Imani, Director Brown is trying to get into the meeting to Waiting to be led into the
meeting one second i
i Tell him to check his email. Is just sent out. Should be there, if not a minute. I
don't know where we don't know where he's at, but he's on his iPad. She said, tell him to check his email
if he signed in as a sound like he signed in as a guest, so he won't be able to see the meeting until we start the webinar, unless he clicked on his panelist link,
just check his email.
Did they send him on?
She said he was signed in as a guest, and so he would have to wait till the meeting started, or click on the or click on the link. She said she just sent him a link his email. Okay, okay, money. She's having them check his own
Okay, let
me know. If not, I'll just promote him when we start the meeting. Okay,
she said to let her yeah, let her know if he if he doesn't get in.
Hear me better. Now a
little bit yeah, that's good. Little bit better. No, it's clear. I can hear you all right. I
Hi, Monty, can you hear me? Loud and clear,
I can hear you, okay, thanks.
We will now start the webinar. I
Okay, it's one o'clock. Commissioner Coleman,
thank you. Good afternoon. Everyone time now is 1pm I'd like to call to order capital improvement program and operations committee meeting. Meeting. Miriam, can you please call the roll please? Chairperson Coleman, President Detroit, Michigan.
Commissioner Davis
President Detroit, Michigan. Commissioner Ken lock, President
Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Chair, we
have a quorum.
Thank you. Miriam. Next, can we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Please,
Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve our agenda as presented.
Thank you. Report, there's a motion and supported. All in favor. Signify. Signify by saying, aye, aye. Aye. Any abstentions? I hear none. Motion passes. Uh, item number four, approval of the minutes from July the eighth, 2024 as presented.
Move, approval of the meeting minutes, previous meeting minutes with any necessary corrections. Support
it has been moved and supported All in favor. Signify by saying aye, aye. Bye, bye. Any abstentions? I hear none this motion of the minutes from July 8, 2024, has been approved. At this time, I'd like to call for public participation. Do we have anyone please?
Going once, going twice. I see we have none. I will move to our our next line item communication,
sorry, one hand just popped up. Okay, alright. I will be reading the public comment instructions to make a comment. If you are in person, please sign the sign in sheet. Your name will be called and you can proceed to the microphone. Oh, sorry, this is, yeah, you can proceed to the microphone. This is the wrong one. If you are online or on the phone, after your name is called, it will give 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'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 if you're online and make a comment, we kindly request you fill out the comment card link that's located in the chat. By filling out 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. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you,
Mr. Chair, there's one hand raised. Norell Hemphill, you may unmute yourself.
Yes, good
afternoon to the to the I'm sorry, is this capital improvement committee? I just had one quick question. I was concerned, and I didn't see an update on the agenda about the bright more project. I just wanted to know how that project was coming along. I know there had been a couple of community engagement sessions. Will there be more public engagement sessions on that project? And if possible, can we get an update on it? Is there an estimated time when it will start? I know there was some issue about some residents needing to sell their homes and be relocated. Has that been resolved? And again, just updates on the project and when it will start. Thank you.
Thank you.
Do we have any other comments?
No, that was, I know there was also a couple of other projects that was would be building, those the water catchment, and I think there was three around the city, is is capital improvement? The committee that does deal with that? Or is there another committee? Let me ask that. Thank you.
Someone on from the
yes Commissioner, Deputy Director, Sam Smalley, just a very brief update on brightmore. It's still in the study phase. We are trying to identify funding. We are communicating with residents. We can provide a more comprehensive update that next month's meeting if the commissioners prefer. In terms of other similar type projects, we do have four projects identified on the west side, west Chicago, North West Chicago, south, school craft north, school craft south. One of those has recently been bid. It will be similar to the far west project, but slightly smaller than that, we can provide a sewer and storm water resiliency PowerPoint that I think may answer a lot of these questions to miss Hemphill. Okay,
thank you, Sam, welcome. Are there? Is there anyone else that has any questions or comments for the committee? Mr. Chair,
there are no more hands raised. Thank
you very much. I appreciate that. With that said, we're going to go to our next line item, which is communications. I see we have none line item number seven, unfinished business. I see we have none new business. Okay, no new business. Uh, well, I guess Mister
Chair, we do have a that line item number a is the new business? Yes, yes.
Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate this. Mm, hmm. The Glee were year CIP for upcoming fiscal year, 2024, to 160, so it can someone speak to that please.
Dima, you can turn your camera on and share, or we can run the PowerPoint for you, whichever you prefer.
I'll go ahead and share good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me? Yes, wonderful. So I'm I'm Dima algamil, capital improvement planning director at Great Lakes Water Authority. It's a great opportunity to be here today. Thank you for the invite, and I appreciate the time to share with you where we are in our CIP development and in the 24 to 2025 to 29 implementation, I'm gonna start sharing. So give me one second. I
can you see my screen?
Yes, okay, perfect.
So what I would like to walk you through today is a glimpse of where we're at from, from a perspective of completing FY 24 our fiscal year was done last June, and want to talk about our initial KPIs for the CIP delivery on the water and wastewater side. I'll also be touching on our on the board approved CIP that was just approved in February. I want to focus a little bit on projects within the city of Detroit, and then give you an update on where we stand with the 26 to 30 CIP. So I will start by talking about our CIP delivery, KPIs, key performance indicators as of end of fiscal year. FY, 24 before I start, these are initial, initial numbers. They they don't include salaries, fringes. We always go through this at the end of the fiscal year. We try to kind of make sure that we close the books before we share the final numbers, so to speak, for that fiscal year. So from our perspective of the water system we had, we had a goal of $239 million for FY 24 we're at 74% of that at the close of FY 24 and I want to start with, we plan, but life happens. We are in the, you know, in the world of construction. We are in the world of design and and a lot of challenges come with the dynamics that are associated with the real life of CIP delivery. So when we started, when we started the planning for this, it was almost two years ago. And when we come to implementation, things do change. Prices go up. Constructions get delayed. Projects get delayed. And in this case, for instance, I'll give an example about though our water system, we had a major project that was delayed for good reasons, like we decided to rebid the 96 project, and we got almost 90,000,080 to $90 million less on our bids that we we basically benefited from, but that delayed the 96 inch project a bit, which put our kind of spending on a on a kind of 74% instead of it being higher than that. And that goes for our our wastewater system to things do get delayed, but we have, we have been able to accomplish 130, 3 million this year of wastewater delivery. 67% of board approved. A lot was done. And again, there were, there were certain projects that were related to permitting delays, and we had to deal with those and value engineering. So like I said, it's always good to plan, but at the same time, when things happen, we have to adapt, and we have to be agile, and we are accomplishing CIP delivery through that process. With that being said in a couple I think in a couple of weeks, we will have the final numbers. So hopefully in September, I will have better numbers related to end of year FY 24 talking about FY 24 we, we, we live in multiple kind of environments when. We are doing CIP delivery while FY 24 was closing, the board approved the FY 25 to 29 CIP. So this was approved in last February, and a lot of effort takes takes place until a plan is approved. And there's a process, so to speak, with deadlines, as you all know. And we are very thankful that we started operating under the FY 25 to 29 starting in July. Water for for our FY 25 to 29 is about. It is still trading at $1.7 billion over five years. We're we're still looking at averages of over 200 million wastewater, about 982 million over five years, within averages of about 196 million to spend. There's a lot of projects in our CIP and, let alone not projects, but also a lot of contracts under the project. So we had about 159 projects. Six were new, and we were able to close 10 in the previous fiscal year. I would encourage everyone to utilize our website to look at our our document, and there's there's links to the PC ease, there's links to the actual document, and a lot of many tables that describe the CIP and there's also a map that basically allows you to look at projects that are within a certain area, if needed, if we wanted to focus on the city of Detroit, you can you can find this map in our CIP document, and it basically shows where the projects are concentrated. Where do we have water projects? Where do we have wastewater projects? And as you can see, the list is long, and we have plenty of projects that are considered within the city of Detroit, either within glwa facilities or outside glwa facilities. Again, you can find this in our CIP document, which I would encourage everyone to take a look at, and it is on our website. A closer look, I wanted to provide you with to take a look at our water projects within the city of Detroit, as you can see here, here's the table for your reference. Projects are in various stages. For example, on water, we have multiple projects that are in project execution, under either design or construction. There are projects that are going into procurement, and we do have future projects that we plan for, and I intentionally bolded here the projects that are outside glwa facilities, so those who are reviewing this list kind of have have a sense of the projects that basically are taking place within the city of Detroit and not within a glwa facility on the wastewater side. And I have a list of, you know, a longer list here. Also, we have plenty of projects within the next five years that are being planned, several projects for design and procurement and in construction as well. A lot of future projects were very successful. We were able to close four projects or five projects last year. And when you're looking at what's in execution, you're we're looking at a lot, you know, projects within our wastewater facilities and projects that are outside the facility under execution and under pending close out. As you know, most of our conveyance projects will be out, outside our facility. And the DRI the Detroit River interceptor is a major project that we deal with. So again, multiple projects, they're they're all active. We're working on them, and if they are in the future, we're actively planning for them.
So we talked about what's what's in the works, and what is happening is that our teams continue to like are continuously working. So we got the FY 25 to 30 approved in February, as I mentioned, immediately after that, we start working on the 26 to 230 roadmap. The CIP itself is a long process. The CIP process development, it has multiple phases. Requires a lot of collaboration, cross functional collaboration within our teams, and we are proud to take it from one step to the other and making sure that we have the end in mind, which is presenting it to the board. So a lot of you see, you see this map here. There's a lot of activity. And we really, you won't believe me if I said we have zero float on these activities. So we we got to work within a clockwise perspective. So we're here today. What does that mean? It means that we've already looked at our projects, reviewed them, analyzed if we needed to add new projects or not, went through the scoring process, and after we have updated all our projects, because we want to make sure that whatever we're presenting is current, and then we are right now in the alignment phase. This is the, this is the phase that takes the most time and and patience from everyone, because, as you know, we have, we have a financial plan, we need to align with the financial plan and projects once they you know, once they hit design and construction, a lot happens. You figure out expanded scope, or a need to add something, or you bid the project, and you find out that the projects are coming in higher than what what they were allotted for in planning. And with that being said, we go through this alignment phase with with a tedious process to make sure that we are we continue to focus on the priorities. Everything is a need, and we continue to prioritize the needs that we have. So this is, this is where we're at right now, and we're looking forward to the next, future steps, once we finalize alignment, we would go into the draft and the presentations to the public. With that being said, I want to talk a little bit about our scoring. I know we've presented this before. I just wanted to reassure you that we have a scoring process and we review it next on an annual basis. This year, it's not very different than last year. We're still using the same the same formula, the same process. We're trying to make the process as efficient as possible. So we're at we basically ask our engineers if their projects are active, if they are in construction, if their delivery method is designed Bill design build or progressive design build, we don't need to re score their projects. Their projects have gone into execution, and there's no point of just spending time to score them however we would like them to always reconsider the scoring on existing projects that are either in procurement or they are in design future, and also if they brought in a new project for us. So during our scoring process, we have, we have two scores that show up. One score is the project manager score, and then we seek a review committee score. And when you see a project for glwa and you are seeing a score for it, that score is basically the review committee score. We really value the engagement of our review committees and at the same time we value the opinions of our project managers, but we were basically taking both into consideration when we're looking at our projects. Once we take our our full project scoring, and I wanted to reflect a little bit on this process, because it's not a cookie cutter, like a project scores high or a project scores low, does not really mean that this project is more important than the other. It could be. It could it could mean that, yeah, there's a priority list, but some projects might have lower scores that you see them go on because of other factors than just a score. So when we look at our projects, we put them in three buckets. For instance, tier one, tier two, tier three. If they're scoring more than 75 they are in tier one. If they're less than 4045 they're tier three. That's our first brush. We look at them and we try to see what what needs to happen first based on those tiers. But that doesn't stop there, because there are other decisions that our engineers, our operators, our plant managers, start looking into and those could be funding possibility, constructability. If we have a you know, if we have funding source for a project, we might pull it forward, like we did on Oakwood. There is a $20 million grant that we were able to secure through the principal forgiveness process. So we, we ended up pulling that project forward. There are certain projects that may require a predecessor project. So I can't build a nine is a project that has a score of 90 until a project that has a score of 60 is built. So the constructability of the you know, the impacts and proactive planning. A lot of decisions come into the alignment phase, and they are made within the engineering, the operations, the asset management and the CIP team. And once we have a project like I said, we take it to the scoring committee. We basically. Solicit their input. And this happens for not every single project, but projects that are new, that come into our CIP and also to projects that, for instance, from one year to year, they change their score by more than 10. We also put those in front of our scoring committee and and I cannot move from this slide without thanking everyone who participates in this. This is a an extremely important milestone in our CIP development process. We bring in a diverse team from glwa as well as our member partners. This year for wastewater, we had Anil go sign from DWSD, and we had microwave from gross point shores. They sit on the committee, and they participate in the scoring. We utilize folks from asset management, from operation, from resiliency. So not only the project manager is being tasked with scoring the project, the entire kind of holistic view is coming in from multiple team members to complete that. And once we, like I said, once we have those scores, we basically utilize them to dig further deeper to identify, how can we manage the CIP and what to put in first versus delay a bit if needed. And with that, I would, I would recap with the roadmap. We are in the FY 26 to 30 stage right now. We're trying to complete alignment, and once we do, you will start hearing about draft one. We would appreciate people providing comments on draft one, hopefully, October 15 is the date where we present draft one, and then it becomes available for 30 days for public feedback. And we really encourage and value everyone's feedback, and we look forward to receiving it. And with that, I would thank you for having us today and inviting glwa to present, and would be open to questions if there's any. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions at this time? Mr. Chair, yes,
yeah. Can I just say that I chair the CIP committee for the Great Lakes Water Authority, and glwa is lucky to have Dima, her attention to detail and the team that she's built to build out this CIP is just exceptional. And so not only are they lucky to have her, but we're also lucky to have her because we're 40% of the Great Lakes Water Authority. And I can tell you that nothing gets dropped with regards to Detroit's geography and the dollars that are being spent to not only maintain but to improve the system. So I just want to publicly thank her for coming and presenting today so that you could see what I already know. Thank you.
Well, Gary, I appreciate those comments. It must be tough the director of another water department is your board chair. So yeah, but thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Does anyone? Anyone have any other questions or comments at this time? Okay? Seeing none. Thank you again. Very much. Appreciate it.
Appreciate it. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Director Brown, thank you.
Next item on our list is our planning calendar, one, eight, tax 0004,
in September, we will have the review of engineering and planning programs for this committee.
Thanks, Sam. I appreciate it. At this time, are there any other matters to be brought before the board or the committee. Excuse me. Okay, seeing that our next meeting is scheduled for September 4, 2024, can we have a motion to adjourn? Please move to adjourn has been moved second. I'll second it. This meeting is adjourned. Time is 125 thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Okay, we have five minutes to the start. Well, four minutes and counting to the next meeting.
Marion,
yes,
I have 45 minutes.
You do? I.
Thank you.
Is it not on your calendar, on your agenda?
It is. I
just can't see it. But that's no. I just Yeah, I couldn't get to the next
one. Matt, yes, ma'am.
Madam Chair, did
you call it?
I barely, I mean, like, really low Secretary, I
think he said, I do, we have 45 minutes. Does it mean for the presentation? Yes,
for the for the committee itself,
the entire committee,
Madam Chair, we can hear you.
Hello, can you hear me?
I can hear you, Mary.
Can you hear me? Yes,
okay, you can hear me, okay, yeah, no, no, that was me.
Can you hear me? Yes, okay,
yes, I can hear you.
45 minutes.
Is it just us two right now?
Yes. Jay, sorry, I know I don't hear the I don't hear the Okay. Marion or Mr. Phillips,
you can't hear me, permission to blackmail.
What about Mr. Phillips?
Madam Chair, I can hear you. Matthew,
good, okay, good, very good.
But you said you can't hear me.
Fine, Mary. Oh, okay. I thought everyone had tuned out on
Oh, okay.
Madam Chair, do we have quorum yet?
We we do, but the two of us, yes, oh, we don't. Okay, okay,
we can't start the meeting for another two minutes.
Okay, thank you. Just
wanted to make sure I could be here, that you could hear me more clearly than before
We can i
All right committee, I would like To call the customer service waiting meeting to order at 130 on the state of August 7. Madam Secretary, would you please call the roll?
Commissioner for K is excused, but plans to join us later. Madam Chair, we have a quorum, very
much. Then the next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion? And I will second it? Aye. Aye Motion carries. The next item is approval of minutes of July 8, Denver, Garcia, so moving, I will support any discussion on the minutes hearing. None all those in favor please
support Aye. Aye
Motion carries. I should ask, are there any any names motion carries. The next item is public participation. Do we have anyone who has indicated a desire to speak before this committee?
Madam Chair, there are three hands raised. For this committee, good
would you read the public comment statement? Please,
yes, Miss where can you read that statement? Please?
Yes, 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 have a limit of three minutes to make your comment. There will be a timer indicating your remaining time if you're online and make a comment, we kindly request you fill out the comment card link that's located in the chat. By filling out 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 it 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. So would you please indicate who our First Person?
Madam Chair, the first person is Cecily McClellan,
very good.
Good afternoon. Cecily McLellan, I'm with we, the people of Detroit. I just have a few questions about the easy pay program in the scope. It indicates that the is the program applies to all DWSD customers. So I just want to be clear that that does mean commercial customers, as well as businesses and and churches. Churches also it in in terms of customers transitioning from the 10, 3050, to the easy pay program. I just want to get an understanding of how the arrearages will be managed. I mean, will they? Will the current, real reach of a person on the 1050, 30 be recalculated for that 36 month period? What would be the process for individual to have their you know, once they transfer to have their arrearage recalculated. And additionally, it does indicate that there is an hardship component in the easy pay program. It indicates that, you know, customers who have difficulty complying with the program will be referred to the community action agency, which I assume is Wayne Metro, so those individuals would have to fall within the income threshold of 20 200% or below a poverty it does also have another option, where it says a customer can be in contact with the customer assistant case manager and attempt to work out something to avoid shut offs. I'd like to know what programs that the customer assistant case manager have at their disposed to assist persons with hardships, but they are not income eligible for the Detroit lifeline. Thank you very much.
The staff want to respond to some of those at this time.
Mad Madam Chair, this is Matthew Phillips. I will be I'd be happy to address, I think there was three issues here. So the first one is Yeah, to answer Miss McClellan's questions all customer types, whether that's industrial, commercial, faith based, churches, residential, there is no limitations to the type of customer class that would be eligible for easy, paid so that's That's number one. As far as recalculation of 10 3050 customers that are currently on the 10 3050 program will not be automatically entered into the easy pay program. If they choose to enter into the program, they would need to call us to indicate that, and yes, we would recalculate whatever prior arrangement was made on the 10 3050 plan into the $10 down 36 month program. Anybody can do that just by calling us, like I said, if they're in the 10 3050 program. And then, as far as this, does not exclude anybody that's that's on the Lifeline program. You know, the easy pay does not replace lifeline, so Lifeline is still available for those customers that are 200% or below the poverty level. And then as far as the customer service case manager, if the customer is not income eligible, then that shows that they potentially have the ability to pay based on their income. Them, and so we would work with them to find out what types of barriers are in the household that are preventing them from making a monthly payment, especially as low as it is. And we are currently working on a a third option. So we have lifeline for those to stay on that are below income. We have the easy pay for those that are above the poverty level to be into a program to save them from a service interruption. And then we are currently working on a third option that, again, we're still working on it. We hope to have it available within the next 60 days, is an option where you might be able to pay every week, so a little more flexibility. But again, we're still working on that. Thank
you, Mr. Phillips, I think those were very, very good responses to the questions raised and very complete. Are there any questions by committee members? Okay, go on to our next
madam. Madam Chair. The next person is Jacob Graham. Graham, hello everyone.
Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jacob Graham, and I live on Townsend Street,
the the
first I'd like to say thank you for for helping to get the basin rebuilt in our alley. So, you know, we've had some some big rains the last couple weeks, and the basin is, is working really, really well. However, i The the contractors, when they were doing the basin, they tore huge two other huge areas of the alley. They tore out all the cement and maybe 2020, feet wide in two other spots. I guess they were investigating something, and they did not re cement that. So now we have two other huge piles of dirt that the contractors left in the alley, and they haven't been back. I tried to talk to them, and they said they they weren't going to do anything more. They were all done. And so I guess I I'm just concerned that, that nobody's going to come back and repair that cement. And I tried to call the customer service line, and they told me that, that they can't look up the project, but I shouldn't expect them to repay them less than two or three years, which I guess I just don't see how, how that makes any sense. So I really just like to know what the timeline is to get the cement repair that the basin contractors tore all out of the alley.
Is there anyone has this has been referred to customer service before so and I do recall the same comments by the customer have we investigated this item?
Commissioner Blackman, Sam Smalley, Deputy Director, just to be clear, there was never a basin in that alley, we installed a catch basin where a previous lamp hole was installed from the late 1800s they used to actually drop a lamp through a six inch diameter hole to check the condition of the sewer. But we did install it, addressing the concrete restoration if we disturb or remove the concrete, we will make sure that our contractors provide the hard surface restoration. I'll look into it and provide this committee an update
as well. Thank you so much,
Madam Chair, the next person is Norell Hemphill,
okay, thank you, Miss Hemphill, how are you this afternoon? Miss Hemphill, you may begin. She can't hear us.
Miss Hemphill, you can unmute yourself. You okay, we can go back to her Madam Chair. The next person is Mr. Miko Williams.
Mr. Williams, how are you, sir? Mikko. Mr. Williams,
Hi, good afternoon commissioners. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now, yes. Damico Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit, we're a 501 c3, nonprofit organization that helps people with their water shut off, but also provide consultation, advocacy and assistance with water bill payments. I just want to thank the water and sewage department for their partnership. And participation in the hydrate Detroit share water donation drive is very awesome. We were able to get people aware, but also we were able to raise the funds that we needed to continue this organization, to get the word out and also assist the great people of the city of Detroit. We don't want nobody to have the water shut off. We're very thankful for the participation in the easy pay program. That program is getting high remarks, is getting very good feedback, and I'm working very hard to make sure that every resident in the city of Detroit know that they can get their water bill on an easy payment plan and don't have to worry about too much of the stress. It's very important that we continue this good success and good Juju energy that we still have. Especially shout out to customer service director Matthew Phillips and director Brown at the mayor's community meeting. It was very great news to hear. This is the 10 year anniversary of Detroit water crisis, and when 150,000 people got their water shut off as such. I mean, no one should be out of water period. You know, if people been paying their bills to trying to make an effort to pay their bills, we should be able to assist them by any means necessary. And I'm glad that this opportunity has erosion so that we could restore trust, rebuild our diligence to the city and also to the residents of the taxpaying customers of this system. So I just want to say, thank you very much. I'm still going to do whatever I can. I want to ask the commissioners to please provide an incentive when we said water bill amnesty, we meant taking a certain percentage off the bill so you can get customers out of debt. We're grateful for the lifeline plan amnesty. We're grateful for the cuts and reductions and the write offs, but we're also you know you would see a windfall like never before. And I still believe if you talk to judge mcconico, the 36th district court who held amnesty all summer long and had people coming in the door, the Detroit water and sewer department will be very successful. And no, we will not be sued. I will be talking with this legal team. I just don't want our activists and citizens to sue us for not giving them an opportunity to get out of this water bill help. But I just want to say positively, let's continue to partner and work together to provide you know, opportunity access and make sure that all of the customers within the system, anybody that calls, is getting the help that they receive. Thank you so much, commissioners. Have a great, wonderful day. Bless you. Anyone
else?
Madam Chair, we'll try. Norell Hemphill again. Miss Hemphill,
yes, my apologies. I had something going on at home. Norell Hemphill here. I had just a quick question. I know that we, the people of Detroit central correspondence a couple weeks ago, I believe now, to the Board of Water commissioners and also to Matthew Phillips. However, that correspondence was not included in the agenda for the Board of Water commissioners monthly meeting, nor has it been included anywhere else in any other agendas. So I just had a question about the process for including correspondences in the agendas. What is that process, and then also in that correspondence and in our meeting that we had on June 26 with Matthew Phillips and also with Deborah past, we asked for some data, and they both said that they would get data to us, and I just wanted to Know What's the update on that status, or the disaggregated data concerning the lifeline plan. And I know that you all have been working diligently to get the water assistance programs up and running, such as lifeline, and then also easy pay to replace that 10, the 10, 3050, and also working with the luau program, which does give residents up to 9000 employment repairs. So I understand that it's been a busy summer with the cobbling together those three programs, but we would like to know when that data would be available, as it does, help us better serve our community and also better inform DWSD on what's happening with within the community. Again, I would like to know what the process is for receiving and then reporting out and adding correspondence to the. Different agendas, and also, when is the when can we expect to receive the data that was requested during our meeting? Thank you.
Do you want to respond to any either of those?
Yep, I sure can. So the process is, is that we all items that are brought before the board, if they are do a response, and it's not just a statement, then we respond at the next meeting. In this case, we, the people of Detroit requested over 25,000 records of individual accounts and their water usage over the last 12 months, and so that does take a little bit of time, as I'm sure the this this board would completely understand that that is a lot of data that not only needs to be put together, but also needs to be sanitized to ensure that personal identifiable information of each one of those accounts is sanitized as not to Put the public in any type of jeopardy of having their information released. So we are currently putting that together, and to answer the second question is, When will it be received? We will have that to the Board of Water commissioners on August 21 of 2024 which is the next formal meeting of the Board of Water commissioners. The report is actually completed and sanitized as I sit here today. It's just a matter of putting it together and presenting it to the boards that they may see it before it's presented to the public.
Thank you, Mr. Phillips, Is it unusual that we would have to respond to the number of the 20,000 record requests.
This is completely unusual. Yes, Madam Chair,
do we have some is it something we would normally do without the oh, this is some way we might have to communicate the difficulty, providing that level of response.
Madam Chair, I'm not sure I understood your question. My apologies.
Is it? Is it something we can handle
it? Madam Chair, it is something that we can handle. We do have the data that's available or the data is available to us. It's not something that we we generate on a everyday basis of generating that number of records with the data that was requested. So it is an unusual request, but in partnership and in complete transparency with the people of Detroit, we made a decision to provide that information
we have we been in touch with them to let them know the amount of time it would take to respond to that that, I guess I would say, much of a request from the customer at
the time, at the time that they made the request, We told them that we did let we, the people of Detroit, know that it is unusual. It's not something that we have readily available, and it will take us some time to get to that. I believe we met, and I believe we're within a 30 day window of providing that information. Thank
you very much. I just wanted to have some public comment regarding our willing, our ability and willingness to respond to the report. Okay, is there anyone else who would like to speak before this committee?
Madam Chair, that was all the public comment requests. Thank you
very much, sir. Appreciate the comment and your your helpful once in getting it through our customers. Um, the next time on the agenda, then public participation is closed and we don't have it on item under communications, we have none unfinished business. We have none so under new business, we will now have our customer service presentation. Mr. Phillips, thank you,
Madam Chair, if you would just give me just a moment to share my student share my screen, and the customer service supervisor, Kimberly Crowell, will be presenting the beginning of the presentation, so bear with me for just One second.
Good afternoon, commissioners, how are you this afternoon?
Yes, fine. Thank you. Hope you are as well. Absolutely,
I'm doing wonderful. So for our metrics for the month of July, we received over 57,700 calls, and we responded to over 7300 email inquiries. We had a total of 65,000 little bit over 65,000 total customer touch points, and which we had over 2000 really, over two and 2900 contacts per day, even though we are only forecast for only 1400 calls per day. And I'll explain that a little bit later on in the presentation. What I mean by that. So in total, as far as contacts are concerned, which consists of our customer service call, our email and our online portal, we had over 159,000 contacts for the month of July. So due to our customer volume, it we were, our customer volume was extremely high for the month of July, which caused us to be over 111% over forecast per day, 9% of our calls were answered within a two minute time frame. And in order for us to answer 70% of our calls within a two minute time frame, customer service is going to require at least 116 FTE or full time employees to answer calls doing our normal business hours in order for us to meet that quota. Next slide, oh, I'm sorry. Are there any questions on that side? Yes,
yes. I had I called in last month and I waited more than two minutes. I know that when I asked a question, I think I put it down, and I know that sometimes people get real busy. So what happens if a customer or residents calls in and they've been waiting a while, or does it meets a little bit over the two minute trust shows what happens to if they get disconnected or anything. Do we call them back? Is there a way to call them back?
Absolutely. So let me also share this with you as well. Commissioner Garcia, we also have a feature that's called we have a callback feature so you would not lose your place in line if you do not want to remain on the line, if you waited over two minutes, and you can leave, you can press, there's a prompt that you can select, and you can leave your place in line, and we will call you back when it's your Turn to be serviced. Now I do know that. You
know I understood that. I understood that. I'm just saying in case they get disconnected before they if,
if they get disconnected before they actually get to an agent, we are not able to call those callers back. We are able to return the cause if the call gets disconnected while we're in the middle of a conversation. Yes, ma'am, yes, okay, okay, thank you. You're welcome.
Does that happen frequently, or do you have any way of you have any way of knowing if the customer is disconnected before they beat content. We're
sorry. Go ahead, manager. We don't when some we have a lot of information that's available in our in our IVR, in our phone system that answers questions for our customers before they even speak to an agent. So we would have no way of knowing when a customer calls in, they might receive information about how to apply for a permit, and they might listen to that message for three or four minutes, getting an understanding of how to do business with the city. And so for us to call each one of those customers back, not knowing that they already received their information, so we don't know whether they hung up on their own, or they decided or they got disconnected because of a technology issue. But like Miss Crowell said, If a customer does not want to wait, they can provide us with their telephone number within the phone system, and we will call them back in their in their place in line is kept.
I think that's great. That's a wonderful feature. I have had the experience, however, of waiting and being disconnected without ever having reached a person that was really good, and you would have no way of knowing that I was disconnected from your that you hung up on me, so to speak, without no correct
ma'am. We wouldn't know. We wouldn't know whether or not you I mean, we have every telephone number of every person that calls us. And you know, we can tell how many times they called from that telephone number. You know, how long they waited. We have all that information. But you're, you know, as you can see by the numbers here, we had 100 you know, out of the 57,000 phone calls that we took for the month, there was 160,000 people that that contacted us. So you would have, you know, nearly four times the amount of volume that we would have to call back and say, did you really mean to hang up on us? Or, you know, did you get the information that you had? It would take far more than 116 people, which we have way less than half of that available in our budget for calls.
I have had the unfortunate experience of being disconnected without talking to someone, but I just call that, you know, and let them know what happened. And I think it's what the majority of our customers were doing. Well, okay, then you may Are there any other questions? Commissioner Garcia, okay, what do you think? And proceed. Thank you so much.
Thank you so our average speed of answer for the month of July, for our emergency line, our calls were answered within seven minutes, 12 seconds, with the 29% service level, our non emergency line was 22 minutes, 53 seconds, with a 5% service level, our customer satisfaction score was at 77% and our first call resolution was at 64% and I do want to point out that our customer satisfaction goal, we have exceeded our customer satisfaction goal for a straight nine months in total. So again, as I reported last month, even though our customers are waiting longer than normal to speak to an agent. They are still satisfied with the service that's being received by our specialists that are currently taking calls, and all of that is exhibited within the surveys that they take at the end of their transaction with that agent. So I do want to commend our agents, because they are working hard, every day, diligently, every day, taking calls from all different business units that are represented here in the department. Also, I want to point out that you know, as you already know, our easy pay installment agreement went live. We launched it on July 30. Well, following that two day announcement, we had, let's just say we had a over 1100 easy pay calls. Two days following that announcement, we had 3425 calls since the launch on July 30. And I also want to point out that we did add 13 new staff members to work the easy pay queue. These agents are specifically trained to enroll our customers into the easy pay program. We already have a queue that is all that's designated in our IVR system, so the customer all they have to do is say easy pay or Installment Agreement, and it goes straight to the to those agents to enroll those customers into the install, into the new installment agreement.
Madam Chair Commissioner, yes, yes. So how the 13 new people that are the new people? Are there people that were in the department and chose to go with this, or is there? These are additional 13.
These are an additional 13 new staff members and all of these agents. And with 13,
I'm sorry, let me just finish right and out of the out of So how many do you project that you're going to need with this new program, and how long do you train them for it?
Well, with the easy pay program, these agents were trained for four weeks. Okay, I do want to point out that these agents were not they were hired in as customer service specialists once level one, okay, because the because easy pay was rapidly approaching. We trained these new hire agents, these new staff members, to only focus on easy pay, because we needed to be ready and prepared when the calls start coming in. Okay? So these agents, as I stated, they were only trained for four weeks. They were only trained in service. The training is normally 12 weeks, but just for easy pay, we train them for four weeks.
Commissioner Garcia,
thank you. Your second are you projecting you're going to need more than 13 absolutely we are we're going to need do are we projecting you're going to
need? Okay, Commissioner Garcia, we currently have 52 agents that are taking calls on a daily basis. And as Kim previously stated on the last slide, we needed 116 agents in order to answer the call volume that we currently have today, we will not be hiring, okay, any additional agents at this time, because we do not have the budget for it.
Okay, but what happens? What happens, Mr. Phillips, if all of a sudden you find a lot more people are calling in for the easy pay? Can we go? Where would we go to apply for additional funding.
I don't know if there is any additional funding to hire staff. What we what we need? We need additional budget, which comes from our customers. I'm
sorry, I meant the budget so we could, yeah, it's all right. I just wanted to make sure that I understood it. Okay. Yes,
we have as As previously reported. We have approximately 186,000 customers that are at least 60 days past due. We need to have our customers pay their bills so that we have the budget right. I think that's the easiest, that's the easiest finance way to answer. I I'm sure Mr. Raman is on the phone or see our CFO, who could provide a whole lot more context to that. But
I may
I step in here quickly. Go ahead, Commissioner Garcia, so we are aware of the issue that we need additional staffing for this new program. We are scanning to our budget to see where we can accommodate this this project, and get some money from within the existing budget in at least partially fund the additional additional resources that we will need.
That's good to hear. Thank you.
Thank you. You're welcome.
So this slide here, this gives us our cost and a data for the last six months. So as you can see, the month of July, this is the highest call volume that we have had this year so far, over 57,700 calls. Basically everything is really displayed here on the screen. Again, our average speed of answer was 21 minutes and 57 seconds. This was, this has been the longest average speed of answer time that we've had because of the call volume, also the largest total interactions. But in spite of the call volume, again, I just would like to reiterate again, in spite of our heavy call volume, the customer satisfaction score is what I really pay a lot of attention to, that that's customers, even though they had to wait to be serviced longer than normal, they were still satisfied with the services being provided. That's
great. That's great to hear additional comments on this. Well, I you know, all I can say is you to be commended. Tremendous amount of customers you had to handle.
Thank you.
The customer service department did an outstanding job in terminating our customers as as indicated by their customer satisfaction, but also just the volume of work. So thank you so much
Absolutely, and I'll make sure I will pass those sentiments on to the staff. All right, and that's all that I have. I now turn it back over to Matthew Phillips, Chief Customer Service Officer,
thank you. Kim. Madam Chair, may I proceed?
Commissioner Garcia. Madam
Chair, Commissioner
Garcia, do you have a question? I can't hear you. Is my time up? I can't hear you. I couldn't hear what was being said.
Madam Chair, this is Matt Matthew Phillips, I still, yeah, Commissioner Garcia is is having a technical issue. I believe. Okay,
I just, I just,
you're having, we're having difficulty understanding
you had a question. Madam Chair, yes. I guess my question was because she mentioned that this was the highest I said, Can you hear me? Now? Okay, can you it's all right.
Can you hear you? Commissioner Garcia,
a hey, it's all right. It's all right. I'll wait. I just Just curious about being the highest
we're not getting you your difficulties, and we're not, we're not hearing or your statement, so we'll, if you want to put in the chat, we'll try and make sure we get it answered, or if we can do it after the meeting.
All right, okay, it
will call. All right. Thank you,
Phillip. All right. I'm
going to proceed, Madam Chair, so looking at the lifeline, we currently have 35,273 households that are protected from shut off. That includes nearly 25,000 that are on the that are receiving the lifeline benefit of 1843 or $56 a month in their payment. We have, at the time of the report, we had 1349 individuals on easy pay. And so we now and we have 5138 that are still remaining on the 10, 3050 payment plan program, and pending. Eligibility by Wayne Metro. There's 3789 that are currently that have currently applied for lifeline. They're protected from shut off at the moment, while their application is being processed. So to date, from August, when we launched lifeline, back in August of 2022, through the end of the billing cycle in July of 2024 we have expended nearly $59 million in paying past due balances or arrearages of our customers, bills and or the gap payment, which is the difference between their tiered amount payment, their lifeline payment of 1843, 56 and the actual bill on a monthly basis.
Your comments go ahead, that's tremendous. Yes,
all right, and so we currently have 85% of all of our customers that are enrolled in lifeline are in tier one. So 85% of our customers are receiving the $18 a month payment, the average gap payment on a monthly basis, the difference between the tiered amount and what DWSD is covering is $50.51 on average per month, and the average arrearage, or past due balance that is forgiven upon enrollment is $1,474 for the July billing cycle. And we currently have 91%
that's alright. No, it passed. I was just wondering that's all about the body
and we, we currently have 91% of our customers that are enrolled in that have zero to four household members. Any questions about lifeline? Garcia?
There? Did you have a question? No, thank you very good. Okay. Proceed calendar.
Yep. Madam Chair, the planning calendar is easy pay and I will, since I only have five minutes left, I will go quickly, but this is what was presented last week, and I just want to ensure that the public now has full transparency of the program, including our new commercial that's out there. So I'm going to proceed forward with the easy pay program, and with any luck, you guys will be able to hear
it. The Detroit water and sewage department introduces easy pay the stress free way to manage your past due balance and keep your water service uninterrupted. Enroll today with $10 down and spread your remaining balance over 36 months no income requirements. Is interest free, and it protects you from shut off and penalties. Now here's how it works. Enroll with $10 today, then pay your remaining balance in small, manageable monthly installments. For example, if you owe $1,240 you only need to pay around $34 per month over a span of 36 months, and that will be added to your current monthly bill. Now, with this example, that's about $120 per month with easy pay. Signing up is easy visit online at Detroit mi gov slash easy pay water, or call 313-267-8000, and say easy pay, designed to help you manage your budget without worry, take control of your water bill today with easy pay. The Detroit water is
so as of this morning, Madam Chair, we have 1682 households that are enrolled in easy pay, and that's in just one week. So I think we're I know that we're extremely proud of the progress that we've made on easy pay since the pandemic began. We have approximately 186,000 accounts that are at least 60 days past due, and the average residential dw, SD account owes us $1,240 and that was used in the example. Easy pay is super easy. All it takes is $10 down. We no longer are with this easy Pay Plan has replaced the the 10, 3050, which required you to put a rather large percentage down in order to get into the plan and and stave off a shut off. But it's a low monthly down payment of $10 no matter what your balance is. There is no income restrictions in order to qualify for the program. There's no barriers to entry. Again, you can be commercial, industrial, residential, faith based church. Doesn't really matter what type of account you are, as long as you're not in a legal settlement with us, you can get into easy pay. So all customers qualify. We make it super easy. Your balance is spread out over 36 months. So it's a low monthly down payment, no income requirements. It's interest free for the entire 36 months. And as long as you stay current on your bill, you're protected from shut off and any additional penalties. And again, easy pay does not replace the DWSD lifeline plan. The lifeline plan is intended for our low income customers that are 200% or less of the federal poverty level and just the quick. Example, in month one, your first month's bill is only $10 that's the $10 that you put down. We'll take that away from the overall balance that you owed. In this case, the example is $1,240 which is the average for our residential customers of a family of three. And so that would make your monthly payment after the first month of $10 would be $34.17 as your easy pay installment and then you're you'll also be required to pay your current monthly bill of $85 all in your easy pay 36 month installment plan would be $34.17 plus your $85 monthly bill. So 120 $119.17 so just under $120 per month all in for your bill, and you will not have your be in jeopardy of having your water turned off or shut up due to non payment. And so our goal is to enroll 30,000 accounts in the next 12 months. We're currently on track, as you just saw, with a little over 1600 customers in if that holds true, our first week of enrollments, we will hit 30,000 within the next six months. Our goal is to have 30, 70% of our customers complete the program in 36 months and be completely debt free. And we're also working on, as I mentioned earlier, to one of the public comments is that we are working with a third party vendor that can help us increase our success rates and offer a little more flexibility. That's a technology that we're looking to put in place, and it will take us a little bit of time, but we're getting there. Any questions about easy pay question?
I have a quick question that, how do customers find out that they are can replace what they're on now with easy pay.
So how do they find out what's
their method of communicating with those customers?
So we're communicating with all of our customers in multiple ways. It'll be we'll communicate with them on their monthly invoice, on their bill, both online, online and in paper. We do have billboards across the city that we just recently put out. We Mr. Brown, or director Brown, presented easy pay at the mayor's all city charter meeting that was put into place. We also presented publicly at the city council meeting last Tuesday. And then we will also be conducting eight district meetings in person, face to face district meetings. Our first one is tomorrow, from four to 8pm at second Ebenezer. And so we will have seven additional community meetings to get the message out. We've also communicated with all of our council members and districts with a packet of information that they can get out to their constituents as well.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Great.
We have 30 seconds remaining to keep on time, and we're going to do it, Madam
Chair. Madam Chair, can I? Can I say something? Just, yeah, just two quick points. We're keeping a close eye on the Customer Service Center and the calls that are coming in. I mean, we have lots of options. We have a lot of employees that have been promoted out of customer services and are doing other things in the organization. Can we temporarily move them, say during the heavy call volume times between 10 in the morning and two o'clock in the afternoon? Can we utilize overtime so there are other things that we can do while we're trying to recruit these dollars and increase the staff level. The second point I want to make is with easy pay, we're not trying to get people that are already paying the bills to move into easy pay. We want to target those customers that are more than 60 days behind, and the best way to do that is go directly to their homes and put the information on a door. Knocker right on their door, not a billboard, not a newspaper article, not a meeting out in the community. Let's target the customers that are more than 60 days behind. Go directly to their homes and put the information on a door hanger, right on the door. That's the most effective way to get people that we're trying to target into the program. Thank
you very much. I think that's excellent. And if we are under now or under our there are no other matters to come before the committee. Our next meeting date is September 4. 2024. Chair will entertain a motion for adjournment. Commissioner Garcia
support, can
you hear me?
Motion I support? King stands adjourned. Thank you very. You. Thank you.
All right, it is now 216 Marion, I think you were late on the clock on that one. But could we please have a roll call. Madam Secretary, chair, President Davis present, Detroit, Michigan. Commissioner Blackman
right. Commissioner Garcia present,
can you hear me?
I can Mister Chair, we have a quorum.
Thank you very kindly. Is there a motion to approve today's agenda.
Approval. Mr. Chair, second motion has
been made and properly supported. All in favor signify by the sign of aye, aye, and that motion is carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of July 8? Approval.
Mr. Chair,
support that motion has been made and properly supported. All in figure, all in favor, say, aye, please. And that motion is carried, We'll now open up for public participation. Is, do we have any hands up?
Mr. Chair, we do have one hand raised. That is Mr. Miko Williams.
All right. Mr. Miko Williams, welcome
yesterday. Hi, good afternoon. Commissioner Davis, how are you today?
I am well, welcome.
Very good. Thank you for having me. I just want to respond to the communication that we just heard in the Customer Service meeting about the easy pay program. Yes, it's very great to knock on doors and directly communicate with the public. We have to save money, but we also have to make sure that we're informing the public in other ways. So this is an effective way to knock on doors, just as we do a campaign, as a political campaign, to get everyone on easy pay, um, also, I'm not worried about the timing and the, you know, outreach of you know, how many people can you like? If you can get 30,000 or 100,000 customers or so, the goal should be met with making sure that everyone is clear and concise about the information. They pay $10 a month. They pay over a certain installment, and also, you know, over and they should be very much informed. And there should be resources. If people could not come up with a synoptic we know people that have no income, people that are literally struggling to get even opinion. So you gotta be sympathetic to those people. You gotta be sympathetic to all customers. But also, I want to say that the public communication over September, October is very important, before it gets cold, before people you know, call it, there should be an easy and I'm very happy with the results. I hear about the customer service system. I know I've called customer service through the 267, 8000, number. I was met with the hold. I used the call back feature. They called me back. I just have to remember to the phone and not be occupied. So the customer service system, I want to give Matthew Phillips a very great kudos and thank you and applause for fixing the system, as well as making sure that those calls are answered in the timely fashion that they were received. I do believe that our customer service wing give Kim, Kim a very nice shout out, as well as the people who do answer the phones that there should be allocations in the budget to make sure that we have people that are on standby when easy pay is promoted and that they should be readily available. As far as HR, all I'm going to say is I need to see more billboards and TV ads on becoming a worker for the water and sewage department. It's very important. I mean, people want to work, and people would like to have a job that lasts, you know, with benefits, 401, K and also union placement. I think that that that needs to be highlighted more. Thank you so much everyone for having me
and thank you, Mister Williams. Are there any more? Hands up for public comment.
Mr. Chair, that I apologize. Mr. Chair, there are no more. Hands raised. Okay.
Thank you. Mr. Peck Paul, will now close public participation. I. The next item on our agenda is communications, and we have none. Lynn, unfinished business. We have none. We do have an item under new business, and that'll be HR metrics, and our human resources director Patricia Thornhill, will be presenting, I believe on that
Good afternoon, commissioners, good afternoon. Going to share my screen.
Hey, we will go through the Human Resources metrics. On the screen, you will see the DW, SD, employee demographics that we promised to share every meeting. Currently, as of this month, we have 648 employees,
Patricia. We can't see that screen. You
let's try it again. Thank you for letting me know You're welcome.
Now. Yes, there you go.
Thank you. Thank you. So currently we have 648 employees, and this is the demographic slide that we promised to share every meeting out of these 648 employees, we have had three retirements since our last B, O, W, C, meeting, we would like to congratulate Mildred Morris, a former employee with the finance division for 45 years of service and 10 months with the city of Detroit. And we wish, we wish Mildred Well, we are going to miss her. Also Miss jequela Rambert with customer service, she had 14 years and five months. And Jerome Moore, who was with our security division, and he retired after 11 years of service. We like to wish all three of them very well their retirement. Are there any questions? Okay, currently, as we hire more people, of course, I'm sorry.
Question I miss Patricia Mr. Can I ask the lady who did 45 years, did we give her a little medal? Do we is there anything 45 years? I don't know. It seems like a lot of time, a lot of years and and obviously, you know, a very valuable employee, is there anything we provide for them? When, after 25 years, 30 years, I'm not sure. I'm just asking, Well, yes,
and that's a great question. Commissioner, after each five year of service, increment, we partner with public affairs and we provide our employees pens. But also as employees retire from specific divisions, the divisions on their own, normally, the division chiefs and the directors on their own will give like a going away luncheon or something like that for the employee that's retiring. Did I answer? Did that answer your question? Commissioner, you're welcome any other questions before we move on. Okay, so currently 18% of our workforce is retirement eligible. That number has decreased since 22% as we hire more employees, the percentage obviously decreases, and now our employee level is that 648 650 and we had hovered around 550 and 560 for about five years. So you will see the retirement eligible percentage again decreases we hire more employees. Are there any questions? All right, currently we have three slides that are covering open positions. We have a total of 26 requisitions, which equates to 38 open positions. And again, this spans over three slides, so I'll move through all three. Let's take a look at the first one. Are there any questions on slide number one for open requisitions? I
I'll
advance to slide number two.
I'll advance to the. Last slide number three, any questions, okay, regarding our recruiting efforts. Since our last blwc meeting, we've had three recruiting events. They were all job fairs. You'll take a look at the third one at the kmac building. It was a city of Detroit finance hiring fair, and it was held right there at the covid a young municipal center. And our team was invited to attend the HR recruiting team, and we also invited two members from our finance division. We have a couple of finance positions, internal audit manager and director of finance that we've been trying to fill. So we did take a few of the leadership members from finance with us over to that hiring fair, and we actually saw approximately 100 candidates, and saw a few candidates that we felt were qualified for interviews. Are there any questions? Yes, yes, Commissioner,
I just asked a question on the on on the finance you said we had the job fair. Where was it at? Was at
the Coleman, a young municipal center, I'm sorry, at the Coleman, a young municipal center, and it was for finance employees to try to find some candidates that were interested within, you know, to attend the community fair, hiring fair.
Oh, I see okay, because it's very expensive to park down there for people. I just ask, I I know that it was very expensive for people to park down downtown around there. I think the parking is like 20 to $25 now, so I just wondered, obviously, it was a specific target area, right? Finance,
right? And they do have a couple of lots that are by the hour and time, and they're much more affordable. Now,
here. Okay, thank
you. You're welcome.
Commissioner Blackman, did you have something you want to comment on? Did I hear your voice?
You did hear my voice, sir, I want to commend HR staff for the numbers that they've been having. I mean, the Derpy, the derpy Innovation Center, parking is free, and it's a lot of there's a lot of ample parking for people. I don't know about Detroit at work, because I'm not sure. I'm not familiar with that, but I do want to commend them for utilizing the various means of trying to make sure we get the word out about our hiring process and the jobs that we're looking for.
Thank you, Commissioner Blackmon, we have an outstanding recruiting team, and I'd like to really commend my entire team, because when it comes to recruiting, including myself, all hands are on deck. Thank you.
Okay,
hold on a second, please. I believe next we have, yes, we do our planning calendar. Can everyone see the planning calendar? Yes, ma'am. Okay, so we are going to introduce our recruiting, talent and acquisition and training and development manager Carla Calhoun to talk about workforce development. Carla, are you on I am here. Good
afternoon. Everyone? Good afternoon. So I think maybe about two meetings ago, we had talked about how apprenticeship is the future of DWSD, and us working to develop our own apprenticeship so that we could upskill the potential candidates and employees that we have here at DWSD. So for the past few fairs, I've been working closely with Detroit at work really Raynard, Richmond, we've been doing a lot of work together. And last November, I had an opportunity to travel to Arizona for the one water Alliance, and we were able to really talk about workforce development and the different apprenticeship programs that's happening across the country, and really have a bird's eye view of what they're doing in other major cities across this across the United States. And apprenticeship really is something that it's been a focus, but we're working extremely hard to get to a point where we can develop our own apprenticeship program for the plumbers union, because there's a lot of work that we do here at DWSD that could actually we can benefit from so and partner with Detroit at work, we're going to work on our own apprenticeship program, and so we're also working with a. Local 98 which is the plumbers union and the planning team, is listed in front of you, which is myself, Kendrick Jackson, Anthony Scott, Erica, Mia tharan, Martin, charletta, Flake, Yolanda O'Quinn Chauncey Filson was also added. Also added to it as well. Sam small it was a part of our initial meeting. Carlos Carlo from local 98 and Rufus, and then again, Renard, Richmond from Detroit at work, this is our planning team, and together, we've been working together to try to come up with what the future of DWSD will look like. One of the things that Detroit at work is going to offer is a pre apprenticeship program to help prepare potential candidates that don't necessarily possess the skills up front to help prepare them to take some of the tests that will be required as part of the apprenticeship program. And this is a six to 16 week course that they will be able to take. And as they get closer to the end, we can probably have some prep tests that they'll be able to participate in to prepare them for the entry exam that it would that will be required for them to participate in the apprenticeship program. To date, we've had about four meetings for the plumbers union apprenticeship, and tomorrow we'll have a meeting with our we have standard meetings on Thursday at 1030 to just really scope out what it's going to look like in the future. So it's not developed yet, but we are actively in the process of developing our own apprenticeship program for DWSD, and we're focusing on future state and not the current state. We're looking at where DWSD can be going in the next five to 10 years, especially with the capital improvement programs that we have going on in projects, we're trying to create a workforce that will be able to handle a lot of the work that's happening in the field, and bring some of that work back in house, versus being outsourced out with our contractors, because we believe that Our employees here at DWSD can get it done. So that's just an high level overview of what's happening concerning our DWSD plumbers apprenticeship program that we're in the process of developing.
Mr. Chair Commissioner black,
commend them on all they were doing with the pre apprenticeship program. I think this is excellent and certainly will help us meet our future needs. And so congratulations on that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner.
I do have a question at one time City Council under President Brenda Jones, there was a skilled trades Task Force. I don't know if that task force still exists under the current Council. If it does, it would probably be a good idea to try and partner and collaborate with them. You may already be doing it.
We will definitely, definitely do what we can to collaborate and partner with any available resource. I know, Skills for Life was one of the resources that they were offering because, again, that was another initiative to help provide the required skills and resources for people that's interested in working here at the city of Detroit, across the different divisions and departments. So we will definitely reach out, because we would definitely want to collaborate with anybody that can help make this a success.
Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very helpful.
Covid question, Mr. Chairman,
yes. Commissioner Garcia,
yes, I would like to know this new program, is it? Is it a program that you're starting? Is it the people that are already working for the department, or these will be new candidates?
Very good question. We're going to start in house first, because we want to give our employees that has committed to being dedicated and focused on DWSD initiatives the opportunity to reward them for all of their hard work. So we're going to start in house first, as we start the pilot, and then as it builds and grows, we can open it up to the outside, but we want to focus on our DWSD employees first, give them the first opportunity. And
how many of the employees do you think would be eligible based on the union's requirement that you can't be over a certain age? Or you know that are we just going to overlook those, those requirements?
So right now, we have identified a certain criteria that requires a high school diploma. You have to have a minimum of five years experience and service to DWSD, and then we look at some of the disciplinary actions. You can't have any discipline. Their actions within the last 24 months. So there are certain criteria that we're coming up with now to make our employees eligible.
And would a returning citizen be eligible? Oh, absolutely,
absolutely, okay, long as they have five years of service. Because if
you're working with the unions, I know that you can't be over a certain age. That's why I asked.
And they actually for this one, because we're in the process of scoping everything out. They did remove the age requirement to make it more appealing to our dwst employees.
That's good. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Thank you.
Any more questions,
can you hear me? Yes?
Oh, Commissioner Blackman,
was there a reason that you Yes? I was had the requirement that they have a certain number of years experience with the city before they could be considered for the our apprenticeship program.
Yeah. So in the meeting that we had about two weeks ago, they were definitely vacillating back and forth, because when we look at the demographic of our operations division in the field service technician position within the last two years, we have a bunch of new hires that are currently on probation, and because of their probationary status, we wanted to make sure a they're out of probation, and that they are committed to putting in time with DWSD number one, because the program is going to be about a five year commitment, and then after that five year commitment, we are going to, I think we also indicated that we want a three year commitment after they graduate. So some of our tenured employees that has proven that they're committed to DWSD, because with this, once they graduate, once they complete all of the requirements, there will be a greater amount of opportunities for advancement, not just here at DWSD, but outside of DWSD. So we're looking for employees that's invested in the future of DWSD, so we wanted to focus on those that are already here first. We will open it up. The criteria can change in the future, but as we started, we want to reward those that were committed to DWSD.
Thank you. I have a question on that later, so thank you very much.
Yes, thank you. And and like I said, this is just the beginning. We're in the planning stages of it. This is what came out of a meeting a few weeks ago. But as we continue to plan and move towards the future, I keep saying this is a blank canvas at this point, so we can create what's necessary for us to be successful, this is this is our time to implement process improvements and create what what is required and needed for the future. Focus on future state versus focusing only on current state.
Good job. Thank you. Any more questions. Thank you.
All right again. Thank you Miss Thornhill and the HR team. Great as always.
Thank you.
All right, let's see the rest of our agenda. Could we have the our agenda. Screen back, please. Thank you very kindly. All right, our next meeting is September 4, unless there are any other matters, are there any hearing? None chair entertain a motion for adjournment.
This is here.
There are second support. All right, we stand adjourned. Thank
you. Yes,
thank you. Okay with Five minutes to spare you?
Okay.
Hey, can You hear Me?
Yes.
Fine. Thank you. Okay, the meeting of the Detroit Board of Water commissioners, Committee on legal and Government Affairs, committee will now come to order. Would you please call the roll CHAIRPERSON kenloff,
present Commissioner einhausen,
present.
Commissioner Blackman,
great.
Mr. Chair, we have a quorum.
Thank you. Next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. A motion is in order
to approve. Mr. Chair,
the move is a support. Support. We moved and supported all those in favor six by saying, aye, those opposed. This item stands approved. Next item on the agenda is the approval of meeting minutes from July 8, 2024. Motion is in order. I
would move that we adopt the minutes as presented
to support It's been moved and supported all those in favor. Signify by saying, aye, aye. Those opposed. This item stands approved. Next item on the agenda is the public participation. I'd like to ask who is present to read the. Instructions,
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, I will be reading the public comment. Instructions to make a comment. If you are in person, please sign the sign in sheet. Your name will be called and you can proceed to the microphone. Sorry,
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 and make a comment, we kindly request you fill out the comment card link 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 provided for you to call to provide the needed information. You will only be called upon once. Once the chair closes public comment. There will be no other comments from the public, and all attendees will remain muted for the duration of the meeting. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you. I'd like to ask if anyone's has anyone raised their hands on Zoom. Or is there any other indication that someone would like to address this committee? My team, Mr.
Chair, there is one person, Mik Williams,
Ms Williams, you have a demigo. I mean, Damico Williams, you have three minutes?
Yes. Hi, Commissioner Kinloch, thank you. How
are you today? Doing fine. Thank
you, and thank you to the honorable board members on this committee. Demico Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit, I want to thank you personally, Commissioner Kinloch, for your contribution to the hydrate Detroit. Sharewater drive. It is very awesome. Thank you for being a partner with us in the fight for water affordability in the city of Detroit. I just had some general comments around to the FOIA the Freedom of Information Act, and also there was information shared in regards to information, that's being disseminated to groups and organizations. Um, I'm hoping that that information, usually the water and sewage department, they would release the information, but would redact the addresses and phone numbers to protect those identities of the customers. I hope that's being adhered to and for the sole purpose that this information should be available to the public, it should be available to ration. You know, if water affordability is making a difference in the city of Detroit, I know if I've asked for information, I was pretty clear and concise of what I wanted and also the information I needed for research, and I was denied by this department obtaining that information when it regards to obtaining how many water shut offs have happened? How many restorations have occurred? And also, I want to ask, how has the recertification process been for the Lifeline customers? We haven't gotten an update from this since June or such, but I was hoping that we would get somewhat of an update of how many people have been recertified through the Lifeline program, that information should be made available, and also the data in regards to making sure that we're servicing customers and that we're also reducing water shut offs and delinquencies and collections again. I mean, I had a whole speech prepared that I didn't want to that we should not be sued by outside forces, but also we shouldn't be sued by the people inside of our water system, in regards to keeping on to one resource we all share across this region, and that's water, you know, across southeastern Michigan. Yes, we should have fairness, but also the water department should avoid itself from being put in these sort of challenges. That's all I want to say. Thank you so much for taking my comments. Have a great, wonderful day. Thank you.
It any other hands raised, or any other indication that someone would like to make comments at this meeting? Thank you. Public Participation is now closed. Let's go. The agenda. Next item on the agenda is the litigation report. Is there a motion to receive and file the litigation report?
I would so move, Mr. Chair,
there's support.
I would report that
moved and supported to receive and file the litigation report. All those in favor signify by saying, aye, aye. Those opposed. This action stands approved. Next item on the agenda is the FOIA report, and a motion is in order to receive and file the foyer report their motion.
I would so move. If support,
okay, I would support. It's been moved
and supported to receive and file the FOIA report all those in favor. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. This action stands approved. The next item on the agenda is unfinished business. There is none new business. There is none planning calendar. I will be reaching out to our court council to go over that, and we should have some some information as it relates to additions to the planning family, after I meet with our our council and the next will now go to the next item, which is other business there is none. The next meeting of this committee will be September 4, 2024 and at this time, a motion to adjourn is in order,
Mr. Chair.
Is there support two point, the move is supported to adjourn. All those in favor signify saying, aye, aye. Those opposed, meeting stands adjourned. Thank you all.
All right, we're doing well. Seven minutes To Finance You.
I Okay, okay, I did send it earlier today. Hear You.
Mr. Kanlog, I
Commissioner. Ken Like, can you hear me, Mr. Chair,
Mary, are
you talking to me?
I was trying to talk to our commissioner, our chair, and he can't hear me. I guess I hear you. He is name listed, though, in the in the participants, I was going to send him a message note, but I can't find his name
again. Do we know if Commissioner forte is online?
Oh, you know what I'm thinking. I was trying to be smooth to Ken last so you're right, I'm online. Can you hear me? Let me hear you? Yes, okay.
Well, I have 259
so do I just getting my settings up here?
Oh, okay, Madam, Chair, whenever you're ready.
I lost my I lost my Zoom. Oh, Dear. Okay.
Commissioner forte, you're on mute.
Okay, I'm sorry. Can everybody hear me? Yes, okay, we're gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order. We'll start with a roll call. Chairperson
Thank you. The first item of business is to approve the agenda. Is there a motion to approve?
So moved? Madam Chair. And I second. Thank
you. It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor. Signify by saying, aye, aye,
aye, opposed. The motion is approved. And now we'll look at the item of business related to approval of the July 8 2024, meeting minutes. Is there a motion?
I move we adopt the minutes as presented. Support
been moved and properly supported. Any other questions or comments hearing? None, all in favor. Signify by saying, aye, Aye. Any opposed, aye. The motion is approved. So the next item is public participation. And do we have someone from our Public Relations staff that's going to do our introduction? We go,
Mr. Chair, I'll be making the public comment instructions 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 timer indicating your remaining time. If you're online and make a comment, we kindly request you fill the comment card link that's located in the chat. By filling out the car, 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. Thank you for your attention. Applause.
Madam Chair, yes, yes. Mr. Madam Okay.
Madam Chair, there is one hand raised, and that's from Mr. Miko Williams,
thank you, Mr. Pack and Paul. Mr. Williams, welcome.
Hi. Good afternoon, Commissioner forte, how are you today?
I thank you very good. I
just have general comments and hello to all the commissioners on this committee. Damico Williams, Chief Executive Director of hydrate Detroit, I wanted to follow up with a very important question that arise that the mayor's community meeting a statement was made in regards to a question, and it got me to thinking, how many, how much have we collected from the announcement last year of cracking down on commercial customers that owe the most delinquent delinquency. How much have we collected from the announcement last year? And also, residents wanted to know how much monies are collected from drainage fees, since the drainage charges was implemented on the water bills. I thought it was very important, because we don't hear how much money is collected from the commercial businesses, as well as the big crackdown that we had last year, and what happened to those customers? If they were all commercial, were they some residential? I understand if you owe $5,000 or more, yes, you should pay your bill. But also we don't know where these bills are coming from and if they were ever rectified or given the settlement to that was a big question surrounding the easy pay of businesses and commercial you we get calls. I know I get calls in regards to businesses having been placed, you know, $20,000 bills on a building that they didn't do their due diligence on, search the title, or go down the 400 bond row, or, you know, to obtain information before the deal was made, also houses that old previous debt that the new owners get charged with. So I just wanted to know that previous question, if they could be answered, if possible, or be sent to me in writing of how much has been collected from the delinquent property owners of commercial and also how much drainage fees that we collect every year. Thank you so much for taking my comment. Have a great day.
Thank you, Mr. Williams, Mr. Chair. Any other public
Madam Chair? Mr. Williams was the only public commenter. There are no other hands raised.
Thank you very much, and thank you, Mr. Williams, for your public comment. And we'll move on to communications. We have item eight, a 2024, dash 145, receipt of correspondence. Is there a motion to receive and file the correspondence?
I move we receive and file
for Thank you. It's been moved and supported All in favor. Signify by saying, aye, Aye. Any opposed, the motion is approved. Okay, we'll move on to item seven, which is unfinished business. We have none, and we'll move up to Item eight, new business. And the first item is Item a 2024, 146, commissioners, what's your pleasure?
Madam Chair,
yes,
I'd like to recommend to the bar the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized directors to approve contract number 6006501, with Midwest auto auction incorporated a piggyback off the city of Detroit contract number 6006223, for the removal, disposal or sale of this commission, dw, SD, owned vehicles and equipment for a term of two years and 10 months. This contract is a renewed contract. This is also authorized directors to take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Thank you. Thank you. Miss Welch,
good afternoon. This is a revenue generating contract which provides auctions, auction services to support the DWSD fleet division when vehicles or equipment become inoperable or decommission beyond its useful life. This contract allows the city to send them over to Midwest to auction and recruit funds, which goes back into revenue for DWSD, the City of Detroit's contract was approved by city council in May, May 7, 2024, communication with the vendor has been set in stone where they say our piggyback would not deter or alter the City of Detroit's contract. The vendor does have current clearances, and at this time, DW SD is presenting it to the Finance Committee for approval and movement to full board.
Thank you. Are there any questions, discussion, comments, hearing, none. All in favor of the motion. Signify by saying, aye, Aye. Any opposed that motion is approved, and we'll move to item B, 2024, 147, commissioners, what's your pleasure?
Madam Chair, I move that the committee recommend to the Board of Commissioners the approval of purchase order. 307622, with a is Construction Equipment Corporation to provide one John Deere, 30 5g mini excavator with trailer and attachments for a total purchase not to exceed $107,820 and authorize the director to act appropriately support.
Thank you. It's been moved and properly supported. Miss Welch,
this is the purchase of a mini excavator to support the lead service line team. This is a sole source purchase procurement has received a letter from the vendor indicating that they are the only one that provides this type of equipment through John Deere. It aligns with DW SD fleet initiatives to standardize their fleet. So we have about six other that are the same brand internally that they use, but this one is specifically for our last service line project. We have contacted the vendor, and the vendor has agreed to give us my deal pricing for this purchase, and so DWSD, at this time, is recommending to the Finance Committee to move to full board for approval.
Thank you. Any questions, comments,
maybe someone, I'm sorry, someone may need to go on mute.
Thank you, hearing no other questions or comments All in favor. Signify by saying, aye, Aye. Any opposed. That motion has been approved, and we'll move on to item C, 2024, dash 148, commissioners, madam. Chair
I'd like to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department authorized directors to approve purchase order. 3076384, with Jefferson, Chevrolet company to provide 620, 25 Chevrolet Express, 350, all wheel drive cargo vans. Total purchase not to exceed the amount of three $305,970 this also authorized directors to take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Support.
Thank you. It's been moved and properly supported. Miss Welch,
yes, this PO request is for six cargo vans, which supports the DW, SD field operations. They are a part of our five year capital improvement purchase plan. Bids were published for 28 days. We received three responses in Jefferson. Chevrolet was the lowest bidder. They have provided proof that their clearances are valid through 2025 and procurement at this time is recommended to the Finance Committee to move to full board for approval.
Thank you. Miss Welch, are there any questions or comments? Hearing? None. All in favor. Signify by saying, aye. Aye. Any opposed, the motion has been approved, and we'll move to item D, 2024 149, Yes, Madam
Chair, I move that the committee recommend to the board the approval of purchase order 30766888, with Rob Maxey Ford Inc, for the purchase of 320, 24 Super Duty, f5, 50 utility hydrant trucks with four wheel drive and electronically powered hydraulic crane and under deck compressor, compressor, for a total not to exceed $571,380 so dollars
the support for the motion. Thank you. It's been moved and supported. Miss Welch,
hi. This also. These are also three replacement hydrant trucks to support field crews. These were also previously approved in our CIP five year capital vehicle plan for replacement. They were published for bids for 35 days. We received two bids. Bob Maxie was the lowest bidder. They also hold a Detroit headquarter business, Detroit certification, which they received equalization credits to come in as the lowest bid. And at this time, dw, SD procurement is recommending to the Finance Committee for approval and movements of full board.
Thank you. Ms Welch questions or comments, hearing none all in favor. Signify by saying, aye, aye, Aye. Any opposed, that motion is approved, and we'll move now to Item 2024. Dash 150, commissioners.
Madam Chair, I'd like to make a recommendation to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit. Water and sewer department authorized directors to approve DWSD contract number 600647, with monitoring machinery and supply and contract number 6006471, with Ferguson enterprises LLC, doing business as pilot water for the as needed purchase of various magnetic locators for combined total contract amount not to exceed $145,400 and a term of one year. The Board of Water Commissioner also authorizes directors to take other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote support.
Thank you. It's been moved and properly supported. Thank you both. Miss Welch, yes, this
is a one year multi award contract for magnetic locators. These devices are used by our field crews to identify buried assets when they're out in the field doing work. This is a warehouse replenishment contract we did publish for bids for 45 days, five beers were received, and we are awarding to the two lowest bidder best based online items, just to make sure that we have coverage when one may not be available or delays with times and shipping, both have provided proof of their approved clearances, and DWSD is recommending to finance committee to move to full board for approval.
Thank you, Miss Welch, are there questions or comments? Hearing? None. All in favor. Signify by saying, aye,
aye.
Thank you. It's been moved, and I'm sorry it's been voted and we are approved. Then we'll move now on to Item F, which is 2024, 151, commissioners. I.
Uh, Madam Chair, I move that we recommend to the Board of Commissioners the approval of DWSD contract 6006476, with me, Simpson Company Inc, for the city of Detroit, leak detection in targeted neighborhoods. For a total contract amount not to exceed 301,786 $86.32 100% reimbursable from Egle grant funding for a term of 300 calendar days.
Thank you. Is there support for the motion? Support? It's been moved and supported. Miss Welch,
yes. This contract is to provide leak detection services to DWSD to reduce non revenue water water quality issues and restored levels of service deficiencies throughout the city. It was published for bids. It yielded two responses. Again, it is 100% grant reimbursable by Egle funds. The vendor was the lowest bidder, and DWSD is submitting to or presenting to the Finance Committee today to move to full board for approval.
the Michigan Environmental grant fund. So the state of Michigan Environmental controls, Sam, can you give them the true definition for the acronyms of Egle?
Sure. Sam Smalley, Deputy Director, Egle stands for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and energy, they've been putting out a variety of grants for either sustainability, resiliency and in this case, preservation of resources. So by identifying leaks that don't come to the surface, we use high, highly sensitive acoustical equipment to locate to here and then pinpoint those leaks so that we can start excavating and and fix these Hidden repairs. Thank you.
Any further questions or comments? I miss Welch, you're on mute if you're talking. Okay, thank you all, all well, all in favor of the motion. Signify by saying, aye, aye, that motion has been approved. We'll move now to Item g20, 24 dash, 152, I two commissioners.
Madam Chair, I'd like to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit water and sewer department to authorize directors to approve contract number 6006477. With I ASI construction equipment company for the rental of an as needed John Deere construction equipment utilizing the my deal, Contract Number 24000000158,
for total contract not to exceed $1 million of a term of four years and four months and 26 days. This also authorizes directors to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Thank you. Is there support? Support? Moved and supported? Miss Welch,
yep. This contract is for as needed construction rental equipment to support DWSD fleet division when there is a equipment failure and or delay and repair times to avoid impacts and operation. This is a cooperative contract agreement through the state of Michigan. My deal, according to DW SDS procurement policy, we did publish an intent invitation to respond to allow for local businesses the opportunity to bid on this work before it's awarded as a co op, it yielded no responses. We did receive two intents to respond from two different vendors, but they were not Detroit certified, which is one of the criterias in order for them to be able to be able to be awarded, to be it AIS has agreed to the pricing, the terms and conditions of the my deal, cooperative agreement. Their clearances are valid through June 17 of 2025, and procurement at this time is recommending to the Finance Committee to move to full board for approval.
Thank you, Miss Welch. Any questions, comments, hearing, none. All in favor. Signify by saying Aye, Aye. Any opposed that motion is approved, and we'll move on to Item H, 2024 dash, 153 commissioners.
H1, 53 All right, yes, I move that we recommend to the Board of Water commissioners approval of. Amendment number one for dwsp Contract Number 6006004. With Oracle America Inc to provide consulting services for integrated architecture and data analytics by adding $300,000 for an amended total contract amount not to exceed $500,000 and extending the term for two years for a new term ending December 31 2027
support, and just It's been moved and properly supported. Thank you very much. Miss Welch, yes, this
amendment one is to the Oracle contract to add both time and funding for services to be amended. I mean, administer to DW SDS, it, department, it, division, I'm sorry, the amendment will include implementation of AI technology and Oracle cloud content replacement. This is in line with DW SDS initiative to maintain best practices and develop technology, technological solutions to meet the ever changing needs of the organization. And so the funding and the time extension will be for those two projects and some other small it, internal projects that will enhance our software that we currently use. DWSD procurement is recommending for approval to finance to move to full board.
Thank you, Miss Welch, are there any other 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 i, 2024, dash, 154, commissioners.
Madam Chair, I'd like to approve to the Board of Water commissioners for the city. Excuse me, I'd like to recommend to the Board of Water commissioners for the city of Detroit. Water and sewer department authorized directors to approve DWSD contract number 6006459, Ws tax, 725, with LGC global, incorporated the water sister system improvements at various locations in the city of Detroit for a total contract amount not to exceed 16,752,023 cents, 100% reimbursable by Harper funding and in terms in a term of 700 700 calendar days, it's also authorized directors to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Support.
Thank you. It's been moved and properly supported. Miss Welch, yes,
this contract supports dw, SDS, continuous efforts to replace water main systems within our water mains, within our distribution system. It does include cost of services for less service work for approximately 366 service lines. This contract was published for bid for 34 days. It yielded three responses. LGC global was the lowest bidder. The funding is 100% ARPA reimbursable, but due to federal funds, we were not allowed to put equalization credits or local preferences apply here. But LGC is a Detroit certified business. They have provided proof of their clearances which are valid, and at this time, procurement is recommended to the Finance Committee to move to full board for approval.
Thank you. Are there any questions comments? Madam
chair a question. It's just various projects. So is it all service led lines, or is it a combination of different things that they're going to do for us. Well,
the work is to replace water mains. And so when they go to replace water mains, if they identify a lease service line at that time, then that has been factored into the cost for it to be replaced. Okay, thank you.
Thanks for the question. Any other questions or comments? Hearing? None all in favor of the motion. Signify by saying, aye,
Aye.
Any opposed that motion is approved. Thank you. We'll move on to item J 2024, this is the Finance Committee presentation from financial services, and I'm assuming that will be Mr. Mr. Raman. He is on, I see him. Yeah.
Good afternoon, commissioners, good afternoon. Madam Chair, Mr. Covid, Chief Financial Officer and DWSD, today I'll be presenting the May 2024, financial highlights. Again, just a reminder, this is not a quarterly review, and as such, it's much shorter when you compare to the quarterly presentation. We'll start with may highlights. This will summarize all the financial highlights. For the month of May. We start with cash and investments. Our cash balances for combined water, sewer drainage stood at $291.8 million as of May 31 showing a slight increase of 2.5 million from April balance, we saw we continue to have adequate reserve for our capital programs, as well as our operating needs. Sales and receivables may sales exceeded April sales by $1.2 million again, could be attributed to seasonal variation when it comes to retail receipts, which is the money that we collect from our customers and goes into a trust account, amounted to $10.1 million in the month of May. It exceeded our target receipts for the month by almost half a million dollars. On the sewer side, we collected $22.5 million it's fell short of our target receipts by $1.4 million talking about receivables for all active accounts increased by $2.3 million which is about 0.8% over April. However, days in receivable, which means the number of days and amount remains in receivable in relation to sales, decreased by five days to 218 days for all active customer classes. When you break it away and talk about residential receivables, and all active residential receivables increased by $1.3 million roughly 0.7% over our April receivables, even in this case, days and receivables decreased by six days, which is a good thing. Our collection rate for the month of May stood at 88.1% for all active customer classes, which includes residential, commercial, industrial and everybody else, exceeded April collection rate by 2.1% again, positive trend. The three month moving average collection rate, however, fell short of the April rate by 0.3% we'll talk about volume and revenue matrix. Water volume and revenues exceeded our budgeted expectations for both the metrics for volume as well as the revenue dollars. When it comes to water meter, it increased by 11.4 and 13.8% which is really positive science water meter equivalent, equivalents and sewer service charges also exceeded our budgeted threshold by 7% and 4.2% respectively. Sewer volume and revenues also exceeded beating the budget by 14.2 and 11.6% for the month of May, our meter counts and survey charges for sewer also exceeded budgeted level levels by 5.6 and 5.7 we'll go through the graphical presentation later in the presentation. When it comes to drainage charges, we exceeded our BIA expectation by 1.5% BIA stands for build impervious acreage, but when it comes to the revenue side of it, it fell short by 4.8% and I'll explain why that's the case. So those are the financial highlights at a very high level. Now I'm going to dive little bit deeper, not much, little bit deeper onto the cash and investments. On a system wide basis, as I mentioned, we have $291.8 million and this includes all our operating in E construction, as well as money in our in our trust account held by Great Lakes weather authority, a two and a half percent increase on a on a system wide basis in as you can see in the chart on the left side, most of the increase is in the sewer fund, about $1.75 million in the sewer operating fund. And there's a $1.5 million increase in the sewer I any fund. This is offset by decrease in the trust account $1.4 million as I mentioned in the first slide, water operating fund also decreased by $1.7 million offset by slight increase in the INE fund by 980,000 now the balances in both the water and sewer operating accounts exceed the three months operating needs. We also call it the working capital needs for both the funds. The water fund has an operating need of $11.1 million on a three month basis, and the sewer fund has an operating need, or working capital need. Of $13.9 million so we exceed both the thresholds for both the funds, as I mentioned before, our collection through the trust account of 10.3 exceeded our our target collection, which is $9.7 million for the month, and the target is to cover all our expenses, including operating expenses. So that's due to 9.7 million for the month of April. It also exceeded April receipts. April, we collected $9.7 million whereas in in May, we collected 10.1 on the sewer side. However, there's a shortfall, a small shortfall of $1.4 million when we compared to the overall sewer size, we collected $22.5 million in in May, versus 23 point 3 million in April. The next two slides just gives us a graphical presentation of our cash position. As you can see, there is no wild fluctuation or fluctuations in any significant way we are holding our cash balance is pretty steady, although I would like to see the water construction cash go down, meaning more expenditures in the in the bond fund. From the sewer side, similar story. Our cash balances are holding pretty steady month over month. So just a graphical thing to show you, if there are any wild fluctuations in our cash and investment balances, there's none for the month of May. Going down to the next slide, we will switch gears to receivables from cash and investments. As I mentioned before, our May sales slightly higher than April. As you can see here, our active receivables for all customer classes has increased slightly, about 0.8% increases are primarily noted in residential but $1.3 million and drainage only accounts, which is about 426,000 both residential and drainage only. Customer receivables continue to be a concern for us, as I'll show you in the next slide, active residency receivables 0.7% over April, and it represents 67.9% of our total active receivables, which is quite similar to what we had in April. Now, of the total active receivables are $279.5 million $132.1 million is over one year old, and these are outstanding for more than 360 days, and represents about 47% of the total active receivables, when you look at the residential side, we have $189.9 million in receivables as of May, and $94.4 million out of that 189 are more than one year old, meaning more than 360 days old. And that represents about 50% so the conclusion on that is our concern continues to be receivables for residential as well as drainage. We continue to monitor our allowance for doubtful accounts. The net carrying value of $54.1 million represents about 17.2% quite similar to what we had in May. I'm sorry, in April, our allowance stands at about 82.8%
as of the month end.
The next chart here is, is a three month rolling average for our collection rates. You can see in that little table there at the top residents of collection rate for me stood at 79.6% which is which is, again, little better than the previous month, but it's much lower than our expectation. With the industry average always exceeds 90% the three month moving average is at 89% and this is mainly due to a receipt of $4.8 million in March. If you recall, we had received the $4.8 million payment from our wind metal for our affordability program. Uh, commercial, industrial collection rate continues to be very strong. Uh, if in May, you'll see it. It's exceeding 100% at certain times. So not much of a concern at this point in time. Governmental collection rate from our. Words, higher because of four point million dollars we received from Great Lakes for back billings, that kind of boosted the three month rolling average. Drainage only collection for May was slightly higher when we compare it to April, but the three month average is at 70% which is not what I'd like to see, not any of us would like to see continue to have concerns over the drainage only accounts. I'd like to see that number exceeds 90%
briefly go through our revenue matrix in terms of volumes as well as the associated revenue. As I said before, we have the month of May, exceeding budgeted expectation for both volumes as well as revenues. On a year to date basis, I have a 5.7% increase or excess over the budget. This is good news for for the volume, for the revenue, I have a 6.3% excess over the budgeted expectation, so both are showing positive trend at this point in time. Our rate equivalents and survey charges also showing positive trends when it comes to comparison with the budget. Actual meter equivalents exceeded budget by 7% for the month of May and the survey charge revenue exceeded by 4.2% the sewer side of the house again, 14.2% increase you'll see over our budget for the month of May. We continue to show positive trend for year to date. Sewer volume, which is exceeding the budget by 3% the associated sewer commodity revenue is also exceeding budget by 11.6% and year to date, fell slightly short of the when you take the straight line, year to date, it's falling short of the adjusted budget by 0.6%
not a not a concern at This time, we are still have the month of June, which we have data but not presented here, so I'm not too concerned about that. 0.6%
the the matrix for meter counts and survey charge revenues. Again, as I mentioned before, both the matrix that exceeded our budgeted threshold for the meters, we have 5.6% increase continues to increase in the city of Detroit. Our co survey charge revenue also is showing positive trend if you compare to the budget, and that increased by 5.4% year to date, survey charge was over budget by 4.6% reflecting high and medium chemists. And finally, our drainage matrix and revenues, our BIA exceeded the budget by 1.5% which is about 380 billable impervious acres. When you compare to April, it fell slightly by 0.1% not a whole lot, 16 via but when you compare to May of 23 it's certainly higher by 1.8% on a year to date basis, we are pretty level when, when we compare the actual to budget, it's at a variation of 0.1% which is statistically insignificant, drainage charge revenue. On the other hand, shows a decline when you compare the budget by 4.8% roughly about $760,000 and and this is mainly because of, you know, we offer residential credits, we offer green credits, we offer directly charged credits. So all of those credits increased over time, which kind of has an impact on the budget, or actual revenue versus the budget. On a year to date basis, we are short of our target by 3.2% roughly about $5 million so nothing too crazy in the month of May, but we're holding steady from our all our matrix standpoint, the good news is our our revenue matrix for both water and sewer in terms of volume and revenues are showing positive trends, and I hope it continues. That concludes my presentation. Always happy to answer questions.
Thank you very much. Easter. Chair, any questions from any commissioners?
No. Madam Chair,
thank you. It's hard to ask. Is there, are there any changes to the planning calendar?
There is no change to the planning calendar. Madam Chair,
are there any other matters to come before the committee? If not, our next meeting is September the fourth, 2024 and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
I so move.
Thank you. It's been moved, and it's been supported by Mr. Coleman. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.
