BW&S Board responded, but failed to answer most of the questions and failed to respond in writing to Karen directly and never posted their response in the website as requested
To: Bayview
Water and Sewer District Board
From: Karen Renner
Date: September
20, 2017
Re: Agenda
Item/Public Matters/Budget Clarification and Compliance Issues
I apologize that I am unable to attend the meeting in person, but
wanted to submit my concerns and questions in this letter. I remain very concerned with the outcome of
decisions this board has and is making on behalf of the customers of this
district.
Compliance Issues #1 – Violations of
the Idaho Open Meeting Law
The Executive Session held on August 10, 2017 violated at least 3 rules
of the Idaho Open Meeting Law.
1)
Executive sessions may take place only at valid
open meetings
2)
A public agency cannot conduct an executive
session to consider general staffing needs
3)
No executive session may be held for the purpose
of taking any final actions or making any final decisions
At the general board meeting on August 15th, 2017 ,decisions
made during the executive session were announced including the elimination of
two system operator positions, and the announcement of which contractor was
selected for operation of both the water and sewer systems. The law states “Failure to follow the
procedural steps for a valid executive session will invalidate any action taken
as a result of the executive session.
Additionally, it may subject the board members to the liability for
those actions”.
The customers of this district have a right to request that
the board acknowledge these violations, and adhere to the principles of open
and transparent government. As stated in
the law, a violation is cured by repealing any action taken at an illegal
meeting or disregarding deliberations made in violation of the Open Meeting
Law. Should it choose to, a governing
body may, in a properly noticed meeting, repeat the deliberation(s) that
occurred at the illegal meeting.
Additionally, the district has failed to comply with
requirements for taking and posting minutes of all meetings, specifically all
“Special” meetings held.
Compliance Issue #2 – Non Compliance
with DEQ Reuse Permit M-105-04
Since dismissal of the previous system operator 8/14/17, permit
compliance has not been met as follows:
·
Effluent flow meters have not been read daily
·
BWSD operating without a properly licensed
charge operator for the treatment site
·
Proper chlorination of wastewater has not occurred
·
Proper application of wastewater to irrigation
fields has not been maintained
·
Two weekly wastewater grab samples exceeded
maximum allowable limits for coliform bacteria (one sample prior to the
overflow exceeded permit limits by 7x indicating the system was operating with
no chlorination)
·
BWSD failed to report these test results to DEQ within 24hrs of becoming aware (any
violation which may endanger public health or the environment)
DEQ
Investigation Report of Overflow at the Treatment Site on 8/31/17:
BWSD cited suspected vandalism and no
risk to public health and the environment in an incident report issued. On 9/12/17 DEQ issued a memorandum of the
overflow event on 8/31. This report has
not been referenced by the district, and is not on the agenda for the meeting
9/20/17. The report summarizes the
following:
·
Water spraying
form a broken sprinkler riser due an aged PVC coupler breaking lead to overflow
from the access road and onto a forest service road
·
Broken sprinkler
risers have been a common problem at the site in the past due to falling trees,
impacts by animals and general aging of the system
·
Mr. Kuchenski
reported he had been ensuring the chlorine system was being properly refilled
·
Mr. Kuchenski was
not a properly licensed charge operator
·
BWSD was in the
process of contracting with a licensed charge operator
What I have learned, which is not in the
report is the following:
·
DEQ did not
review chlorination logs, or request results of recent wastewater test
samples. During the investigation, BWSD
failed to disclose the most recent test result which exceeded coliform bacteria
permit limits by 7x. the week prior to the overflow, showing the system ran for
a period of time with no chlorination
·
Allegations of
vandalism were investigated by law enforcement and closed
·
Operator ran the
same irrigation area continuously for 15 days, which saturated the area where
the break occurred (estimated over one million gallons applied)
·
Previous
operators had been replacing aged couplings with a thicker, more durable
coupling – I have been told there is a box of these new couplings in the supply
room
·
BWSD board will
apparently take no responsibility to correct previous false claims and
accurately report to the customers
System
monitoring activity – comparison between employee data and contractor data
Triplex
Pump station log data (main hub for transfer/pumping wastewater to treatment
site)
Between 7/15/17 and 8/14/17, checks were
documented 21 of 31 days, missing weekend days
Between 8/15/17 and 9/14/17, checks were
documented 8 of 31 days, missing weekends and 11 consecutive days over Labor
Day weekend.
Pump House #7 Log Data (main
water pump house for Bayview)
Between 6/15/17 and 8/14/17, checks were documented 44 of 61 days,
missing weekend days
Between 8/15/17 and 9/14/17, checks were documented 8 of 31 days,
missing weekends and 7 consecutive days at one point, and another period of 7
days over Labor Day weekend
It would appear our new system operator, and all of his employees were unavailable
over the extended Labor Day Holiday to conduct monitoring checks and meter
readings at the two critical pump houses for both wastewater and water. The customers of this district were told at
the general meeting Aug 15th that Integrity would be operating our
system daily – Could the board please define what the definition of daily
is? In my opinion, inconsistent checks
of our very expensive pumps and systems at extended intervals throughout each
month is unacceptable, placing our district at high risk for system failures by
not detecting problems early and conducting repairs.
Budget
Considerations and Clarifications
Our
current surplus/savings after contracting operations out is $26,160 less than 2
years ago when we had three full time employees, dedicated exclusively the
operations of our district.
The cost/benefit analysis for
contracting out is unknown, as these deliberations took place in a closed executive
session. Points I would like to have the
board consider and explain:
·
What would the
cost of one system operator be to the district? (Salary, no overtime)
·
What would the
cost of an employee operator in training be, part time through the summer
months? (increased resources trained specifically to our system)
·
What duties did
our employee operator perform throughout the year that are not part of the
contract operator duties?
·
How has reduced
office hours benefited customer service?
·
Customers were
told all staff of Integrity are licensed operators. Could you please clarify which licenses these
employees have? Has Bob K. been a
responsible charge operator of a sewer system?
·
Previous operator
was working average of 50+ hours per week after Neil retired and running our
system in compliance – how does Integrity intent to achieve this level of
service and compliance with a staff of 3, who also run 20 other systems?
·
Is there a
corrective action plan and contract monitoring process in place?
·
Wastewater
contract specifies unanticipated fees are not included in the contract – many
of these duties were performed by our employees which will now be an additional
cost @ $45/hr (ie annual report writing, system failures, broken collection
system pipes).
·
It is costing the
district more money to contract daily routine system operations, compared to
claims that we are saving $82,000 by contracting system operations. We cannot determine how much more because of
the contract add-on charges for unanticipated costs for both the water and
sewer system which will accumulate throughout the year. Same for general contract labor previously
done by employees.
In summary, the current BWSD board has
increased costs, increased rates, decreased customer service, decreased
frequency of system operation, eliminated historical expertise of operations
and failed to ensure compliance with operating permits. They have all but eliminated our ability to
participate in community emergency disasters such as the Cape Horn fire where
our system operators worked with fire crew around the clock regarding access to
water supplies. With Integrity servicing
20 other districts, I am certain that each of their customers will expect to be
first in line for emergency response during winter storms, fires, power outages
etc. I did not take the time to touch on
ethical issues, such as back dated contracts or deceptive posting of a recent
special meeting – that can be shared at another time. Our community deserves better than this, and
I consider the decisions being made by the current board to be reckless and
narrow minded. I define the character
of this board by one example. When Reid
was terminated on the spot with no warning, he was allowed a short time to
gather his personal belongings of 10 years in the office. During this time, the
board sitting before us now was celebrating, in his presence, with cake and
ice-cream. Ms. Meyer went so far as to
offer cake & ice cream to him as he was on his way out. This level of conduct is embarrassing and
insulting, and exemplifies why two of our three previous employees walked off
the job.
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