- The time is now 5.01. I'd like to call today's utility service board meeting to order.
- We'll start with our mission. The city of Bloomington utilities mission is to enhance the quality
- of life in our community by providing safe, sustainable, and high quality drinking water,
- wastewater, and stormwater services in a cost-effective manner promoting public health,
- economic vitality, and environmental stewardship. If any board member has a personal or financial
- conflict with any issues or individuals on the agenda, then please be sure to recuse yourself
- during those portions of the meeting. We will begin today's meeting with
- petitions and communications. Are there any petitions or communications from the public?
- Moving along, we'll move to the approval of minutes of the previous meeting.
- Are there any questions or comments on the minutes from the previous meeting?
- I move we approve the minutes of the September 22nd meeting.
- All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay.
- Minutes are approved. Next, we have the approval of claims. We'll start with the standard invoices
- for a total amount of six hundred ninety eight thousand two hundred and forty five dollars and
- fifty
- nine cents. Are there any questions or comments on the standard invoices?
- Yeah, I was looking at Jeff. I'm sure he would have one. I want to see if you got the same one.
- Okay, so we're playing that game, huh? Okay, so I have a question about on page three,
- the vehicle maintenance. No, darn it. Okay, and I know that that is our set rate as per the MOU,
- correct? I do, I pulled out some of my notes here and I looked at a request that we had made. The
- board had, well, actually I'll pull this up under old business. I'll pull this up under old
- business.
- So no, no questions on that. And then I just have one other set of questions on page eight.
- And I think, I think I know the answer to this, but I want to make sure.
- It says type our class two short sleeve t-shirts. We're not paying
- like, it's for Patricia Mary West safety threads. Are those like class two shirt? It's not that we're
- getting two short sleeve shirts for $800, right? I hope not either. Is it just that that's
- the classification? Like it says type our class two.
- Yes, it's a classification. Okay. It's not just two t-shirts. Okay. All right. Fantastic.
- Those were my two questions. Just one question on page six, and that's under the
- second and third John Deere financial. It's the same claim. And for some reason,
- we split this one up between water and do the 60/40, but it's on two different lines,
- which is pretty atypical. And I was wondering why we did that in this case.
- It looks all correct. So I was just wondering why we did it that way in this case.
- Any other questions or comments on the standard invoice?
- All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay.
- Standard invoices are approved. Next we have utility bills for a total amount of $17,559.81.
- Are there any questions or comments on the utility claims?
- Utility bills for October 2nd pay date. Second. All in favor, please say aye.
- Aye. All opposed say nay.
- Utility bills are approved. Next we have wire transfers for a total amount of $633,392.71.
- Are there any questions or comments on the wire transfers?
- We approve wire transfers for the month of October.
- All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay.
- Wire transfers are approved. Lastly, we... The real key ones were for
- toolboxes for the shop. So that's why they were spread out.
- What's that? They were for toolboxes for the shop. That's why it was split out.
- Okay. Yeah, it looked like it was for a truck and it was split like they weren't all on the
- same line. Usually we'd have water, wastewater, stormwater, and I was just... I just didn't
- understand why they got on two different lines. That's all. The amount looks correct.
- Okay. We just processed it to two different areas. Like there's probably one toolbox and
- another toolbox. Great. Well, I mean, it's the same invoice number. It's a 60/40 split,
- so that all makes sense, right? But it was just that it was on two different lines. That's all.
- It shouldn't be a big deal, but I was just a different way that we regularly do things.
- I'm just not sure why that happened that way. Okay.
- Okay. Next, we have customer refunds for a total amount of $545.76. Are there any questions or
- comments on the customer refunds? I move we approve customer refunds for October 10th.
- All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Customer refunds are approved. Thank you
- all.
- Item number five on our agenda is approval of consent agenda. Catherine Zager. Good evening,
- I'm Catherine Zager, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda,
- totaling $0.00 and 0 cents for non-chemical contracts. Our contract is with Water Solutions
- Unlimited Inc. for $9.50 per gallon for the 2025 supply of copper sulfate at Monroe Water
- Treatment Plant. Is there any member who wishes to consider one or more of these items individually?
- Hearing none, if there's no opposition, these items will be approved as recommended by staff.
- Hearing no opposition, the consent agenda is approved.
- Thank you. Item six is request approval of First Amendment to Service Agreement
- with McAllister Machinery Company, Incorporated. Kelsey Thedonia.
- Good evening board members. Kelsey Thedonia, Environmental Division. This is an amendment
- to an existing contract we have and it is just to correct a small scrivener's error in the way
- the contract was first written. It is meant to renew for two extra years after year one. We are
- currently in year two and it is just to clarify the amounts that year two and three are not the
- same as year one and that is due to the fact that the work in the contract, the inspection and
- maintenance on these generators varies from year to year as outlined in the scope.
- So if you have any questions, please let me know. Any questions for Kelsey?
- Hearing none, do we have a motion for approval? Yeah, I move we approve the
- service agreement amendment from with Macalester machinery.
- Second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion is approved. Thank you.
- Next we have request approval of first amendment to service agreement with Potomac Electrical
- Services LLC Hector Ortiz. Hello, good evening. I'm Hector Ortiz, Assistant Director of Operation
- and this is to amend the contract extending the expiration of the contract for three years instead
- of three months like it was. So any questions? Any questions for Hector?
- Second. I move we approve the first amendment to the service agreement Potomac Electrical.
- Second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Request is approved. Thank you.
- Next we have request approval of resolution 2025-20 for the salaries of
- appointed officers, non-union, and ask me employees for the City of Bloomington Utilities
- Department for 2026. Katherine Zager. Hello. I would like to request the review and approval
- of the 2025-20 resolution for the salaries of appointed officers, non-union, ask me employees
- for the City of Bloomington Utilities for 2026. This is to recommend to the council
- the changes we have proposed in our salary ordinance. In the packet there's an attached memo
- describing those changes. Additionally we have a slide that summarizes it. I think the next one.
- There it is. So I just thought this would be an easier way to look at it. You're welcome.
- So we are not proposing any new positions. However we are proposing
- quite a few changes to current positions. This is kind of added up after a couple of years
- as the new administration and new HR department had made adjustments using the crow salary study.
- We wanted to wait until after that had been implemented to propose our changes. So this is
- has I suppose piled up after a couple years. So we will be changing a total of I believe 10
- positions
- for a total of nine requests to the
- to to council and we would like for your review and recommendation of these changes.
- Happy to take any questions. I could review these with you if you'd like. Yeah.
- Yeah so Catherine are these these are reclassifications right?
- Yes. So did Crow recommend those these specific did they review our job descriptions and say yes
- these positions have increased in complexity and responsibility or do we do when where was
- the review done? So this review was some of the reviews for these were done during that time and
- some were done afterwards using the same rubric essentially. So some of the changes for example
- the top one the administrative assistant to the director is being proposed to be an office manager
- and it's because the existing job description didn't fully
- reflect all of the duties and responsibilities of the administrative assistant to the director.
- Once we added what the actual job was it was reclassified to an office manager. So that's
- an example of one of the changes it was enough of a reclassification to justify a change in grade.
- For some of them they're organizational changes for example the lead communications operator is an
- it is a new position but it's really a reworking of one of our communications operator positions
- to have additional duties such as dealing with some of these 811 requests that are new and kind
- of burdensome. They're also going to be helping with the now that we've reopened the walk for
- walk-ins they'll be helping as the receptionist for that so that will be kind of their lead
- communications operator. So it's a combination of either reclassifying after we looked at the job
- and the job duties and or organizational changes. For example the administrative assistant at the
- bottom that's a reclassific that is a change to organizational it to reflect our organizational
- changes. Previously the admin assistant in this role served one plant and now with they'll be
- moving from a four to a five because they will be serving all of operations.
- So some of them were reviewed by Crowe and the others were done by City HR?
- Yes so all of the positions at one point were reviewed by Crowe but that was a while ago
- and these change like organized organizations change over time right and so when Crowe reviewed
- those initially those were they were reviewing the old job descriptions these new ones have been
- reviewed through HR and through their consultant so they have a consultant who looks at
- classification
- and benefits as well. Okay well you know I in my past experience in city and county government I've
- noticed sometimes people use this system to provide raises although jobs haven't changed.
- It was a problem at the county yeah because they had such a difficult time ever getting increases
- for their hourly people. The SOP was well let's change the classification but that turns the whole
- HR system upside down because then you really don't have a classification system so I just
- wanted to make sure that we're doing this with some external review and that we're that the jobs
- are truly getting additional responsibility or complexity that would earn the additional pay.
- Absolutely and for all of these there is either a change in duties coming or there was a change
- in duties in the existing position that needed to be accounted for. For example I think a really
- good
- example is our change so we have an engineering through utilities technicians and we are proposing
- to change that to two utilities technicians and then one plan central coordinator and so how that
- had happened is that over years one of the utilities technicians was taking on additional
- responsibility for our plan review as that grew and so as they took on more of that responsibility
- and more of those duties that position drifted away from a utilities technician position
- which is why it made sense to change it.
- Well thanks you know as we're looking for a rate increase it's incumbent on us to make sure we're
- using every dollar the right way yes and and one thing to point out and so there was a mid-year
- change last this year there was a mid-year change this year and in that mid-year change we removed
- two positions that we were not planning on filling that we didn't have used for one of those was
- the
- canine unit we decided to move away from the canine unit and so we are the changes that we're
- proposing here we've balanced with ones that we've removed as well.
- Thank you any other questions for Pat yeah yeah a few questions um first can you just remind me
- does does utilities go through the same process so that there's like a workforce committee right
- they renamed it the workforce evaluation evaluation and realignment committee I think work work WRC
- and so I know most departments in the city have gone like routed through that committee process
- that has also leveraged external consultants as you noted and kind of sought to implement broadly
- the framework of recommendations from the crow study uh is that process identical for city
- bloomington utilities or is it distinct in some way given kind of I don't know some of the unique
- aspects of of utilities the process is identical however I would say the only difference is that we
- don't share the same budget constraints as um the general fund I mean we share budget constraints
- but
- we are not the same budget yep perfect and my recollection is that so we already did a whole
- round of um raises that through last year's budget basically uh and then also implemented earlier
- this year or at least authorized I think we actually funded too um implementation of a step
- process five steps within each grade to have uh different levels recognizing at this point I think
- just longevity of of service whether that is from a prior role or in the existing role um and so is
- where we are now these proposed changes like I guess I'm trying to make sure I'm understanding
- where we are in the process so like I think the first round of reclassifications was based on
- existing job descriptions analyzed under a new framework and a new grade range then we did the
- step analysis and implementation of uh steps for each role and now there's an opportunity for your
- department and others to um also change job descriptions where that was appropriate or
- make the case for it which in some cases leads to reclassification correct is that that's all right
- okay that's a excellent assessment wonderful how it went down appreciate it
- I have a couple questions um thank you for all that information um so were there any um other
- positions under review that are not under consideration for reclassification um so I
- guess like was there anyone that requested you consider that they were not classified
- high enough in their position that you reviewed that you've not proposed as a change
- just in general or did people feel like when besides these positions when they were classified
- did they feel like that was the appropriate level so um I'll answer this in two parts so um one
- thing
- as um council member Flaherty was describing the um process one thing that we have to be careful
- to avoid is um utilizing this work process and I think you know um Kirk you also alluded to this
- as well is that we don't want to use the work process as a we're not satisfied with the results
- of crow um so we're going to try to use this to change it what this truly is meant to be is the
- job has changed right the job description is inaccurate um and those are those are the types
- of reasons why we would submit something to work with that said this is not the total of all the
- requests that were made um so the the way the process works at utilities is that um and the
- way that we run this so that we can get input from every division is that each division has a memo
- and then we take those and then try to make one for the utility and then try to really you know
- at each time prioritize what we can budget for um and so this is not a this is not the end of the
- list if that's your question thank you yes
- what are the sum total of the fiscal impacts i see them listed individually in many places
- but i didn't see a total anywhere easily yes um i don't i don't have the sum total of the fiscal
- impacts however um i will say that when this was initially done uh the full memo included the
- positions that we eliminated at the mid-year and including the positions that we eliminated at mid-year
- the total fiscal impact was less than nine thousand dollars
- um the the positive or the the additional impact minus the the removal the two positions got you
- okay thank you yes any other questions or comments for cat so to confirm if this is approved
- tonight
- and then is approved by the city council then this would be implemented in january or immediately
- january 1 okay thank you there's also another slide if you want to go to the next slide as well
- there's two there's the rest some of these positions are changing from part-time to full-time as
- well as
- some of the changes okay i move approval of uh resolution 2025-20 for salaries of appointed
- officers and employees all in favor please say aye aye all opposed say nay request is approved
- item nine is request approval of emergency contract with set environmental incorporated isabel
- curos hello isabel curos hasmat coordinator i'm here to present emergency contract with
- set environmental for the total of five thousand four hundred and two dollars with seven cents
- this was for emergency response at the monroe plant any questions yes what happened yeah we had a
- small
- two-gallon spill of copper sulfate at the plant it was a very rare event in which it it wasn't
- contained and it was close to the lake so because of that we decided it was better to call for
- emergency response as that's something that would be preferred by item so we we use copper sulfate
- at the intake tower that's where it is yes okay come yeah the one that sits in the water in the
- lake no no no no that that's the tower close to the tower there is intake tower on the memo
- that's why i asked yeah i can see how that can be confusing it is not sitting on top of the tower
- there is a small chemical building where copper sulfate and sodium permanganate is stored and it
- gets injected close to the it's it's it's close at the intake tower okay we have like a small
- little chemical storage there okay just for those two chemicals okay
- two questions number one um like with our i know we're doing the safety of like the water and the
- land but what about with our personnel that were exposed is there anything that you know any
- procedures or precautions that they have taken or what how does that work for this well it's
- different for each spill right uh for this one um nobody was exposed and there was no risk for
- exposure or for um or for it to be flagged as a public health concern um but because the proximity
- to the lake we wanted to call emergency response as um because of the importance of the lake of
- course
- and also because um we have to report spills that are uncontained so there's follow-up with item
- on the spills and it's it's a lot easier to do the follow-up when they know the cleaning
- it's done by third party thank you my other question is um so i know this is a rare occurrence
- but what can we do is there anything that we could do to prevent this from happening again
- yeah absolutely um every time there is uh an incidental spill uh we do you know after the
- response we do an analysis of what happened and we do a root cause analysis and we implement um
- identify opportunities to prevent this from happening again how far are we in that analysis
- uh it was already done it's done uh pretty soon after the incident so it's fresh on everyone's
- minds and uh what happened from this one is that there was there were some repairs that were being
- done and that led to some rain water to go into a main hole that was dry before and you know with
- the repair some of the chemical started to leak from evolve that we didn't know it was completely
- sealed so now it is completely sealed thank you it sounds like our hazards come from doing repairs
- at the water treatment plant that really justify the need for the water rate case to be able to
- make these repairs on the larger scale so that we're not constantly repairing we're just getting it
- updated fully okay thank you thank you you mentioned the oh yes proximity to the lake and
- that was a concern i kind of i didn't realize we had a lot of chemicals near the intake tower
- we have good containment procedures in place the tanks are stored in the building that has the
- tanks
- they have 110 capacity for containment so if they were to spill they would all have to be contained
- there after that if it's a big spill or if it risks the safety of the workers then we call
- emergency response they're very quick to come to site for this particular one when we call them
- they
- were there to clean it up in less than two hours so they're very very quick so we do have spill
- procedures spill response for incidental when i say incidental i mean spills that are not posing
- a threat to the to our workers um and they're manageable which it's from the spills that we've
- had is the the majority not that we have one every week um but uh yes we do have um procedures in
- place physical containment the building is engineered to provide for containment yes okay thank you
- cover sulfate i'm not familiar with it is it is it uh have toxicity or is it caustic or what's the
- what's the danger it's uh it's acidic so it's corrosive um that would be the immediate one and
- then um for spills we have to take there are thresholds that we need to take care of whenever
- it depends on each um chemical that we need to take care of and that would be a reporting issue
- to item or to the appropriate channel this was a very small one it was a two gallon one
- approximately
- any other questions for it's about oh yes and hi chris wheeler city legal this contract is just
- is very recent it's being routed right now for approval so your motion i would like it to be
- pending controllers approval thank you thank you
- i can do that
- all right i move approval of the emergency contract with sct environmental
- pending city controller approval all in favor please say aye aye all opposed say nay
- request is approved thank you thank you
- next old business i think we have old business from the board yes so now i'll bring up my question
- earlier this year when we were talking about the mou and the charges to fleet
- we had a discussion you guys did some drilling into the data and i believe where we had left it
- at the march 25th meeting that there was 120 000 that we had to do out
- repair work that we had to do outside of fleet and we were going to you guys were going to
- get us some further information on this just in terms of when we are ready for when it's time for
- the mou that we were going to know what expenses we were paying out to them what are the charges
- that we're having to do outside what would those charges be that if we didn't have fleet do it
- it and we just did it on our own what would we save and then i didn't so we originally talked
- about this in mart or excuse me february we were given a report on it in may and then i asked again
- in april is where the status was so now we're at october and i to my knowledge i went through the
- notes i didn't see that we've had any report on this i'm bringing this up because we just made
- another payment we're also going to be in negotiations with for the mou and i would like
- us to be prepared on these fleet charges that we seem to just constantly every year hammer on i
- really would like us to have our ducks in line as to what value what we are getting service there
- what would be a better benefit to go elsewhere um not only for pricing but also for timing of
- when we we fully fully fully understand and appreciate the need to service you know the
- police cars and other things that are there for public safety but we are also here for public
- safety and so if we cannot if if we're second or third tier and we're still and we're paying a
- first tier rate i would like to know i would like us to really have this in place before we get to
- that mo you point so it's just kind of my friendly reminder that i'm keeping track of my board
- follow
- up and we're now we're now in october so that that's my old business so thank you yeah i can
- give you an update on that we are really close to finalizing that summary so we've been working
- with
- the external vendors if you will and we're getting real close to finalizing that okay yep that's
- fantastic and i'm glad it's i'm just glad it hasn't been lost oh it's not been lost and it's just i
- do
- hope that we see some potential changes in that so thank you it's just been harder to collect the
- data than we thought that's all so pardon it's just been harder to collect the data than we thought
- it was going to be so oh i get it yeah i just want us to be ready and if we can't pull those
- numbers together and now almost it'll be a year from you know like we we've got to spend a little
- time making sure we are getting that ready we're getting ready fantastic thank you any other old
- business from the board old business from staff no new business any new business from the board
- new business from staff nope we didn't have a subcommittee report
- to report so uh staff reports all right um got a couple things uh first we'd like to welcome
- rachel gray who has just joined us uh rachel gray is the new administrative assistant to the
- director
- placing frank um and then i also wanted you to mark your calendars for thursday december 11th
- from 11 a.m to 1 p.m uh we will be doing our cbu holiday luncheon
- december 11th from 11 a.m to 1 p.m thank you and that'll be here yes that'll be here
- bring your appetite
- yeah it's not one to miss never been an issue with me
- all right that's all i've got awesome uh lastly petitions and communications any petitions and
- communications from the public hearing none do we have a motion to adjourn meeting is adjourned
- (upbeat orchestral music)
- ("Pomp and Circumstance")