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Home My WebLink About03-15-2016 Legislative Committee MinutesMINUTES OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Orange County Sanitation District Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. A regular meeting of the Legislative and Public Affairs Committee was called to order by Chair Nielsen on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 8:06 a.m., in the Administration Building of the Orange County Sanitation District. Chair Nielsen led the pledge of allegiance. A quorum was declared at 8:20 a.m., as follows: COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: John Nielsen, Board Chair Greg Sebourn, Board Vice-Chair Tom Beamish, Director Robert Kiley, Director Lucille Kring, Director John Withers, Director COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Peter Kim, Director PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. STAFF PRESENT: Jim Herberg, General Manager Bob Ghirelli, Assistant General Manager Nick Arhontes, Director of Facilities Support Services Celia Chandler, Director of Human Resources Rob Thompson, Director of Engineering Ed Torres, Director of Operations & Maintenance Lorenzo Tyner, Director of Finance & Administrative Services Kelly Lore, Clerk of the Board Jennifer Cabral Tanya Chong Gregg Deterding Norbert Gaia Alfredo Garcia Rebecca Long Mark Manzo Kelly Newell Lisa Rothbart OTHERS PRESENT: Brad Hogin, General Counsel Eric Sapirstein, ENS (via Teleconference) Cori Williams, Townsend Public Affairs 03/15/2016 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 1 of 5 REPORTS: The Committee Chair and the General Manager may present verbal reports on miscellaneous matters of general interest to the Committee Members. These reports are for information only and require no action by the Committee. General Manager Jim Herberg notified the Committee of the following: Upcoming trip to Sacramento where the focus will be visits with Senator Hertzberg, Assemblyman Gordon, the Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials and with the State Water Resources Control Board. Mr. Herberg provided an update to the recent LA Times Article on Deadly Superbugs from hospitals in the Pacific Ocean, which was distributed along with a draft letter of response from local joint agencies. Mr. Herberg also stated that Public Affairs has pushed out the recent Fitch press release which reaffirmed OCSD's AAA Bond rating. Chair Nielsen brought forward the informational items. INFORMATION ITEMS: 6. PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATE (Jennifer Cabral) Principal Public Affairs Specialist, Jennifer Cabral stated as a follow-up to the LA Times article, the joint agencies (OCSD, LA City and LA County) are considering their own follow up with social media. Ms. Cabral went on to update the Committee on the following items: KTLA-TV Channel 5, Rich DeMuro's segment on GWRS; 13 joint tours with OCWD, eight OCSD tours, and six events reaching 500+ people this month. 7. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE (Rebecca Long) Senior Public Affairs Specialist, Rebecca Long provided an update on legislative related activities including: recent attendance at the CASA conference in Washington D.C.; Legislative key message cards (which were distributed); and Lobby days dates: March 16 to Sacramento and April 20 -22 in Washington D.C. Vice-Chair Sebourn arrived at 8:20 a.m. Ms. Long provided information of a newly proposed bill SB 885 (Wolk), which is not included in the agenda packet; regarding construction contracts: indemnity. Mr. Herberg stated that due to the time constraints of providing our position to the author, this item will be brought to the Steering Committee for consideration. Ms. Long then updated the committee on two bills: SB 163 (Hertzberg) and AB 2022 (Gordon). 03/15/2016 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 2 of 5 Cori Williams, Townsend and Associates, provided an update on current and new legislation introduced and stated that Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon was sworn in on March 7 and will focus on the issues of poverty, oversight and participation. Ms. Williams further updated the committee on cap and trade with three billion dollars not yet allocated. Eric Sapirstein, ENS Resources updated the Committee on the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) and the proposed cuts to funding for wastewater treatment facilities. He provided information regarding the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and a possible 20 million dollars in treasury rated bonds for water infrastructure projects. Mr. Sapirstein then updated the Committee on the progress of Senator Feinstein's bill, S. 2533, drought relief policy, current structure and opposition as it relates to OCSD. Mr. Sapirstein stated that he met with the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, to discuss sustainable energy technology such as AquaCritox® and it appears that the committee is supportive. He also stated that tax exempt financing could be at risk in the future. Director Kring and Beamish arrived at 8:41 a.m. CONSENT CALENDAR: Consent Calendar Items are considered to be routine and will be enacted, by the Committee, after one motion, without discussion. Any items withdrawn from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion will be considered in the regular order of business. 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Clerk of the Board) MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Approve minutes for the Committee meeting held on February 8, 2016. AYES: NOES: ABSTENTIONS: ABSENT: Beamish, Kiley, Kring, Nielsen, Sebourn and Withers None None Kim 2. PROPOSED CHANGES TO LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING DATES FOR YEAR 2016 (Bob Ghirelli) MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Recommend to the Board of Directors to: Approve the revised calendar of meeting dates for the 2016 calendar year for meetings of the Legislative and Public Affairs Committee. 03/15/2016 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 3 of 5 AYES: NOES: ABSTENTIONS: ABSENT: Beamish, Kiley, Kring, Nielsen, Sebourn and Withers None None Kim NON-CONSENT CALENDAR: Ms. Long provided a brief introduction to the requested letters of support. 3. SUPPORT SENATE BILLS. 2533 AND CLEAN WATER STATE REVOLVING FUND REQUEST (Bob Ghirelli) MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Authorize the Chair to sign letters of support for: A. California Long-Term Provisions for Water Supply and Short-Term Provisions for Emergency Drought Relief Act (S. 2533)-The California Emergency Drought Relief; and B. Clean Water State Revolving Fund Request. AYES: NOES: ABSTENTIONS: ABSENT: Beamish, Kiley, Kring, Nielsen, Sebourn and Withers None None Kim Ms. Cabral provided a brief PowerPoint presentation regarding Item No. 4 including design concepts. Public perception was important to the Committee and the consensus was to focus the tagline on recycling. 4. OCSD TAGLINE AND VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS (Bob Ghirelli) MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Approve the tag line "Leading the way in Water Recycling" for the Orange County Sanitation District. AYES: NOES: ABSTENTIONS: ABSENT: Beamish, Kiley, Kring, Nielsen, Sebourn and Withers None None Kim Ms. Cabral provided an informative PowerPoint presentation regarding the two-year Strategic plan. 03/15/2016 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 4 of 5 Director Kring left the meeting at 9:20 a.m. 5. JULY 2016 -JUNE 2018 PUBLIC AFFAIRS STRATEGIC PLAN (Bob Ghirelli) MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Recommend to the Board of Directors to: Receive and file the July 2016-June 2018 Public Affairs Strategic Plan . AYES: NOES: ABSTENTIONS: ABSENT: Beamish, Kiley, Nielsen, Sebourn and Withers None None Kim and Kring OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS, IF ANY: Additional questions regarding the super bugs, levels of treatment at our plant, level of treatment at GWRS and testing at our outfall were answered by Assistant General Manager Bob Ghirelli and Mr. Herberg. Mr. Herberg announced that this will be Director of Facilities Support Services, Nick Arhontes' last Committee meeting at OCSD. Congratulations and well wishes and were delivered to Mr. Arhontes. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Nielsen declared the meeting adjourned at 9:30 a.m. to the next Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Meeting, Monday, April 11, 2016 at 3:30 p.m. Submitted by: 03/15/2016 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 5 of 5