Board Meeting
January 27, 2025
Transcript
Describer:
Board Meeting Agenda
Monday, January 27th, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. 7404 Yorkshire Drive, Castle Pines, CO 80108
I. Welcome. Call meeting to order. Pledge of Allegiance.
II. Roll call. Determination of quorum. Disclosure of potential conflicts.
III. Consider approving the January 27th, 2025, board meeting agenda.
IV. Consider approving the November 20th, 2024, Study Session minutes.
V. Consider approving the November 25th, 2024, board meeting minutes.
VI. Public comment period. (Three-minute maximum per person).
VII. Presentation & Discussion RE: The possibility of the District merging
with the City of Castle Pines. Michael Penny, City Manager.
VIII. Communication Director’s report.
IX. Finance Director's report. Eric Harris, Finance Director
A. Finance provider transition update.
B. Discussion on finance board packet requests, and monthly due
date for board packet.
X. Legal Counsel's report.
A. Consider: Financial Controls Resolution.
B. Discuss & Consider: Amendment to District Rules and Regulations requiring renewable water rights for inclusion.
C. Consider: Annual Administrative Resolution.
D. 2025 Election update. Consider resolution appointing the designated election official.
XI. District Manager’s report.
A. Consider: Customer service staffing proposal.
B. Mountain States Employer’s Council Discussion.
C. Conservation Program Update
D. Monarch Waterline Project Phase 2 Update.
E. Filter Rehab Project selection committee appointment.
F. Asset Management Program update.
G. Consider: Unlimited PTO beta test.
H. Consider: Level Engineering General Agreement.
I. Consider: Kennedy Jenks Agreement for Services.
J. Consider: Semocor Agreement for Operations Services.
K. Consider: Utilo Proposal for locate services.
L. Review: Current Contractors and service agreements.
XII. Executive Session RE: District Manager’s Contract.
A. The Board may upon motion and a 2/3 vote, enter into executive session for the sole purpose of conducting contract negotiations and to instruct negotiators as allowed by Sections 402(3)(a) and
402(4)(e)(1), Colorado Revised Statutes
B. Action Items following executive session, if necessary.
XIII. Discuss the necessity of February study session, or potential work session.
XIV. Director’s Matters.
XV. Adjourn.
Describer:
The video starts on graphic with a white background and forest green letters which says “Castle Pines North Metro District Board Meeting January 27, 2025”. The meeting opens on a shot of all board members present.
Board President Jason Blackaert:
Good evening and welcome to the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District Board meeting. Today is Monday, January 27th at 6 p.m.. We are going to call the meeting to order and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Describer:
The board members and the audience rise from their seats and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, as the camera pans from left to right from the board to management staff to the audience and back to the board. When they are done, they sit down again.
All Speak:
I Pledge of Allegiance To the flag. And it is to me your house and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.
Jason:
For all. All right. Thank you. All right. Our next order of business is to approve the agenda. The board meeting, minutes and the study session. Minutes. If there are no objections to these, we will not have some changes. Okay, well, we'll, we'll mark them approved. Go ahead. any changes? So. Sorry, I'm trying to accept three.
Board Member Tera Radloff:
Yeah, I'm trying to do them all to get well because I have. Right. I have changes to the minutes. Which, Okay.
Jason Off mic:
Study session? Yes.
Tera:
There was on the study session minutes. It says the board determined to proceed with the scheduled rate increase. And that's a study session. So the board isn't actually making any decisions or giving any direction. So and that is the in the last page of the November 20th, 2024, study session minutes. So that needs to be revised.
And then in the minutes of the regular board meeting minutes, it has the name of Terry Rebuild, publisher of the Castle Pines connection. It's actually W has in water. It's rebuild not rebuild. So those need to be corrected.
Tera:
So I'll make a motion and that we accept the agenda as presented. And the study session minutes and board meeting minutes with the revisions noted.
Board Voting All Speak:
And I'll second. All right. Having a second. We'll go to vote Jim I Tera, I Jana I, I, I approve as well. The motions pass. Okay.
Jason:
We're going to open up item number six.
The public comment public comment is designed to share your thoughts and concerns with the district, but it is not an interactive discussion. If you'd like to give public comment, please sign up at the clipboard in the back of the room. Or, if you're attending virtually, type your name and address into the chat feature to be placed in the queue.
Will now pause and give people a chance to sign up.
Do we have anybody signed up tonight? All right. Very good. We will. Anybody online now okay. Very good. We'll go ahead and close out the public comment session and we will open up number seven. The presentation and discussion with the districts merging with the City of Castle Pines with Michael Penny, City Manager. Thank you, Michael.
Very well.
Michael Penny, City Manager:
There we go. Ours is a green light. so thanks for the opportunity. I, I want to open a little bit, I think with, even the title of the agenda item might be a little misleading in here because, I'm going to kind of hit the bottom line here, and then I want to back up a little bit.
But, just so folks know, I was asked to come and speak as an option for you to consider as part of the totality of the due diligence that I think this board has been entertaining, probably for some years now. several years actually going back to, the voter, voted, voter supported merger with, Parker Water and Sand.
and just a couple of little kind of background pieces in here. It's I think we have the same goals and the same constituents. we have an incredible relationship right now. There's no, there hasn't been for several years. Probably 4 Nathan would remember better than I would. we haven't had any adversarial relationship. I'm not coming here.
trying to take over anything. I'm just laying out options for you that I think you are ultimately responsible for as part of the totality of of your, due diligence. I actually, in my notes, I said, we all want the same things like clean water and pothole free streets. And, you know, those are just two great examples that, we hear constantly.
I'm sure you hear about the first one that we hear about the second one on a regular, basis. there is certainly on my part. no intent to circumvent your process. You're an independently duly elected body, and I'm doing all these qualifiers because I think there's been, some misnomers or misstatements about my views or what?
Why I'm here. I have not had any conversation with the city council because I believe whether you agree or not, this so starts solely with you, as you are duly responsible for water and sewer within the city. it's only if and a big capital if this board was interested in doing anything else, that I would bring it up to the city Council.
because they would ask 100 questions that I couldn't answer unless, this board had wanted to do that. So, so backing up a little bit, I think our two entities have had over the years, many of you have lived here a long time. The relationships have not always been good. starting from when the city actually incorporated in 2009.
And that's why I point out that I think the relationship is excellent right now. The elected bodies get get along well. the staff have an amazing relationship. We've had great projects together, certainly in the road and water line replacements. And then I think our capstone partnership, collaborative was on the Parks and Rec and moving that over. And that was, clearly both with the work of that you all did, and also in partnership with the North Pine Vista metro district and the Canyons Metro District.
And so just an example of how I think when there is mutual interest in something, we are able to carry it out. And now the question for you with everything else that you're doing is, is this an option that you guys, want to look at? a little, background just this is now my view not related to the council is all in, Nathan.
And I've had this conversations, and I actually believe that, Tera and I have had this conversation over the years that one of the constitutional, allowances in, in Colorado constitutional related to home rule municipalities for city councils is their land use control. They are granted that land use control and those decisions and if and when there are conflicts with other entities, metro districts in particular, it can come at a place where those metro districts, in our example, in our world, it would be their castle in the North metro district, specifically providing water and sewer or, Parker water and sewer when their policies or fees potentially can get at odds with the
council's land use authority. And an example of that could be, just a very simplistic example is maybe tap fees get to the point that developers aren't as interested in developing in the community. Yet the council wants x number of units developed in a certain area or something like that. And when you get crossways like that, then you've got to have those conversations.
Excuse me. just to maintain the alignment of the council's, home rule control for land use and the district, whatever it may be, and what their ultimately goals are. We haven't had that issue here, and I don't foresee it happening, certainly not on the west side of town, because essentially we're built out, for the most part, and very little development left.
So we're much more in an operation and maintenance mode from the physical environment. And then obviously, I think the big undertaking, as I understand it, that you guys are working on is really what's that long term renewable water supply look like. And and so part of my discussion is going to be is splitting that out. But I bring that up because there are and I have worked in other places where the municipality might be responsible for water, but not for sewer or vice versa.
And I have definitely seen that conflict happen when those policies from the providing district are at odds. And again, we don't we don't have that I know, foresee that happening. given the development on this side yet to be seen with Parker water and sand because we have a lot more development on the east side. but right now, obviously it's a great relationship over there.
All right. So with those kind of preambles and, background, then I would say, and I don't have a whole lot to say about the specifics of it because I think it's pretty straightforward. But, municipalities do provide water and sewer sewer service all across the nation, and certainly in Colorado. Locally, Castle Rock is, full service community.
And I point that out just because municipalities being responsible for water and sewer and or sewer, it's not uncommon. when I was in Littleton, we had sewer, but we didn't have water. and so it just kind of varies depending upon where, where you work. But in title 31, which is, the enabling statute for municipalities, water and sewer are clearly, a viable use.
The, the issue of us taking if, if again I'm going to keep qualifying that if and here is that if there was an interest I think you could do it through an intergovernmental agreement. you are an independent elected body. You guys aren't going anywhere. I should have said that earlier, that I think the relationship that we have now, I mean, the maintenance of where we're at, it can continue exactly like it is, if that's what you all want.
the voters were asked something a few years ago that didn't pan out. And so, you know, I think as I understand it, part of the due diligence you are doing is what is the future? Where do we get that renewable water supply? And then what is the future of this? The Castle Pines North metro district entity. But again, that's that's up to you.
If there was interest, we could simply do it through an intergovernmental agreement where similar to what we did with parks and Recreation. you would continue to collect the, the mills and the city would be responsible for those operations. and essentially, you know, for all intents and purposes, Nathan would be a city employee. and that we would be responsible for, similar to we were for Parks Rec, maintenance.
We would be responsible for, for, water and sewer operations on a on a personal level, from my perspective, I don't I believe and again, it's just my opinion. I absolutely believe that the work that you guys are doing around the renewable piece shouldn't change. You guys have the years of knowledge and experience in that arena. there's no reason that I can logistically see to make a left turn and hand that off to anybody else, whether it's a city council or some other organization.
Seems to me following through with that. But again, that's a decision that you all have to make. All I'm speaking to is the water and sewer operations. And that's really just the, the, the maintenance of the facilities. And taking care of any issues that are there. And again, that's well, I think the simplistic way is through that IGA and then you guys figure out what's going on with renewable.
And there's a decision to stay together, merge with Parker or merge somewhere else. You know whatever the options are there you guys, you guys are looking at you know, the and and again, not to, get ahead of myself and into your conversation, but the if there is an advantage I see the advantage really probably in two areas.
One is we have an existing infrastructure with legal with admin staff. You know, with front desk, with clerks. You know, we've we've got that infrastructure that's in place and that's why I'm oversimplifying it. But essentially, you know, it's an IGA. And Nathan's check says City and Castle Pines. And again, being a little presumptuous, it would seem like what that offers to you if you were interested in this is the opportunity then to focus solely on the renewable place.
Renewable. I don't know what the workload is and whether that makes a difference or not, but to really be able to focus solely on what is that long term water supply look like, where do you get it from? Having worked in and around water for going on 30 plus years? it is not a quick process. I know that, and there are people who have lived their entire careers from probably when they could walk up until, Kim Seters sage is who I heard is, growing younger as we, Benjamin Benjamin Button movie.
but point is, I mean, people spend their careers in this, and it is complicated in Colorado and and the complexity by which you guys have been educating yourselves and evaluating options is exactly why I would not suggest, even if you guys were interested in it, would probably not. I mean, I'm speaking a little off the cuff, but probably not, recommend that that move to the city.
So so it's really just around those operations and maintenance piece. And I think in the mix of however many things you guys are looking at, that's another one to throw in. We're very capable to be able to take that over. If that was the desire, we'd obviously ramp up some things. but I don't see additional staff coming on board.
There's there's potentially some savings in some of the overhead. I don't know how much that is. Nathan and I could probably calculate that for you if that was something that the board was interested in. But it's really just been, some preliminary conversations and again, asked to come and just present that and, I'm happy to drill further in, but I think until there's actually interest, not worth spending a whole lot of time on it.
But, and then if there was obviously I'd go to the city council and we'd have a conversation there about whether they wanted to accept that and what those details look like. But it all starts with an intergovernmental agreement. Sorry, I shouldn't have said IGA before, instead of Intergovernmental agreement. Hopefully not too many other acronyms. So with that, Jason,
Jason:
Great. Thank you, Michael. Really appreciate you taking time out of your day to come down here and talk to us. does any of the board have any questions for Michael?
Leah:
well, first of all, I just wanted to say thank you. it's nice to meet you. Really appreciated your time. and that overview. And then I just wanted to recap, just to make sure I understand what you're saying, but it sounds like. Aside from, you know, primarily focusing on renewable water, like our board day to day wouldn't necessarily change.
And it sounds like what would change. and again, all the caveats in place is that there would be kind of that level of oversight. and then we would be able to, streamline some of like the staff, maintenance operations, functions. Is that did I capture that?
Michael:
Yeah, I think it's a summary. I mean, if you think about you are you are responsible for water and sewer under your service plan right now.
And you were elected, to carry out that role. And so you are in full charge of and I'm going to use the IGA is an example of identifying, you know, what accountability do you want if you were to do that? You know, what oversight you still want over the water and sewer operations if there's a break or something, you know, what's the notification requirement that you would want?
So you can really lay out the expectation that this board would have of your service provider, which is what I'm essentially suggesting or not suggesting, but offering as an as an option is that the city becomes the service provider. And so you can list out exactly what those details are. But yes, in summary, I just want to emphasize that you can get, you know, down to the minutia of to whatever level you feel comfortable or necessary.
Leah:
Thank you. And then, just one last follow up question. So we started to explore, like, what does the future look like in our previous meeting, last week. And one of the concerns that was brought up was around the, the mills. So this is probably likely more for Paul. based on what Michael has presented, is that still a concern?
Legal Counsel Paul Polito, Esq.:
You know, it depends on what the eventual IGA looks like. and who's the service provider? if we would still be the service provider, then, then the most would still be. I mean, this should still be in effect. but it does depend on on where those responsibilities are parsed out in the IGA,
Michael:
May I, so excuse me.
That's why I gave the parks IGA, and maybe I didn't go into it enough, but that's exactly how the parks idea was originally set up, right? The Castle Pines North Metro district continued to collect those, and then I don't remember the exact details in the agreement, but it basically said the money that we're collecting for Parks and Rec, we're going to give to the city.
And here's everything that you need to do in order to maintain the Parks and Rec that you ultimately were still responsible for. Now that one probably had a shorter time frame on it, because there was something in it about, the city would go to the vote of the people within a year or two years or something like that, and then it it continued, because we obviously can't control whether the voters say yes or no to, to something like that.
This one, you know, to to Paul's point, I think there's definitely more detail because it really ties in, if you're going to make a final decision whether to, to stay or do, you know, whatever you do. And I don't know what that time frame is. It could be three years, five years. I mean, I think right, whenever you get through that renewable water piece.
And so we'd have to really think about and make sure that those checks and balances are in place, for both parties ultimately. But but at the beginning for you to ensure that you have the confidence level in there. But in nowhere in this, do I believe that it would be even appropriate to go to the voters?
And until there is a really a decision that you have made as a, as a body, as an organization.
Jason:
Anybody else?
James:
And I'll take one or maybe two. hang on a second. Wrote down that you didn't discuss with the city council, and that's fine. was the mayor informed or did you discuss it with her at this point?
Michael:
Only that I'm coming out. Came over here, Not in any detail.
James
Did she have any opinion on it? No. Okay.
Michael:
not not that she communicated to me
James:
Okay. second one was, And I think you might have remember me coming after we did the IGA and we had the meeting. and I did speak at city council, and I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit. Yeah. That's me, because I kind of question you guys taking the full Mills.
And this discussion happened afterwards because I just was limited to three minutes. But I also remember and it's written that you had economies of scale in mind, and it would actually be cheaper for the town because you're already doing some stuff with the parks and what have you. And absorbing these additional, properties would essentially allow you to do their job cheaper and take less.
And the end of that, or sort of after. I ended up speaking, there was this big conversation about a $41 million park that you discussed, and you know how long that would take to save up for that or that would be a bond issue. it goes to credibility. one, there was no economies of scale, at least currently today and no reduction in mills.
And two, it concerned me tremendously that we're bringing up something like that. while the IGA was still kind of in motion and still finalized and, and. What I'm sort of digging at here is, is what prevents something similar to that happening. either changing services and keeping the mills high or increasing the mills. Right now we don't take our full mills.
but we're allowed to go up to seven, I think. Correct. And we're taking roughly half of that. And I have concerns that something similar would occur in the future. And I want to hear you talk to me.
Michael:
Yep. Absolutely. No. Happy too happy to respond on all of those. so, bear with me for a little bit because there's, there's, a lot in Jim's question, so appreciate that.
So let me start with the original Mills. And so the Council North Metro district was collecting 19 mills, the, North Pine Vista was collecting 19 mills.
Jason:
sorry, we weren't collecting 19 mills. We were able to mills, but we're only collecting 16,
Michael:
correct? Yeah. Apologize for that. Thanks for that clarification. So the ability to collect and I was going to get to that.
On the Tabor limitations on the on the collection piece. Probably should have work that in there. But suffice to say that all three major metro districts could, could collect up to 19 mills. The reason that we took 12 mills. And so the history, the history, historical expenditure from what we looked at in this goes to, to what Jim and Jason are saying is, the metro district spend approximately 15 mills on average over the last.
I don't know when that metro district started, mid 80s or whatever it was. Right. And so when when we were developing that IGA, the and the four of the remaining four mills is what was going to water and sewer ostensively without getting into exact mills count. But just bear with me on that. The reason we only asked for 12.
We didn't take all the mills. We asked for 12, because the voters had previously voted to have the metro district merged with Parker, and at that time, Parker had said, we need seven mills to be collected from the Castle Pines North property owners. And so the council made the concession to say, look, even though it appears that the metro district had been spending more on parks maintenance over the years through up to 15 mills, I'll say it that way.
Again, not trying to be exact in this, but we dropped it down to 12 so that if and when this board or future board made the decision to merge with Parker, you had the full seven mills still available, so you wouldn't have to go to the voters and say, oh, we only have four now. Can we go to three because we know how that potentially would go over.
So I would say that we really tighten our belts in that. And you have not seen that economies of scale yet, because part of the other agreement that we have with the other, side with with the canyons, metro district is we have to use their contractor for another year and a half or two years or something like that on exactly.
I don't know what it is. So it's until we run through that contract that will be able to do that single contract. This is what Jim was referring to, speaking to economies of scale. But as long as we have these separate contracts, we're really not going to see any benefit. But we're still committed to maintaining the high level of service that both you, the North met, North Pine Vista, as well as, the Canyons Metro District did at 12 mills, even though all three districts are spending more than that, on Parks and recreation.
The there is a limitation on what? And I'm going to look to Paul to correct me if I'm using incorrect language here, but the council points north Metro district cannot use all seven of those mills because you can only take up to 10%, into your enterprise funds or water and sewer that are not fee related. So there is a natural limitation both on what you could take and ultimately the question around scope creep.
If you will, would come down to the IGA because the money that you currently allocate to to water and sewer, you could say city, this is how much you get and you have to maintain it on that same level of money that we've been maintaining and on you know, whether there's additional savings or not, we'd have to drill into or go that way.
So so I don't. So I wouldn't agree that this, that the, that there was scope creep. Oh I know the other thing you asked about. It's actually a $70 million park. and, and those are two different things. Right. Once in operations and maintenance. And the other was a comprehensive, year long public process that asked people what they wanted to see for a Coyote Ridge Park expansion.
And a 75 acre park at Soaring Hawk on the east side of town. And so that was done through that process. And that's a capital, long term capital investment. So the conversation in one hand is around the operations and maintenance. And that's really what we're talking about here, not capital expansion. I mean I haven't Nathan and I haven't talked about, you know, whatever future capital expansion is necessary at the treatment plant, water or sewer.
And you guys would have to build that into the IGA, how we're going to handle those and those kind of things. But I really think, Jim, that those are two ultimate different things. And the council's going to have to figure out, you know, when you if you if we're already having a tight belt on 12 mills to maintain operations, there's a there's a small delta left to do the capital improvements, which is what the public has said, hey, we want to see these big things, and we're either going to have to save up or enough to do a bond.
I mean, that would be for future councils to figure out what they want. But but I don't. One, I would necessarily agree that the way you framed it is accurate. And to I think this is a, this is a very different animal in some respects. Is that, that help?
James:
it helps me understand, the way you think about it.
But it was also going into a revaluation for all our properties in town. So those 12 mills turned into a lot more dollars. And granted, over time there's inflation and what have you. But I think my point was, is a temporary reduction in mills to what you guys actually needed to run. And you're telling me that you needed those full 12 mills, plus the revaluation, which, you know, if you talk dollars to dollars, I think it was a significant amount more money.
Michael:
Yeah. And I apologize. I don't have those numbers. I would say that that's at the end of the day, that's a city council decision. I mean, and I realize that you'd be transferring it over to the city council, so it's a valid concern. my recollection from that discussion during the I want to say it was, I can't remember, was the budget retreat or the night of the budget is that they did want to.
And I'm going to throw out a number, but don't quote me or record me on it. but I think it ended up being about 3.6 million that we had left. Again, I could be off by, a matter of magnitude, but the reason that the council, the majority of the council wanted that was because they did want to start saving up so that we could make some improvements.
They're making a $4 million, improvements in Coyote Ridge Park this year. and there's a chunk of change to start something at Soaring Hawk so that the folks who live on the East Side feel like they're seeing a return on their investment in this, because this is a citywide 12 mills. It's not a Castle Pines North metro district, only mills.
And so, again, I think the majority of the council would say that they really wanted to start to build that up so they could take some tangible chunks out of some of these projects, whether it's, you know, just putting in grading water, sewer and electric, those kind of things, so we can start to, to move the dial forward.
And alternatively, you end up with just ONM and then there's no capital. And you've just finished this year plus long public engagement process. And people are feeling like, why do I take the time if you're not even going to try to do anything with it? So it's a policy decision in the council. And, you know, some folks thought it was the right thing to do and some didn't.
The majority moved it forward. So, absolutely valid. concern out there. the other last thing I'd leave because property taxes, a whole debate by itself. But property taxes go up and they come way down, south Metro fires right now looking at what to do for massive shortfalls over the next ten years, even though there was a huge uptick in they had a huge increase last year.
But when they looked at long term projections, they're they're now looking at do they increase property tax. They move into sales tax arenas. so so when you're, when your change does not necessarily bode well for long term revenue, in property tax as you guys know. this as well. So did I hit all of them?
James:
Appreciate your comments. Okay.
Tera:
Thank you for coming. and I actually have a lot of questions, so it's probably not before I sit down. Well, I think it would depend on, you know, whether that would be something that the this board wanted to pursue. I appreciate you coming and offering that up as an option.
We didn't get to our discussion what it would be, whether that would be something this board would be interested in. And I totally appreciate your process saying that you're only providing us that you're an option and that it only that you would only take it up if that was something
Michael:
100% Tera, absolutely
Tera:
about it with your elected officials. So I just want to acknowledge that on your part in the scenario that you gave where, the Parks and Rec.
that was because there was synergy, correct? Because we have parks and the city had parks and there was synergy there.
Michael:
certainly one of the reasons. Yeah.
Tera:
Is there any synergy with water sewer right now?
Michael:
Not in the same analogy. I don't think it's analogous. No.
Tera:
And then in the transfer of the parks, can you giving me, a little bit of insight of when we let them go, how things were going, because I know it was right in the middle of, the new pickleball, pickleball courts coming up.
And I think we were going to have an online registration system that then fell through or it didn't happen for some reason. And, I it was that how successful was that was that received well by the community or the pickleball courts? The no reservations on the pickleball courts, management of the pickleball.
Michael:
Yeah, as far as I know.
So it changed because the parks board, we have one we had he's not on anymore, but we had a pickleball fanatic. I think that's a fair term to to use with some of these folks. and in his experience, he had recommended to the board that we not have, a reservation system, and it seems to have gone over incredibly well.
There's there were some occasional flare ups, I think, the very beginning, but I haven't heard anything since then. So and again, that's, that's one of those things that, you know, we've we've got a parks advisory board. They made a recommendation if things needed to change. But now I've heard that both the experienced players and those other, the others, the signage is sufficient to for people to understand, to put their paddles up and put them in order and people have also really like the, we had, learning classes last year, and we're going to do that again this summer.
So if people are interested
Tera:
and then, so and the other scenario you gave would be that we do an IGA, which I still am not sure how that would work legally because camps that are said something different. But, Oh, shoot.
oh, so the scenario that you gave, that, you know, Nate would move over and just get a paycheck. So how how is that really in efficiency? Like whether whether the paycheck is from the metro districts or whether that.
Jason:
Yeah, seems like you're adding a layer of government or layer of, a layer to this that is not here now and is probably not necessary.
Michael:
Yeah. And that so that's a conversation for you guys to have. I think that's not we did we, Nathan and I did not do an analysis of exactly what those savings were. The, the the core part of the conversation was we have an existing infrastructure. So if if you all are looking at adding staff, we may have that staff person.
We've got a finance department, we've got a HR department. We have an attorney and, you know, not the water law attorney but attorney that can do IGAs and, you know, agreements and those kind of things. Again, as I said earlier, I don't know what the savings would potentially be. And Jason, your point is, is valid. And again, depending upon how that IGA is drafted, you don't need two elected bodies working on essentially the same thing.
And that's why it seemed to me if there was a division that the board would want to consider would be simply in the maintenance and operation. Because we do maintenance and operation, we do contracts with contractors, etc., and fix things and all that. The complexity that you guys know better than anyone around the long term renewable water supply and the work that you've already done, that's where I'm saying I don't think that.
I mean, again, it's your decision, but I don't I would not transfer that to anybody else. Just finish that up. It's again, it's a capital if there's any interest, if there's not, you guys can have that conversation. And, I don't need to do any work if there's interest in delving into it further than Nathan and I are fully capable of doing that.
It is 100% is sitting in the five of you.
Board Member Jana Krell:
And just to for us, as Michael said, a conversation for us. I want to say it does not make sense to me to say it would duplicate government. Everything about it to me reduces government. We exist. The city exists. Those two things are already true. So if that can go under one manager, to me that's the reduction is then we are all the body of the board exist.
So I don't know. I don't understand how that would ever be a a a duplication of it, since that's the we were already operating now.
Jason Off-mic:
Unintelligible...
Jana:
that's fine. But so that but I mean we keep saying it would it would increase government and that one I just feel really strongly that it does not increase government. So.
Leah:
I have a question. Of course, in your opinion, if we had an IGA with the city for water and wastewater, would that make us more attractive to a larger metro district? in terms of an integration?
Michael:
I don't know that I can answer that. I have a bunch of assumptions, but it probably wouldn't be appropriate for me. Can I take a pass on that one and and not get myself in trouble?
Leah:
Oh, no. Absolutely. Like that. Maybe this one would. Would it help the metro district have more negotiating power?
Micheal
Yeah, I don't so.
So let me answer a kind of a roundabout. The some water districts may see the value of the met, and this is pure supposition. So I'm just speaking out of turn. Would look at your water rights, your storage capacities, who you've got existing agreements with to to wield water as the value I would venture to say that most managers and Nathan can probably not his head or shake his head are going to look at the water and wastewater maintenance side as a liability.
Right? Because it's an asset that depreciates and it breaks. The value is water in Colorado. And so how a particular metro district or water district, I'll say that because they're not all metro districts, you know, whether it's the village, whether it's Parker or whether it's Highlands Ranch, you know, what their particular needs are is going to they're going to look at you differently about what they see.
Excuse me as a value. you know, at the end of the day, even with the IGA, you're still responsible for water and sewer maintenance. It's just through that intergovernmental agreement. It's not until the voters actually move some mills over and you all agree that's appropriate, that you're out of that business. So I don't think setting up the IGA really does anything to the overall piece of it.
the value of that, if you truly didn't have if you were just a water service provider and there are those in the state, there's probably a lot of people who would look at it and say, there's value in here because of the water rights issue, but of course, you've got the requirement to maintain water service to the 3500 homes or whatever is on the west side now.
So do that. I don't know if that helped at all.
Leah:
No, it did, and I'm coming from a place of just wanting to learn and understand. I know that can potentially be a political minefield. And that wasn't my intent. But it was more to just trying to understand, like we, you know, there's options and there's probably pros and cons associated with each of those options.
And so just yeah,
Michael:
absolutely. You know, there's pros and cons to anything where we decide to go to dinner.
Jason:
Well thank you again Michael. You bet. We really appreciate tonight I was given some stuff to think about. and, yeah.
Michael:
if any other questions do come up that need clarification as part of your deliberation, let me know.
And if I can end again, there is no push on this. This is information only. It sits with all of you. Great. All right. Thanks again. Thank you.
Jason:
All right. We'll go ahead and close out. Item number seven the presentation and discussion. And we will open up item number eight, the Communication Communication Director's report. Bailey.
Communications Director Bailey Budnik:
Good evening. I know this was a larger communications report, so if anyone has any guiding questions and areas we can jump into first let me know.
Jason:
I think we can just hit the high points.
Leah:
No.
I would be curious. Just. I mean, I looked at the data. but I would just be curious, like, what are your main takeaways or what are your main learnings? or, you know, even wrapped in, like, recommendations to think about for the future. So just kind of like, what's that yearly recap at like the 10,000ft view?
Bailey:
Definitely.
I think both from the data and just being on the ground and listening to residents, I definitely think email communication is very important. and also taking inspiration from I took a look at what the district's communication was like 3 or 4 years ago and diving in this see how, it was going then. And I think merging the two.
So for example, I, I saw in 2023, Nathan would do a lot of just letters to the district, I think including that into some of the email communication and really giving a voice and not just a monolithic structure of communication. So definitely personifying it a little bit more and then also providing more opportunities like a study session or board or a board session, where we can talk to people just like that
rate increase. Open house. We did doing more of those, maybe even like a monthly session, or even communicating with the library or other public areas. And we could, you know, create some more conversations like that where either I come and we host or, you know, lunch with board members or something akin to that. but just personifying it a little bit more.
Jason:
So have we gone, just looking at one of these graphs, have we gone from about 16 or 1700, email, addresses to 2500 or 2600?
Bailey:
Yeah, 20. I think it's 2390. or it might be, but yes.
Describer:
On screen. A graph which shows the decline and growth of emails the district has collected.
Jason:
Okay. So we gained about 5 or 600 email addresses.
Bailey:
Yes. Yeah. Because in 2023, they decreased by 10%.
And then we were able to to increase that number for our.
Jason:
Has anybody else have any questions after looking this over?
James:
not specifically in that. Bailey, can you come here for a sec? Oh, yeah.
Describer:
Bailey leaves the podium and gives over to Board Member James Mulvey.
James:
I know I'm old, and I just got new glasses. I can't read it. All right. Can you read that? Yeah. Okay, I'll. I'll hazard to say that the majority of our residents would probably struggle with that.
Bailey Off-mic:
Yes. So this is just....
Describer:
Bailey returns to the podium.
James:
Yeah. No, I'm just saying if we're producing it, it's got to be legible or it's legible. But in my eyes, it's difficult to read that one and then one comment on it and the content is great. I really liked it. It kind of summarized it was exactly what we were kind of talking about is put it on one sheet, one additional, you know, or one set of additional facts would be awesome to me.
And this goes to you as well.
Tera:
Which specific communication are we talking about? Jim was a very last page.
James:
It was like 63 or something. Yeah.
Tera:
But for the record, is that capital improvements or what's the topic of it?
James:
I gave mine away. So.
Bailey:
Oh, page 43 of the the board report. Would you like it back.
James:
No. That's right. I, read it online, but
Tera:
it basically the topic is looking back at our 2024 capital project achievements.
Bailey:
Yeah. Thanks. again, not to give you a hard time about it, but that's tough. Okay, but one in the contents. Awesome. It's perfectly exactly what we were kind of talking about. And it kind of summarizes our whole year. But one additional thing is, since we're spending our money and lots of it, and I think we're accomplishing a ton of stuff, that's great.
Can we put some dollar amounts associated with each one of those projects? You know, I, I it doesn't have to be the, the penny 1.5 million, three point, whatever that is. But I think that we kind of help people understand where their money's going and how we're spending it and what it's getting spent upon, because I think that we have spent a ton of money in the last couple of years here, and I think it's really important for people to see where their money's going in that we're actually stuff that was neglected and needed fixing up or wholesale replacement.
They need to get that those facts and they need to understand where that money's going. I think it is super simple, you know, and not to the penny, but just kind of broad, broad strokes. It thanks.
Jana:
I have something I'd like to chime in and board, please if if you guys don't agree. But for me, I read six emails for the month of December.
And so to me, that's too many emails from your metro district. And some of these emails are happy holidays. Great. But could that just be something on the website or on our social media where? Or the newspaper kind of thing. And so that we save our emails for things that we really want people to pay attention to and not the PFAS or PFO where it's like, guess what
We don't have it. Here's an email that says, we don't have it. Okay, well, that's awesome, but I don't want to flood inboxes with things that aren't like alerts. That's my goal, is to understand the difference between an email and a posting. And then also my other thoughts. Again, chime in. I don't think we need an ad in the paper every single month if we don't have anything to say.
So I don't. I don't want to force us in the presence if there's no news to share. So just my $0.02.
Tera:
So my question is what based on the data that you have, what is our strongest form of communication
Bailey:
I would say email.
Tera:
So that has the highest open rate. Yes. I mean it looks pretty decent, especially for emails.
Bailey:
Yes. And just for clarification as well. So like if we ever send out an emergency notification through the Doppler system, that and Nathan can kind of, support this, it looks very different than just our kind of regular update emails. So that kind of goes to the point of if residents are interested, as we, you know, at the community events like, that we spoke to residents a lot of people were talking about questions that they didn't even know, you know, they could ask or we have answers, too.
So that kind of fills in then why we do the regular update emails about just things you should know. And I think residents should know about their water, especially, as you know, culture is changing. Everyone's kind of learning things on their own.
Tera:
And so, I mean, I get I know how to ignore email. I probably have 3000 messages and I'm one of those people, but I get an email from nonprofit organizations once a week.
We mean, I think the whole thing about communications is constant contact. And I don't know, I mean, if you're not finding value in the the content, but I mean, I don't I think this is a world where, you know, things are happening really quickly. And, and I do think that there I mean, there are things that are not like I get an email from the chamber once a week or something and they're not in charge of anything important like water.
So I don't know if I agree with you or disagree. I'm not sure I understand your point.
Jason:
Well, to, to Jenny's point, some of those things would probably be better served in social media rather than an email. Right?
Jana:
Is that where you're going with that? That's exactly what I mean. I want to save emails for things that we make sure people read, and not things that if you open it for the residents going, I don't know why they even emailed me this.
And I'm not saying that we get a lot of those. I thought the Freeze one was very useful. You know, there I think the notice of meetings useful. So it's just some of the, the softer, fluffier, you know, filler. And and so I don't want people to just start thinking they get six a month. I don't need to read them.
You know, I get so many. I want to make sure that our content that we're sending out is valuable to the people opening it.
Tera:
Right. And I wonder if some of that has to do with the demographic of the people that are opening their email and the people that are on, you know, opening social and stuff. So, I mean,
Bailey:
yeah, to your point, I think it is probably two different demographics.
There is something you know, there's a a population that crosses over. But I think traditionally if you're looking at your email every day, you might not also be the person that's following us on Instagram. so just making sure that because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that all residents have access to the same communication within their same, arm's reach, whatever that, you know, arm's reach would be.
James:
Yeah. I'm exactly with you two guys on this is if it's an email, I think it should. I mean, okay, you know, maybe once or twice a year or something like that where it's, you know, one of these happy Holidays things, that's fine. But if email is is reserved for things that are truly important from the Metro, I think that's probably the best use case.
And then these other forms of social media, I think, sure, you know, whatever you want to add, whatever you want to include there, I think is great. But yeah, if somebody gets an email from a metro district, I'm kind of thinking it should be a water line break some something. I hope to God no more sewage things. But you know, it's the world we live in.
It's some of our aging infrastructure. So, you know, I think I totally agree with that approach. just save that for the more important thing. So people, when they see one, they absolutely open it.
Leah:
I was going to say, and part of it's training, right. Like you're you're trying to train the behavior and so if you are only sending out an email when it's important, then like people start to put those two together, versus if like you're just sending emails all the time, like you start to train the person that I don't, you know, they start to ignore them.
and I don't know if this is the right answer, but we, as we've addressed it in the past, have been with newsletters either like via email,
Bailey:
physical. Yeah, I guess email newsletters. It's it's the same sentence,
Leah:
but instead of sending like an email once a week, it would be like, okay, maybe we do it like once a month or every other month and then it just like pack it all into the one.
Bailey:
Definitely. I think to your point, that's a great a great way to kind of combined everything that some of these topics, like the freeze notice or other things, you know, it, it kind of comes up at a random time and we still want to make sure it's communicated,
Tera:
you know, and I find it, interesting that the board wants to see how they like to be communicated with.
And we're assuming that that's how our residents like to be communicated with. So if we're not solving a problem that our residents have brought up, I would ask that we kind of trust our staff to do their job right.
Bailey:
I do wanna add that with the increase of 40%, email signups are open rate. let me get exact numbers, but our open rate just decreased by like 2%, which means a larger percent of people are still opening up their emails versus, in 2023.
Tera:
Thank you. I and I understand the point. Let's not abuse the privilege, but I do appreciate you sending out on an email, holiday greeting as opposed to a one that costs us money and the US Postal Service. So thank you.
Jason:
yeah. Can we go back to this? I think, I don't know where our social media standings are or are we getting,
Do we have a lot of followers? How's that work?
Bailey:
Yes. So, on page six, you can see more details. But throughout the last year, 2024, in total. and then get some in total now we have 169 new followers on Instagram and 25 on Facebook. But I think the the large data here is the total views across the platform.
Describer:
On screen, two graphs, Bailey describes them.
Bailey:
So on the orange graph, you can see, you know, 50,000 roughly on Facebook and also Instagram and then Nextdoor pretty high as well. And these are all people within, the Castle Pines region.
Jason:
Okay, great. I think it's going to be important that we watch the open rate on our emails to see if we are flooding people too much.
So thank you. Thanks. Anybody have anything else for Bailey? We will go ahead and close out. item number eight, the communication Director's report, and we'll move on to item number nine, the finance director's report. Good evening. Eric.
Financial Director Eric Harris:
Good evening. Board. Thank you for, allowing us to come here today. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Eric Harris.
I it was at your work session last week, as well as a prior board meeting, as well as Molly Janssen, who is one of our consultants here. what you will notice in your board packet is a relatively short finance memo we onboarded last Monday as your finance director and your financial services provider. So we are in the middle.
Describer:
On screen. A document subtitled Transition from existing services provider, Anticipated development of proposed processes and documents, current priorities, upcoming schedule are related to the financial operations of the district, as Eric explains.
Eric:
we have a lot of request out to, CRS in the form of transition documents, retain all the district's financial information. You can see, you know, schedules, your capital ledgers, a bank account, reconciliations. We just got access to your accounting system this last week. And so we also identified a transition plan that's in your schedule. And once again, I take note of this and I apologize for the small, small text.
But if this schedule is ever presented again, it will be on a 11 by 17 sheet of paper. all that to be said is we are well underway on a transition plan to get, the records fully on the district's server. If they aren't already, and making sure you have continuity in your financial, processes as well.
So, but I would certainly entertain any questions you have at this time.
James:
no questions, just a comment. Thank you for both being here. it's, pleasure actually talking to a person and being able to understand them. So thank you. And, Yeah, just really appreciate it.
You're most welcome.
Tera: Ditto. Thank you for being here. And, love a project plan.
So thanks for including that. I did blow it up and look at it a little bit, but that you have an actual project plan for the course. Appreciate that. Thanks as well.
Jason:
Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm real happy with the with the information that we're getting from you so far. So I hope it continues. And, thanks for all your hard work.
You're most welcome.
Leah:
I was curious, are you getting everything that you need from CRS in a timely manner?
Eric:
We have just sent a request last Thursday. Is that right, Nathan? When? Wednesday or Thursday. We have not heard back from them as of today. we have continuity. at least for the district's payroll cycle through this month. but we will be following up and make sure we get those documents.
So more to come on that. But, we do have, a little bit of work underway. And once we, the update for your in financials for you as well, our expectation is, at an upcoming board meeting, hopefully in February, as soon as we get the document taken, will be able to present your in financials budget to actual for you and start momentum on updated closing packet for you.
So you get all the information you need as a board to take action on. it is a substantial data request that's involved, as we retain all these documents, we have a lot of compliance documents. compliance. upcoming that we have to make sure that we, act on and file with the appropriate regulatory bodies as well.
So we're tracking all of that right now, but, we we should get an update any day, and we will follow up if we don't get those in from that information.
Tera:
Thank you for asking that question. And I think my question is going to be for Nathan. Do we anticipate that there's is there anything that the board needs to do? Is there anything, you know, are we anticipating any reason why the transfer of information won't happen, like their lack of resources on CRS's side or do you have any kind of a pulse on that?
District Manager Nathan Travis:
I don't I did want to go. I don't have a specific pulse. I think that it's reasonable to expect some potential challenges, considering that the two, staff members that work with us on our financial accounts are no longer available. for clarity, it was Tuesday. It was actually Tuesday the 21st that we sent that request to Sue, or to CRS.
And like Eric said, we haven't heard back on that yet. They have been, fairly responsive with like, the payroll questions. If you different questions about, making sure different things have been filed appropriately or what the status of those is, short and short answer I don't know what that ultimate level of cooperation will look like, and I don't think that there would be any thing that the board would need to do about it.
I think that's more Eric and I need to make sure that we keep pushing and staying on top to try and get that information back.
Jason:
Do we have any open invoices with them that we can withhold on until we get this information?
Nathan:
not currently, but we will.
Jason:
Any other questions?
James:
I mean, it's all on the same theme here. When do we start getting into an area where it's going to be a problem? I mean, sounds like payroll might be taking care of, but as far as things that need to get filed and when they need to get filed and and when does it start impacting your ability to kind of transition into your job?
Nathan:
Yeah, I think we're I think we're in a good position with everything that needs to be filed and those legal requirements. It's really just getting the bulk of the information from Eric can give you more technical.
Eric:
Yes. So the only information we have right now is reviewing, the district's accounting system, which is, financial edge in NXT.
And so we can see all the transactional activity, within the system, we can see that there wasn't a proper close that was completed for December and, November. Yet. So we need to complete that as well. and so with that, it's, we came up here today to retain the district's documents that we have on hand.
You can think deposit records, paper statements. started getting system accesses from a cash management perspective that for your operating checking account, and, so we're gonna start kind of piecemealing this together, create our to do list that we need. but the open ended question is, making sure that we, the district retains all the proper of their district records that may be retained with, CRS prior financial services provider.
so we don't know what we don't know yet. And so once we get that information, I expect by the end of the week, we'll get have some sort of pulse to whether the impacts it would have on any sort of transition as well. And that would start impacting the closing schedule, for, you know, December, January and of course the February board packet.
so we will, we'll work through Nathan to make sure the appropriate communication gets to you.
Jason:
I'm a little concerned about CRS, because we did have complaints from our auditors that they were not getting them data at time. So this is something that really should be stayed, stayed on top of.
Leah:
I agree, I think, little worried that we haven't heard anything from them since Tuesday.
and just wondering if it's appropriate to be more aggressive in that follow up.
Tera:
So I would be curious to know what our, you know, let's say the scenario is obviously their employees have left. They may be shorthanded with employees. So is this something that is solvable if we if you had additional employees and like what are what are other ways to solve it other than kind of what we've had in the past, which is we're not going to make that date.
We're not going to make that date, we're not going to make that date. So how how else can we approach it so that we get what we need? Is that something that you could you like add a couple of additional H2 employees, go over and just sit and extract extracted from. I mean what does that look like. What are our options other than well, we're not going to get it.
Eric:
I think a lot of it is, it's not necessarily us providing more resources. A lot of it is kind of simple things, such as your budget. We need your budget in Excel format, or else we're converting typewriting it out to get it into our into your accounting system, proper compliance documents, your mill levy certification that would have been taken care of by your, district appointed district accountant that you would put forward in your, your administrative matter,
Tera:
So does that mean that calculations for that you need.
Eric:
No, not the calculations, the actual compliance, the actual certification that's filed with the county.
Tera:
Is that something that the DA's office would have or,
Paul:
I can certainly check. I don't know whether we would have those documents or not. I can send you an email tomorrow.
Tera:
And is that something then that somebody can just go and download from the state site?
And if, you know, do we increase your budget or whatever to do that? I'm just trying to figure out how we can help problem solve it. You know, if this company I don't know that they're wanting to not help us out, I think they're probably in a bad place because they had the two employees that worked on our stuff are gone.
And so how how do we maybe collaborate and problem solve together? What are our options?
Eric:
certainly. I mean, the next steps would be I would physically go to their office and retain any sort of documentation, capital asset ledgers. Those are permanent district records. You have tens of millions of dollars associated with that. And luckily, I have familiarity with how those being a prior district account for this district, what that file actually looks like.
just the continuity of your permanent financial information, if you will. it's not that much. and if, it's actually just retaining the district records and making sure it stays on your, on your file server. And so all the work files, any sort of board, packet prep files, if we were to renew those, any sort of financial statement, build files that are out there, that those are actually, you know, we're able to utilize those.
Otherwise we would just start from scratch. And that's certainly what we would do, for this district, is if we need to build your financial statements from scratch, we will certainly do that for you. But, all that being said, there is, we need to focus on making sure your utility billing system was properly closed down, and it is every single month.
But the information is updated within your general ledger, bank accounts reconciled, like I mentioned. And, that you all that essentially the, continuity in your processes. So I would expect if nothing happens, we will be sending a follow up email by tomorrow on that. and if nothing happens, we'll make sure we get the information we need, regardless whether or not we do it or CRS provides it.
Tera:
Thank you. Because I think what you're hearing is we know this board doesn't want to find out about that in, our next board meeting in February. So if there's something that needs to happen in between time, we'll expect communication to come.
Eric:
Yes, I assure you, you will not, see me sit here next month saying, well, sorry, I don't know what happened.
No, that won't be an option.
James:
And, appreciate it. Really do. but I also, if you get into a bad place and maybe tapped a guy and in the shoulder next to you, if we have to go that route, we go that route. But I don't think anybody's foresees that. I think it's more of. They're probably in disarray.
One person retiring, one person quitting exact same time that handled our books. And I hope it can get resolved sort of cleanly and easily. But if it doesn't, then please communicate that to Nathan. And, you know, I guess we can always have a you can always call a special meeting and figure out what we want to do from that standpoint.
Thanks. Yes, sir.
Jason:
great. Thanks. Eric. Did you have anything else for us?
Eric:
nothing. Nothing else to mention. There's a couple bullet points on the agenda. Just a discussion item that we can table until next board meeting. It would just be the time frame associated with, financials, actionable information, potentially producing financial statements, one month in arrears for you, but not a budget to actual, just the necessary information.
And so we'll know more at this next board meeting for you.
Jason:
Great. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. We will go ahead and close out. item number nine. And, move on to the item number ten, the legal council's report. good evening, Paul.
Paul:
Good evening. We have four different resolutions for board consideration and approval this evening.
the first resolution you have is, resolution calling for the 2025 regular district election and confirming appointment of the designated election official. I believe these resolutions follow the legal status report within the within the packet. If you want to follow along here.
Tera:
could we address some questions on the legal report before we get to the resolution?
Paul:
Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks. whatever questions you have in the legal status report. thank you. I to do my best to answer,
Tera:
Is there, is there a motion down there that I see that you requested authorization to prepare a comprehensive redraft of the rules and regulations that was that included somewhere written.
Paul:
That's right. The renewable water rights resolution.
yes, that is one of the resolutions. That's that's up for consideration today. there is was two resolutions mentioned here. One is amending the rules and regulations for renewable water rights. and and Kim did input this. I mentioned previous amendments enough and incorporating new rules and regulations. And so he wants to, prepare a comprehensive redraft of that, to include amendments, to eliminate service no longer provided that resolution is not for consideration tonight.
Tera:
Okay. That's what I'm saying, is he it looks like he wants to get permission to redo all of the rules and regulations,
Paul:
right? That's that's correct. Right. Not just, so,
Tera:
Then are we going to discuss the, homeowner bypass of water meter? There's no,
Paul:
there's no court action that's required for this. the board can certainly discuss it and, provide recommendations to the district manager. I did discuss this, with Mr. Setter. according to the district's bylaws, there wasn't any board approval that was required for this action.
But again, you know, the you certainly have the opportunity to discuss and providing direction you wanted to the manager.
Nathan:
Yeah. And so just, I guess, Tara, how far do you, do you have any kind of give me a quick overview and where we're at with the.
Tera:
Yeah, I, I yeah, I mean, I, I'm a little unclear on how this all transpired.
Nathan:
so brief, I guess a brief summary, during a meter, we had, we had a resident that, showed up on our zero usage report. And so for several months, we've been trying to get access to the home. when we did get access to the home, the technician, and I'm paraphrasing quite a bit here, but the technician discovered that a water filtration system had been put, been installed that effectively bypasses the water.
Tera:
So it was flagged because it was using zero water, which is not possible.
Nathan:
It's not it is possible. I mean, we've got we certainly have residents that well,
Tera:
even if you zero water, you get hit with a minimum usage.
Nathan:
Correct.
And so and they have been getting their minimum usage fees have been paying those bills. But those bills have not included any water usage.
Tera:
So that does help because I was thinking that it sounded like it was only discovered because of our technician going in there. So
Nathan:
yeah. And so we yeah. And so there are multiple reasons why somebody may not show, water usage. Certainly the meter could have failed. people that are, you know, live part of the year or somewhere else.
We do have those show up occasionally. so we check them. And so during this inspection, we found, we found out that they had bypassed the water meter. per the district's rules and regulations, I leveled the minimum or levied the minimum penalty. We, estimated the water usage for all of the months that they weren't getting billed for any water usage.
and then, originally had charged them for a water meter and $150 in labor. after the the resident reached back out I went. I removed the water meter charge and reduced the, labor to 50%. And then, and Paul made honestly not seen the email yet, but the resident has elected to, go through the board appeals process.
So they will be here at the, I they haven't confirmed yet, but presumably they'll be here at the February board meeting. their primary concern, as I understand it so far, is that the fine imposed is too stiff. We carry a minimum $500 penalty for, tampering with district facilities or bypassing water meters of unauthorized water use.
Tera:
So we will hear this in detail next month. Correct. And it's the. No. We will be sitting as a, like an in a legal capacity or something, kind of like the city does when it's a land use thing or as a quasi judicial board. Yes. Okay.
James:
question for you. I saw the pictures in the report that you guys sent out, but, a water filtration system, the whole house system that appeared to be on the as it just came into the house where the water comes in through the main, would that require a permit?
Is there a permitting process for that from the city?
Nathan:
I, you know, maybe I don't know. I don't know if there's a permanent required from the city. We don't have one. Okay.
Tera:
Thank you. Let me see if I have any other notes.
Jana:
Will we be discussing anything on the village? village heritage seepage? I know it says, No, no, none required at this time, but do we have any additional information regarding that?
Nathan:
so the, Bill Keller just we talked about this several months ago. Now, it was ultimately determined that the source of the water was a water leak.
It was actually a considerable distance away from the house. So we stayed pretty actively. My, we I mean, I stayed pretty actively engaged with the engineer that they had hired to kind of chase this thing down. through that process, we just kept continually expanding our search with our acoustic leak detection detection. at one point, it actually sounded like it might be coming from a fire hydrant.
That was also the last fire hydrant that we listened to. So not to get too technical, but we dug it up. There wasn't a leak there, so certainly a possibility was that that microphone was picking up something that was beyond that survey. So we did an additional survey, didn't ultimately find the leak on an irrigation line. all of that was communicated.
each step of that was communicated both to leadership of the, Pine Ridge HOA as well as the firm that they had hired. we repaired the leak and then over the next 2 or 3 weeks, additional water that was coming through some pumps kind of slowly resolved itself. So it's pretty clear that that was the issue.
following all of that, we got a request, that middle, mid last week, Wednesday, Thursday last week from the, from a representative of the HOA asking us if the to basically reimburse not only the HOA costs but some individual residents got resident cost. we have not yet been provided, at least to my knowledge. like relevant receipts and invoices.
at this point, we've turned it over to our insurance company. I actually owe them a, I got, this morning, I got, form that I need to fill out, kind of running through all of the events and details. And so it's yet to be determined what the insurance
Jana:
was it? residents irrigation system?
Nathan:
no.
So, I guess let's get some clarification. I say that's an irrigation service line. I mean, that it is the line that the section of the of the service for an irrigation account that we are responsible for. So it's, on the metro side. That's exactly. Yeah. It's and it's for the HOA it's a, inch and a half, diameter copper line.
So it's a larger irrigation account. Thanks Nathan. I'd hate to get all picky with it. irrigation. So it feeds an irrigation system, is what I'm hearing correct? All right. nature of the failure. Was it not buried? Was it not blown out? Was it not maintained?
Nathan:
it was about, a little bit larger than a three quarter inch hole on the side of the copper line.
Generally speaking, those types of breaks are a defect, like a defect either in the original pipe when it was manufactured, or during installation. So somebody could have dropped it or dented it during backfill. And so if you get a small dent on the side of a pipe, over time, that additional frictional where the copper down and you'll get a hole that it's consistent with either a material defect or an installation defect.
James:
Thanks, Nathan.
Tera:
So this one might be more. And if you want me to risk it more if when we get actually into the detail. But within your report, there are two, eight there's the hidden point in the Jam ranch that are looking, seeking inclusion. And so how would those be affected by the, the, this new, renewable water.
Right. Resolution. I mean, if they're in progress, are they grandfathered in. Are they affected? How how are those affected?
Paul:
There's no grandfathering provisions within the resolution. Once it's effective. Any inclusion that has not happened up to that point would need to comply with it. Meaning they would need to provide a comprehensive water report that demonstrates that they can provide 100% renewable water.
That can offset that can always be changed in the resolution itself. If if you want some sort of grandfathering provisions or whatnot, we can we can certainly include that.
Tera:
I just wanted to understand how it works. And they don't want to get in legal trouble because we change the rules.
Nathan:
yeah. With with Hidden Point. That's probably something that we need to specifically look at.
hidden points a little bit different because we are already the existing long standing service provider. We also own all of the facilities that are in place out there. So there's there's a pretty significant difference between the two.
Paul:
To backtrack a little bit, on this, on the village carriage, topic, I did receive an email from their attorney about two hours ago, informing me that he was going to be compiling all of the receipts, from the HOA, that all the residents are claiming the expenses that they've incurred, and I'll be sending those over to me.
Didn't say anything else other than that. Does anybody have any other questions on the legal status report?
Jason:
No, it doesn't look like it.
Describer:
On screen. CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR THE 2025 REGULAR DISTRICT ELECTION AND CONFIRMING APPOINTMENT OF DESIGNATED ELECTION OFFICIAL
WHEREAS, the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District (the "District) is a quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado and a duly organized and existing special district pursuant to Title 32, Article 1, C.R.S.; and
WHEREAS, the terms of office of Directors Tera Radloff and Jason Blanckaert expire after their successors are elected at the regular special district election to be held on May 6, 2025
("Election") and have taken office; and
WHEREAS, in accordance with the provisions of the Special District Act, Title 32,
C.R.S. ("Act); the Uniform Election Code of 1992 and the Colorado Local Government Election Code, Title 1, Article 13.5, C.R.S. (the "Code"); the Election must be conducted to elect two (2) Directors to serve for a term of four ears and two (2) Directors to serve for a term of two years;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Board of Directors of the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District in the County of Douglas, State of Colorado that:
1. The regular election of the eligible electors of the District shall be held on May 6, 2025, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. pursuant to and in accordance with the Election Laws, and other applicable laws. At that time, two (2) Directors will be elected to serve
a four-year term.
Paul:
Okay. So I'll, I'll go ahead and go through these resolutions that we have slated for this evening. first being the resolution calling for the 2025 regular district election and confirming appointment of a designated election official. so the the regular election will be held on May 6th, 2025. It will be held between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m..
we will have two directors that will be elected to a four year term during that election. it will be a mail ballot election. there will not be a polling place. all the mail ballots will be returned, to legal counsel's office. the board in this resolution is affirming its prior designation of Michelle Barroso as the designated election official.
self nomination and acceptance forms, will be made available by, by the DEO. by email address, and on the district's website. all candidates must file a self nomination acceptance form, no later than February 28th. And if those have not been, mailed out, they will be soon. If the only matter for the election, is the election of the electors.
And there are not more spots or more electors than spots than the elections canceled. the remaining items here are, Some, We will catch those if you will. if any portion of this resolution is unenforceable or invalid, no sort of judgment will impact the rest of it. any action that's taken on behalf by the designated election officials hereby ratified,
And the provisions of this resolution do take effect immediately. Does anybody have any questions on the designated election official resolution?
Leah:
I have a related question, but this is, for Nathan likely assuming that we get candidates that are interested. can we do a like a board candidate forum?
Nathan:
we absolutely can. That will ultimately be up to the board to direct me to do, the last time when, this three of you on the ends were, were elected, we did that candidate forum.
it was the first one that we had ever done. And it was also largely driven by the fact that we were hearing anything from anybody that had, put their name and name in the hat, so to speak. And so prior to that, our elections had always been like very, very public candidates were touring hoa's and putting up signs, and so it was really a very stark contrast to previous elections there.
And so because of the lack of information that was coming from a majority of the candidates, we wanted to provide a forum just so that people could know that they were voting for, there are some, fairly easy to meet metrics there. We just have to be really careful as a district to make sure that we are following, you know, all the applicable campaign finance laws and everything, but it's definitely something that we could do.
and then and while we're talking about it, Bailey and I are going to look at the, this upcoming, billing insert to start getting these things out, whether or not we include the form or throw in a QR code so that people can grab it off of our website, but we'll start the process at least there, and then we can do some follow up social media post, but we'll get the word out and then, it's really up to you guys if you want to do another forum.
Jason:
Great. so what kind of motion do we need on this? So,
Paul:
If we could have a motion to approve the resolution, as drafted,
Tera:
I'll make a motion to approve a resolution calling for the 2025 regular district election and confirming appointment of designated election official.
Leah:
I second great having a second.
Board Voting All Speak:
We'll go to vote. Jim. Approve. Tara I Jana I live approve and I approve as well. So that motion passes.
Paul:
Okay. Second resolution for consideration today is a financial controls resolution. so this resolution is an amended version of the resolution that this board discussed during its November work session. and again, this resolution establishes some financial controls for the district and requires board notification or approval for certain actions taken on behalf of the district.
Describer:
On screen.
1. Budgeted Expenditures. The District’s Annual Budget is for planning and budgeting
purposes only and is not an authorization to expend funds unless otherwise approved
by the Board. This is an edited version with comments.
a. The District Manager is authorized to enter into contracts for services and
operational supplies, and incur expenses, and satisfy obligations that will not
exceed, when aggregated, the sum of $ 25,000.00.
Commented [PJP1]: Edits made per Director Krell’s recommendation (and Board agreement) that expenditures under $25k require no Board approval. {00762846 3} 2
b. The District Manager is authorized to enter into shall notify the Board
within 48 hours after executing a contract for goods or services, or making
any expenditures, contracts for chemical and other operational supplies that
will not incur obligations in an amount exceeding between $25,000.00 to
$50,000.00, when aggregated., the sum of $ .
This requirement does not apply to capital improvement projects.
c. The District Manager must obtain prior approval from the Board for any
individual expenditure, contract, consultant contract, proposal, or purchase
that may exceed $ 50,000.00 in the aggregate. This
requirement does not apply to capital improvement projects.
Commented [PJP3]: Edits made per Director Krell’s recommendation (and Board agreement) that the Manager shall obtain Board approval for any expenditures exceeding$50k.
d. For expenses pertaining to capital improvement projects, the District
Manager shall notify the Board within 48 hours after incurring expenses or
executing contracts that will incur obligations in an amount between
$50,000.00 and $2,000,000.00.
e. For expenses pertaining to capital improvement projects, the District
Manager must obtain prior approval from the Board for any individual
expenditure, contract, consultant contract, proposal, or purchase that may
exceed $2,000,000.00 in the aggregate.
Commented [PJP4]: Edits made per Director Krell’s recommendation that the Manager shall alert the board when making expenditures between $50k and $2M for capital improvement projects.
Commented [PJP5]: Edits made per Director Krell’s recommendation (and Board agreement) that the Manager shall obtain Board approval before any expenditures related to capital improvement projects that exceed $2M.
f. These limitations do not apply to expenditures to address emergency
repairs, replacements, and/or processes necessary to maintain clean, safe
and efficient water and sewer services, including addressing temporary off color
or otherwise unpalatable water concerns, which expenditures shall be
reported to the Board within 48 hours.
Commented [PJP6]: Nathan and Board requested removal of “expenditures” from this paragraph, as the amount of the expenditures will be impossible for Nathan to determine within 48 hours.
g. These limitations do not apply to expenditures necessary to purchase,
materials, labor, equipment, chemicals or items approved as part of a
project contract approved by and signed on behalf of the Board.
Paul will explain an overview, but this is an edited version without the deleted sections.
Paul:
We've included a redline version of this resolution within your packet, so you can see exactly what changes we've made, from the work session in November. And I'll go through the high level points for you right now. so within paragraph one, The district manager is authorized to enter into any, contract services or any sort of expenditures, under $25,000 with no board notification or approval.
if for for any sort of expenditures or contracts, entered into between $50,000 and or I'm sorry, between 25,000 and $50,000, that requires board notification for anything that is above $50,000, any expenditure contract, whatever you want to call it. it will need board approval. no. You know, noteworthy this doesn't, this doesn't apply to capital projects.
There are different limits for that. as we discussed at the work session for capital projects, no notification is required for anything, any sort of expenditure up to $50,000 or. I'm sorry, any expenditure between 50,000 and $2 million, only requires board notification. I guess I had that right. Anything over $2 million, does require board approval for capital improvement projects.
Are there any questions on the first paragraph?
James:
just last sentence. Sort of. Were this last paragraph here, in the aggregate, 2 million in the aggregate, I, I am pretty sure I know what that means, but I'd like you to kind of go through that
Paul:
if there are any sort of contracts that are related to the same general project.
those would be in the aggregate and so you would combine those together when you're looking at the actual amount, they need for approval to do
James:
exactly what I'm used to. So thank you. I just wanted other people to hear that as well. Thank you. Thank you. I've experienced in, in the company I work for people playing games where they try to, you know, chunk stuff up to get under the tollgate, so to speak.
Describer:
On screen.
2. Board Project/Expenditure Approval Process. The District Manager shall present all
expenditure requests required to be approved to the Board at a work session to be
addressed at the next regular meeting. Expenditure/contract requests shall include:
a. A thorough description of the need and proposed purpose for the
expenditure:
b. Alternative means to address the need, or a justification as to why no
alternative means are provided;
c. Alternative proposals and/or pricing options and a discussion of the
preferred option, or a justification as to why no alternative proposals and/or
pricing options are provided; and,
Commented [PJP7]: The Board agreed with Nathan’s
request to have the option to provide a justification for
providing no alternatives.
Commented [PJP7]: The Board agreed with Nathan’s request to have the option to provide a justification for providing no alternatives.
d. A discussion of whether and how proposed project/expenditure fits into the
Board’s long term planning considerations.
Paul will explain but comments were not included.
Paul:
That's exactly what this language is meant to account for. So good cash. We've removed, we've removed expenditures from, sub paragraph because that didn't make sense the way it was just phrased in there. for, for paragraph two, Nathan did request, that we added, an alternative, that he provided a justification as to why no alternative, means are provided when, when the manager is presenting expenditure requests.
Describer:
On screen.
3. Board Approval for Hiring Personnel. The District Manager must obtain prior approval
from the Board before hiring any new employees or independent contractors. To obtain
approval, the District Manager shall:
a. Present the request at a work session to be addressed at the next regular
meeting including:
• A thorough description of the need and proposed purpose for the hire;
• A proposed job description, salary and employment terms and plan for advertising and/or seeking applications;
• Alternative means to address the need;
• Alternative proposals and/or pricing options and a discussion of
the preferred option; and,
• A discussion of whether and how proposed project/expenditure fits into the Board’s long term planning considerations.
b. The Manager is authorized to fill vacancies in existing staff positions without prior
Board approval, provided that the compensation does not exceed the previously approved budget for the position.
c. The Manager shall submit applications a report to the Board for consideration prior to any final job offer. The report shall provide a brief description of the position being filled and include the resume of the potential hire. The Manager shall redact the name, address, phone number, and any other personal information from the resume of the job applicant before including the resume in any public meeting materials.
d. Any Board member shall have the option to place a hold on the hiring of an
applicant after receiving the Manager’s report. The Board shall then discuss the
potential hire at the next Board meeting. If a Board member does not respond
within 48 hours to the Manager’s report for consideration prior to any final job
offer, that Board member shall be deemed to have approved the final job offer.
e. A Board member may call an emergency meeting to discuss any matters that
pertain to this section.
Commented [PJP8]: These were the terms the Board agreed to after an internal debate. Director Mulvey was concerned about publicly disclosing the name of a job applicant, which has been accounted for here with the redaction of personal information from public materials. There was also a request for a board member to be able to call an emergency meeting. Finally, there was a request to include a provision that if a board member does not respond to Nathan’s report within 48 hours, the final hiring is automatically authorized from that Board member. This has
also been accounted for in the resolution.
the board of, agreed with that at the last meeting. So we've we've included that in there. and for the third paragraph, Director Mulvaney, you had some concerns about, publicly outing, the the name of potential job applicants. So we have, we've accounted for that within here. Any sort of information will be redacted, in any sort of, resume that's, that's included within the board packet for consideration.
the board member, can have the option to place a hold on any sort of hiring. But if the board member does not respond within 48 hours, they automatically waive, that option that hold. and lastly, a board member may call an emergency meeting to discuss any, any matters relating to hiring personnel.
James:
I know that Mulvaney guy.
I'm not him. Yet. Oh, did I, I see Mulvaney.
Paul:
I apologize. I was, I was at a meeting before this, and I was talking to a mulvaney so that what you're saying,
James:
there's lots of us running around with the same, nearly the same surname.
Paul:
does anybody have any questions on, this resolution?
Jason:
No, I think we're okay.
Nathan:
And then, Eric, you did get a chance to review it, and there's no issues or concerns on your own.
Eric:
No, there's not.
Paul:
If I could have. The, board can entertain a motion, adopting the resolution at this point.
Board Voting All Speak:
I move to approve the resolution, delegating authority to the district manager and adopting financial controls. And I'll second that motion. All right, having a second. We'll move to vote. Jim. Approve. Tara, I Jana I will approve. I approve as well. So that motion passes. We can go to the next one.
Paul:
Thank you. Board Sorry Jana. And third resolution. We have, for this evening as resolution of the board of directors to amend the district's rules and regulations.
this was the resolution that we briefly mentioned at the beginning. my report here. now it's.
Describer:
On screen.
NOW THEREFORE, the District Board has adopted this Resolution to amend the Rules and
Regulations and it is RESOLVED as follows.
I. Paragraph 2.6.1 is added to Article 2, Definitions stating:
2.6.1 Comprehensive Water Report: An expert report containing all of the
information required by Section 3.11 and any other information required by the
District's legal counsel, Engineer or Manager.
II. Paragraph 6.3 is amended to add the following sentence:
All property seeking to include into the District Boundary must provide a
Comprehensive Water Report of water resources and demonstrate ownership of, and
legal right to convey to the District renewable water, as determined in the sole
discretion of the District. The Comprehensive Water Report shall demonstrate that the
renewable water resources identified are sufficient to serve the inclusion property
without detriment to the District’s existing water supply or financial resources.
III. Paragraph 7.3.3 is amended by deleting subparagraph 10 and replacing it with the
following:
10. "Other water rights associated with the property" required by subparagraph 5
shall include sufficient renewable water resources to serve the inclusion property as
{00781650} 2
determined by the District in its sole discretion upon review of the water demand study
required by subparagraph 9.
11. Any additional information required by the District.
Paul:
It mandates that anybody, any property that seeks to include within the district has to submit a comprehensive water report. this report itself will contain, all information, required by legal counsel, engineer, manager, as well as basic requirements. And we can find in section 3.11, the district's rules, and specifically its amending paragraph 6.3 to add a sentence that requires all property seeking to include into the district boundaries to provide a comprehensive water report.
and that's of water resources and demonstrate ownership of and a legal right to convey to the district renewable water as determined in salt, in the sole discretion of the district comprehensive Water Report, will demonstrate that the renewable water resources identified are sufficient to serve the inclusion property without detriment to the district's existing water supply or financial resources.
To the extent that, this sentence conflicts with any other language within the rules, we've accounted for that and supersedes, any of that language. Does the board have any questions on this resolution?
James:
property, definition thereof? and again, forgive me, I'm gonna sort of feel my way through this one. I thought the governor and, state had approved, like, secondary dwellings on a property.
I'm sorry. Secondary. What exactly? Like what accessory dwelling units? Oh, yes. if. And you know, I'm not a big fan of that concept, but the reality is, if somebody has a property and they, create an accessory dwelling unit on their property, does that fall within the bounds of this or not
Paul:
within the bounds of this resolution itself?
If somebody is already within the district's boundaries, this resolution does not apply. If somebody's seeking to include within the district's boundaries, this would apply to them. Does does that answer your question?
James:
Okay. So it's strictly the bounds of the district. So I got, you know.
Paul:
yes. Exactly. So if you are a property that is not within the the bounds of the district itself, and you want to include, you have to provide this comprehensive water report, demonstrate that you have renewable water rights.
And that's what applies if you're already already within the boundaries of the district. This resolution does not apply to you. Okay. Thank you.
Tera:
So I think that makes sense. I mean, I think this sounds like it's something that a lot of because of renewable water and stuff that, that a lot of other veteran districts are doing. in, in the policy is growth and development have to, pay for themselves, which is kind of what got us with Parker too.
So, is this pretty what's industry standard going on right now?
Paul:
We certainly seen this more it's it's well within the district's rights, to do this, you know, as you mentioned, renewable water is a hot topic. Now, for including into other areas. Clearly this is desirable things. So, yeah.
James:
if the town annexes a property, how does that impact this so?
Paul:
It wouldn't, the inclusion process is a very specific legal process that a district uses to incorporate surrounding properties into its boundaries. And annexation is is a different legal thing. This resolution does not apply to annexations. Only the specific process of of including property within a district which which itself is a it's a specific legal mechanism. requires either a 100% approval of all the property owners, or potentially an election if you're looking at a larger piece of property.
But it's it's a specific thing.
Tera:
Exclusion. There's sort of a merger and acquisition within water district. So that's just their terminology for it.
Paul:
Right. Well, you know there's different ways to do it. you have consolidations and you have inclusions. So you know, you can have two districts merge with each other and consolidate. And at that point you have a new board, you have an advisory board, which as we discussed briefly at the last work session,
Everybody within the two, districts that are going to be consolidated votes for it, the inclusion process is a little different. you could technically have it with property that is within a district. It's frankly, I don't like it, but you can do it. And districts have done it. I don't think that's what it was intended for. But, when you include property, you're including typically including specific parcels of property.
Does anybody have any, any other questions regarding, this resolution?
Board Voting All Speak:
I'll move to approve a resolution of the board of directors to amend the district's rules and regulations. I'll second. Okay. Great. Having a second. We'll move to vote. Jim I approve. Sarah, I Jana, Leah I approve as well. The motion passes.
Describer:
On Screen.
At the regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Castle Pines North Metropolitan
District, City of Castle Pines, County of Douglas, Colorado, held at 6:00 p.m., on Monday, January 27, 2025 at 7404 Yorkshire Drive, Castle Pines, Colorado, it was moved to adopt the following Resolution and ratify actions taken in connection herewith.
Paul explains.
Paul:
Okay. And we have one final resolution for consideration and approval. this evening. this may be a little bit of deja vu. This is the annual administrative resolution of 2025. This is a resolution that, the district enters at the beginning of every year. It's, it's a bit of housekeeping and logistics, for the for the district.
Some members appreciate when I go through this one by one, there's about 30 paragraphs. Some members do not appreciate it. I'll leave it up to the board. to, you know, if you want me to go through all this or I can hit the highlights for you and what I think is important. I think the highlights. Just just the highlights.
It is. Okay, I appreciate that. so, the the board in this annual administrative resolution is designated the designating the Douglas County News-Press as the newspaper of general circulation, within the boundaries of the district.
Tera:
So and that's one of the things I want to talk about. I have two things. I'll take the easy one. First one is, it mentions an item number 26.
The board of directors appoints the accounting firm of Community Resource Services to serve as a district accountant. So we need to change that.
Paul:
I, I caught that this morning as well and changed it. And it's, it's reflected within the resolution today.
Tera:
designating the Douglas County News-Press as the newspaper of general circulation within the boundaries of the district.
That, to me, seems like that is something that we keep carrying forward on. I don't understand why we use that. I have never, ever in the 20 whatever years I've lived here, ever, ever received that. And so I don't know why they, they, they meet our criteria.
Paul:
Well, I'll, I'll, I can give you at this point is is a guess because I don't know, but, it needs to be a paper of weekly circulation.
it's difficult to fit that. To fit that bill. many, many papers are just monthly circulation. I think that that takes a lot of my the equation. But, if it's a newspaper, that's if it's a general purpose newspaper, meaning it doesn't have any specific, you know, it's not just water and sanitation news or it's, you know, it's general purpose.
I think it has to have been existence for at least a year. it has to be circulated, regularly. Okay. Weekly, within the members of the community, you're looking to, to inform, if it meets those requirements, then it doesn't have to be that paper. It can be.
Tera:
How do we know that that meets those requirements?
Paul:
I can I can look into that for you, if you'd like, into certain papers that that do meet those and
Tera:
I'm not familiar with it. So I don't know if it is a general publication or if it's something else. I don't know if it's I don't know that it's weekly. I have no I don't know anything about it.
How we how have we verified that? Like I said, I think that's something that we just keep carrying forward because it was at one time. Right. But I have no idea.
Paul:
Well, I can certainly verify
Jason:
with more publications going online. Does online newspapers qualify?
Paul:
I don't believe so. I've never seen anything that that would qualify online circulation. I don't think the law is quite up to that yet.
Tera:
Continue with your synopsis, but yeah, I think that needs to be verified. Yeah, I don't even know what that.
Think I don't know, just doing a little poll. So three of us, I said we we haven't ever seen it on you guys over. Well yeah,
Leah:
I mean I'm googling it and reading it. Oh no. No.
Tera:
Have you ever received it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Paul:
So the main purpose of of it is, you know, it's, you know, calls for nominations, things like that. and yeah, if you guys aren't receiving it, that's, that's an issue
Tera:
I don't know, maybe is there is a requirement that we can change or something? I mean, no, no. Does it have to be a written or what is, is that a Colorado state statute?
It is. And we can't take an exception to that.
Paul:
No, no absolutely not.
Tera:
Or, you know, I mean, we're having trouble getting people or saying people want to read their email. So I don't know that you
Paul:
there's absolutely no exception to it whatsoever. the district does have to comply with it. we can we can certainly look for, for other newspapers, though.
Would you like me to send a list of potential circulations?
Jason:
Really isn't the purpose of it for, like, credits and arbiters to be able to look you up and find something? I mean, so if that's the case, I don't know that we need to spend a lot of effort changing it. that's.
Leah:
So I just looked it up and it said they offer free print subscriptions in the following markets.
And those markets are Arvada Press, lone Tree Voice, Highlands Ranch Herald and Parker Chronicle. So I don't know. Does that like are we not in that market then for the for the free.
Jana:
Like does it have to be a standalone paper.
Paul:
so I'm a bit confused. we print does it does it serve the right to, you know, this area?
Leah:
That's our cost. Yeah. I mean, it looks like you would have to pay for it to get free, like physical copy.
Tera:
I think that's a question. Does it serve our area? I don't know, yeah.
Does it really meet the criteria? I don't know,
Jana:
could we just go with the Denver Post?
Paul:
Do you receive the Denver Post?
Jana:
I do not, but I also don't receive the one on there.
So that's a moot point. I'd fair point.
Paul:
I would I would have to check the where the Denver Post delivers. if they deliver here, then then yes.
Jason:
I guess we'll need to get back to this thing until we get an answer. Agreed. I agree.
We're not meeting. We're not jeopardizing any time slots that we're going to miss if we don't do this tonight
Paul:
for for the annual administrative resolution, the newspaper,
Jason:
the annual. Or do we just pass the annual, with the exception of the.
Paul:
That's what I was going to suggest, because you do need to pass this at this meeting. Yeah.
paragraph four regular meetings will be held at 6 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month. legal counsel will be filing the accurate boundary map as needed. And that's essentially when the boundaries change, when there's inclusions or exclusions and the board is designating the district's accountant to serve as the budget officer and submit a proposed budget by October 15th.
board is directing legal counsel to file prepared filing annual public securities report. they're redundant, but the board is is appointing, Michelle Barrasso as the designated election official, and the board is electing, certain officers president, president and chair I director, Blankaert. I hope I pronounce that right. vice president, director Krell, secretary treasurer Director Radloff.
The board is extending its current indemnification resolution, for this fiscal year, and its adopting and extending its, its current disposal, personal identifying information resolution, to allow it to continue. In effect, it's pointing the lawfirm of Seter, Vander Wall and Mielke as legal counsel and I, I, I changed the resolution of the packet for signature today to reflect H2 Advisors Corporation as the district's accountant, and to provide accounting services for the district.
so with that in mind, does anybody have any questions or follow up regarding this resolution?
Jason:
No, I think we're okay. Okay.
Tera:
How do we approve it with the exception of
Paul:
, And so I was just thinking about that. I think we that's actually a great idea. Nathan, which I agree with, if you if you approve it as written today, we can always come back and modify it later. That ensures that we have a newspaper of general circulation that's been accounted for within the resolution, which we do need.
and we cannot and it doesn't prohibit us from coming back and looking at this later.
James:
we can make it a motion to approve and then also to amend it at next meeting. Can we do that simultaneously or separately?
Paul:
I wouldn't necessarily recommend the motion to amend it because you always have that option. You can amend it at the next meeting.
you don't necessarily need to tie yourself to it now.
James:
All right then I guess we'll just revisit it next meeting and.
Okay. then my, the board can entertain a motion at this point, to approve it as drafted.
Board Voting All Speak:
That's right. I'd like to make a motion to approve the annual administrative administrative resolution. I'll second. Okay, having a second. We'll go to vote. Jim. Approve. Sarah. Approve. Jana, I and Leah approve. I approve as well. So that motion carries.
Paul:
Okay. I think that is often legal.
Jason:
Thank you very much, Paul. Thank you. Okay, now we get to the small part.
The district manager's report. I'll let you have it. Nathan.
Describer:
On screen:
XI. District Manager’s report.
A. Consider: Customer service staffing proposal.
B. Mountain States Employer’s Council Discussion.
C. Conservation Program Update
D. Monarch Waterline Project Phase 2 Update.
E. Filter Rehab Project selection committee appointment.
F. Asset Management Program update.
G. Consider: Unlimited PTO beta test.
H. Consider: Level Engineering General Agreement.
I. Consider: Kennedy Jenks Agreement for Services.
J. Consider: Semocor Agreement for Operations Services.
K. Consider: Utilo Proposal for locate services.
L. Review: Current Contractors and service agreements.
Nathan gives an overview of each section.
Nathan:
Yeah. Fair enough. All right. Good evening, guys. I want to start. We'll kind of roll through these, first couple, and I'll, give you an opportunity to ask questions for the Monarch Waterline project phase two. really? Just more of a heads up to the board at this point. the city is, going to it looks like the city is more than likely going to retain ESI to continue the project.
we are currently still waiting on their final pricing proposal. And, once we get that the city is looking to move it to right now, that's scheduled to go to council at the March board meeting. so I would be looking, to present that hopefully at the February board meeting. we don't really have anything. You guys will obviously need to approve the expense on our part.
And then I'll also be asking for authorization to draft a letter of consent that basically tells the city that we've reviewed the contract. we've reviewed the water line portion of the contract and that we're ready to move forward with it, assuming that that's the case. So it's really just giving you guys more heads up that that's coming to, coming down the pipeline at the next meeting.
any questions on that? all right. So this one I am actually really excited about. So we've been talking a lot about our asset management project. project, been working on it for the majority of the last year and a half or so. Kennedy Jenks has completed their work creating the asset hierarchy, which is basically, the list of all of the stuff that we own inside of our water treatment plant.
Well sites, interconnect pump station, booster pump station, and the Legae lift station. So the other lift stations were not included in that effort because they're going to have such significant changes, that they're effectively going to be new assets. so that information has gone through its QAQC process and has been delivered to, Ames, which is our GIS and asset management, work order system.
They are expecting to have that information included into that asset management program. and from there will be able to set depreciation curves. Expect the useful life. So basically tell it how we want to depreciate these assets. What they're worth, how long we think that they're going to last. And this we'll have an actually decently functioning capital forecasting tool and up and running.
So we should have that, fully functional here in the next month or so or month or two. So that is super exciting. any questions about that? all right. So, next on oh, I missed an agenda item, so. Well, we can kind of cover it all. next thing I wanted to discuss with the board.
Oh, go ahead. Yes, sir.
James:
asset management. what's the scope of it again? Could you just repeat it?
Nathan:
the scope is the, it's basically the inventory of all of the assets that we have. Facilities, down to individual components to a certain level, water wastewater pipelines, manholes, really anything that we own and operate perfectly.
James:
I just want to. Yeah, I didn't I didn't think I heard pipelines and stuff like that the first time you went.
Nathan:
Oh, yeah. So pipelines were not part of the Kennedy Jenks effort because we already have a really great pipe inventory. We know what we have, what type it is. When it was installed, we will be doing, need to do it some at some point in the near future or some condition assessments.
A lot of and, looking at a few different options we had had that, tentatively planned for last year. We just didn't have time to get to it. but I want to look at a few different ways you can do that. So we can either do, field verification, like actually physically go out and pothole some areas.
We can, do some sort of financial modeling. And based on how many breaks we're having or the cost associated per lineal foot of pipe kind of get a condition assessment. the thing that I want to spend, some real time and effort on. And actually, I'm going to be taking some, classes around this at AWWA management conference is how different companies are starting to leverage AI to do data composition.
some of the initial reports I've seen from that have been, almost unbelievably good. So I want to get some more information on that before we kind of pick, pick an individual path there. But, we already have a good asset inventory for those systems or for the actual pipes in manholes and stuff.
James:
I appreciate it. thank you.
Nathan:
All right. The next thing that I wanted to bring to the board's attention, is our customer service position. I did give you give everyone a heads up that Jackie, our receptionist, good. Customer service specialist, has turned in her resignation. She, has been a fantastic employee and is definitely going to be missed. one of the things that I would or the what I would like to do with that position is actually revert to an older model that we have, and move to two part time employees instead of one full time employee.
That's the setup that we had for several years. and it really helped us out in a couple of different ways. one, it gets us an extra person as an extra body for, you know, covering vacations, things like that. And it also provides a certain level of protection. If one of those people leave. what had happened in the past is if one of those people resigned for whatever reason, the other part time employee was able to pick up the slack for lack of a better term, and so that's something that would be a consideration that would be included in the job description is, that, you know, should the other person doing this
job share, for lack of a better term, resign. There would be an expectation that you work full time until we can replace them. another advantage there is it saves us roughly like 18 to $20,000 in, benefits that we wouldn't be paying.
Leah:
This may be hard to answer, but I would be curious from a recruiting standpoint, if we think it may be more difficult to hire to part time versus a full time,
Nathan:
that's a question that I can definitely pose to our HR representative. or, and see what she thinks around it. we haven't had to post that position very often, and it really does tend to target to different demographics.
So we're, the way that it's currently positioned is more of somebody looking for, you know, full time job potential career. One of the limiting factors there of certainly the case with Jackie is that the the way that we're with the size of our district, there's just no upward mobility there. with the two individual goals working there, it kind of hits just a different hiring demographic.
People that are looking to be part time, people that may have been, Carol was the last, column. Carol was one of the last people there. She was retired and really just wanted to be out of the house for 20 hours a week. And so, it kind of shifts there, but that's, a general question. I'll ask, Jennifer to see if she has any concerns there.
Jana:
Would be great to know if it makes it easier or hard?
Nathan:
Is that something that, kind of pending that final human resources review that I can move forward on? What I don't want to do is have to wait another month for another board meeting to hire.
Jason:
Yeah. I think if, you know, we follow those guidelines that we've talked about where you submit to us isn't that you're going to give us your top candidates, and then, we can have a chance to chime in,
Nathan:
correct? Yeah. So that that is the case. I just wanted to make sure that the board was comfortable with me moving forward with the part time position as opposed to the full time, since it would be a change in.
Jana:
I think it's a great idea. Yeah.
Leah:
What are we doing now? Or like, when is Jackie's last day again?
Nathan:
I have to look. It's February flu right around. I think it's Valentine's Day, February 14th. so. Right now we are not doing anything. I pulled it back because I wanted to make sure I got board approved board permission to go to part time employee.
So the job descriptions were relatively easy to modify. But, they're ready to go tomorrow. we'll post on our own website. Jennifer sent me the list of, services that she uses. She does. I think we did, LinkedIn. There was another provider, but I can get those to you. Last time she posted, job description for us, we got 85 applicants.
Leah:
So. Okay, well, that was going to be my. That's where I was going. Is like, do we foresee there being a gap or like Jackie is. Yes. They're here. And and so like is there what are we going to any concerns there.
Nathan:
Not right now. So I'm assuming that CVS keeps letting us use Alison. Suzanne, I'll have a little bit a few more hours to cover for a little while, but we'll, we've got, we've got a plan in place to cover the gap.
Describer:
On screen. Level Engineering 2023 General Services Agreement
AMENDMENT 2:
The parties agree to extend the Contract Term by a calendar year, or until Dec 31st, 2025.
This page to replace Exhibit A to Agreement, and supersede any prior Amendment(s).
Level Engineering
2025 Professional Services Rates Sheet
The below list summarizes our 2025 hourly billing rates for our Professional Services. These billing rates are subject to annual updates, and we encourage you to contact our office for our current rates.
Description
Hourly Rates:
Design Engineer $145
Field Engineer $155
GIS Engineer $150
Project Engineer $175
Project Manager $185
Senior Engineer $195
Senior Project Manager $205
Principle Engineer $225
Design Technician / Drafter $125
Accounting $95
Administrative Assistant $65
OTHER REIMBURSABLE SERVICES
The rates above do not include reimbursable expenses or additional charges which may be incurred for sub-consultation services. Non-labor expenses (food, lodging, etc.) will be billed at cost. Mileage will be billed at $0.67/mile or the latest federal mileage rate. Reimbursable services, including subcontractors, will be billed at cost plus +20% minimum.
Nathan:
All right. Let me jump to. So I do have a few proposals for you guys to consider tonight. Speaking of contractor services that we use, so this one is from level engineering. this is really just a 2025 professional service rates. We're not asking for a specific approval for any individual amount. It it just allows, it's really just a recognition that this is what they cost per hour when we use them.
so obviously if there was a specific project or anything like that that came to mind that would come back for board approval again, pending the, pending the amount. but I did want to make sure that I got permission from the board to sign this. these are, their hourly rates across the board are really in line with industry standards, if not a little bit low.
They're actually slightly cheaper per hour than Kennedy Jenks. and a lot of that's because their, their target is much more, a little bit more narrow. They tend to work on more like projects of larger engineering firms won't handle or very specific, smaller, smaller projects. I will be likely asking them to at least give us some proposals for a couple of the capital projects that we have on our books this year, especially the smaller ones, kind of move some of that burden off of Kennedy Jenks and then also, try and capture some savings on those smaller using a smaller firm for a smaller project, Basically,
level is just to remind the board that level. The work that level engineering has done for us so far have primarily been related to the parks, trails and open space. IGA, they are the firm that is handling, handling, managing and tracking all of the property transfers, all of the easement designations, everything that comes with that.
And then they have also been running point for us on the CDPHE violation and spill, and they'll continue to do that. which really at this point is just quarterly updates to the, the CDPHE.
Are there any other questions on that? If not, a motion to approve the proposal? I guess what we're calling it an amendment to extend the contractor,
Leah:
make a motion to approve the, level engineering and inspection contract. Otherwise titled as amendment two.
Board Voting All Speak:
I'll second. Okay, great. We have a motion. Let's go for a vote. Jim. Approve. Tara I Jana, I Leah I approve as well. The motion passes.
Nathan:
Understand? What is. Bear with me one second here. My agendas. Okay. I opened up the old agenda. That's why I was getting all cross-eyed. Okay. I thought we were out of out of order there. So sorry.
we'll go back to the top, and we'll just kind of jump in and get the ones that I skipped. So, we talked about the customer service staffing proposal, and I apologize for that. I opened up the wrong version of the agenda. So I was all out of order from the packet. So sorry for the confusion there.
so, item B on the district manager's report, and good luck with the minutes on this. Paul. So sorry. I did want to give the board a heads up that I'm going. That I've got a meeting with Mountain State's employer council this week. I do want to get them brought on board. they offer a lot of things, especially since we're looking to hire or rehire the customer service position.
Potential operations manager or field services technician. for roughly $4,000 a year, they'll do, all of those position, salary and salary reviews. It also gives us a certain number of hours of legal consultation and then our human resources handbook, hasn't had a legal review for quite a while, too. so I did want to get those guys up and running just to kind of support those efforts and really make sure that we're, you know, especially with the, salary comparisons that we're putting ourselves out there and being, you know, reasonable and still competitive as well.
I kind of verify some of those things. conservation program update.
Leah:
Quick clarification on the mountain states, employers, when you reference like speaking with HR or like, would this be in addition to what we have existing. Correct. Instead of,
Nathan:
yeah, it would be a, it would be in addition to what we have existing. So our current agreement with IGL, IGL, which is our HR, representative, it's Jennifer Vollmer is our represent representative from that.
That company is Time and Materials and we spend very, very little money with them. it's really only when we need them. I'm glad you brought that up. So, when I reached out to Jennifer to ask her what their what they do for salary comparisons or how we can bring that information in. They said we basically because Mountain State's employer council is so, so reasonable that their firm stop doing it and they just refer their clients to go use mountain states.
so this was partly driven by, recommendation from our current HR rep.
Jana:
does our employee handbook get reviewed by, our attorney? I don't know that it do. They do they need to Because if they did, yeah.
Nathan:
This was one of the things that was recommended was that we run that through Mountain State's employer councils and say specifically deal with employment, got it.
All right. Any other questions on that one? All right. conservation program. I've got a meeting. another meeting scheduled with, Elizabeth Bowman. She's our representative, with Resource Central. So Resource Central is the company that we run, two of our conservation efforts through. One is the slow the flow sprinkler evaluations. And then there's also the lawn replacement program.
I do want to bring both of those programs back this year, but I'm going to be looking at reducing the amount that we contribute directly to resource Central just to fall in line with our usage, with our resident use of those. So it won't have an impact on the overall budget for at least the scheduled budget for conservation programs.
Those dollars will just be used for our own in-house rebate programs, as opposed to going through Resource Central. One of the downsides of the Resource Central contracts is that they are, use it or lose it. And so if we don't have a high program participation, we still have to pay the baseline contract amount. So we really want to adjust that to reflect our actual resident use.
and once I have that proposal, I'll bring that back to the board at the next meeting. February.
All right. So four, will you jump down to item? so the filter rehabilitation project, we are, Kim and Kim's office is already working with Kennedy Jenks as attorney to draft the, I'll call it the skeleton for the contract. So, we'll have the contract. Contract will be largely in place. We're going to be using a CMGC contract to move forward on that.
we are at the phase now, at the stage now where we have posted the RFI, so the request for information has been posted on quest, and we've had, multiple contractors already mentioned that they're interested. So we've started doing facility tours. we have, already completed a facility tour with Garney Construction. We have one scheduled for PCL, Glacier Construction is also interested.
They're not going to be doing a facility tour because they are already intimately familiar with the water treatment plant. They've already got on a large, broad capital project. There. And so the next stage after those tours, will be starting to move after after those tours, is the interested contractors. The contractors that are interested will submit proposals. Then those proposals need to be reviewed.
So for the CMGC contract, specifically those proposals were reviewed by a panel. And so, talking to Kennedy Jenks, I told them that if the board would like to do so, if you guys would want to select a board representative to be a part of directly a part of that selection committee, that would be helpful. So the selection committee does not finalize the contract with the selection committee.
Basically picks the one that we would bring to the rest of the board for final approval.
Jana:
I will volunteer myself being familiar with CMGC contracts and, kind of the process of RFI or reviewing.
Jason:
I would support that.
Tera:
Certainly to say one of our engineers. So thanks for volunteering instead of being Volun-told, .
Jana:
yeah And Jen, I'll get you, to the extent that you'd like to attend, I'll get you looped in to the semi weekly meeting that we have on that, if you'd like. Yeah.
Nathan:
Thank you for that.
Yeah, I needed to add a few more things to this. My goodness. okay, so one of the other things that I wanted to get board approval for, is looking at a potential unlimited PTO policy.
Describer:
On screen:
2025 Benefits Beta Test Proposal
Starting February 1st, 2025, Castle Pines North Metro District would like to evaluate an
Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) Policy to provide employees with a balance between home and
work life which provides time off that is essential to the health and productivity of every
employee.
Philosophy: Accomplishing the responsibilities of your job is not only completing your current
to-do list, but includes the time and attention needed to improve and innovate processes,
policies, and procedures. All Castle Pines employees share the responsibility of innovation and
continuous improvement to both meet immediate goals and innovate for future success.
Time Frame For Beta Test: February 1st, 2025 through December 31, 2025
In the event the program is successful, the unlimited PTO Policy may become a permanent
benefit for District employees. The District retains the right to modify or cancel the Beta Test
anytime during the test period.
During the duration of the test, the following sections of the Castle Pines North Metro
District Employee Handbook (January ) will be suspended:
SECTION 4 – LEAVE
4.1 Paid Time Off
4.3 Compensatory Leave
4.4 General Leave Policies
4.5 Other Types of Leave
2025 Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) Policies:
Compensatory Time will not be accrued. For all non-exempt employees, time worked in
excess of forty (40) hours per workweek is paid at one and one-half (1.5) times the employee’s
regular rate. For purposes of calculating overtime, only hours actually worked are counted.
Consequently, hours paid but not worked (for example: Holidays and Unlimited PTO) are not
counted.
Nathan:
so there's a proposal that's goes into pretty significant detail. realistically, there's a couple of things that I'd be hoping to accomplish with this. the first is that our only and probably the biggest advantage is that our only unfunded liability that's ever shown that shows up on our audit reports is unpaid PTO accruals. and so this if it became a permanent policy, would eliminate that issue because there's no PTO accruals in place.
There have been several studies that have been done around this.
There's really not a huge deviation from the mean. some studies show that people use slightly more time. Most studies show that people use about the same. some other studies show that people actually use a little bit less time. So I have run this past, our current human resources department. they let me know that there are some other utilities and special districts that are starting to move that way.
the city of Castle Pines is doing a very similar program, beta test program this year. And, I can't remember how I was going to end that sentence. I apologize, the way that it would ultimately work and so forward to make sure that we're still meeting all of our, reporting and all of the other applicable, state laws.
So state and employment laws, we would still be tracking employees time off. We'd be tracking if these are for sick and tracking if they use it for personnel. It absolutely requires that all of their responsibilities were met beforehand. And then it would be a full year trial. So we, rather than PTO accruals, would stop beginning February 1st. No one would accrue any PTO while we, kind of evaluate the program moving into next year.
And then if it became a permanent policy, then we would come up with, however but however we want to pay out, I mean, really at that point it would just be Susan and I, but how we would want to pay off those PTO accruals and then move forward with this policy. one of my other hopes with this and Jennifer did confirm that this would be likely the case is that it's a small edge and a competitive job market, especially on the operations side where it's really difficult, difficult to find people to come on board. anyway.
Jason:
I have never experienced, any business that I worked with, that has a proposal like this or a H.R. Benefit like this. and it sounds like we would tend to be on the front end of this if people are just now starting to adopt it.
Leah:
The company I work for has unlimited PTO. so, I mean, if you have questions, happy to share my perspective.
Jason:
Yeah. What do you think of it?
Leah:
I would say, seems to be a little bit more common in tech. and so definitely I would say it's a recruiting advantage for sure. the other thing that I will say is. It can depend on the, the company and the culture. Like I would say, where I work is a pretty high performing culture. So if anything, most people don't use it to their advantage.
but some people do, and they'll take six weeks off and they get the side eye. And, you know, coworkers and management get frustrated, but they don't really have any recourse because that is our policy. so I personally appreciate being able to take time off when I need it and make sure my work is covered like an adult.
but again, like, I have worked with coworkers who will take 6 to 8 weeks off, or they'll take a whole summer off. And it puts a lot of strain on those of us who are left. And having gone through that process with the manager to see what we could do about it again, like there wasn't really a lot we could do other than to document, like, you know, any performance issues.
Tera:
So yeah, what is the size of your company?
Leah:
we have about, well, GitHub has about 3500 employees. but we're technically owned by Microsoft. So if we included Microsoft, then a lot larger. And the other thing too that was likely a consideration is it's such a global company, that a lot of my European counterparts have very generous, you know, leave policies.
And so this is kind of a way and like even the playing field, you know, with the American counterparts.
Tera:
Appreciate your perspective. yeah. I think this is interesting going back to our, you know, whether it's easier or harder to recruit to people for a split position. I don't think their employee base is large enough to personally warrant it at this point.
If you want to negotiate more time off, negotiate more time off. And let's this to me does look like a recruiting strategy. If you're having trouble filling positions and you need to do something like that, that to me it would be more of a response, not a proactive thing. And then this is also something that I have mentioned to both the city manager and the mayor.
Is this until I read this and it said, oh, this is what the city is doing, it kind of connected all the dots for me, which is why I'm here. Around town is like people don't feel like they get response from city staff. They don't feel like they answer phone calls. They, you know, and and I just, I don't know, I, I would need a lot more information than what's included here.
I mean, it seems like you included the parameters that it's still tracked. And then what does that mean? Is that mean if you're sick, that you actually have to go to urgent care and prove that you were sick? You're saying you're going to track the different things? It just doesn't. There isn't enough information in this proposal. But in general, I, I don't really see it for our application unless, again, unless we really are having trouble recruiting people and we need to do that in response.
But with this limited information, that's just kind of off the top of my head.
Jason:
And, thank you for your perspective. I truly have not had any company that I work with ever have unlimited PTO. It just sounds funny to me.
James:
Yeah, I've heard of this policy, particularly in California. And, so in northwestern states, it's becoming more popular.
I guess I'm not completely averse to it, but I'd be looking for a safety valve. as Leah kind of mentioned, there wasn't much you could do about an employee that's quote unquote taking PTO, and they could just slowly disappear on you. And it doesn't seem like there's anything you could do to fix that. Besides, you know, give them notification in there.
You know, it's like trying to get a squatter out of somebody's house or something. I mean, it's kind of akin to that. I think I would be more inclined to say yes to something like this if there was some sort of built in safety valve, and that this doesn't feel like that based on what Lee is saying, and maybe it's embedded in here.
I read this this afternoon. and I guess I would be looking for more information. I think like some of the other board members,
Jana:
I would be open to this if you had to approve the days off because like right now, my staff has to ask, they might have the vacation, but they still have to submit it to me.
Nathan:
Correct? Yeah. So yeah. So this does still require, supervisor approval for any, any time off. I can certainly bring it back around with more information and I can reach out, offline to get specifically what the specifics on what data or information might be helpful for that. this is certainly far, far, far away from a hill that I have any intention of dying on.
Tera:
So, imagine my surprise when we have a, funded liability. How big is, what is our policy? How much, how much PTO are recurring?
Nathan:
I'd have to go go back and look, I think our cap is somewhere around 400 hours. which is significant.
James:
Yeah. I mean, I was one of those people in my company, and I.
So most of my vacation. So I was bumping up against 400 almost every year. but I sell most of my vacation, and we.
Nathan:
Yeah, we don't have, an option to do that under our current guidelines or people to sell them to. I guess either.
James:
Yeah. Yeah. Our company policy is you can you can sell. I get five weeks a year.
and we can sell basically half of that. But, you also have a limitation. I think it's down to, 160 hours or 200 hours. And after that, you start getting it paid back to you because, again, they don't want to carry this year to year liability. there's a lot of us that had considerably more than 400 hours saved up.
Tera:
I agree that, you know, companies would like to get away from carrying a huge liability on the books, which I'm sure we would do. I would be curious what our liability is and what our policy is.
Nathan:
Sounds good. All right. I will table that one for now.
I'm not done yet. All right. wishful thinking on the mic press, I guess.
All right. We already did the level engineering, general agreement. So the next one that I will pull up is, for Kennedy Jenks.
Describer:
On screen.
Subject: Agreement for General Engineering Services
2025 General Engineering – Water, WTP, and Sanitary Sewer KJ 2546002*00
Nathan:
This Agreement is for our 2025 general engineering services related to the District’s water and sanitary sewer facilities and the water treatment plant. The work under this Agreement allows us to continue as the District’s Engineer and generally covers the as requested, on-call, work that is directed by you for 2025. Our scope of services for general engineering is attached and it applies to the District’s water and sanitary sewer systems and the water treatment plant. This Agreement authorizes us to set up a new project number for billing with the following phases and budgets:
Phase General Engineering – Water, Budget $60,000
Phase General Engineering – Sanitary Sewer, Budget $15,000
Phase General Engineering – Water Treatment Plant, Budget $20,000
Total Budget for 2024 General Engineering $95,000
Attached are the Standard Conditions that apply to this Agreement as well as our 2025 Billing Rates. If this is acceptable, please sign below and return a copy to me.
Nathan:
Oh. My apologies. That was the wrong one. So, this is a proposal that we need approval for. this was the, these dollar amounts were the basis for our, budgeted line item. So the the total isn't anything new. This is an annual contract that, we signed with Kennedy gangs for general engineering services. these are things outside of special projects.
So this is plan review design. you can go through the the scope of work, if you guys would like, but it's, it's the same agreement that we've, we've had with them for a long time.
Jana:
I didn't understand this one because so those but when you go back up to that table and it's got the water and then it's got the budget review, where can I go to see what's included in the water or the sanitary like where's the associated scope for each of those.
And are they lump sum or just, hourly up to?
Nathan:
I don't know that they gave us that breakdown.
Jana:
I couldn't line it up with anything. So even though it's general, I think general water design for what? Or fill in the blank for the other lines.
Nathan:
Yeah. that's I can certainly ask them for, more of a breakdown for those. And I'm good with their hourly rates, but so at this point, we're looking to approve, though the budgets for.
Yeah. I can follow the water treatment plant for sure. Well, yeah. So is that different from the water treatment plant contract that they currently worked on?
Nathan:
It's an excellent question. I can ask them. yeah. And so worth noting. This is not a it's not an approval for an expenditure. It's just their budget. And so we would still have, you know, for any specific projects that come up.
But I can I can definitely reach back out to Greg and see if he can give me more of a breakdown.
Jana:
But the hourly rates I was good with some of.
Nathan:
I assume the rest of the board is in that. Same is good with that.
Jason:
Yeah, I agree.
Nathan:
Okay.
Describer:
On screen. What is being represented turns out to be incorrect or suggestive of information that is not accurate, so as Nathan explains it, what is seen is not accurate so will not be described here.
All right. So this one, is from Semocor. We've never we don't have, I don't have an updated contract from Will, so I need to lean on them and see what what's going on there? everything below this, we can we can ignore. So these were, the numbers that will give me what I asked him when we were looking for the, for our overall budget.
So these, don't necessarily apply, or they've been accounted for elsewhere, I guess is a better way to look at that. So really, what we need to get approval for is the monthly contract. I know that he puts this on here as a monthly contract. It's the sum total. Oops. It's the sum total for the full year.
not what we pay them per month. And so they are, I know, so they are, looking to increase their pricing, or their cost for, the services they provide. And so this is specifically covers, operating operation and maintenance of the, of all of our facilities of the wastewater treatment plant, sewer stations, distribution system, all of those things, as well as being our operator, responsible charge. Yes, sir.
James:
Same kind of comment that we just had on last week. Yeah, I can get I mean, there's a lot of, you know, you're kind of throwing a blanket over it, but I think it it's really required that they at least provide some definitions. I agree. Absolutely.
Describer:
On Screen. Nathan scrolls through the Utilo LLC proposal quickly, and lands on the rate sheet. Here is what is in the packet but not referenced by the speaker.
Utilo, LLC is a local Colorado company that was established in 2017 to provide contractors, utility owners, municipalities, surveyors, builders, engineers, home and business owners in Colorado a dependable and accurate utility location service they can count on. Along with traditional 811/contract utility location services, Utilo, LLC provides engineering and
private utility location services designating underground utilities for map and data collection purposes and marking privately owned facilities during excavation. We also provide 3rd party verification services. Utilo, LLC’s current staff have over 30 years of experience in the damage prevention industry and have demonstrated dependability, speed and accuracy in that time.
Nathan:
So do that for the same. all right. this last one. so this is actually a proposal from, Utilo. So this is for, damage prevention utility locates. I almost was going to strike this from the board meeting because I was waiting on, some kind of outstanding proposals, but. So, what I haven't gotten a chance to pull together is what this would look like for.
I'll just get to the rate sheet, because that's what's important. What the what the total cost of this would look like. So this is, a we currently use a company called 360 underground for our locating services. they are significantly more expensive than Utilo. So, we currently charge, get charged $50 per ticket marked on the field.
we get, $150 charge for any kind of emergency locates that are called in, and we get and this is actually the same across both for both our current provider, and the Utilo of the Utilo proposal. so this would be a significant savings over what we're currently spending. And I was able to I don't have an official proposal from them yet, but I was able to at least get a call back from another fairly reputable, really reputable, local company called Kinetic.
their pricing model is $26 per ticket, marked in the field, again, $5 for ticket cleared. And then their emergency rates are not clearly defined. They just charge you by hour. And so it actually and this was actually something that was common in a few different companies. I call the emergency rates that they just give you an hourly rate or that can really drive up or down the cost of your after all the after hours calls, simply based on where the guy that's on call for that locate company is coming from.
and so this was, far and away the best cost option. they also are currently already working with the number of water utilities, which is important because water is very difficult to locate. very difficult and very different to locate than other utilities. It's it's a just a lot more challenging. so they already work with, Parker Water.
I see if I get to their references. I actually think that was actually.
so they already work with Parker Water? town of Breckenridge, Adams County. our emergency pipeline repair contractor, Shannon has worked with, one of the guys there for, for quite a long time. and so they have, they have a pretty good pedigree of existing utilities they're cheaper. You know what they're doing? worth noting.
There are two. The other, this one, this company's also a little bit larger than the one that we're currently using, which I think should help show up in a little bit in their price metric. They're also big enough, big enough that we have kind of a bigger stable of locators that are available. it was worth mentioning that there are, two companies that are actually the largest utility locating companies in the state that I did not bother reaching out to.
Those are Olameter and USIC, I see. they have the monster contracts, their companies like Excel, core electric, Comcast, a lot of those. The primary reason that I did not reach out to them is performance. We are having nothing but issues getting those locate companies to show up with the tickets that we request. So when we call for when we have our own projects and we're calling for locates to show up, they're just not showing up.
They're not getting things done. talking to locators out in the field, even though there are large companies, they are just completely overwhelmed and not able to keep up with their tracks. And it's been like that for a while now. if, if nothing else, it's been declining. so I did focus on kind of more mid-sized companies when I was doing price comparisons.
Jana:
Are we able to have two of these firms under contract where you can start with Utilio? Leanne, what is it called? Yeah, Utilo, Utilo. And then if they don't come out like you're talking about because that's my concern is what are you going to do when they're no show. But can you keep 360 on as well.
Nathan:
we could keep them on as a backup.
I did have a chance to talk to, Matt. Oops. Sorry. Matt Grunder at Meridian. He said that they've been absolutely fantastic showing up. I spoke briefly with their, I can't remember then.
Jana:
I have no concerns about being locates locate companies.
Nathan:
Overall, the total space. It's not a huge contract. Even with the current pricing model, our total spend is like $62,000 a year.
locates have gotten considerably less expensive as we've developed. Look like we're just not getting near the requests that we are or have been previously.
So approval to move forward with that one?
Board Voting All Speak:
Yeah, I think so. I see no issue, no issues here. All right.
Describer:
On screen. Concerning the current discussions this whole document is described.
CPNMD 2025 Vendor and Subcontractor Summary
Accounting
H2 Advisors: District accounting, and payroll firm. Not to exceed $238,680.00 +
approved expenses Agreement included in packet.
Community Resource Services of Colorado: Utility billing support/ office staff
support. Will transition away from this service fully as staff is hired and trained.
Communications
Elara Creatives: Current Communications Director. $6300.00/ month. Month to Month
Agreement
Streamline Services: Website Service. Special District specific platform for customer
outreach, public relations. $300/ Per month.
VIP Video Productions: Monthly recording of board meetings and study sessions.
Variable Cost $1500-$3000 per month
Castle Pines Chamber of Commerce: Local partner for community engagement and
events. $10,000 per/year
Daupler: After hours call center, and emergency communications tool. Annual Contract
$24,605 for call center services, $14,900 for “notify” tool. Agreements included in
Packet.
IT Services
Greystone Technology: On-Call Server and IT support for CPNMD office. Waiting for
updated rate and agreement.
Water & Wastewater Operations
Semocor: All daily field operations of the Water Treatment Plant, Wells, Lift Stations,
Collection system, distribution system, meter readings, customer service calls, meter
inspections, and Compliance testing and monitoring. Proposed Annual Base
Contract $342,720 (additional costs for Overtime, Materials, Etc.)
TW Summit: Annual Hydrant, Valve, PRV, and Air Vac maintenance. Annual Leak
Detection program. Leak Detection: approx. $15,000 per year. Maintenance
Operations: Varies/ price per unit/activity. Rate Sheet included in packet.
EPR: Primary pipeline repair contractor, for both water and wastewater systems. 10+
year relationship with CPNMD. No official contract. T&M as needed and on an
emergency basis. 2025 Rates included in packet.
Iron Woman: Clean and video all sanitary sewer mains and manholes, clean lift station
wet wells on a quarterly basis. Maintain Ozone stations at lift station 3 & 9. Have done
special projects like the Forest Park Manhole rehabilitation project. No official Contract.
Cost is T&M or per lineal foot. Varies yearly based on need. Waiting for 2025 rate
sheet.
Advanced Mechanical: Primary District contractor for pump repair. Field service rates
are $150.00 per hour.
Mountain Peaks: SCADA and Controls firm. T&M Basis, waiting for current pricing.
Utilo Proposal: Underground utility locates for all district services. 2025 Service
Proposal Included in Packet. 50% Cost savings over current provider.
Backflow Secure: Full backflow program management. Test, repair, replace installation
of state required backflow preventers, Program development, ensures state compliance,
and reporting. Annual contract cost $120,000.
American Security: Provide site security to district facilities. Alarms, Security Cameras
etc. Monthly monitoring fees of $35/site T&M for system repairs and maintenance.
Engineering
Kennedy Jenks: Longstanding district engineer. Agreement Included in packet.
GIS/ Asset Management/ Capital Forecasting
AIMS: Built and maintains web-based platform for all district GIS mapping systems, and capital forecasting. As well as maintenance tracking for all water and wastewater
facilities, and assets.
Legal
Kim Setter: Long-Standing primary attorney for district in a variety of functions
Austin Hamre: District Water rights attorney
Jehn Water Consultants inc: Water Accounting Services
Nathan:
I know we're already getting late, so, this is included in the packet. There's nothing really new here. I did, give you. I just got it, today. So I did have leave you. You had at your, seat when you sat down.
VIP, proposal or cost, I guess cost for this year per meeting. so that one's more in place. Other than that. yeah. It's just we've we've done this summary before. If anybody has any specific questions, I'm happy to answer them. If you guys want me to go through this list, I can do that as well.
Jana:
I don't have any questions. Thanks for putting this together for us.
Jason:
I don't have any questions either. All right.
Nathan:
And that is all that I had for my portion.
Jason:
Okay, great. Thank you. Nathan. so we'll close out item number 12. sorry. Item number 11. And move on to item number 12. we are going to open up a special session. So what verbiage do we need for that?
Paul:
if you could just mentioned the the reason for the session, as noted, within the language in the agenda.
And please be sure to mention the specific section number. Also, reflected in the agenda, the two section numbers.
Jason:
Do we need to vote on this.
Paul:
You need a two thirds vote to move into an executive session.
Jason:
So I would like to propose a motion to enter into executive session for the sole purpose of conducting contract negotiations and to instruct negotiator negotiators, as allowed by Sections 402(3)(a) and 402(4)(e)(1), of the Colorado Revised Statutes.
Board Voting All Speak:
I second. All right. Having a second. We'll go to vote Jim. Approve Tera, I, Jana I Leah, approve I approve as well. We will now enter into executive session. Thank you.
Describer:
On screen. The Castle Pines North Metro District Board Executive Session Please Standby Slide
Paul:
Okay, we have exited the executive session and everything that was discussed, during the executive session, was within the bounds of what was agreed to, upon motion.
Jason:
Thank you. Paul. We will go ahead.
Paul:
I'm sorry. Director Blankaert just one note. Mr. Travis would like to, explain, sort of, circumstances surrounding his his current contract with the district. Yeah.
Nathan:
So I apologize for the confusion there. I think there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line. The initial conversation that I had around the appropriate way to set this up was with Mr. Seter.
and so he and I had walked through kind of the appropriate policy or the appropriate procedure there. and that is how I was moving forward. So I apologize for, Not being as prepared as the board would have liked. So for the full background. I have not had a, my contract expired a year ago, so I've been operating under the same contract.
It doesn't hasn't been updated even to include things like the vehicle stipend. I had made a request again a year ago for an evaluation and a formal review process. That never happened. And so, Yeah, I just want again, want to apologize for the misunderstanding and miscommunication there. I'm more than happy to come back with more of a presentation based what I would ask, but I'm also going to include in that is a proposal for a formal board review process that includes times and deadlines so that we don't find ourselves in this position again.
Jason:
Okay. Fair enough. All right. We will close out. Item 12, the executive session. We'll move on to item 13. Discuss the necessity, the necessity of a February study session. do we have anything on the agenda?
Nathan:
I think given the new financial policy that requires pre-approval, at the prior study session, I don't know if I if that's something that's going to, shift the policy to determine that at the next at the previous board meeting, I the reality is, I don't know, you know, what expenditures I'm going to be having coming up definitively enough to say that I do or do not need that meeting to make those presentations.
Jason:
Okay. It's probably, since this is a new procedure for us, I guess, it probably okay if we do this, give it to, like, the week before to give us a heads up whether the meetings needed or not. I can do that. Okay.
Jana:
So I'd like to to just ask a quick question. for the you're saying what expenditures you've had in February that would require board approval?
Nathan:
Yeah. I mean, okay, so point and are we not doing any kind of like a weekly report or anything where it was just a notification and not board approval because I thought you could go up to 50,000 without board approval. Right? Correct. So you're not sure if you'd spend $50,000 next month?
Leah:
Then also, why aren't you sure?
Paul:
for what it's worth, I believe board. I'm sorry. Notifications require up to 50,000 approval afterwards. That will come.
Leah:
I just, I mean, my preference would be to make a call today, versus just the week before, just for planning purposes.
James:
I mean, at this point, I'd rather just leave in place, you know, I've already prepared for it. It's on my calendar. Yeah. And you know, again, if we get to a week before or whatever the legal requirement is and we want to pull it and pull it, then
Board Voting All Speak:
I support that. So okay, let's do it that way. Then we'll keep the meeting as scheduled for right now.
And then, if before the meeting, if we need to cancel it or if there's nothing to talk about, we can cancel it then. Sounds good. All right. Great. Thanks.
Paul:
And it's a 24 hour posting requirement. So, and that's just on the website, or do we have to blast that out just on the website? Okay.
James:
Yeah. Let's try to do better in 24.
Jason:
But I understand the legal requirement. Okay. We'll close down item 13 knowing that there will be a study session next month. we'll move on to item number 14, director's matters. Do any of the directors have a item they wish to discuss?
Tera:
Just really quickly. I wanted, to put on record that I got a lot of questions about the emergency meeting on January the 14th, which was because of our accounting situation where our senior and junior accountant had both, resigned from the company that we were using, and we, required to have a special meeting in order to ensure consistency in the financial services for the metro district.
So that was the purpose of the special meeting. I think a lot of people were curious.
James:
Yeah, I received a similar number of questions from neighbors and things like that.
Jason:
Great. We did put that out there with the meeting was about. Didn't we?
Leah:
I don't I don't think I mean, when I looked it up, it, it said like emergency board meeting.
And so it sounded a lot scarier and than it was. And I, I think if we are able to add that level of detail, like at a high level, what we're meeting about. yeah, the subject that we have, that would be fine.
James
Okay. Yeah. I had, town council people contacting me, including my wife. So.
Jason:
Okay. I think we have anything else. yeah. again, this is just a request, Nathan. we had the water filtration pilot program presentation, and I forget the engineer's name. That was presenting. and I, I appreciated the detail and the information. but I still had issues with the data and and the fact that, it didn't really show any fall off of the filter media.
And I was just wondering if there's any opportunity to, Extend that test or verify when the filter media falls off. with regard to flow rate, and maybe that, you know, is in my my request is that and we do this all the time where I work. You don't really know anything till you broke it. We literally like to break things.
and the request goes to trying to understand if we had to take off one of the filtration units, we had to take it offline. For whatever reason, that we know we could handle the additional throughput on the remaining filter media. and I'd like to understand what that flow rate is when we start seeing degradation or, the filter is not performing up to spec and, and, I don't think I ever heard that.
And I was hoping to talk to her, but she left in the middle of our meeting. So if you could just make that request. Or maybe they already have that information, they know it. And if they could just kind of forward that to us, it'd be great.
Nathan:
yeah. I don't think that we ran, ran those flow tests on any of the filters to failure.
the way that those are the, the way that those, approvals are set up is more, that, we'll get the, we'll get a maximum allowable flow for filter. And so we'll get our seven MGD rating. That is assuming that all six filters are operational. If we lose one of those filters, we do not have the option to run any of the other filters above their state rated capacity.
So it's a little bit of a moot point. One of the reasons that we're pushing for that seven MGD is that it's well above what our current demands are. So we have a current peak demand of sitting around like 4.5. I think the highest day that we've ever had was around 4.8, which with a treatment plant that is a five MGD rated station is a problem.
And so if we can get to that seven MGD, what we're doing is we're building in that extra, extra capacity that we need so that if we do have a filter fully come off line or break through in a way that's not immediately reparable that we have that like sponge room on the other ones, there's really not an opportunity, without running another filter pilot to kind of run those to failure.
and those are relatively expensive to do. It's got a lot of specialized equipment that we have to rent. I think the equipment rental was somewhere around 40 or $50,000, alone. So I don't know that that's a test that we can reasonably complete at this point.
James:
Yeah, I think maybe I didn't stated I not really a failure, but or you know, I didn't really see any and that's a good thing.
I didn't see any degradation in its ability to filter even at the highest flow rates. But I was also concerned that, you know, we weren't preparing for having some filters go down for maintenance or God forbid, something damaged them physically or something like that, or contaminate them. So I was just kind of wondering if that data was available, or maybe they can talk to that at some time if they ever come back in.
Yeah. Sounds good. We could do that. All right. one more thing. you kind of put it in your notes, but, reconfiguration of the surge or water hammer type system down at the pump station. you know, I just keep bugging you on this thing. It's, it was in and it was sort of alluded to in your notes, but there was no significant detail about what's going on there.
And are we planning for that to be fixed this coming year? And is it in our budget?
Nathan:
Yes, it's in the budget for this coming year. I'm actually going to have that's one of the proposal, smaller projects that I'm going to, put out an RFP and have them will Level respond to that one, more than likely from kind of our initial past that, that we might be able to actually just abandon that system because it's redundant to the other pressure blow off valve thing that sits in there.
But that's the evaluation that we'll do. and then, I've got a real rough outline of that RFP, but I'll get it finished up and sent out.
Jason:
Okay. Great. Is that it, Jim? All right. Anyone else hearing? None. I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you. Everyone.