get started tonight with the City of Bloomington Utilities Services Board meeting for February 23rd
of 2026. And a reminder of the mission of City of Bloomington Utilities 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
the public health, economic vitality and environmental stewardship. And just a reminder that if any
of our board members has a conflict of interest or personal or financial conflict with any of the issues
or individuals on the agenda to be sure to recuse yourself during those particular portions of the meeting
or those particular votes. All right.
Next is any petitions or communications? Anything from the public or even board members? All right.
Let's go on to the approval of minutes of the meeting of February 9th. Any additions or corrections
to the minutes?
Meeting minutes from last week. All right moved and seconded to approve the minutes of our February
9th meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay motion carries. Next is approval of the claims
and we'll start with standard invoices. It looks like
chance to review all those. I just wanted to point out on page five, our $25,000 donation to the Lake
Monroe Water Fund. Thank you, Megan. That's, that's an annual contribution. Great. Well, we know how
important that is, since that's our main support source of drinking water. And that organization does
a good job supporting our mission.
All right, well, our standard invoices then amount to $953,221.81. I hear a motion to approve. I move
that we approve the standard invoices. Moved and second, all in favor? Aye. All right, standard invoices
are approved. Those accounts payable. Next are utility bills.
And wait a minute, we got utility bills are next. Let's find those there. There they are. Total utility
bills for pay date February 19 is $216,846 and 30 cents.
the utility claims moved in second any discussion on utility bills all right all in favor say aye opposed
all right we've approved the utility bills next our wire transfers in the amount of five hundred and
seventy five thousand one hundred fifty seven dollars and sixty four cents
been moved and seconded any discussion on wire transfers all in favor say aye opposed all right our
wire transfers are approved next our customer refunds in the amount of three hundred and eighty seven
dollars and eighty eight cents I move that we approve the customer refund
All right, moved and seconded and in discussion on customer refunds. All right, all in favor say aye.
Aye. Opposed? All right, customer refunds are approved. Next is the consent agenda. Catherine.
Good evening, I'm Catherine Zager, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling
$21,084.91 for nonchemical contracts.
First is with grip incorporated for $6,684.91 for flow meter installation at the Dillman wastewater
treatment plant. Next is with electric plus ink for $14,400 for the installation of charging stations
at Blucher Dillman in the service center. Next is with air gas specialty products for 0.178
dollars per pound for the 2026 supply of ammonium hydroxide, aqua ammonia at Monroe Water Treatment
Plant. Is there any member who wishes to consider one or more of these items individually? Hearing none,
if there is no opposition, these items will be approved as recommended by staff. Hearing no opposition,
the consent agenda is approved. Great, thank you.
agenda is approved. Kat, my question would be on the charging stations. Do we already have them at Monroe,
or I see that we've got three of our main facilities, but do we have one at the Monroe plant? No, we
do not currently. We started with having them at the service center, Blucher and Dillman, since we're
watching our water funds closely. For what? We're closely watching our
water cash funds. Ah, yeah, okay. I gotcha. Thanks. All right. Next is the request for approval of on-call
service agreement with Decker Pest Control. Jose. My name is Jose Fuentes. I'm the purchasing manager
here at CBU.
requesting on call service with Decker Pest Control, local company that we would like to have as a for
pest control. That's for all CBU facilities, right? That is correct. It's a one year contract with two
additional one year terms, right? That is correct. Okay.
I don't know how many times they're used. Do they come out a certain number of times a year? It just
depends on the scope of work. If we need something immediately, this is just being able to call them
and have them come and provide a service for us. Do you feel that we get the $10,000 a year worth of
service? We haven't used them yet, so I would have to look at that as the year goes. Okay. Maybe you
could report back next year.
that I can be happy to do that. Also, it's as needed. That is correct. That's kind of what that so you
may not use it all if we don't have any issues or problems. Yes, that is correct. OK, so it's kind of
like, yeah, not to exceed. Right. Yes, it's not kind of like it is not to see. Yeah. So it, you know,
it avoids us having to wait two weeks to come in and talk to the board.
about an individual contract. So we set it out for 10,000 per year. And as we use them, they will invoice
us and we'll pay them for the cost of what they do. And if we get to 10 grand, we can't we won't the
contracts done for that year, we wait until the next year. And we have more than one contractor per
discipline usually, so we can rotate through them and continue to keep services going at the different plants.
without having to wait, again, like I said, two, maybe even sometimes three weeks to get before the
board to get things approved so we can come in and turn a screw or something simple like that. That's
what I was asking. Thank you. Amanda. Chris, actually, just a question for you. So these on-call services,
because they are, as you did, a great explanation of how these work, is this something that,
Could the board approve on call service contracts in a group like we do consent agenda, or is it necessary?
I guess I'm kind of for me it's like cost of business, you know? And you have to have X number of air
conditioning people, HVAC people in contract because we're a business that has to have that
that type of service if electricity goes down, if we have a cockroach infestation, if we, you know,
there's just different things that to me are just cost of service and that we have the people that are
in our back pocket when we need them and we don't have to go through red tape. So I guess I bring that
question of twofold. You know, how involved is the board
really need to be in on-call services, and if we do require approval, probably in part because of maybe
amounts, could they be bundled as here are the on-call services that we are renewing contracts with
or we're going into a contract with? Well, we have a cap on what we so we have a we just got done with
a consent agenda, but our cap
through the controller's office is $25,000 and less. And a lot of these on-call agreements, arguably
this is a 10,000 per year, but from an accounting standpoint, we look at it as a $30,000 contract. So
it's above what the consent agenda would permit. And so that's why you, we used to try and run them
through the consent agenda, but arguably they probably shouldn't be. And so we've, you've started seeing
them on the regular outside of the consent agenda.
And so a lot of that has to do with transparency as well, just to allow the public to know what we're
spending, what we're earmarking into allocating our funds for. I don't know how we could streamline
it in a way that if it was like per discipline, if we were like, hey, here are all of the electrical
contracts, on-call contracts, but they don't all expire at the same time. So we can't really bundle
them like that.
And then if you're gonna bundle them together from different disciplines that might have different amounts,
that starts to get tricky. So I still feel like this is probably still the best and most efficient,
most transparent way to handle these on-call contracts is to do them individually. Thanks for bringing
up the fact that even though it's under that threshold 10,000, that it's per year. The whole contract
is earmarked for
three years if we use them each year, right? So it really is from an accounting standpoint it really
is a $30,000 contract. Good? Thank you. So the bottom line is if we get to the $10,000 don't tell the
pests because they will just come back. Yeah. Well, we probably have option B or option C lined up.
We already have one in
in place. This is just an addition. Yeah. Right. Hey, well, thanks. I think it's been moved and seconded,
right? Did I? Are we tracking? OK. All right. Ready for a motion, then? I move that we approve the on-call
decision. With? I was looking at other things. Number six. Decker pest control. All right. It's been
moved and seconded. Any further discussion?
All in favor say aye. Opposed? All right the on-call service agreement Decker pest control is approved.
Next is the on-call service agreement B&L sheet metal. Jose? Good afternoon this is just the second
roofing company that we'll have is an on-call contract so this is just again a just-in-case moment with
B&L sheet metal and roofing.
The amount there is $20,000, correct? Correct. Okay. All right, I hear a motion. I move that we approve
the on-call services with B&L, sheet metal, and roofing. Second. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion
on this on-call agreement? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries.
Next then is approval of Emergency Services Agreement with SET Environmental. Isabel. There's another page.
Hi, good evening. My name is Isabel Quiroz. I am the Hazmat Coordinator for Environmental Division.
I'm here to present a request for approval for an emergency contract of $33,904.72. Any questions? Why
is a contract such an odd amount?
Because that is the final cost of all the services that were provided. So this is the total cost for
services? Correct. Yes. Well, you might elaborate a bit on the purpose of the contract. Yes. So on October
of last year, at the intake, we have, just to want to remind you guys, we have the intake, we have two
underground vaults, which is where we inject
copper sulfate and sodium permanganate and There were some pieces that were being changed due to age
We think one of them was faulty as it failed very quickly after it was Changed so that created this
incident in which we had a spill inside of the vault What happened is that we had an old pipe from original
design of the plant that
Although it was blocked at the end of the pipe, we were worried that because we didn't have a way to
know how much of the material was flowing into that pipe, it was decided that we didn't want to take
that risk. And the outflow of that pipe was close to the lake. And that's why it was decided to call
set environmental to come and take care of the incident.
Correct. And it was addressed in October, correct? Yes. So why are they invoicing us so late on this?
Yes, that is because they didn't pick up the waste right away. Usually when we have a chemical cleanup,
it takes some time to do the waste profiling and we had some tests and some analysis done to, this is
kind of to know what's going to be the cost of disposal.
And then we had to schedule it, so that took a little longer. And then invoicing, it usually takes them
a little longer as well. Great, thank you. Yeah. Okay, I hear a motion to approve the contract with
SET Environmental. I move we approve the contract with SET Environmental. Second. All right, it's moved
and seconded. Any other discussion?
All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Services agreement is approved. Next is the request for approval
of the service agreement with Reedy Financial Group and Matt Havy is going to talk on that. Payment
processing?
process. Ever since then, we've had some challenges reconciling some of our accounting accounts. So
we've been trying to figure it out ever since that change was put into place. So we're going to see
if a second set of eyes can help us figure some of these things out. So what accounts did you say? Which
type of accounts? Our revenue accounts and our bank statement.
I apologize if I don't recall. Can you elaborate on what the chain was? Because I don't remember hearing
about this. So we used New World, which is a Tyler software product. And they forced us to update to
Tyler Payments. And ever since we've changed to Tyler Payments. Who forced us to change to Tyler Payments?
Tyler. OK. Yeah. OK. So they updated the way they process the payments.
And ever since then, we've had some challenges, so. OK. Do they offer support that's just not been what
we need? They haven't been able to help us out, no. Are there other utilities that use this software
that experience the same issues? That I don't know. OK.
What's our like discrepancy that I mean, I'm sure we're not talking about like a few dollars on the
bottom line. It's not crazy. It's probably less than a thousand dollars every month. But before we switch
to this payment process, we could bounce the penny every single time. I mean, that's important. We appreciate
that. I just wondered what how far are we? OK.
I just wish they could offer you more support. That seems like if that's our contract with them, that
that's their job to make sure that it balances for us. And I'm just, I'm not understanding a $30,000
contract for them. Like, I guess not knowing. That's just what they wanted the engagement letter to
say. It will not cost anywhere near that. Yeah, basically.
That I don't know, to be honest with you. And is Tyler a group that we exclusively use, or is it a group
that the city of Bloomington, the whole city uses it? And are other departments experiencing this problem,
or do other departments not have the accounting system we do? I don't know if they're experiencing the
same problem. All I do know is that the amount of transactions that we do is much greater than any other
department in the city, except for maybe parking.
I would be interested to know if the other city departments experience this issue as well. And then
are they just like, well, it's only a couple of dollars. So we'll just let it go. And then that feels
like that should be like a shared expense. And this is what we need. And I know you say it's going to
be less than the 30,000. So I just feel like we should get the customer support. I'm sure we're paying
a lot for the program to use every month.
service agreement moved and seconded any other discussion or questions as far as like this month just
to get it reconciled this month or could we pass I don't I mean like I I want to say I say have the
confidence in you that I
I would question this it's just like could we see are the other departments experiencing this and you
know like I guess that would be my hesitation here is like how how what's it like for other folks that's
my question and so like if I were to you know wish that we would delay this vote till next time is that
putting you you know another month behind or what's the time frame for you okay
I guess I'd like to see a little bit more information about what the discrepancy is. In the type of
budget that we run, $1,000 doesn't seem like a ton of money, but I respect the need to balance out each
month. I respect that. I just feel like a $30,000 contract to figure out an accounting error that
should be resolved by a company that we are contracting with is a lot of money to, I mean, they may
turn around and say, oh, here's the problem and we have it in a week and it costs us $1,000. I don't
know necessarily that that will be the case because I'm sure we've had you and other people in the department
looking at this. So I think I'm leaning more towards
either voting no or tabling for just a little bit more information. Well, I think Megan suggested, are
there other departments, are other departments balancing out? If this is something that's used by the
city, are there other issues?
And then maybe there's another city that also uses this that we could say, hey, you know, that has a
big revenues that we could check with them and how was their transition? How did it balance for them?
Or if there's a department that's in here locally that they say, yeah, we had that same problem and
here's the solution. I mean, I guess those would, those are the types of things that I would want to note.
And if we are having a problem as the city with people not being able to reconcile accounts, if we're
working in a silo here and having an issue and someone else is having an issue and we're not talking
to each other about the issue, as a larger group, we'll have more power saying this is not a solution
for us. Again, I'm not fully understanding how it all works, but if other departments are using it,
I'd be very curious to know
they can't balance. From a procedural point of view we do have a motion and a second on the floor so
we're gonna have to vote on it and then if we vote no then we can ask that it be brought back in two
weeks or whenever. Thank you Jim for keeping us in line. Okay so yes if there's I thought we were still
under further discussion.
could move the table. So we have to act on it. Okay. Sure. So you all are going to do more research
on this. If it turns out that we do need
outside help, like I would assume that you're not going to use it until you've found, you know, all
the information that you need. So like I'm inclined to approve it knowing that you're not going to use,
like it's not a guarantee that they're going to spend this money, but that it doesn't make them wait
for us to vote on it again.
I guess my vote will be a no and then I would request a table. Just since Matt said there's not like
this, we need this resolved today. So if there'd been a different sense of urgency, I think I would
lean that direction. But I think as is, I'll just vote no. And if there is something that is a shared
issue within the city, then it should be a shared cost to resolve it. Yeah. So like I said, I have too
many questions to pass it.
since it's a system that we didn't really buy. Call for the question then. All in favor say aye. Opposed?
No. Then motion fails and this can come back
Another reading. Okay. Thank you for the information and your time and I appreciate you've spent a lot
of time on this getting up to this point. So thank you for a little bit more time and then we're going
to get it resolved, help you get it resolved one way or the other. Thank you, Matt. There's nothing
worse for an accountant for not seeing zero.
All the background and history that went into it so that's really it's really not a problem Okay, the
next item on our agenda is is requesting approval for amendment number two of the on-call services agreement
with Rehab Corporation
Good afternoon again. Brehab works on our compressors. So anytime we have a compressor go down, they
are the ones that we call currently. And if we have a compressor that's not in service, they will rent
us one. So that's why we're amending this contract for the cost. Did we not just amend this not too
long ago with Brehab or was it a different company with their crane
We just had a company that went through for compressors. That leads to my second question. This seems
like a very specialized service. We do have multiple vendors that can assist with this, correct? That's
correct. Okay, great. That's one of the things that I've been asked to focus on is getting multiple
vendors that can do the scope of work at our plants for that purpose. Thanks, Jose.
I hear a motion to approve. I move that we approve the agreement for on-call services with Rehub Corporation.
Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. That is approved. Next
is request for approval of amendment number two to the on-call services agreement with Todd Septic LLC.
Hello again.
They pick up our waste. We had a machine that went down and so we had to use a good amount of the on-call
service money. So this is just to carry us over until I believe it's August when it gets auto renewed.
Other questions for Jose?
talked about this tonight about the annual for three years. So in August, it'll reset at the $10,000
limit. And then if we needed to do amendments at five and 10 again, but it doesn't reset at 20,000
in August. For this year. Okay. Okay.
The way the on-calls work is that in order to automatically renew they have to renew under the exact
same terms and conditions of the existing agreement so if we increase the not to exceed now in its own
amendment it will it will renew at that amount. At 20 then? Yes. Okay. Exactly. Thank you. Just since
we discussed that with other contracts tonight then I wondered.
for on-call services with Todd Septic. All right, it's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.
Aye. Opposed? A motion carried. Next is amendment number one to the service agreement of course and
fire and security. Who's that? This is just to move the expiration date. It was set I believe in April
to move it towards the to the end of the year so that they can
do our inspections throughout the throughout the year. Correct on the contract and it it's to inspect
the backflow devices fire suppression system alarm detection systems and fire extinguishers at all CBU
locations. That is correct as well as our vehicles and heavy equipment they'll inspect them all.
annual inspections this we will need annual inspection but this what's inspected on February 24th needs
to be re-inspected by February 20 24 2027 yes okay so by extending the expiration of the contract everything
will still be in compliance nothing will be like correct more time so they can do their inspections
yeah correctly and thoroughly thank you
questions all right ready for a motion approval for a contract with course and fire and security okay
all in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries of course and thank you Jose next is old business so
is there any old business to come before the board
Yeah, Amanda. I just had a question if we have any word on Jeff's, the replacement for Jeff Eamon's
position. Oh, yeah, so what we know now is that the committee has recommended someone to council and
they will be voting at their next, at their meeting next week, March 4th. At the March 4th meeting.
At the March 4th meeting, yes. Are we at Liberty to know who that person is yet or is it,
not yet not yet okay so March 3rd it'll be on March 4th during the regular council council meeting thank
you any other old business new business for the board right subcommittee reports oops ah
New business from staff. Yes. Okay. So this came up. I just wanted to talk about some of the changes
to the consent agenda. So Chris, Rachel and myself sat and thought about the consent agenda just to
make sure we were continuing to stay mindful of what we were putting on there and what we were not.
And so it already came up today that these on call contracts were not on the consent agenda. And we
discussed why that was because the many of the on call contracts have to renewal periods which would
put them above that twenty five thousand dollar limit which is why those were pulled from the consent
agenda. But additionally we discussed potentially adding the minutes to the consent agenda which I would
love to hear the board's input on that any
pros cons to that and then another kind of rule that we made for the consent agenda is that any contracts
that are associated with new projects shouldn't be on the consent agenda because we want to make sure
that we're giving the board the opportunity to discuss any new projects even if that project or that
contract would be under that 25k. So those are some of the changes we'd like to implement on the consent
agenda just for added transparency clarity.
thoughts? Yeah, the last thing you mentioned sounds fine. With regard to the minutes, it takes only
30 seconds for Kirk to say, is there approval of the minutes? Are there any questions? Well, if there
are any questions, they would also come up if it were on the consent agenda. So I don't see that it's
saved us any time. In fact, it would
probably take more time for you to go through that. So I think it's pretty efficient the way it is right
now. We were questioning some of the minutes. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with Jim. 100%. May make
it longer to put the minutes on the consent agenda. Yeah. All right.
I'm okay if they, just like, I see it your way. I'm fine with it to just say I approve or ask questions,
but I'm on other boards that they aren't included in the consent agenda. So I think that just, you know,
either way. So I agree, it just takes 30 seconds to do that. So that's fine. I could see how if there
were consistent things with our claims that, I mean,
I mean, usually like the wire transfers, that's just like straight through. Again, it only takes 30
seconds, but we often will have comments on the standard invoices and customer refunds. I appreciate
your taking the time to look at that and see how can we streamline things. Yeah, I just noticed that
the consent agenda was getting longer each time and I was like,
still being mindful of what's getting put on here, especially the contracts associated with new projects.
I just want to make sure that you have time and the space to deliberate and to consider these new contracts.
That's my new business. Not a new business. Okay. Do we have any subcommittee reports since our last
meeting? I don't think so.
meeting right before the next regular meeting just to remind people the environmental committee meets
at four o'clock and our next meeting date March the 9th okay looks like we're up to staff reports I
just wanted to put a quick
Invite or reminder that we have our we have an IURC field hearing at council chambers this week on Wednesday
the 25th at 6 p.m. Field hearing so this is an opportunity for the public to voice any Concerns opinions
thoughts that they have on our rate case Yeah
Wednesday, February 25th at six PM. So Wednesday, February 25th at six PM at city council chambers.
Yes. And six PM and this is open to the public and the public should appear if they have any concerns
or comments. Be there when you'll be there.
I will certainly be there. Chris is nodding too. Chris is like, yes, I will be there. Matt,
will you be there? Yeah. I think we'd. I hope the public's there. Are you just curious about who's going
to be there from CBU and the city? The deputy mayor intends to attend. Deputy mayor intends to attend.
I intend to be there. You'll be there. Cat's going to be there. So we need a lawyer. The commissioners
and outside council, Dave McGimsey, will be present as well.
There will be the two commissioners that have been appointed to the case from the IORC will be present.
Members of the OUCC will also be there. I don't know whether any of the interveners will be there, probably
not, but that's generally who all will be there. Do you have any sense of how much representation from
the public? Well, historically, zero. Really? You can't ever know.
But historically, we've had this field hearing and it lasts about 15 minutes and no one's there. I'm
just thinking back to the Duke meetings. It was overflowing with public. Yeah. So people don't like
the race increase. We'll find out on Wednesday. OK. And this is our how many times have we presented
this information to the public, just not
at this stage, but it's the same information that we've shared since the fall. Yeah. It's been at least
three, if not four times. Absolutely, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that'd be four. Are there likely to be people
from IU or IU Health there to talk about their side? Hard telling, not knowing. We've had more meetings
than attendees, so it'd be great if the public could show up.
Yeah, and again, this is just an opportunity for public input. This won't be the same presentation as
before. You might tell us how the agenda usually works for these. Chris Wheeler, City Legal. The IURC
will give a short statement about
the purpose of the meeting, open it up to the public. If nobody's there, they'll take a short recess
of about 15 minutes just to give an opportunity for any public to show up. They will reopen the meeting,
again, ask for any comment from public. And if there is no public, they will then close the meeting.
It's very short. That's the agenda. And if we have anyone that wants to review the information, it's
on our website. Yes. Yeah, there is no presentation that
This is all for the I or C to hear any comment. This is an opportunity to be heard from the public Do
this in Bloomington on the on that process is this a one-and-done Thank you It's interesting that
that it's a field hearing, but there's no presentations by both sides, I guess. I mean, we expect full
transparency for people and ability of people to come to speak. But if they bring up questions,
which they might, you would expect the public to have questions, how would those get answered at a hearing
like this? It's not supposed to be a dialogue, it's for the IORC to hear comment. It's not a question
and answer session. And that's part of what they will explain at the very beginning of the field hearing.
And it all goes to due process, an opportunity to be heard.
before the government takes action. So this is the IURC's compliance with due process to give the public
an opportunity to be heard. Got it. Yeah. I just think, well, what concerns me about, you know, when
public gets a chance to voice their concerns, sometimes they would expect
they would expect an answer from their their city government about their issues. And I guess there are
they've had opportunities to come to see us. But it wouldn't be a bad idea don't think you know, obviously,
the IRC is running this we're not right. Correct. So it's not our game. But do we have like a fact sheet
of kind of a rundown of what we're
doing here, like the Reader's Digest version, because it's hard for citizens to understand all the nuts
and bolts. But at least a, if we could have something we could hand to members of the public, you know,
we could use other times even. Because I- Outreach materials on our website, and we've developed quite
a few outreach materials as part of this current rate case. So,
you know, FAQs, you know, Frank's done a great job with outreach and the graphics explaining our capital
improvement projects and how much those cost. Yeah. I think it'd be good to have some things handy.
The city did give the public plenty of opportunity to comment and have question and answer, and the
public did not take advantage of those opportunities.
So the question, the time for question and answer is over. We're now at the point where the IORC is
going to have hearings between the OUCC, the city of Bloomington and any interveners. So anybody who
has an actual concern who wanted to weigh in would need to intervene and give their testimony to the
IORC at this point. We're beyond question and answer. Again, if the public has
general questions about what we've proposed in some of our presentations to both this board and council.
We're happy to answer those questions. And since it's not our meeting, we wouldn't be standing up to
answer those questions. But if members of the public show up, it'd be good to be able to have some you
get a hand to them and say, here's where you go to get the information or here's the fact sheet or whatever.
I suspect that if anybody had a question and asked it at the hearing, we would hear it and take note
and there would be an opportunity to convene and discuss it with those members of the public after the
meeting or even here at this forum or even just informally through the city of Bloomington. And that's
exactly what should happen, Chris. What I get concerned. What's not going to happen is the IORC is not
going to try and answer any questions because they don't represent us and they don't even know the answers.
Right. But what I'm saying is,
what I should say is, over the past week, I've seen an increased amount of social media dialogue about
this, more than I'd ever seen back when we had our own discussions about it. Because I think what happens
a lot of times is people, it gets on their agenda when it's starting to become reality. And that's when
they think, well, now I need to engage. And they may not have thought that till now, because it's an
it's, it's getting close. So I guess my point is, I've seen a lot of discourse going on, and now people
are starting to think about it. So now it's when we need to be able to have answers. I know, Wednesday
is not the time for us stand up and give answers. But if people are there, it'd be it'd be nice for
us to kind of reinforce our transparency by saying, well, those were
good points you made or whatever. Thank you for being here. Here's what here's what we're trying to
do here. Yeah, I agree with you. We have that information out there. I don't think we should have to
have everybody here scramble in a week to make a pamphlet or a handout or Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's
on the website. So
sites, we have materials. Yeah, I think we've gotten really good about communicating with the public
about this rate case and making sure that they're getting all the information they need. And if it's
not in all some of the materials we've already made, we're happy to find the answers to their questions.
It may not be a bad idea if it's not already to have what Kirk is speaking about already at City Hall, like just
for people that walk in and at other times. I know there's other loose leafs, materials over there.
So I just I lean so heavily toward making it easy for the average rate payer to understand what's going
on. And it's hard to figure all this out. I mean, we live it. Because we see what happens
we think about it all the time about what happens if we don't make these investments. But most people
take this stuff for granted that that that we our staff or our team fights their way through every day
to make sure that we flip the faucet on it's great quality water. But I think a lot of people take that
for granted and then they start to suspect that we're they don't have
they don't have a good enough understanding so that they they start to suspect that we're we're not
doing our job very well. So I think that we've got the tools to help them. It's a good thing. But we've
done we've done plenty already. But a lot of times, you know, it's like you may not show up to the third
hearing that you're
20 acres next to your neighborhood is gonna get rezoned. You don't do that till the last day. And quite
frankly, we'll see the bulk of our complaints and concerns about it when it's approved and it shows
up on their bill. And we've been talking about this for two and a half years. So I see your point and
we are in the weeds with all of this.
But again, I think staff and the city and the city council have all done a fantastic job of giving the
public opportunities to comment. And this is the next step in the path that this is not a Q&A time.
Yes, this is not a Q&A time, but I do really appreciate your reminder for us to stay vigilant about
outreach because it is ongoing.
And sometimes, you know, you get into a mindset of outreach is this period to this period, and then
we're done. And so I mean, outreach is continual. So I do appreciate your reminder to stay vigilant
on that. And we will trust and transparency. It's almost like you can't do enough of it. But we try
our best. And that's great. Appreciate that. All right, we're still in staff reports, I think anything else?
Petitions or communications? Seeing anything? All right, we'll move to adjourn then. There's no other
business. We are adjourned. Thank you.