Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We'll call to order the meeting of the Finance Committee. And we'll begin with the roll call.
Chairperson forte,
present. Commissioner Coleman.
President Las Vegas, Nevada.
Commissioner. I now sir. President, Detroit, Michigan. Madam Chair, we have a quorum.
Thank you. We'll move to approval of the agenda. Is there a motion?
Madam Chair, I move to approve the agenda as presented. Second,
thank you for the move. The motion and the support. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is approved. We'll move to the approval of the December 6 2023. Meeting Minutes. Is there a motion?
I would move we approve those minutes. Madam.
You been moved and supported. Thank you. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion has been approved. Now we'll move into public participation. We'll have three minutes per speaker and I'm going to look to someone to provide an overview.
I'm sure this is Brian Packer Paul, Public Affairs Director with DWSD. And you'll see on the screen we have our steps or virtual public comment. To make a comment please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device. If you're calling into the meeting by phone press star nine to raise your hand. After your name is called it will give you permission to unmute. In order to begin speaking you will have to unmute yourself. To do so press the mute button which is which is the microphone icon. If you're online or star six if you are calling in. As a reminder, you will have a limit of three minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer indicating your remaining time. If you're online to make a comment we kindly request you fill out the comment card late this located in the chat which will be posted in the chat very soon. I'm filling out the card. We will have your contact information that follow up appropriately. If you are unable to click the link please let us know and a phone number will be provided to 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.
Thank you very much. Okay, we'll begin with public comment.
Madam Chair, we have one hand rates which is Mr. Ross bulat. It's
Mr. Bruhl aren't you're on
Mr. Blonde, you may be on mute if you are could you unmute and you can please began.
Okay, can you hear me now?
I can hear you. Okay, thank
you. Good afternoon, Brian, Director Brown and members of the Board of Water commissioners. I'm calling on behalf of a citizen who Thomas Brown who owns a property on Plymouth 15227 Plymouth and he is being charged for drainage fees and has been for years. He's on the phone with me. But we couldn't get couldn't get a connection through. So we're he and I are on together on this. But the property next to him is 15325 which is owned and shows the ownership on the wayne county treasurer's website as Scott Memorial Missionary Baptist Church. But he has been getting billed for this for years. And whatever other remedies he sought in the past nobody has gotten through so I thought I would make this call on his behalf because it is a fifth of an acre. The parking lot that he's been charged for that is not his property. Is there anything I should repeat?
No, I think we have the addresses. We have the names.
Okay. And the the church's addresses right next door. regroups shows that the also as the mailing address for that parking lot. It's 15361 Plymouth.
Thank you. Is there anyone on staff that look care to respond about how the department will respond?
Madam Chair, we have the address will address it.
Okay, all right. It just for Mr.
Mr. Bill out we'll make sure we communicate with both you and Mr. Mr. Brown.
Okay. All right. Can I tell him what kind of time I'm not trying to rush or push anybody but what's a reasonable timeline for him to expect the response?
A Ross, it's Matt. How are you? Okay, they run out before the end of the week. I will. either myself or someone from my office will will reach out to you and give you a status update on where we stand with it. We need at least you know, a day or so just to kind of do an investigation on our side if you don't mind. That's
very fair and reasonable. Thank you very much. And I appreciate the time you guys have given me to for Tom to address this. Have a good day.
Thank you. You bet. Okay, we next we're ready for our next public participant.
Madam Chair, we have a individual named Maine like the state of Maine. You can unmute.
Could you unmute and you're ready to hear you.
More have good afternoon, board members and Chair. My name is Jermaine. I'm coming before the board with a question pertaining to the Lifeline program. And I was wondering if we can give some information on trying to get more people involved in the Lifeline program. I know we've been having a lot of people sign up but for my understanding Wayne Metro is swamped, and there's like no satellite offices open to the public still at this time. And I would like to see if DWSD can put up their own evaluation of how we can help other people in the community to sign up for the Lifeline program. There are still a lot of people who will benefit from the program. And I think that we're not getting those people that can benefit. Get them signed up because way Metro is just too backed up to even get a get to those people. So I think that we need to do a more proactive measure and come up with a different kind of route for them. My other question is, is I kind of want to know if it's possible for the department to look into where we are with the waterline replacement program. I know we're talking about we talked about this in numerous conversations. The board has heard this issue numerous times and I think we need to kind of like give the public understanding of where we at where the department wants to be for the forecast of 24 and moving forward a ton of want to know that information as well under the finance. That's all I have today.
Thank you very much I see director brown Kima.
Yeah. I would advise anybody that is looking to get into lifelines to continue to work with Wayne Metro, the state of Michigan is requiring all applicants to be recertified. And as you know, we have 28,000 applic applicants in the program now that all have to be recertified through Wayne Metro. So it's a state requirement. It is putting us it is putting a wide Metro behind, but we can assure you that if you're on the list, if you're sitting on the list waiting for your application to be reviewed, you enjoy the benefits of not being shut off. So continue to call away Metro while we work with the state to try to get them to streamline the process and and get people into the program quicker. So it's not DWSD it's not Wayne Metro is the process has been created that requires us to recertify all applicants that slowing the process down so bear with us. Continue to call away Metro get on the list and you will not be shut up. With regards to the lead service lines. The program is going great. We've committed to try to do 10,000 lines a year in 2024 anywhere on target right now to get very close to that number. So we're proud of the program is moving along and very shortly. We're going to put a map website that will highlight the areas that we're working on currently in the areas that we'll be moving to next. We're working on that website now and we'll get it up in the very near future so that customers can look and see when they might possibly be able to get some service. Thank you.
Thank you Director Brown. We'll move on to the next public participation.
Madam Chair, there are no more hands raised.
Hey, thank you. There are no additional hands raised for public participation. With that. We will close public participation and we'll move on to communications. The first item is out of May one 824 dash one missioners What's your pleasure?
Madam Chair, I would move that we receive and file the communication is indicated. Support.
It's been moved in supported. Are there any questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is approved. Item Seven is unfinished business and we don't have any. We'll move on to new business item eight. Item eight A is 2024 dish 11 We'll have Plante Moran here are the external auditors who are going to present a report that will have their sponsor is to ramen introduce this section.
Yeah, good. Good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon Madam Chair. No financial statement audit for fiscal year fy 23. was completed this past December and the auditors expressed their opinion on the financial statements for DWSD as well as the city as a whole. We have Timothy's and Andrew the partner from plant Moran, who was in charge of DWSD audit here. He'll make a presentation to to the committee as well. I thought he shared a letter to the board as well as the financial statements. Hope you received them. And he's basically going to summarize the results of the audit. So let me introduce Timothy St. Andrew from plant Moran. He is the partner in charge of the DWSD account. Tim.
Thank you Good afternoon Chair and board. So as part of finalizing the audit and anticipation of this meeting with you as a finance committee, we did produce this presentation. And then as it's declared mentioned, there is the actual financial statements. There's the what I call the end of audit letter addressed to the Board of Water commissioners, but just for the sake of trying to summarize everything we did put put a nice summary together here in this presentation. That's just a few short slides. And really, if we had any significant audit issues or transactions summary, those items would be included in here as well. Before I get into the actual presentation, I do want to take the opportunity to thank yester girl Hal and their teams because I was always getting through an audit is a lot of hard work. It's a three four month process that involves a lot of internal communication and collaboration but also a lot of coordination with us in the city. But your team was great and we certainly appreciate all of their efforts. So if we can move to the next slide here. So the main deliverable from us is really within your financial statements. It starts on page one, it is our auditors report on the financial report. And we did issue an unmodified opinion. And so that's a clean opinion means that the numbers and the disclosures within the financial statements can be relied upon. And as I mentioned, we did have a separate memorandum addressed to the Board of Water commissioners, but everything that's within there, were summarizing here within this presentation so I won't get into that. That letter specifically on this slide here, so we do discuss the potential risks of misstatement that were identified early on in the audit process. We had the cash and investment completeness and valuation, the cut off of revenue and expenses, and then reconciliation of the amounts recorded with DWSD. In Great Lakes Water Authority. We were able to perform all of the plan procedures on these these areas and found no issues with any of them. Move on to the next slide here. So this really summarizes our responsibility as the auditors under the professional standards and really that that is to express that opinion on your financial statements. We don't provide absolute assurance, which means that everything in that financial statement is 100% accurate, but we provide and set what the standard is called reasonable assurance that the financial statements and disclosures are free of material misstatements. As you can see at the bottom here, there was one new accounting standard that we had to evaluate this year and that was a Gatsby statement number 96 related to subscription based information technology arrangements, the department went through did the analysis and didn't find any significant agreements that would have fallen under the scope of this new scandal. So if you're on slide four, we mentioned the significant accounting estimates and we bring this up because a lot of people think that throughout an audit, we're able to agree any number that we test to a known piece of information, whether it's an invoice or a bank statement, cash receipt, items like that, but there are significant estimates, as shown on the presentation here. It's the the net pension liability the accrued claims and judgments for litigation, workers compensation and then the allowance for doubtful accounts related to the accounts receivable balances and are these we have to rely on a few different things we look at third party reports such as actuarial valuations. We look at attorney letters and then we look back at history to see any trends and then certainly talking with management about the future I will look to get comfortable with these estimates and do all of the testing performed we did get comfortable with them and they did conclude that they were all reasonably stated. Some of the other required communications down at the bottom of the slide. We had no difficulty as encountered during the audit and we had no disagreements with management regarding anything related to the financial statements. That are the next slide. So if we had any as part of the audit, we don't, we don't necessarily offer an opinion on the internal control system. But as we go through the financial statement audit, we certainly have to understand and test the internal controls in place. And if anything, were to jump out that we would deem to be significant holes in the department's internal control, we would have to communicate that with you. And I am happy to say that as part of this year's audit we did not identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Yeah, so I guess the clothes overall from our standpoint, the audit went pretty smoothly. We were able to meet the deadline and as I started, a special thanks this are going to hell and the team because I know it's it's not an easy process, but
this year this year overall went very well. With that, I'd be happy to cover any questions that you may have.
Thank you. We'll open it up to visitors. If you have questions. I did have one. Just it's a general question. Can with respect to c significant estimates of that list that you provided? Are there any estimates that are unique to us because we're utility? You know, the way we're configured from say, just a general audit that is performed with other organizations or companies?
Yeah, there's nothing unique so any any city county state organization they're gonna have mostly the same Significant Accounting estimates. I will say the one that's probably more significant for you would be that last one the allowance for doubtful accounts just because of the volume and significance of your Billings and the different groups that you're that you're billing for the usage. It is a heavier workout for your team trying to look back at history and I'm looking forward to to get comfortable with what that allowance should look like.
Thank you any other questions, commissioners? Okay, there are no other questions. I appreciate your slides in the summary. Are you did you have anything else to share with us?
No, I'm all set. I appreciate the time. Hey, thank
you.
Thank you, Tim.
Thank you.
So occur. There is no motion for this report or presentation.
They probably just accept and file their financial statements.
So commissioners, is there a motion to accept and file the statements that have been included in this presentation?
So move Madam Chair. Thank you
and I would like to make a statement. You know we reviewing audit reports is one of the most important things that a board actually does. Because we've got to ensure the financial integrity and we've not said much because the nice thing about about audit reports is briefer they are the better it is for us when they have a lot to say. They usually have a lot to say that isn't complimentary or is often very critical of what we do. So it's a clean report. Happy to get a clean report.
Thank you, Commissioner. So it's been moved and supported. Are there any other comments and questions or questions? You know, I will just say congrats to them is Tucker and his team on getting through this audit, ensuring that it was a clean audit. If there are no other questions, is there a motion? All in favor signify by saying aye? Aye.
Aye.
Any opposed? That motion is approved. Okay, we'll move on to the Finance Review. 2024 dash one two and is Tucker still your show?
Thank you, ma'am. Again, good afternoon, commissioners, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. They stick around on CFO DWSD. This is the monthly presentation highlighting our financial performance for the month of October and November. If you recall, we didn't have a January meeting. So the October results could not be presented. This kind of summarizes both the months. Financial performances for both the months of October and November had been very steady and there are no unusual or significant items to report for these two months. So I'll be very brief in completing this review. Or you. Next slide. Shin has got it external audit as you just heard. The audit was completed and plant Moran issued a clean or quote unqualified opinion. Also, there were no internal audit or findings or weaknesses or deficiencies in the audit as a whole which is comforting. I would like to thank all of DWSD divisions just not the finance but entire DWSD floor because everybody is somewhere the other touch by the audit, whether it's financial information or information. So I'd like to thank all of the WASD and all the divisions for the cooperation provided during the audit and special thanks obviously to the finance division and two especially the comptroller's office for all the hard work they put in for the last four months and the successful completion of the audit on a timely basis. Moving on to our regular cash and investments, we continue to maintain adequate reserves for both our operating as well as capital programs. Our sales and receivables November sales were slightly lower by 2.3% compared to October sales, and this is expected because of seasonal variability. October and November the winter months sales can roll up and down little bit. However when we look at November of last year, it's pretty consistent. And also it has done better than the budget as you will see as I go through the presentation. Overall for the month water and water and sewer retail receipts. The money that comes into our trust account were slightly lower this month, falling short of the target collection for the month as a whole. receivables for active accounts also increased by 2.4% over October receivables November has been has not been great in terms of collection our collection rate of 80.1% overall that includes all our customer classes were lower for in fell short of October's collection by 6.4%. In terms of volume and revenue matrix, both the water volume as well as revenues exceeded budget expectations by 8.4 and 10.5% which is pretty healthy meter equivalents and survey chairs revenues. Also exceeded budget by 4% and 5.1% respectively, whilst sewer volume exceeded 2.2% over over the budget level, revenues fell short slightly by 0.6%. In terms of metered counts and surcharges, they exceeded both exceeded by 5% Build a creates for drainage fell short of the budget by 0.6%, in terms of BIA are available in pervious acres, while the revenue fell short of the budget by 2.6%. This is an overall highlight. Then I'll dive into the numbers slightly.
Excuse me. Correct before you dive in. We did have a question why there is no report for December in January.
December, ma'am, if you recall, we present our information two months later. The when the month ends. So December will be presented in our March meeting. So October will be present in January November in February and then December in March and so on. So in a lag of two months because because it takes time for the month to close. And then after the month is closed we go through the review process before presenting the information to you.
Thank you Miss Tucker for the clarification. You're welcome.
Diving into the numbers first is cash and investments this is a little chart here. It tells you our cash position over the last three months for all our operating ayeni construction interest accounts. On a system wide basis you'd see gassing investments amounted to $277.6 million dollars as of November. If you look at the last three months, there are no significant variances in cash balances, which means our cash inflows and outflows are pretty consistent with our expectations in terms of budget and actual expenditures, except you'll see a slight increase in sewer fund operating expenses and that can be attributed to budgetary savings for the month of November. Now when it comes to operating accounts for water and sewer, we tend to maintain three months worth of working capital needs or operating needs in the account. And at times when there excess money there. We tend to transfer to ind support for November you'll see all of those exceed our three months average. For the water fund. It's $11.1 million, which represent three months worth of operating means. And for the sewer fund it's $13.8 million of $4.6 million we need every month. balances in the IND fund is the net of reimburse disbursements for capital projects, as well as this account being offset by lease receipts from GL wa SRF reimbursement as well as investment income. As I mentioned before, our collection has been slightly down in the month of November, the retail water receipts of 9.4 million fell short of our target collection of $9.9 million. So again, this can be seasonal variation. It's not something that I would be worried at this time because October receipts exceeded our target collection by a couple of million $1.1 million for the sewer receipts of 22 point 4 million again fell short of our target collection of $24.1 million. However, October receipts of 25 point 2 million exceeded that target. Once again, there's little ups and downs happen throughout the year. Not too concerning at this point in time. The impact of these changes in receipts are reflected in the trust account balances at the end of each month, as you can see in the table on your left. The next two slides will be presenting our cash position and in graph format. So these are our cast position over time. You will not see any, any significant ups and downs so it's pretty steady line across the board for all our funds, which is what we'd like to do. This is for the water fun The next slide is for the sewer fund. Similar story here. pretty consistent in balancing our gas investment accounts. Kind of reflecting our inflows and outflows are in accordance with our expectations. Only thing you'll see is a slight dip here in the month of June in the sewer cast as DWSD this graph on the left hand side top corner, and that's because of the year end adjustments we made. We made several adjustments to do to do from interface settling into fund account balances resulted in the dip in June of 23. But it's showing a steady and slow increase in balances as the graphs are rising over time. We go to the next slide Steena so let's switch gears to accounts receivable now. This is again a summary of our receivables. One is compared to June 23. And the next two boxes are week month over month changes so I'll go through this. These highlights real quick. So as I mentioned before November sales of $39.2 million decreased slightly by $0.9 million. When we compare it to October sales are $40.1 million and it also decreased by $3.1 million. When you compare to September sales of $42.3 million. As expected, this is seasonal variation, not much of a concern at this point in time. Active Accounts receivables increased by $6.4 million. You look at the chart here when we compare to October. Now this is mainly due to lower collection rates, as I mentioned before October and November's collections been slightly down across the board not just residential but across the different customer classes. And also I think, in my view, there is decreased level of governmental funding in the previous months. We had a fair amount of governmental assistance especially for our residents so customers. Net has kind of dipped down or almost negligible now. October receivables were lower than September receivables by 279. And that's mainly because of we transferred a lot of money to the tax rolls. Active receivables represent the highest increase of $3.9 million here represent 60.9% of our total receivables. You'll also notice on the right corner days an AR increase for all customer classes there is an AR meaning how long do these accounts receivable sit in? Their accounts before customers pay? Residential AR increased significantly from 312 days to 330 days. inactive accounts again make up 9% of the total receivables 90% of the inactive accounts are residential. You will also notice on this chart more than 50% or $91.6 million of active residents and our customers are more than one year old. They also represent 73.6% of our total active receivable base. We continue to monitor our allowance for doubtful accounts in light of our collection history and our collection patterns. The net carrying value of receivables standing at $59.1 million represents roughly 20% of our total receivables at the end of November we had a similar percentage in October so 20% of our gross receivables are now we call them net of doubtful collection 80% is more reserved. Meaning where we are not sure if we're going to collect. That percentage hasn't changed since October. Moving on to the next slide, Sheena. This is our collection rate graph on the left and the chart on the right. If you look at all these percentages, residential November collection decreased by 3.2% compared to October, and the three month average, which we take a moving average for the last three months. decreased by 6.5% from 76.4 to 69.9%. Again, as I mentioned before, it's a combination of various factors, including sorry did you say something man?
Sounds like it was a mistake, or you continue?
Okay. So, again, I believe the fall in the residential collection is a combination of several factors, mainly absence of governmental funding since the beginning of FY 24. Now the resumption of service interruption could lead to some improvement in the future in the collection rate. That's our hope. When it comes to commercial and industrial collection rates, they're at normal level. Again, this is all credit to a strong internal collection effort our collection team has put in a lot of hard work in in directing collection effort for commercial and industrial customers and I'd like certainly to thank them for their hard work and dedication. Although the collection rate for commercial and industrial rate is down by a little over 14% But if you look at the three month average, it's still over 90% which is encouraging. drainages is another area that we are a little concerned about the collection. The collection rate decreased by 5.9% in November and the overall three month average is only 71.8% which fell short of the October average by 2.1%. Then we switch gear. Last few slides here talk about metrics and revenues for both water and sewer. You can see here the graphs. Water volume for the month exceeded budget by 8.4%. October's actual volume exceeded budget by 1.3%. So November the better than October in terms of comparison between actual and budget. Year to date so far in the fiscal year we are 2.8% over our budgeted level. The revenue again of 8.9 million for the month exceeded our budget expectation by 10.5%. Which is great. The year to date revenue continues to beat budget by 2.3%. Now you'll see on this graph, except for the month of August actual performance, both volume as well as commodity exceeded budget expectations. So the next slide is just covers our survey charge matrix and revenues. meter equivalents for the month exceeded budget by 4%. Year to date is trending at 3.6% over budget service revenue also increased by 5.1%. On a yearly basis we are trending positively over budget I move down to the next slide. Now and the next two slides are sewer The first one is about revenues in terms of volume as well as commodity revenues pretty consistent as you can look at the graphs pretty consistent with our budgeted expectations, slight variations here and there. Not a matter of concern at this time. The next slide is our CMC Romito talents as well as sewer service revenue in both accounts, they have exceeded our budget expectations. And the last slide in this presentation is for drainage as I mentioned before actual bi are billable impervious acres fell short of our budget by 0.6% for the month of November. Even in October it fell short by 0.7%. Year to date, stranding lowered in budget by 0.5%. not statistically significant, but it's still failed. Actual drain is revenue fell by 2.6% in the month of October. On a yearly basis, our revenue so far for the fiscal year at $76.2 million short of our budget by three $2.5 million. Again, the shortfall is due to several reasons we its domination, decrease BIA are additional credits that we have to provide our customers and also an increase in doing credits. So overall, I think at this point, there is no reason to be concerned. These slight variations up ups and downs happens throughout the fiscal year. So I'm not too concerned or alarmed at this point in time. So that includes the presentation for the month of October. And November. In answer any questions? Yeah.
Thank you, sir. Question. I just want to make sure I understand. If you can clarify. For me the difference between commodity revenues and then service charge revenues. We use both for water and sewer. Yeah, so we call it commodity revenue. It's actually volume usage, actual water usage.
We also call it volume revenue or you know the amount of water we sell in terms of MCs service revenue is based on the meter. The meter counts when we install a meter and we charge the customers certain amounts for the service we provide. So the service charge has nothing to do really with the volume. The more you consume, the more you pay for the meter charges kind of based on the meter counts remains constant over time.
Thank you. Thanks for the clarification.
You're welcome.
Any other questions or comments? Okay, we'll move on. Thank you for that presentation. We'll move on to the operation budget for fiscal year 2025. And it's back to you as Tucker
Okay. Follow up dad.
All right. Time flies we are back into budgeting season again. Just feels like I had the budget presentation the other day.
All right. Let's start with our FY 25 budget. Some budget consideration that we as DWSD executive team as well as you know the finance people we take into consideration certain factors in in developing our budget and coming up with our budget affordability is a key consideration that we keep in mind. We generally tend to keep our rates below 4% And we support water conservation initiatives. Customer service is certainly one of the key things that we keep in mind to provide compassionate and responsive customer service. We our operations are obviously key our bread and butter for this operations and preserving and supporting public health and meeting and exceeding all state federal and local regulations. Certainly in the top of our minds. We also keep in mind our employees and even safety of our employees and our assets and our infrastructure. And water and sewer upgrades including lead service line replacement is a key consideration. Although that falls in CIP. And finally employ focus on training retaining, retaining qualified and talented people as well as reading highly qualified people for DWSD. These are all considerations that we keep in mind while we formulate our budget and then next slide, I'd like to go through some key highlights and the current budget and Brandman that we are working on currently. As you know, we are in a very inflationary environment. The proposed budget was built in an inflationary environment with inflation rate at about 3.4% At the end of December 2023. This is according to the US Department of Labor. So even in this environment, our goal for DWSD was to keep the rate affordable for our customers and at the same time, we did not want to compromise on service level initiatives. So it's a balancing act between how can we make the rate affordable at the same time not compromising our service? So So basically, those are the two key considerations in developing this budget and we wanted obviously, to provide the highest level of service to our citizens and customers. This module incorporates those considerations. And that's where we start these expenditures that are necessary now become the basis for determining their revenue requirements. In other words, how much revenue do we need to raise from our stakeholders from our customers or citizens to meet our expenditure? NASA expenditures need keeping in mind all the considerations. That term is known as revenue requirements, and I'll go through the process. So the total system wide revenue requirements meaning the revenues that we need to finance our expenditures increased by 2.9% or $13.9 million over FY 24 departmental expense or we also call direct expenses. Technically our expenses over which we DWSD have control increased by 3.1% or 3.3 point 1% or $3.2 million. And non departmental expenses or indirect expenses are the expenses over which DWSD has little or no control, and I'll explain that a little bit later in this presentation. So those non departmental expenses increased by 2.5% or $9.5 million over fy 24. There is another component called the revenue finance capital has a slight increase of 1.2 million. As you'll see in the presentation, as I move along, the increase is primarily due to increase in professional and contractual services that accounts for $4.3 million GL ws wholesale charges increased by 10.9 BNC notes, these are obligations that we owe to the city of Detroit is a 3.5 bad debt increase by $2.1 million. All of these increases are offset by a decrease in pension costs of $7.5 million. Although 31 new positions were added to the budget, salaries and wages do not show that increase as to cost centers, namely engineering and lead service lines. were moved from operating budget to the improvement and extension on budget in FY 25. As a result of this change the dollar impact on revenue requirements and rates in the operating budget has significantly decreased.
Even more points here, total revenue requirement. system wide is $495.4 million. It is offset by non rate revenue of 220 $2.9 million resulting in a rate revenue increase of $472.5 million. And we'll go through what is non red revenue in slides coming up. As a whole this represents a 3.9% rate revenue increase over fy 24. In addition to that, the 3.9% increase in read rate revenue is offset by a moderate increase in volume and media accounts averaging in the range of 0.6 to 0.7% over FY 24 This offset resulting in great increase of 3.2% on system wide basis. So even though our revenue requirement increased by three pa are a 3.9% rate revenue requirement. It's kind of offset by increase in volume. So in the volume increases, it brings down three. So from 3.9 It came down to 3.2 because of this adjustments for increasing volume. Now finally, you'll see the budget proposes a 3.2% increase in rates across the board for all revenue sources except for private fireline. That 3.2% increase is necessary to raise the money that we need to operate and keep the system sustainable. Now we can dive into the numbers. Here is the revenue requirement on a system wide basis. So you'll see here the first three lines, there are three components that make up a revenue requirement. And that actually captures the annual budget requirement for an expenditure perspective. The three components are departmental expenses, also known as direct expenses, and then we have non departmental expenses which we call indirect expenses and revenue finance capital. As I mentioned before, direct expenses increased by 3.3 million $3.2 million and 3.1% and indirect expenses increased by 9.5 or 2.9%. And 2.5%. Sorry, breaking down by water fun and sewer fun. Water funding increased by 2.4% When sewer fund increases by 3.1% with an overall system wide revenue requirement to preserve 2.9%. Now this is system wide which includes water sewer as well as drainage. This is a graphical presentation of our system wide expenses. You'd see the big orange portion of this pie chart here. That's the departmental non departmental expenses. So departmental expenses again, expenses over which we have control is only 21% of our overall budget. The big portion here and the big chunk here in the orange is non departmental expense which makes up 78% of our total budget over which DWSD has very little control or at times no control. Now we're in the next few slides we'll look into what makes up the the departmental as well as non departmental expenses. So this is the departmental expenses summary. Departmental expenses estimate is made up of regular operating expenses like salaries, wages, benefits, professional services and contraction services, all of that increase by 3.1%. Over four. And I just like to point out here that the terms departmental expense or direct expense, our operating expenses are used interchangeably, and they mean the same thing. Again, as you'll notice here, majority of our increases in departmental expenses is for contractual services. This is necessary to improve our service level as well as to address backlogs and service delivery. We also undertook some new initiatives in FY 25. For example, the fire flow test of half a million dollars of permitted service line connection and disconnects and $1 million. We have new initiative called Rapid control. We also pumping more money into the cat space and cleanup as well as hydrogen blasting. And an increase in soft restoration. So all of these new initiatives will certainly lead to better service level and will help our customers provide tremendous benefit to our stakeholders. The next slide is a graphical depiction of our departmental expense. I wanted to show you the dominant expense here is the salaries and wages and benefits on a combined basis they make up more than 50% of our direct expenses. Next slide. So you need the second component of our revenue requirement is not our medical expenses. Again, these are expenses that are called indirect expense or non operating expenses. A 2.5% increase or 9.5 or $5 million over FY 20 for wholesale charges you will see is the biggest increase of $10.9 million. Good and this is due to a change in the method of calculating our share in jail who overall revenue requirement framework and kind of based on water demand, including volumes and peak periods. And it's also a new calculation. They're incorporated in FY 25, which is which was based on asset registry. So that kind of has the biggest impact on the non departmental expense increase. Bad debt increased by $2.1 million. Again, our revenue requirement in the budget has increased. And also we keep in mind the collection history in our in our receivables, which kind of has an impact on the bed that percent and the amount of bed that we would like to have. There was some increase in our BNC notes on that service schedule, which is an increasing requirement based on our debt service schedule. Decrease in legacy pension costs. So all of this increase is offset by a decrease in our legacy pension costs. If you recall, we had a nine year agreement with the City of Detroit's Pension Board to contribute certain fixed amount of money, both jail wa as well as DWSD as part of the bankruptcy proceedings and bifurcation time. We agreed to pay $40 million on an annual basis lion's share of that $40 million with G LW A's, but it was a fixed amount. It was not based on actual determination of our of our pension liability to adjust based on a fixed determination and we contributed that $40 million over the last nine years that agreement has ended. So starting now, our actual liability will be based on actual determined obligation. So there was a relief in terms of seven and a half million dollars for FY 25 Which kind of offset that big increase in in wholesale charges. And that's why you see only a 2.5% increase in our non departmental expenses because of that big offset. Next slide is graphically wanted to show you what big impact wholesale charges have on our budgeting process here. The big blue person is all wholesale charges and makes up 60% of our of our expense structure in I'm sorry, 60 personnel for non departmental expense structure which is pretty significant. The next big one here is the pre and post bifurcation that again, we have no control over pre bifurcation day and then that happened before we got separated. There's our debt service that we owe, and we got to pay and bad debt is the third largest category here accounting for 16% of our total non departmental expense next slide. Okay, how do we fund revenue? I talked about all these expenses, what makes up all the expenses, the three components, the direct expense, the indirect expense and the revenue finance capital. So now how do we fund this? All these expenses that we call revenue required, there are two main sources one is called the rate retail revenue and the other one is non retail. So within retail revenue, you have two components. One is rate revenue that rates we actually charge our customers and non rate revenue is again charged from the customers but not based on actual consumption but based on fines, penalties, fees, and other related charges. And the non revealed avenue we have three sources. We have shared services revenue that we collect from GL wa for sharing common space and common services. GL wa also contributes to our pension and notes. This is a support agreement at the time of bifurcation
in the IWC charges, which is a flow through between revenues and expenditures so all of this rate revenue as well as non revenue and non recurring revenue shows an increase of 2.9% over FY 24 We take that 2.99% Total Revenue requirement and we back out the non retail revenue in terms of shared services, GWS share Penson and notes, IWC, it's ours and we also back out the non rate revenue to finally come down to what should we are retrieving what is the percentage that we charge our customers over the past. The next slide would explain that part. So here is a 3.9% increase is what we need to cover our expenses. And there are four components of revenues that we rely on or raising money to cover expenses. One is the commodity charges, which as the man Commissioner asked me, these are volume usage charges. The more you use, the more you pay, the less you use, the less you pay. And then the service charges are based on our meters and meter equivalents. fireline charges and drainage charges. So these are the four main components of revenues. And then the bottom part of the chart is breaking down by water fund isn't and sewer fund. All of that would tell you that it's a 3.9% increase. This increase in rate revenue is offset now, by volume and meter count increases. As I mentioned before, we are predicting our meter counts and our service level will increase by an arranger of 0.6 to 0.7%. In reality right now is increasing by more than 1.5% to 1.7%. But if you use a conservative approach, I don't want to be too aggressive and use those 1.7 1.8% increase. But I want to be reasonable and I say okay, let's think about increase our volume by you know, in the range of 0.6 to 0.7%. So if we fall short of that, we wouldn't be terribly impacted, but if we increase exceed that, it will be our you know, in our favor. So the 3.9% is adjusted for all this increases in volume, which brings down the rate to 3.2%. So there's a 0.7% decrease in rates compared with the revenue requirement because of this the next slide is wanting to show you the big portion of our revenue base is coming from our commodity charges, which is volume and then the second largest is drainage charges.
All right. This is volume and rates how we come up with the with the volume and rate cap calculation. You'll see here numbers in terms of our volume for both tier one as well as tier two customers and on the right hand side you'll see the two dear one volume has increased by 0.7% year to volume is predicted to increase by 0.7%. Although at the bottom, the dark orange line is 3.9% but it works backwards to 3.2% When you look at the actual increase in rates, same thing for service charges we were predicting a 0.6% increase in our meter equivalents that derives the drives the rate down to 3.2% from overall increase of 3.8%. This is the sewer side of it, same concept. And then here's the final rate structure for both the water and sewer for so we are proposing a 3.2 increase across the board except for a fire line, which is at 1.7% Private byline. For Tier One that's anything up to 0.6 MCF would be 3.2. Same thing with in tier two that exceeds 0.6%. Similarly for the sewer fund, our volume rate as well as our service rate we are projecting a 3.2% increase our drainage rate, same 3.2%. So overall, it's a 3.2% which I think is is a reasonable increase given the inflationary environment we are in the end I just think it's reasonable. The next slide are just for your information. I don't think I need to go through this is basically breaking down all our revenues and expenses. Bye. Bye, buy our appropriation and then the bottom line would all agree with what we've talked about throughout this presentation. So there's one for water fun one purse, one for sewer fun. And, again, this is just a summary of all our all the expense on the revenues and expenses that we talked about. And then we go on to the next slide which is a summary of our FTES are full time equivalents or employees is as you see here, we separated fill engineering and lead service into an idea with an improvement and extension one total one M ft will increase by 31% I'm sorry, 31 FTAs. And the bulk of the increases in operating is in operations that accounts for 67.7% of the total increase in FTE. Certainly very critical. are meeting our service level initiatives. The strategy of increasing headcount. It is in line with our director's vision as well as the AWS this goal of providing enhanced service level and reducing our backlog and service delivery. deliveries. Also at the bottom part of this is our field engineering and lead service. You can see lead service we have five FTEs added which is again, an initiative that we need to keep pushing our lead service line program forward in no input more resources so that we can deliver on increased level of service or replacement of lead service lines. So on an overall basis, between all nm and ayeni We'll have 39 More FTEs in FY 25 compared to FY two the next lane here Okay, so the question is, what does it do to us I mean, we do all these expenditures we incurred all these expenditures. What do all the budget numbers mean? And what value really do they bring to our stakeholders, our customers, our citizens? Some of the high level benefits for our citizens and customers are this budget that we just talked about, will lead to cleaning up 500 miles of sewer to provide capacity to the current design standards clean the entire system in a five year cycle. We're replacing 1000 Sir led service lines with the goal to remove lines within the next 10 years. More than 5000 have been replaced since 2028. Do we have an initiative to paint 5000 fire hydrants which will reduce corrosive 1000 were painted in fall of 23 alone. We want to complete the far west project stormwater management features which 100 million gallons annually in this in the East Side study and further pursue at least two other West Side Green's green stormwater infrastructure projects so all of these will eventually benefit our customers or stakeholders. So just wanted to summarize the value and portion of this budget and then these value add benefits will will happen throughout the throughout the proposed budget period. And finally, the next step. Today's presentation is just preliminary is for your review. I'm not expecting any approval today. Just want to share our our numbers in our position in terms of the budget for FY 24. We'll come back in a month's time on March 6 Finance Committee meeting that's when I will be requesting your your feedback and your approval of the budget. In your recommendation to the full board which will take place on March 28 of this year. The city council will review our budget and rates in the third week of March and we just got to know it will be on March 23. Which is good thing because it'll be off after a board meeting. And the water and sewer drainage rates will become effective July 1 2024. So this is again a preliminary budget there could be changes between now and March before it is finalized before you approve it and goes to the board. Although I do not anticipate any major major or significant changes between now and then there could be minor changes, which obviously, I'll bring to your attention in the next meeting if there are any changes. And then that's kind of it. We just would like to share all this with you so you can get little time today this all the numbers all the things that we talked about. And then please call me let me know if you have any questions, concerns or any anything that you want to talk about this budget between now and March in if not I will bring the final numbers to you in the March finance committee meeting for your approval. That concludes today's presentation on the FY 25 budget.
Thank you very much sucker. Excellent presentation. As usual, extremely comprehensive and I think it really sets the stage for having us you know, have enough time to digest it and be prepared to act on it. From a recommendation standpoint of the finance committee a month from now and then march 20 into the full board for final approval. Let me pause here for questions, comments. And let me just note that Sam Smalley did say in the chat that this budget also provides for the cleaning of 5000 catch basins.
Yeah, thank you, Sam.
I see Chairman eyeing Hauser for the comment.
I was just nodding my approval. That's all 5000 catch basins. One of them was outside this house not that long ago.
Okay, um, there are no other questions or comments. We'll move through the agenda now with item number 2024 dash two and commissioners. What's your pleasure?
And Madam Chair before we live I want to repeat if you have any questions, concerns between now and then please let me know so we can talk about or make no appropriate changes if necessary.
Thank you. But I'd encourage all of us to do a deep dive I think it's the presentation was well presented for the facilitator understanding so please reach out to this correct. You'd have any questions? Thank you. Okay, yes,
I'd like to make a recommend I'd like to make a motion to make a recommendation to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit, water and sewer department to authorize the directors to approve DWSD contract number 6005815 With DLZ Michigan incorporated for GPS support service for total contract amount not to exceed 1,000,377 1,000,377 $277 and a term of three years. It's also authorized directors to take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Your support thank you Miss Welch.
Good afternoon Board of Commissioners DWSD executives and attendees this contract is with DLC Michigan. It will support the engineering division by providing GPS services. The contract will furnish GPS locating services to find exposed and buried unaccessible DWSD linear assets such as manholes, catch basins, water valves, etc. This information will be provided to DWSD it helps us to be able to provide more accuracy with design documents for construction work and expedite the process when we're in the construction phase. So it's basically locating underground assets so that we can better prepare for CIP projects. In addition to the GPS services, they will also provide instantaneous sewer flow monitoring and computerized maintenance management support this contract was published for 25 days we do receive for beads and DLC, Michigan was the lowest equalize bitter. They are also a Detroit bass certified business and procurement is recommending today to the Finance Committee to move to full door for approval.
Thank you very much. Are there questions or comments? none all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is approved. We'll move on to Item D 2024. Dash three
Yes, Madam Chairman, I move that we approve a recommendation to the Board of Water and Sewer commissioners to approve DWSD contract number 6005983. With Etn a supply company for bras curb stops of various sizes for a new contract amount not to exceed $175,517.50 and a term of one year
for Thank you It's been moved and supported. Miss Welch. Good
afternoon. Again this contract is to provide curb stops of various sizes. Curb stops are used to shut off bales which are located in the pipe and near the curb. They are used to start or stop the flow of water from the water may. This is a warehouse stock item contract and it helps us replenish inventory as needed. It was posted as an RFP for bids for 21 days we received four bids at net supply was the lowest equalized bidder. At new supply also is a Detroit certified business and so procurement is recommending to the Finance Committee at this time to move to full bore for approval.
Thank you questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying aye. Hi, Any opposed? Motion is approved. And we'll move on to 2024 Dash for chair. Yes, Commissioner.
Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized directors to approve DWSD contract number 6005922 with major contracting group for Oakland Boulevard sewer improvements for total contract amount not to exceed $1,534,510.50 and a term of one year. This also authorizes directors to take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Is their support support. I second Thank you Miss weld.
Afternoon this StatTrak will support the sewer improvements in the Oakland Boulevard area. It is for 1.5 million in one year. This project is to replace infrastructure and install bio retention medians to address street flooding and drainage issues. During rain events. An RFP was published on MIT and for 31 days we received four bids from the publication major provided the lowest equalize responsive and responsible beads. Major has two Detroit certifications as Detroit headquarter business as well as a Detroit based business. Therefore procurement is recommending to the Finance Committee today to move to full bore for proofing.
Thank you questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is approved. Okay, we'll move on to Item G 2024 Dash five.
Oh yes, Madam Chair. I move that we recommend to the full board the approval of DWSD contract number 6005996 With Covas Inc, to provide pipe pulling cables to support led service line equipment for a total contract amount not to exceed $108,000 and a term of two years ending February the 28th 2026.
Support Thank you It's been moved and properly supported. Miss Welch Yes,
this two year contract is with a sole source vendor Cobos. So provide pipe pulling cables which are components of our current manufacturer and branded Cobos equipment. This equipment supports the internal led service line program work that's being performed internally by DWSD staff. These cables minimize the risk of damaging surrounding utilities during service line replacement. It also mitigates trench digging and water interruptions while the work is being performed. Cobos has provided a current sole source letter confirming that they are the only ones who manufacture this type of equipment, and that their design and functionality has been patented by them. Procurement has this record won't pass this letter on file. The procurement policy does allow for exceptions to competitive to be when sole source contracts or sole source majors have been researched. And therefore procurement is recommended. So Finance Committee for full Board approval
Thank you, Miss Welch. Other questions or comments?
I'm sure. Just a question. Yeah, I was looking at the website on this company. This is a very unique what they do. My question is, Is it their equipment that we're buying in our in our team will actually use it or are they actually coming out and hooking it up and actually operating the
equipment? We've already purchased the equipment so these are the components so when the cables break so we were doing the spot buys but we're just gonna go on contract so that we don't have to do a spot by now when we need putting it'll be available in the warehouse for the team to be able to procure,
but I guess I'm assuming we're trying to use this equipment. Is that the question? Yes.
Because our equipment in our in our staff will be doing the work. It's just the equipment and the parts that go with the equipment. Okay, thank you, for sure. You're welcome.
Commissioner Coleman if I may add, we've equipped our internal crew to be able to either push trenchless or pull trench lifts. So our team has a lot of options. This cable is good for about five to 10 poles depending on on how grabby the soil is, but after a certain number of pools the cable will break so then we have to replace it
so Mr. Smart what happens when it when it breaks and we're in the middle of a trench what do we do?
We attach another cable and continue the pole
so we can get the cable onto the broken cable.
Yeah, I don't want to. I mean, it's something of a disposable item. It's not a one and done. But they do deteriorate after a number of bulls. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Any any additional, any other questions, comments? Hearing none, all in favor the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is approved and we'll move on to Item H 2420 24. Dash six Miss markeesha schoon.
Yes, one I didn't hear the
motion we read that it hasn't. Okay. Got it good here.
Okay. I think I think it's on me. Madam Chair. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the BART Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized to authorize directors to approve DWSD contract number 6005989. A piggyback off a city of Detroit contract number 6005724 to provide DWSD brand new braiding products with corporate specialty specialties LLC for term of two years and 10 months and a total contract amount not to exceed the amount of $175,000. This also authorized directors to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the attempt of this vote. My apologies Madam Chair. I was so interested in that that Kobe product I was like wow, this is pretty cool.
Thank you, sir. support.
Support.
Thank you. Okay, now we're ready.
This is piggyback off of the city of Detroit contract with corporate specialties to provide DWSD branded items as read in the motion. This contract will support our public affairs division as well as the diversity opportunity and inclusion division. PAA purchases branded items to have customer education for customer education purposes. To distribute it at community events. Also DWSD branded appear apparel is provided when DWSD employees go out and face the public for different outreaches community events, meetings or other engagements on behalf of the department. The City of Detroit and contract was approved by city council December the 14th of 2023. This vendor does have three Detroit certifications. They are a Detroit based spaces a Detroit headquarter business as well as a Detroit micro business and they also are a woman owned business. So procurement is recommended to the board today bumps along to full Board approval.
Thank you. Are there questions, comments? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Any opposed? Motion is approved. Thank you. We'll move on to item I 2024 Dash eight commissioners.
Yes Madam Chair. I move that we recommend to the Board of Water commissioners the approval of DWSD contract 6006005 For seal plate assemblies of various sizes with Fergus and wireworks for a new contract amount not to exceed $125,605 for a tune term of two years.
Thank you sir support for Thank you. Okay, Miss Welsh. You're on mute. Yep. My daughter. Thank you. This warehouse. This is a warehouse contract with Fergus and waterworks for two years for state seal plate assemblies of various sizes. These are used to separate and isolate sections of fluid assemblies. RFP was published on it and for 22 days 15 firms downloaded three bids were received, and Ferguson waterworks was the lowest bid for this warehouse. I know. procurement is recommending to the finance department to move to full bore for approval.
Thank you. Are there questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Aye.
Any opposed? The motion is approved we'll move to item J 2024. dash nine commissioners,
Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the board of the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized directors to approve amendment number one to DWSD contract number 6003423 with old W investors, LLC DBA Morris company for software license and maintenance. And support services for DWSD meter testing benches by adding $195,000 in funding for total amended amount not to exceed $574,524 and an extended term by one year. For new term ending in 228 25. The Board of Water commissioners also authorizes directors to take such action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Is their support. Support. Thank you. I'm Miss Squatch
Yes, this amendment number one with O W investor Morris company supports the meter operations division by testing order meters both new and old for accuracy. This is a maintenance contract to ensure that the equipment is working properly as well as we are able to utilize the software for the testing. This is a sole source contract and procurement has documentation or file sorry to support that they are a full service vendor for Mars branded equipment and software. So at this time the amendment is to add funding and the additional time is the IT department and the meter ops department continue to test inoperable meters to make sure there are accurate for billing.
Thank you. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is approved and we'll move on to item K 2024 Dash 16. Commissioners.
Madam Chair I move that we recommend to the Board of Water and Sewer commissioners the approval of dW SD contract number 60006039 To piggyback on the city of Detroit contract 60044020 With Haik automotive LLC to design build, operate and maintain electric vehicle charging stations for a total contract amount not to exceed $600,000 in a term of three years.
Support then loujen supported Thank you Miss Welch.
Yes, this is a piggyback off the City of Detroit's existing contract for implementation of electrical vehicle electric vehicle charging stations. The charging stations will be installed in our Hubert ease facility. This contract supports DWSD green initiatives to lower fuel costs reduce emissions also improved fuel economy. It was approved by city council on May 22. of 22. The vendor has agreed to work with DWSD and confirmed that the services that they will provide will not alter the services that they currently provide for the city of Detroit. And so at this time DWSD is recommending to the Finance Committee to move to full bore for
Thank you Miss Welch. All article questions or comments. I do have one doing what's the size of our EV fleet now.
We don't have any right now we do have about six of them that are coming. That will be they should be if they're not on the receiving file correspondence. You should see them on here because they were purchased by ECS. We had to procure them directly from the Vendor site. They are a crossover of Hydra and plug view so we'll start out with six but we're waiting for the dealers to open it up the ordering period for us to order if the cure as a whole.
Thank you other questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Aye.
Any opposed? The motion is approved and we'll move on to Item l 2024. Dash 18. Commissioners,
Madam Chair, allow me to authorize I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department to authorize directors to approve amendment number one for DWSD contract number 6004518 with D and J USA incorporated to provide gate bow parts by adding eight months for new term expiring to expiration date through to 2025 and additional funding of $240,697 for an amended total contract not to exceed the amount of $655,219.32. This also authorizes directors to take such other actions as may be necessary. To accomplish the intent of this vote.
Thank you, sir support.
Support.
Thank you Miss Welch.
Yes this contract amendment is for date Val parks to add time and funding. This is a warehouse contractors will just to replenish stock items as needed. These parts support repair and maintenance field work by allowing field crews to start stop and continue the flow of water during repairs. The original contract was approved by the Board in June of 2022. And procurement at this time is recommending to the Finance Committee to move to full bore for approved votes.
Thank you any questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is approved. We'll move on to Item M
Madam Chair. Yes, it is 230 We need to recess and open up the CEO CIP Oh meeting?
Yes, I'd like to recess this meeting to call the Chair. Thank you.
Time now is 230. I'd like to call the capital improvement Committee meeting to order. Roll call please. Mayor
chairperson Coleman.
Present.
Commissioner Davis. Commissioner Davis? Commissioner Ken Locke,
President.
Madam Chair, we do have a quorum. I mean, Mr. Chair, we have a quorum.
Thank you. At this time, I'd like to recess and relax and yield the floor back to the Finance Committee meeting.
Thank you. We'll resume this meeting with item 2024 dash one eight. We did I think we did. That. So we're item M 2024. Dash to zero. Commissioners. What's your pleasure?
Madam Chair? Yes, yes, I move that we recommend to the Board of Water commissioners. The approval of are we on 2420 2420? Yes. The approval of DWSD contract 600-600-6040
for fire hydrant conversions and breakable parts with EJ USA Inc. Formerly known as East Jordan for a total contract amount not to exceed $4,867,428.45. It was seconded by TJ behind
you Hello.
Yeah, I'm sure I've got a very weak connection. Did you get my motion?
Yeah. Yeah, I think you did. Last thing we didn't hear and a term of two years. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. And I heard support from Commissioner Coleman. Thank you. We'll move to miss Welch to help us out with understanding this particular
this contract is for fire hydrant and fire hearts and parks. It is for two years 4.8 million. This is also a warehouse replenishment stock item contract and so it serves for as needed repairs when they go out to do hydrant repairs and either replacement for various parts. EJ USA is a sole source vendor for hydrants and a letter has been sent to procurement and on file for them being a sole source provider. Due to the procurement policy, it does a lot for exceptions to competitive solicitation. When their sole source contract and play. So procurement is recommending at this time to the Finance Committee to move to full door. We did test the market a few years ago and just published a B just to test to see if we would get any responses back and we still only received one B it from EJ USA.
Thank you. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion is approved. We'll move to item in 2024 Dash 21. Commissioners.
Madam Chair, yes commissioner to make I'd like to make a motion to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized directors to approve amendment number three to contract number 6003430 with ASI Construction Equipment Corporation for John Deere equipment parts preventative maintenance and repair services by adding funds in the amount of $90,000 for a new total amount. Excuse me for a new total amended contract amount of $356,740.09. No change to the contract terms scope. of work or terms and conditions. This also authorizes directors to take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Thank you, sir support the motion.
support
in moved in properly ordered, Miss Welch. Yes,
this contract amendment is to add funds only in the amount of 95 $90,000. The amendment one and amendment two were time only extension. So this will be the first amendment to add funding to take the contract through its complete term of January 2025. AIAS is a sole source vendor for John Deere equipment in the state of Michigan area. Procurement has pup did real published for B is to test the market before entering into a new contract. We do have a sole source letter to has been provided and filed within our department indicating that John Deere is the manufacturer for this state of Michigan area. And at this time we're recommending to the Finance Committee to move to full bore for food foods.
Thank you are there questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Any opposed? That motion is approved. I'm back. That was an eye. Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll move now to Item nine on the agenda planning calendar. Mr. Rahman
Yeah, Marion is the new planning calendar with commissioners. It is okay. There are no changes to the calendar. Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other matters to come before this committee? Not the next meeting is March 6 2024. And is there a motion for adjournment?
So move Madam Chair.
It's been moved and I think supportive. Okay, we are adjourned. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
So I'd like to open up the CIP committee meeting back. At this time, I'd like to call for approval of the agenda as presented please.
Yes, Move approval can lock.
It has been moved by Commissioner Kinloch. Is there a second?
I guess you could second.
Okay. All right. I will second it. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Hearing none, motion passes. Number four. At this time, I'd like to ask for a motion for approval of the minutes as presented from December 6 2023.
Move approval the meeting minutes from December 6 2023 2023. With any necessary corrections.
Thank you. I second. It has been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposition? Any abstentions? Hearing none the minutes. Motion to approve the minutes has been passed. Next up is public participation. Do we have anyone?
Mr. Chair, we're checking out we have no hands raised. So I recommend that we don't share the instructions at this time since no hands are raised. Unless you choose otherwise, Mr. Chair.
Okay. That's fine. We will we'll continue on our agenda. Next up is unfinished business. I see that we we have no number eight is new business. line item a 2020 for tech one nine physical year 2025. The 2029 preliminary proposed CIP program and FY FY 2025 capital budget is there anyone that will speak to that?
Yes, Mr. I'll be presenting.
Thank you. Appreciate that.
So, again, good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair is took around that CFO DWSD. This is the preliminary draft summary of our proposed FY 25 through 2029. It's a five year capital improvement. Plan and also the FY 25 capital budget. Next slide, please, Shana. Okay. This is the summary of what we intend or plan on accomplishing in the next five years. It starts with a current year which is not current meaning the 2425 budget and then spreads across the next four years are a total of five years. The as you can see here on the slide, the FY 2529 CIP provides for $627.4 million of water system improvement and $530.5 million of sewer system improvements over the next five years planning cycle for a total system wide expenditures of $1,157.9 million approximately to cover both water and soil for the next five years. The FY 2425 itself which is the next fiscal year, capital budget, we are asking for $238.2 million and in total investments in our CIP program 151.3 of that in the water fund and $86.9 million in the soils one. Also on this slide. You can see that almost 76% of our five year budget is for water main and sewer line replacement projects is the first line. green infrastructure projects accounted for 12.2% of our total budget, and then led service line replacement accounts for 6.2% of the total five year budget. The next slide just summarizes our preliminary funding sources. It summarizes the potential sources that will fund the CIP projects over the next five years. As you as you can be seen here, there's a larger grant impact on our funding scenario in the first two years and that gradually tapers off in the next three years. We will continue to pursue governmental funding. To the extent it's feasible for us to finance our capital projects. But the in the absence of that we have provisions to utilize our our bond funding as well as ind and SRF funds. And depending on the execution success of completing the projects, we may have to seek additional bond and SRF money in the future. In case governmental funding source doesn't work out. The next slide is giving you a list of the water projects that we intend covering over the over FY 2425 In the next four years after that. The print is small but you should have copies of this. next two slides actually are water projects. And the following two slides are for sewer projects. It kind of gives you the name of the project the contract number, the funding potential funding source in the total budget, which is spread across the five year horizon. This presentation also includes the backup for other expenditures that are incorporated in these two main master of spreadsheets. gives you details of all the vehicle and equipment that are proposed and intend on acquiring in the next five years. The next slide is gives you details of our Information Technology CIP projects, by project name and year and the budget for each of them. And finally, a facilities improvement these are the facilities improvement projects that are planned for FY 2425 And next four years for a total of five year planning gives you the project name, the type, the quantity as well as the dollar amounts that are projected and proposed for the next five years. Again, I'd like to point out that this is a draft a very preliminary draft and we are still working through the numbers and the details and assigning the appropriate funding sources. I do not anticipate a whole lot of changes in this going forward. We would like to give you a chance to review this over the next month or so. And I'm hoping to bring the final version to you in April CIP meeting or your final approval in them recommendation to the full board. That's kind of that kind of concludes presentation for this CIP program. They have any questions on anything? I'm more than happy to answer.
Mr. Chairman,
yes,
I don't have any questions, but I just wanted you to know that I am here.
Well thank you. Appreciate that commission.
You're welcome.
Next up, item B 2024. Dash 15 DWSD facilities capital improvement program updates.
on mute
smeta. Sorry about that. I'll be the presenter for the facility's capital improvement program update. Good afternoon Board of Water commissioners. My name is Samantha Harris. I am the facilities and construction manager. Today I will be presenting facilities capital improvement projects that are currently ongoing completed within the last year and all upcoming projects. First, I would like to highlight the primary objectives the facilities team has developed for achievement. Our goal is to clean up the mess through preventative maintenance. We're currently maintaining five sites covering over 1.2 million square foot over 1000 major assets including 198 back units, 12, elevators and 46. roll up doors. All assets are inspected on scheduled intervals throughout the year. through energy efficiency. We're currently upgrading facilities with LED lighting H vac systems and have plans to begin structural repairs, which includes tuckpointing and roofing which will maximize the preservation of energy through health and safety and internal safety inspection for all sites is performed annually. By installing adequate safety signage and replacing fire extinguishers and emergency and exit lighting. We were able to increase site safety by 20% per the annual report total customer satisfaction. We have completed several capital improvement projects that directly impact the comfort of the working environment also assists with satisfaction of internal and external customers. Facilities launch a maintenance request form September first of 2023 that is available for occupants to input building service requests. This online ticket system allows all sites and occupants including Wayne Metro and Great Lakes Water Authority to input service requests since its implementation in September of last year, we have received and completed over 100 requests. Next I would like to walk through all of the capital improvement projects we have completed to ensure the safety of staff by providing a fully operational elevator the freight elevator doors were replaced at mov this project was completed last month. To improve energy efficiency of mechanical equipment to circulating boiler pumps were replaced at CSF. These pumps provide hot water for the administration area at CSM. This project was completed through the utilization of a Detroit bass business October of last year. To ensure the health and safety of staff by providing hot water throughout the facility. Six water heaters were replaced and all of the yards and CSM. This project was also completed through the utilization of a Detroit based business March of last year. To maintain the historical integrity of the building, the historic ceiling mural in the fifth floor boardroom and imobie was treated and restored. This project was completed November of last year. To ensure the health and safety of staff by eliminating water intrusions. West Gate guard shack roof at CSF was replaced this project was completed September of last year. To increase employee satisfaction by increasing the comfort levels of staff rooftop new AC 13 and central yard at CSF was replaced this project was completed October of last year. To improve energy efficiency with LED lighting conversion and improve site safety by illuminating paths with brighter lighting. The LED lighting upgrades were added to all five four doors at CSF and the customer service lobby at imobie This project was completed in conjunction with internal staff and ammonite in a minority owned Detroit based business October of last year to improve employee satisfaction by creating a pleasant and functional work environment, renovations were completed in the employee entrance lobby at CSM. This project was also completed in conjunction with internal staff in a minority owned Detroit based business January of this year. Next I would like to walk through the timelines for all active capital improvement projects we currently are working on in order to maintain the elevators mechanical system and improve mobile efficiency within the site. We are replacing the mechanical system on the elevator located in the administration area at CSM. Currently we are receiving electrical upgrades once all inspections are past the installation of the elevators mechanical system is expected to take four weeks and the anticipated completion date for this project is April of this year. To improve the energy efficiency of the mechanical system and provide employee satisfaction, we're improving heating and cooling for the comfort of staff. We're working with the Detroit building authority in a Detroit based business to replace six rooftop HVAC units in multiple locations at CSN. Currently materials are scheduled to be delivered later this month. Installation should be completed in March and we expect this project to be fully completed by April of this year. Next I would like to walk through all of the upcoming projects. We have plan CSF ECR central yard, sewer yard and basement where we're seeing concrete repairs. This project is currently out for bid and we hope to begin work second quarter of this year. We're also planning to replace the mechanical gate at our West yard location. This project will increase safety and traffic efficiency at the side this project is pending the fabrication of materials to start and we'll be will receive exterior structural damage repair outside of the penthouse area, which includes tuckpointing limestone and terracotta repair and steel coating refurbishment. This project is set to go out to be its second quarter of this year. We're replacing the entire parking lot and security fencing at CSN. This project will include sustainability aspects such as LED lighting, and more greenery, which will provide long term savings that will allow for reinvestment back into our sites. This will also improve the outdoor environment for staff. This project is set to go out second quarter of this year. Now I would like to dive a little deeper into the $7 million budget that setup for this project in conjunction with the Detroit building authority facilities had an assessment of the 200,000 square foot lot performed last year. Let's talk about the benefits of the proposed enhancements that are on the screen. And approved stormwater management system will protect local water quality through effective filtration. These modifications will allow us to be aligned with the city's stormwater management ordinance, and all applicable city regulations enhances to earthworks such as bioswales would allow the use of water as a resource by promoting infiltration and a natural retention system. Upgrading the fencing gates and adding pavement features allows better pedestrian circulation and improves site safety. The introduction of electrical charging stations promote sustainable transportation development. New landscape islands with large shade trees reduces excess heat generated from asphalt and improves air quality and the gateway greening also improves community character. This price point was calculated based on all of the enhancements it would take to convert the current parking lot. And so what we would like to present as a showpiece for DWSD is commitment to implementing more environmentally sustainable infrastructures. In closing all of the projects that we have scheduled and completed through the capital improvement program were initiated to clean up the mess by maintaining sites that are energy efficient and providing a working environment that is safe. We are ensuring employee satisfaction is achieved. Over the last few years we have invested over 13 million in capital improvement projects. And while we have made progress, we still have more work to do in order to fully transform our sites to well equipped, cost saving innovative energy efficient sites. However, with your continuous funding and support of this program, I know we will reach that goal. That is all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions or provide any additional information.
Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Any questions at this time?
Siena, Okay, next up is the planning calendar.
I'm sorry I forgot about Item C 2024 Dash 22. Mr. is this a?
You know, we do have a presentation and we need them. We're gonna need a motion after he does his presentation.
Do we do the motion first and the presentation
where he can do the presentation first so we can see what it's about. Thank you
Good afternoon, commissioners. This is the 2025 Clean Water State Revolving Fund project plan. It's a requirement when we're accessing SRF money to provide this presentation and also to get a resolution pass. So this is a funding opportunity using both state and federal funding. This is the clean water or sewerage side of the loan revolving fund. It has low interest loans available to utilities. The City of Detroit is well positioned to receive low interest funding as well as principal forgiveness that we've been quite successful with in recent history. We're taking advantage of this because of our disadvantage that is based on debt service. The but the upcoming loan will be charged to customers over time and built into the capital portion of our rate structure. Our disadvantage status allows us to finance over 30 years in lieu of the typical 20 years. But again, we've been very successful with principal forgiveness recently. The selected sewer projects are identified to take place in council districts 12456 and seven. Rest assured we are doing work in District Three, just that these SRF funds aren't are intended for those council districts, but we are doing work in all council districts. The sewer rehabilitation is going to improve the sewer level of service and quite a few number of neighborhoods. I won't read them all off but they are on the screen for those that are interested in reading. This work is based off of our asset management plan that looks at overall risk. Risk being the probability of failure times the consequence of failure we do a comprehensive inspection and assessment. And then we strategically do capital interventions on an as needed basis. What we typically find is that capital interventions are required on about 25% of our assets in lieu of our prior approach in which we would move into a section or a neighborhood and simply start replacing everything. This allows us to lower our overall risk as a department and as a community. Again, these projects are being initiated in anticipation of grant funding and principal forgiveness. In the event that we don't receive that we are not obligated to move forward with the construction of these projects. The schedule the preliminary engineering has been complete. This month. We are asking that the Board approve a resolution approving our project plan. We will then go to the geo wa board in April submit our final project plan to the state of Michigan's Department of Environment Great Lakes and energy in May in anticipation of notice of award in 2025. So we will be asking that the Board approve the project plan by resolution and that is it. Be happy to answer any questions.
Any questions? At that time commissioners Can I have a motion? A read 2020 1420 22 Please.
Um, let's see Mr. Chair, I move upon recommendation of Mr. Sam Samuel Smalley, Chief Operating Officer of the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewage department to recommend to the full board adoption of the a final project plan for the Detroit water and sewage department sewer rehabilitation and designating and authorized project representative fiscal year 2025 Clean Water State receipt involving fun and also to authorize the chief financial officer and the director to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Your support.
Support Mr. Chair,
thank you it has been moved and supported. All in favor of motion 2024 Tech 22 please say aye.
Aye.
Anyone against Any abstentions? Motion passes. Next up is number nine planning calendar one a tech 0004.
I believe Marian has distributed the planning calendar. If there's any requested changes, please let us know.
Thank you Mr. Smiley. Are there any other matters to be bought before the commissioners at this time? Mr.
Chair I I didn't jump in earlier but I thought Samantha Harris's presentation was just outstanding. You know for many, many years there wasn't really a lot of dollars available for maintenance of our facilities and what she's done over at CSF and, and in this building at mov is just is just remarkable. So I just want to acknowledge that outstanding presentation that she did.
Deputy Director of Brown I totally agree. And I echo that. Just curious so where's the extra money coming from?
It's in this year's it's in this year's budget Believe me it's Tucker doesn't let us get away with with with anything that's not in this year's budget. So we budget but you know, I I see all of the city facilities in the city of Detroit. And I think what we're doing, you can go right down the street and look at a GSD building this right down the street from from CSF and not see the level of investment going into our building so that they'll be around for decades, decades to come. So
oh no, and I'm glad to see it. I didn't know if we had funding special funding coming like PPP money or some money we had leftover from the federal government and we, Commissioner,
this is to make sure these projects are being funded principally through our ID program. We have our improvement and extension fun. We are not utilizing any any ratepayer money to fund these projects. Just well.
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure our listeners will be glad to hear that right. Yeah,
there is no rate payers dollars being spent here. It's principally ironi. Improvement and extension pan
or back Young. I'm glad to see it. Any other questions? concerns, comments? Our next meeting is scheduled for March 6 2024. At this time, can we have a motion to adjourn please
move to adjourn can lock.
It has been moved. Gotta get a second support. Thank you. CIP. Committee meeting is officially adjourned. Thank you folks.
Okay, we have nine minutes to the start in the next meeting. Wow.
We're gonna brain Delta money you know what it's like Ma'am, I get I get you to early but then there's nobody there to pull the gatehouse
right. Well, boy,
Mr. Smalley got us back on track.
I do have one correction to an earlier stated metric. Is to curb reported 500 miles of sewer clean. Yes, the maintenance and repair team and the sewer team have challenged themselves that they want to increase the goal to 600 miles this year.
Great.
So I'm confident that we'll achieve that
we're looking for the crews
day. We have a few minutes I guess Madam Chair, huh?
Yes, we do. We have to wait until our appointed time. Good to hear your voice.
I'm glad to see you.
Thank you I can't see anybody. There you are.
Jane, DOE Mr. Garcia. Ma'am. You didn't know that Mr. Bates passed away right. Lonnie Bates.
I beg your pardon.
You didn't know that. Lonnie Bates passed away, didn't you? Oh, no. When did that happen? The services were yesterday. Oh, I'm
so sorry to hear that. Yeah, I wasn't I
wasn't sure whether you knew or not.
Yeah, that was back in the day. Well,
no. And I worked with him real strongly when we were at New Detroit together.
Okay, I didn't know he was there. Yeah, back in the day, you write about that and all that stuff, but back in the day. Yeah.
That's why I used to go to school board meetings.
You were a young whippersnapper at the time.
Middle School High School.
Hey, we're close.
I show one minute is that correct? Madam Secretary. Oh, no pick 315 Oh,
you got five minutes.
I had one minute I showed it.
I see one. Minute two already.
All right, I'd like to call the Customer Service Committee meeting to order. And Madam Secretary, would you please call the roll.
Thank you very much. I would ask now for the approval of the agenda. And move approval Madam Chair. By Commissioner forte seconded by Commissioner Garcia. Mr. Garcia if we lost you, she's on mute. Would you unmute Commissioner Garcia
I'm sorry. I'm on mute. For a second.
Probably moved and supported. Any discussion? Support? Agenda stands approved. The next item is approval of minutes of December 6. Is there a motion? So moved Madam Chair, Port Garcia. Seconded by Commissioner forte. Any discussion on the minutes? Hearing none all those in favor please signify with a sign of Aye.
Aye. Aye. Motion
is carried. Next item is public participation. Is there anyone who has indicated a desire to speak before this committee?
Yes, madam chair Brian Peckinpah, Public Affairs Director for DWSD. We have two hands raised actually three now. First, we have water activists or water activists you could unmute
could you please read our Oh yes, I'm sorry.
Yep. Before you're on mute on activists, we're gonna share our instructions. To make a comment, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device. If you're calling into the meeting by phone, press star nine to raise your hand after your name was called it will give you permission to unmute. In order to begin speaking you will have to unmute yourself. To do so press the unmute button with a microphone icon if you're online, or star six if you're calling in. As a reminder, you will have a limit of three minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer indicating your remaining time it will be shown on the screen. If you're online to make a comment we kindly request you thought to come up currently that's located in the chat. By filling out the card we will have your contact information to follow up appropriately. If you are unable to click the link, please let us know and a phone number will be routed to you to call to provide the needed information. You will only be called upon once. Once the chair closes public comment. There'll be no other comments for the public and all attendees will remain muted for the duration of the meeting. Thank you for your attention. And thank you Madam Chair. The first person is water activist.
Thank you Mr. Baca. Would you please identify yourself and you may begin speaking
um, my name is Jermaine pines. I'm come before this board before and I want to thank the board. Good afternoon, the board the chairperson and director Gary Brown for allowing me to speak today. The first issue I have want to bring before the board is Matt Phillips is a great person within the department guys have a great guy. He's done a lot for the community didn't get him back with people's complaints or issues within DWSD I want to just give him a personal shout out. But we have before the board today is there's a property address at 5077 Davis chars street there was some contractors doing some digging work over there and the alley area to upgrade some sewer replacement issues or a class sewer and a caller called and let me know that their basement is bagging up. Maybe there is some debris leftover from the construction and they're not getting quite good flow to from the high end push into the lower end. So we would like for a contractor to go out there and check that out or have a DWSD maintenance and repair person to go out and make sure that that is flowing like it's supposed to. The next caller was address 12669 Virgin street between 90 and 96 and telegraph. Caller complaints about or addressed me and asked me to bring before the board. She is a senior citizen. There is some type of issue with sewer on her house. city sewer may be collapsed over there. It's causing all type of backups on her block and there's other people in the area who has also had water in their basement. So we would like for crews to be dispatched to that area. And then I would like to address the board on I know that Gary Brown spoke about this and the Finance Committee and he did a good job giving us an update on the landline replacement as well as Matt Phillips and me have had numerous conversation and connect communications. But we still would like for a De Graaff to determine whether where we at far as our goals on the landline replacement program. I get a lot of calls from or I get a lot of messages from people on Facebook letting me know that they have been waiting a long time to get their landline removed. They have children's and families in the home. And we kind of want to know where we at with the department as far as how far we are and where we need to be in the next couple of years. I also would like to address the board on clean sewers around the city. There has been a lot of rain coming in a lot of snow has failed. And we have experienced a lot of flooding and a lot of neighborhoods and I'm getting a lot of messages regarding this over Facebook. That people basements are continuously backing up. And I understand that that season is permitted sometimes for DWSD to send crews out to do some type of cleaning and to catch basins and around the city. But there is a nice chunk of people who have reached out to me in regards to that. And I think that'll be my public comment for today. Also, we would like also to address the integrity within the contractors around the city who are doing work in the city. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Payne. I'm going to ask you what did you mean by the integrity of the contractors
matter care I was trying to when we have all these contractors and we don't have DW we do have DWSD inspectors on site for majority of the contract has been awarded but we would like to make sure that those contract those inspectors are holding the integrity of the contractor to make sure that proper work or contractor Warden is be honored and make sure that people are following protocols and making sure that the work is done correctly and not as a rush job and causing other issues within customers in the area. They may be construction going on or etc that DWSD is doing some type of great in the area of a customer. Thank
you I would like for someone from staff to respond to the issue of quality work.
Madam chair when you have dollars that are coming into the water department by the 100 million dollar range for LED service lines and you're putting as many contractors and as you heard earlier with some of the contracts that Sam Smalley talked about, with DWSD doing the work themselves. We know that we have to ramp up and hire more inspectors and we're doing that as well as we're retraining the ones that we have to make sure we're getting the best quality work that that we could get. But you know what I'm trying to say is you have to ramp up I mean this is this is the lead service line program and I get calls from my own neighbors saying when are you going to do my neighborhood? And the answer is this is an eight to 10 year project. Everybody can't be first. And so we're going into the disadvantaged neighborhoods, economically disadvantaged. We're going into neighborhoods where there are many kids because we know kids are affected by lead and seniors more than anyone else. And we're picking the locations that have the greatest number of kids that are in disadvantaged communities before we end up in northwest Detroit, where there are not as many disadvantaged community so I get it that everybody the more work we do, the more people hear about it and they want their lines done. And I'm just asking people to be patient. We're building a website. We'll be able to get it up and running shortly that has the locations that we're currently working on, and then the locations that we're going to be going to and we do understand the need for training and retraining with regards to our team leaders and our inspectors and that currently I just spoke to a class of 30 inspectors that were being trained or retrained. Just last week. So we thank Mr. Payne for bringing that to our attention. I just want to assure you that we're working on it.
Thank you, Mr. Brown director Brown. I think that was very important to I think any customer who was trying to at least be helping out other customers and allergic issues, should call in to our customer service department. Let us know what they know. So that we can follow up on those. So thank you very much. And thank you Mr. Payne.
Madam Chair, we did get Mr. Paints addresses that you mentioned so we'll make sure that
we follow up. Yes, thank you so much.
Next person is Mr. Miko Williams. You may unmute Williams
Yes. Hi, good afternoon, commissioners. Tomiko Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit. Happy New Year to all of you. And may we have the best prosperous year to restore trust, integrity and also stellar performance to our water department. polluting for all of our employees, customers and our stakeholders. I want to speak in regards to the lifeline plan. I too have concerns as well expressed. From what I just heard in the finance committee. From director brown regarding the state. I would like to hear from him for his perspective of what do we do about the situation because it seems like accountability and responsibility is not being performed here. It's like a blame of you know, well, don't blame the water department, blame way Metro in the state. But we need to know what their responsibility is. I do feel the way Metro has been failing in providing service quality and also making sure that all of our residents is informed so I did a fundraiser over the holiday for hydrate and we had garnered enough funds to where we weren't able to allocate and give a merry Christmas to those in the city of Detroit that are suffering from their water bills. Most of those calls I received were people from lifeline. They didn't know if they were on the lifeline that they were still on lifeline or they were afraid of you being put off a lifeline. I was able to send names to the Detroit water and sewage department in Wayne Metro after the new year. I'm waiting for them to be confirmed and verified. So that we can give back to these people with answers to their long standing questions. And some people on the 40 and $50 water tears that are struggling and also if you miss a payment that's on $18 That would be either three to six months or so. We've just been working on cases that we're trying to best we know how but if Wayne Metro is supposed to have greater responsibility and casework and making sure that they inform people the whole entire details and to keep them from going into delinquency. What's the process and the procedure here? If the water department doesn't have any responsibility to this? What is Wayne Metro have responsibility to make sure to 6800 people or 20 100 people don't fall off of their water bills in delinquency. How can we say that? We're having a good program when we have these problems still persisting? I do also want to say that I support the leaders of southeastern Michigan. Thank God everybody came forward to admit the problem. Now I want to see checks, pledges and commitments to fix the problem once and for all. And Detroit should get the lion's share of money that it receives. Thank you for taking my comment. Yeah.
Madam Chair. I'm not I don't mean to abdicate DWSD responsibility. Ultimately, I'm responsible way Metro is a vendor that works for the Great Lakes Water Authority and DWSD they work for us there are vendors so I don't want to abdicate our responsibility. In this process. I'm simply trying to say that the state has implemented some new software and our customers 28,000 of them that are currently in the program and no one has been thrown off the program. The program is growing. It's being modeled all over the country. It's an excellent affordability program. However, the dollars that are coming from the state, the state is asking every October that the people that are in the program, the 20 1000 have to reapply and verify their income and with this new software system. Some of our customers are having issues trying to navigate it and so we're recommending to the state that we allow them to be recertified their income be verified through Wayne metros current system, and then Wayne Metro will go forward and put the information into the state system. So we're negotiating with the state A, A quicker way an easier way for our customers. To get recertified. We're confident that we're all working together the state Wayne Metro DWSD. We're all working on the issue and we'll get it resolved. But I don't want anyone to walk away thinking that any of the 28,000 people have been thrown off of the program. They have not they will not. If they're in the program, they're going to stay in the program until we get them recertified.
May I ask what the timeline will be Mr. Brown for all of this to be cleared.
Yeah, I don't have a timeline. I know this that you know, they had to be recertified in October, and we're working through the issue as quickly as we can, and no one's going to be thrown off of the program while we work through that particular issue. This often happens with large new software implementations. It's not unusual for it to happen. We've just got to stay focused on getting the issue resolved. I know now there are about 632 people that have applied to the Lifeline program, and all you have to do is apply and you're protected from being shut off until your application has been received. So again, if you need the assistance apply, you will be protected from any shut off and we will get caught up on the backlog of applications as quickly as humanly possible. But I don't have a timeline. Hopefully by the our next meeting. I will have one.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. There are two brown use. Is there the recertification process.
I'll let I'll let match to the recertification process. He's been through this before, you know in his in his work with the state, so I'll let him speak to that. Okay.
Yeah, Madam Chair. The recertification process is really just a process that just verifies the income of the participant. So the state requires that and the federal government requires that on a yearly basis, generally speaking, it's every October 1. The grant periods for most of the funding for low income households is a October 1 through September 30 time period. And so all the new funding is is recently been issued as of October 1. so it's just a matter of, we call it a recertification process, but it's just a verification process that the the household is still exists, the number of household participants are members of the household is still the same. And if there's been any change. Not a lengthy of a process is the initial application because we already have all your information we already have you know most of your financial information and household members and social security numbers and all that other stuff so it's it's just a matter of getting and I'll just in director Brown was was right on point yeah I'm familiar with it and that most of the customers that are that received gas, electricity or heating type of assistance on a yearly basis know that October 1 is the is the RE re application process or recertification process. So it's just a matter of getting everyone involved in the water process. In
the same type of I guess cadence is the right word. I guess. I want to clarify so there may be a problem with staffing, having enough staffing
to be able to process those processes in a timely manner. I don't think it's a matter of a staffing issue in any way, shape or form. It's just a matter of the at the same time that the recertification process was process is is supposed to take place. The state of Michigan implemented a new system are in which all applicants have to go through so it's a completely new system and it was just a matter of getting it up and running and getting everyone used to and trained on that new system. We typically see somewhere in the neighborhood of you know, three to 500 applicants in process at any one given given time. We're currently running about 650. And most of those customers, it's just a matter of we're waiting for an up for them to provide missing information to the application. So I
don't think we're I don't think we're in a bad spot in any way, shape or form. Thank you,
Madam Chair. Yes. Commissioner Garcia. Yeah, I think one of the issues may be that a lot of people do not know and it becomes very confusing. We deal with that my set people to have to read apply for stamps or health and what is a very long process, and a lot of people are thrown off the system if they don't answer something correctly. Matthew, so maybe we need to educate our customers that that did they understand when they applied that it has to happen every year the reoccurrence has to happen, and maybe there's a way you could look at it to see what the state have you actually looked at what the state requires because we had some issues we had to get a we had to get our state rep involved because it got that confusing. So I'm just saying knowing where we come from on a nonprofit aspects and people that don't always comprehend what they're asking, or it becomes very confusing. I'm just saying maybe we need to look at what their process is and just take a look at it. It doesn't hurt
to review that and at least that's what I think, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Good points.
Okay, do we have any one else waiting to get to speak to us? Madam Chair, we have one more person to public comment. last three digits that's a phone number 267267
You may unmute.
Hello, everyone, my name is Jacob Graham. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you today. I my block club has our alley between Sheridan Street and Townsend street near Charlotte Roy avenue that the square basin close to the entrance that on that North side has collapsed and it the now the flooding is so bad the water you know as maybe the first color said with that with the ice and the snow. The flooding has been so bad it's going up up the wall along people's garages. We submitted it on SeeClickFix it's been collapsing for years but this winter I guess it it finally clogged all up and the flooding is really intense. And we have lots of people who who park you know they access their parking from the alley whether it's in their garage or in their parking pads. And and we see that that these alley square basins are being repaired. In other neighborhoods nearby in West Village. We see repairs being done by DWSD we see repairs in Indian village being done by DWSD. And and I guess I don't really know what we need to do in order to get this this city basin repaired
in our ally so that that we can get through it again. Mr. Grant we
we hear your request using these. These items have been reported to customer service
through the secret to the improved Detroit app. Okay, that's one of the best ways to do it.
Do we want to comment on that Mr. Phillips?
Cross Street the it's a long shot of boy and the alley is between Sheridan
Street and Towson
Street. It's It's near Butler family park.
We'll get it we'll get it
investigated today and we'll get it addressed quickly. Okay,
you'll see it today.
It's totally flooded out.
So the water hasn't receded. Thank you very much.
You heard we're going to get investigated today. So thank you very much. For reporting it to us.
Mr. Graham.
Madam Chair, do you mind if I Okay, Mr. Mr. Graham, would you ensure that you leave your contact information, your name and telephone number
in the chat area so that we can we can get in contact to with you afterwards? Yeah, unfortunately, I'm over the phone. So I can't put it in the chat. Okay. I I'd be happy
to tell you right now if you're able to write it down. Sure, go ahead.
So my name is Jacob Graham. And my cell phone is
517-262-5267. Okay, Mr. Graham will be in touch with
you. And you'll you'll see some crews out there.
You're welcome. Thank you so much. Very welcome. Thank you for reporting to us. Yeah,
so you keep us aware of what happens with that.
Follow up. Thank you. Absolutely. Is there anyone else who wishes to address this
committee? Waiting here to do that? So at this time,
Madam Chair, there are no other people with raise hands. So thank you very much for facilitating that for us. You're welcome. Public Participation is now closed. We're moving on to communications. I don't show that we have communications. I don't show we have any unfinished business. So we're now a new business. 2020 2024
Dash 23 Customer Service presentation. Mr. Phillips? Madam Chair, thank you. And I will just
turn Ramona take over this mine. Thank you
Madam Chair, can you just confirm that you can see my screen? I see your screen. Okay. Madam Chair. If you don't mind. I'd just like to do a couple of quick updates before I get fully started into the formal portion of my presentation. Just to address a couple of the comments that came during the financial the customer comments that came public comments that came in during the Financial Committee. One was from Resident RESPA a lot was talking about the BIA and with one of his neighbors, Mr. Brown and I just happy to report that I've already been personally in contact with with Mr. Blondes. I've resolved his issue provided him the information with the help of one of my colleagues, Miss Hall and so we've checked that one off our list already. And I told him I think I committed on this meeting. I would get back to him by Friday and I think we met it within 62 minutes of him calling in originally. The second one was Mr. Jermaine Payne's during his first public comment during the Financial Committee. He talked about residents having the ability to come to a service center and I just wanted to report out for the edification of our of our residents and Mr. Payne that the the on the east side on McNichol street Wayne Metro has an en er has an in person service center, that customers can make appointments and see someone on the west side they have the Grand River Service Center where they're able to see individuals in person as well as they have a center on Woodward. In the downtown area in the Midtown area where customers can visit Wayne Metro in person so they have three in person location sites. I do believe that they have at least a half a dozen other locations that are smaller in size, but I just wanted to let our residents know that you can
make appointments to see someone in person at Wayne metro to sign up for lifeline.
How do they get that information Mr. Phillips, they can contact 313-267-8000 our customer service department we'd be more than happy to let them know about that information or they can contact
Wayne Metro directly either online or via their 800 number
very good.
But we need to hear thank you so much.
Alright Madam Chair. Yeah. Today we're going to review the January performance of customer service. During the month of January. We had our second largest month in the last 12 months as far as volume goes. We received a little over 45,000 calls and during the month of January 6500 of those are 6500 email inquiries for a total of 52,000 total individual customer touchpoints during the month of January. We had nearly 2500 contacts per day, which is a 77% increase over our plan of 1400 and that includes heavy two holidays. During the month of January, we had nearly 132,000 total customer contacts and that's via direct phone calls, emails or through our self service stations that we have. January was a particular particularly challenging month we normally see a relatively steady or what I should say as a lower call volume month, coming back after December. But we did have the weather and that had a significant impact or in the last week of the month of January with the amount of snow that we received mid January with the last two weeks of January being a significant warm up and temperatures being in the 40s and 50s. We saw a lot of snow melt and with the snow melt drags a lot of dirt and debris into our streets and into our catch basins. We saw an 87% increase in call volume during the last week of January. So if we look at it in perspective, the first three weeks of January we saw a very steady 7200 calls per week and during the last week we saw nearly 14,000 calls come in so nearly double the amount of volume. So that puts an immense amount of strain not only on our crews to service, those service requests that are coming in but also to our Customer Service Center as they're trying to feel those calls. We normally see it and you'll see it here in a second, a three minute on average, average speed of answer when when a customer calls in and that increased almost two and a half times to a little over seven and a half minutes during the last month of January. So just to kind
of put that in perspective Any questions before I move on to the next slide? Any questions committee members? Thanks for pointing that out. Very dramatic, and really shows a challenge
that our customer service representatives had. So thank you. And I just want to note it's not only our customer service representatives, but when someone calls in to the customer service department we create a work order service request. And so that's also our crews are what we call our boots on the ground also have to go out into the community and and physically inspect diagnose and repair those issues as as well. So it's been
a rather busy last couple of weeks for everyone. We have how long that takes after
we notify the field service people you know that's a great question, Madam Chair. Unfortunately, the answer is it depends on the actual issue. So we do prioritize water main breaks and water, water and basements over you know, a water and a street situation. So it all depends. Obviously the water and basement and our water main breaks due to the freezing and the following are our number one priority
crews are dispatched as soon as humanly possible. Thank you any questions or comments by committee members?
Please continue. Mr. Phillips. Thank you excuse me that I'm sorry it is it is 345.
We're little baths. We need to open up the HR meeting,
Madam Chair. We will recess
the meeting to the college year. All right. We will now call to order the Human Resources Organizational Development Committee. Madam Secretary could we have a roll
call? Chairperson Davis?
Present. Commissioner Blackman, present
situation at Garcia.
Present Arizona. Mr. Chair, we have a quorum. Thank you,
Madam Secretary will now recess to the call of the chair. Thank you Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis.
We will now resume the
Customer Service Committee meeting. And Mr. Phillips? Madam Chair, thank you. So one of the things I'll just say I am extremely proud of our customer service team, because our customer satisfaction rating remained actually higher than what it has been over recent months at 82% and first call resolution was at 68%. So our goals are 72 and 71% respectively. This just goes to show that even facing the adversity of 1000s of calls coming in on a daily basis that our customer service team still remain professional and empathetic to the issues that our residents are facing and what they're demanding that we do to resolve their issues. So I just wanted to you know if anybody from my team is listening, I just want to say I'm very proud of you all for remaining professional and empathetic. Through all the calls we did graduate six individuals out of 12 in the month of January so they went through their 90
days worth of training. We started with 12 and we graduated six we offer our commendations as well. Mr. Phillips, any comments by committee members on this information?
Please continue. Mr. Phillips. Thank you. So this is just a graphical representation of the last six months. As you can see 52,000 calls for the month of January was high. We did see an increase in our average speed of response to emails from one day up to two days and five hours that is a direct reflection of the last month or the last week of January. We had to pull all of our teams off of answering emails during our busy periods, which during the last week was basically 9am to 5pm. So we didn't have as much time to commit to responding to emails. So that's why you see that increase there. And again, our first call resolution at
68% and customer satisfaction at 82% for the month.
Questions or comments committee.
Thank you, Miss Phyllis. Just continue. All right, we'll move into our lifeline numbers. So for for the ending the month of January, we had a total of 32,114 residents in the city that are protected from shut off. Specifically 27,458 are on the the Lifeline program currently. The 10 3050 the payment plan program, there's just a little over 4000 and pending eligibility by Wayne metro was 632 which gives us a total of 32,114 protected from shut off for the last 17 months So believe it or not Lifeline has been alive and well for the past 17 months and the program to date since the inception. We have assisted our residents that are on lifeline between the gap payment the difference between their minimum monthly payment and their total bill as well as the total amount of arrearages that have been set to zero. It has been 45 million nearly $45 million to date. So I think that's a from my knowledge of working on low income programs in the utility space. That is a that is a very large number. And it just goes to show you the amount of commitment that the director and this department has to
supporting our low income customers with an affordability program. Any questions or comments, commissioners? So we did hear some of the concerns that Mr. Williams expressed
in terms of being unable to get in touch with with Mitchell in order to be able to get the customer's concerns addressed.
How are we going to help facilitate that communication? I think I would have to have some specific examples for Mr. Williams. I will personally reach out to him in the next couple of days to try to get some of that information but I will tell you I'm nearly in daily communications with Wayne Metro and their upper management team. We are constantly exchanging information to move the program forward and that is the first I've heard of any communication issues with with Wayne metro but I will reach out to Mr. Williams to try to get some specific details. And then
get back with Wayne metro to see if we can come to a resolution with that. You can report that back to the committee and our next
meeting. I
certainly can't Madam Chair, please continue. All right, just looking at the eligibility for all of the tears I just want to report that 86% of all of the Lifeline customers that represents 20 nearly 23,000 residents that are on tier one, which is 86% are in the $18 a month program so that is absolutely fabulous news that that are low income residents are receiving the low the majority of them 86% are receiving the $80 month payment. So I just wanted to point that out for
the boards and public's acknowledgement.
Who said they are receiving 18 government payments. That is correct. Yes. And so the average payment, the average water bill of our Lifeline customers is approximately $80 per month and they are only obligated to pay $18 of that
the rest of it
is made up with federal and state funding. I just I was making
easy with the word receiving so glad you clarified it.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Go ahead. No Madam Chair. Go ahead. My apologies. Do you have any questions committees on any of these items and the statistic that he's showing us so far?
The plumbing audits,
the 1476. Would you comment on that? Sure. So those are audits that are done. Where Wayne Metro goes into the homes that have been identified as using high amounts of water. Use based on the number of household members and they go in and they do an audit to see if there's any leaks within the home. From there if funding is available, I will say right now funding is not available. But if funding is available, they will perform
minor plumbing repairs within each household Yeah, I thought there was funding available
to with those plumbing needs of those customers what happened the the amount of funding that was set aside to do plumbing repairs has been
exhausted there is
there is no more left at the current time
it will not be occurred. That's the saying at this time. There are no there's no more. There are no more funds available for plumbing
or to repair those plumbing needs. Yep. That is at the current moment. There is some new funding that's coming from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. That is in the neighborhood, I believe believe it I believe it is a $35 million grant for water affordability that has the RFP is due on March 1.
And so Wayne Metro is currently in the process of submitting that RFP. We don't have any idea of how many customers might be in need of those audits at this time. I do not okay,
were you Commissioner Garcia. Were you making a statement or question?
Maybe I didn't hear her. Okay. Please continue. All right. So just to finish up with with Lifeline and water affordability. I think that we're all aware that Senate Bill 549 through 554 is currently in process. And that that is the water affordability legislation that Senator Chang and I just wanted to say that, you know, between Deborah pa speech director Brown and some others we are working diligently speaking at various county commissioner meetings to show our support from a DWSD perspective of how important the water affordability legislation is and how important a Senate Bill is. So I just wanted to let the commissioners know that the work and the efforts are still going on. In fact I will be at the Macomb County Macomb County Commissioners meeting tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock to show our support and to ask for their support to
have positive resolutions
towards this water affordability.
Yes, Madam Chair.
Yes, I heard Commissioner virgin Danka. Mr. Garcia, Madam Chair. So the Wayne County Commission did and our last meeting vote to pass a resolution in support of these bills. But I'm gonna tell you something it was absolutely due to the support and the testimony and information provided in advance by both sort of chains office but the repositories and director Brown and I mean, they really rallied the troops as far as the the social groups who came out and and basically answered the questions that a few of our commissioners had. We were able to get it passed by the Commission, but I'm gonna just tell you, they're supporting information they provided me was a it was extremely helpful and very important in in changing and answering changing the title and answering some of the questions that a few of the accounting Commissioner say it and so I'm very appreciative of, of DWSD support and the the the communication that Miss pastures
participation director brown provided for me. Thank you. Wonderful to hear. And I'm glad it went well after they got the information.
Commissioner Garcia Yes, Matthew can May I ask Madam Chair? The people that are ineligible. Do we have an example from for Metro that were ineligible? Do we have an example of why they were ineligible? Because like I said, I sometimes have problems with how things are filled out because I know we have to cover a lot of that stuff. And I think sometimes it can become very confusing. So I just I just like to ask that
question. I was trying to figure it out while I was looking at it. Sure is the ineligibility the vast majority of them and I the
percentage is is in the high 90% range is due to income.
Oh, they're over the income or over the income limit to qualify Yes. For for lifeline because the funding is based you know, the eligibility is also based on the funding sources as well. Right. So So if someone's 300% over federal poverty level, they wouldn't qualify we're looking to to assist, you know, our low income customers and ensuring that
the funding is going to those that are most in need. Right. Right. And the reason why I asked that is because i That's why I wanted to know what exactly they asked if it's just income, because I know that we have a couple of families in our community that they put in their income and they may be over because they're retired and a pension but they also now have grandchildren and I'm not sure if they count them in because they just give them the income so that would put them in a different category. And as you well know, it's been happening across the board these last several days that I saw several months that people are moving in with their grandparents and their parents and you know, because they don't have a job or they lost their job. And I'm not sure all that information goes out accurately when they're looking at getting
some assistance. That's all I ask. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yep, absolutely. How would they handle a situation like that? Because it would be something
that would happen, maybe
in between their original application. Yep. So that's why there's a recertification process every year is so that we can gather that new information so as a commissioner Garcia's point, you know, if grandchildren are living in the house now, then that is something that would be able to be updated during that recertification process to say you know, maybe it was just the husband and wife that were living in a house and now there's two grandchildren living in a house or maybe even another family. They can certainly update their household member they call household members. So there's not a limit to like someone's last name or or anything like that. If they say that there's now six individuals living in the house, they're six household members, they just have to identify those those individuals, and that would completely change. I'm trying to think of the right word, but the household member to to income status, and so it does vary and it will change what that federal poverty
level would look like by adding additional household members. Now, thank you for the annual evaluation. So at anytime that that becomes a situation they can contact Wayne
natural or whomever they have to contact to update the information. That is absolutely correct. And you know, once you're on the Lifeline program, you know, you're you're no one's going to come back and you know, ask you until the recertification process, how many people are in the household so if you're in you're already on the program, you're already receiving the benefit. If for any reason, you you're you're you were in Commissioner Garcia's example is that if you apply today and you only had two household members, and you were you know, deemed ineligible, because your income was too high, but three months from now after that eligibility was determined as not being eligible. You now have four people living in a house and you can certainly reapply at any time it's not like a one and done type of situation. You can reapply anytime you want
for the program to see if your situation has changed. I think thank you want to give that information out that they can reapply when their their needs change. So thank you very much. Absolutely. Okay. You have no questions, commissioners.
Want to continue Mr. Hills? Yes, Madam Chair. That concludes the customer service communication update for this month. And I believe that the your you are welcome at your
discretion to move on to the planning calendar. If you do so choose
I would like for us to now's your time Calendar Mr. Phillips. Wonderful and I would like to turn the planning calendar, customer communication and education to
over two public affairs director Breckin
Brian Peckinpah is the second boss you're on. Thank you Matt, Madam Chair. Again via impeccable public affairs director. So a few months ago, last year, we introduced you to the professional team and public affairs that we've ramped up internally and so public affairs we have a number of goals and one of them is customer education. Also media relations, advertising our branding. And one of our goals related to customer education is making sure we find avenues where we can address gaps in communication. So we often deal with escalated complaints from the government affairs perspective from City Council Mayor's office. We use those to identify gaps where we can help clear up issues not necessarily that there's a issue in operations or maintenance or repair level but moreso a misunderstanding on the part of the customer. So we we take advantage of that, learn from our community meetings and escalated complaints and these board meetings as well to hear what customers are talking about the asking their presenting issues. So our goal is to educate customers, but also in saying that our goal is also to help reduce unnecessary so to speak, complaints or duplicate complaints that service requests that go to customer service or maintenance or repair in our operations teams. So that he can they can focus on responding to the key emergencies and preventative maintenance. Our next advertising campaign we we budget, a half a million dollars to advertising. We started do that in 2018. So our next campaign starts in February, actually next week, and we're focusing on weather related issues. We started a protect pipes campaign or theme last year where we're protecting our public pipes by doing capital improvements and some of the presentations you saw in the capital improvement committee. But there's also ways the residents can protect their pipes and we want to educate on those issues. And then in the spring we'll focus on catch basins how to help relieve street flooding, flood mitigation and cleaning private sewer lines. So we wanted to share with you our first completely in house TV ads. We're very proud of them. Very Jennings and the team worked on the concepts very produced, edited, and scripted. So we're proud to share that on the next slide.
This is the first AD This will also be a radio ad as well as TV
simply to save you money and prevent future damage. Oh Mr. Phillips, can they turn it up? Perhaps into the drain. Clean up we're gonna talk about flooding and concepts. Remember small changes, protect your pipes, save money and secure your home. For more tips, visit Detroit mi Doctor
org slash protect pipes. Do it now. Save money
we didn't hear all of that. But we saw the pictures. So we're encouraging customers to to protect their pack to wrap their pipes and whatever. Clean the scene
the basins are the catch basins that's my chair and make sure their gutters are cleaned so they don't have leakage between the on their walls and down through the roof. Yeah doing the steps that they need to do to protect your property. And let's purposely at the end Madam Chair, we don't have our phone number. That's you know, we're encouraging people do these steps now to help you save money on the front end.
And then we have one more which
simple Oh
yeah, my temperature down to 69. Oh and turn your PPR for thermostat scuze me keep your thermostat at least that 5556 degrees so the pipes don't freeze in the winter. In their property unless you turn off your water service when you leave. Okay, that's one Madam Chair.
Oh, I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Do you have questions? What
the first one? No questions. This one, this young lady is actually she is from Detroit. lives on the west side. This is home in Detroit. Schaffer in seven mile area. So we Mr. Barry Jennings on our team, film this
and here's the commercial. Thank you. volumes up all the way I would just encourage everybody else that's on the call to turn up your volume on your end as much as you can. But the volume the volume does show itself
all the way so without further ado, here we go.
But not less than powerful. People said I learned the hard way. I have to pay hundreds of dollars just to get my high school and open deals or not. But I've got the solution I just have to make a small change makes a big difference.
Save the world.
So Madam Chair, we will also make sure to send the links to these videos to the entire
Board of Water commissioners before they start airing. Thank you. Bye bye love as high as I could but it was still quite low. Let me let me say I don't know what the water industry or the can do to better educate the public about these flushable wipes that are not flushable wipes and the damage they do. That seems to be an ongoing problem. I know it's being tackled by I think the American Water Works Association, but it doesn't seem
to have the effect that it needs to have because we're still doing it. And I agree, Commissioner we did get questions. Madam Chair about why are we doing another add on wipes flushable wipes, but they do cause problems and the message just needs to get the families need to understand the message and that first of all, it couldn't plug up their own sewer line, let alone
cause issues in the wastewater treatment plant. Yeah. Well, he
did another question or comment. Oh, yeah, of course and comment. You know, we, for a number of years, we've been talking about how these quote unquote flush bubbles are causing problems onto the system. And I just want to ask one particular question, you know, on all of the, the packaging, they say flushable on it, has anyone contacted these companies and basically told them to remove that from the packaging because it's not necessarily true?
Well, it's not true according to what we're hearing from
our our staff and whatnot. Commissioner, what I've heard is that they it's falling on deaf ears. They have not been able to get I guess, the proper legislation or whatever it needs to be
to make them stop advertising. Yeah. What is your comment on that? My comment on that is probably what it seemed like we seen in many instances, maybe some litigation, some litigation, you know need to probably be I think as much money as we spend on removing these items from the system. I think it'd be a fraction of the cost and this fraction of the cost to initiate some sort of class action lawsuit because this is Go ahead. I'm sorry. So I think that we should absolutely look at that. And I would like to
probably talk about that in one of my committee items. Damn, just send us Mr. Smalley just sent as a comment that there are some class action suits already in process. So and I think we should probably continue to do
bring that up as an issue, Commissioner. I'll have that
as a Genda item just to discuss and find out the status
of some of those. Thank you.
Thank you.
Any additional questions or comments?
Okay, I'm Thank you Madam Chair. That's our
presentation for the updated campaign. Thank
you very much. Now,
we're going back to my agenda, which I don't see.
Just a second Madam Chair.
All right. There you go. All right. Very good. So we are now under the cover up the planning calendar. We just did Madam Chair. That was the planning calendar. Okay.
Are there any other matters to come before the committee? I don't have any. So our next meeting is March 6, as is everyone else's so thank you very much chair will entertain a motion for adjournment. So more Madam Chair, move back litter. Garcia seconded by
Commissioner 14.
This meeting stands adjourned. Thank you very much. All right. We will now reconvene the human resources and organizational development subcommittee.
Is there a motion to approve
the agenda? Will Mr. Chair second. Motions been made and properly seconded. All in favor of the motion signify by the sign of Aye. Aye. Aye opposed that motion
is carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of December 6?
Some of that, Mr. Chairman, support motions been made and properly supported. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed that motion is carried. We will now open up public participation
Do we have any Mr. Peckinpah?
Is there somebody that can assist us with public
participation? I can assist there are I do not see any hands raised? Let me check your hands raise.
This says water activist
Okay. Um Are you going to be able to do the preamble? I can. Okay, all right.
All right. I'll be reading the instructions for making a comment. If you would like to have your name when your name is called. You can proceed to the microphone. If you are online, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device. If you are calling into the meeting by phone please press star nine to raise your hand. If you are online or on the phone after your name is called. It will give you permission to unmute but 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 star six, if you are calling in. As a reminder, you have three minutes to make your comment. If you're calling online and make a comment we kindly request that you fill out the comment card that's located in the chat. By filling up the card we will have your contact information to follow up appropriately. Thank you for you will only be called upon once and wants the chair for this public comment. There will be no other comments from the public and all attendees will remain muted.
Thank you for your attention. Mr. Chair and thank you, Miss Jones.
I'm sorry. Go ahead.
The chair we need to recess this meeting and open up the legal committee. All right, the Chair will
recess to the call of the chair.
Commissioner Ken lock
Yes. Can you hear me? I can now okay. Thank you. Yes. At this time, I would like to can you put the agenda on? Okay, Scott. At this time. I'd like to call the Committee on thing. Committee on Government and thank you committee on legal and Government Affairs to order and Madam, would you please call the
roll chairperson can
Lotte President Commissioner iron Hauser commission I know Houser. Commissioner black. Yeah, I'm present.
will recess to the call of the chair. Right now reconvened the HR committee
will now resume public comment. Mr. Chair our first guest
online is named water activist. Okay water activist.
Your turn water Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and commissioners, board members as well. As the director brown have come before the board. I'm on several issues today but I want to supposedly speak about the hiring process as well as the diversity inside the water department. When it comes to hiring different nationalities demographics of other people. within a department. I remember back in July of 23, we talked about the diversity and the department and getting numbers on how many Latinos were hiring in the department. How many African Americans Caucasians, Indians and so on and I have not yet to see that chart being presented to the bomb and inania HR committee. So I still would like for that to happen. I also want to talk about the the migration crisis we have in this country. Specifically, we should be trying to mitigate those people who are what our work and maybe try to get some of those migration people to come in as interns or maybe some type of program that will can reach out to fill in the shortfalls of employment opportunities. within the department shortfalls of hiring new employees within the department. I know we have incentives and commercials going on. But I think that the director, Gary Brown should do more and being aggressive with this issue, because like I heard and other committees in the finance committee, we have a struggle of hiring people and finding people within the department that can contribute to the city of Detroit and contribute to our community around the city. I think that is a very strong area that director brown and the Board of Commissioners can address today. Another thing I wanted to talk about is being able to target young individuals with talent. I understand that there is a hiring process and you guys take that very seriously with criminal background checks and all that. But I think we have a lot of young talent in the city of Detroit that the department hasn't really target and have been offered a lot of incentives. I know that we set up workshops and we set up employment shops around the city. I've seen commercials I've seen here and ads on news, but I think we need to be more aggressive with that. There is a lot of talent leaving the city of Detroit and as a as a whole as a state. So as a young person myself as being a young engineer at a I think that we need to do more of being aggressive with and that coming from the director, Gary Brown, and I want to give a shout out to miss Harris. I know she spoke a while back she was a manager over two construction projects and I think she did an awesome presentation. And also want to give a shout out to Miss Garcia and Commissioner Ken lock for you guys and some good comments and
looking into some of the issues that become a
fourth to this board today. Thank you. All right.
Are there any other hands for public comment?
Comment? Mr. Chair,
we also have Miko William Okay, Mr. Williams.
Mr. Williams, are you there? Yes. Hi, commissioners. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Hold on that. Sorry. I was just getting back to my office here at grabbing lunch. We do. Thank you for this meeting. We missed you guys last month. I thought in your planning calendar. You are we're gonna schedule for January 7. And we got to notice cancellation weren't in time. We just hope that you guys be more diligent and making sure that you say you're planning calendars and meeting times. Even if you have any virtually we should have a notice
or pertaining to that.
So I want to say that. In response to the last meeting, I just got to say some comments.
The Lifeline program.
In my fundraiser that I conducted over the Christmas holiday, we promoted the lifeline plan, and people were interested so they did want to get more information. However, some people indicated that they were on but I told them to open the bill and look and see what your lifeline rate plan is. It's on your bill. They didn't see what they see it. But the thing is, is that people are not annoying or wearing and these are people that have been through wearing Metro before so we really got to have to work together to clean up that issue. As far wise as the tear rates as such, it's people on the 40 in the $50 tears that are struggling to most people that got $18 A month. We really have to work together in a way to figure out exactly why people are falling off what are the causes and the issues I can tell you already people have had other situations as such, but I'll I'll submit all of this in the email in regards to observations and things. We need to have a wing Metro spokesperson or someone represented from that organization to provide the information of what has happened over the past few months or their processes. And I know that Shannon was Zoeller, I think the lady that running the program was there previously, but we need to have someone there to answer these questions that are very important. As far as why as human service services we've had to represent we had two people that we submitted to get a job with DWSD one lady had her water shut off she was working at a carwash she was really in a struggling situation. My co partner gave her the information, and she went to one of the job fairs. So that was a very great thing. I think that the job fairs do need to be advertised more in a grand setting on TV, radio and also other forms of communication social media. We really have to do a good job to make sure that more people are aware that DWSD
is hiring. It should be an exciting thing to be a water worker. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Williams.
Are there any other hands out for public comment?
We see any other hands for public comment?
All right. My apologies, Mr. Chair, there are no more hands. Okay, thank you very kindly just one thing for the public to know. We regularly get demographic data that includes race on our employees, through the director and through the HR chair. So that comes up here on a regular basis. If they're if they're people who aren't seeing it, then we'll try to do a better job at making it more prominent. But we do see it and it's open for anyone who wishes to see it. So with that, we will move on we'll close public comment and move on to communications. We don't have any we don't have any unfinished business. That now brings us to new business item a two zero to four dash one four.
Is there a motion from one of the committee members?
Sorry, trouble unmuting. I would like to move that. The Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit department approves the Human Resources paid parental leave policy and authorize the director to take such action necessary to effectuate the policy. I move that we move that to the full Board of Water commissioners Captain
committee after we
do the information. Is there a second?
Is there a second support? I'm sorry, support. Alright, thank you. Very much. Is there someone from your department I believe it's going to be either our General
Counsel Mr. Rahim, or HR director Mr. O'Neill it's going to present on this I mean, it's Rasul Mr. Rahim. Okay. I believe he needs to be promoted to a panelist
there's somebody from it that can promoting you taking care of it right now. He's already been promoted. Thank you. You're welcome. Sorry for the delay. That's not your fault. He's
up on the guest side. Instead of the kind of, you're gonna miss Thorne. How are you going to speak on the leave policy?
I can I can start the initial conversation. We did discuss this policy last January with the board. We show you what the city has been working on because it had been under development since prior to the pandemic, and the pandemic slowed the city down because the city wanted to offer more benefits to potential employees and current employees as a means of retention and attracting employees. So it was finally implement as of effective January 1 of last year. And we just wanted to make sure that the policy was updated and presented to the board. At that time. We did not we just presented all of the background on the program. And it has been
well received at DWSD.
So it's an enhancement. Yes, it is paid parental leave for men and women. And we've received feedback from
both that are
very happy that now this benefit is being offered. outstanding outstanding.
Committee members, are
there questions or comments about this? Yes, Mr. Chair? Yes.
Commissioner Garcia Yes, it was this also be covering the parents if a child was ill because I was trying to read all of this. It said birth and foster care and but I wasn't sure you know, like if a child gets ill is sick or something for any period of time. God forbid to any of them but I'm just saying Would this also cover them
or that would go under the Family Medical Leave?
Under the Family Medical Leave Act?
That's right, Commissioner. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Are there other comments or questions? Just glad to see the explanation and be
provided with the information very helpful. Thank
you. Right.
All right, then.
Thank you very much. Mr. Thornhill.
This brings us to
HR metrics if you want to vote on that item. You're absolutely right. That the motion has been made and properly supported. All in favor of moving this to the full board signify by the standby. All right. Aye. All right. All
opposed, that motion
is carried. That brings us to HR metrics. Good afternoon, commissioners.
No Good afternoon. I'm going to share my screen
and now we will cover the HR metrics. Currently, we have 618 employees. That's a net change of less than five from last month. We didn't have any new retirements. But we did have a few employees terminated due to poor attendance.
And actually just not showing up and coming back to work.
We want to show you a new chart of our average headcount. Year over year, with 2024 being an actual count as of today, and you can see where we were pre pandemic, with 550 employees. We dipped down a little bit and 2021 because of the pandemic and you'll see the uptick since that time. And as of today, we now have 618 employees and over 30 open positions. So we are currently growing.
Are there any questions? There's going to I do have one question not only this but on the the number of employees who didn't show up. Yeah. Are you referring to three day no call no shows?
Yes. Okay. All right.
Thank you. That's Mr. Chair. Mr. Blackman, I just wanted to commend the department. The work that's been done to increase the number of employees to 618. So I think there's a lot of work had to go into that.
And commendations are an order.
salutely Absolutely. Yeah, Mr. Chair also, I mean, there was a issue about us being aggressive. And I noticed a couple of the board members have been to second Ebenezer at our our job fair. And we have 500 people show up in some of the coldest weather that we've seen in several years, and we're hiring people on the spot. We're interviewing and making the offers on the spot. And so I don't know how much more aggressive you can be than that. And we certainly encourage returning citizens to apply and I put the numbers that we hire against any other city department or, or any other county department, you know, in the state. So I think we are being extremely aggressive. People are getting the information about the job fairs or you wouldn't have those types of numbers showing up in that kind of weather. And, and yes, we can do more, and we welcome suggestions on how to be how to do more, but to say that we're not being aggressive in the hiring
the numbers show that that we are direct director Brown, I would concur. That this is outstanding. And those of us who are really watching this know how much work and effort has gone into getting the word out, collaborating with other city departments and getting folks that these job fairs we know.
So you are to be commended. And your department heads as well. And just one other point. You know, we started last year we started Tiffany Jones in an office of diversity and inclusion and now we're staffing that office up with even more staff so that we were making sure that we're going after diversity and that our jobs are inclusive to everybody in
not only Detroit but in this region. So we're committed to this.
Outstanding Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you, Director Brown, and Commissioner Davis.
Our retirement eligible employees currently, we're at 114 which equates to 18% and this percentage has gone down slightly, but that's because we're hiring more employees. So roughly, we've been around since 2018. From 99 to about this is the highest 114
employees eligible for retirement. Are there any questions?
And here are some of the positions in blue you will see some of our critical positions where we make sure we have succession plans in place so that when these employees retire, we have a strategy to backfill. We still meet with every division within DWSD at least twice a year to identify critical positions and the plans around backfilling those positions, especially those positions with retirement eligible
employees and them. Are there any questions?
And currently, as I stated earlier, we have 24 Open requisitions that equates to 37 open positions.
There are two flights. This is the first one.
And here's the second and final slide for open
requisitions. Are there any questions? My question is you say they're 24
and then you say 32. I'm trying to find a difference. Okay, great question Commissioner. Blackmon we have requisitions so requisition can have one open position or more than one so some requisitions have more than one open position on them. So there are actually 24 requisitions but for a total of 37 open positions. So for example, this one right here customer service,
there are 10 open positions,
but it will be shown as one on your your open requisition report. It shows us one requisition
by itself, with 10 open positions.
Thank you very much. You're welcome. Any others?
Okay, I'm going to let our talent and acquisition and recruiting and training and development manager take over the next
few slides. This is Carla Calhoun. Carla, good afternoon everyone. And Patricia if you can go to the next slide and I'll speak afterwards. We had a career fair that took place on January the 18th. And as director brown indicated earlier, on this particular day was probably one of the coldest days of this winter season. It was in the middle of a snowstorm and the people came out to get jobs and I am so excited about the AWS team and the work that we did collectively to make sure that we were there ready and prepared for our new hires and the people that came out because this day, like I said it was it was in the middle of a snowstorm we started. The fair started at 10 o'clock in the morning but people began lining up at about 830 in the morning. We were already on site we had set up the day before so we were prepared and this video is going to give you a snapshot of what took place that day. And after we finished the video. I'll tell you what's next. And I'll also include
everybody that was included in the fair that damn patrician.
Right Good morning, everybody. Ready to get jobs there are jobs and opportunities within the city of Detroit DWSD in particular, and so we had the
fortitude and understanding
to know that in order to actually get time to candidates, we have to create
spaces and opportunities for them to occupy that space.
I'm here today to say services feeder operations it's pretty quick so wonder
that good password guy or became get hired.
Thank you for Tricia so so I just need everyone to understand that going into planning for years. It takes a lot. One of the things that I do is that I reach out to other entities, other entities to find out if there are some additional employment opportunities because when we go on to these career fairs we know upfront that we're looking to hire 30 people, 40 people, 15 people we have a particular number that we're looking to hire for but I have an understanding that we're liable to see hundreds of people on on this day we saw upwards of 500 people to come through. So I reached out to the city of Detroit to find out if they have any city agencies that's looking to hire people. So we have people from DDOT and GSD. And also police that partner with us on that day. I reached out to Detroit at work they came because they're hiring as well. I reached out to gleyber because there they could be hiring as well and then our own people from DWSD let me tell you everybody that showed up and they had tables because they actually did the recruiting themselves. We have people from our security division. We have people from our IT division. We have people from customer service. We have people from maintenance and repair and meter operations and our public affairs division, who is like family to us, they they come ready to serve and work. And I just want to give a big shout out to Barry because this video that you're watching he's able to capture what's happening in a real moment. So what you saw you saw people that were in interviews you saw people that was received the application assistance because we provide application assistance for people that may not have filled out an application prior to showing up. Our IT department will set up a computer lab that will have a minimum of about 20 computers and then they have staff on site to help aid and assist all of the people that come out. So I just want to give a big thank you to everybody that participated. It is a great labor of love. It is an intense day. But our goal here within the HR department is to figure out a way to make sure we're helping people get jobs and more importantly helping Detroit us get jobs. We have gone over to southwest Detroit at Sur Metro, the epicenter of the resources for the southwest region. Our first one we did at trial Church on the Boulevard and then at the kickoff of January we went to second Ebenezer coming hopefully within the next month. or so. And the previous careers we focused on our professional positions for our customer service and Field Service Technician but we have to elevate and take it to the next level because we're hiring for some of our professional positions as well. So I am looking to do a career fair that will focus on our engineering department, our finance our IT department and human resources. So we have some professional positions that we're hiring for. So again, we have to create the space and opportunity to bring candidates to us so we can hire them for these great jobs here at DWSD.
At this time,
do we have any questions?
department that was excellent. Miss Koubou.
Thank you so much.
It is a labor of love.
Mr. Chair.
It's Linda forte. Commissioner 14. Yes, I just had a well number one commendations. What an exciting career fair. And, you know, my question is specific to returning citizens. I know that we've done a good job DWSD at the career fairs that we hold Do we have any special outreach or do we
have to make a special connection for returning citizens? One good question. So what tends to happen we get a plethora of all walks of life that comes to the career fairs and typically I kick it off with a speech and engage the audience and then they'll stop me and they'll say, hey, you know, I'm a returning citizen. And I say that's, that's it. That's, that's okay. Everyone has a pass and we welcome them so they know that we are felling friendly, and we employ returning citizens. So we break that barrier early. And we actually had someone I can't recall the young man's name and and I would want to give it until he gave his permission, but he came up to me and he said, Hey, I work at GSD and he told me that he had did some time and he's had a great time at GSD but they have seasonal work. And he was like I'm looking for something permanent. And I said we guess it make sure you stop at the table. Give me your name given your background. That person ended up getting an interview that day and was actually hired on the spot. So we
welcome everyone I can I can also add that the mayor has a a group of lawyers that don't do anything but help expunge records for returning citizens. And so the city itself has an outreach program to that community. That kind of feeds over into our recruiting efforts. So there is
additional support other
than just DWSD. We also partner with Center for Employment Opportunities ceasefire and Michigan Department of Corrections as well. So we work closely with these organizations to make sure
we're employing them as they're speaking release. Yeah, and we also participate in banned the box and so they don't have to check a box and say
that they get incarcerated. They're treated like everyone else.
Question I'll stand here. I'm sorry, Linda, you're done. I'm sorry. I'm done your floor. Okay, thank you. I'm on the returning citizens and I know you I think Gary, you guys have done a great job. I cannot begin to tell you. And I know you've only had a couple bumps in the last several years. I think. Overall I think you can say 98% has been successful, but in returning citizens is you can deny a job if it's something that you see as a as a bump in the road in the future. Am I
correct? Or is is that how do you do that? I mean, I'm sure you know. So all within the hiring process as we we will conduct a background check upon what's found in the background check. We have made determinations that DWSD is not a good fit for certain scenarios. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So we definitely take a look at it. And we, we try to be cognizant of where we place
people based upon what's in the history so how many and Carla and how many have since the beginning of our program, maybe, maybe director brown knows better than anybody but how many have actually are still with us from the beginning of the program when they were actually painting
hydrants? I'm just asking, do we know do we have an idea? That's a good question. And I remember that project. We had about six people that joined us, we would have to go back and pull those numbers that we may be able to make that information available at the next meeting, but I do recall that we did hire about six of them.
How many are still remaining that we would have to look up that data for you. They do have that data. I'm sharing my screen or I could pull it up right now but I do have it is current as of
last month, commissioners our report out next month because I have it.
Okay, thank you. And Sam has also indicated in the notes that
some of them have actually advanced to the supervisory level at this. Wow, that is great. So I think the department needs to be very much held this example one, and also the idea that you change people's lives, you know, and I think that as a social worker, it impacts a lot on how we feel about people coming back and changing their lives that they they can turn their lives around. And I think the department has done one heck of a job giving that opportunity and making
that change for people's lives and
their families.
Can I see us? Thank you. Can
we have any additional questions at this time?
The mission or can lock you have your hand up.
No, I didn't have oh, no, I'm sorry. I lower my hand.
A great job.
Carla, thank you very much.
Thank you. Outstanding. Okay, our planning calendar for the month. We're going to cover health and safety. Our safety manager Derek Seeker's is on vacation this week, so I'm going to cover his information. I asked him November 1 of last year. Safety now reports back with HR. And what we're focusing on is improving from things that we have been working on and looking forward to implementing a few other things. So our focus for 2024 will be to continue to closely monitor our excavation and trenching activities to ensure that employees are following protocols and that's helping them are there any questions? Making sure they have helping a management with the correct equipment and the adequate equipment? We're going to continuous gonna provide excuse me continuous training regarding Ms. Dig and look at the guidelines and promote utility damage prevention practices. And we're also going to improve the job site hazard identification and securing of the job sites including barricades, signage, etc. We're also looking at gas strike causes and we want to assist in the reduction of those overall gas strikes. And we're also revisiting our safety training matrix and updating the required training for each employee classification here at
DWSD. We established that about four and a half years ago.
Our newly revised and rebooted accident review committee meets monthly and they review accidents from the previous 30 days and renders the findings of fault or not at fault. This is new because we had not been doing that and we're also focusing on drivers training, safe driving habits for our employees. We're going to continue to provide combined space excavation, trenching and forklift training for our new hires. And we are promoting the use of fillable PDF forms for our injury and accident reports. And one of our big successes in the past year is the CPR and AED training. We're going to continue to focus on that during the year of 2023 220 DWSD employees were trained on CPR, AED and to date, we've had one class of 12 employees so we're going to
continue to promote that. Are there any questions? Okay,
that concludes my report and
thank you very much. Thank you Mr. O'Neill.
All right. There are no other matters Our next meeting is March 6 2020
for chair will entertain a motion to adjourn.
So moved, Mr. Chair. All right,
we stand adjourned. Thank
you, everyone. We have to have a vote with your feet, okay.
Okay, the legal and Government Affairs Committee will now reconvene the first item up is the approval of the agenda. A motion is in order to approve the agenda for this meeting. Here. It's been moved
that we approve the agenda as presented. Okay, and then move in support to approve the agenda. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye oppose. Those opposed? This item stands approved next item on the agenda is approval of meeting minutes from December 6 2023. Motion is in
order to approve the meeting minutes with any necessary corrections.
Mr. Chair, is there support support? The motion support to approve the meeting minutes? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Those oppose. This item stands approved. Next item on the agenda is public participation
and who will read the instructions. Mr. Chair Brian Peckinpah public affairs director and I want to take a moment I apologize. I stepped away during the last committee meeting and thank you so much to Stephanie Jones and Nikki branch and person Pearson for helping out on the last committee. So the instructions for the public comment for this meeting are to make a comment, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your desktop or mobile device. If you are calling into the meeting by phone, press star nine to raise your hand. After your name is called it will give you 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 star six if you are calling in. As a reminder, you will have a limit of three minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer indicating your remaining time. If you're online to make a comment we kindly request you fill out the comment card link this located in the chat but filling out the card we will have your contact information to follow up appropriately. If you are unable to click the link, please let us know and a 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. And Mr. Chair, we're going to look here to see
and there are two hands raised Mr. Chair.
Okay, would you please identify the first person please? Yes, sir.
The first person is the Michael Williams. Mr. Williams.
You may unmute?
Yes, hi, good afternoon, commissioners. D'Amico Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit. I wanted to give a comment about the legal government affairs. One item on the agenda that lists the pending or unresolved cases, which is the ACLU versus the city of Detroit. We are awaiting judge Denise Paige hoods opinion or her ruling. This has gone on too long. I call that she's not the Chief Justice anymore of the US District Court or she still is that as that has been designated but on the other hand, I just want to say to my general opinion about this case, I'm very disappointed that this case even had to come. I remember me saying and challenging the former deputy director in this subgroup committee determining water affordability who gonna get the gall to sue the city of Detroit if we implement a program to help our customers and she said that we would be challenged by those on the outside of Detroit or the state or wherever about helping poor people. I never thought it would be our own activists in our own community that would sue the city for not providing the one resource we all share. Water is an essential human right. The whole case my remembrance of the whole case was just terrible. And it shouldn't ever come to this. Because what we want is to make sure that the city was being fair, that it was being transparent and also that it was being honest and making sure you know that we could provide water to everyone in the city of Detroit, for any other community for any outlet like Macomb County, you know, Oakland County, I remember those 2014 saying, Oh, you all should pay your water bill. We don't have but then they're falling in the trap is well, so for this bipartisan press conference that was held the other day in regards to pledging commitments to affordable water in southeastern Michigan. I feel that you know, this case, still has to set precedent on what a municipal water company can do and what it can't do, and the bounds that it has in, you know, determining shutting off or you know, disconnecting service and it's not because of non payment because people were paying the bills and the bills got too high and they can't pay it down or they didn't have any way to pay it down in Wayne Metro and all these other groups myself, the United Way, and it just became a horrible situation. That case really
needs to move forward but it also needs to be dismissed. Thank you. Sir.
Mr. Pickleball. Is there anyone else? Mr. Chair, there's one more person their phone number ends in 617617
