WEBVTT 00:00:00.962 --> 00:00:30.558 - I want to call to order the meeting of today, July 28th, of the U.S.B. Finance Committee. There's one item on the agenda, and that is the 2026 budget presentation, and Matt Harvey will have the honors. I'm just reading what it says. 00:00:31.298 --> 00:00:58.654 - Now, Kath Zager will have the honor. All right. All right. All right. Katharine Zager, utilities director, and I am presenting to you the 2026 CBU budget. All right. First, we're going to start with our mission and our vision. 00:00:58.818 --> 00:01:19.038 - Our 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. Our vision is to be the leading municipal water utility organization in Indiana. 00:01:22.210 --> 00:01:45.406 - We currently have 194 regular full-time staff with three regular part-time staff and two interns. Those are split into our six divisions plus our utility service board. That's admin, finance, environmental, engineering, operations, and transmission and distribution. 00:01:49.986 --> 00:02:17.534 - First, we're going to start with our current status. We'll review some of the successes we've had since the last time we talked about budget, some of our challenges, and then some of our opportunities. We'll start in water. So some of our successes in water have been that we worked with Westler to complete a, oh, that's the next one. We completed our filter media replacement and solids handling improvements 00:02:17.698 --> 00:02:46.046 - that contract has been fully closed and that project is fully closed out. We also recently issued our notice to proceed in March of 2025 for our chemical feed line project. As a reminder to this board, the chemical feed line project will ensure redundancy in our critical chemical feed systems. It's currently scheduled for completion in the fall of 2026. 00:02:46.658 --> 00:03:13.630 - This, in addition to our chemical feed line systems, this will add a new backwash pump to add resiliency to the system and is also required by item. All right. Yeah. It includes a feed line system to the fluoride. It does not include the tank nor the pumps. 00:03:17.410 --> 00:03:45.694 - in the budget to come for this year? The fluoride tank improvements, we currently are budgeting with our water cash budget. We're looking at doing another lining to the tank, which would not be as expensive as a replacement, a full replacement of the tank, which is about 20 years old. 00:03:46.882 --> 00:03:55.390 - The improvements to the fluoride, the full improvements to the fluoride system are in our CIP, which we're submitting as part of our rate case. 00:03:58.242 --> 00:04:27.870 - Further successes in water, we did a full asset inventory with Wessler that included a business risk exposure analysis of all of the components of the Monroe Water Treatment Plant to help direct and prioritize capital improvement projects, making sure that we're capturing everything that's vital to the function of the plant first. We also developed a respiratory protection program, our Hazardous Materials Program in 00:04:28.066 --> 00:04:57.118 - Our environmental division spearheaded that. We also cleaned multiple chemical tanks at Monroe Water Treatment Plant, including our fluoride tank. Some of these tanks were being cleaned fully for the first time since they were built. We also are prepared now in our state certified lab at Dillman to start accepting drinking water for lead sampling as we move forward in our lead service line inventory and replacement program. 00:05:05.794 --> 00:05:34.782 - in sewer. We have done a lot of work at Blucher Pool wastewater treatment plant. First, we partnered with ITS to complete upgrades to the fiber optic network and sewer and server infrastructure. We have also completed the design and process programming for the instrumentation and SCADA upgrades. And we have a full project completion goal for the end of 2025. 00:05:39.522 --> 00:06:02.782 - At Dillman, we're making a lot of progress on our capacity improvements project to achieve our 19MGD and to improve safety at the plant. Currently, that is ahead of schedule. Construction started in the spring of 2025. We also fully completed our bar screen replacement project. 00:06:02.946 --> 00:06:31.998 - pull up this picture here, because I think it's a really interesting picture to get an idea of the scale of some of the projects that happen at our plants. That long black thing, that is our bar screen that is being dropped into the building via crane. And so it just gives you an idea of scale of what some of these projects are like. We say bar screen replacement, but what does that really look like? And it's just a good example of that. 00:06:36.066 --> 00:07:04.158 - In Storm, we have fully implemented our street sweeping program. There will be a follow-up memo to come to the board very soon, but we are now sweeping these designated routes that were determined based off of data from different layers and that we worked with our consultant to develop so that these routes are centered around water quality improvements. 00:07:05.538 --> 00:07:33.086 - We also continue to partner with the engineering department downtown. This year we added rain gardens to the Winslow, I think it was a resurfacing project. We also very recently launched our storm water management permit in EPL to make that permit more accessible and easier for developers to access and see where it's at. And then we were also accepted into the item clean communities program. 00:07:37.826 --> 00:07:56.606 - some of our successes in customer service. As of now, we've spent a little over $17,000 in customer assistance, and we are further expanding eligibility criteria this year. And this is almost double what we had had this time last year. 00:07:57.922 --> 00:08:23.486 - We opened our service center for walk-in appointments. We are now utilizing an intercom check-in system that ensures the safety of our front desk staff while also allowing customers to have the convenience of having a walk-in appointment now. Our customer service kiosk is soon to be installed by the end of this year to provide 24-7 service to our customers. 00:08:24.130 --> 00:08:52.830 - We've also moved to text notifications for all customers to communicate important updates. This is both by utilizing our full customer database in Everbridge and also by utilizing Tyler Notify to notify our customers of high usage alerts or delinquencies. Some of our challenges and needs. I would say our largest challenge right now is the state of our water fund. 00:08:54.018 --> 00:09:23.710 - We, when the last rate case was established, the operating expenses and project costs that were used to develop that rate case were pre-pandemic estimates. Costs have significantly risen in all projects in every aspect of our work. And so we are now closely managing our water cash balances to make sure we are tracking every single expense, including the lining of the fluoride tank, to make sure that that's coming from somewhere. 00:09:26.210 --> 00:09:54.462 - One of the setbacks that we've had, we had delays in data acquisition while we were trying to develop our rate case. We made the promise during our last rate case that we would use our AMI data to develop a cost of service study. We had some setbacks getting that data from the not consultant. Provider. Provider, thank you. Yes. 00:09:54.562 --> 00:10:21.342 - We had some, but we do have it now. We are moving forward and we are in, we've done three out of the four required meetings with the interveners and soon we'll be bringing the rate case to both the board and the public. Another challenge we face is that we still need space for our staff and equipment as we outgrow the service center. 00:10:21.986 --> 00:10:51.582 - We're both outgrowing the service center and the garage. In addition to all of our equipment kind of sitting out because we've outgrown the garage area, our current storage is not meeting modern utility needs. A lot of our plastic pipes are sitting out, sitting out in the sun, and that can cause some unnecessary degradation. And then finally, one of our big challenges is our aging infrastructure. 00:10:51.938 --> 00:11:18.142 - Our plant is getting older. A lot of the pipes are getting older. And we're seeing a lot more necessary replacement and repair of our equipment. Opportunities. One of our opportunities, and this is an opportunity that was present in our last budget presentation, but it still remains. We've made substantial progress on the Winston Thomas site. 00:11:18.882 --> 00:11:48.382 - in the proposed service center. So we still have our 50% designs from Champlain for our proposed future service center. And so far, we have spent the $858,000 in demolition. And actually, that number might be a little higher. I'm going to correct that. And then the $698,000 in design. 00:11:48.770 --> 00:12:15.742 - Some updates that we've had is that the site remediation is now complete. It's put the parcel in a good place for our future development. Also, we've made progress on the floodplain redetermination. So we have secured a no-rise certification for the current state of the parcel. And we are now pursuing a letter of map revision to readjust the floodplain in that area. 00:12:17.346 --> 00:12:43.326 - And then while our water cash is a challenge, I would say the progress that we've made on our water rate case is an opportunity. I'd like to look at that as an opportunity. So we're going to bring a proposal. We'll be coming to the USB at the end of August, August 25th, to be specific. We are currently working on planning a public meeting just for the public on the 29th. 00:12:43.554 --> 00:13:06.334 - And then we hope to bring it to City Council by September. We currently have a target of filing with the IORC in October. All right. That was our current status. And now we're going to look at the 2026 budget. The administration would like to move towards priority based budgeting. 00:13:07.234 --> 00:13:36.766 - And in doing so, CBU has been determined to fall into the community health and vitality category based on most of our services center around community health and vitality. Just for background, the other priorities that the city is using is high-performing government, public safety, affordable housing and homelessness, 00:13:37.186 --> 00:14:06.526 - Economic development, community health and vitality, and then transportation. Is this any change other than just putting a label on what our budget would otherwise be? No, it doesn't have a big change for CBU because our budget is separate. We're merely just being categorized versus other departments are being split into these different priorities. But it didn't make sense to split us at all. 00:14:07.586 --> 00:14:28.318 - So what most of the other departments are going to be presenting, instead of divisions, they would have these different priorities and their subcategories. What we'll be presenting is just how CBU is split up and how our funds are split. So we are split into our six divisions. 00:14:29.314 --> 00:14:53.982 - And here in this table, I won't read through every single number. You will see our 2026 budgeted amounts for each division and what percentage of our total department budget that it represents. I'd like to draw your attention to finance. You may at first glance see that it takes 55% of our department budget. That is because it includes bond payments and our interdepartmental payments. 00:14:59.266 --> 00:15:26.974 - Here's another way of looking at that, just charts for better comprehension of what that looks like. So finance is taking a large part of that chart, but if you look at it, finance is really closer to, I think, 8% or 9% of our budget. So really, operations is most of our budget outside of our bond payments and interdepartmental payments. 00:15:33.762 --> 00:16:03.006 - And so now I'm gonna, yep. I just have a question on that. Why couldn't we list out bonds separately from finance so it doesn't look like Matt has this obviously ginormous budget, more so than engineering? If there's a way to do that, I mean I think that we, I get that that's part of what you manage, that you're ultimately responsible for, but to me, 00:16:04.418 --> 00:16:31.486 - bonding is a little different. So I just, if there was a way that we could do it, great. If not, but I think it's it rather than having it as an asterisk, you know, it's, and I, and I, and I guess I would also kind of feel like interdepartmentals. I mean, that's stuff that we've had to negotiate with the city. So I think that's great. 00:16:33.282 --> 00:17:03.262 - had the same thought, and I said, you know what? Let's see what we think. Yeah, I think that's a great idea, and absolutely possible. It's really, we're kind of fitting our budget into this. If it's something that we just have to make the square peg fit in the square hole, great. But I think breaking it out is, I would prefer as a board to see it broken out. Absolutely. 00:17:04.226 --> 00:17:33.022 - I think that sounds like a great idea. Sorry, I'm just making sure I'm tracking these suggestions and questions. OK. So now we're going to look at each division separately. And before we look at each one separately, I'd like to say that one thing that I really appreciate about the way that we're doing this now is that we're truly looking at where our budget's going. 00:17:33.730 --> 00:18:01.854 - Historically, we've looked at capital improvement projects. Those are typically paid by bonds. And so it's not always a great representation of the numbers we're setting in front of you. So now this is a much better representation of where that's really going. So yeah, I think this does a good job of showing everything we do at the utility and how much that costs. 00:18:03.586 --> 00:18:32.254 - So with that said, we'll start with T&D. So in T&D, we have essentially five work groups and programs. These are crews that go out. They sometimes will rotate staff between these groups. But our five primary groups are wastewater, water, stormwater, meter services, and then inspection and location. The wastewater, water, and stormwater groups 00:18:32.546 --> 00:18:59.070 - Essentially, they install our new infrastructure. They do repairs, replacements, inspections. They assist with projects that are pertinent to it. So in wastewater, they assist with lining projects and also sometimes lateral replacement to our mains as well. 00:18:59.234 --> 00:19:28.414 - Then in water, we also have the valve exercising program. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually is really important to make sure that we're going out and keeping those valves ready to be turned when we need to turn them to turn off the water during a main break. And then in stormwater, they build a lot of our retention and detention systems that we do in-house. And they also, this stormwater also houses our street sweepers. 00:19:28.610 --> 00:19:49.630 - in our street sweeping program. In meter services, they inspect, repair, and install our meters. They also, as they are able, provide notifications to customers about high usage. And they do calibrations of large meters. Our inspection and location. 00:19:49.858 --> 00:20:14.014 - group, they do all of our CCTV inspections of our sewer and our stormwater infrastructure, and they respond to all 811 line locate requests within 48 hours. A lot of that CCTV inspection, it's all very important, but one of the things that we get from that is that we're able to say, oh, this needs repaired before it's a full failure. 00:20:19.394 --> 00:20:47.646 - Next, we have operations. And in operations, we have four working groups. The first one is maintenance, boosters, and lift stations. Those are all of our maintenance mechanics, both at our boosters, lift stations, and plants. They are responsible for performing and coordinating all of the plant lift station, booster station maintenance. Anything that needs to, maintenance-wise, needs to be done at the plants. 00:20:47.810 --> 00:21:13.694 - They're often called out to ensure that lift stations are working during storms. Then we have our Monroe Water Treatment Plant that produces all the drinking water for Bloomington and most of Monroe County. And then Blucher Pool Wastewater Treatment Plant that treats wastewater for the north side of Bloomington. You can roughly draw a line around 11th Street. 00:21:14.562 --> 00:21:44.542 - And then Dilman Wastewater Treatment Plant treats the water for the south side of Bloomington. And then in finance, again, I showed here that if we take the bond payments and interdepartmental out of finance, their budget is closer to 4.5 million, which is about 8% of our budget. In finance, we have four working groups. We have finance and accounting. 00:21:44.642 --> 00:22:00.222 - They do the daily accounting, audits, rate cases, and general finance support. Then we have billings and collections. They do all of our monthly billing. This is where we have our customer assistance program, and then also collections. 00:22:01.570 --> 00:22:28.574 - In purchasing, this group is responsible for coordinating all of the purchases of goods and services. They maintain our current service center, so they also house some of our maintenance here, and then our inventory management. And then there's customer relations. They set up all new service, they take payments, and they do a lot of our general customer support when folks are calling in asking questions. 00:22:34.562 --> 00:23:02.494 - Next, we have environmental that has about a $2.2 million budget, which is 4% of our budget. There are five main working groups or programs in environmental. The first one is our water quality program. This group is responsible for the lead line inventory and replacement programs, the annual water quality report, compliance and communications with the drinking water quality regulatory bodies such as ITEM. 00:23:04.418 --> 00:23:31.390 - Then we have our pre-treatment group. They run the industrial pre-treatment program, our FOG program, which is our fats, oils, and grease, preferred pumpers programs, wastewater surveillance. They assist with the environmental regulatory compliance for the two wastewater treatment plants as well. Then we have our MS4, which is the municipal separate storm sewer system, or sometimes referred to as our stormwater group. 00:23:32.130 --> 00:23:58.174 - They manage the city's state-required MS4 general permit and our CSGP, which is the construction stormwater general permit. And they administer the residential stormwater grants and the green infrastructure maintenance program. The management and coordination for the street sweeping programs also ran through this group. Then we have our hazardous materials group. 00:23:58.306 --> 00:24:24.158 - This group ensures that the utility stays in compliance with all hazardous materials safety and storage requirements. They manage permits associated with generators, our landfill permit, USTs and ASTs, which is underground and above ground storage tanks, and then the transfer and removal of hazardous waste in the event of spills or other events where we need to transfer and remove hazardous waste. 00:24:24.290 --> 00:24:45.502 - And then we have our laboratory services. This is our state certified lab that runs compliance samples for all three of our plants. They also run samples for the public according to our fee schedule. And they also run samples for our boil water advisories when we have a main break. They run samples as needed for the utility as well. 00:24:50.594 --> 00:25:16.702 - Next, we have our engineering group with a $2.2 million budget, which is 4% of our current budget. They have three main working groups. One is capital project management, which prioritizes and manages the capital improvement plans and projects for all three utilities. They review the contracts and change orders for all of our CIP projects. We also have plan review and inspection. 00:25:17.474 --> 00:25:45.246 - This group reviews new development and redevelopment. They inspect new and current infrastructure. They also review and establish utility easements. And then new services. This group works with developers and property owners to establish new connections to the utility. And then finally, we have the administration group with a $1.6 million budget, which is about 3% of our budget. 00:25:46.306 --> 00:26:12.510 - That's two main groups. One is the director's office and administration that houses me. We respond to public inquiries and we guide the operations of the department. We are essentially a lot of support staff with responsibilities including supporting employee onboarding, public communications, outreach, data analysis and tracking and maintaining training for staff. 00:26:14.370 --> 00:26:42.878 - And then our other work group is the communications, which consists of our communications operators. They're responsible for the external communications around CBU activities. They ensure that the control room at CBU is operational seven days a week, 365 days a year. So that was our 00:26:43.074 --> 00:27:10.206 - Priority-based budgeting, here is our revenue budget summary for 2026. In 2026, our revenue estimated for water is 23 million, 23.1 million. And for sewer is 29.8 million. For storm, 4.7 million. And for a total of 57.7 million in estimated revenue. 00:27:13.858 --> 00:27:43.070 - We'll have notes on that later in the presentation as well. And then here is our department budget by fund. So category one, two, three, and four, those categories are personnel, supplies. No. Supplies is three. Yeah. 00:27:43.234 --> 00:28:07.486 - personnel, services, supplies, and then our sinking funds. And this is how they are divvied up by our different funds. So some notes on our water budget. So personnel went down 13.1%. 00:28:07.970 --> 00:28:37.502 - explanation behind this is that we corrected some errors in our New World software that artificially inflated the personnel line in the 2025 budget. There were duplicates of positions that did not exist, and so we are right-sizing that. It is, you'll notice that it is, we still left room for our, there's proposed compensation adjustments from HR, so we are leaving room to accommodate that. 00:28:38.082 --> 00:29:07.806 - Some of the proposed compensation adjustments, we don't really know how any negotiations with the union are going to impact our personnel budget, but also HR has proposed to change how they compensate staff for their experience after receiving some feedback from City of Bloomington staff. 00:29:08.994 --> 00:29:34.174 - Our supplies is down 15.1 percent. Part of this is because we're using estimates for chemicals that were based off of our usage last year and also discussions with our operations staff based on what we think we are going to use. So we're trying to make it more accurate and tighten that down. We're also using current trends to estimate main break costs. 00:29:35.298 --> 00:29:58.046 - And we're getting that more aligned with our historical results and Generally, we are just doing some belt tightening due to our water cash situation Yes So you kind of brushed over this corrected errors in the new world software what what happened so essentially for our personnel 00:29:58.178 --> 00:30:25.598 - line item we work with the controller and they develop all the positions that they have in New World and then give us that number. We were able to adjust it last year for overtime and for the crow salary study. But I guess during this last meeting for this budget, it was discovered that there were 14 positions that were not 00:30:27.362 --> 00:30:57.246 - They weren't real. They put them in. The control office put them in. Something that happened at Citi. Something that happened at Citi. Yeah. OK. But I've got a meeting next week to hopefully correct that, so. Yeah. I guess I'm not really clear on how all of the things work, but how we could not know that there were employees in there that, or there were duplicate employees. Like, I don't understand how. 00:30:57.378 --> 00:31:19.422 - that could happen. You also said something that, and I'm trying to, it was something that you said between bullets one and two in personnel that I unfortunately did not write down, so. I don't. Do you understand? 00:31:27.074 --> 00:31:51.806 - Adjustments that way actually that that's we're getting we're getting yes my my my My question actually had to do with overtime. Yes And this may be in a different Different area or it might kind of cover all areas I know that we have in the past had to negotiate things with the city and in because of overtime we have we have those 00:31:52.738 --> 00:32:19.870 - We have water main breaks. We have these things. We pay overtime. It's not somebody that's in a nine to five office job handles. I just want to ensure that we're going to make sure that that money is there and that we're not going to have any issues with paying overtime and that that issue's all been resolved. Yes. We had a problem with paying overtime. The problem was when downtown would put our 100 expenses in, they would wipe out all 00:32:20.738 --> 00:32:48.574 - They wouldn't allow us to budget for it until last year. Thank you. That's why I wanted to make sure that we were able to do this budgeting. I wasn't meaning to infer that we weren't paying people over time. I just want to make sure that they understand that we have to budget this. Yes, they do. They allowed us to budget for 2025, and they will for next year as well. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for helping me remember what I clearly couldn't. 00:32:51.426 --> 00:33:20.606 - Yeah, I am often involved in Indiana University's human resources budget benefits department. So I assume that health care costs fall under personnel. So I know what's happening at IU with regard to health care costs. How are they? Are they zooming up? 00:33:21.410 --> 00:33:50.878 - The health insurance hasn't zoomed up or liability insurance has zoomed up, but the health insurance has been pretty stable. Really? Yeah. Wow. Maybe you ought to teach how you keep it stable. I'll plead the fifth. Yeah, are we self-insured or we, I think we are, right? I'm not sure. I know we're not for liability purposes, but I don't know about the rest. Yeah, liability we wouldn't be, but I think we're, we pay as we go, more or less. Okay. 00:33:51.106 --> 00:34:10.398 - We have somebody managing it. I just know that we get charged a fixed fee per employee, so. That's interesting. OK. Maybe we're not self-insured then. The county is. Yeah. I know. 00:34:19.106 --> 00:34:44.894 - Is that, did you mean to have these duplicate on each of these? Okay, I just want to make sure. So changes, yeah, we did duplicate some of these statements because they were done both in water and sewer. Yeah. So it's under supplies and other services. You've got supplies has general belt tightening and then other services says general belt tightening. It's true across the board. Thank you. Okay. 00:34:47.874 --> 00:35:17.246 - Yeah, so in other services, we are doing some general belt tightening due to our water cash situation. So you see that it's up. The 44.3%, I will make it make sense, it is a combination of our 2,300 lines that comes out to 44.3%. So there were multiple interdepartmental charges included in the budget. 00:35:18.114 --> 00:35:47.774 - And then this also includes a negative 508,000 in ENR due to a possible budget shortfall in 2026. This is the best way that we can represent the water cash budget shortfall that we are inevitably going to face unless we have a rate case. So we were able to avoid taking a loan out of sewer 00:35:48.418 --> 00:36:17.566 - this year, and I'm really proud of our staff for doing that. I'm really proud of our finance staff for being able to really monitor our water budget in order to put that off as long as possible. But with this project coming up at Monroe, the chemical feed line project, and some of the expenses that we're looking at, we are definitely going to have to take this loan out from the wastewater utility. It's a certainty at this point. And so that negative number in our ENR represents 00:36:18.178 --> 00:36:46.974 - needing some of that loan. Some of that will go towards the project as well. All right. Some notes on sewer. Yeah. So what about the capital outlays or anything in terms of water, because they're zeroed out? And does that mean that there's no funds being expended for 00:36:47.842 --> 00:37:15.070 - you know, replacing older lines. Why is that zero? That's another downtown thing. So that number actually represents our annual depreciation that we do for our assets. And they don't want us to put that in the budget even though it happens. So that doesn't actually mean that we've spent that much cash on capital improvements. That just means that that's how much of the capital improvements we built in the past got expensed in that year. OK. 00:37:17.154 --> 00:37:46.174 - Yeah, well, I'm certainly interested in understanding what our investment is in replacing the aging infrastructure that was noted as a concern. And I don't know how that fits in and where it fits in as a line item. But it wasn't discussed. It was stated as a concern, but not discussed anywhere in the presentation of the budget. That's for the CIP discussion? 00:37:46.306 --> 00:38:15.742 - It's more of a capital improvement discussion. This is our cash budget that we have to use to run the utility. And most of those projects are done when we do bonds. And so for next year's for water, we're really focusing on the chemical feed line. That's really all we have in the plans right now. Unless somehow our rate case gets done sooner than we expect and we get our influx of cash from the bond. As of right now, the chemical feed line is really the only capital improvement project we're going to do. 00:38:15.906 --> 00:38:44.990 - OK, and that's represented in? That's essentially represented in the partially represented in that negative ENR. But also, I mean, we're going to cash flow as much of that as we can. But we will need to take a loan out of sewer to pay for some of that. 00:38:48.258 --> 00:39:17.150 - an actual expense next year. It'll be moved into our fixed asset list and then depreciated over time, as all of our other fixed assets are. So the cash we'll take will cover our shortfall from an O&M perspective and cover the expenses to build the chemical feed line. And then when we get our bond from the water rate case, we'll pay super back. Yeah. OK. That is the difficult part about presenting the budget this way, is that I think 00:39:18.370 --> 00:39:46.942 - We've typically presented it in a way where we show all of these capital improvement projects, but those are typically paid through our bonds. Some have a cash payment component, but a lot of the big, big projects, like these big capital improvement projects, are paid through bonds. And so if you want to look at where in our budget that is, that's in a giant chunk of finance. 00:39:47.106 --> 00:40:14.590 - that pays our bond payments. Okay. Yeah. And part of that will be represented in that later. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Yes. No problem. Thank you. Great question. Okay. You said something that this that we don't have to report depreciate. The city doesn't want us to report depreciation. They didn't want us to put it in the budget. 00:40:15.010 --> 00:40:44.446 - It's a non-cash expense. I know, but it's like, it's depreciation. I haven't fought that yet because it's a non-cash expense. OK, all right. It's really just accounting gymnastics. Voodoo math. All right. All right. And then in sewer, we have a lot of the same comments about personnel. The issues in New World impacted positions, both in water and sewer. 00:40:44.674 --> 00:41:11.806 - And then we left room for proposed compensation adjustments. Again, supplies, same thing. We used estimates for chemical usage. And then some of our expenses were reclassified to other services from supplies just to have better accuracy in accounting. And then 00:41:12.770 --> 00:41:42.654 - Other services, again, there's multiple interdepartmental charges included here. And then some of our expenses were classified here from supplies. All right. Any more sewer thoughts before we move to storm? OK. And the storm budget, it is up 9.1%. 00:41:42.786 --> 00:42:11.390 - We have some personnel that are being moved to be paid out of the storm fund that are currently just water waste water. This is something we've been working on doing to accurately represent the time and spent towards storm water that some of our personnel have, specifically folks like our engineers who do spend some time on storm, a fair amount of time in storm, and we're currently only being paid out of water and waste water. Again, we left room. 00:42:11.842 --> 00:42:35.486 - to cover any proposed compensation adjustments. And then in supplies, this is down 44%. This fund, so in stormwater, a lot of our projects are not as expensive. And so we cash fund some more of those than we do water and wastewater. 00:42:35.810 --> 00:42:59.806 - So this will fund some of our smaller stormwater projects. And then we move this amount to be more in line with what we've seen to be spending in the previous years. And then in other services, we didn't really have any major changes. All right. That is the conclusion of the 2026 budget request from CBU. 00:43:00.098 --> 00:43:27.454 - This will allow us to provide safe, sustainable, and high-quality drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services in a cost-effective manner, promoting public health, economic vitality, and environmental stewardship. Thank you, and open to any more questions, thoughts, comments, changes. Yeah, I really like this way of presenting it. I think it made more sense to do it this way than I ever remember, so. Great. 00:43:27.938 --> 00:43:52.094 - In the past, I remember my eyes dripping down. This way of presenting it. Great. Yeah. I really like it. It adds up. It makes sense to me. Yeah. Random comments. OK. 00:43:52.194 --> 00:44:19.550 - So thank you for all of your work on this. We know we take a lot of time to put all these numbers together across the departments to come up with what we need to meet our goals. So these are kind of just sporadic. Number one, you were talking about the respiratory protection program. I would just praise that a little more. Like, what is that? And be more detailed. Just like one or two more lines would be fine. 00:44:20.066 --> 00:44:46.046 - A few times you mentioned that we were partnered with, I believe, ITS or engineering. I knew ITS would be downtown engineering. My first thought was it's our engineering. So I think just be specific. We were talking about other city departments. Okay. What is the IDEM Clean Communities Program? Just give a little bit more description of that. Okay. 00:44:48.194 --> 00:45:17.150 - In the challenges and needs, we ended up in a talk about the new service center. But with the space and storage, it was not mentioned at that point, I don't think, when I wrote that down. OK. Yeah. OK. And then when you mentioned about the number of employees that we do have, are there any open positions that are unfilled that we're budgeting for? Like, OK. Yes. Yes. OK. 00:45:17.314 --> 00:45:42.718 - We are definitely budgeting for positions that are open that we plan on filling. It's half of what you said. OK. This is a random piece of paper I had in my purse that I could write on. OK, here we go. Stormwater grants in the celebrations. I don't know if that was mentioned at that point. Winston Thomas. 00:45:42.818 --> 00:46:06.686 - Just a random question. You mentioned that the site remediation is complete. So should there be anybody there just randomly if I drive by? Should the gates be open and people be there? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Who and what do they do? TD spends a lot of time down there. OK. And then on the north side, you have the police station section. Well, sure, that part. I'm talking about the Gordon Pike. 00:46:06.850 --> 00:46:33.950 - Main entrance. And I think it was like on the weekend or something, like a Saturday or something. So I just wondered. I know that it was prior to the remediation work. It was a concern of people dumping. And so that's cut, right? That's not happening. Oh, yeah. OK. Thank you. All right. TND meter services provide. Oh, so you mentioned with the meter services, they provide high usage alerts when available. 00:46:36.546 --> 00:47:02.686 - I think they just do that, right? You said that they provide it when available, so what did you mean by that? So this is a service that we, so in meter services, I think James can explain this a little better, but we try to make sure that we're catching all the high usage alerts, but there are times 00:47:02.818 --> 00:47:24.574 - when there are more than we can keep track of, it gets overwhelming, we aspire to do them all, but. And if people were signed up, then they would receive that automatically. So this is above that. I just wanted to, in my mind, clarify that. Thank you. When you're talking about each of the 00:47:24.738 --> 00:47:47.358 - divisions maybe say how many people in each division and work group and program you mentioned that in the overview but I think it would be nice when you're going on the budget we've got you know in the finance department and these people working here and administration team this this team has this you know there's three people for that and then I think I have one more little section of paper here 00:47:50.498 --> 00:48:15.262 - said say the categories on the slides and I'm not exactly oh that yes thank you yeah that's what that I meant oh yeah just label categories thank you and then I like that you had like the percentages for the plus and minus but when what I could see just on the screen 00:48:15.426 --> 00:48:45.118 - Or on this screen, I know it's like probably if I had a printed out copy, I would see like the actual numbers on the top and then on the bottom the explanation. But maybe if people are in the audience and don't have access to the paper copy or their screen is only so big, I'd like to see the numbers. So when you say it's plus 24% and our budget this year is $3.8 million for this section, I think that would be helpful. Thank you. And then my last thing was, 00:48:45.250 --> 00:49:13.406 - It was mentioned about the interdepartmental agreement, and I would like that amount listed in the numbers that are read off so that people on the city council and within the other departments know, hey, the CBU is paying this many dollars for our portion this year. Thank you. I believe that covers it. Yeah, and that it's a very small proportion of the overall finance 00:49:13.634 --> 00:49:40.446 - amount, since the way you present them, you give them equal weight when you state them. But the one's a lot bigger than the other. Right. So I- But that's a very large amount, probably compared to any other department. Yeah. So- I remember it being around $2 million, I think. $2.5 million, I think? Yeah. And the overall finance was $32 or something. Anyway. 00:49:40.706 --> 00:50:10.174 - Well, maybe it was mentioned on something but I was it was hard for me to follow along on here and on there So I was focused on here and I think that's probably most people would be looking there. So Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Thank you I just want to confirm too because I know I brought this up before were the department heads all the department heads involved with their budgeting Yeah, and it's not just now but 00:50:10.402 --> 00:50:40.286 - throughout the year. Good. The department heads are like Matt meets regularly with the other department heads to go over their budget to check in on their budgets. Yeah. And then one other question I thought of too is and it may not be it may not be appropriate for the budget meeting and I don't know that they need do they need this information but do it do we need to get an update on where we are with bonds like just to 00:50:42.018 --> 00:51:06.558 - We can just do that, yeah. Have that summary. I mean, again, I don't know if that's appropriate to put in here, but it is a big chunk of our, I mean, it's a big chunk of our money. Public record. Yeah, so that they can at least see that, you know, here's where we stand with all of this, so. We already got that made up. Does that end? Perfect. Yeah, and is there any, 00:51:06.818 --> 00:51:35.806 - Is there any need to break out those bonds according to utility? Oh, we definitely can. Oh, yeah. Because right now, it's just one big lump. Right. Yeah. So alternatively, you could build those into the different utility budgets, right? I mean, that would be an alternative way of presenting this, rather than putting it all into finance, as was mentioned. OK. So we could see how they are. I'm not saying redo it. I'm just saying that would be useful to know. Sure. We can get us somewhere helpful. 00:51:36.514 --> 00:52:04.318 - We can definitely do like a bond summary and then split it out from that initial kind of chart and those graphs and split it out there however we need to. And I guess another so different topic but back to what Jim had mentioned about the and you brought up about the tanks and looking into the lining for a second time rather than new tanks and 00:52:04.834 --> 00:52:31.710 - I know we talked about that before we got to it. And so maybe it was just more listening than not reading. Is that in writing on here about the floor? I just think I know that's going to be like a hot button question right at this calendar time. And probably really even by the time that this is presented, I wouldn't be surprised if we sure got a lot of rain today, it sounds like. 00:52:32.322 --> 00:53:01.374 - What if we get to that drought again? And then I think that's, you know, like maybe bring up about the coconut carbon and remind, and this is your opportunity to speak. And so that we're prepared for that. So if this, you know, you're presenting this in early September to city council and or whatever late, late August, right? And then here comes September and hear me at this drought or whatever, then they already are aware of what the CB is doing to address that concern. 00:53:02.274 --> 00:53:28.990 - What I'm hearing is like having just maybe a section. So the status updates, you know, we've got the successes and the challenges and the opportunities, I think. I was trying to find a way to fit like some of our larger expenses in this format. And so maybe finding a way in that area to address like, hey, in water we are strapped for cash, but here's what we're spending on. 00:53:29.154 --> 00:53:57.182 - you know, chemical for taste and odor and trying to rehab the fluoride tank, things like that, just to address, I think, some concerns folks have. Well, I think, but I do think that you, I don't even think it's mentioned in there about the fluoride tank anywhere, like specific, like the word fluoride did not come up in any of that, and I think you're gonna get nailed on that. Yeah. So I think it's best to, 00:53:58.530 --> 00:54:27.358 - put it in is the challenge. You know, I mean, this is this is a challenge, a real challenge that we are facing. It is not harmful to the it's not harmful to individuals, but it is something that we've provided. And it it's and you'll have some. And again, how much is it? How much? How much have we asked you guys? How much? You say it's very expensive. Well, very expensive to me might be one hundred dollars, but very expensive to Jeff might be 00:54:27.458 --> 00:54:56.126 - $100,000. So I mean, I don't know. Or $50,000. Or $50,000? OK. $50,000. No, this is good. Yeah, and just being prepared with here's our plan and having it ready to state in very definitive terms as much as we know, right? Because there's the two phases to that. 00:54:57.282 --> 00:55:21.758 - We just want to be clear that we're prepared to address the issue in these ways. This borrowing money from sewer to pay for water this year, the beginning of a new system, next time when sewer needs 00:55:22.018 --> 00:55:51.486 - money are we going to borrow from water? So this is likely to be a one-time deal? The plan is the goal for this to be a one-time lifeline and no more. OK. I think, yeah. I mean, we have been tracking our water expenses and our bonds in a way that I don't think we as a utility have in a while. And the point of that, the biggest point of that, is that we never end up 00:55:51.874 --> 00:56:20.862 - in a situation where we are in water in any of our utilities again. This is one of our biggest challenges, and it is, you know, when we talk about aging infrastructure and being able to repair things and being able to do these projects, this is our biggest barrier right now is our water fund. And so I got to give a lot of credit to Matt. He's done some excellent tracking and just tracking everything we're buying, everything we're doing, making sure 00:56:20.994 --> 00:56:48.126 - that we are keeping those purse strings tight so that we never have to do this in either water or sewer. And we just had our sewer rate case. So we have bonds in sewer that we're doing all these projects at Dillman and Blucher. And we're tracking those bonds. I don't think we've tracked bonds like this before when we've had our previous bonds. Yeah. So no. 00:56:49.410 --> 00:57:16.862 - If I have anything to say about it, it will not be a repetitive thing. Do you expect this to be at the council hearing? I am scheduled for August 25th. Okay. That's a Monday, right? Sure is. Same day as our water rate case presentation to us. Yep. Double hit that. I know. It's going to be a big day. 00:57:18.786 --> 00:57:48.094 - Item on the agenda is petitions and communications from anyone? Seeing none. I just want to know, so even with the new rate case and a rate increase, is it reasonable to say that we're still behind in terms of our water infrastructure? Even with that, are we still not providing a one-to-one replacement over the lifespan of all of our infrastructure out there? 00:57:48.258 --> 00:58:17.886 - Because, I mean, I've heard that stated before that we're not keeping up. Oh, yeah. And we're not putting anything in this budget because we're, I mean, in terms of transmission because of what we need to do at the plant. And I don't know what exactly is the rate case is going to fund in terms of that one-to-one replacement over the lifecycle of the infrastructure out away from the plant. And is it reasonable to assume that 00:58:17.986 --> 00:58:38.174 - that we're not keeping up right now? Yes. Given that, OK. And then with the rate case, are we still behind somewhat? I can't speak to exactly a one-to-one replacement being behind on that. But I will say that we have budgeted in our CIP and rate case 00:58:38.306 --> 00:59:08.030 - to do some catching up and to budget a lot more into our replacements than we currently have. OK, good. That's reassuring. But at some point, could we just get a briefing on what the 10 to 20 year forecast looks like in terms of that and knowing what's out there in the field in the age of those pipes? Just so I can rest more easily? Yes. We can rest more easily. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, Jim. I wanted to get that in. 00:59:09.762 --> 00:59:17.502 - All right, I guess I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Move we adjourn. We are adjourned.