agree, sir? And separately, exactly what I'm confirming so first is for item A to go into closed session. Is there a motion and support for item 2025, 176 so
move approval of 2025, 176
and support. Miss Willis, would you facilitate a roll call vote? Please? Vice, concern,
motion has been approved. Item will go into closed session. Next item, item B, are you ready for me to take the motion? Attorney Jones, both opposed. Has been moved and supported that item B also be moved into closed session. Ms Willis, would you facilitate a roll call vote for this item as well? Yes. Motion has been approved. We are now going into closed session. I