Board of Water Commissioners, Committee Meetings part 2

6:40PM Nov 6, 2024

Speakers:

Keywords:

quorum present

agenda approval

public participation

lifeline recertification

customer service metrics

easy pay program

human resources metrics

engagement survey

water affordability

legal committee

easement approval

capital improvement

maintenance and repair

fire hydrant inspections

us too long. Too Long You

tested.

I can hear you. Imani,

thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes,

this is Patricia. My purple wire was not plugged in in the back of my phone, so it was a real issue on Okay, great. I'm glad it works out. Yeah, Me, too.

I missed now Two o'clock. Everyone you

commissioner, black man, can you call the roll? I

I think you're on mute.

Someone calling me,

Commissioner Blackman,

I'm here, sir.

Oh, good afternoon. Would you please call the roll? Oh, it

is 201. I'd like to call the meeting, the Customer Service Committee meeting to order. Is it madam secretary day, or is it mister, is it Mister Secretary,

um, it'll be me today.

Mister Secretary, would you please call the roll

chairperson, black

man, President Detroit,

Commissioner Garcia.

You need to, you need to speak a little louder. Mister Riggs, can

you hear me now? Very,

very, very low, but go ahead,

Commissioner Garcia, Commissioner forte, will not be joining us today. Commissioner Garcia does plan on joining us, but we do not have a quorum at this time.

I do not have a quorum, not at

this time, but Commissioner Garcia plans on joining

all right, then we will during the meeting

to the I see her name, Miss Madam Chair, but she's on mute, Garcia,

I see her.

Can you hear me now? Oh,

yes, okay. Then we do have Thank you. And would you please identify yourself? Madam Garcia,

Jane, Garcia, Detroit. I mean Arizona, okay, Don

Detroit, okay, very good. The next item then is the approval there is a quorum present. The next item is the approval of the agenda. So moved, Madam Chair moved, and I will support all those in favor. Please indicate by the sign of Aye. Aye Opposed nay motion carried, approval of the agenda of October, 2, 2024 their motion still move Madam Chair, moved by Commissioner Garcia, seconded by myself. Any discussion on the minutes hearing? None. All those in favor, please indicate by the sign of Aye. Aye. Aye Opposed nay Motion carried. The next item is public participation. Is there anyone who has indicated a desire to speak before the committee?

Madam Chair, Brian pecker, Paul, Public Affairs, Director for DWSD, there is one hand raised. I can read them. Would you

please read the statement that? Would someone read the statement? Please?

Yes, I will, Madam Chair, thank you. To make a comment, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device. Using the Zoom app. If you are calling into the meeting by phone, press star nine to raise your hand during public comment. After your name is called, you will be given permission to unmute. In order to begin speaking, you will have to unmute yourself. To do so, press the unmute button, which is the microphone icon if you're online or on the Zoom app, or press star six if you are calling in, you will have a limit of two minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer indicating your remaining time if you're online and make a comment, we kindly request you fill out the comment card link that's located in the chat. By filling out this card, we will have your contact information to follow up appropriately. If you are unable to click the link, please let us know, and the phone number will be provided for you to call to provide the needed information. You will only be called upon once. Once the chair closes public comment. There will be no other comments from the public, and all attendees will remain muted for the duration of the meeting. Thank you for your attention and Madam Chair. The first person is Cecily McClellan,

thank you, Mr. Picken. By Ms McClellan, welcome. Welcome.

Thank you very much for taking my call, and I appreciate this opportunity to speak at this committee. Cecily McClellan, I do represent, we, the people of Detroit, and I'm raising the concern of the number of persons that have been actually recertified by Wayne Metro. Now, Wayne Metro is publishing a weekly number of persons that are certified, and that number is at 2284 now their pending number is like 12,363 the DW, SD pending number is at 15,383 anyway, if I just look at the number of pending based on Wayne Metro, that's like 18% and if we look at the number of persons receiving lifeline benefits, which is Over 26,000 based on DWSD. You know that is enormously I mean, that's an extremely small number of persons that are on Wayne, that are on lifeline, that are actually being recertified. That brings the question of what's happening, and how long will Wayne Metro continue to protect those pending DWSD customers while this recertification process goes on and communicating with Wayne Metro, we kind of get the impression that they'll be protected as long as they're pending. Wayne Metro acknowledges that they need to add on additional staff in order to ensure that they can complete this process. I'd like to know how long is the protection going to happen? Will it go on beyond November, 30 of this month, and will these persons that are pending be held in protective status until Wayne Metro can complete their recertification process.

Thank you. Thank you. Miss Nicole. And I do believe, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Phillips is going to to make some comments during his report regarding the status of those who are still waiting to be recertified. Is that correct? Mr. Phillips, yes, yes. Madam Chair, so we will cover that under any in his report. So thank you for your comments, and we'll get we'll hopefully you'll stay tuned to hear what he has to say.

Madam Chair, the next person is Norell Hemphill,

Miss Hemphill. How are you

this afternoon? May

I be hurt. Yeah,

we're hearing you now. Go ahead, dear. Yes, I

had a couple of logistical concerns. Number one, when did When and how did public comment go from three minutes to two minutes? What's your process for deciding to change public comment and reducing it by a third is drastic. We already know that this, this format, is not really conducive to a back and forth. It's not conducive to really getting the the ideas, the needs, the thoughts of community in this space, right? So to reduce it by a third feels a little bit dismissive, and I think that that should be reconsidered. Additionally, are these meetings being kept online on the YouTube channel? Are they the committee meetings being broadcasted again with with the limited, more unlimited public comment. I think it's important that we give community places to engage, not only for criticism, but to get information, I find the committee meetings to be extremely informative. And finally, again, with logistical for public comment. If we could move public comment after presentations or add an additional public comment after presentation, it would be helpful. I think that there's an expertise that an genius and a brain trust that exists in community that's not able to be added to the conversation when public comment is at the front of the meeting. For example, myself, I'm an attorney. That's an expertise very few people, if any, on on the committee, have right. And then we have people who are have been social workers for years, people who work throughout the city. So I think that it will really be imperative that we look at the brain trust and genius of community community, and how we can harness and use that to make all of the programs better. Thank you.

Thank you. Miss him. Hill. I would just add that the our meetings are broadcast on YouTube. So is there anyone else who would like to address this committee this time?

And Madam Chair just to add you to your comment that they are broadcast on YouTube, and they remain on YouTube once they're broadcasted. So anybody can go to our YouTube channel and look at the look and view the meetings afterward. The next person is Damico Williams.

Yes, hello, yes. Who is this? Please? Oh, I'm hearing Mr. Williams. Yes.

Damico Williams, Chief Executive Director hydrate Detroit. We're a 513, C, water rights advocacy that helps people with high water bills. We pay water bills and help people stay connected to clean running water. Thank this board for this opportunity. I would like three minutes back. Not sure if you guys have a lot on the table, but your agenda doesn't have a lot on the table, so hopefully we can have that three minutes back, if possible. And also community meetings. We miss you guys. Come out and stick it with us in the communities. I'm sure people would love to see you. I also want to say thank you to the Board of Water commissioners. Thank you to the executive leadership of DWSD, customer service, leadership. The DWSD for their partnership with hydrate Detroit. Over these past nine years, we have worked together to connect many people, to give them another chance and also keep clean water running through the city of Detroit. I also want to thank Matthew Phillips and Gary Brown for working with us, with customers that we do have, even if the circumstances are crazy and such, we have a public service to make sure that everybody is connected to clean, affordable running water. I just want to say that the holiday fundraisers coming up next month. We'll start on December 1, Giving Tuesday is December 3. We hope that the city of Detroit residents still reach out to us if they have any problems with their water service or can't get through, get on that easy play program. I'm very happy with the results that I've read that Mr. Phillips is going to present, and I hope that we could take this a little higher to make sure that, as you all spent money to shutting off people back in the day, you could spend the same money or the same effort and time getting people back on and run it as a campaign now that the elections are over, thank you so much for this time. Have a great day.

Thank you, Mr. Williams, and I will just like to add that I think the reason we went from three minutes to two minutes is when we had a huge number of people who wanted to speak. So we will take your recommendation and that of MS Hemphill under consideration to return it to the three minutes customer service time. Pardon me, comment time. Is there anyone else?

Madam Chair, Mr. Williams, was the last hand raised. Okay.

Thank you very much, and we will close public participation and move on to communications. I see none and under unfinished business. Jacob Graham, restoration, is there any comment about that?

Yeah. Madam Chair, we have, in fact, Deputy Director Smalley has met with Mr. Graham, and Sam just came off of on the camera. So I'll let him finish. Yes.

Madam Chair, we have continued to look into the alley issue. We ultimately found that our contractor did, in fact, do some work near the middle of the alley. Our inspectors are collaborating with Mr. Graham, making sure that the restoration of that portion of the alley is done satisfactory so the resolution continues,

and he and he is satisfied with with the communication we've we've had with him, I believe so yes. Thank you very much. Well, I'm glad to hear that update, and that will keep it you'll keep us informed as to the progress on that. The next item on the agenda then is new business. Mr. Phillips, would you like to lead us through our customer service presentation?

Thank you, Madam Chair

and camera, can you just confirm that my you guys can see my screen?

We can see your screen.

Thank you. All right, let's we'll get right into it. We're looking at the customer service. October 2024 Our call volume, mainly for the month of October, was driven by non payment enforcement, easy pay and lifeline questions. We did have a record month. It is the highest, at least, in the last five years that I've seen of keeping data. So we had 65,000 calls that came in. We responded to over 8000 emails. And we had a total of 73,399 total customer touch points for the month, which is approximately 4000 more contacts with our customers than we did in the previous month of September. We averaged nearly 3200 contacts per day to our forecast of 1400 in total, answering questions through our automated system and talking face to face with customers. We had over 175,000 total customer touch points for the month, our volume was 120 28% over the forecasted volume, and 10% of our calls were were answered within two minutes before

I'm sorry, please go ahead.

The average speed of answer for the emergency line was seven minutes and 24 seconds, with a 28% service level, meaning that 28% of our calls were answered within 120 seconds, and the average speed of answer on our non emergency line was 24 minutes and 20 seconds and a 1% service level. I think the last slide, as I mentioned, we were 128% over forecast, which specifically leads to the higher than average speed of answer do we have for the month? I will say, though, that our customer service team has done an absolutely remarkable job of trying to keep up with that volume. And I think the most important thing is, is that they have remained true to the customer service word, which is to provide the best customer service that they can and that shows through our customer satisfaction score, which we hit 14 straight months in a row at above the goal. The goal is 72% we had 81% for the month of October, and our first call resolution is actually two months in a row that we've met or exceeded that goal. The goal is 71% we met 71% for the month of October,

and we met. We have to open up the next committee meeting. All right. Thanks,

Don. I was trying to go really fast and try to get it in in the last three minutes, but

go ahead.

Madam Chair, would you

call? Yes, I will adjourn the Customer Service Committee. Me to the COVID chair.

All right, Madam Secretary, we will now call the human resources and Organizational Development Committee to order Madam Chair, could we have a roll call?

Mr. Our chair is not here.

Speaking, hello,

I thought he said, Oh, please, Hello, sir.

Chairperson Davis present, Commissioner bagman present, Detroit, Commissioner Garcia, you.

Commissioner Garcia, you're on mute.

Commissioner Garcia is present. Mr. Chair, we do have a forum.

Thank you. Mr. Riggs, we will now reach I'm sorry, we will reconvene to the call of the chair.

Can you hear me? Yes,

we hear you. Now. We're going back. Thank you. I would like to reconvene the Customer Service Committee meeting. Mr. Phillips, I'm seeing an interesting screen. Okay, please continue with your report. Or

is this more interesting?

Yes, all right.

So we'll continue on with the october 2024 customer service presentation. We received nearly 12,000 easy pay calls, customers calling to get on the easy play pay program. Is there any questions about the metrics of customer service?

All right, Madam Chair, if there's no questions, I would like to move on to the like, Okay, thank you. Moving on to the lifeline affordability and easy pay programs. So currently we have 64,761 accounts, water accounts, that are currently protected from shut off. That is the 26th and this is just for the month of October. There was a total of 26,718 individuals receiving the lifeline benefit, easy pay has 12,745 people registered on easy pay. There was 2136 on the old 10 3050 payment plan that are still enrolled in that program. 7700 are currently pending eligibility as new enrollees into lifeline and then pending recertification by Wayne Metro is 15,383 as of October 29 there was a couple of question or a question, from Miss McClellan, about the recertification process. So I just want to make the statement that during the lifeline recertification process, if a current lifeline customer completes the recertification process, which includes completing a an application with Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, they will be protected until the application is processed by Wayne Metro. Part Two of that response in that question also goes to the timeline, and right now, currently, Wayne Metro is estimating to get through all 15 thought, well, there's a remaining 13,000 recertifications that are left outside of the 2000 and have already been processed. They anticipate completing that by the end of November.

So would you explain the customers who are who have applied for recertification? They are still protected.

That is correct, ma'am.

And do we have a figure of how many have not applied for recertification?

So just approx, yes, there's a total of 16,000 so half of the people that were on lifeline as of October 1 have applied for recertification. And so that leaves the remaining half, so approximately 11,000 people have not recertified. I'm

sorry, I should have asked there are any questions from the committee on this slide or on this effort, and please continue.

All right, just to give the results of easy pay as of October 2024, again, 12,745 individuals are enrolled. Have been enrolled since August 8822 are actively paying on a monthly basis, which has a which is a success rate of 70% the 10, 3050, had a 90 day success rate of 10% so we've seen a considerable increase in the success of of easy pay as a payment plan program compared to the previous program, which I would contribute as a or say that that is a success. We've collected nearly $1.5 million in the first 90 days of the program. And our vendor that we have selected promise pay, they've been secured. And hopefully our goal is that by q1 of 2025 they will be active and collecting payments from our customers on easy pay. So we're currently working through that project plan and timeline as we speak. And that concludes the customer service presentation.

Any question from committee members. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Phillips, again, our commendations to staff for doing going above and beyond.

Thank you, Madam Chair,

all right, that that takes us to our planning calendar. Is there anything to report under there? No, ma'am, not this month, all right, and there are no other matters. So our next meeting is December the fourth, getting into Christmas season. Are there any comments by commissioners before I ask for adjournment? Hearing? None chair will entertain a motion for adjournment.

Support. Robin

moved and supported the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. We'll now reconvene the Human Resources Committee. Is there a motion to approve today's agenda?

So Mr. Chair,

support

motion has been made and properly supported. All in favor of the motion, signified by the sign of Aye. Aye. All opposed, and that motion is carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of October two? So moved support. Motion has been made and properly supported. All in favor of the motion, signify by the sign of aye, aye, all opposed, and that motion is carried as well. We do not I'm sorry, public participation. Mr. Peckinpah, do we have any hands raised? Mr. Chair, we

do have two hands. Hands raised. Do you want me to read the instructions or go straight to the guests?

I'll leave it to your best judgment.

We'll go straight to the guests, and thank you for the opportunity to make that decision. The first person is Jane.

Jane, welcome,

Jane, this is your turn to speak during public comment.

And Jane, you should be able to unmute yourself.

Mr. Chair, while Jane trying to figure that out, we do have Mr. Williams who'd like to make a comment next.

All right, Mr. Williams, welcome you. It's Mr. Will Williams, is your turn to speak during public comment?

Oh, sorry,

I'm unmuting him now.

Mr. Williams, are you there?

Mr. Williams,

Mr. Chair, can you name Mr. Williams? Can unmute? I see she's unmuted now.

Jane, are you there? All right, well, how about this? If there's no objections, why don't we continue with the remaining parts of our agenda, and then if and when those folks do get situated where they can be heard, if there are no objections, I'll be happy to come back to them.

No objection. Mr. Chair,

thank you. Could we have our agenda back please?

All right, we do not have communications. We have no unfinished business that'll bring us to human resources, metrics, and I suppose that'll be director Thornhill,

good afternoon, commissioners, I'll Now share my screen.

Okay? Human Resources, demographics. Since our last meeting last month, there has been no increase in employees. We're still at 663 dw, SD, employees.

Here's our breakdown by residents.

And again, our chart the year over year, annual head count increase. Are there any questions?

Did we have? We have, I'm sorry, guys, it was three

new hires.

We had a total of six people in and six people out. Commissioner Garcia, so the head count number remained the same.

Okay? Thank you.

Thank you. You're welcome,

and here's our retirement eligible information. Again, with 18% of our population eligible for retirement,

currently, we have a total of 11 requisitions, which equates to 16 open positions, and we just have the one slide. So we're doing a really good job at filling our positions. Are there any questions?

Okay?

And during the month, late month of September, and last month, we had our hiring fairs. We did try a professional career fair, but we recognize we need to be a little bit more aggressive with our advertising strategy, so we'll be sure to have some different ideas on advertising. The next time we implement and conduct a professional career fair, are there any questions before we go into our planning calendar, we're going to talk about our engagement survey here at the city of Detroit, the engagement survey has been administered during the odd years 2020 2022 and 2024 so I'll take you through some quick demographics for DWSD. The survey window was between March 11 and April 12 of this year. There were 47 questions across eight themes. Overall, the city had a 65% participation rate and DW st participation rate increased from 67% in 2022 to 70% and 2024 special thanks to our directors and chiefs, especially those in operations and customer service. In total, 420 DWSD employees participated, and 602 at the time were invited. Let's take a look at what those themes are, the things that encompassed the survey were customer service, engagement index, which was a series of questions, my role as the employee, as employees understood their role, diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership and supervision, ethics, culture, work, environment and communications. And you'll see the data or the response rate, the favorable response rate for 2020 2022 and 2024 and you will see from 2020 to 2024 dw, SD, has increased year over year. Look at the data in the far right column in the light green. So congratulations to the DWSD team. Next you'll see the same breakdown, but with the color layout from the highest to the lowest score. Still the same themes, but we broke it out by the percentage of favorability, which is in the dark green, so you see again where customer service is where we've scored the highest as an organization. Are there any questions? I

Our next slide is another depiction, the same snapshot, same data, but it shows for those eight themes, all three years in diff in different bar clusters. So again, you'll see from 2020 to 2024 DW SD, has increased the favorability rate. Are there any questions? So what do we do with all of this data? It doesn't make sense to give a survey if you're not going to react to the data. So what we're going to do is celebrate our successes first, so we take a look at our strengths and our areas to celebrate So out of all eight things, we took a look at the question that had the highest favorability rate for customer service. I take pride in delivering optimal customer service. 96% of our employees felt favorable about that question, engagement index. I intend to stay with the city of Detroit for at least 12 months. 84% favorability my role. I understand what is expected of me in order for the city of Detroit to achieve its strategic objectives, a 75% favorability rate, diversity, equity and inclusion, I can be myself at work, 74% favorability, leadership and supervision. My immediate supervisor routinely gives me feedback that helps improve my performance. 74% all of these themes are very important, but this is very important, because we have to recognize the different generations and how different generations respond to performing well. And one thing that we do know is that our Gen Zers and our millennials, they respond to ongoing feedback, culture, work environment, I feel like I can manage my stress and challenges in the workplace, 71% favorability. So we're going to celebrate everything over 70% and the highest question in each one of the themes, are there any questions?

Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, can you hear me? Adam, if you can hear me, but okay, Commissioner black, when I'm sorry, thank you. That's okay under my role. Where is it we cover the employee understanding the city's or their department's strategic objectives? Where is it introduced to them, and how is that measured?

That's an outstanding question. Commissioner Blackman, every year around August, each division sets their goals and objectives, and the executive team, we confer with the executive director, and we agree upon the goals at the top of the house for all of DWSD, they're cascaded downward and customized per division so that we can improve DWSD. So HR may have a few different goals than customer service and obviously, for obvious reasons, but we will all match the overarching goals of DWSD and we cascade them to the employees. We actually have a process. We used to have a form. Now the process is mechanized in ulti Pro, so it's all electronic, where an employee can see their goals electronically when they log into ulti Pro, and when we have post check conversations with our employees, or we discuss performance. We always refer back to those goals, and sometimes goals need to be changed throughout the year based on business objectives, but we always keep those goals in our line of sight, and we discuss them with their employees, with our employees, also to let employees know how they are performing.

Thank you. I guess my question, and you've answered it very well, but my question lended itself to they upset. They understand the objectives of their job, but how do they really understand the department's strategic objectives? Where is that covered and how is that reinforced?

That is a great question, a great follow up question. We do talk about DW SDS objectives as a whole, so we make sure our individual divisions understand what DW SDS goals and objectives are. In addition, we will be implementing town halls. We've already started the planning. We're just now trying to schedule it so that all employees will get a business update for DWSD in person, because we realize not everyone can listen to the blwc. So we're going to further strengthen this our results around this question, and implement town halls.

Thank you for your comment. Mr. Chairman, Chairman,

Commissioner Garcia, if you could come a little closer to the mic? Commissioner Garcia, okay,

I'm sorry,

I gotta come a lot closer you.

Can you hear me? Now? Better.

Much better, much better.

Okay, I guess my question is that, first of all, you are doing better. I mean, you're doing great in the customer service and the Human Services I'd just like to ask, because I looked at the numbers, 2% of Hispanic population comes nowhere near where the percentages in the city of Detroit. And I know there should be more efforts made. And if there anything we can help with, we will help you.

Yeah, yes. Thank you, Commissioner Garcia, yes, and I know that we have reached out to some of the community activists so that we can make sure you know we're available and our data for hiring is available throughout the region, in the city of Detroit, so absolutely we can partner, continue to partner, so that we can have outreach to all of the immediate areas within the city and surrounding areas.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, however, in celebrating those successes, we also know that we have some opportunities, and that's the purpose of a survey, so that you can identify opportunities and set objectives so that you can can improve the situation. So we took areas where we scored less than 55% and there were four of the eight themes, one being diversity, equity, inclusion, and one of the low scoring questions was at the city of Detroit, I provide my opinions without fear or of retaliation or retribution, so we know that's the area where we need to to work on so we'll work with leadership to Come up with some action plans around this particular question. Communications. The City of Detroit communicates with its employees, managers and directors in a timely fashion. Hopefully our town hall slash business reviews will help us increase the score on this question. And leadership supervision, my department leaders make a point of being transparent with information. The same thing with the business Town Hall. We hope that this improves this question score. And lastly, culture, work, environment, city departments collaborate effectively with one another. Currently, our directors and chiefs conduct what we call coffee and conversations, which has been around for quite some time, as well as Mr. Brown, and hopefully we'll get more feedback on how to improve that score. Any questions before I cover the last two slides?

Mr. Chair,

Commissioner black, I'm

sure you're not pleased with these numbers, and you're working you have probably strategic plans on how to improve them. How often will you be evaluating the progress? Okay,

my data analysts and human resources will be partnering with all of the directors and chiefs to lay out plans. In fact, we have to upload those plans into a website and it's reviewed by the mayor. So the city takes this very seriously in terms of areas where we can improve. And the executive team here at DWSD reviews that information overall, and we do check the progress.

How often do you take it quarterly? Okay, thank you. Well,

okay. Last two slides, there were a couple of questions we do want to highlight in terms of a word cloud. And one of the questions is, what is the one thing that, if changed, could have a positive impact on the workplace culture of the city of Detroit as a place to work, and I've shown you these work clouds before. So as we know, the larger words had more responses, right? But just take maybe 10 seconds and take a look at this word cloud, and you can see where employees felt that if something was changed, it could have a positive impact on the workplace culture. So we do have some strategies in place for some of these ideas that are in larger works larger print. Are there any questions here?

Commissioner Blackman,

under work from home days is that? Are they asking for specific days or just having some days because you've got remote work schedule as the main header? Are they looking for specific days or just an opportunity to have work from home days?

We took actual feedback from employees as they had written it down, so it's exactly the way they worded it. Commissioner black, okay, I understand, yeah, remote work schedule.

Okay, thank you Sure thing.

But on the flip side of this, now the last question here, What do you like best about working for the city of Detroit? And career advancement was the answer. So you know, kudos to our city of Detroit leadership and our DWSD leadership on providing career advancement, also all of the things that we do to give back to the city. You know that the mayor pushes this DW SD director Brown, Deputy Director Sam Smalley, they push this, you know, give me back to the city and the leader. So kudos to them. And that concludes my report. Next steps, though, are here on the screen again. HR will meet with the respective directors and chiefs and develop action plans. We'll collaborate with public affairs to conduct, probably, town halls and business reviews every three months, quarterly basis, or every four months. And HR will also analyze feedback, as I mentioned, from coffee and conversations to target some of those questions and take a look at some of the ideas that employees may give on how we can improve in certain areas. We'll publish the overall results in the in the flow magazine, and we will input the results on the city scorecard. Thank you very much. That concludes my report. Thank

you all right. Um, thank you, Miss Thornhill, right. Before we move on to other matters. Mr. Peckinpah, or someone from your team, do you want to give public comment? Another? Another shot.

Yes. Mr. Chair, Mr. Williams does have his hand raised it right. Unmute him please. Thank

you. Yes. Hi, Commissioner Davis, how are you today, sir,

I'm fine. How are you, Mister Williams,

thank you so much for conducting this meeting, and thank you to the commissioners. D'Amico Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit. I am very proud. Thank you, Miss Pat for your presentation today. I'm very excited to hear that you're getting aggressive on advertisement. Please, let me send you. Let me please send me an email or let's connect. I do have a few ideas that may be could be beneficial for the department. Also, I'm glad to hear that town halls will be done. This is so important, you know, because the city communication has always been a problem, it's not you guys, it's working with other departments and also the administration, through city council and such, to make sure things get done. But also, this is a great opportunity to connect with your workers, your employees, and the talented men and women of the Detroit water and sewage department. Great, great presentation. I'm very excited to hear some of my prayers have been answered, miss. Blackman, thank you some Commissioner. Blackman, thank you so much for your acknowledgement. Just only three minutes for the committee meetings. But I understand that when you have formal meetings, it could be two minutes, but yes, not a lot of people come to the committee meeting, so three minutes is appropriate for the committee time. And also, thanks to Mr. Phillips, we the people and all the other groups and organizations that make community outreach inspiring, but also we have to come together in partnership with unity and work side by side together to make a better Detroit. Thank you so much for taking my comments. Have a great, wonderful day, guys,

right? Thank you again. Mr. Williams, Mr. Peckinpah, are there any other hands, Mister Chair? We

do have to open up the legal committee.

All right, then we will suspend until the call of the Chair.

Good afternoon, the Detroit Board of Water Commission, legal and Government Affairs. Meeting will meeting will now come to order. Would you please call the roll?

Chairperson Ken lot present. Commissioner einhauser is absent. Commissioner Blackman present. Detroit. Mr. Chair, we have a quorum.

We will now recess to the call of the chair.

All right, we'll now reconvene. Mr. Peckinpah, do you see any hands raised?

Mr. Chair, there are no more hands raised.

All right, we'll now close public comment. We have no other matters. Our next meeting is December 4, 2024. Is there a motion to adjourn? Move

adjournment, Mr. Chair,

that motion has been made and properly supported. We stand adjourned. Thank

you, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Okay, one moment.

Thank you. We will now reconvene next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. A motion is in order.

Move approval, Mr. Chair.

Is there support? Okay, I'll support that. Support. Okay, all those in favor, signify by saying aye, aye. Aye. Those opposed. This item stands approved. Next item on the agenda is public participation. Who will be reading the public participation?

Mr. Chair, we do have to approve the minutes.

I'm sorry, I didn't see that. I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry. The motion is ordered to approve the October 2 meeting minutes. Move approval. Mr. Chair, is there? Support, okay. Support, okay, all those in favor, signify by saying aye, aye, aye. Those opposed. This item sends approved next item on the agenda is public participation. Would you please read the public participation instructions?

Mister Chair, yes. So yes, I will. Thank you. To make a comment, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device using the zoom app. If you are calling into the meeting by phone, press star nine to raise your hand during public comment, your name will be called and you will be given permission to unmute in order to begin speaking, you will have to unmute yourself. To do so, press on mute button, which is the microphone icon if you're online, or the on the Zoom app, or star six, if you are calling in, you will have a limit of two minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer on your screen, on your screen, if you're online, to make a comment, we kindly request you follow the comment card link that's located in the chat. By filling out this card, we have your contact information to follow up appropriately. You will only be called upon once. Once the chair closes public comment, there will be no other comments from the public, and all attendees will remain muted for the duration of the meeting. Thank You for attention and Mr. Chair. The first person is Mr. Williams. Excuse me. Mr. Williams,

thank you.

Hi, good afternoon, commissioners. Commissioner Ken lock, how are you today? I'm fine. Thank you. Yes. Congratulations on your re election, sir, what a great, mighty man you are in serving our community and making sure that we all have the tools to thrive. And thank you so much for your leadership.

Thank you, yes, sir.

So I just want to comment under this committee. You know, the more I think about all of these situations in regards to I'll never forget what former deputy director Miss Palencia Mobley said to me in a meeting in regards to creating water affordability. We were talking about the possibilities and of legal actions, if anyone were to sue us from the outside. And the first thing she said to me is, I said, Well, I asked who's going to sue us? Who's going to sue us? And she said it could be Oakland County or anywhere. But what I kept thinking about is, if we're not doing anything to protect our customers, all of our customer class, we could get sued, but I never thought we could get sued from the very same people that we ended up in court a few years ago. And the more I think about that day that we could have had settlement on this water issue. We're still today working on affordability, but we have got to understand that affordable water, to give it to its customers is not wrong. Yes, we trying to make people pay their water bills, and everyone's paying their water bills, but people need relief. These drainage fees are going to be the next counterclaim to sue. What are we doing to prevent lawsuits? That's all I want to say. Thank you so much.

Yes, is there anyone else?

Mr. Trick, Mr. Chair. There is no. Hands raised,

thank you. Next item on the agenda, I mean, what's up is communication. A motion is in order to receive and file the foyer report, Mr.

Chair, I would move that the receiving file the FOIA report and the litigation report support.

Okay, all those in favor signify by saying aye, aye. Those opposed that action stands approved. Next item is the litigation report. Motion is ordered to approve the litigation report.

Move that we receive the litigation report, Mr. Chair, is there going to be a presentation?

Um, no, we just receive and file that. All

right. Then I will move that we receive and file Okay.

Support, okay, all those in favor, signify by saying aye, aye. Aye. Those opposed this item says approved. Next item is unfinished business. There is none next item new business. Who will be presenting on item? 2024, dash, 237,

good afternoon. Commissioner Jacob Ari,

we need a motion. Commissioners

Mr. Chair,

I'm here. Okay, yes,

you would move to the Board of Water commissioners. I would move that we refer to the Board of Water commissioners, the to authorize the director to outright vacate a dwhd asset and easement at 601, Paquette Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 482, 02, and also authorize the director to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote support.

And at this time, we'd like to ask who will be presenting

Good afternoon. Chairman, this is Jacob Barry, Associate General Counsel,

good afternoon.

So what we have before you guys today is a petition to outright vacate a DW, SD, combined sewer and the easement that covers the sewer, the sewer runs east to west, from Hastings Street to Beaubien Boulevard. It has It has three feeds on it. The sewer solely serves the property at 601 Paquette. And the owner of 601 Paquette is requesting DWSD to vacate this asset and will assume full responsibility for the ownership and maintenance of this asset moving forward. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

I have none.

No sir, thank you

at this time all those in favor signify by saying aye, aye, aye. Those opposed action stands approved next item, Commissioner,

Mr. Chair,

you may proceed.

I would move that we refer to the Board of Water commissioners for the city Detroit water and service department, the to authorize the director to outright vacate a DWSD asset. And did we just do that? Yes, I'm sorry. I'm the next one. This is with 601, for kids. Easement based vacation petition. Is that the one I'm on now, Commissioner, we're on 2024, dash, 238, that's where. So I would move that we refer to the Board of Water commissioners the right the for the city of Detroit water and search department to authorize the director to grant an easement at to DTE gas company, and also authorizes the director to take such other actions may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote. My only question is, why are we calling this DTE gas company?

Commissioner Blackman? That was the name of the petitioner. That's that's the name that's on the petition.

I see. Okay, was there support? Though I didn't. I'm sorry I spoke up to zoom

support. Okay, who will be presenting on this Good afternoon?

Commissioners, Jacob Ari, Associate General Counsel, this one is a little different from the last one, and a little different than most of the easements that I bring before this board. In this situation, DWSD is actually granting an easement to DTE. DTE has an existing gas line that runs under the water works plant, and pursuant to a Michigan Public Service Commission requirement, they require DTE to maintain legal access to all their distribution mains within the system, and so DTE is requesting this easement over dw, SD property. This is a Glee will leased facility, and this is going to go to Glee was board next. However, as the owner of this real property within the city of Detroit, it needs to be approved by this board before it can go to Glee. Well, Glee will has reviewed the request for easement and has given preliminary approval as well, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Are there any questions? Okay, there being no questions at this time, all those in favor signify by saying aye, aye, aye. Those opposed, this item stands approved. Next item.

Next item is the planning calendar. There's nothing scheduled to meet with the our general counsel to go over the planning calendar, and then we'll go to next item, other business, other matters. I'm sorry there is none. And the next item is next meeting, and our next meeting? When is our next meeting?

Next meeting will be December 4. Okay, December

4. Thank you. And then the next item is adjournment. A motion is in order to adjourn. Move adjournment. Mr. Chair, support all those in favor signify by saying aye, aye, those opposed. The meeting stands adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you.

We will continue with the capital improvement program at three o'clock.

Good evening. Excuse me. Good afternoon. At this time it is, I Guess I got Two Minutes. You

Okay. Time now is three o'clock. I'd like to call the capital improvement program and Operations Committee to order roll call. Please.

Chairperson Coleman, present Detroit, Michigan. Commissioner Davis, you

Commissioner Davis, you are muted for speaking.

Present, Detroit, Michigan,

commissioner came up.

Present, Detroit Michigan,

Mr. Chair, we have a quorum.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to call for approval of the agenda as presented. Please, a motion, please

make the chair I move approval. It

has been moved. Is there a second support? It has been moved and supported. All in favor. Signify by saying, aye. Aye. One oppose. Aye. Pose. Hearing none the agenda is approved. Line item number four, can we have a motion to approve the minutes from October 2, 2024, as presented, please

move approval support.

It has

been moved and supported. All in favor. Signify by saying, aye, please Aye. Any extensions hearing, none the minutes are approved from October 2. Number five, public participation. Do we have anyone? Please,

Mr. Chair, there are no hands raised.

Thank you very much. Line item number seven, unfinished business, I see that we have none. Number eight, new business, 2024, tech 239, maintenance and repair presentation sponsored by the field services. You

Is someone going to present?

Yes, yes, I am. I just want to see if I can share my screen.

Okay, thank you appreciate how you doing good. You

I'm trying to share now.

Can you see my screen? No, there I see it now. Okay, you guys can see the screen

I'm sharing. Okay, I'm not sure I'm sharing, but okay, so good afternoon. Board of Water commissioners. My name is David Ridgeway. I work in the field service division as investigations, restoration and Miss dig manager. I'll be co presenting today with Katharina Taylor. Kath Please introduce yourself.

Sorry. My name is Katharina Taylor. I'm one of the managers at maintenance and repair, our currently managed Operations Center,

Awesome, and today, we'll be covering the performance and productivity of maintenance and repair and also spotlighting some of our new initiatives for this fiscal year. Our two main goals is to provide customers with safe, clean drinking water and reduce the flood resiliency. Resiliency. For the next slides, we'll cover a range of 13 month rolling averages, most of our work is done seasonally, so we're looking for trends and ways to improve the productivity of our residents. Each slide will have a gray barcode for our backlog for that month, a blue barcode for the incoming work. And then we'll have a green bar for DWP completed work. And if we have any contractor resources, will be a red line. So this service line handles everything that's comes in from our customer service department that says someone may have a potential water main break, or there's a flooded street, there's a service leak in front of their house. This service line was the first point of contact determine the next steps to give to our field crews, as you can see from our chart from February and March, we did see increasing number of investigations, which is due to our frigid temperatures during those Months. Our next slide is our water main repairs. On average, 60% of our water main repairs are given to the contractor and our field crews complete 40% of our water mains. We see a peak demand in January and February due to temperature changes, as well as June through September due to the increased demand for the system due to high water usage, the next service line is our service repair lines, which goes over our leaking lead and Hit services. There's a peak demand in the summer months, as we begin to increase our internal lead service line team and also hit service are being addressed. We have crews currently deployed now to address all current outstanding issues. Our next service line is our fire hydrant service line. We have approximately 30,000 fire hydrants across the city, and during the months of October through February, the Detroit fire department conducts its annual fire hydrant inspections. We deploy our field crews and contractor crews that quickly hit historically low numbers. We have a plan going forward, which we have maintained this year to stay under 1.5% of out of service hydrants.

Our next slides are Sewer Cleaning. We have well over 2400 miles of sewer that are 24 inches or below that. Detroit barn STREET DEPARTMENT cleans. Our goal is to clean 500 miles of sewer each year, and by doing that every five to six years, we are cleaning our sewer system, which makes us more resilient. This year, Deputy Director Sam Smalley, as well as our Chief Operating Officer, Eric camita, has increased this year's goals to 600 miles of sewer, and as of Monday, we have cleaned 655 miles of sewer.

Our next service line is our catch basin cleaning line. We recognized that we had a standing backlog of catch basin cleaning around the city. With crews and contractor resources, we were able to decrease the number of complaints on flooded streets. We have more to come, but we are definitely on the right track to complete catch facing clean. Our next service line is our Miss dig service line, which is our underground utility locating system. There are three types of tickets that come in, which is due to the response time, we have emergency rush and normal tickets. We are 100% compliant with our emergency and rush and normal tickets today. And as you can see, that there is a huge seasonal demand, from March to October each year due to the construction season, we have cross trained our meter operations unit, and have seen significant improvement in making sure that we stay compliant with Michigan public act 174 our next slide here is our hard surface restorations, So when our field crews go out and do repair we impact driveways, sidewalks and streets throughout the city. We have a backlog in the winter months due to cement and asphalt plants closing. We catch up the winter backlog in the summer months, and our goal is to make sure that we have any winter backlog by November 2024 and we have been considering efforts starting in July to increase our demand in order to meet that goal. Here is our field service organizational chart. We are broken into three sections. To the left is the investigations, restoration and Miss dig group, which is more data driven, more data intensive, group that's deal with our contractor resources. Right in the middle is our maintenance and repair and internal led service line replacement team that goes out and does the groundwork to make sure that we are properly maintaining our water and sewer assets and fixing any emergency repairs. And onto the right is our operation center, which we had broke off this year, and cat will go into further details regarding our operation center. Okay?

Hello. My name is Katharina Taylor. I'm the operation center manager at maintenance and repair. As David mentioned, the operation center at MNR is currently being improved. First of all, our staff is working in different locations which can cause communication and coordination issues. An emergency issue has to go through too many channels to be properly addressed. Also, Mr. Is not using all available technology and tools consistently. Our teams rely heavily on external communication methods outside of information in city works. City works is considered the source of truth for Mr. As all issues are reported through here by the citizens of Detroit via phone calls and improve Detroit app. City works is our asset management system that is shared with all divisions within DWSD,

with the newly created operation center, all of the staff will be located in one area, which will assist with increasing the productivity and the quality of the work. The center will help optimize the office and field performance as well by running daily and monthly reports, continuous training and utilization of our current systems. City works in Cuesta and E builder, and also including GPS monitors to show where all m and R crews are working. This center will be considered the one stop shop. All information will be received, dispatched and scheduled for repairs through this Center. This center is the nucleus for m and our operations. Thank you. David,

thanks, Kat, so we do have some initiative with the operation center. But also, as we stated before, we have well over 30,000 hydrants in our system. That is throughout the city. We deploy a lot of our contractor resources to make sure we stay up under the 1.5% threshold of the operable hydrants. And big thanks to Anil Goldstein, the chief strategy and process improvement officer, who has helped us tremendously with planning and meeting with the fire department to make sure that we stay up on the 1.1 point 5% threshold. And as of today, we only have 136 and operable hydrants, and most of those are due to projects that are going on throughout the city. Here is our plan that we've been working on to make sure that we are properly training our staff to develop them and make sure that they are working safely. This year, we've trained Toronto. People were certified and s license certifications. 16 Michigan Public Service institutes were certified. 21 in the back hole mini excavation training. 35 have their CDL licenses, and also, we have 14 people certified from the National Association of sewer services companies, which trains our staff on sewer televising, entering and interpreting the data. Our mission is also to make sure that our field service technicians go home the same way they came. Safety is a top priority for us in maintenance and repair. These are the classes that we are have on the continual basis to ensure that safety is a top priority, we could have not done all of our work for maintenance repair without our partners who help us on the day to day basis to make sure that we provide safe, clean drinking water and also clean and repair and collect wastewater to our treatment plants, use our partners to help us on the grind that does day to day operations and we think, and just some key highlights from last fiscal year, we had addressed over 147,000 city work work orders. This year we had 655 miles of sewer that's been clean with contract assistance. 21 people receive s license, upgraded current licensing. 35 people train in House of CDLs, within endorsements and in construction season, we are hitting hard surface sites within 45 days after the repair. And thank you. On behalf of myself and Katharina Taylor, we are working hard for you.

Hey, David and Katrina, thank you. Excellent, excellent presentation. Does anyone have any questions? Okay,

I have none.

Sure. I'm sorry.

I said I have none. I'm sorry. Okay,

Okay, excellent. Hey guys. Thanks again, once again,

Mister lane. Mister Lane Coleman, yes. I just wanted to compliment those two individuals on their wonderful presentation and let them know, at least from my perspective and on behalf of probably, hopefully yours and Commissioner Kinloch, congratulations and keep up the good work.

Thank you.

I echo that too. Thank you. Thank you. I as well. Okay. Next up is our planning calendar,

Mr. Chair, we will have the stormwater and permit update next month in December.

Okay. Thank you Sam. Are there any other matters to be bought, brought before the body at this time. Seeing none.