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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-04-2015 Operations Committee MinutesMINUTES OF THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE Orange County Sanitation District Wednesday, March 4, 2015, at 5:00 P.M. A regular meeting of the Operations Committee of the Orange County Sanitation District was called to order by Committee Chair Sebourn on March 4, 2015, at 5:01 p.m. in the Administration Building of the Orange County Sanitation District. Director Bartlett led the Flag Salute. A quorum was declared present, as follows: COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Greg Sebourn, Chair David Shawver, Vice-Chair Lisa Bartlett Ellery Deaton Steve Jones Robert Kiley Lucille Kring Richard Murphy Steve Nagel Fred Smith Chad Wanke Mariellen Yarc Tom Beamish, Board Chair John Nielsen, Board Vice-Chair COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: None. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. STAFF PRESENT: Jim Herberg, General Manager Rob Thompson, Director of Engineering Nick Arhontes, Director of Facilities Support Services Ed Torres, Director of Operations & Maintenance Lorenzo Tyner, Director of Finance & Administrative Services Kelly Lore, Acting Clerk of the Board Cindi Ambrose Rich Castillon Mark Dubois Mark Esquer Dean Fisher Norbert Gaia Al Garcia Rob Michaels Kathy Millea Mike Puccio Richard Spencer Eros Yong OTHERS PRESENT: Brad Hogin, General Counsel Bob Ooten (Alternate Director) Mike Beverage (Alternate Director) Veronica Carpenter 03/04/2015 Operations Committee Minutes Page 1 of 5 REPORT OF COMMITTEE CHAIR: Committee Chair Sebourn did not provide a report. REPORT OF GENERAL MANAGER General Manager, Jim Herberg, reported that there will be a new formal leadership training program for Management & Executive Management team beginning in May, that will include one all-day session a month for a period of six months. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1. MOVED, SECONDED, and DULY CARRIED TO: Approve Minutes of February 4, 2015, Operations Committee meeting. AYES: Deaton, Jones, Kiley, Kring, Murphy, Nagel, Sebourn, Shawver, Smith, F., Wanke and Yarc NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: Bartlett ABSENT: Beamish and Nielsen Board Vice-Chair Nielsen arrived at 5:04 p.m. Board Chair Beamish arrived at 5:10 p.m. NON-CONSENT: Director of Engineering, Rob Thompson provided a PowerPoint presentation regarding this item which included: a summary of the Gisler-Redhill System Improvements, Reach B, project 7-37, the reason for the request of additional funds and information on the Community Outreach Program. 2. MOVED, SECONDED, and DULY CARRIED TO: Recommend to the Board of Directors to: Approve a budget increase of $2,800,000 for a total project budget of $25,873,000 for the Gisler-Redhill System Improvements, Reach B, Contract No. 7-37. AYES: NOES: 03/04/2015 Bartlett, Beamish, Deaton, Jones, Kiley, Kring, Murphy, Nagel, Nielsen, Sebourn, Shawver, Smith, F., Wanke and Yarc None Operations Committee Minutes Page 2 of 5 ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: None 3. Director of Finance and Administrative Services, Lorenzo Tyner, stated that the proposed ordinance does not change or add any authority levels; adds clarification language, and adds or brings clarification to procedures and processes within the existing Purchasing Ordinance. MOVED, SECONDED, and DULY CARRIED TO: Recommend to the Board of Directors to: A. Introduce Ordinance No. OCSD-47, entitled "An Ordinance of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Sanitation District, Establishing Requirements and Procedures for the Purchase of Goods, Services, and Public Works Projects; and Repealing Ordinance No. OCSD-44" for first reading at the March 2015 Board meeting. B. Motion to read Ordinance No. OCSD-47 by title only and waive reading of said entire Ordinance on March 25, 2015; and C. Set April 22, 2015, as the date for the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. OCSD-4 7; and D. Direct the Clerk of the Board to publish summaries of the Ordinance as required by law. AYES: NOES: Bartlett, Beamish, Deaton, Jones, Kiley, Kring, Murphy, Nagel, Nielsen, Sebourn, Shawver, Smith, F., Wanke and Yarc None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: None INFORMATION ITEMS: 4. Workforce Planning Human Resources Manager, Rich Spencer provided an informative PowerPoint Presentation on Workforce Planning, which includes: organizational structure; organizational overview; recognized employee organizations; unrepresented employee groups; importance of workforce planning development efforts; and workforce analysis, planning and development. 03/04/2015 Operations Committee Minutes Page 3 of 5 Questions were answered from Mr. Spencer regarding the: percentage of internal promotions; how open positions are promoted to the public; entry level hiring; internships; licensing; attracting higher level employees; compensation and class study; technical programs such as Santiago Canyon College and transition and succession plans. 5. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) AT OCSD IT System and Operations Manager, Rich Castillon announced his four vision points for OCSD and then introduced Information Tech Supervisor Rob Michaels who provided a PowerPoint presentation on the GIS system uses at OCSD that include: Facility and sewer models, permits, asset management, CCTV, flow tracing, Hydraulic and Air Dispersion modeling, Land records, sewer transfers and statistics, map requests, boundary updates, ocean monitoring, underground service alerts and mobile GIS/GPS. Board Chair Beamish questioned the security of our infrastructure and how much is operated by a computer system. Mr. Castillon stated most of the equipment is computerized. He further stated that a Department of Homeland Security (OHS) audit was just completed and when the results are received, it will be discussed with Board. He further stated that security is taken very seriously at OCSD, that nothing is completely safe, but we have the very best safeguards. Director Wanke commended and congratulated the staff on the full utilization of the GIS system. DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORT: Director of Operations and Maintenance, Ed Torres OCSD staff has provided long-term beach water quality studies and oceanographic data that have resulted in approval from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board and the US Environmental Protection Agency to stop disinfection at the long outfall after March 17, 2015. OCSD will save approximately $420,000 per year as a result and improve the environment near our ocean outfall. Director of Finance and Administrative Services, Lorenzo Tyner reported on two violations that were received from Cal/OSHA. The first was an employee who injured their finger while working on some fan belts. Because of the injury, OSHA fined us and we appealed that fine, however we were unsuccessful in the appeal. The exposure is about $22,000 and is considered a serious violation. If there is a second violation, it could be considered willful, with a fine of about $70,000 and other possible assessments. Mr. Tyner stated that he does not anticipate that being an issue as we have used this particular procedure over the last 20 years with no injuries. However, we do take the OSHA report and the health of our employees seriously, and for prevention, have done additional training, will be putting in additional guards, and will do what is known as a safety stand-down where we will meet with the managers and 03/04/2015 Operations Committee Minutes Page 4 of 5 supervisors impacted by that area, making sure they are aware of the injury and the additional safeguards. Mr. Tyner answered questions from the Committee regarding the severity of the injury and condition of the employee; the actual circumstance of the injury with the fan belt in motion, the electrical shut off; OSHA's reasons to deny appeal and costs of additional training and safeguards . Mr. Tyner stated that the second violation involved the use of a crane about 18 months ago . This involved a procedural issue, there was no injury or potential injury, however, OSHA found that we might not have been in complete compliance with our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). They found a technical variance in the way we used, or planned for the use of the crane. We are in the process of looking at that item with OSHA and anticipate the item be settled shortly. There are three pieces to this violation, which include first, a procedu ral item with exposure in the $100-400 fine range, the second item should be vacated as there is not enough evidence to support the violation , and the third is a technical procedural item with exposure in the $5000 fine range. Mr. Tyner was asked how OSHA found out about these violations, to which he responded that OCSD must report all injuries immediately to OSHA and that was the case in the first violation. The second violation was reported to OSHA directly by an employee onsite. Director of Engineering Rob Thompson provided a brief update in regards to the Newport Force Main and problems with the tunneling machine, which have hit what appear to be some type of unmarked abandoned structure. OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS, IF ANY: ADJOURNMENT At 6:25 p.m., Committee Chair Sebourn declared the meeting adjourned to the next scheduled meeting of Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. Submitted by, 03/04/2015 Operations Committee Minutes Page 5 of 5