City of Bloomington, Indiana Utilities Service Board, 8 Jun 2020

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Bloomington Utilities Service Board. June 8, 2020

Description

meeting agenda: https://bloomington.in.gov/onboard/meetingFiles/download?meetingFile_id=5890

A

So bands that it's 5 o'clock, I'm gonna, go ahead and call this meeting of the.

A

Utilities services board on june 8th to order first item on the agenda is.

A

Approval of the minutes from our previous meeting on may 26th.

A

Are there any corrections to the minutes or any comments? Okay, seeing none, then, is.

A

There a motion to approve last meetings, minutes and the trainer. Could you please.

A

Call the roll annie- yes, sherman, yes, parmenter, yes, half.

B

Where yes, burnham, yes, all right minutes are approved. Next up we have the.

A

Claims and first we have standard invoices in the amount of nine hundred.

A

And twenty eight thousand two hundred and seventy-six dollars and 46 cents.

A

There any questions or comments on the standard invoices all right, seeing none.

A

Then is there a motion to approve standard invoices means back end and.

A

Latrina, please call the roll hamed, sir. Yes danny, yes, kapler, yes,.

B

Burnham, yes, sherman. Yes, all right. Invoices are approved utility bills in.

A

The amount of the sixty five thousand seven hundred and seventy six dollars.

A

And sixty nine cents there any questions or comments about utility bills, seeing.

A

None is there a motion to approve the utility bills.

A

And like trainer call the roll please cap where yes, burnham, yes, manik, yes,.

C

Sherman, yes, parmenter. Yes, all right utility bills are approved. Yes, I don't.

D

Think we're calling julie in the vote. She said ahead of time that she's going.

A

To abstain from all votes tonight. After sorry, sorry, thanks for checking on that.

A

Because we talked about that before you got online, so, okay, I haven't even read.

E

The packet this time, so I'm just gonna, wait till the next meeting and by then I.

E

Should be more caught up, okay, excellent, all right! Next up our wire transfers in.

A

The amount of four hundred and seventy one thousand three hundred and forty two.

A

Dollars and thirty cents any questions or comments on wire transfers, all right.

A

London is there a motion to approve wire transfers mm-hmm. Second, please call the.

A

Roll thurman, yes parmenter, yes, burnham, yes,.

B

Kapler, yes, vanek! Yes, all right.

A

Wire transfers are approved next up for customer refunds in the amount of two.

A

Hundred and forty dollars and ninety nine cents, any questions comments about refunds, all right. Seeing none is there a motion to.

A

Approve refunds, mm-hmm and latrina: please call the roll.

A

I'm answer yes, sherman, yes, bannack.

B

Yes, kapler, yes, burnham! Yes, all right! Customer refunds are approved.

A

Next, we have a consent agenda in the amount of total amount of three thousand.

A

Nine hundred and twenty nine dollars- and I will turn this over to you good.

F

Evening, everyone, as, as jean said, the consent agenda, totals three thousand.

F

Nine hundred twenty nine dollars it has control freaks llc for thirty five.

F

Hundred dollars for disinfection systems, improvement on the scada at dolman and.

F

Then four hundred twenty nine dollars to alpha liberty, company and that's the.

F

Annual calibration the balance in the scale at dillman is there any board.

F

Member who'd like to consider one of these items separately from the others.

F

Hearing none, if there's no opposition, these will be approved, as recommended by.

F

Staff hearing no opposition, these items are approved. Thank you. Thank you. Big.

A

Next item is a request for approval of the agreement modification with grimmer.

A

Construction for this ere road, hma, repair project and james league is gonna.

A

Talk about this jane, thank you for the record. This is done agreement that you.

G

Originally approved less than a month ago, this is a section of the sarah path.

G

That sank over the 24 inch water main the original agreement amount was for.

G

Four thousand five hundred and fifteen dollars and sixty two cents once he.

G

Started: construction, our crews removed the existing path and placed the stone.

G

And then he came in and placed the asphalt.

G

This is grimmer construction, the pact, the stone wasn't completely leveled and.

G

So in leveling it out with his paving machine, he took a little bit more.

G

Asphalt than was planned, so this is a contract modification to add six hundred.

G

And eighteen dollars in three cents to cover that additional material and.

G

Trucking cost it so it's now an agreement not to exceed five thousand.

G

One hundred and thirty three dollars and sixty five cents, the work is complete. We just need to agree. I need to have you agree to this.

G

So that I can make payment to them, are there any questions or comments for.

A

James, okay, I'm not seeing any then is there a motion to approve this agreement.

A

Modification, mm-hmm and latrina. Can you please call the roll.

B

Tabler? Yes, vanek! Yes, burnham, yes, sherman! Yes, all right! That.

A

Is approved thanks so much again. Next, we have a request for approval of the first.

A

Amendment to the agreement for services with electric plus ain't for the dillman.

A

Wastewater treatment plant chlorine feed system improvements in bread traders- yes.

H

Hello right reiter with the engineering department, the original this was part of.

H

Our chlorine system, enhancement, which we've done at the dylan road and this.

H

Was for all the electrical work, the project acquired and they had given us a.

H

Quote to come in and do multiple tasks as part of electrical work. We were.

H

Rushing to get the job done and all of our parts didn't come in material at the.

H

Same time, so we had him come out and do work as parts came in and this increased.

H

The cost of the contract, but we were trying to get it done as quick as we could, and so this increased the contract by 1315 dollars from its original four.

H

Thousand nine hundred dollars so now the new amount is six thousand two hundred.

H

And fifty dollars, so we happy to answer any questions related to this at all. Any.

A

Questions from the board.

A

I'm not seeing any okay, then. Is there a motion to approve this.

A

Amendment mm-hmm back-end treatment: can you call the roll.

A

Please thurmond yes harmon, sir! Yes keppler! Yes,.

B

Burnham, yes, bannack! Yes, all right! This amendment to the agreement is.

A

Approved. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is there any old business from.

A

The board any old business from staff nope.

A

Any new business from the board any new business from staff. Okay, I am not aware.

A

Of any subcommittees that, if met, is that correct, latrina, that's correct. Okay, then.

A

Staff reports- what's going on, got a few things. The first one is I'm so so happy.

F

To see president roberts his face on the screen today, which it's a joy to see, you.

F

Back the second item is, we are in the process of preparing the board room for.

F

The likelihood that we'll have to start having in-person meetings again, the.

F

Governor's executive order expires on june 13, but we don't know what will.

F

Happen after that, whether it will be extended again or whether there will be.

F

Some sort of a modified schedule, where not everybody has to be in the room, but.

F

There needs to be a certain other people in the room we just we just don't know.

F

What's going to happen, you went through a couple of different arrangements or.

F

The before we all went on zoom' and I suspect, we'll be improvising again, but.

F

In the meantime, we have been making preparations to have all seven board.

F

Members six feet apart and the necessary staff members also six feet apart in the.

I

Room so we'll be letting you know what we find out as we go along with that.

I

Concentrate is it possible that they'll be a.

I

Format, for example, if we're meeting in person, but one of us or someone on the.

I

Staff test positive that needs to be quarantined, but to be able to zoom well.

F

That's that's. I don't know what the arrangements will be. I can imagine that.

F

It's gonna we're going to whatever happens. It's going to be cut some kind.

F

Of a hybrid arrangement, because we simply can't get all the people who.

F

Might want to be in the room at the same time, so some people will be by zoom or.

F

Facebook live no matter what I don't know whether we're gonna be requiring.

F

Whether we're going to be required to have all of the floating board members.

F

That's that's certainly something that's up to the governor and I I imagine.

F

They're gonna be making some announcements soon, because the that took.

F

13Th is the end of the week, so will will I'm expecting we'll find out something's.

F

In I mean three board members who tested positive and were quarantined.

I

You wouldn't be able to have a meeting so well, and I'm just saying I know I'm.

F

Sure that they're they're trying to figure all that out, but I imagine it'll.

F

Be some sort of a modified vic, its julie? Do we have to do whatever the governor.

E

Says because I know that the monroe county health department overruled the.

E

Governor on some things, just because I'm gonna be technically an.

E

Immunocompromised, so the middle of next year, the I don't know that the county or.

F

That the or the utilities department can overrule public access counselor, the I'm.

F

Sure that all these kinds of things are coming up and they're in their.

F

Considerations, my guess is it's going to be some sort of a hybrid arrangement.

F

That's what we were on before before we went fully remote, but I suspect that.

F

We'll probably end up there again, but at this point I haven't gotten an.

F

Announcement yet from from mary katherine. But I know that this is this.

F

Date is coming up and I just more or less what I wanted you to.

F

As we were working on being ready, no matter what the governor says, vic, if you.

J

Would allow me to jump in for a second so on the 4th of june. That was when the.

J

Electronic meeting allowance was supposed to have expired and it's.

J

Actually been extended to july 4th, so we're good to continue having electronic.

J

Meetings until the 4th of july, good, ok, we'll definitely be ready by then.

F

The the third thing is, there have been some questions asked regarding the.

F

Moratorium on late fees and disconnections of service for.

F

Non-Payment at this moment, the governor's executive order on this.

F

Expires at the end of june we're proposing- and I think we talked about.

F

This at the last meeting a little bit we're proposing to late fees on july, 1st.

F

And since we don't office is always a very busy muscle month with students.

F

Coming anyway, we would wait to reinstate the disconnections.

F

Until september 1st, with our objective being to get everybody anybody who's in.

F

Arrears to work with us on either a payment plan or working with the the.

F

Customer assistance program we've been talking a little bit about where that's.

F

You know how, where that's put us in terms of revenues and accounts.

F

Receivable up to now and I, by laura to comment on it or do you have anything to.

F

Say about it: hi thanks vic, lauren, pettit, finance and.

K

Yeah, I also have invited et anderson who images our cap program intern.

K

Of revenues on we recognize revenue when we fill they have held fairly steady.

K

Through coated, we have seen an increase in our accounts receivable, but it's not.

K

A significant amount, we've really done a lot at night. You have to give credit to.

K

The team for reaching out to our customers and working with them to get.

K

On a payment plan and just communicate with us, if they're having trouble pay so.

K

That we are not putting them on a shut off list and yeah, I think that's. I can.

K

Get numbers if you guys would like to see it, but it's it hasn't. It hasn't been.

K

As bad as we had before you that it might be okay, amanda, you have a comment.

A

I had a couple of questions and um the first one is do we. I know you said.

D

You'll get the numbers to us, but do we have an idea of how many people, how many.

D

Customers have we put on a payment plan who are telling us that it's because of.

D

The kovat epidemic. My second question is how our late fees calculated and then.

D

The third question is: when we start assessing late fees, is it simply based.

D

On it's not in arrears, I guess I don't want to say I want to say, like we're, not.

D

Chart they won't get charged multiple late fees, we're just gonna start a.

D

Single late fee, starting x day, so three questions number one payment plan. How is.

D

The how our late fees assessed or weighed like what's the amount, is it a.

D

Percentage or a flat fee, and then when are we like when will be late fee, be.

D

Effective, I'm gonna have to give you the number of people who are payment plans.

K

Or coded I don't know specifically, I know that we've only used about 25% of.

K

Our have funds for the year so we're actually we've got a little little more flexibility there and reviewing things.

K

By case-by-case basis, but I don't think we haven't said no to anyone who all.

K

Dies so that was and we haven't had to get as far as I know, the second question.

K

Was about late fees and those are on current balances, 3% on water 10%, on.

K

Wastewater is how we calculate those and 3% on sanitation as well. We will not go.

A

Back to the arrearage of the extra penalties on that jim sherman yeah vic, I.

I

Was wondering if, over the last few months.

I

How has water usage been well, it's down it's down, partly because the students.

F

Left but but our our bills have not gone down by as much I'm part of the reason.

F

For that we think, is the new meters we, you know, a lot of our old meters were.

F

Slow, so there's been some offset in that flora, num dollar for dollar, where we're.

F

Breaking pretty much breaking even right so far, that's correct! So it's you know, serendipitous that we happen to be.

F

Replacing the meters at moma like this, the the other thing that I wanted to.

F

Bring up about this is that I have been asked by outside folks about extending.

F

The moratorium for service disconnections for non-payment.

F

Indefinitely, I don't think that's a good policy. We have a.

F

Policy for assisting people who are unable to pay for because they're on.

F

Hard times- and I would prefer that we take advantage of that policy if we need.

F

To we might even expand that policy right now, you can only seek out help a.

F

Couple of a total of four months per year, if the board wishes, we could expand.

F

That, owing to the crisis, but I think we should just wait and see how the how the.

F

Requests come in my my fear is that if we simply put place a a long-running.

F

Moratorium on service disconnections there, we really won't have a way of.

F

Encouraging people who can't afford to pay to not let their bills get into.

F

Arrears- and we certainly don't want to end up in a situation where people have.

F

Thousand or $1500 water bills because they haven't paid them in a long time. So.

F

It's it's. We definitely want to do everything we can to help people who are.

F

Unable to pay, but people who are able to pay, we really would like them to pay.

F

Their bills, so I think what we're trying to do is find kind of a middle ground.

F

Here, if we start running out or having a lot of demand for the customer.

F

Assistance program or if it turns out that we're finding people who are really.

F

Having a hard time for a long time, and perhaps you would like to expand that.

F

Program somewhat, we can take that up with the board. You know in a couple of.

F

Months when we see how things are playing out, does that seem like a.

F

Reasonable approach, well, I'm glad to hear you talk about those options, but.

A

Because we know some people are returning to their jobs. We also know.

A

Some people are not able to return to jobs and are having difficulty. You know.

A

Qualifying for unemployment and are really having a hard time and that's.

A

Probably going to continue through this whole thing until you know, we have a.

A

Vaccine and you know we can get back to some semblance of normal, and so I want.

A

To see some options available for those folks and I'm just curious if.

A

You know with the customer assistance program and the amount that is in that.

A

Fund, if that does start to run low, we have options in terms of any special.

A

Funding coming through and one of these relief packages from the feds or do we.

A

Have any options and city funding to increase that customer assistance.

A

Program funding, if we need to if we can find outside funding, that would.

F

Certainly be nice sort of that, though, we're on a crude accrual accounting.

F

Basis will not cash accounting like the rest of the city, so the the board can.

F

You know can direct us to go ahead and proceed. So it's not it's not quite as.

F

It's not quite as quite as constrained as it might be. If we were in a different.

F

Department, but certainly we should we should look to see if there are any.

F

Federal programs to assist with this sort of thing- I don't know that there.

F

Are thank you I'm glad to see that we're thinking about these things. Okay, thank.

A

You now we have time for petitions and communications from the public, and I.

A

Know we have one member of the public who wanted to talk with us. Mr. thackeray.

A

If you want to unmute five minutes, you know, let us know. What's going on and.

A

We'll go from there.

L

I've received a water bill for april and now I'm receiving a water bill from me.

L

And the issue that I have is that it was for a property that was a commercial.

L

Building downtown bloomington that all four units in the building were.

L

Completely shut down for the entire month of april and most of the beginning.

L

Of may, during which time there was a single toilet leaking that has accrued a.

L

Water bill of over a thousand dollars a thousand eight six.

L

Six and I had requested some kind of assistance from the department in means.

L

Of you know either losing the weight waist water portion or.

L

Any type of assistance that they could offer and all they're interested in.

L

Providing at this time is a delay in payment and and delay in payment really.

L

Doesn't solve what happened to me here? I was asked by the county in the city to.

L

Stay home, I stayed away from my property, as did all the tenants at the property.

L

You know they took the order kindly and left the abandoned business and.

L

Everything else, and now to get stuck with a thousand dollar water bill and.

L

And the fact that we had to replace the toilets and fix all the problems from.

L

Leaks, I mean it just it. It's discerning and I wanted everyone here to hear that.

L

Because it upsets me that you know there's no no care at all from the.

L

Utility department in this situation I mean we're doing what the city asked and.

L

We're getting absolutely nothing in in condolence for the situation. That's just.

L

Thought that should be brought to your attention. I think some matters should be.

L

Some alleviation, or some circumstances, okay, I thank you mr. thackeray, for your.

A

Comments and I'm sorry about the situation, they are there any comments or.

A

Thoughts from the board at this point.

A

Okay, all right! Well, thank you for that that input- and you know I'm listening to.

A

That input so all right, let's see how they are there, any other public comments.

A

That have been posted on facebook live.

E

No public comment or questions via facebook life. Okay, thank you.

A

Well, then, I think is I'll: ask: is there a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting.

A

Mm-Hmm all right, thank you. We are adjourned. Thank you. All.

M