very well thank you Good, good, good, very well, good. When I arrived, it was in the low 70s and the wind was blowing and everyone was saying oh how cold it is.
It didn't know how lucky they were. Right
we're awaiting the arrival of Commissioner Ken Lakha, Mr. Chair
he's on his way.
Right it's it didn't look like buttons down here
is that
versus the judge?
We have 700 new ones coming everything's getting three Sure.
Somebody in the band
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. RIGHT.
Yeah. All right.
We now have enough commissioners to call this meeting to order at
207. Madam Secretary, would you please call the roll? Vice Chair Blackman, present. Commissioner Davis, present. Commissioner Garcia present. Commissioner can la present Commissioner forte present. Commissioner iron Hauser resin? Coleman is absent. Madam Chair. We have a quorum.
Thank you very much. Moving on to the approval of the agenda. Madam Chair Move approval. Moved by Commissioner Davis. I support seconded by Commissioner and Hauser. Any discussion on the agenda? Hearing none all those in favor please indicate by the sign of Aye Aye. Aye Opposed nay Motion carried. The next item is the approval of minutes of January 18. What is the will of the board? Madam Chair I move approval by Commissioner Davis. Seconded by Commissioner Garcia. Discussion. Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you Motion carried. The next item is public comments. Would you please read our official statement?
Good afternoon,
Madam Chair. My name is Sabrina Ferguson. I am from the Public Affairs Division. Here to talk about the public comment. If you are online, please raise your hand by using the raise hand icon on your phone or mobile device. If you are calling into the meeting by phone, press star nine to raise your hand. If you're online or on the phone 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 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 it will like to make a comment we kindly request you fill out the comment card link that is located in the chat. By filling out the card. We will have your contact information to follow up appropriately. If you're 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 so much for your attention.
Thank you Miss Ferguson is there anyone who would like to address the board at this time?
Madam Chair,
we have one person online I don't see anyone in the room.
All right, would you please announce the person online and and have them on mute, please. Cecily
McClellan. You can speak
good afternoon Board of Water commissioners with the people of Detroit. And as we look at the lifeline pilot 18 month pilot, you know it's approximately 12 months of that pilot left and so we're hoping that the water department will move toward an affordability program instead of an assistance program by getting permanent funding. We also appreciate the data that is being provided by the water department that gives us the status of the program but it also raises some issues in some concerns. DWSD just reported recently on their one of their reports that 707,680 residents are receiving lifetime benefits which 2686 are above six CCS or 45 gallons a month. This is 35% of the residents receiving benefits. If the Detroit lifeline reaches this projected goal of 20,035% remains constant over 7000 of the residents enrolled will be using over six CCS and pan and monthly overage rate and resulting in additional billing and calculation by the water department. If we the people of Detroit believed that the overage rate of 35% would be reduced if residents were allowed more than 37 gallons of water daily. As previously stated, I'd say that EPA allows a two gallons per person of which approximately 30% is outside uses which leaves about 57 gallons per person on an average, nationally 60 gallons per person is recommended for indoor uses which means a family of four will be using about 72 gallons or 9.6 cc F a month. We the people of Detroit suggest that this allowance. Be more this allowance will be more realistic and reduce the 35% overage of CCS. We are also very much concerned about the number of residents that did not pay their last invoice is that's that is also over 2574 That's about 34% of the residents receiving benefits in lifeline. They are paying late in paying the actual bill and or carrying over a balance to the following month. Not benefiting from the Lifeline program. Are these many of the same residents that are exceeding the plan six CCF. This population needs to be addressed and assisted with the compliance of the program because it does very little and it's not beneficial if you're not able to pay the flat rate that Lifeline has identified for your income rate. I appreciate this opportunity to speak. Thank you.
Thank you Miss McClellan. Turn of speech. I'd like to respond. Madam Chair.
We've been working very well with we the people of Detroit we've made a major revision to the lifeline plan that includes greater usage allowance allotments at the base rate depending on the household size. So we've also crunched the data. And every person every household enrolled in the lifeline plan at this moment does not exceed the revised methodology of including greater gallons per household, dependent on the number of occupants. So we believe we've made a major revision that ensures that that cap rate stays the same for nearly well so far for every household that's in the plan. Also, regarding the allotment of 36.7 gallons per person. This calculation is based on two things national research by the water research Federation that Stantec relied upon in creating the two tiered inclining block rate. Also, it's based on data by in our own records of what the normal household usage is. This is a not a number that was arbitrarily chosen it was based on data and based on national practices. So also with the implementation of a WC average winter consumption, that is also going to benefit households that are in the lifeline plan and those that are not to ensure that if you do use water for irrigation purposes of any sort, your water bill will be lower than has been in the past. So we have made several efforts to basically attack air quotes the water bill to bring it down to an accurate amount of usage for life sustaining water, and that's a key feature that the 36.7 is for life sustaining water. Again based on our own data of how Detroiters use their water, and based on best practices nationally and research.
Could you expound on life sustaining water just a bit
more indoor usage for bathing, cooking and washing dishes drinking water as well. Okay, and then the other comment about what was the second one oh, about the people who've missed their payment. We are again working carefully with our partners it with people of Detroit to determine what's the reason is it if it's because their usage went over and they can only afford the capped amount. That's where the water audit comes into play in the plumbing repairs. We will work with every customer to make sure they're getting the optimal benefits from the lifeline plan. And to find out what are the impediments to paying their bill on a timely basis? This is not a gotcha. We are not trying to trick people or to find people get pushed out of the plan or have their their service interrupted we are going to keep working with our partners and with the advocates to find out root causes why payments aren't being made could be a technology issue could be anything but we have our most sincere efforts are to continue to work with the people enrolled in lifeline that people who want to be enrolled in lifeline in the people who have critiques of lifeline. And that's, you know, it's pretty much my full time job these days is to live eat and breathe the lifeline plan so we know
that customers who are in line who maybe have not completed their process, as long as they have applied they are ineligible for termination for their service to be interrupted, I should say
that's correct, and they will continue to accrue arrearages until they're fully enrolled, but those arrearages will be erased upon full enrollment in the plan. That again, no, nothing tricky here. Okay,
Director Brown,
just a couple of points. I'll address the sustainability of the program and being a pilot and having dollars in the director's report. So I won't go into that here. But I mean, I you know, we think we the people of Detroit, we're listening to every, not only theirs, but to anyone that you know, has comments on how we can make this program better. We that's our objective. We want to make it better. I don't think it's fair to say that if a person can't pay the $18 bill, that they're not getting a benefit of from the program, they may not be getting the full benefit, but let's understand we've paid off all of the arrears. We're doing a home audit and we're going in and fixing the plumbing issues, which is I believe the number one reason that people can't stay within the allotted amount of water but we're gonna go in at our costs, and fix those those plumbing issues. So while we'll continue to receive any input that can make the program better, I just encourage everyone to let's get this program up and running. It's a living, breathing document, and we'll adjust as we see fit, but it's going to be adjusted based on real live data that we build our customers we know how much water they're using. We know who's going over. Sometimes when you try to measure that with national data, you're not looking at apples to apples, But that notwithstanding I think we are attempting to address every issue that has been raised and we will continue and we thank them for being willing to work with us and give us this very valuable information because we all want the same thing. We want to make this the best Lifeline program affordability program in the nation. That's our that's our goal. Our goal.
Yeah. Oh, Gary,
can you talk about continued funding to
Yeah, I'm gonna cover that in the directors report. So I if I did, if I did it now I'd have to steal Sam's hatred. Good news, and then
Commissioner Garcia.
Yeah, I think the madam chair that I wanted to make sure that we brought up something first of all, I think, Mr. Director, you and your staff have doing a marvelous job of getting as much work out there as possible. Matt, I know that let's say it works with you with all the issues and you are really good about getting that back. But the understanding me out there in the community is still the educational aspects of it. And I think the comprehensive, you know, and I speak because I deal with people that speak only Spanish sometimes, and we try to explain it to them. And they said they understand and they really don't, because they don't comprehend all the issues that need to go into it. Yes, we got to pay it on time if you're going to stay in a program. If you remember years ago, Mary with the telephone system and lifeline people, you know, it took a long time to get people there. And I think that with your good work that we can just continue to get the word out there. Whether we go through the commission or whether we do to churches, you know, we need to get that out there. So they understand they get in a habit. And you know, we're above 2.5 people in a household. This doesn't apply to the citizens of Detroit. You know, I know, I know I went over the national average in 1980, you know, which was 2.1. I never figured that out. I have five children, you know. So those are the things I mean, that's very common in our community that we have more than 2.5 children. You know, we have grandchildren that come back and live nieces and nephews. So all of that kind of data just goes out the window. Madam Chair. So I think we need to make sure that our issue is to just get the word out there and I really would appreciate that. And I and I will continue to do that. And I know the rest of our commissioners would do the same.
Yes. Commissioner, you do you think you're bringing up a common thread throughout the board? That we are really determined to make sure that customers understand this wonderful program and how it will help them. So I as I is I feel the sentiment around the room that's on our all of our plates. So thank you any additional comments, questions? Okay. Is there anyone else who wants to address the board? Madam Chair, our
next speaker is Noel Hemphill from Great Lakes Legal Group.
Thank you This Hemphill?
Yes, my name is Nora Hemphill with Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. I'm an Equal Justice Works fellow and attorney. And I want to take a minute just to lift the words of Cecily McClellan that there is a need for data to see what's actually happening with the Lifeline program. So I want to thank the Board of Water commissioners and DWSD for putting that dashboard online. And what that dashboard, it does need a date, because I've noticed that it said that there were 1000 who applied. It said that for about the last month. Do we have an updated status on that? And I know it was also stated that 400 applications were able to be processed per week. Is that still the case? And I know Mr. Brown mentioned that for the people who are going over the a lot of usage that they're needed. Just plumbing repairs and fixes. Is there money for plumbing now? Because at last we heard that Wayne Metro does not have any money for those plumbing repairs while they are doing plumbing audits that there are no money for repairs. Also. I will say that there's as Commissioner Garcia lifted. There is a lack of community education. And I want to add on to that community trust. So there are many people who may not enroll in this program because of the history with DWSD. You know, and I understand that this board is is not our we're not necessarily the arbiters of this, but that the institutional DWSD has done real harm to the residents of Detroit, which will cause many residents not to be as willing to enroll in the Lifeline program. With that we do need a permanent water affordability program and permanent moratorium on water shutoffs.
And for those who are who do need
help pay these exorbitant water bills. The Lifeline is a good solution for right now. With that I will encourage people to take the water affordability pledge and we the people will Detroit's website to stay informed as the moratorium on water was lifted on December 31 2022. I would encourage people to enroll in the lifeline plan. And if people have enrolled or are having issues you can call reach out to Wayne Metro and DWSD if you're not able to get a solution. I would encourage you to call with the people of Detroit's water rights Hotline at 84442 water. That's 844-429-2837 Thank you so much for your time. Have a wonderful day.
Thank you very much for your comments. Director brown no
and I appreciate the comments because everywhere I speak I challenge every elected official I'm asking we the people of Detroit and they're doing it to help us get the word out this this cannot just be DWSD communicating to the community. We're all have a responsibility to help get the information out if you know people that that need this help. And I know that they're doing that because we hear from them all the time. So I and I was in front of city council I'm encouraging every council person in every district to help us get this information out to people that that are their constituents it it will never be done by DWSD and there's nothing stronger than third party validation coming from community action agencies and community minded people. So we thank them for what they'd done and we'd encourage them to continue to do it. You know, there's good news and bad news and and then we'll start with the bad news is that we got more people signed up. We got we got 9000 People in 90 days into the Lifeline program that hasn't been done anywhere. in the country. We got very good at getting people to apply. And Wayne Metro could not keep up with processing the applications. On February 6, they hired an additional 30 people. I'm meeting with their CEO tomorrow and my expectation is I'm expecting 1000 applications to be processed a week. And so we will be caught up with this backlog very shortly. In addition, we're going to we're negotiating a contract we'll be we'll be coming back to this board and trying to move an additional $2 million dollars over to Wayne metro to deal with some of the administrative cost of based on the sheer number of applicants that have enrolled in the program. It would be unreasonable to expect that over a five year period we only got 5000 people enrolled and now within you know, five months or so we've got 20,000 people that's going to put stress on any organization. It puts stress on us. But we're going to deal with it. We're going to hire additional people and get them answering the phones and processing the applications. So that people they can meet our our two week, timeline up or expectation of how long it takes customers to get process after they fill out the application. That being said, again, I'll end the directors report I'll address the funding issues.
Thank you any additional app we'd like to just the board.
Madam Chair Gwendolyn Howard, from we the people of Detroit would like to
speak. Welcome, miss Howard. Good afternoon.
Thank you for the afternoon.
Again from Wheaton people of Detroit and and we're pushing up. Gary Brown just said that they had so many people to apply. That's because on every turn every neighborhood meeting every district meeting that we attend, we encourage everyone to apply for the Lifeline program because it may be a benefit to them. And there are some great parts in it. So we do that. And then we may be responsible for getting overload of applications in a short period of time. But what I've gotten on the feedback end of it is the due date. So I think if you guys look at that a little bit too because most of the constituents that we deal with are seniors. So they're on a fixed income with a fixed date. And then their due date is like around their approval time and it may not fall in line with that first, third or fourth Wednesday, but I have had three to call back and tell me that they talked with someone and they changed their due date. So they are looking at it I don't know if that if you want to know that that may help. Um, because they're on their fixed income and they do date maybe the 18th and we encourage them to pay the bill on the date of this do or are prior to it if they can, but sometimes because of how it falls that's what they're running into, is that they're they don't have the money at that time at that period of the month. So we the people that need to we just look giving you all of the feedback that we're getting when we go back to the same people that we pushed it out for for them to join. So maybe that will help in some of your determinations that they have the ability to call in and get their due date change to when their funding comes into their household. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Miss Howard. appreciate
that question. Yeah, how flexible is that due date?
We we as you know, we just spent a great deal of money in upgrading our billing system. And we are taking a look at how we can do that. We know that the billing system can manage it. But we can only have so many, you know new things coming out of the billing system at one time, but she's absolutely right. We've heard that on a lot of different fronts. If people can actually pick the day that their bill is due. It's a lot easier for them to make those payments on time and we're trying to move in that direction to get there as quickly as possible.
Some companies give you some leeway as to when you can set a date especially depending on when your money comes in. Okay, any additional questions? It just no people waiting to address the board.
No Madam Chair.
Thank you very much then public comment is closed. We're moving on now to items from the commissioners to the commissioners have any items. Mr. Davis? Do I see? No. No ma'am. Any commissioners? Okay. You have you do have something published? You can laugh. All right.
The alert system again,
yeah, from the alert system. I'm sure not sure if you all got that same alert regarding the sinkhole. I'm not sure if your
area. Yes, you're 46 to 46
East, East Philadelphia. So
it was a land bank piece of property. It was sold to a homeowner. On November 8. That homeowner got a permit and hired a company called empire to make a connection to our watermain that connection was made. And between November 8 Then a couple of days ago something went wrong. And that, that that line sprung a leak and we got out there that day and made the repair. And so with their flooding. The street was passable when I got there I was on on site and it was a plate on top of it but there was a van that had been parked and when the sinkhole was created the van unoccupied fill in so we know yes with the
cave in. Okay, I guess then repaired. Oh, thank you. Yeah,
it's been repaired.
That's the important thing. It's, it's been busy. So I'm just curiosity who's
gonna know I'm not quite sure why a city wide alert. I will be up on something that's pretty. But yeah, we're trying to get to the bottom of who's making the decision to send a city wide alert. Yeah, it was. There's really only affecting one block in the city of Detroit. Certainly the people on that blog had an expectation but we got it we got out there and we fix it the same day. That's good,
but it was okay to just still know within system wide it was good for us to know system wide something was happening as commissioners
did appreciate being awakened. Now. Any additional comments from commissioners? Okay, hearing none. Moving on to communications. Item two, zero to three dash four to receive correspondence but as well as the board. Madam Chair needs to be Commissioner Davis moved to receiving file.
But is there a second
properly moved that we receive and file item 2023. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye aye. Hi, those nay motion carried the next item was 202343. Again, receipt of correspondence.
Madam Chair,
Commissioner Davis motion that we receive and file separately moved and supported that we receive and file any discussion. Hearing none all those in favor please indicate by the sign of Aye Aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carried is there. We don't have any unfinished business according to my agenda. So we're moving on to the approval of the consent agenda. Items nine A through F. Is there any item on the consent agenda that any board member would like to have removed for further discussion?
Madam Chair, Move approval?
Move approval of the consent agenda, any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed nay motion carried let it be noted that each of these items had been thoroughly discussed. In committee and thoroughly reviewed and so it comes with the recommendation of the person who chairs the chair those committees. The next item on the agenda is new business and we have a black history moment.
Wonderful at this is gonna be done by well I have sponsored Phillips So who's who's the sponsor? Well,
Matthew, sponsor Matthew Phillips. He's gonna do this okay. All right, please.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Divers today, Madam Chair, I'm finding it difficult to hear Tiffany.
needed now. Is that better?
Is that better, Commissioner? Excellent. Great, awesome. It's my privilege today to bring to you a black history moment during Black History Month. An annual nationwide celebration to acknowledge all of the many achievements and contributions made by African Americans. I would like to quickly highlight for for you today who have made history in water and environmental industries. Lewis Howard Latimer. He was an inventor and a patent draftsman. He's best known for his improvement of the Thomas Edison's light bulbs and inventing the evaporative air conditioner. But what you might not know is that he improved the toilet system for railroad cars, which he called the water closet. Unlike the previous toilets, which disposed of waste immediately, the water closet contained a pan to hold the waste and cover it with sand or soil before discharging. It. He co patent this invention with Charles M. Brown in 1874.
Before you move on, yes much any comments or questions by commissioners? I would just like to say that often when you see the invention of a light bulb, you do not see the reference to Mr. Latimer. So I think it's important for us to know that it'd be able to pass it on to our children and those within our circle. So thank you.
Absolutely. My pleasure. The United States the next slide, please. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with ensuring clean air, land and water. In 2009. President Obama appointed the first African American woman Lisa P. Jackson to leave the agency and 2021 President Biden appointed the first African American man Michael S. Reagan to hold the position. The City of Detroit had the privilege to host administrator Reagan last year. For a press conference, flood mitigation. And in that center picture you'll see Mayor Duggan, along with our director Brown and administrator Reagan in the background and we had an honor to show him around the city of Detroit.
Excellent, thank you.
And last but not least, our very own Commissioner Mary Blackman. She was appointed in 1989 by former Detroit Mayor Coleman a young and she was the first woman on the commission for the past 34 years. That's three decades. You have served on several committees and have served a number of leadership positions including chair which you've held several times and was the first African American woman to serve as chair and currently we are honored to have you sir I mean as vice chair Today, we salute you Commissioner Blackmun.
Very, very much.
It's rather mind boggling to see the number of years but thank you.
I leave you with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Which he said if I cannot do great things, I can do small things and a great way. I do believe with the leadership here today. We DWSD we're doing great things in a great way. Thank you for your time and happy black history.
Thank you. Thank you so much. And I think this is a wonderful quote just for us to pass on to our young people. Thank you. Thank you, public affairs and everyone else involved in this. I do know that one of the first people to bring some very significant person to my attention was our own. What is your title? You were or our chief operating officer was the one to bring to my attention. What was Russell, Robert Smalls, so you might want to look him up? Really? It's very, very enlightening. To see what he did it and that at that point in time. So thank you all for the extra effort for Black History Month. The next item we have on the agenda is the directors report.
Thank you Madam Chair and I I'm reminded that we we have a hard stop for for the meeting. And so I'll I'll be brief, but I do want to acknowledge a point that's been raised at just about every meeting and that point has to deal with our Lifeline program. Not being an affordability program, because dollars have not been permanently attached to the program. And that it's a pilot program, because the dollars were not there to sustain it and I'm happy to report that on January 30. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a supplemental budget that includes 25 million this year takes effect almost immediately for water affordability. And thanks to the Democratic legislative leadership, I had the opportunity to have lunch with 23 legislators and ask them to add a another $75 million on top of the 25 for a total of $100 million that could be utilized over the next four years.
Also, the governor that was it's the use for I'm sorry
for affordability, this is strictly for lifeline. I also want to indicate that not only did the governor sign a supplemental budget for 25 million, she added 40 million into the state's next year's budget which starts October 1. And so at minimum we have 65 million. We're hoping that the legislators will see the wisdom in our ask of instead of making that 40 million to bump it up to 75 and I can tell you that I spent several hours with them. And they it was very well received. And I know that attorney posh speech has set up a meeting with Senator Chang who wants to champion this and so let me just say that. That word permanent, it's hard in government because dollars have to be re appropriated every couple of years. But I'm trying to make sure that we have sustainable dollars for at least this governor's four year term going forward. And then if this is a successful program, and it will be it already is and will only make it better. It will be difficult for people to in any elected officials to turn it backwards. That's that's what I want to believe.
Yeah. Okay.
Okay, let me I ask is there a was there a conversation? I know that we glean what we have that pocket of money that we use towards addressing folks who can't afford their water paying their water bill, I forget what the fund is called got the rat, rat rat rat program but so what I'm saying is there is there a way to have some sort of millage or some sort of funding direct funding source dedicated towards a ward affordability plan. You know, even if we don't do regional even if they allow enabling legislation where Wayne County can put such a a dedicated funding stream you know, in perpetuity, you know, just putting it before the voters Yeah,
lots of conversation about that. So is there conversation I'm serious conversation, but I don't think you get this done on a county level. I think it has to be done on a state level. One of the recommendations that I and others at DW have made is $1 on a case of bottled water to raise the revenue for supporting this program.
So this screen a dedicated from a state standpoint.
I like I think you believe that if we didn't get a dedicated funding source, when the Democrats were in charge of the house, coming out of the federal government, it's not likely that we're going to see one coming from the Republicans. And so it has to come at the state level. The governor recognizes that and to make $100 million available for the next four years is sustainable. The program would be sustainable, but you're right. In order to go forward. You've got to find a revenue source. It can't come from rates. We can't pass the cost on to ratepayers. If you're not your property taxes are at the highest level that they can be add up so you don't have any room there and that would only create a hardship for people. So it's going to have to come from a different like that
from bottled water or something. So we need to understand we need to move on why we have Democrats
tried them once before we can try it again.
We were shot down a couple of times. Yeah. You have a lot of people in opposition to it. bottling companies. Oh, yeah, lobbyists, right. Yeah, they do. But we recognize that there needs to be a funding source in order to make sure it's sustainable.
Finally,
we also received from the governor $226 million is in play statewide to remove lead service lines and as most of you already know, we've got $90 million in hand and and we're putting contracts you'll be seeing contracts probably at the next at the next board meeting, so that we can get this work started as soon as the construction season begins, and so $226 million for lead service lines statewide, we have the majority, we probably have as many or more than the rest of the state combined. And so we expect to get the lion's share of that those dollars or at least to be able to compete for them. And minimum 65 million for the afford for the Lifeline program. And we're asking that to be bumped up to 100 And so I think that you know, while while that's not it's not perfect, I think we we've made a lot of progress in finding funding for this. This program going forward for the foreseeable future. Good. Thank
you for that. I'll turn it over to our Chief Operating Officer.
Hey, good afternoon, Sam Smalley, chief operating officer going to give you a report on the various assets and services that we're providing and maintaining. So we are tracking our inoperable hydrants very closely. In fact, we have a dashboard that gives us up to the minute information. As of right now we have 729 hydrants that are inoperable. So far today we fix 37 We fix 52 yesterday, so this is very much front and center on our radar. Just a little bit of background the fire department inspects the hydrants twice a year. In the spring and in the fall heading into winter, they are still inspecting. So the number that they give us are still increasing. But even with that, we're driving the numbers down quicker than I've ever seen since I've been here.
Just a moment. Commissioner Garcia
Yes, I saw today when I went to the FRAC which is the southwest and sell to Detroit with The Gleaners of that. There wasn't there was a higher end it wasn't connected. It was actually taken off and put on the side. Does that mean that they're going to be going back and repairing that one? So that would be St Anne's and baggie,
that would be one of the 700 we have a map showing every single hydrant that's out of service,
but it wasn't like it was just it wasn't like sometimes you just see a disconnected This was actually taken off the ground and put on the site on its side. So I just assumed that that was something that we're going to fix. So we
have about 20 hydrants throughout the city that the moment we replace them, repair them, they're hit by a truck. So also as part of this effort, we're looking at moving them three, four or five feet so that they're not within the truck turning radius. That may be one But we can certainly look into that. Thank you.
Can I just just just I just want to add a little context because yeah, I know when you hear 700 It sounds like a really big number. Yeah, but we've got 30,000 fire hydrants nationally. You're only required to inspect these fire hydrants once every three years. The firemen are doing it once a year, and they find a couple twice a year and they're they're finding a couple 1000 all at one time. And so to get 350 fixed a week, the 700 the next two weeks, will will be gone. But what I want to I want you to really think about is the standard for the Midwest. The 10 states that are around us is a fire hydrant. Every 500 feet in Detroit, we have on every 300 feet. And what Sam and his team have been working on is what we call clusters. If you've got more than one broken in a row. That's a risk to that neighborhood. So we've if we haven't completed it, we will be complete with the clusters or the ones that are consecutive, which removes the risk and liability. The fire trucks have 750 feet of holes. They have a tablet with the same information that we have that shows where the ones that are out are so when you're going to the fire, you don't stop at one that's inoperable. You have enough holes to go to the next one. They're only 300 feet apart. And so I don't want anybody I mean, it was some news articles that came out and and you know, I thought you know that yeah, they weren't done. You know, and, you know, with informing the public, they were really more of a scare tactic going on. We have them every 300 feet. We've taken care of the ones that are consecutively in a row first, and we don't have a safety issue. I don't want the public to believe we have a safety issue. We've resolved that. And, again, I know 700 Sounds like a lot but we had 2000 Just a couple of weeks ago we've been doing 350 a week, and nobody in the country is is really doing that number of hydrants. It have 1700 but not
not 30,000
So the team has responded and they're doing a great job bringing bringing the hydrants down in addition to the clusters especially in residential areas we prioritize certainly around schools and hospitals.
Yes. Running water.
So running water is just one of the things that we're doing. There's a lot of things that go into it, our utility mark out, we're staying on 100% compliant on our normal on our emergency and rush. Utility Mark outs. Were a little bit behind on our emergency on our normal Mark outs, as are most of the other utilities. That will improve in July when we have a significant increase in the number of field techs, our investigations, we investigate everything before we go straight to correcting. We're actually reducing the backlog right now on those four restorations which is replacing the asphalt concrete curb sidewalk. Grass, we can't do that right now the asphalt plants are closed the concrete plants are closed. And obviously the grass won't grow although it might grow on our weather like today. So as soon as spring hits, we're ready to go hot and heavy on restorations for both hard and soft.
Why are they closed?
It's too cold because it's too cold to do the work you can
get special concrete made but you have to take a lot of extra precautions and do a lot of extra things in order for cold to pour concrete in the wind. Okay,
thank you. I have never
seen the number of low water main breaks that we are having this winter so this has been a blessing. It has allowed us to focus on a lot of other things. The fire hydrants been one we prioritize water main repairs based on the severity is anybody out of water is it affecting a major thoroughfare etc As of right now, as of three o'clock we had 14 active breaks, the number is usually significantly higher than that. So I'm hoping that we're making good progress with our overall capital asset management plan where we're looking at risk and age and a lot of other factors to prioritize our capital interventions. Catch Basin cleaning and inspection. Usually this time of the year it's below freezing and our trucks that we use will freeze if they're out in the elements too long. So we're not doing our preventive maintenance but we are responding to flooded streets and doing emergency catch basin cleaning on an as needed basis. Our sewer team is also helping with water main breaks and hydrants right now.
Sewer Cleaning
it is my goal to get us back to doing 500 miles of sewer cleaning every year. We have about 2700 miles of 24 inch and below sewer mains. If we get to that 500 miles per year we're on a five to six year cycle to clean the entire sewer system. We're tracking every sewer segment in July with the additional resources and training, I'm very confident that we'll be able to hit that we hit it last year. We were only able to do 254 miles this year. But with the additional resources will absolutely be able to clean our sewer every five to six years but puts us on par with best practices in any other major city throughout the country.
Mr. Garcia, yes.
That is great to hear. And I have a question as far as the cleanup when you're talking about cleaning up the system. Is there ever a possibility when you do clean it up that it will back into some of the residences? sewer system?
Your microphone on your microphone? Oh, I'm sorry.
I don't have to repeat it.
The question was when we are cleaning our sewers, can it cause a backup into private residence? And my response to that would be if the plumbing is correct on the resident side, that will not happen. We take a lot of caution and make sure that we're not blowing or forcing water or air into a customer I
guess the question is Could it happen? Could it happen? Yes. Okay. And then the next thing is that if that happens, and I am a supporter of having this insurance that they've sent out, Mr. Brown, we think that that's also another point that we need to educate our residents about getting I don't know what is it $15 A year or whatever it was. I don't remember what it was exactly, but it was a month. But I really do believe that is another reason that we need to get the word out that $15 And if they can't afford that, then we need to find the money to help them but I just think that it's very important, especially what you're doing, and you never know what's going to happen. But I think that it's another protection for our residents. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner,
very much agree. You know, usually at the beginning of winter, we get a lot of sewer odor complaints inside people's houses and what that's typically from is the P trap that holds water in the drainage in every sink and every floor drain that will evaporate over time. So you need to pour some water in every sink, especially those in the basement because the humidity drops in the winter. It will evaporate you need to pour some water in there. And it'll seal the sewer gases from coming in. I was told
Yeah. You see a floor
drain. Yeah, you need to pour water in those. Yeah, every single sink. Public Affairs has developed a wide range of materials.
You gotta keep your microphone down, Commissioner when you
appreciate. All right. No, I think that that's another thing that we need to educate our community about because that would really help. And I really do believe you know, because I know 510 years ago, my one of the one of the sewer pipes they're made out of clay actually broke because they have not been and that was my responsibility. And I know I thought it paid 4000 at the time. I think it's up to 6000 now, but the issue now I have insurance so I'm hoping that will help for the future. But I think then also a lot of our homes have clay the clay was it pipes or they call it crock. Yeah. And the majority of them in our communities I think especially in the I mean, in my home is 112 years old, so I'm not sure how about some others but I'm sure that that's about the same, maybe the medium, you know, years and I think that that's so important that our people understand that because the clay is clay it lasted 100 years Okay, but what happens in the next 10 years.
When we clean and inspect our sewer mains, we put a camera through our sewers, and we can rotate the camera had to look up into the private laterals, okay, if we notice a defect, we will send that customer a screenshot of that defect along with a letter describing what the defect is.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Director Brown. Would you like to
point out talked about the water though it would really be great to have like bullet points to give out to the churches and you know, it doesn't hurt to just inform people.
Oh, god. Okay, Grant. Good. We could be coming on there just a bit longer because we do have public affairs here and public relations here. So you want to talk about how we're making our customers aware in your community organizations and the churches because we are meeting with those organizations and contacting those organizations
we are and we're applying for every grant that we can find and we know that most basements are backing up even in dry weather because the lateral shorelines have outlived their useful life. I mean, the clay has has collapsed is disintegrated. And that's a $15,000 fix for homeowners. We've sent out 32,000 letters, and we know that less than 1% have been able you Jane you probably got got the 1% up to 1% because not many people are able to make the repair. And so we're hopeful to receive a grant where we can start going in and replacing those lateral sewer lines. You're right it's a private issue. But we're hopeful that those dollars will be coming soon and we'll be able to set up a program to help those that can't afford to do it. Get it done. Great. Thank you.
I'm gonna I'll speed it up some. Okay. Next, we're going to talk about meter operations we're tracking are scheduled are successful in our failure, failed meter evolutions. The fails are usually due to either no access, the person is not home, their plumbing isn't ready, or there are other safety conditions in the basement. I will report real quickly that we do are piloting an active plumbing program where if there's an issue with the meter assembly, we will fix it now. So that'll increase the number of successes right. Thanks. Real Estate reads We are still doing in person real estate reads but we're also looking at utilizing our advanced metering infrastructure to give on demand real estate reads that will significantly reduce the backlog that you see. Our revenue protection unit is doing a great job continuing tracking down especially commercial and industrial accounts. As well as greatly assisting us reduce the amount of leakage or non revenue water throughout our system, especially with homes that are suspected of being vacant or abandoned. With reports of running water teen savvy seven
Okay, was that a
good Good afternoon please?
Afternoon, commissioners Nicaea. Branch Benson, a deputy general counsel for the water department. And I am happy to announce that this month we have filed for new collection cases. And through those collection cases we're seeking to collect $643,000 in outstanding water, sewer and drainage charges. I've also happy to announce that this month we successfully argued a motion for summary disposition in court and we were awarded a judgment against the plaintiff in the amount of $93,500. So we are working to collect on that judgment. And we also brought in this month $575,215.17. And this is from a longtime delinquent customer that we've been working to collect so we were able to finally bring that balance current so we're happy to announce these successes for this month.
Thank you Thank you. Good to hear you. Public Affairs. Public Relations. How are you sir?
Good afternoon,
commissioners.
Michael Powell, Public Affairs Director for DWSD and before I jump into the slide, I just wanted to share that we were happy to partner with a variety of stakeholders. We are improved further improving every day our relationship with the department neighborhoods so that they're advocate for us and help us educate across the districts. There's three people assigned by the mayor's office in each district. And so we meet with them on a bi weekly basis and talk to them almost every day about how they can further educate folks about the sewer issues as well as what they can do inside their home and access the lifeline and other programs as well as the faith based organizations to as far as their stakeholders can go the next slide. So we this is our news coverage report this monthly in the metrics and this is for January. We had a total of 21 stories, media houses or individual stories they may have been republished in different blogs and other news sites. One of the positive stories is our very own David Ridgeway from operations was highlighted for his participating in the program American Water Works Association transformative water Leadership Academy. And you can even see on his Facebook page last weekend he was showing that he was there at the academy and then the one negative story was as director brown Melton was about the fire hydrants and I think everybody's clear that that particular reporter was had a hidden add the hypothesis so to speak. Before they even talk to us about the story, how they were going to handle it and go to the negative realm. So that's our stories for the month of January.
Thank you have one more.
I think you have one more our public affairs director department. Our department director, was featured in the ads on someone's show. Well, he did an excellent job of explaining all of the issues related to water affordability and customer service. So I just wanted to highlight that I think you senator to some of us.
Yep. Thank you, Madam Chair. We did send you that YouTube video of director brown being Bakelite Thompson's show, talking about the lifeline plan and other programs at the water department. And that was widely broadcast on YouTube and shared on social media and social media. In fact, we this is the different categories we look at analytics, but our most important category that we want to see improvement on is engagement. So engagement means someone liked the post, share the post or commented on the post. Doesn't matter how many times they saw that news feed but if they actually touched the post, so to speak, by commenting, sharing or liking that make a big impact. So we do geo fencing so if we have a committee meeting, we just had a committee meeting for Blackstone stormwater project in bright more if we do do it geofencing we put him basically a fence a virtual fence around the area and then we're able to send out messages through social media to that specific area. We can do that proactively. And we can also do that for emergencies as well. One of our top posts was our lifeline plan, of course, that's getting a lot of traction. And we did hear one of the commenters this afternoon to the board about putting the date on the dashboard for the lifeline Plan page. We have a dashboard that gets updated every week. On the enrollments, the applications how many people enrolled in each tier. We just put the date on that so we will put the date on it. When it's updated. Now says February 30 2023, for that webpage. And as you know, we updated our webpages last month for the lifeline plan. That's my update for public affairs.
Thank you and an excellent report. You're welcome. Any comments by commissioners? The ones who are left Thank you very much.
You're welcome madam chair.
That concludes our the other matters No.
Are there any comments or ever got any additional comments by commissioners? No. Okay. Comments by the chair. Commissioner Garcia.
I guess I would like let me bring this down. I would like to make sure that everybody knows Mr. Director and Matt and everybody that Jermaine Payne has water running in his in his house, and it took an effort for everybody and I wanted to thank him I know he's been coming for the last two years and very frustrated but he has running water now. I just wanted everybody to know that wonderful and we thank everybody that participated to help this happen. Okay, it is Yes,
ma'am. Madam Chair? Yes.
Because this was a bit off topic, but I couldn't help given the news for Michigan State to think about our active shooter training. And I was chatting about it with some other people know and the mantra is run, hide fight. But the chilling instruction we got was, if you see somebody down, don't stop and try and help them and if somebody won't come with you don't wait for them. And as I was thinking about that, I just couldn't help but marvel at what a very strange world we live in, that we have to live by rules like that. And so one of the things though, that I am noticing is people are rejecting thoughts and prayers, and I think that's a good thing. You know, we we absolutely have to be much more proactive. about controlling guns and their availability. And I just wanted to make that observation.
Thank you very much for that.
I do have one thing that I wanted to comment on, and that is, I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but if I did, it doesn't hurt to repeat it. It's just Molly's team did an excellent job for a customer was 90 years old. Without heat and water. Water was flowing in her basement and they went out at I forgotten very late to make sure that this customer could enjoy. Heat the comfortable in her home and stop the water from flowing. So again, commendations and kudos to your team Sam. And since we're on this, we certainly are sending our condolences to the Michigan State families who were impacted by the senseless gun violence we just it's just out of my category for the sport but we have got to do something about making sure that guns don't get into the hands of wrong people and that we make sure that we when we see something that is out of order that we we talk that we do let someone know we might be able to do something about it. Let's see There's nothing else. No other matters chair will entertain a motion. Move it and support it. This meeting stands adjourned.
Thank you all right, Mr. Chair. Okay, we voted Madam Chair. What? Okay.
Twitter's past line with again, blindly. Curious, and I had asked him to join me but he forgot who was a I sent him the letter so that he said I texted him okay. Okay. dashboard.