City Council - Regular Meeting

Council see Odessa on December 9th, 2025 at 3:2. Uh, Councilman, can I lead us in a prayer? Certainly will. Thank you. Everybody, please stand if you're able. Please join us if you like.

Heavenly Father, as we gather for this work session in service to the people of Odessa, we seek your steady guidance. Continue to instill in this counsel wisdom and integrity as we consider the matters before us. Help us to be faithful stewards of the resources entrusted in our care and our joint responsibility for Odessa's long-term well-being, safety, and for the stability of our community. Watch over our city, its families, its workers, and safeguard our first responders. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Agenda item number three. Pursuant to Texas government code 551.101, the city council will hold an executive session which is closed to the public to discuss the following matters as permitted under the sections of the Texas government code. Executive session as authorized by Texas Government Code section 551.087 economic development negotiations. The city council may adjourn to executive session two. Number one, discuss or liberate commercial or financial information received from a business prospect that the city seeks to have locate, stay, or expand in or near the city and in which the city is conducting economic development negotiations or two, deliberate the offer of a financial or other incentive such as business prospect including retail, entertainment, and mixeduse businesses. Gentlemen, I need a motion going executive session. Move

motion by Councilman Thompson. Is there a second? Second save by councilman Canel say I opposed executive session at 304 Four.

session. So moved pushed by Councilman Haney. Is there a second? Second. Wow. I'm going to take I think Councilman Canel was a second. All in favor say I. I. All right. We're back in uh session at 3:35 p.m. No action was taken in executive session. Agenda item four, update on city audit and accounting. Kayla.

Hello, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having me up today. We have two people to speak to you today. Greg Weaver is here. Greg Peterson with Weaver is here. He has been on the audit team for many years for the city of Odessa. He was here when we had the former regime before we lost our historical knowledge. We had that full turnover. So, he has been through the fire with us and he's going to be able to talk to y'all today and answer any questions you may have. After that, we also have Michael Brotherton here. He is with Cherry Beckard, an accounting firm that's been helping us out a bunch lately. They special specialize in governmental accounting. Um they've been doing wonders for us. He'll be able to answer any questions you'all have about our processes for the audit, what he's looking for for 25. And then after um the audits are all caught up, we're going to rely on them to help us restructure and organize and get our processes where they need to be. So, I'll turn it over to Greg and he can answer any questions y'all have. Thank you.

Thank you, Caleb. Yes, sir.

Um, so yeah, so I'll just give you a quick update on the audit for 2024 and happy to answer any questions that you have. So, um, as you're aware, the 2024 audit is still ongoing. Um, you know, it's been pencils up and down a couple of times um over the past couple of months, but uh, you know, the city has made a lot of really good progress um, with hiring Cherry Beckard to really come in and help them close the books for 2024. Um, you know, throughout this process, we've continued to work on the audit to hit some of the the lower hanging fruit um that we can do while the books are being closed. Um, but I'm anticipating probably an issuance date somewhere uh December January time frame for 2024. Um, which really gives kind of Terry Becker time to come in and help with the 2025 audit. So, as soon as they're they're done with their processes, then we can come in and and audit the 25 uh books. Um, obviously, as everyone at the DAS knows that the the hard deadline is March 31st. Um, so we're definitely all committed here to to reaching that deadline. Uh, we all know what's at stake. um you know and how important it is to the city to to get these audits completed by March. So, you know, uh Weaver uh you know, we're obviously dedicated to doing whatever we can to to get the city um uh audits issued by that time. Uh obviously, Kayla and her team have been working very hard to get caught back up and and get these books closed as quickly as they can. Uh hiring Jerry Beckard is definitely another step in the right direction to help in that process. So anyway, happy to answer any questions y'all may have about the about the 24 audit.

I'm just trying to make sure the 25 the 24 audit I thought it was April 3rd. March 30th it's Yeah, it's there's the March 31st is is for 25. Okay. I don't know why April 3rd sticks in my head. We did. Yeah, we talked about that a lot. I think basically the the what council's direction was we want to be done by March also with that. Well, I agree with that. Yeah, certainly. Okay. I'm just trying to make sure I know exactly what the absolute deadline is. Okay. Questions? I'd say the manpower that we have and what you have seen and utilized 25 will be easy. I hope so.

Let's not say easy, but yeah, it won't be easy. Um, you know, to to prepare for an audit, you know, especially when things are running behind, things just compound. Um, so you know, you got people trying to do their day job, but then they're also trying to get caught up. Um, so hiring additional resources, especially, you know, people that are experts in their field like Terry Beckard is is is definitely going to be a big help. No doubt. Your projection for filing on 25 will be on time. And I'm sorry, say it again. Your projection for filing for 25 will be on time. I I I truly hope so. That I mean, that is that is the goal. That is everyone's goal. And there's I want it just as much as everybody else wants wants to reach that goal.

I gota be honest with you, Greg. I I don't think that's a goal. That's an absolute. There's no goal. It is a must. Did you see the press audit press release date by General General Abbott? I did not. No, sir. Paxton. Well, today Kim Paxton, our attorney general of Texas, released a press statement that said he is launching a statewide investigation of nearly 1,000 Texas cities to ensure municipal transparency and stop illegal tax increases. You can read it. It's it's been published. Uh but from our perspective, we believe that Senate bill does not take effect until this tax season, this tax year.

But I want to make sure we're crystal clear because we heard dates all the past year about when things would be done and they weren't. Including I heard multiple times this would be done in November and it wasn't right. And so I'm making it clear that it's not going to be a goal for March. It will be done. Whatever it takes. I mean, I don't know what that means. If we have to be working eight days a week, we're going to work eight days a week. I mean, but I want understood it's not an aspirational goal. It's a must because next year it's going to be enforced and it's going to leave every city with the responsibility now that we've had notice, right,

to get it done on time. Yes sir. Yes sir. So I mean is that clear? I mean it's it's I hear you crystal. Yes sir. That it's a u it must be done by then. Yes sir. Any other questions? Well I was just curious since we did hear November about 24. Yes. Where are we in that process? because

uh again, we had pencils down to allow the city time to to close the books and make adjustments that they needed for us to be able to go back and perform the audit. So, like I said, the the audit's been one of those kind of start and stop processes, but um you know, now we're we're back to pencils down and working again for 24. So, when is there a timeline for completing for 24? Yes. So hopefully the you know the goal is December January time frame. You want we be more specific because we're in December.

Yeah. I I can't really be any more specific. Uh I mean you know we can't put the be able to be specific the cart before the horse. Um for my type of work that I do, you know, the the balances have to be prepared and the the information has to be auditable before we can come in. What would some of the barriers be for 25? Uh the books being closed. I mean, that's obviously the biggest area. Uh I don't want to speak on that. I'll turn it over to Caleb.

Sure. That's a good question. Um whenever we our fiscal year closes in September, it's very normal to have 60 days of activity before you close the books. That's you you kind of have to in municipal government counting. So, having said that, we've hit that mark. Um, next week we have we are going to start the actual closing process. I'm happy to answer some of the barriers I foresee and that we are putting Terry Beckard on. I've now been in my position for one year and I have well not quite one year but almost. And I've seen a lot of the things that have gone wrong. I'll be completely honest with you. Our bank wrecks were not caught up. We were doing um we were doing cash cash recognition and proof of cash.

Proof of cash. And so we were making sure our aes and stuff were going through but that caused some problems that had caused November to be to go down. Um that is the biggest cause we had. It is something that I had been expressing to city man prior city management before I moved into finance. Um when I was in internal audit I was raising the flag on that whenever I first got into the position. I started raising the flag again. The problem is, and Greg said it well, when you're this behind and you're still trying to get day-to-day stuff going, it is hard because when you're behind, there's more fires because things aren't being done with the proper I mean, it was in our audit. The thing the proper internal controls were not in place. That is my fear is that there are still some things that I have yet to uncover. We have done a lot of stuff to correct that. Um, we have a plan for the bank wrecks. We have a plan for the audits that have been holding us behind. We have a plan for the fixed assets where our fixed assets are kept in a spreadsheet. Um, we do not have a fixed asset accountant that reconciles those monthly or quarterly. We just now put somebody in place to help reconcile grants monthly and quarterly. We had we were so far behind when I took the position whenever everybody else got here that trying to catch up has been the issue. I am not saying things were done wrong before my reign my they were not but they just weren't done for a couple of years. So that's the issue

and that's also the importance of bringing in Cherry Beckard. So talk a little bit about Cherry Beckard and the fact that what they are is an accounting firm but they're a governmental accounting firm and they are perhaps come on up to the front and let's all talk together.

Hi Mike Brotherton with Cherry Becker. Um, so we're a a CPA firm. Uh, our group specializes in advisory work for governments. Um, so nationwide we're helping state agencies, local governments. Um, everything from implementation of a new accounting standards to year-end audit prep to drafting financial statements. We do a lot of trainings. Uh so we have uh many governments we work with that are in a similar position um that we help them clean up the bugs, prepare for the the audit and uh implement new processes um to kind of expedite the process. Um so we've had clients that have been a year behind got them to where they were able to start getting their audits done in three or four months. Um so with the work that we're doing right now, it's kind of three-phase. So, we wanted to jump in, address the immediate needs of fiscal year 24, then we're going to go to 25, and then we're going to circle back and provide recommendations for improvements, updating procedures, um, so the city can get back on track and, uh, then hopefully for fiscal year 26 and forward, be back on the previous schedule with the office.

So, are we able to I know we're doing 24. Are we able to be kind of working on 25 while we still doing 24 or you just going to wait to 25? get you? No, we'll be able to provide assistance concurrently. Um, so city staff has already started some of the 25 prep. We're going to meet with them next week. Um, start diving up tasks. Um, so when Greg and his team are working on the audit, we'll be able to concurrently work on the prep work for fiscal year 25. So, I guess that's the question I have for each of you. What do you need to get it done by this call March 31st? What can we do? We need to know there's anything you need

because we don't want failure. So, I just need to know what you need so we can provide it. Uh, whatever it is, please tell me.

Thank you for asking that, mayor. Um, this is situation I had never been in before and I walked in. So, you did ask me that question whenever you came on board. I will fully You asked, you offered. I'd never been in this situation. I need a crystal ball and we had we have a little, you know, we have hindsight. Now, having said that, I need Cherry Becker. I need somebody that can fill the gaps and knowledge my staff and I do not have. Um, I have a lot of years of experience in this. They have more together. They have people in every area that can have emphasis on the investment side that I don't have as much strength in. They have people that can help with the reconciliations that I can't get to because I'm trying to train staff. I haven't been able to stop and train staff until recently. Um, having Terry Beckard on board whenever we came across an issue is issue with reconciling one of our grants, I was actually able to stop, not do the work all on my own, and teach somebody how to do it for 25. So, that's what we need. I need Cherry Becker's assistance to guide me and mold me where I need it. I especially want the council and city management to hear them when they give recommendations on how we need to restructure. I think they're going to be the best people to give us that recommendation. They were going to have worked with us, not only with us, but with other people. They will know our strengths personally and they will know our strengths as a city. That's what I think we need.

And if we need any more resources from Cherry Beckard, we're behind that. So, if we need more accountants, we'll pay for that. If we need more assistance, we'll pay for that. But I think we've got the best team in place right now possible for us to meet the legal deadline by March 31st. And again, that goes with our city staff, but also with Cherry Beckard as well. So again, I know the last couple of years, Erin, I I know that the comments been made from from Weaver that, you know, they don't have any extra staff to help. There's that's been going on for over a year. Sure. So I you know, and that's and and I think we're probably a year late trying to get this other help, but Wow. at least maybe now it's here

and and it is here now and I think that they've got the staff to help us get where we need to be by the legal deadline. Mike, anything else you need from us? No, sir. We understand the seriousness of this. Um happy to throw as many resources as needed uh to supplement the city to to get to that deadline. Thank you, Greg. Anything? Uh no, just I mean books that are reconciled and audible. That's what I need.

Okay. Well, we appreciate Don't think we for a minute we don't appreciate it. We're just frustrated. It's it's when the attorney general is sending you nasty press releases. It's not pleasant. And u we're just trying to do our best and trying to get whatever resources y'all need to get it done uh to to uh get a target off our back and and uh so please don't hesitate. Weekly if necessary report to I mean if you need something just tell us. Don't not email or call or let you know Kayla or or Aaron know what you need because we want to get it done. Yes sir. I don't know how I can strongly emphasize how much we want it done timely.

Mayor, I have a question just for clarification once we get the 2024 and the 2025 audits completed and approved or whatever. And I guess the question goes to you, Erin. Um, the finance office being under your direction, um, do we as as a city, we take care of ourselves or do we always have an external auditor uh, on a year-to-year basis? We're required by state law and our charter to have an outside auditor. Okay.

And so that'll always have to happen. Uh, and as far as resource, as far as accountants, uh, yes, we do need to hire more folks in our in our f finance department, but until then, we can still rely on Cherry Becker to help us allow help us out along the way. Okay. Thanks. What can you do after this is done to continue you in this thing? What can you close out periodically all through

this 2026? What can you close out so we're not having to close everything at once? What can you close out is what everybody's trying to ask is can you continuously work on this so when 2026 comes when we close this out on November you give us what we need. We were just recently given a schedule uh as an example for instance.

Yes. So yes sir you're right council maybe that's a good question. That's one of the things that we are working on right now. Whenever we said next week we're start diving out tasks tasks I have a list of checklist during closing monthly closing we have it broken between monthly quarterly and yearly that we should have been doing all along that has not been done we have that now one of the examples is we're able to give you financial statements now that's because we're starting to close processes and as I mentioned to Mayor H a while back I'm so glad that y'all pushed on that because that helped me find a lot of things so to answer your question we are already doing things more monthly and quarterly than we ever have since the year I've been here. Um, part of Cherry Beckard's uh assistance after everything is to make sure that we have the right checklist that they see across the board and then they're going to Right now, it's very hard for me to stop and train somebody. So once we get caught up and we get the right checklist, the right staffing ideas, I'll be able I'll be able to actually train that way. It's not just one or two people doing all the work at the city.

Okay. So, yes, so for me too, I'm in a big corporation, so I expect to see an SOP written up that gets followed every year after year after year. Not just saying that you're going to do this, but we need to see it in writing. What's going to what steps are going to be taken? Because I'm sorry, you may not be here. somebody else may come in this and it needs to continue and we need to be reassured that this is going to get done because you know we lost our our bond rating and we want it back. We need it. We've got stuff coming up and so there's no more digital daddling guys.

So I hear you on that and one of the things that I enforce in our department is job aids. Um and that's kind of what you're talking about. I have our staff writing every task they do, the steps they do it. If somebody wins the lottery tomorrow and doesn't come to work, I can go to their desk. I call them a job aid, but they're supposed to be in a book on your desk electronically. You hand write them. They're a living document. Next council meeting, I can provide you with examples or I can send them to Mr. Smith and he can email them out. I've already started that process and actually that's one of the things that GFOA recommends you start doing for your audits is have these SOPs. We call them job aids. um that says says step by step. Another thing that we've done to improve some of these closing processes is we have two trainings every year for our staff. Um that because if our staff is doing the right things financially, it helps us not have as many fires to put out. Um we are working on better training for that. So yes, sir, I hear you and I agree with you. That's always been standard practice everywhere I've been. Um we didn't have those here and so we do have some now. They're not there's not enough and they're ever evolving but I give you examples of what we have.

No, we need to put it together so that it's like that. Yes, sir. You might as well say you're being run like a business now because that's exactly what you have to do. I agree. And if if you can't show any of this, then we're going to get closed out on a lot of stuff. I have a plaque on my desk that says, "But did you document it?" And that is how I live my accounting life. Okay, that's it. I mean, that's all I had to say. I wasn't pushing on anything. No, I hear you. I'm just saying if if you're not writing it down, we're in trouble. I agree with you. Thank you. All right, Jim, you got a great followup. You said something earlier about software. We're not using something. Something's on a spreadsheet.

You know, all I've heard since I got here, you know, I had complaints about software. We we're about to hear from some really good software people is that Munis is the end all beall for for your department. But it doesn't even sound like y'all are using it. We're not. And I So why? Because I was

I think a lot of it has to do with, like I said, we're let let She's been here for one year. This process is about to get rolling. I can't speak for what happened before I even got here. I can't I can't speak for anything before I got here, but I can tell you this. We're going to do things a little bit differently moving forward. We are going to make sure that the banks are that we have bank wrecks on a monthly monthly that didn't get done in the past and that had a lot to do with staffing. There's no doubt about it. There's no doubt. You can't go down there and know that we don't have the staff necessary to to carry out a $300 million enterprise with over2 billion dollars in assets. We don't have the staff for that. We We're going to get there. We will get there. We will put the right people in place and the right processes will be put in place again because Munis on the finance side actually does work if it's inputed right. So if we're closing the books every month like we should be, you'll be able to get a simple spreadsheet put out by munis that shows u um uh revenues and expenses. Simple revenue and expense report will be able to come out and it'll be accurate as long as that's done. But we do have to have the we do have to have people down there and right now we are thin and there's no doubt about it. But we are hiring and we will fill those gaps moving forward and that's that's you know that's that's the why. But we also know that we have an audit that has to be done by March 31st and we're putting everything we can into that and then yes processes will be cleaned up and standard operating procedures will be in place and when those SOPs are in place those banks the bank wrecks will be done on time and you'll get your everybody will get which they are owed you are owed we owe that to you to give you the best documentation possible and in a simple revenue and expense report at the end of every month. So

good. Do y'all have an SOP that y'all follow at Cherry Becker? Do you have an SOP that you follow when you're doing all of this? Is that something you could share with us? Yeah, we can help develop SOPs. Is that that's what you're referencing? We've done that type of work before. And then on the audit side, they've already provided basically a template for an SOP really for next year for the audit deadline to meet the audit. The things that you should be doing on a monthly, quarterly basis in order uh to ensure that that audit is ready to roll and they come in and they audit and they and they're in and out in a short in a short time frame. We started making that comment even back to the 23 audit. Yes, he did.

Had a another follow up on that. How many positions is your department short? We are short probably five. And are those all posted? They're not. And I can explain why. I So, okay. I'm sorry. You

as I said earlier, I can't stop and train anybody right now. How bringing somebody into a situation where you can't stop and give them the time that they need to be trained is just detrimental to culture. It's detrimental to your team. It will not benefit us. So, that's why we got Jerry Beckard in here. Um, until we are where I can stop, Councilman, there is not a I don't have somebody in my office on my phone or sending an email and everything is important to the next one. Everybody deserves my attention. But you can understand the mixed message. No, we're not. It's It's not a mixed message because am I or am I not hiring for a CFO right now? Yes, sir. I am. So, I believe it's posted.

All right. I I am hiring for that. That's where it starts. Okay. That's where it starts. That's being done. Have there been any applicants? There have. And we'll see how that goes, but I may I may change the course on how we advertise for that as well, but I felt it was necessary to do that first. I think we can all agree that's that's step one. Mr. Smith, I agree. As a city councilman, I'm not going to micromanage any of your departments. I'm going to look to you to make them better. And I believe that you are the person that's going to make them better. Thank you.

And and if I can dovetail into that, I Kale, I appreciate that. So what you've done is saying I got five spots available, but I can't fill them because I can't train them. So hence, they hired Yes, sir. Jerry Beckard. Yes, sir. Which that's good. That's a a good solution. It saves your time so you can do what you need to do. Yes, sir. I think it's wonderful. And that's the support we need right now. Yes, ma'am. Um, and I want your questions because your questions help guide me into the right answers because I don't see it from your point of view all the time. I see it from mine. So, I do appreciate your questions. I appreciate the support because I promise you we are busting it. We are doing everything we can.

Yeah, I think key life is work together. Uh, we call it team Odessa. That's the concept where we just all work together. But we need to know if you need something. That's all we're saying. If you need something, please let us know. We're going to enable you. Whatever it takes, we're going to do. But we got to work together. We've got to know there these deadlines aren't artificial. They are solid that we have got to meet them. Thank you guys. I'll thank all three of you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks guys. Thank you. All right. Let's go to agenda item number five. Presentation and discuss bid award for billing customer service and meter reading field operation system. Joanne come up here.

Good afternoon mayor and council. I have some proposal evaluations for you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, city. So, mayor and council, uh we're here today to discuss the billing software that we've been in need of. Uh we uh in front of you, you do have the proposal evaluation that was rated and the uh bid award uh was given to or was won by Origin. We do have Origin today. uh they're going to do a presentation for you and if you have any questions after that then they'll be here to answer any questions or anything else further that you have from uh spelling and collection. So I'll pass it over to Lance Maxwell and he'll introduce his team.

Thank you.

Thank you Joanne and uh council city manager Mr. Mayor. Thank you for having us today. Origin is thrilled to be here and uh looking forward to answer any questions you have. Uh myself um our CEO Mr. Mark Black and our VP, our vice president of product, Matter Jane are are here today to to kind of walk you through a little bit about Origin as a company and also tell you a little bit about the package smart city suite that we have proposed and hopefully be fortunate enough to work with the city on going forward. Got a couple. So, uh, as I mentioned, uh, we've just, uh, in the slide deck that you guys have within your agenda today, we've got the leadership team and three of us are are here to, uh, to discuss, uh, working with the city going forward. I'd like to bring up, uh, Mr. Black, if you would, uh, tell you a little bit about Origin as a company and and how we're going to advise the city.

Absolutely. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon to the citizens of Odessa. It's a pleasure that we're here with you today. I understand the situation that you're currently in. It's somewhat sensitive. Um, your words particularly in the opening prayer were significant to me because as I understand you guys are operating as stewards for the resources of this city and the budget and the community and uh I I came here with some things I wanted to say and I felt like that that was significant enough to address for us because we feel like that you're asking us to be the stewards for you moving forward bringing the software and the platforms that are going to be important for billing accurately and providing your community with the interaction that they need with you guys as you bill them and they pay their bills and so on and so forth. My firm Origin, we started it in 2007. I started it by myself. I ran it as a single consultant for nine months a year until finally I started to hire my other team members, some of whom are still with me. I started out at TXU Energy doing some work for them um where they pretty much put me through the ringer sending me overseas to move some back office operations from the Philippines to Bangalore, India. Uh but from that point um we have built relationships in the utility community. Uh I think uh we have a number of clients who've been with us for 15, 17 years, 18 years. Orlando utility commission, we're still working with them. We don't do that because we're not good at service. So, our mantra leading into this project is service. Our technology is great and our software is good and our support is really top, but when it really comes down to it, it's about your community and your citizens being able to understand their bills and pay their

bills with confidence, knowing that you guys have put the best forward. And I think our software will do that. The other thing that we're prepared to do for you at the same time is make sure that all of our best practices that have been conjured over time by all of the people that work for us, many of whom 17 18 years, that those best practices are brought to Odessa so that your your operation here both back office and front office are dialed into what we consider to be the industry's best practices. And I think that creates a real opportunity for you guys. And I'm here to assure you that your investment, however you deem that investment to be, is going to will give you a return on investment. The amount of, for instance, we have some customers that are saving $3 for every bill that they don't have to send in the mail. Um, and that they don't they're not getting checks that they have to process. All that stuff is happening electronically. And if the savings are significant, um, we can bring that kind of stuff forward and we will prompt your group to entertain using some of those techniques that I think you guys have already you already want. Um, and then finally, I would say that I'm glad this is on the record because I realize our reputation is on the line here. I'm telling you, I assure you that we will do the job that needs necessary to get done and we will do it. I have a team of very capable people. They're smart, they're collaborative, they're engaging, they're honest, and they're transparent. So, if we have issues, like you've been saying, tell us what you need. Tell us how to enable you to do what we need you to do. We love that because we operate with a governance model over these projects that will do exactly that. I also invite regular cadence meetings with all of

you. We're happy to come here. We're happy to stand before you, talk about progress, talk about what some of our issues are, very much in the same way that the lady from finance was. The level of scrutiny is invited because we're going to deliver it just as you need it to be delivered and it's for the benefit of your community and your citizens. Let me prove it to you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Mark. And uh as Mark mentioned, uh you know, we were founded as an advisory firm, right? And so while we do provide the software package that you guys will, you know, hopefully approve. Um half the job is advising on best practices. And so heard the the term job aids mentioned earlier. Those are are inherent to our projects, right? understanding resource limitations. We work with with a lot of similarly sized public sector entities that kind of have some of those limitations that that you guys are experiencing right now. And so the the the sustainability of the solution u is something that is is a high uh goal for us as we work through the project. So, uh, just real quick to tell you about the package itself. If I can get back there. Okay. Can you get me back? Uh, our package is called Smart City Suite. U, we are not just a module for utility billing that is part of a bigger jack-of alltrades finance solution. We are a singularly focused uh, comprehensive utility billing suite. Okay. So that um when we talk about that that's um everything from your core back office solution to the customer portal portal that your citizens will interact with um have uh gained transparency into all of their usage. Uh previous bills the available uh the ability to self-s serve um themselves electronically uh to create service request or start stop or transfer service. that is all uh inherent to the package that we provide. Okay. And at the center of this package is an Oracle-based uh customer information system uh used by some of the largest and most intricate utilities in the world. Uh we have taken that as

as a company that's deployed that solution for almost 20 years now and created a package with best practices that are suited to the operation of the city of Odessa. Okay. In this particular schematic, uh, everything on the right are origin applications that are part of that smart city suite package. And then what we bring to the table is the ability to integrate seamlessly with the city's other edge applications. So your finance solution, your headend, your AMI system, which I know is a big investment. We want to maximize that investment by exposing that data to your citizens. GIS uh billprint which I understand you guys do in house your outage management systems and perhaps down the line an asset management solution. But um one of our core areas of expertise is system integration. So all of that will be brought in to where you get a quote unquote single pane of glass for the entire utility operation. Okay, that's the package that Origin will be providing. Um beyond just the deployment and this goes back to what uh Mark mentioned in terms of service we have also uh provide uh postgo live after we cut over to to your new solution a robust support team. Okay. So this is not just technical support. This is an aroundthe-clock team with oper operations both here in the mainland US and overseas as well that will continually monitor the performance of of the solution. Okay. Uh the idea there is for the for most utilities a lot of their uh processes run overnight. So our team overseas will manage that. They will check into that every night. If any issues arise, we are able to provide city staff with proactive notification if we can't fix it on our own. Um so that they're not having to manually go back and and check on defects uh on a regular morning basis. Again, the goal of this is to automate

as much of the mundane tasks that your limited city staff um have to accomplish on a daily basis. Okay? So, let's modernize it. Let's automate it and then let's support it post go live. Um just real quick before we get into the demonstration here, um I do want to mention the project timeline. Okay, these are these are uh thorough projects. They are not easy projects. Um, as Mark mentioned, we've done a lot of these and we bring a lot of best practices to the table. Um, your staff will need your support throughout this as it's going to be about a 12-month project uh from the start should we again get approval in January uh to a go live in January of 2027. Okay. Okay. And then beyond that, our project team will stay around for a couple of months uh to support um the postgo live operation of the solution before we hand you off uh to smart ops uh support team. So um it's it's a big project. We know it's a very sensitive project for you guys. U we would be thrilled uh to to uh to earn your business here and and I'm happy to answer any questions before we go to the demonstration about Origin as a company or the solution set. Any questions?

You don't have to go out and replace all the meters and all everything. No. No. So, we uh we are not uh in any way tied to the infrastructure side of things. What we will do is uh leverage out of the box integrations with in this case master meter is is the new AMI system and be able to expose that data in real time to your citizens. Okay. So, that's a big investment that you guys have made. We want to help you maximize that. That that was my follow-up question with a little twist just to making sure that those meters integrate properly with your software. Correct. Have you taken a look at that? Yes. Yes. And master meter is uh a head-end system that we have integrated with in the past. Okay. Excellent.

So, one more question. So, you're going to go from the system we have now to a whole new system. Take a year to do it. So, what's going to go wrong? the something's going to go right anytime you make a Yes. No, projects are very difficult. I like that front. This is a big one.

Uh this is a big one. Uh typically the the most difficult parts of the project are uh testing which requires a lot of time from your staff. Okay. And data conversion. Um we we have dedicated in our proposal a a significant amount of time to the conversion of your existing data which we understand is you know that that's that's going to be an effort. Um th those two areas are probably the the most difficult tasks especially on your staff um throughout the project. Once we establish the solution design and we go in to build it in that that period of several months where we're kind of exposing piece by piece uh the the uh the design and the development of the solution, those those areas tend to go pretty smoothly. But the conversion component, especially with the data that that we're going to be looking at, uh and then the amount of testing that's going to be required towards the end of the project, those are those are difficult times.

And that's that's the part that I'm worried about staff during it. How do we continue to give good service when we're making this transition? That's so we account for that in our You said it's going to take a significant I'm sorry. It's going to take a significant amount of our staff's time. Correct. So who takes care of it? So in the aggregate,

right? In the aggregate. So we we uh dedicate a fairly long period of time to user acceptance testing. Right. So where they're not having to do 40 hours a week plus their day jobs um specific to testing of this solution. Um, as I mentioned, we work with a lot of similarly sized cities. They have the same constraints around resourcing. And so, we develop our project implementation approach with an understanding that they've got a lot of other tasks to be accomplishing throughout the day.

Okay. And so, we stagger our approach so that that we can provide them some flexibility to manage that while also managing the testing of the solution. We actually have designed for smaller utility footprints and testing protocol user acceptance testing protocol where we bring all the test scripts to you and and basic it does sound a little bit like you know the wolf in the inhouse but it's not I mean you guys will get to you'll see these test scripts have been customized to your choices while you go through theation and then we will adise your team on how we will supervise them during the test cycles and so it makes it a lot more efficient and the time is not wasted. The other thing I do want to mention about data conversion is we will start that before we start the project because we are sensitive to the amount of work that could be involved and we're going to start that and we're going to spin data constantly. Now, what we're trying to do while we quote unquote spin the data is look for problems in the current data footprint and then make those problems resolve those issues and then bring them forward into the new system and make sure everything balances on an accurate set of data and that there is one version of the truth moving forward. And I think that's that's going to be a big that's going to be a big project here, but we're preparing for it now just because unique circumstances that are involved here. The only other one other thing I wanted to mention was when it comes to uh smart ops as Lance was pointing out the 24 by7 support zone one, zone 2, zone 3, that's not just technical support. If Joanne comes to the table or something new happens and she's like, "Oh, I have this business problem. I don't know if I know how to address it." Our people are architects.

she can get them on the phone, be available to her and say how would you solve this problem in smart city suite and our people will advise on that. So it's not just today and how you operate today. If you implement you know let's say six months after we cut over you decide that you need to implement a new product a new way of doing something because a regulation came or something else like that you bring that problem to us and we'll help you solve it and implement it. So we're we're a business team that will coincide with your operation for as long as the contract exists. So there's not going to be a situation that we can't all resolve together. They're all resolvable. We're running into this kind of situation and people are finding great value in it because it's not something a lot of software vendors offer.

Yeah, the software is constantly evolving. As city regulations or state regulations change, you know, if the attorney general sends you another letter, the system needs to evolve. It will evolve. So it's not a one and done. It's a constantly evolving as the city's needs change, you know, the system evolves with it as well and all to that origins maintaining at all. So, it's not onus on the city. We take all that all of that on on ourselves. And I can speak for the city's part. Um, so we the current staff, we already did this, right? We went we went through it before with immunis and uh other cities failed at it which like in hindsight I wish we failed at it but we didn't because I mean at one point we stopped talking to Munice for like three months we played with the software tested it we created the test ourselves I pulled the data I we we we bounced to the penny right we it was um I'm I'm confident as far as being able to pull the day it's not easy I'm not saying it's going going to be easy, but that's something I've already done successfully and we based balance to the to the penny and now I have two more people on my staff that are I would consider um automation guys, data guys that can actually do this, too. So, um we're pretty strong on that. So, I I would I would say we're probably more strong on that than most cities. Um um and again, Joanne and her team's already been through this. We've already had to um pretty much almost do it on our own. I don't anticipate that this time. Um I was involved in some of the meetings and um I was very impressed with the technical skills, the the the knowledge when they talked talking from A to B. I mean I mean from A to Z. I mean it's um I'm very excited about working with them. I mean I think we're this for me it's going to be the first time I feel like I'm going to work with real experts.

I just my only concern is I just remember a comment being made when we went to MUN which was before my time and somebody in building and collection said won't work our system won't talk to their system. I just don't want that to happen again. Yeah. And and that was Am I wrong about that? No. Well, they were saying the the um it didn't have functionality that that that we needed

and that was proven correct. this time, building collections actually is on board and picked them and and vetted them out and said, "Yes, this will work for us and this is what we want." So, that's the difference. Um, as far as the city, we're confident we can get in. It's hard. These are what's going to be hard. Um, there's going to be some hiccups. I don't it there's I went through before was a disaster. So, I anticipate to be really a lot better. Yeah. My my question and I'm not sure if it's Lance or or Mark, but from my perspective there our citizens have sort of lost trust in the system.

And I'm not saying it's anyone's fault, but it just the way it it just transpired. We want to gain that back and we want to have a system that they can trust and they can verify. And so, and maybe you're about to explain that to me, but I want y'all to understand it is critical that this is a system that everyone can operate, everyone can see it, and everyone can be satisfied that there's no I mean, we have no desire, and we're not screwing anybody around. We don't want to screw anybody. I mean, but I don't think that's I think there's a belief out there with some individuals at least that there's some hidden interest in overcharging you. The last thing we want to do is overcharge someone. We just want you to pay for what you use. And so, how do we communicate that through this system? If if we don't accomplish that goal, to me, it's a failure. They citizens have got to respect and trust the system. And I'm afraid some of them don't right now. And we got to gain that trust back. That's our job.

Incrementally. That's right. One step at a time.

And I wouldn't mind, and I' I've proposed this to my team before that we had some sort of, you know, if we could easily have a citizen committee that steps in and actually views what we're doing and looks at our software from their perspective and gives us feedback. That's a way to promise what we can definitely deliver and have them be exposed to that new ecosystem before it's actually cut over. Um, you know, all of these folks that work in your community, I I can't tell you guys what you already know, but we know that you're providing vital services to these folks. They have got to be able to trust where they're getting their vital services and who's billing for them. We take that in our heart and soul very the opening remarks and the prayer it's you are the custodian of these resources they have granted all of us you know please come in and help us we get that so any involvement you think could be managed we'd be happy to be a part in a heartbeat and we'll help we actually help

and the citizen portal is a big part of that gaining that trust back because we it offers so much transparency to your customers and to your citizens because they can view, you know, their usage in real time. It's not whatever sticks to the wall, right? It's normalized usage. We managed it. We checked it and it's real time. Um, they're seeing stuff like leak alert. So, their usage never went down to zero for two days straight. Then there must be a leak. So, they see that as soon as they log in. So, they're not surprised by a heavy bill at the end of the month because they didn't know they had a leak. And not just before leaks. You know, we we monitor their consumption on a daily basis. We're not waiting for the month end. If they used 20 gallons yesterday and it's 60 today, it's going to raise a flag to let someone know, look at that meter because they used three times their water usage and it's something on. So those checks and balances are happening in a daily basis and then they're getting exposed out to the customers through the portal. So they can see a lot of that stuff ahead of time too. So they're not surprised by anything that comes in the mail for them.

So I think that's a great segue uh because the one component uh that we were sorry Councilman, go ahead. I was just gonna ask does that alert our team to be proactive about it to say hey Mr. you had yes a lot of those checks and balances can be configured to say what goes to the customer what goes to the city what's critical versus what's informationational so if their usage is twice you know maybe let someone know that don't stop any other processes but if their payment fails we're not going to that's a critical issue that we're going to resolve and the system will pause so there's different severity levels of who gets notified at what level we'll staff

so all of us pay our water bills we're all part of this city. So, we're seeing this every day. We're seeing our water bills. So, if something starts jumping out, we're going to notice it. Okay? Um, and I guarantee you, if you don't believe me, ask my wife. She's going to tell me about this. So, I have the best home checker right there that tells me if something's going on. Uh, but we don't need to form a committee because we are the committee up here. Okay?

So, we're seeing our own bills. for everybody everybody on this deal is seeing their water bill. So we can make reference to whatever we're looking at and and know what's going on. So if it's happened because we're all in different districts. So if it's happened in my district, it's happened in his district. If something's happened in his, we all going to know because nobody's going to play anymore about these water bills, guys. So they're going to notice something's going on and we're going to start getting the complaints and when we do, you're going to get them. That's right. And then we're going to expect you to fix them. That's right. And in a timely fashion, not next year. In a timely fashion.

I don't think we need a committee to to tell us what's going on because we're we're definitely going to get no toned about it. That's a good perspective. We're going to get volunttoed about it. I can tell you that. So, um, my main concern is guys, let's just fix what we got. it doesn't happen again. Um, that's that's our main goal up here and that's what we're asking. If it fixes it, hey, you got the business, but don't come in here and blow us full of smoke and it don't do it don't do a dang thing because that ain't going to look good on you guys.

So, so one of the components that was on that diagram earlier was the customer portal. And while we we would be happy to demonstrate if upon request the entire package, uh that does take a little bit of time, but certainly the thing, you know, the item that is going to be the most um interactive with or engaged with or certainly um you know, sensitive to your citizens is going to be the customer portal. So, I'd like MJ to go ahead and show you a little bit of that and if you have any questions, we can answer bring up the customer portal customer access part. So anything and everything we do on the back end, the CIS and their FSM application, a lot of that can be exposed out to the customers. You'll see a lot of the outbox features, we don't have to expose out everything at the same time. A lot of cities will incrementally push out stuff. So everything that you see is modular. So the city can decide what needs to go out at what point, what needs to remain um for the staff only, what the customers can't see. You'll notice that it's going to be fully white labelled for the city. So it's not amendous.coma my account.gov. It's going to be fully embedded and white label for the city. As far as the citizens are concerned, they're not dealing with origin. They're working with the city here. Now you'll notice as soon as the customers log in um you know on the dashboard they can see any kind of critical alerts up top shows them if there's a leak that shows up there. If there's other non-critical alerts they show at the bottom. So the dashboard kind of gives them an overview of everything that they need to know about

their water bill. They can see a history of their billing and payments. Um they can see what they owe, what they they owe it in. They can click and bring up uh their bill. Now bills will be redone. So easy to understand, easy to read bills. So the customers at a glance can understand what they're actually paying for, what their consumption was, if they were on a tiered rate versus on the flat. You know, they can do all of that directly from in here. Um can come in and also look at all their usage. Sorry, move that out of the way. Now all AMI usage, so right down to five minutes, they can drill down from in here. They can view their yearly usage. They can drill down into it. um view their monthly and hourly and all the way down to five minutes. They can overlay it. So if we have previous year's data that we can have uh temperature data, all of those overlays the citizens are able to do those uh on by themselves. They can also download that usage so they can do their own analysis and anything that we don't have on here, you know, but we can add in as well. So just makes it easy because that transparency that we talked about, right? Citizens know and can anticipate what their bill is going to come out to. This doesn't get updated at the end of the month. It's all real time. So, as they're using their, you know, filling up their pool, they can come in here and see that usage spike up because we have five minute intervals. As soon as master meter master meter makes that data available, we could put it out. So, we run it through our normalization. So, if there's a meter erroring out or failing to communicate or spiking up, we don't show that to the customers to to alarm them. We'll set parameters to see how we normalize it. How do we smooth out those valleys and those hills? and that's what the customers see, the citizens see. So, we're not raising alarm, we're just raising awareness. Um, they can also manage all of their different accounts from in here. There's a lot of self-service options. Um, they can request movein services, move out services, they can transfer service from in here. All kinds of payment channels are supported. All major credit cards, AC, they can use using their Apple Pay,

Google Pay if they do it through the phone app. And all of that is white labelled by the way. the citizens are going to their app store on their iPhones and Androids and downloading a city of Adessa utilities app not origin app um and that's they can push get push notifications from there um they can sign up for payment arrangements from here if they're falling behind you know they could do budget billing they could do different payment arrangements they could set up you know if they're on a fixed income and they want to set up for 50 bucks at the 15th of the month and 50 bucks on the 30th of the month and then whatever remains if anything that can get out on their bill due date they can set up all of those self-service through through the portal. They don't have to call in. They don't have to come in and talk to anyone. So, all those features are available through the portal as well. And then your staff obviously can help. They can mimic the customer and it's it's not just through the portal. We handle um you know all kinds of payment channels. They can come in, they can make a payment obviously in person, they can pay it over IVR. Um all of that settles all of that settles for the city in a single payment. So, you know, we were talking about audit before. um full payment reconciliation support. Anything that the utilities collects through our platform gets reconciled um by our process. We do a nightly three-way reconciliation. So, we know what we deposited into your bank account. We know what we deposited into your CIS and we know what we collected online. So, every night we do a three-way reconciliation. We make sure that everything balances and if it's not, we create alerts. So, when Joanne comes in in the morning, she has a list of here's all the payments that didn't balance out or here's everything that balanced out. here's a detailed report. She just has to sign off on it versus having to go find those payments and figure out what happened with that. So all of that really is built in because we're again we're utility specific. We're not trying to cater to a lot of different markets, a lot of different industries. This is what we do. And so our application is built really around it. As utilities change, the software evolves. It's all fully hosted in public cloud. Um and it really can grow with the city's demands.

Y question. So would you take over the kiosk and other payment options?

So we we we could take those over. We could integrate with them. The city's happy with the current providers. So yes, we have flexibility on those. Um and then like Mark mentioned a lot of best practices that we bring in, you know, experience from other cities. So there similar cities that they're doing like we have a client city. It's on the exact same platform that we proposed here in Texas. And what they're doing now is they're forcing everyone of their citizens to be ebilled. And then if customers want to get a paper check, they have to call in and then sign up for a paper for a paper bill. And if they if their mail gets returned, they automatically go back on um to Ebel. So the city is not paying a lot of mailing fees. And if the mail gets returned, it's not going to go out next month again. You know, it's going to get returned again. So they're automatically getting back on eBill. So that way everyone gets a bill but saves the city quite a bit of money and then likelihood is if they get an e bill they're also going to make a payment online so easier to reconcile less return fees because that's all automated as well. So all of those kind of best practices come with the system as well.

Okay. Do you have any questions? Just want to add on the portal aspect. Uh that is going to be a big change for your citizens. uh happy to um engage Joanne, the team, your marketing team with some of the other cities that have rolled this out. Um is there probably is a little bit of a communication effort around that, some training videos as far as what the new portal is going to do for them. It is is not just for payments like it has been in the past. This is going to be giving them a lot more transparency into everything that goes into their utility bill and certainly the service side as well. So, u that'll be part as we get towards the end of the project, we'll start talking about that communication effort a little bit with the citizenry. So, okay.

Thank you guys. And with progression, we appreciate Mr. Mayor. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Let's go to agenda item number six. Discuss adopting the 2024 International Code Council code transitioning from current code 218 as well as updating the National Electric Code from 217 edition to 23. Gary Hello, mayor and council. Yeah, we're here to to try to adopt the new codes. I know codes you when you say codes that usually scares people. They're not scary. Codes are a minimum standard. And if we get current, stay current. It's not a big deal to move on. You know, historically, we've been kind of behind. Right now, we're under the 2018 codes. The that's except for the NEC, the National Electric Code. It's one year behind. It always has been. you know, which is 2017. The fire has adopted the 21 code. We'd all like to get on board and be even and together. Uh, you know, the codes are about life safety and efficiency of our buildings, our homes, you know, restaurants, you know, it's it's it's it's there's a lot lot of lot of it to it. and and the you know the every three years ICC and and NEC update the codes every three years and a lot of times it's not big changes a lot of times it's technology and it's actually sometimes reduces cost of building because tech new technology and new products are coming out all the time you know people are just you know they're just scared of them until they get in there and understand them a little bit and uh next on my list. And we're, like I said, we want to go to the 24 codes. It's it's the building code. It's the residential code. It's the energy code, electrical code, fuel, gas, the plumbing, the mechanical, the property maintenance code. Uh I don't think I left anything out of

that. Uh the fire code. Did I leave something out on the codes? And then and with our codes, we have a amendments, local amendments, and and there are ordinances that are adopted in there and a few amendments that some of the building boards have put in over the years. It's that's not less than the codes. It's more it's a little bit more. We're pretty much in line with our sister city, Midland, on our amendments, you know, our local amendments. And we try to stay there because, you know, I' I've worked here myself, you know, before I worked here. You don't just work here, right? You know, not in construction work.

Now, a big thing about codes that people don't understand or reason for it is it's called the ISO rating. It's insurance service office that affects our insurance rates. It affects our disaster money if there is a major disaster. We were last rated. It was late 21, I believe, and we have a number one rating. And that's partly because we had just adopted the 18 codes. curtain current and uh you know the fire marshall and and utilities are a big part of that because it's you know it's it's a big thing and uh you know staying current is a is really would really be a really big thing on that uh I don't know when we will be audited again or or interviewed again on the ISO the last time I wasn't prepared for it but luckily we did well and uh you know updating the codes. There's a lot that goes into that can be uh you know FEMA looks at some of our stuff. HUD does the uh Department of Energy does even for grants and whatnot. Even the Department of Homeland Security does when when you have places that uh you store explosives and whatnot, you know, and they favor, you know, big code, you know, our current codes. And this is really pretty simple. And then if if we do if you guys uh do go with us and adopt the codes, we would uh like to, you know, give the builders, everybody about a six-month grace period there to get in. We will we will get on social media. I will we'll send out contractors. I'll go do talks to contractors. Let them know that what this is coming. Uh any projects that are started, they're they're they're stuck with the codes they started with. You know, there's just not changing in the process. And if there's a big project, which we all know there's some big

projects going on. I've already been in those meetings and we've already locked into they're designing for the current codes. you they not got to change in the mid design you because of new codes and I think oh and then the last thing is I would like to put this in if possible like I said every three years the state adopts the new code on September one of that year our next code cycle is 27 year and the state will adopt it September one of that year I would like if possible let's just go ahead and put us into where we automatically follow that. So we don't have to come, you know, begging to you guys every every three years and and our contractors and our, you know, people out there know it and be prepared for it.

It's good to have Gary. Excellent presentation. Gentlemen, any questions? I think we're go. Oh, go ahead, Greg. You question answer. Can we put some in here so Yes. Yeah, I think that would be great. I've been here almost 26 years now and we've almost always been behind. Make it happen for us. Okay. I did have another question. Are there provisions in here? I know there were amendments and whatnot. So, those follow the codes, the state law. We make sure Yes, sir. following what we're supposed to be doing.

Yes, sir. They don't undermine them. Codes are a minimum standard. We can't undermine them. And there's a few local codes amendments we've added in there that that co coincide with our ordinances. How to do you guys have to we do your certification yearly. Yearly. Yes, sir. Continue yearly. We all go to training yearly. Okay, Gary. We appreciate it. Make that automatic update happen. All right, sir. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. All right, let's go to agenda item number seven. Consider approval to move forward with updating the water and wastewater master plans. Alex,

good afternoon, mayor, and council. Good afternoon.

Uh the utilities department is here to discuss updating the water and wastewater master plans. Uh the water and wastewater master plans were completed in 2019. Uh at this time, we would like to move forward with updating those master plans. Uh as you guys know, we've seen exponential amount of growth, especially to the north side. Uh and we continue to see that growth across the city. Uh which is a great thing. Uh but with that growth, we are needing to look at these master plans to make sure that they are updated accordingly to where we see this new growth. Uh especially like I said, north and east side of town. Uh so that's pretty much what we're we're going to be uh bringing to you today. Uh we do have this within our uh utilities budget. It's uh was in a supplemental that you guys approved back uh during our budget season. So, we have the money for that. It's just uh coming to you guys and moving forward in that direction.

Okay. Thank you. We're going to have a meeting as you know in uh January of 26 to talk about strategic planning and I would really prefer every department have a master plan and we follow it. Absolutely. That that's our blueprint to doing whatever we do. So, I love this idea and I I'm full full steam ahead as far as I'm concerned.

It I I will say this really kind of is the start for the rate study that I came and asked you guys to do. We're in the midst of that right now. Um with a lot of projects that we see CIP projects, new development, uh we do see this as a segue into the rate study. Um when we look at um large CIP as uh our next item uh and some other CIP projects that we would like to see, we would like to actually incorporate that into the rate study to see um and make sure that we can afford to do large projects, CIP, new infrastructure uh for our city. Okay, Jim, any other questions? That's my only comment is I just like to just follow the

Absolutely. master plans a little more closely. Thanks, Zach. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Let's go in agenda item number eight, update on condition assessment of Bob Darington water reclamation plant. Alex,

uh so we're here to talk about the Bob Darington plant and the condition assessment. So back in February, we came to council and asked for a condition assessment, process evaluation, and a facility master plan of the Bob Darington. Um we have completed the majority of the condition assessment. We wanted to bring you an update. Uh I do have Corollo engineers who here with us today who are going to go over that condition assessment with you guys. Um any questions uh reach out during the presentation. Uh and then I will hand that over to Hutch. Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you for having uh for having us uh this afternoon. Um mayor and council members, Mr. City Manager, and esteemed esteemed folks. Is there there's a presentation? Yeah. Oh, technology.

All right. So, as Alex said, u I'm here to update uh the city on the uh results of the Bob Darington water plant condition assessment process evaluation and the facility master plan that we are about to start. Um today's agenda is going to be divided. We're talk we're going to talk about the Corollo team very briefly uh project overview and then uh my colleagues will be talking about the results of the condition assessment cap and then uh cap and capacity process evaluation. Then we're going to talk about recommended improvements and next steps. Um so when we say uh the Corollo Corollo engineers water is all we do. I mean water and wastewater and reuse anything related to water that's our specialty. We just focus on water that allows us to serve our utilities uh clients and utilities throughout the United States and Canada. Um so today my name is Hutchman Salum. I'm the project manager. Uh I'll be presenting. Um with me is my colleague uh Stephen Mendoza. He has led the condition assessment uh portion of the project. He's also a design manager and has helped uh lead the water treatment plant design uh for that's currently under construction. And then also uh Toshu Shimada, he is Corollo's wastewater treatment process lead. He's over several states and he is personally leading the uh the uh the treatment the treatment plan portion the uh process evaluation and the master planning effort for what we're going to do next. He is Corollo's national process technology lead as I mentioned. So our staff uh we do anything related to water

and wastewater pump stations. We've got engineers, civil engineers, uh mechanical, chemical, electrical, program managers. We do funding assistance, construction phase services, CAD, you name it. Uh we've got 50, actually I think it's 57 offices now in the United States and Texas, seven of which are in Texas. Uh we've got an office in in L in Odessa over 1,700 employees and we're 100% company owned. So we're not owned by by Wall Street really and that's important in this type of business. Um we have done wastewater treatment plants throughout the United States. These are all the wastewater treatment plants that we've done and uh f over 500 uh wastewater treatment design and rehabilitating rehabilitation projects over 2,000 wastewater infrastructure projects in in Texas. We've got over 155 licensed professional engineers in Texas. Um our partnership with Odessa began in 2014. Um we have an office presence since 2021. Uh our Bob Darington water reclamation plant uh we were called to assess the oxidation ditch and uh the the erration process in 2014. Uh we made some recommendations. Unfortunately nothing was uh nothing moved. It just stayed in a report. But we were asked to come again this this year. We were very thankful to come back and do the full condition assessment process evaluation master plan. Many of you know that we are the the engineer of record on the city of Odessa water treatment plant. The process is the uh construction is almost complete

and we we have services during construction and post construction and we're also in the construction phase of a aerial pipeline. is the West Second Street pipeline replacement project which should be complete in the next couple months or so. And we also did did the uh system a collection system order control study. So the project overview a lot of people say well why do we need all these studies and the condition assessments? Well really the main reason we're doing this is to make sound decisions to make defensible decisions. you know, as opposed to, hey, I got an idea. Let me go talk to council. You know, it's probably a good idea, but let's make sure that we all analyze all the alternatives, have 20, 30, 40 professionals, evaluate pros and cons for the different elements that we're looking into so that the city does not make bad decision or or at least minimize the bad decision making process. Uh so this project is really divided into three phases. This first phase is a condition assessment. We would analyze the condition of the facility, evaluate remaining life if any and treatment processes. We'll also look at safety factors as well as we look into it. Then we then we would look at the capacity and process evaluation. What does the existing facility what would the existing facility give the city if it was in good shape? So we want to make sure we understand what you have so that we want to make give you know whatever recommendations are given it has to be at least at least like that or better and then we would take this information and develop a master plan for the wastewater treatment plant improvements. Uh it's it's it's important to have a master plan because

you don't want to have things done or constructed in odd places or not having to understand what the end product will be. So what we want is defensible one thought well well thoughtout decisions to help Odessa moving forward and we don't want a peacemeal approach that we be most more costly to the city right and so if we make a decision now and someone two months ago or six months down the road says well why did you do that why did not you not consider that thing we did and this is the reason we made this decision so this uh this project we seat has four phases. Obviously, this the first phase is the study that we're doing right now. Phase two would be the design which includes the preliminary design, final design and producing the construction document coordination with the TCEQ. Then the phase f third phase would be the bid and award phase and the fourth phase the construction and startup phase. And with that, I'm going to give it to my colleague, Stephen Mendoza.

Good afternoon. Thank you all for your time and attention. Steven Doza, Curl Engineers. I'd like to talk a little bit about the condition assessment. Uh, this first slide is an aerial shot of the Darington Water Reclamation Plant. As you can see, I I certainly do not expect anyone to read all the text on here. The point of the slide is there's a lot out here. you have a lot of assets, a lot of things to take into consideration when we're doing a condition assessment, a lot of things to plan for. And to gear up with that, we really need to go in with a solid plan and a plan of attack before we can actually successfully complete a condition assessment. So, what did we do? We started by reviewing your historical documents. There were numerous record drawings uh various years, some as early as the 70s, the 90s. Uh basically we took all the record drawings we could find. We studied them. We looked at the assets. We looked how the plant has evolved through the decades. We also pulled the city's operation and maintenance manuals. These are kind of consider these like owner's manuals for your car. Uh they say what to do, when to schedule maintenance. We looked at maintenance records. We looked at all of these documents as a whole and created an asset list. Uh this was basically a list of what we expect to see when we go out into the field with our equipment um and what we would be looking for. Now this gets us about 90% there. There are going to be some things where maybe a piece of equipment was decommissioned or removed uh by the operations staff but through a process that really wasn't big enough to justify a capital improvement project and therefore there wouldn't be any plans or drawings for it. but it lets us know essentially what to expect and again it gets us about 90% of what we're what we're going for. Then we establish a scoring criteria. We wanted to rate each asset that we found in our pre-esign or pre-work on a scale of one to five. Lower scores are being better. So one is the best, five is the

worst. And again, you can kind of think of this as if you have a new vehicle. You know, it's it's kind of maintenancefree. you just sort of change the oil, you know, you you top things off, your fluids, that sort of thing. It's relatively low maintenance. That would be a one or a two. As your vehicle gets a little bit older, you start moving to that three or four range, and then as it kind of ends its useful life, you're in that five range, and that's when you really need to start thinking about, okay, I've put enough maintenance in here. Now, we're starting to think about replacement, and what am I going to do to save up and prepare for that cost? and basically how can I best position myself to handle that as smoothly as possible. Uh field investigation, we had multiple professional engineers uh conducting this field investigation. The fact that they're all professional engineers is important because the requirements for being a professional engineer, number one, educational, number two, experience. So these are all people that have been in this role before. They have seen this. They know what they're doing. They know how to pivot if they run across something they were not expecting. So this makes efficient use of your time and dollars. Uh we had a structural engineer, process mechanical, building mechanical, which is going to be kind of your HBAC and your plumbing systems put together electrical instrumentation and controls and I was there for interdisiplinary coordination. Basically making sure the team had what they needed to be successful. We used the Corollo asset management tool. You see a little uh basically a summary picture of that on the right hand side. This is a secure real time uh software program that allowed us to capture and upload information as we were actually there out in the field. It allows to take notes uh write down observations and even log and label pictures as we were there in the field. And then finally, our most important resource was the operation staff themselves. These are the men and women that work there. They they know the system. They live and breathe it. They know more about the system than we could possibly know and and find in an

operation maintenance manual. So that's an invaluable resource. We actually watched the site with everybody got real time feedback as we were going through everything. Definely how old is that plant? Uh the initial 70s half of it is from the 70s and the other half is from early 90s. Yeah. Okay. 70s and 90s. It was 68 for some reason. Some reason I thought it was 68 but That could be wrong. That that I'm sure there were some design efforts going on back then. Yeah. Design. That's true. Yeah. So the 70s and 90s were the big sets of plan documents that we were able to find. Thank you.

Sure. So now I'd like to go through just some highlevel struct results of what each discipline found. Uh we produced a roughly 7 800page document. It would take days for us to go over everything. So this is just going to be kind of representative. Uh structurally we were able to boil down that that big aerial photograph that had maybe 36 38 different labels on it. We grouped things into what we call facilities which when your processes are kind of tied together one leads to another that was able to let us consolidate things. We found about threearters of the facilities that we examined had a structural rating of three or higher, which basically meant you needed to start either doing some immediate work or planning some work ahead. Uh some examples here, the barcreen building, uh this structure itself had a previous roof failure from a weather event. A part of the roof was actually separating from the walls. It was never fully repaired. We also saw that the concrete itself was showing signs of settlement, cracking, and spalling. this the settlement cracking is falling on the concrete. That's pretty common because all the structures were built around the same time. So, you'd expect to see some of these same defects as all the units aged together. Uh the center picture, oxidation oxidation ditches. These are those large boomerang shaped images that you saw in the aerial photograph. Uh there was severe concrete corrosion there and that's because this is highly corrosive uh wastewater here. uh walkways were actually deemed a little unsafe, precarious. You need to be very careful when you're walking onto these walkways. And I want to kind of plant a seed here about something on the next slide that I'm going to show you when we get to the process mechanical section. Uh but just remember that about the condition of the concrete. When we get to the chlorine contact basin, this represents a single point of failure for each particular oxidation ditch. So if you take a contact basin down, you also have to take the associated oxidation ditch

down. And that eliminates some of your redundancy and removes some of the capacity. You can see in the image we've got some uh metal fatigue and corrosion. We've also got a little bit of differential settlement. You can see that the steps have kind of separated a little bit from the structure. Uh one of these oxidation uh bas or actually chlorine contact basins did actually have a short circuit through concrete damage. So it was allowing some of the water to kind of pass through going underneath the we not ideal for your process. Then we move into the process building process and building mechanical disciplines. Uh 13 of the 28 facilities ranked three or higher from a process mechanical standpoint and 15 of 28 from a building mechanical standpoint. The first image uh shows some pumps at your filter complex. This is a very common situation where you'd have, for example, a duty standby situation, but maybe one of your pumps was not operational or not reliable. So, you actually lost that standby unit. You're really operating just on one pump. And if that failed, then you were kind of up against it. The oxidation ditches, I I asked you to kind of remember that last time. From a process mechanical standpoint, these oxidation ditches actually rated as a two, which is pretty good. But the reason they rated so high was because they had recently had work done on them and operations staff was saying, "Yeah, we we have to work on those all the time to keep them running." So you combine the fact that they need constant process mechanical maintenance with the fact that there was precarious concrete situations earlier and you can see it's almost a, you know, pick your poison here as far as what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. Uh the chlorine building you see on the far right, uh that's an aging structure. The building itself was not in the best shape from an HVAC HVAC standpoint. Uh TCQ actually has updated their codes as you heard Gary on say a

little bit earlier. So now if we do any process or any sort of improvement to that building, we now need to bring it up to the current code, which means that this building would require either a chlorine scrubber or negative pressure because there is chlorine gas in the area that we need to be conscious of if there's an accidental release. electrical and instrumentation controls uh for both disciplines. 15 of the 28 facilities that we encountered had components that were ranking for a three or higher. You see in the barcreen building your PLC, it is operational, but it does not report back to SCADA. So that means people in the control room at the treatment plant can't see it on their computer screens. They need to physically go down there and look at it when something needs to change. Uh the unit itself is also obsolete. Uh looking at the middle picture here, the motor control center at your electrical building, there are two motor control centers that had experienced arc flash in the past. And that is basically an uncontrolled release of current. Uh it damages the equipment. When you've had arc flash once, you are more susceptible to having arc flash again in the future. So that is something that we actually recommend be replaced as soon as possible. Again, getting into code issues though, codes have updated. So, one of the may one of the ways to prevent arc flash from occurring in the future is to space your equipment further away from each other. So, now essentially your buildings are too small if you wanted to replace those MCC units uh just by themselves. You can also see a third MCC over in the barcreen building. This is MCCG. It's over 30 years old. Uh it's exceeded its useful life. useful life of a motor control center is about 20 years. So, this is kind of pushing it as far as you can get. And that's great for getting the most out of your your capital investment here, but it also means that you really need to start thinking about replacement.

So, in summary, uh each area was assessed by several discipline professionals. Virtually every area of the plant that we looked at uh showed deterioration either by age, corrosive environment, or other factors. We did see some safety and code violations that were items of concern. Uh moving forward though, we do want to make sure that we are using existing assets to the best of our ability. Uh things really do need to be looked at holistically though. For example, it doesn't make any sense to replace mechanical equipment but not replace the instrumentation and controls that are associated with it. Or it doesn't make sense to try and salvage your duct work if you have to replace the building and do major work on the building itself. you know, let's really kind of you have to look at things at a whole. And again, in some cases, uh, new industry codes and standards will limit your options as far as what you can do. If you've ever done house remodeling, it's kind of once once you've removed the drywall, you kind of own what's what's behind it and you need to upgrade everything to the current code. So, our objective is to really make the most of your money going forward. And now Toshio Shimano is going to talk a little bit about the capacity and process evaluation process of the the project.

Thank you Steve.

Good afternoon. I'm uh excited to be here uh presenting to you. Um I'm going to be talking about the capacity and process evaluation. Uh the goal of of this evaluation is to provide the framework for the critical uh process improvements that are needed to effectively manage wastewater treatment plant uh wastewater treatment at your Bob Darington uh plant. This evaluation included uh looking at your wastewater flows, your water quality and the capacity of your existing facilities. Um the first thing that I I would like you to remember from this this part of the presentation is that the wastewater quality that you have right now it's not the same that was in place when the plant was designed. So the uh permitted pollutants have increased in concentrations and in this case you can see two of the pollutants the BOD increased by 22% compared to the previous design and the ammonia by 75%. What this means is that the effective capacity of your treatment plants has gone down. The second thing to remember is that your facility is also affected by changes in the wet weather flows. So the peak flow to your facility has increased significantly and also the max monthly flow to the facility. So in this table we are presenting uh the design flow with the big flow uh loads to the facility for two pollutants and the previous design number then it's compared to the current historical data and finally to the required capacity. So as you can see from this table you need a more capacity than the plant was designed for to achieve the uh proper treatment of this waste water. Um the third point is that uh your facility has to meet two types of permits. One is your discharge permit that is shown on the left. I apologize

for this a small font but I wanted to show the entire permit and it it has to meet this different parameters in order to be discharged after your outfall. But in addition to that permit limit, you also have a reuse authorization or reuse uh permit that allows you to sell type one water which is of higher quality. So that you'll see on the right there are lower uh limits for different pollutants for this uh for this type of water and also the TCQ regulations are getting stricter with time. So in the future you will have to meet uh tighter limits. Um, Corollo assessed the hydraulic and process capacities uh for the Bob Don facilities and we looked at everything. We started on the front of the plant with the preliminary treatment and pigflow storage. We went through the secondary or biological treatment of your facility. Also looked at the tertiary which are the filters, the disinfection and your sol processing uh um equipment. The capacity evaluation identified hydraulic and process bottlenecks in the existing liquid treatment facilities. What I mean by hydraulic is the ability to convey the waste water through the facility without spilling the water out of the uh process units. Uh the process capacity is the ability to treat this waste water following uh the TCQ and EPA regulations and meeting your uh discharge standards. What you can see in here is this graph is showing the peak flow capacities for the different process units and um it's showing both the hydraulic and the process uh capacity and comparing it to the um required capacity of 49 million gallons per day that's required before upstream of the u of the peak flow basins and 30 million gallons per day downstream. And the take-h home message

of this chart is that many of these process units are below that required capacity. We also looked at your biological uh treatment uh a little bit closer and the process evaluation event uh identified deficiencies in this treatment units. Biological treatment is the one that responsible for removing the two uh pollutants that I uh presented earlier, the BOD and the ammonia. And in this case we're showing that the permitted uh capacity of the plant is 12.7 million gallons per day on average uh on an average flow basis. And then both the the volume of this basins and the aerration system supply capacity are below this number. Um these are the uh the findings from the capacity evaluation. Again, uh the wastewater concentrations has gotten stronger and this is reducing the effective capacity of your treatment plant. Number two, uh wet weather flows are much higher than what the plant was originally designed for and this is also uh affecting the amount of wastewater treatment that you have to uh treat. Uh you have to meet two different types of permits with strict limits and the TCQ regulations are only becoming stricter. Um, you also have hydraulic impressive restrictions that make it impo nearly impossible to treat your permitted peak flow conditions. Uh, your staff is doing an excellent work uh being uh meeting the permit conditions now at the current flows and loads of the facility. But as your plant approaches those higher flows, then it will be challenging if not impossible to to meet them with the plant in its current condition. Finally, as Steve mentioned earlier, there is a facility condition challenges with aging equipment and even if all these uh

process units were in perfect condition right now. Um as I uh showed you earlier, they would not be able to deliver the capacity required for your facility. And now Hutch is uh going to present recommended improvements. Thank you. Is this yours?

Thanks. Yeah, again I want to commend the uh Melissa and team for doing what they do to make to make sure that this plant is is continuously operational. It is a challenging plant for sure and I mean some of you may have may have visited the facility. So I want to just spend a couple three minutes here talk about what we see as the next steps and recommended improvements. So um you know what we started looking at the condition assessment we did that holistically we had a team for that and then the process understanding what do you have and then once we started looking at combining what the TCQ requirements are we started looking at fixing the existing and it's almost impossible without getting the planet out of service there's just a lot of work to be done and to maintain to to stay with you reg current regulations it'll be like throwing good money after bad and the cost would actually be more. Luckily we have an area next to the existing facility that we can play with. Uh again, you know, also even if like like Toshi said, even if everything was good, the existing facilities do not meet they're not designed to meet current peak flow conditions and maximum maximum flow conditions required by TCQ which is 20% more than the rated capacity. Uh so we need to also so we need to look at making all improvements without disrupting the existing facility. That's very important. um in the during the operations. I'm not going to go into the technologies that we looked at, but for every process area, our team has evaluated several technologies, several brands for the activated sludge process.

For example, we looked at membrane bioreactor or MBR or the conventional activated sludge and we compared it to make we made made comparisons and see what's what is best for Odessa. Um when we looked at those it was important that these facility that these technologies would be proven. We don't want to be number one here in the first process in Odessa. We don't we don't want us Odessa to be the trial run for different technologies. It has to be robust and then we need to have it meet regulations current and future. So we want to be some flexibility and some strength there. We want to make sure it's allow allows operational flexibility and it's operator friendly because if I get you something top you know the most technologically advanced system that's so difficult to operate well it's not going to operate properly. So we want to make sure that things can operate. We you know it's it's uh like I said operator friendly and there are some systems that are very that are cheaper in the capital cost you know cheaper to buy but their annual operating costs are exuberant. So we also we kind of looked at the overall cost not just the capital cost and with that we we made some recommendations. As far as the uh overall capacities and master plan we see that this phase one capacity would somewhat mimic the existing capacity of 12.7 but with the ability to handle higher peak flows. when the preliminary treatment we would have a new headworks that will be grid system with with screens uh we would use we would use the existing pflow basin with some repairs so that's on the secondary treatment

we'll have two new trains activated sludge processes to with four different clarifiers and we have to abandon the existing oxidation ditches oxidation ditches are usually meant for much smaller plants anyway we'll have a new disinfection facility. Uh new filtration to make sure you meet the uh the reuse requirements. We'll have we'll repair the emergency storage basins. Uh sludge tanks will use one and add another one. And then we'll have a new dewatering some like a belt press uh facility. And then phase two once we start looking at the flow at the flow projections the population projections I would say FL phase two would be in about 10 years after phase one that's when you add a third train and it will all be similar design so it'll be like part of the master plan is supposed to have different technologies here and there. Um this is just a a layout of the anticipated this is more like a 30,000 ft look at what we what is needed uh what we need to do. So we've have the headworks the flow would come in uh from the you know from the distribution from the uh sanitary system to the headworks which will go through grid removal through through screening and then it'll go to the you'll see number three is there aation basins uh peak flows flows over 30 MGD would then go to the uh peak flow storage basins because you don't want to over overdesign the activated slush processes. Then from the activated sludge or process, it goes to clarifiers. From the clarifiers, it'll go to the filters, the new filters. And then uh from the filters, it'll go to disinfection

and either to go reuse discharge or you use some I know that you sell the water to certain industrial reusers. You can we can do that as well. It will be the same as far as the sludge and go to a new belt press belt press facility. What is not shown here is all the electrical work and INC that has to be brought up to code because a lot of the things that we have there in the whole plant uh doesn't meet code right now. So this is just the process and now we're in the process. We're in the we're going to start in the actual facility master plan to look at the other things that come into play. Um the colors the the the circles and rectangles in red that represents the future expansion which we would expect in like the next 10 to 15 years uh at in this at Bob Darington. And if if there's more growth in Odessa, there will be there will be a space for more uh after we demolish the existing facility. So this is more like a 3D asmmetric drawing. We do have a model that can show this preliminary model. Uh I don't there's a lady that that has developed it. She she has to be the one toggling it. I don't have it, but maybe down the road we can we can share that. And the most important is that most of the construction can be done separately. So Melissa and team can operate this plant and they don't have to it does not have to interrupt the operation. As far as schedule, um this is an expedited schedule. So we have about three months left on this phase one we

for the prelim uh for the preliminary design typic uh phase two is the design that is a lot of people a lot of work on this um I can promise I can I can you know people sometimes promise hey we can do this in six months we've I've been doing this for 33 years all successful and there's a lot of work that goes into this a lot of inel you know intricate detail details. Um, so I would say 24 months is a is an aggressive but achievable schedule and then we do the phase three which is the uh bid phase and TCQ review and then the construction phase. Um, so that is really what we have at this point as far as the schedule. And with that I open these two questions. I

think I'm going to go throw up. Mayor Well, let's just ask the first one. Are you going to finance this for us? Just tell us what phase one, two, three, four is anticipated to cost. Um I that's I that's a hard question. Well, I know, but we got to realistically we have to have an idea. Realistically, with our permit, it's 12.7. It's a million gallons a day. So realistically what we're seeing for construction is anywhere from

25 million to 30 million in MGD. So that would be putting the plant somewhere between uh con just for construction 325 million to 350 million in today's dollars. And I want to be very clear on that. Um, if we were to start design on that right now, possibly in two years, uh, those 24 months, uh, that could possibly go up even more than that. So, Alex, I'm sorry to interrupt you. So, we're at 12.7 now. So, this will double the capacity. It will not. No, this will be it. What we're looking at right now is is a completely new facility. Understand? And we would we would demolish the existing. So, I know new plant.

How many gallons per day? 12. I thought I heard 30. What are we at right now? And then what would the new plan go? It would it would still be 12.7 MGD is what we would be. Why would stay the same? So that's our that is what our current permit is right now.

It's a it's a co it's a cost thing, right? If we're looking at current flows with what our flows what we're getting in from our sewer collection system, we still have until about 2040 2044 I believe. So should you do you remember 2040 that we would have to then start design on upgrading depending what our flows are coming into the plant because currently right now we're only getting seven seven around seven MGD. Is that correct? Right around seven. That's what I misunderstood. Yeah. So we're we're currently bringing in I thought we we're doing 12.7. No, I'm so sorry. Currently right now our average flow a day is right over seven. Okay, that helps.

So So we do have that time frame and that's where the phase two is what he was is what Hutch was saying is there there is a potential for us in 15 years to start designing for that extra phase when we see those flows get high enough. I think it's 75% or 90% 75 we have to start design. uh 90% we have to then start construction on a second phase but that would be 90% of uh 12.7 so design's 24 months what's build uh we can bring 42 months I'm sorry

40 42 months so and again that that this would be starting design today um with this project being so large um the route that we're going to go is to put it out for RFQ Um there there's a large this is going to cost quite a bit of money. Um so we would like to put it out to RFQ for that and so that's the direction that we're going to move into which we could get out as quick as possible. We wanted to bring this condition assessment to you guys for that. It's already been in the works. Yes, it's already been in the works. Uh we plan to put it that you would want to move forward. We plan to put it out as fast as we can as long as as council's direction is that. Let me ask Hutch the $99 question. Can we afford not to do it?

No. It's not even a question. That's not even a question. We're not able to shut down any portion of our treatment processes to be able to work on any existing facilities and give me a understanding of is it I'm sorry. Is it a storage problem that you can't shut down? It's not just the storage. It's a treatment storage problem. No, it's it's it's a entire that's that's fixable.

It's in its entirety. Uh our our the electrical work up there that you saw, all the MCC is 30 to 50 years and has never been touched. And we're looking at a complete entire new switch gear system, uh which those lead times are anywhere from 12 to 16 to 18 months just for that. And that system has, as you can talk to Melissa, uh, we work on it every single day and have all sorts of problems. But you're telling me we're doing this because we don't have a choice, right? Hutchoice. You're telling me is a process issue. It's a regulatory issue. It's a structural

issue. Safety and safety issue. And we're praying that it sticks around for the next five years. And I will say Melissa, go ahead. I'm sorry. So, are we looking at anytime soon of being hit with fines from TECQ?

So, we are doing everything absolutely as much as we can to not have any fines or have any issues with that. We have upgraded the current grit uh removal system. Melissa just got that online about two months ago. Um I we brought to you grit removal from our aeration basins. Um we are in the process of that. We have seen our dissolved oxygens go from below a one to over two to two and a half. Um we're also seeing our ammonia drop because uh we had we did not have a grit removal system a working grit removal system ever since ever

about yeah probably since the install of the plant. So we have an oxidation ditches that are six foot tall that we only have treatment capacity for about two to three feet depending on certain certain areas. So we're removing that grit which is actually making it our treatment becoming better. It's just we're we're in the process of removing that to make sure that we are compliant with all TCQ regulations because if we start hitting those then this is Katie bar. We need to do something immediately

and and we're doing absolutely everything that we can at the plant. Melissa and her team, Chris and the maintenance team has been great. Uh, we are making strides. We are, and I will say this, there might have to be some dollars spent in this process to keep the facility working for these six years depending on construct, design, construction um that we're currently spending right now. But there might have to be more. Uh, and I will say especially on the switch gear, um, the switch gear is in very bad condition. Um, we are doing everything we can to make sure that all the electrical is working properly, but it is a day-by-day case scenario.

Alex, do cities in Texas stand alone when it comes to having to finance these things or are there funds out there that the state can help with?

There are funds uh, and certain things that the state can help with. uh we could go out for the defund um to get that kind of uh loan applications. Uh I will say this uh the city of Odessa is blessed to be here and for some of uh our citizens to make the dollars that they do which then hurts us when it comes to certain um free dollars as as the state puts out. Um so that kind of hurts us. now Hutch and his team or once we do the uh RFQ um there are things that we can look into. Uh I do know that Aaron also has uh gotten us with grant works

um and and we've sat down with them to explain what situation we are at the facility and that we were looking at this possibly being um quite a bit of money and there are some dollars that's possibly that they could help us go get. Um, I will say the one thing that we are very lucky to have here is reuse. Um, if we are able to continue selling that reuse, um, some of those dollars can be implemented for that. But, um, yes, there are dollars. I I think it will be a little hard to go get, but it's definitely possible for us to go get some type of dollars from the state. And internally, uh, we can use that reuse dollars that we sell to for industrial. I We're just going to have to be very smart about how we go about this. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Absolutely. HR from Can I ask you a question? Yes, sir. I

mean, I only live in Odessa. I don't know about the world and state of Texas, but are we the only ones in this condition? Are there other municipalities that have allow I mean, I don't mean allowed it, but I mean, this is happening to them as well. No, you're not the only one. We actually do a lot of work. Um, some municipalities have done a little bit more uh preemptive work. Uh, but you're not alone here. It just happens. These are wastewater plants, a lot of H2S, lots of corrosion. The newer technologies, the newer processes, the newer concrete mixes would reduce probably the eventual aging. Also, there's equip the age of the infrastructure. Nothing is going to nothing will last forever except you know the Lord almighty. Uh but uh you know all these structures everything houses that like 50 years 50 years and yeah plus or minus depending on environmental conditions and how we take care of it but I don't think that I mean this is a wastewater plant. This is a rough environment. lots of H2S, lots of, you know, lots of things that uh can go wrong and, you know, every 50 years or so, you have to look at stuff,

build a new buy, build a new one. All right. So, I know we're having a problem with H2S, but there are technologies out here right now that are removing H2S from from this and turning it back into exactly what it is, which is just a solid, which is Yeah, you guys know what it is. And the sweet thing about it is it can be deposited in our landfills. Y it doesn't doesn't cost us anymore. It just be that. But there's treatments out here because once you get that H2S out then that corrosion factor becomes less and less. Absolutely. Are you designing anything for this?

Well, that would be in the that would be in the distribution system, right? When you start adding it, we are not touching the distribution system at this point. I don't think so. We have not looked into that. Now, we we do notice that and we have been looking at upgrading our infrastructure throughout our system, but again, we're at that uh 700 miles of sewer. But there are guys that are there are guys here that Yes. that supply this the system. They rent it to you and only thing you're paying for is what they're treating.

Absolutely. It's not something that you're going to per you have to purchase because that technology is changing too. Getting better and better too. And we will definitely look into some of those and we have uh Corollo actually did an odor control study um at the facility because the headworks was producing so much H2S. Uh and we do have some recommendations from them uh for our sewer collection system in field to be able to possibly have somebody come and do certain things in our areas. Um but again that just that that cost quite a bit of money too. the Wolffield had to learn from it because that it was destroying everything. So,

so that tells you the technology is really there for it and it's it's not expensive. So, Alex, this is on our workshop. So, obviously this will be on the next agenda. Uh it's not this is more of an update, but Okay. So, this what staff is going to do is get the RFQ rolling. Gotcha. That's what I want to make sure we need to do that's going out there. We'll move as quickly as we can to advertise that. It'll probably advertise for like 60 days for a project this big. Uh and then those will come back and then we'll enter into uh we'll we'll negotiate we'll we'll come back to you get authorization to enter into negotiation of contract with whoever it is we selected. I think be remiss we didn't we we didn't say something to Melissa and her staff for

Thank you taking care of us taking care of this plant. It's uh obviously been a difficult situation. It's an older plant requires a lot of TLC. I want to thank you guys for uh keeping it running. Well, thank you all for your support and then look forward to seeing more from you, Hutch. And we have a duty to our citizens to provide water and wastewater services. So, we we really stand by what's necessary to get this plant in top shape so we can continue to provide these services. Look forward to working with you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's go agenda item number nine. Nine. Um, Nor, is anything?

Yes, Mayor Council, up for appointments in January is Bill George, Susan Gentry, and Ryan Maguire for the MOUTD, the easy writer board. I'll be happy to reach out to them if council wishes to to see if they're interested in serving again. You please do that for us, please. Thank you. All right, having said that, agenda item number 10. Mayor, if there's no further items of discussion, I move we adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second by Councilman Canal. All in favor say I. I. I. Stand adjourned.