Common Council - workshop

We'll call the work session to order.

Any questions about tonight's agenda?

Yeah, Julie's not here.

um yeah the um the street closure for mickey's is that's for the yeah okay that's okay it's actually tonight oh it's tonight i think it's only happening

Well, it was one of those make-a-wish type things. It was, you know, I called her. I know we had three. Yeah. No, I know him. Anyways. Street closure on Marion Street is for construction. Over here. Chief, how are we doing in getting a new firefighter?

Can't. I'm still working with civil service. I want to see what we can do on that. Perfect. But January, that's okay.

Thanks.

Is this a, is this a difference? Well, um, I feel like we just did the, um,

That's just a revision.

Yeah, it's another region. Two weeks ago. Yeah.

We just lost $70,000. outside sources. It's just that one line. For 70,000 that's fully changing. last night.

Oh, the water operating funds. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. That's part of it.

Yeah, that's all the BW one. Yeah. So I'm trying to get a seat and hopefully get it reimbursed after that program. They said it's more of a maintenance item. So I talked to a person for a week to talk about that change to pull it out of the conference. Okay. So there was some, you know, that work will be done this fall this fall for the uh yeah you have to do it periodically um just to maintain the capacity of the law big change with that apple project loan or brand moves offered from the overall company. It's the same.

That's going to be it for that problem. Once we finish it? Yeah. There's certainly other projects.

There'll be a new capital project versus a little bit of other phases coming down the line.

How many phases are there?

There's four. So we're working on two and three currently. So we're under design for phase three and we're working on phase two. and made decisions on what phase four will be, really having to plan out there, but there's four phases overall. The $28 million project with about 18 million in funding, grant funding available.

And I guess that leads to a bigger discussion too. I mean, we've been looking at the rebuilding or rebuilding a new plant. I mean, it's quite a lot more expensive, but a new plant, there's some issues with the old plant. So we've been looking at a lot of different things.

Well, I'm pulling together just the information I have available, and we'll ultimately figure out the best course of action.

What kind of timeline on something like that? Just something for ballparking. Well, I mean, if we were going to throw that out there forward. Like in the next five years, the next 10 years?

Yeah, it's all based on funding available. So the key right now is we have funding available to rehabilitate the existing plant. If we're in switch years, is funding available? That's the number one question. And then if it is available, obviously to get it, put it in design. So yeah, you're talking five, 10 years probably, but it's not in every policy place. So we're already going out of time. I don't know if we'll change, but I'm going to collect information on top of the mayor and then consider our best course of action.

Ryan's been going about 100 miles an hour. He's been catching a lot of this stuff up, so it's good.

What do we do then with the dam, or is that a sore subject? Like, as far as funding, like, I know we have a lot of projects, we have construction issues, we have all kinds of things that you're working on, but where does the dam...

And so that's a great question right right.

Exactly, so we got our DC inspection related to share a couple months ago, before I started, we submitted the engineering assessment on the Scotland during the DC. So we'll see where that's going to go but we're still studying we've given the given us the evaluation again another going to do a supplemental report to. for decommissioning the dam. Ultimately, we'll have to see what the economy currently is, get our water supply, and make the best decision for the city. The idea right now is we have a lot of water for Water Ridge. Not a lot of communities are like that. So I don't want to remain that way, but it all depends on how much money that costs to repair, and how we put the wells in, and how much water we need at the end of the day. So that's part of the evaluation. Hopefully there's funding available. I don't know. That's one of the things I want to look at, but They're typing multiple millions of dollars that they could be pricing.

And funding is a huge key to that. What funding's out there at that time? You know, the funding's changing daily. So, I mean, we've been watching. But the biggest thing I think we're going to end up working on now is getting a five and ten year plan together. And so that, you know, when these funding opportunities come up, we don't have to, you know, everything can just be done. You know, and that's one thing we've been looking at. And listen, Ryan's getting, he's got a lot of projects he's getting up to speed on. We've had some really big storms lately and they've created some issues. So we're dealing with some of the issues now.

The dams are bracket fed, which makes them different from the wells or are the wells also bracket fed?

They're non-mechanical. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So it's all gravity. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So gravity fed from the from the reservoirs now we have wells now it's mechanic, we have generators. HAB-Terry Palmos- yeah a lot of.

HAB-Terry Palmos- Right now it's all gravity. HAB-Terry Palmos- Which is phenomenal all right now there's the wells basically in the pump up to the ground level and then grab me already down we went back to a generation out there, so. So there's electricity cost of it. And obviously, we'll redevelop it very oddly. So there's just like maintenance on the car.

So it's not MLD electric.

No, it's not.

It seems worth it to keep it in if they'll fund the repairs.

Yeah, so we're doing a study right now. Hopefully, we'll be done by the end of the year. Same on the bottom of the pool, probably by the end of the year. Once we have that information coupled with what our wells are, then we can sort of see how much water comes from the different directions.

The estimate for meat was $15 to $30, I believe.

$15 to $35 million. $35 million. So a ballpark of plus or minus at this state.

A lot of your grants cap out at 10, just to give you an idea.

I'm going to look at the state of the staff on the grants together, but... It's a lot of efforts and a lot of pieces have to fall into place. And you might be able to, like, we've phased the water, we've phased the wastewater, might be able to phase this to stack for plumbing. I'm not sure at this point.

What's the percentage now? So, need versus the well one?

33% approximately in well water.

We'll have that information available for pumping. around 400 gallons per minute out of PW1 right now. And PW2 will be online next year, doing development. If the screen was installed, we're doing development on that wall right now. We'll put it online next year.

Go to the water plant. They've got a machine up there that tells you exactly how much water is coming out of that. It's pretty cool. If you get a chance to get up there to see that, it's pretty, I mean, it's neat to watch the numbers. And you can see how it fluctuates coming out of the well sometimes too. And he can actually bump it up from down there and back it off too.

So you can change the quality of the water if the wells are different? like you have more control over it rather than it just spilling over the dam and whatever's on the surface?

So nothing spills over the dam right now. We've had it down 10 feet for dam stability purposes. But one of the benefits right now, if any of you remember last year, we had disinfection byproduct of isolation in the water system. And that's basically based on the organic load. When you add ball water to that, it lowers that number way down. So it does help us. So it does help for long quality treatment purposes, which is good.

And then you can go and see all that. Yeah, I'd like to, actually.

Yeah, because I'm more visual.

The wastewater plant is kind of a scientific walk, too. I mean, there's so much science involved in it. And it's so much bigger than it looks.

So the 7.145, the I don't find the police to us, but it's not what we have talked about the. I mean, I just don't consider it.

So I think that's moving the money around for the weapon. Perfect. That's all that is.

That's for ammunition.

Yes, that's the issue. And the new.

Yes, it's also the firearm. Right.

OK, so that's all it is. Because we approved the last one, this is just paying for it.

Right. It's moving the funds around to be able to access and purchase.

Okay. All right.

More so with asset voucher. You can't pull from that.

What do you mean?

The asset voucher, we have to move it to pay for it.

We have to take it out of the reserve and to use it independently to use for upgrades. Oh. The ammunition, the supplies. Yeah. So you can find the environment. I see. Okay. All right. I get you.

So there's a value when you have any kind of asset seizure. And that's what you're...

They restrict what you can and can't do. You can't supplement with the municipality or with the government agency has to provide us. But it can provide our grades. That was the only question I had.

Any questions? I'm not doing it now.

You can.

I asked you earlier about defining an e-bike versus a motorbike.

So an e-bike, a bicycle, has to be powered by a human. So it has to have pedals. You have to be able to manipulate the power by a human. A motorcycle is different. vehicle, pretty much anything else in the vehicle traffic law is considered a vehicle. It has to be propelled by either an electric or an engine. So trucks, cars, motorcycles. A trailer is actually a vehicle as well. Though you can't propel it, it's fine with the men. Bicycle is human penalty. The exception to the vehicle traffic law that defines an e-bike is it has to be powered by human and or electric means, but it has to be together. And it can only be operated in the different classes, there's three different classes of T-bikes. They can only be operated on a street that's 30 miles an hour. There's some restrictions to that.

What about trails? What about the Santa Monica River Trail?

It only defines what can be used on a street that is governed by a speed of 30 miles or less. It doesn't define a trail that is not governed by speed.

I've been getting a number of complaints coming from people that are walking on trails. These e-bikes, and some of them aren't bikes, they don't have pedals now. You can't hear them. Um, next thing, you know, they're there if you have a dog or a child, you know. It's it's the number of complaints we're getting and we have been looking at other cities. We have pulled the local loss from other areas, and we are going through and get some of that information out to you guys. And we can look at that because there's been quite a few residents in the city that want us to do this. And I think we need to do something.

Research and supply them to mayor. Or we should count on how how best to mitigate the shipper.

I heard that there is an art form of the public. That was something about the police department in any bites. Was that it.

So the form that we held in June of this year, earlier this year, we're doing the second on that. Right. We promised to do two annually. So this is a follow up to that. We're going to add to it and try to a A bike ride. with the attendees. So we'll go out to the white path and ride together and we'll do some maneuvers and we're also going to have the course of the challenge. I'm sure you've all been there. That'll be at the Ebert site. That's September 10th.

Maybe soon to be honored house. You never know. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr.

So those people who were on Louisiana Avenue, that's for them to put a new sewer tap in? What is a sewer tap? Is that just a new sewer line that was set up? Is that what that means?

I believe that is what that is.

It's a new construction.

New construction tap, yeah.

OK, tap.

Let's see.

So they're building a new house, and then you're going to line up. Yeah. Follow that up.

How do you know? Somebody missed this one, right?

Just three of us. I think we need to figure it out.

Yeah, I got it.

You want to talk?

A requisition for the different leaders' rant searches? This is something that we already include and it's now purchasing it. Yeah. You've seen this before. So it was 7,000. So, so you see your state.

Yeah. That's for the CDBG, right? That was the big, big loss. Subtle.

Yeah.

Thank you.

How's the Richard, how's the open gov transition going downstairs, I guess. yeah I know we're going to see how good it's working pretty quick right next month we're going to start getting into the budget so. How's it how's it been for you so far. yeah I know what is it.

you know the biggest issue with this system is it's different right still the same old software and everything the new version The only issue we're going to have, I think, is it's going to take time for that they're not using now, but they make their launch more efficient on a daily basis. They have to work with their system. It's also getting getting rid of duplicated services 100 times right i mean it's very helpful but yeah of course yeah Other features do right to those other cities going and what they want to have with this doesn't have to. So there's a lot of those kind of decisions to make for the basics of going in for a fast and easy way down the basic. trip back and sit down since he said, I'm going to ask to.

be a faculty member.

We're getting rid of, you know, we're at 8,800 vendors. We're going to lower about 1,200 of those because the history is going to be reduced to just three years. There's a lot of data conversion going on and a lot of timing to keep this up. It's a project. Right. And it's going to come to probably push January 1st, 2007. So we can cut checks right from that to pay bills from it and have our history done for the end of 2026. And then we have to work three months into July 7th to build it. Right. So we'll use the news for three months. We don't want to have a choice. We'll use that and integrate information into postings. And then by the budget piece is going to help us a lot. Everybody experienced that last week. They think it's a simple experience was for my understanding, and that's part of that once you build that budget.

Are all of the departments doing it together at the same time? So you're not figuring it out first and then everybody's kind of in it, trying it out?

They'll call anywhere about 1.30. Everybody's on OpenGov.

Everybody's been told. Yeah. So you're in... Yeah, in the middle of it. And, you know, there's no turning back now. Uh, but it's gonna work. Charter accounts can be great. And for us to be fewer house and more. Let's say even an LV is reducing the significant amount right now. So, yes, 1700 in house alone is their cost extension. They don't need them and they know and they, they booked it. And it's super fun. You know, we had slew some studies with NASA, you know, for infinitesimal cost of budgets. We don't get to do more. And that's been confounded to do with events.

Will it make it easier for us and new people to figure out the budget system? I mean, when we look at it, sometimes it's like hieroglyphics, or things are labeled the same way, but it means something else if you're looking at a different department. And it can be confusing.

I think what you're going to be able to do is... This is, forget the account numbers, because you're gonna see better descriptions. You'll see longer, better, more complete descriptions, assistant descriptions.

Yeah. Go on, the department has, there is a description right next to it, and some which I know already are filling those out of what's in those line items.

your staff. Of course, that gets frozen once we're done with their request for the budget and then it goes to the mayor's level. The mayor's going to be able to make his changes and then that gets frozen and then goes to the council level. We're only going to have three levels for budgets. You know, the council's budget is going to be the adopted one. Because we'll roll the mayor's forward into the council. The council needs changes and that's the adopted budget. If they don't, then it's still the adopted budget.

I can see the complexity that's inherent in all that because trying to get your budget items to match what they're saying, you know, if you have a menu of things that you can categorize things as, it's got to be somewhat challenging department to department, right? So that's sure the amount of collaboration.

Yes, and confusion for the parts name is what we're focusing on. That's going to graduate from being an Excel spreadsheet that who knows who has the latest version to something that's in the system that everybody's going to be able to see. And if you have access to change, you can. If you have access to review it, you can. But it's going to be there, and it's going to be part of that presentation that goes to the public transparency. So here's our capital expenditure plan, and here's our actual budget. So it's looking like a good tool. I think we made a good decision in getting it. And it's proved that we're working with OpenGov. They know what they're doing. They're very supportive. We're making good progress.

Did we start on time management yet? Have we gotten to that piece yet?

We're working on the piece. We actually have another meeting tomorrow. I was just going to say, is this going to be some negotiations with unions?

As soon as you go digital, now you're talking about

You know, there's got to be a leeway, you know, the seven minute leeway, right? Or you're on the next 15 minutes when you're electronic. So you got to, there's things we have to build in the contracts and negotiate and come up with policy.

Policy. Yeah. Yeah.

Casey.

In Casey's spare time, we're trying to sort through our new IT contract. So we have been working with, uh, we've had one of the vendors in and we've got a couple more to go and then we'll have, uh, we'll have a new IT contract soon. We can bring to you guys, hopefully next month. I would think.

So is that like suit to nuts, like everything I see related, um, cybersecurity or everything. Yeah. Right.

And telecom. Yeah, so everything else.

And your phone, right?

Yeah.

And the overall time is still, I encourage you to get out of Google and $35 a month. Every chance he gets. Okay, that's $35 a month.

Well, it's hard when you have it. You have to have your final product in a Microsoft type program. And then you have to take it from this. And it's not as easy as just taking copy and pasting it. It doesn't work like that. It's a time-wasting process to get it to what the state accepts, right? I mean, that would be a time-saver, too, going backwards, I guess. It's going to be a money-saver, too.

option out there.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, she paid for everything.

Right. And that's part of the, some people only need an email and we can get just an email through. Right.

Yeah. Well, so like 200 of our employees will have the lowest. Right. And then a group in the middle. And then you guys will have probably local installs and full licenses. Right. So it'll, but ultimately that's going to save money. Yeah.

I'm standing with like open go when we're doing the budget like said it's going to transition and transparency so like I would. Take an export from munis muni if they can then upload it into clear something didn't upload correct and I have to go back and answer this whole process. but we'd still be in the year prior and we haven't fully rolled over the system. So it'd be hard to get those numbers out of units to kind of give the public kind of what our real numbers are. But it's all just going to transition from budget to our financials right away and to our transparency. All in the same system. Yeah. Even better.

What we used to do for budgeting last year and every year is pull the information out of the news, put it into a worksheet, send it out to everybody and say, here's what your payable cost is next year. And they look at it and say, this isn't right. Come on, get with it. They send it back to us in five or six iterations more. You don't know where you are. We're building a workforce plan for 230 employees right in the system that flows from way to the cost that's being budgeted for the payable for every department. So the building of that is gonna firm that up. And then year after year, we just modify what elements have to change, update the payable food, excuse me, for the forecasted year.

Once that's done, managers will be able to go in and if there are changes or updates, like they wanna vacancy or something like that, they can request it in that workforce module.

So like the capital projects, you're gonna have an assistant in the worksheet that who knows what, So a lot of changes, but it's really better. And it makes us more modern and more efficient. And if we use it right, we get a lot of benefit from it.

Do you have a rough idea of time savings that's going to come from it?

I haven't really looked at that yet. We know one thing. The payroll module, if we start to gather time electronically, it's going to save a lot of time from people doing manual timesheets or fillings in, you know, with worksheets for their time. At one point in time, I looked at that and that was about a half a million dollars of additional cost every year to have the payroll being done in the different departments on timesheets and on worksheets, then sending it into finance to reload it and be able to send it to a payable company. So it's going to be a big time savings. We can estimate that probably all the scientifics that he probably It's a big change. We're giving the paper and say, sitting people down at the end of the day and say, hey, use this last hour. We're giving you time. It's 50 people in public. We're extending that. We don't have to do that.

Yeah, I think that info would be very valuable, especially for people that know how much time is being saved by going more modern.

Maybe the account that it goes to, and it'll automatically create an invoice. So that would be time savings for all the departments and having them in our system. And when we have our audit, we aren't going through buckets of paper trying to find out

Where Vestwood sent us down an invoice, she has to fill out a worksheet piece of paper, attach the invoice to it, and those are our file copies that we use. Now she can send the invoice down, system scans it, and creates the payable record, and you're done. And you pay from that. And if you want to see what you pay, there's electronically stored pieces.

Is there any way to quantify those hidden costs or hidden savings?

We're going to have to look at it. I mean, I've had just the paper costs alone.

Yeah. Like the time and then the paper and all that stuff is, yeah, I think it's all, it's all a cost. Yeah.

And even in the departments that are putting these makers together, just to set it down to us so that we can re-enter it and do this, the duplication of it, but that's going to go away.

Yeah.

All they have to do is have their manager sign it, put an account number on it, send it down to us, re-scan it, get an accuracy. Types. And so they're gonna have a chance to look at it and make sure it's right system properly, as opposed to hurrying up to try and take it into bill space.

Yeah, we're gonna have to quantify what we're saying, because it would be interesting to know that to show that as a reason for why it's a good thing.

It's just a paper about so long for having to have a voucher sheet along with an invoice is going to be huge.

Yeah.

And then the savings, you have to figure out from going from Google back to Microsoft. Yeah.

I said it first. We had a bet that you were going to bring that up tonight.

Yeah, I know.

I know. Yeah.

And how you remember those account numbers like...

in munis i mean you're going to save time just by not having to remember those numbers quite frankly you know seriously i mean because you know especially when we get into the you know dpw where they're working for water sewer and dpw i mean you literally have three numbers for one person or one you know and it's it Right, right. And that's where, you know, that's where you're getting to where it's really confusing when you're looking at these things. It is. And I think this is going to make it easier to read.

We're also getting new security. So we're getting CrowdStrike. Paperworks been submitted today. I did. Yeah. So that's great endpoint security.

Casey, you're the second one, just so you know.

So literally literally See something that you can shut that endpoint down. It's no longer on the network, technically, and What is no infection. Yeah, absolutely.

You need to code software. One of the computer meetings with him and Dave Randall. It's a different language, right? It truly is. I mean, I don't know what we did, but we did a lot of good work yesterday.

We're getting it free. It's not necessarily free for everyone. Right. Yeah.

And the window was going to close and Dave Randall came down and he's interviewing some of the IT vendors with us. And he told us that the window was getting a little smaller. And so we did it today. Yeah. So, you know, one way or the other, whatever way we go, we have that option. Yeah, we're going to have that. And I think he said it was a five-year contract. Yeah. And it comes out to a five-year, and it's free. My favorite price. It's free.

Right. Very much, yeah. You know, so there's a Falcon sensor, and it can do a lot of reporting, too. So we can take advantage of it beyond just cybersecurity.

What's up? Something isn't going on.

I'm just sitting here going, wow. So I got paid the big books.

Any other questions about tonight's agenda or anything open? Any other questions about anything else? Take a break. If nobody's got anything else, we'll take a break until...