So after some interference by unavoidable circumstances, I would like to call this meeting to order.
It is Monday, September 22nd, 2025. Commissioner Thomas is present at the NET-U Hill Room, Commissioner
Madeira, Surveyor Enright Randolph. And I think our first item on the agenda is public input for items
not on the agenda.
Is there anyone in the Nat Hill room who would like to give public commentary? Seeing none, are there
any individuals online who would like to give public commentary? All right, then that item on the agenda
is closed. No public comment. So on to new business, 2026 stormwater budget update.
Okay, so I put together just a little small presentation. I wanted to address some of the concerns that
were brought up at the last meeting on trying to move some salaries over into the stormwater budget
that assist on a daily basis for stormwater services. So you see on the first slide is the 2026 estimated
revenue for stormwater. $2,490,416
The 2026 proposed budget and the sweeper we have excluded. We did have the $450,000 sweeper in our 2026
budget. I believe the council at their last meeting have reduced that line to $1 to keep the line active,
but they had proposed putting it into the 2025 general obligation bond.
that list is being presented to the council tomorrow evening and that sweeper is on that list. If it
doesn't make if they do not propose that list and accept that list then we would bring it back and do
an additional in 2026 for that sweeper.
So and then what we are proposing is additional salaries as $133,139, bringing the total to $2,390,284.
So that actually puts your 2026 budget $100,132 under the estimated revenue. So you would not be touching
any of your cash.
On the next slide what the proposed salaries that we are including in the stormwater budget would be
the director of 30% superintendent 25% our operations asset manager 30% and our engineer at 15%.
The support that we've stressed by various positions or funds in the highway that are paid from the
MVH fund. All personnel processes for crews, job postings, interviews, new hire paperwork for all crews,
training for employee services for new hires, setting up insurance enrollment, termination, pre-hire
drug testing, disciplinary actions, workman's comp, random drug testing, FMLA, and all leave requests.
AOD and payroll for all crews and administration, charts entries for all payroll, collective bargaining
unit negotiations and addressing any issues that arise through the bargaining unit, working with ITI
which is maintaining our driver files and meeting all requirements with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, daily cartograph entries for work requests and that's mainly from our dispatcher and
our operations manager.
Other support that's provided by various positions is training events for all crews, including flagging
with LTAP, chainsaw training, snow plow training, asset management for all the infrastructure, project
management, plan reviews, meetings, contracts, bid documents, daily entries for all stormwater crew
activities, provide engineering, design, planning, scheduling support, manage facilities, stockpile
materials for crews, coordinate vehicle maintenance and repairs, and all facility maintenance.
processing only in the absence of the administrative assistant to where our- our admins administrative
assistant can run do those. Also we coordinate the manpower equipment materials vehicles prioritize
projects and schedules on a daily basis maintaining seniority call out list for all after our emergencies.
All county council action requirements which includes transfers additional six cetera. All storm event
So we had some questions about emergency storm events and snowplow.
all crews are called in the event of a storm emergency event. When crew positions were created in stormwater
it was agreed that everyone would be utilized for the storm emergencies with equipment and personnel.
This eliminated the possibility of layoffs during the winter months when stormwater services would be
slowed down and to also make the roads safer for the traveling public in a shorter amount of time using
all the manpower. In 2024
Stormwater funds that were used for normal working hours in a snow emergency was 221.5 hours, which
equaled $5,635.39. In 2024, MVH funds for normal working hours in a snow emergency was 1,124,
which is $28,263.75. 2024 MVH funds used for after-hour snow emergency
on an all crew call out was 235.70 hours at $9,285.90. So we merged all of our resources to become more
efficient in the department in the last five years.
In 2024 MVH employees that assisted on stormwater projects was and that would basically on a daily basis
the crews get together and if a crew needs assistance, then we might have an motor vehicle highway employee
work on that stormwater crew.
In 2024, there was 1,109.53 hours provided to stormwater for crew assistance at a cost of $26,431.67.
In 2024, the equipment resources provided to stormwater during normal work hours, which could be an
excavator, mini-escavator, or a great all, was 545.66 hours at a cost of $55,980.64.
and we own four gradals, two for highway, two for stormwater. In 2024, the Kuhn Bridge installed 132
drainage pipes at a cost of $808,194.68. The support staff for Cartograph daily work entries by crews,
complaints, citizens requests since January 1st, 2025. Our dispatcher that's paid from the motor vehicle
highway has put in 234 requests and closed 13.
our MBH operations asset manager has put in 65 requests and closed 259. So I want to provide you all
the examples that why we put our resources together so we can get more done and we don't we don't see
as our department is split we see it as as one department and I feel like I have justified why some
of the salaries should be paid from stormwater
budget and I'm happy to answer any questions. Do any of my colleagues have any questions? I don't have
questions but I want to comment that if you look at those percentages things like asset management is
really 30 percent is pretty low estimate so I cannot quibble with any of those estimates in terms of
the interplay between these two
departments that really are one. So thank you for this. It's really helpful. I also found the presentation
very helpful. Thank you. Yes. I'll just want to make a couple comments. I could have said concerns,
but what I was seeking for was just a little clarity and just a bit of a presentation for the public as well.
That'll be crucial when we go and review our rates and any increases or anything like that. This will
be really nice to be able to point to. I'll also say that I wrote that letter of support of restructuring
the highway department in 2019. So we could see a better marriage of the two. I haven't found out their
term to identify kind of how that collaboration does internally.
I do know that the cartograph is something both for highway and stormwater. So the fact that we're looking
at these percentages a bit different, I think it reflects kind of more of on the job performance of
how they do benefit stormwater.
lot to digest after we look at the budget come back look at the budget i do appreciate you taking time
and putting this together that that's kind of where i'm at one i guess comment is when we looked at
the total and i'm going to defer to your math but i just minus the four hundred or four hundred and
forty nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars
to leave the one dollar in store or fifty and not four ninety nine nine nine oh but they want us to
leave one dollar in there yeah but my numbers didn't reflect that one dollar okay and that's all i was
saying because i i have a difference of two bucks and and i want to make sure that we leave that in
there so we don't have to create a new line item and if we have to come back for the additional appropriation
at least all of that uh is already done uh that's it that um
It's taken me a while to figure out where I'm at. And I think as we move forward, it'll be great to
continue to see this partnership. And I think it was the operational manager. It would be awesome to
continue to work forward with kind of the cartograph is a ESRI integrated
platform and we also use the Esri suites for our GIS and being able to crosswalk that data which is
very simple into more dashboards and things so we could kind of really get that data visualization that
could be very helpful for us as a board but also for the public and I look forward to seeing some more
of that done and
in the upcoming years as we're kind of still streamlining that process of how we utilize a cartograph
and how we also tie it into our other more prevalent public facing Esri suites. And with that, it comes
with the online where we could host that data and make it very secured, but also make it available internally
or to the public.
That's really all I have. Sorry to kind of stir up some conversation and have a special meeting to come
and discuss this, but again, I know I expressed some of my thoughts and can. Well, I guess I'm maybe
I did use the word concerns, but where I was looking for clarification and email exchange with you earlier
this week, we've had a couple of follow up conversations and that's been very helpful and.
I've also talked with the program manager about a few things and that's been very helpful as well. And
knowing that my last discussions, everyone is very supportive of this. I guess I'm gonna put my cards
out there and be willing to support this. And I think anytime that this kind of rare its head again,
let's really try to address that like in January. So when we get to the later part of the year,
it's not such a moving target. So with that said, those are my comments and I'm willing and looking
to support this today. Thank you. I have a comment, but I'll wait for you since you haven't commented
yet. No, I don't have any comment. I agree. I support this. I thank you for the detailed information.
And yeah, I just want to say that that it was the council that put
to be able to put storm water in this unenviable position in the first place and yes it would be nice
to have advanced notice it wasn't. I just want to be clear for the public that it wasn't anything our
staff did wrong. This is because the council is under tremendous budget pressure and then turned and
said here you help us and you help us and you and that's how all this happened and why we had such certain
I just want to make sure
Thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm glad we brought this presentation because over the years, I've
heard so much about how much ditching.
stormwater does for paving and such and that was a number one priority when I took this position and
it's um it's split between the two crews and that's why we have four gradals and um and that we're not
using a lot of stormwater funds for snow removal and I keep hearing that and if you can just look at
the overall picture on how we help each other and not get down into the nitty-gritty it works well for
us to do it this way not not
it if you get down to trying to point fingers about somebody doing something it's only going to create
havoc within our department and that's something we don't want yeah yeah and to spend the energy planning
and i mean i i just cannot tell folks especially folks who have not been in this area before or recently
moved here how different our roads are now that we're tying these programs together in such an effective way
It is so much better to be cooperative than to try to nickel and dime who had this and who did this.
And it's just a much better system. And the residents have all benefited because roads are lasting a
lot longer. So thank you. Correct. Yeah, many unquantifiables here, too. Yeah. Any other comments? No.
I'm just looking at the layer of the support and it reflects the comments. It's basically when the two
departments are combined, highway supervisor position reporting to the public works director, our office
believes that the majority of infrastructure projects will be handled more efficiently. And I truly
believe that. Excellent. We need a public comment and a vote. Yep. Yep. So I'm going to
go ahead and make a motion to amend the twenty twenty six stormwater budget as has been uh outlined
here today. Yeah we don't have to worry about that dollar I think that could be addressed at the council
level so I'll second. Excellent we have a motion a second um all in favor. Public comment. Oh we have
to have public comment on that as well. Yes. Okay so uh all
motion to amend the budget. Um. We have no one present in the net you hill room. It looks like. Do we
have anyone present online? No one. Uh all in favor.
I think we can just go ahead and approve the budget now, right? We already have. We just amended it,
so I think we're good. Okay, nice. Lovely. Excellent. Well, then I think the next item on the agenda
is adjournment. The date of our next regular session is October 1st, 2025. And I'm not sure what the
agenda looks like, but I say we should just keep that as
a placeholder just in case there's other issues or concerns that we have to address that the council
brings forward and just to be prepared for their potential adoption on October 14th. That's a good point
but are you here next week? It's AIC. Yes I prioritize my office duties over the AIC this year unless
I drive down and drive back but yeah as of now no hotel booking which means
I'm not going. Let us know if we have an agenda or if we're not. Yes, we're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.