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Home My WebLink About02-26-2003 Steering Committee Minutes,, DRAFT MINUTES OF STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, February 26, 2003, 2003 A meeting of the Steering Committee of the Orange County Sanitation District was held on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 5 p.m., in the District's Admini~ratiYe FIL ED Office TH E OFF IC E OF TH E SECR ETAR Y · ORANG E G(\11~1 'T'V "• ~J•n T inN DISTR ICT (1) The roll was called and a quorum declared present, as follows: MAR 2 6 200 3 STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS: OTHERS PRESE rJll:~----· _tv_fJ___~--· Directors Present: Shirley McCracken, Chair Steve Anderson, Vice Chair Jim Ferryman, Chairman, OMTS Committee Brian Donahue, Chairman, PDC Committee Brian Brady, Chairman , FAHR Committee Norm Eckenrode, Past Board Chair Directors Absent: Jim Silva, County Supervisor (2) APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR PRO TEM No appointment was necessary. (3) PUBLIC COMMENTS Thomas L. Woodruff, General Counsel Don Hughes Layne Baroldi Mike Moore Ryal Wheeler Randy Fuhrman Joan Irvine Smith Jan Vandersloot STAFF PRESENT: Blake Anderson, General Manager Bob Ghirelli, Director of Technical Services Carol Beekman, Communications Services Manager Jean Tappan, Committee Secretary Randy Fuhrman complimented the ECM staff on their work towards moving to Class A biosolids. He also complimented the work of the Engineering Department on the work it has done on the Cl P reassessment. Joan Irvine Smith expressed her appreciation for supporting the blue ribbon panel concept with NWRI. (4) RECEIVE, FILE AND APPROVE MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the January 22, 2003 Steering Committee meeting were approved as drafted. Director Jim Ferryman abstained. (5) REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE CHAIR Committee Chair Shirley McCracken reminded the members that the CASA Conference is going to be held at the Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite and reservations are due as soon as possible. Chair McCracken reported that she has asked staff to prepare a monthly listing of compensation payments made to directors for meetings that they have attended on behalf of the District. The governing resolution requires prior approval by the Chair for meeting attendance before compensation can be made. Corrections will be made after-the-fact in the following month's payment cycle. Chair McCracken, as chair of the Legislative Advocacy Ad Hoc Committee , reported that the committee has been meeting weekly for the past month to keep our legislative program on track. She outlined the discussion issues and indicated that proposals are due this week for services to seek grants from the state bond propositions. (6) REPORT OF THE GENERAL MANAGER Bob Ghirelli filled in for the General Manager until he returned from a meeting with the Orange County Taxpayers Association where support is being sought for exempting stormwater and urban runoff from Proposition 218 requirements. A. Report on EMT Retreat Dr. Ghirelli reported on the EMT retreat that was held January 30-31 and February 10. The goal was to develop the major unifying strategies that will be proposed to the Board for adoption and for use by our employees. The strategies will help describe / the overall strategic direction and intention of the agency and support major policy decisions that the board has made, including the move to secondary treatment standards, GWRS, water resources management and our overall wastewater treatment program, including our $2 billion (plus) capital improvement program. B. Progress towards Achieving 30/30 Secondary Treatment Standards Dr. Ghirelli reported that work continues to move to secondary treatment standards. Secondary treatment level is now at 68 percent. Suspended solids averaged 33 ppm, close to the 30 ppm standard. BOD averaged 47 ppm. The expert panel that is reviewing our secondary treatment facilities construction schedule met for the second time today. The panel includes experts in wastewater treatment engineering, construction and operations plus a representative from OC Coastkeepers. It is chaired by Jerry Thibeault. It is taking an independent look at the scheduled developed by staff. C. Disinfection Update Dr. Ghirelli reported that staff has successfully disinfected our effluent since mid- August. There have been a number of days when the District's own operational targets (a much stricter standard) were not met, but that has been rare. The State's surfzone bathing water standards have been met without exception at 4.5 miles out in the ocean, around our outfall for 200 days. The bacterial counts in Huntington Beach appear to be unaffected by disinfecting our effluent. An evaluation will be done to see if the amount of bleach could be reduced. A presentation will be made at the April Board meeting. D. State Budget Crisis General Manager Blake Anderson reported that there was nothing new to report. Staff Minutes of the Steering Committee Page 3 February 26, 2003 will continue to monitor the situation and notify the Board if something occurs that impacts the District. E. Special OMTS Workshop on Asset Management Proposed Staff is recommending that a special OMTS workshop on Asset Management be conducted on March 19 beginning at 5 p.m. to give the directors a better understanding of asset management and the possibilities and costs. This program can substantially reduce our life cycle costs and make us more efficient. An invitation will be extended to all directors to attend this workshop. The Steering Committee agreed with staff's recommendation. F. Directors Compensation Mr. Anderson reported that present directors compensation is set at $170 per meeting as established by resolution adopted in January 2001. State law allows for a 5 percent increase every calendar year, provided the Board adopts an ordinance to do so. Staff was seeking direction on whether to proceed with a new ordinance. The Steering Committee decided that a compensation increase is not appropriate at this time but that it would be revisited annually at its January meeting. (7) REPORT OF GENERAL COUNSEL General Counsel Tom Woodruff reported that a detailed outline was included in the directors Board agenda package on changes to the Conflict of Interest provisions of state law. The members of the Steering Committee determined that the existing lists of warrants would be sufficient for checking for individual conflicts for the time being. It was suggested that a reminder to directors to check for possible conflicts of interest be added to agenda reports on new contracts. (8) DISCUSSION ITEMS (Items A-C) A. Status of NPDES Permit Renewal and Negotiation Process Bob Ghirelli reported that one of the conditions of the permit renewal for disinfection was that a report would be prepared on various options for disinfection other than bleach. The engineering department is working on the report and will be submitting it to the Regional Board this week. Additional testing will begin this summer. It appears that UV is the prevailing technology. The goal is to move away from bleach and dechlorination. Actual negotiations will get underway once the CIP has been validated and the Board approves the schedule. B. The Agenda Items scheduled to be reviewed by the Board's working committees in March were reviewed. C. The agenda items scheduled to be presented to the Board at tonight's meeting were reviewed. Mr. Woodruff reported that a bid protest has been received on Item 16. He will be recommending against upholding the protest and explained his reasons. • Minutes of the Steering Committee Page4 February 26, 2003 (9) OTHER BUSINESS, COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS, IF ANY There were none. (10) MATTERS WHICH A DIRECTOR WOULD LIKE STAFF TO REPORT ON AT A SUBSEQUENT MEETING Bob Ghirelli said that the final report on the Huntington Beach studies has been moved to April. The presentation will include a video showing life at the end of the outfall before and after disinfection. He also said that additional work has been planned. (11) MATTERS WHICH A DIRECTOR MAY WISH TO PLACE ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR ACTION AND/OR STAFF REPORT The General Manager's evaluation, usually scheduled for January, has been on hold awaiting completion of the MOUs with employee organizations. The Steering Committee asked that the evaluation be considered next month and compensation issues be discussed when the MOU process is complete. (12) CONSIDERATION OF UPCOMING MEETINGS The next Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, 2003 at 5 p.m. The next Board Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, 2003 at 7 p.m. (13) CLOSED SESSION The Committee convened at 6:16p.m. in Closed Session, pursuant to Government Code Sections 54956.9 (b), 54956.9(a) and 54956.9(c), to discuss three litigation matters. Minutes of the Closed Session are on file with the Board Secretary. Confidential Minutes of the Closed Session held by the Steering Committee have been prepared in accordance with Government Code Section 54957.2, and are maintained by the Board Secretary in the Official Book of Confidential Minutes of Board and Committee Closed Meetings. No reportable actions were taken on Agenda Items Nos. 13.A.(1 ), (2) and (3). At 6:45p.m., the Committee reconvened in regular session. (14) ADJOURNMENT The Chair declared the meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Minutes of the Steering Committee Page 5 February 26, 2003 Steering Committee Secretary G:\wp.dta\agenda\Steering Committee\03\FEB\022603 Steering Committee Minutes.doc