 |
MINUTES
BROOKTRAILS TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BROOKTRAILS COMMUNITY CENTER
24850 Birch Street, Willits, CA 95490
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 |
|
The Board of Directors of Brooktrails Township Community Services District met in regular session
January 24, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the Brooktrails Community Center.
A. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
B. ROLL CALL
Roll call showed the following Directors present: Williams, Ziady, Orth and Horrick. President Skezas was absent with notice and Vice-President Horrick conducted the meeting. Also present were General Manager Chapman and District Counsel Neary.
REPORT ON CLOSED SESSION
None.
C. ADDITIONS/ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA
None.
D. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
1. January 10, 2006 - Director Orth moved to approve the minutes as presented; Director Williams seconded. The motion carried.
E. SPECIAL PRESENTATION
None.
F. PUBLIC HEARING
None.
G. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Fire Chief Daryl Schoeppner, who was on injury leave, advised he would be released the next day to return to work. He said his injury originally occurred when he lifted a heavy patient up flights of stairs. The Safety Committee has recommended that the District purchase a stair chair to prevent such injuries in future; these chairs cost about $2,500.00 and, he said, we should consider buying two of them. Fire Department personnel brought in a stair chair and set it up for the directors' examination. Chief Schoeppner said he would present a formal request to the Board at a subsequent meeting.
H. CONSENT CALENDAR
3. Review of Accounts Payable Report and authorization to issue checks. Director Orth moved to approve payment of the outstanding invoices; Director Ziady seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
4. Retroactive approval of checks issued January 12 & 17, 2006. Director Orth moved to retroactively approve payment of a check to Little Lake Fire for $1,000.00 and to water dowser Doug Brown for $1,000.00; Director Ziady seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
5. Approval of disbursements for Clearwell/Backwash Project for January 2006 totaling $32,520.96. Director Orth moved to approve these payments; Director Williams seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
I. ACTION AGENDA
6. Review of CERT progress. General Manager Chapman gave a background discussion and said that the insurance problems had been worked out. Fire Chief Schoeppner commented that the procedure needed to delegate authority to him prior to swearing in the CERT volunteers was still incomplete, and therefore the volunteers could not be sworn in at this meeting. He thanked John Lemmer and Bob Terry for their extensive work on CERT.
John Lemmer discussed the CERT nationwide program and training curriculum. He said he did not believe the local group should be involved in fire suppression, but rather such components as triage, first aid, and damage assessment. Bob Terry said CERT had tentatively planned their first group training session for the first and second weekends in March, but now it seemed April would be the earliest. Grant funds available through MESA seem to be slated for equipment rather than printing, and CERT may be on their own for their flyers and brochures. He pointed out the color flyers enclosed in the directors' packets. He said they wanted the entire community to have knowledge of how to defend their homes and help their neighbors, and they wanted the entire community to receive a 44-50 page manual developed by NEST. Director Ziady commented that Chief Schoeppner was good at getting grant money and perhaps could get some that would help, and suggested that the Willits News cover the issue as well. As to whether CERT should be allowed by the Board to schedule its own future activities along with the Fire Chief, she felt this could be done, provided that reports were made to the Board, perhaps quarterly. Chief Schoeppner said that if CERT had been available during the recent storm emergency, he probably would have put them on the telephone banks rather than in the field. He said there should be funding through the Fire Chiefs Association for CERT down the line, but because of the increase in the fire tax, it might be more difficult to get grant funding now. He recommended that the District fund any literature CERT might need now so that they could get started.
Director Orth moved to authorize the formation of the Brooktrails CERT program, swearing-in by the Fire Chief when appropriate, with approval for CERT to work with the Brooktrails Fire Department in conducting training courses and self-publicizing as needed. Director Williams seconded. Director Williams asked whether the training sessions would use District facilities, and whether the motion included the District taking responsibility in producing flyers; General Manager Chapman confirmed this. Mr. Terry said that CERT wanted to put out, first, the color flyers for the first training session as attached to the directors' packets, and later a 44-50 page booklet, a sample of which he passed to the Board for examination. Printing quotes were $1,100.00 for 500 and $2,400.00 for 1,500 copies of the large booklet. Director Williams suggested that the District take the position that printing and distribution of the booklet not be part of the pending motion, but that that matter come back to the Board for discussion about useful content and amounts. General Manager Chapman said he would like to at least see the initial flyer get out, and directors verbally agreed. Director Orth reiterated that CERT would act in consultation with the Fire Chief.
Chief Schoeppner suggested that the Board authorize $1,000.00 expenditure for this first flyer and he would see what he could do through the Chiefs Association and MESA for the balance; he said if we put it off too long, we would end up in fire season with the CERT group not validated. Director Orth said he felt the best way to put it was to require the General Manager to come back to the Board if the expense needs to go over $1,000.00. Discussion followed that CERT publicity costs would need to be included in the next budget. The motion on the floor carried unanimously.
Bob Terry then presented a packet of forms to be signed by volunteers taking the CERT training and asked if District Counsel could review these and revise if appropriate.
7. Consideration of resolution recognizing Draft Greenbelt Stewardship Plan volunteers. General Manager Chapman said the Board was very appreciative of the draft Greenbelt Stewardship Plan presented to them last November, and recognized the amount of labor involved by the ad hoc committee members and others who produced it. Director Ziady noted that after the certificates were presented, they should be returned because, unfortunately, President Skezas was out of town; after signing by him, they would be mailed to the recipients. She read and moved to approve the draft resolution; Director Orth seconded. Roll call vote was as follows:
AYES: Directors: Williams, Ziady, Orth, Horrick
NOES: Directors: None
ABSENT: Directors: Skezas
Director Ziady then called each volunteer up for presentation of their certificate and briefly described their individual contributions. District Counsel Neary commented that he had now represented the district for 30 years and has seen many committee reports prepared, and he felt this was the finest committee effort that he had seen in that time.
8. Reconsideration of resolution amending Res. 1998-7 (financial procedures of District/check signing) (from 1/10/06 meeting). General Manager Chapman advised that when this matter had been reviewed at the previous meeting, and that some confusion was caused because of language being referred to that was in the old resolution and not the new resolution. He suggested fixing this problem by repealing Resolution 2006-2 entirely, and replacing it with the new draft resolution 2006-4. The only change he had made to the new resolution in the interim was to include a $1,000.00 limit on the General Manager's discretion as to non-budgeted expenses. That item had also been discussed in the previous meeting. Director Orth moved to repeal Resolution 2006-2 and adopt Resolution 2006-4; Director Ziady seconded. Roll call vote was as follows:
AYES: Directors: Williams, Ziady, Orth, Horrick
NOES: Directors: None
ABSENT: Directors: Skezas
9. Annual sewer report (P/E June 30, 2005). General Manager Chapman reviewed his staff report regarding anticipated audit numbers for the period ending June 30, 2005 which have been received from City of Willits. He pointed out that 23.62% is the operational flow percentage for a total cost of $147,576. Capital costs are allocated at 37.69% to Brooktrails, and for 2004/05 this total was $28,147. Budget-wise for FY 2005-06, upcoming capital improvement were significant, particularly the clarifier rehabilitation, and our projected part of this total category was $88,362.00.
District Counsel Neary pointed out that the agreement discussed two types of costs, some to be assigned to Maintenance (and paid at the Operational percentage of 23.62%) and others to be assigned to Capital Improvements (37.69%), and said with the way the agreement was written, there were some issues as to how things should be characterized. He asked whether clarifier rehabilitation was being considered maintenance or a capital cost. Mr. Chapman said he thought that it was capital, but that clarification needs to be made by the City. Mr. Neary pointed out and read paragraph 17 of the sewer agreement with Willits, included with the staff report. He asked about the "building for office and equipment"; Mr. Chapman said he believed this was a storage building located at the sewer plant site. Director Williams said that what District Counsel was asking was whether an expense should be characterized under sentence 1 or sentence 2 of paragraph 17. Mr. Neary said at some point we should develop a mechanism, lacking in the agreement, or committee negotiation, to provide oversight of costs, which he characterized as having been basically a blank check. Director Williams said we should look at the clarifier rehabilitation and see what it consists of. Mr. Chapman said Willits had a planned rehabilitation of the clarifier, but then had a flood, as he understood it, in November 2005. He said he would have to talk to Ross Walker to differentiate what the costs were from these events. Director Williams pointed out that materials replaced because of ordinary use and wear were to be charged at 23.62%, but if replaced because of breakage or obsolescence, it was charged at our capital ratio (37.69%). Mr. Chapman said he would have to find out about this from Ross Walker. Mr. Neary said that acceptance of the report does not imply that the General Manager is precluded from raising any objections. Director Orth said if that is the case, he would move to accept the report; Director Ziady seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Mr. Neary said that in a prior acquisition where Brooktrails contributed to the cost, the City took the position that it was theirs. He said that if the sewer project as designed is not allowed to go forward, and the land acquired by Willits therefore not used, it might be resold. But, again, he reiterated, you can lose significant money by not scrutinizing these costs.
J. ADDITIONS TO FUTURE AGENDAS.
None.
K. SPECIAL REPORTS
Directors: Director Ziady said the Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee's first meeting of the year would be Thursday, January 26th; she would be proposing that the regular committee meeting be held in the first hour, and that the ad hoc committee meeting would be held in the second hour, for more efficiency.
Director Williams said he had attended the January 19th Specific Plan Advisory Committee and complimented the General Manager's presentation on Prop. 218 at that meeting.
District Counsel: None.
General Manager Chapman: The General Manager said he had met with School Superintendent Jorgensen and briefed him about our planned projects over the next five or six years. He said at the next Board meeting he would present the annual water report, a Division of Dams report, and a review of the moratorium since 2003. He then discussed a $5,000.00 radio system quote which he thought was too expensive, but that the crew then took it into their own hands and replaced the system themselves for less than $500.00, and it works better than the previous one! He praised the entire utility staff. He then said that water dowser Doug Brown had chosen five sites, and we would drill at one. He advised he would attend a four-day seminar on project management the following week.
Director Williams asked if there was any precedent of receiving a monthly report on how the District is doing to date, as compared to the budget. Mr. Chapman pointed out the fund balance sheet attached to his general manager report, and said this points out how well or badly we're doing in that regard. He also pointed out that he and staff were preparing the FY 2006-07 budget, and many numbers would be forthcoming in March.
An audience member noted that in the sewer report, the actual cost was more than the budget cost, and asked how this was handled. Mr. Chapman explained that in budgets, there are always projected costs that do not happen at all, or cost less than planned, and there are other projected costs that cost more than projected. Lastly, he said he would not be coming to the Board to raise the sewer rates this year, but water was a different issue given the projects at hand.
L. PUBLIC COMMENTS
None.
M. ADJOURNMENT
Director Orth moved to adjourn and Vice-President Horrick declared the meeting of
January 24, 2006 closed at 8:23 p.m.
GEORGE C. SKEZAS
President
MICHAEL V. CHAPMAN
Secretary to the Board of Directors
|
|
 |
