Board of Public Utilities - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Board of Public Utilities meeting. This meeting is called to order. We will now play the inclusion statement.

Pursuant to the City Council rules of procedure and order of business resolution, the members of all Boards and Commissions and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of the Boards and Commissions and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or a refusal to obey the orders of the Board or Commission or the Presiding Officer constitutes a violation of these rules. The city of Riverside is committed to fostering a workplace that provides dignity, respect, and civility to our employees, customers, and the public they serve.

Okay, Rebecca, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Okay, please stand. Roll call, please.

Good evening, board members. Board member Wright is absent. Board member Goldberg? Here. Board member Rand?

Here.

Board member Montgomery? Here. Board member Evans? Here. Board member Becker? Here. Board member Cruz? Here. Vice chair Wolgenluth? Here. Chair Sayana?

Here.

Thank you.

Okay, we will now move to public comment. Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star 9. When called to speak, press star 6 to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

Okay, do we have any public comment? Okay, no callers, so at this time we will call upon Assistant City Attorney Susan Wilson for presentation of item number two, or not.

Good evening, members of the Board of Public Utilities. I am preparing or delivering this for Susan Wilson. Unfortunately for you, she could not be here tonight. So this is the mandatory Brown Act training that we are obligated to give every year, and we're happy to do so. So the purpose of the Brown Act is that the legislature I don't have the OK, next slide, please. like magic the legislature finds and declares that the public commissions boards and councils and other public agencies in this state exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business it is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly and if you've heard me give this before you've heard my little ad lib that This came out of a series of articles in a San Francisco newspaper in the early 70s, I think. And I looked for them, and I couldn't find them. And this reporter detailed the backroom dealings that were taking place. And apparently, it is just as bad as you think it was. Cigar-filled backrooms, secret meetings, all that stuff. And this reporter really exposed that, hey, the people have no idea what is going on. So the Brown Act was passed. Now, of course, it doesn't apply to state government. That's the Bagley-Keene Act, which is roughly similar but much watered down. Go figure. Next slide, please. So all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency shall be open and public, and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency, except as otherwise provided by law. There's a 2026 update that we must begin providing two-way telephonic or AV public access starting July 1st, but we've been doing that for a while. In my experience, my professional legal experience, Riverside is pretty timely on its Brown Act obligations. We really do try to involve the public. Next slide, please. The Brown Act creates certain minimum procedural requirements for conducting meetings. Of course, we meet all those. One of these rules requires this board to adopt rules for the conduct of its business, including the time and place for holding regular meetings. And of course, you've done that a long time ago. A recent update is that Riverside must adopt a written policy on handling disruptions, which we have, including from remote participants, ensuring that clearing the room is a last resort and that non-disruptors can stay or join remotely and what happens if the AV system fails. We've done all that. Next slide, please. So you have to define a meeting before you can regulate them. A meeting includes any congregation of a majority of the members of the RPU board or whatever other legislative body at the same time and place to hear, discuss, or deliberate upon any item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Now, that's the obvious meeting. Except as part of an open and notice meeting, the Brown Act prohibits any use of direct communications by personal intermediaries or technological devices by a majority of the board to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken on an item. So a majority of the RPU board may not email each other to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken by the RPU board. So a meeting is supposed to be like tonight, where you all get together and publicly discuss things so the public has an idea of your deliberations. It's also a meeting, but a forbidden meeting, if you violate the Brown Act, if you're all communicating by text or email, or if a quorum is getting together and discussing things not in the public eye. That's also a meeting, but it's a bad one. Next slide, please. 2026 update, Senate Bill 707 clarifies rules for permitted informational communications, including limited one-way distribution of factual information and certain social media activity. So there was some guidance that had been given prior to SB 707 that even commenting, even liking somebody else's Facebook post could be argued. to be a concurrence. I mean, what if a majority of you all like the same post? The public could reasonably suspect that you guys were coming to some sort of concurrence. So SB 707 tried to clarify that. If it's just one-way distribution of factual information and other limited activity, that's a safe harbor. You can do that. My advice is it's a minefield and I would stay away from it. So there's caution because RPU board members should continue to treat social media interactions as high risk for inadvertent serial meetings. I think they are, but I'm a lawyer, so I'm risk averse. Next slide, please. Serial meetings, forbidden meetings. A serial meeting is a series of communications, each of which involves less than a quorum of the board, but taken as a whole and involves a majority. So you can't split up into three separate groups, all discussed and come back together and say, hey, we didn't have a meeting. Because in effect, you would have. does not require a collective concurrence to occur in order for there to be a violation. City staff is allowed to engage in separate communications outside of a public meeting with members of the board in order to answer questions or provide information regarding a matter that is within the subject matter of the RPU board, providing that staff does not communicate to the other members of the board the comments or position of another. David can send each of you information whether it's factual information, agendas, or other stuff, as long as it's one way and there's no concurrence, either between you or through David or other staff. Next slide, please. So for a clarification, one-way distribution of purely factual information by staff to multiple board members is allowed, and we've done that in the past, only if it does not reveal other board members' views or facilitate agreement. As long as it's just strict facts, there's no trouble. For an example, SB 707 permits board members to post factual information on social media or reply individually, but you need to avoid chains that involve a majority of, that might reveal others' views. Next slide, please. Public speech, so the public has a right to address the RPU board at any meeting on any subject that is within the board's subject matter jurisdiction. As an update, eligible legislative bodies must also allow remote participation through two-way remote access. We've already been doing that for a while. Next slide, please. The Board may impose reasonable restrictions on public comment at meetings so long as the restrictions are not too broad and don't constitute prior restraints. And the board may also ask a member of the public to refrain from speaking on a matter not within your subject matter jurisdiction or from addressing the comments to one member rather than the board as a whole. Next slide, please. The board may require members of the public wishing to address the RFP board to fill out a speaker card. The public cannot be required to give names or to sign a register as a condition of attendance, and we don't. And many cities do ask for names and addresses during oral communications because it makes it easier for staff to respond or to prepare the minutes. This practice is certainly allowable if it is identified as being voluntary. And I can tell you that it's been very helpful when I review minutes for an administrative record to have an idea of who said what. It's for the benefit of both parties, typically. Next slide, please. The board may regulate the total amount of time on particular issues and may, and for each individual speaker, subject to the requirements of due process. Time limits of three to five minutes are the most common. There's no hard limit in the law, but most Agencies, most boards, pick three to five minutes. And the chair is responsible for forcing the time limit, and depending upon the board or commission, may also monitor the time. Next slide, please. For SB 707 updates, Riverside must conduct outreach to assess language needs and provide agenda translations and interpretation for public comment in languages spoken by more than 20% of the residents who do not speak English well. And agendas must include remote access details. Next slide, please. So for agendas, which are an integral part of the Brown Act, the agenda must specify the time and location of the meeting and a brief general discussion of each item of business to be transacted or discussed. If a matter is not on the agenda, it may not be substantively discussed or acted upon. And this is all, like the rest of the Brown Act, pretty common sense. Suppose you remember the public and you want to know what's going on. the agenda should reasonably apprise you. You should be able to show up and not be surprised at what's being discussed. And the flip side of that is, you should be able to stay safely at home, not thinking that they're gonna discuss something which was not put on the agenda. Next slide, please. Of course there are exceptions, brief responses by members of the body and staff to statements or questions posed by the public, you can't agendize those, questions for clarification, references to staff or other resources for factual information, request to staff to report back on an issue, request to agendize a matter in the future, or brief announcements by members of the body or staff and brief reports on their activities. And those are allowed because you're not deliberating and making a decision. Next slide, please. Supplemental materials. This can get a little bit sticky. You can supplement the agenda or the agenda related materials no later than 72 hours before a regular meeting, but only if to add an item due to an emergency. delete a matter from the agenda, provide additional information that was not known and could not have been known to be relevant at the time, to correct errors or omissions, or to change a stated financial amount, or to continue an item to a future agenda. Next slide, please. New rules include that The rules have a sunset of December 31, 2025, and SB 707 establishes new participation rules, new reasonable accommodations for disabilities, and it expands just cause for remote attendance. Next slide, please. Board members with a statutory disability may participate remotely, must use two-way audio and video, and they must disclose adults over 18 who are present at the remote location. I'm not sure why they do that, but it's a law. Next slide, please. So for our Sunshine Ordinance, which goes above and beyond the Brown Act, only the City Council, Board of Ethics, your board, the Charter Review Committee, Police Review Commission, and Planning Commission, and their standing committees, have to notice meetings 12 days in advance, not the three days for the Brown Act, have to have audio and visual recording of the meeting, All other boards and commissions only have 72 hours in advance and audio only. Next slide, please. Digital misconduct is prohibited. Online activity or messages that create or appear to create bias, partisanship, or predisposition on city matters, that's prohibited. That only applies while acting in an official capacity. It only applies if it falls within your subject matter jurisdiction of the public official. It applies to quasi-judicial proceedings and when using official city accounts. And sanctions are limited to censure only. But that's the code of ethics, not the Brown Act or the Sunshine Act. Next slide, please. And that's it. So in my experience, the Brown Act is actually pretty common sense. Imagine you are both somewhere between curious and suspicious and want to know what the city is doing. What could we do to inform that reasonably curious and suspicious person so that they have an idea of what's going on at the city? It's pretty much it. Are there any questions? Pete?

Hi, thank you for the informative and succinct presentation. I do have a question on one of the 2026 updates on slide four.

Okay.

So it says, effective July 1, 2026, Riverside must adopt a written policy on handling disruptions. Including from a remote participant. You say that's been done?

I believe so, yes.

Can anybody tell me what it is?

yes so the av system disruption as i remember from reading it is you have to make you have to wait for up to an hour while you try and reconnect the av connection like if we lose internet we have to try for an hour if after an hour there's still no success then you can adjourn the meeting but we have to try our best or you can continue the meeting without on the internet connection excuse me And as for written policy on handling disruptions, we've had one for a while that should have been in your board training. I know that it is progressive. You ask the person to behave themselves. You ask them to leave. The last thing you can do, the ultimate sanction is you clear the chamber. But there's one person you cannot kick out. members of the press. They get to stay, presuming they're not being the disruptive one, and they never really are. The smart ones aren't because they want to get a story, right, not be the story.

Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is that there's protocols in place that address disruptions in a meeting, both from the floor and remotely.

From the floor, for sure. And online, I believe so. I haven't independently verified. Well, online, can't you just turn them off?

I guess muting would be the first option, right? Well, you would think that cease and desist would be the first option, but yeah.

Yeah. You know, I don't have the policy in front of me, and if you would like a presentation on it, if you'd like us to follow up with that, to refresh the refresh, we can do that.

I guess maybe I'm more interested in, does Brian know what to do? Because if we had an incident in the audience here and somebody was being disruptive, would we be like thumbing through the manual to look it up or what?

Yes, we do. We actually have what to do in case of a disruptive person.

It was in the board training.

What board training?

Well, we had a few months ago, but I think I was the only one there.

OK.

But having said that, I was not ready for this pop quiz. But I should be, because I need to know it to run the meeting. But at the time, it seemed logical to me. It was like this, like you said, this natural progression of just kindly asking. Yeah, Rebecca.

I think it's on. So I want to jump in. Well, yes, you, former chair, current chair, you should know, with all due respect, you all set up here. So in the event of, and we had it some time ago, but usually we don't have a lot of turnout for our meetings because they're oh so exciting. But somebody did come. And Elizabeth Monville was the chair at the time. And she went through, and she told this person, We're gonna escort you out and it kept escalating and then eventually they left a community member for the most part It wasn't a big deal, but there was random comments coming from the floor. So at the very least We can all see if it's happening and then we would turn to In theories, I mean they're not experts in that field But they know where to get the resources delivered to this chambers if and when it's needed. I

So here I have the mayor's notes for the disruptions of city council, and this is gonna apply similarly to the board. So the proposed admonitions, the initial disruption, the mayor would state the following. Excuse me, your actions are having the effect of disrupting this meeting. I'm asking you to immediately stop. Then there comes a second warning if they don't comply. If the person refuses to stop, the mayor should repeat the request to stop and emphasize that the person will be asked to leave if it continues. If that's unsuccessful, you can order the person to leave. If the person refuses to leave, you can ask the person to be escorted from the room, assuming this can be accomplished without resulting in physical injury. We're not going to throw them through the glass.

Who's going to do the escorting? We would call the police or security.

Yeah, this is something that is different with a city council meeting where I believe there's probably always somebody.

Yeah, but I think security monitors these meetings. Okay.

Actually, I didn't know that.

I think they do.

Okay.

I think somebody has to call them because in the past we had a problem and the assistant city manager was on the phone and he called security. But he had to call security in order for them to come here and escort the person out.

Let's guess that's something we could follow up on.

Well, I think Brian has it right that it's not necessarily a, we don't have that problem at city council, but there's no security here. Now, presumably they have the ability to monitor the meeting, but I'm not sure they do. I'm not sure how big their beat is around.

No, no, I'm talking about the guy sitting in the first floor of City Hall.

Okay. Okay. That doesn't mean he's paying attention, but he should be.

I guess not, but we can call. Okay, well, I can't call. Diane can and she will. I would call.

Okay. Excellent. I'm just, you know, I'm not trying to play devil's advocate here, but I'm curious to know what the process really is. Well, we should know. And we should know. That's right. So Diane will call.

All right. All right. So if the person refuses to leave, you can empty the room. And once again, everybody but the press. Okay. And If they refuse to leave the room, you all retire to the back room. And that usually, I mean, by the time the body leaves the dais, who's the person going to scream at?

A follow-up question. Can the meeting just be adjourned, not just clear the room? It's not clear the room. It's adjourn the meeting, no? And then we all go home. So the press can stay as long as they want.

You adjourn the meeting, I believe, for a brief period of time, and then you try and come back. And if it continues, you try it again.

Then you move to close.

Right. Got it. And if you've tried to give them a chance to calm down, and you've tried that a couple times, if it still continues, then yeah, you can adjourn the meeting.

So in theory, you adjourn for, you take pause. You take a break. You're not necessarily, you're adjourning the meeting for a break, not necessarily indefinitely.

You take a break, let them calm down, take the wind out of their sails, whatever it is.

In an effort to hold the public meeting, because at the end of the day, this is all about holding the public meeting. It's not about safety. That's right. It's about the hosting up. I mean, if safety is- Holding the meeting safely.

For sure, but it's not about- Yep.

So tech should look at this one because when you move it. Okay, so you would just take adjournment momentarily for however many times the bottom decides is appropriate and then move on and hopefully at that point you've de-escalated to a point because at that point security, PD, whoever needs to be here.

Right, you take a break for five minutes, come back in five minutes. If they're still there, take a break for 15 minutes. If they're still there, have security try and escort them out. If security can't escort them out, then you clear all the chambers. And if all else fails, yeah, you would have to adjourn the meeting in the interest of public safety. But that's the last resort. I've never seen it happen.

It happened at a UC meeting where I believe pepper spray was used, but it's been a number of years. But yeah, I don't think here.

No. Does that answer your questions, member? Yes.

Thank you very much for the clarification. No, you're welcome. And hopefully those protocols are internalized enough so, God forbid, an incident like that occurs, we know what to do. That's all I was trying to establish.

Any other questions?

I had a question. This is timely. Last week I saw a local news group post an article on social media about activity of the RPU board and it was very clear that from the comments that people had misinterpreted or just misinterpreted the headline without reading the article and I wanted to clarify. some facts that were facts it wasn't like oh we did this because this it was just it could have been I could have quite easily have eased their concerns by giving them the actual information I didn't do this Because I wasn't sure about these issues that if somebody else starts to chime in with the comments. I don't know what to do about this. I'm positive that the people who were expressing their concern about our activities would like better communication from the board and I actually wanted to do it. I don't, this is partly a comment by me, but also I am interested in clarifying. So I am allowed, this was, I would have done one way passing of factual information, and in fact it would have been about a past agenda and a past meeting, not an upcoming one. This would have been okay. But it would open myself up if there were additional conversations and whatnot that it could be problematic, right?

Well, so democracy is cumbersome, inefficient, slow, and burdensome, right? Unfortunately, everything else is worse. In your comments, would you have been speaking for yourself or for the board?

Right. I would not be speaking for the board, but I think everybody would recognize that I'm the chair of the board and if I'm stating something there that, yeah.

Is the chair speaking for the board or not? If it has the appearance of speaking for the board, you really should get board concurrence. And you really can't do that fairly without agendizing. On the other hand... You could say that I was there, and that's not what I remember happening. And you could issue a brief statement, not deliberation, not discussion, nothing to do with the policy. You can say that's not what I remember. I remember something very differently. Perhaps we can agendize this or discuss this at a future session. It's difficult.

Yeah, this is very unsatisfactory. It is. Well, it is unsatisfactory. They'll also find it unsatisfactory because I will say something and then stop talking and they will say, what are you doing? Why aren't you answering our follow-up questions?

And you can tell them.

And it's unsatisfactory, but all the alternatives are even more unsatisfactory. I feel there's, okay, I see some certain city council members who are much more vocal on social media and interacting all the time about various things and I don't know. I would like to communicate more to the public, but this is very restrictive. So I don't know what to do. Okay.

Sorry, it's more of a comment. if you want to send me an email or if you want to meet and we can discuss this a little bit more, maybe that would be helpful.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It was just very timely because this came up this week that I saw something that I really did want to just correct quickly and not like correct, like you're wrong about, you know, just they had misinterpreted a headline and it wasn't, and I could have given just very simple factual information. But yeah,

yeah this is okay thank you you're welcome are there questions i do now that only because caitlyn's here um can you give a different example like of something you might want to respond to or post or share that's not just a response to somebody's headline, because that I'm not inclined to do social media-wise. But if it was a redirect to the entity that posted it, I might say, hey, you guys might want to think a little bit more about. But that's a behind-the-scenes conversation. Can you give me a different example of something that you as a board member might want to post?

Yeah, I mean, you could imagine maybe after a meeting where we voted in favor of something, posting on social media as, you know, just here's this new thing that's happening that we voted in favor of. It's an exciting new thing that we're doing or whatever. But I'm not doing that. I'd like to, but I'm too worried about it.

Okay, so that's what the difference between the electives is. They're willing to take on more risk, which is fine. I don't want to. You don't want to either. But that's not to say you couldn't send David a note and say, hey, this was a really cool thing for me. Could we talk with marketing and have them do a blurb or send it out? And then it gets out. And in theory, to a larger audience than you would share it with.

right yeah i don't need to own it personally right yeah right and then in theory all you have to do is then repost it because as a board share you're now just sharing information right that sounds reasonable okay rpu you're gonna be really active on social media just kidding okay okay any other comments okay thank you very much you are welcome Okay, now we're going to turn the time over. Oh yeah, declaration of conflicts next. Okay, turn the time over to Tracy Sato for a sustainability update.

Good evening chair, members of the board. My name is Tracy Sato. I'm an assistant general manager here at RPU and I oversee strategic initiatives. Just a few really quick items that I thought would be of interest to the board this evening. First off, I just wanted to let the board know that the public benefits fund spending plan that you approved a few meetings ago was approved by the city council last Tuesday. There were, we did convey the board comments that were taken as part of that discussion to the city council during that meeting. They heard all of that. They also added some additional comments including several of the council members requested that we look at expanding low income programs, including reevaluating our current share program. And we assured them that we would be doing that as part of this summer when we do the review of all of the energy efficiency and public benefit expenditures for the annual review. So we will be doing that. They did approve the spending plan and for the programs to come forward over the next several months knowing that we would be flexible in how much money went into each of those programs if needed as we went through the other review of the other the annual expenditures for our typical programs because as you recall we get about 10 to 11 million every year. and those have standard programs that we've been carrying with modifications every year to keep them up with technology. So that was quite exciting, that got approved. The second thing I wanted to also mention, because they did also express an interest for public outreach in what we are doing, particularly for our low-income customers, I did want to mention, for example, as some examples of what the council had requested, they had requested additional time with our seniors at the senior centers and attending any types of events that we could go to out in the community. So we do continue to do that with our customer engagement team. And that includes adding an additional day at the Janet Goski Center to do program evaluation, our program support education around the programs to take signups for our SHARE program and other low income efforts. And the other thing that we have done is we have brought in the Community Action Partnership from the county and they now come once a month or twice a month to our CRC location, our community resource center location and actually set up a table to work with our customers on those days and they advertise that they will be there in person on those days and we cross communicate with our customers. So that can provide some additional support for those customers to take those community and those county programs through LIHEAP and other programs. that the county offers. And then the other thing that we are doing, and this is around the area, we just wanted to announce as well our annual STEM public utilities learning lab or the STEM poll this summer. These are very popular events with our students. So STEM poll, the learning lab is for high school students. That will be occurring on July 6th through 10th. And then we will have a middle school program called STEM Fundamentals for middle school students from July 21st through 23rd. So these are very well attended programs every year. Anywhere from 50 to 75 students attend these programs. They get to go on tours of work, our water treatment facilities, And they do a project and get to really communicate directly with RPU staff and other city staff for these different programs. And basically it's a workforce development, getting them interested in working for utilities, whether it's water, electric, legislative, finance, any of the different fields that we might go into here at the utility. And both of those programs are in partnership with Cal Baptist University, Barnes, the Step Foundation here in the city of Riverside, and other community activists. So we are very excited about that program.

We do that every year, so this is continuing this year.

And with that, I will end my comments, and I'm happy to answer any questions, if there are any.

Thank you. Any questions? Tom?

Is this turned on? Yes. Thank you. Yeah, I listened to the presentation that you made. I thought you did a good job interacting with the council and answering their questions. I think that also the public comments that were made, we need to... B, we need to take seriously. I think it was Aurora Chavez talked about the seniors. Correct. She had this idea about their porch lights. And so, I don't know, you want to give everybody an LED bulb instead of incandescent. That might be one way to reinforce the conversation. Maybe do this already. I don't know.

We don't do the LED. We have an LED light rebate. And we do direct install for our low-income customers and the mobile home multifamily. But it doesn't necessarily cover all of them. But I actually do have all of the public comments That was a great program, so we will be taking that into consideration over the summer. And again, as we develop these flexible programs, we might be changing some funding of what was already put in an existing program. We might make some minor modifications, because a lot of these programs that were mentioned might be small, a small financial commitment for each year. to do light bulbs for the senior centers, but we took that. The other one was to get out and talk with the neighborhood groups or to talk with other groups. Again, we are gonna be going out this summer with all of our programs to, we're partnering with the General Plan CAP effort, so that we can be at those community outreach events because they draw in a lot of customers, a lot of our community members, and we'll have an opportunity for them to provide feedback. We will be doing the survey, and we will go to any neighborhood group that would like to hear from us to talk about the programs and what we're offering. So that's gearing up, hopefully, to launch pretty soon. pause the program just a little bit to get some data completed, and then once that data is done, that data analytics is done, we'll be continuing on with that evaluation. So we're excited about some of this outreach that's coming up with the different community groups. We'll also be attending any of the council board meetings that they would like us to attend. Any meeting that anybody would like us to come to, we would be available to come out.

OK, the other comments that were made, and we talked a little bit about this at the meeting. And that was two individuals, I believe, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Hunter, both expressed concern about the fact that we allocated money to be spent at community centers, EOC, UOC, essentially self-dealing is the way they sort of put it. But that's why we need to be, one, explicit as to the benefits that all customers get as a result of improving the performance of cooling centers but that also the work gets done and it doesn't just drag on and we we hold a bunch of money that's theoretically for these projects that never gets spent and therefore it doesn't get spent on directly on customers so i think again those their comments were think important because we talked about them here as well so I just I think it's important that we recognize that when we talk about spending my all customers money on projects with the city that there is a certain amount of suspicion that we are self-dealing and not benefiting customers in the way it's supposed to. So I think those comments were very important as well to be reflected in whatever communication we do as a result of putting battery storage at Nichols Park or wherever it might happen to be. The other thing is I was curious about the mobile home park direct install. So I called and asked for information about it and a person from your staff called me back. And what was interesting is when they called me on my phone, it came as a spam call. It said spam. And I didn't answer it. And so then they called right back. I said, well, this might be. So I answered it. And sure enough, there was a very helpful person there that talked about the direct install. And she said, well, we know that sometimes our phones show up as spam. So I would just encourage you to do something about that. because we can't just to come if we're going to communicate with customers it ought to at least show up as riverside city public utilities whatever and not as a spam call so i don't know if that's i'm the only person that's ever happened to but i suspect it's not because she acknowledged that that did happen um so i i just say that as a customer test so to speak But I was also surprised, and I guess I missed this in the presentation, that you have to be a gas company customer to also benefit from these programs. And so with the move towards all electric, I don't know or don't see how we can make being a gas company customer a gatekeeper, in effect, to getting benefits through the mobile home park program.

So that program, that is a known issue. And we are re-evaluating that program. So right now, we are required to partner with the investor-owned utilities that offer different services in our service territory and with the county community action partnership. We're required to partner with them for their direct install for these different programs. and the public benefit fund in the state law actually requires us to try and partner. So where we can, we want to achieve those efficiencies. We're not required to actually offer the program, but if we do, we should be trying to do that for ease of customers. That being said, what we are talking about at this point, because of electrification becoming more common, and customers may be going off of gas, is getting ready to gear up where we would do an RFP, to actually do an RFP for a very similar program, but that we would manage ourselves. So it would have basically the same thing, but we wouldn't be able to have that partnership with another utility, another agency. We have to go through that RFP process and bring in a vendor. It could be that same vendor. It might be a different one. But we do know that that is an issue and do plan to address that in the future. As of right now, almost every home is required to have a natural gas hookup, though that is starting to change because of the way the building code has been structured now.

Well, people can convert from natural gas to all-electric and on their own. So anyway, okay, well, I just would ask that that be something that we bring back sooner than later because I think the city council's impression was that it's all under RPU's control and it didn't require... participation by somebody else. If you can benefit by partnering, so be it. But that shouldn't be what I'm calling a gatekeeper, which apparently it currently is.

It is a program, and I actually found out about it. So we're addressing it, yes. That was a big concern of mine.

Okay. But the phone thing, the spam calls, I think we don't want to be identified as a spam call.

Yeah, we'll work with IT on that. Sometimes it's when people report the number as spam so many times on your service provider, it becomes a spam call. It's out of our control until we can do some outreach back to the phone company. So we will reach out. Noting that that comment came in, we will reach out to IT to see if we can get that fixed.

Okay. Thank you. Rebecca?

Maybe. There we go. On the phone call thing, at least from certain numbers within the utility, whoever the providers are should have a list, because you shouldn't be able to block them. Those numbers should be, from a safety perspective, allowed. Maybe not through the phone tree, but again, that's something that you'll look into. But in the event of, those are the people who are helping to make mask phone calls. Did you mean just Goski, or did you mean Goski and Dale and et cetera, et cetera?

The Janet Goski Senior Center.

Yeah. Is that the only one?

That is the primary one that we go to. We go to the other ones when they We try and get out there every month or every other month. Janet Goski is where the largest population of seniors go right now, but we do try and get out to all of them. We also go out to mobile home parks when the city has events or the county has events. We try and always have a booth also available at mobile home parks, senior centers, community events for seniors.

Do we make it to Plymouth Towers? Do we go out to the large complexes we know are filled with seniors?

I am not sure off the top of my head, but I will check.

There's a reason Dale is right next door to a multi-level senior complex. And those people aren't going a lot of places.

I will check to see if we can.

Because Goski's great, but it is in one location where there's a nice parking lot because most of those people have their own homes and cars. And really, this is driven towards a wholly different population that is not necessarily going there. But I think it's great. I think the energy education program is super great. Thank you for continuing to promote it. If there are ways that we can continue to get that out because good, bad, right, or wrong, those are all jobs that a machine is not going to do. It may help, but they're never going to climb up on a pole and reconnect a wire that's falling down. So at least not anytime soon.

I don't see those roadblocks.

On the, I just pause people and tell them to look at their autocorrect when they tell me the machines are going to do some of these jobs in the near future. The self-dealing, and this is really like a billing question, the city, as a customer, has lots of sites. Well over 100 meters. Yes. um all of those accounts pay fees and charges correct yes so all of those while we do not treat them as individual customers because we don't treat individual rusd sites as individual clusters etc all of those are then eligible for rebates through public benefits funds

OK.

I just wanted to make sure, because the self-dealing comment, while at a high level you can pull that out, when we're able to help lots more people because we're able to locate it at a park, for example, solar on any of the three parks that we put them on back in the early 2000s, because we said that was a good use of public benefits funds, and it reduced the park load by significant dollars well over, so people didn't have to pay fees to get into the parks. those are things that we're trying to do with those larger things so um in unless the fees were somehow being waived which i did not think that that would be done because i hadn't heard that and i did not see a schedule on it so um thank you i appreciate the updates that's all i have thank you anyone else okay thank you very much thank you

Okay, for item number four, I'll ask the board members if they have any conflicts of interest on the agenda. Okay, hearing none. We'll move on to the consent calendar. Does anyone wish to pull an item on our consent calendar? Okay, do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

All right, thank you. Roll call, please.

Thank you. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously, thank you.

Okay, we'll move on to the discussion calendar. We'll now open for public comment for item number nine.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star 9. When called to speak, press star 6 to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

And we call for presentation of item number 9 by Tola Perkins.

Good evening, Board of Public Utilities. Chair, my name is Tola Perkins, and I'm representing the Board of Ethics tonight as a board member to provide you with the Riverside Municipal Code 2.78, Code of Ethics and Conduct Annual Review. Next slide. Purpose of the Code of Ethics and Conduct pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.020, to achieve fair, ethical, and accountable local government for the City of Riverside. Public officials are expected to comply with the provisions of this Code of Ethics and Conduct and shall aspire to meet the standards in the conduct of their responsibility as a public official of the City of Riverside. Next slide. Scope. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.030. Public officials subject to the code. Number one, mayor. Number two, city council members. Number three, all members of appointed boards, commissions, and committees appointed by city council and or mayor. Next slide. Implementation, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.040, A, upon election, reelection, appointment, or reappointment, public officials shall be given a copy and required to affirm receipt and understanding. B, within 90 days of taking office, public officials shall receive training. C, city attorney or designee shall serve as a resource to assist public officials in understanding and abiding by the code. Next slide. Continuous of implementation. D, all bodies whose members are covered by this chapter shall adopt rules of procedures which include provisions of this code. E, chair of each body is responsible to provide appropriate guidance to its members and if needed, communicate concerns to the Board of Ethics. only those who live work including vendors and contractors or attend school in Riverside may bring a complaint unless alleged violation took place outside of city limits and complaining party personally witnessed or observed the alleged violation I would like to note that effective January 27th, 2026, city council adopted on the asterisk portion, including vendors and contractors. Next slide. Going into core values. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.050. A, to strive to create a government that is trusted by everyone. B, to strive to make decisions that are unbiased, fair, and honest. C to strive to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and in a just and fair manner. Next slide. Continuous of core values. D to strive to create a community that affirms the value of diversity. E, to strive to ensure that all public decisions are well-informed, independent, and in the best interest of the city of Riverside. F, to strive to maintain a nonpartisan and civic-minded local government. Next slide. Continuous of core values. G, to strive to ensure that all public officials are adequately prepared for the duties of their office. H, to strive to ensure that appointed members of boards, commissions, and committees attend regularly scheduled meetings. Next slide. Continuous of core values, I would like you to take note that effective May 19, 2026, the city council adopted this portion, I. Digital communications must reflect the city's commitment, the city's commitment to impartiality, fairness, and integrity. online activity messages or actions should not create or appear to create bias partisanship or predisposition on city matters that fall within the subject matter jurisdiction of the public official and our quasi judicial procedures next slide Going into prohibited conduct, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.060. A, use of official title or position for personal gain, prohibited. B, use of devotions of confidential or privileged information, also prohibited. C, use of city resources for non-city purposes, prohibited. D, advocacy of private interest or third parties in certain circumstances, prohibited. E, endorsement for compensation, prohibited. Next slide. Continuous of prohibited conduct. F, violation of government code sections 8.87100. Regulating financial interest and governmental decisions made by public officials prohibited. G, certain political activity prohibited. H, display of campaign materials in or on city vehicles prohibited. I, knowingly assisting another public official in violating this code of ethics and conducts, also prohibited. Next slide. Continuous or prohibited conduct. J, negotiation for employment with any party having a matter pending prohibited. K, ex parte contact in quasi-judicial matters prohibited. L, attempts to coerce officials' duties prohibited. M, violations of local law, prohibited. N, convictions of federal or state law affecting their office, prohibited. Please take note that adopted by the city council on May 19th, 2026, is the letter O, digital misconduct also prohibited. Next slide. Going into written complaint procedures. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.070. A, only alleged violations of prohibited conduct shall be grounds for a complaint. Please take note that the City Council adopted amendment on January 27, 2026, this particular portion, which states, complainants are covered by whistleblower policies and the city will not retaliate nor tolerate retaliation against those who, in good faith, report suspected fraud, waste, or abuse, or participate in an investigation of a suspected violation. Next slide. Continuous of written complaint procedures pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.070. B, complaints are submitted on form available from the city clerk. C, complaints and evidence are filed with the city clerk. D, complaints must be filled out completely in accordance with this chapter. Next slide. Continuous of written complaint procedures. E, complaints must be filed no later than one year of alleged violation. F, city clerk reviews the completeness. G, any filed complaint not in compliance shall be administratively rejected by the city clerk with the approval of the chair of the board of ethics. Next slide. Going into pre-conference procedures. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.075, A, complainants may submit one revised complaint only to add additional allegations within 30 days of the original filing. B, city clerk sets matter for a pre-conference for no later than 45 city business days. C, city clerk provides a copy of complaint to public official within 10 calendar days. Next slide. Continuous of pre-conference procedures. D, Board of Ethics, also known as BOE, conducts a pre-conference prior to a hearing date set by the city clerk. All parties are to attend the pre-conference. However, the absence of a party shall not be grounds for a continuance. the pre-conference shall be conducted as follows number one boe reviews complaint to determine if it complies with all of the following to establish jurisdiction of the boe a complaint procedures have been followed b complaint is against a public official c complaint alleges of violations of prohibited conduct d complaint does not restate violations of previous complaint next slide Continuous of pre-conference procedures. Number two, if a majority of the BOE determines that the complaint does not comply with the provisions mentioned in the prior slide, the chair states the findings of deficiency and calls for a vote of the BOE to dismiss the complaint without adhering. The statement of fineness is adopted at the next meeting and it is the final decision of the BOE. If a majority of the BOE determines that the complaint complies with all the provisions mentioned in the prior slide, then the pre-conference proceeds. Three, the BOE shall facilitate settlement discussions between the parties by allowing the parties to confer privately to determine if a resolution can be reached. If so, then no hearing is necessary. If not, the pre-conference continues. Next slide. Continuous of pre-conference procedures, number four, the BOE reviews the submitted tangible evidence to determine if it is relevant to the issues raised in the complaint. If it is determined by a majority of vote that such evidence is irrelevant, then such evidence will be deemed inadmissible at the hearing and shall be excluded. Five, the complainant may verbally present any and all evidence that will be presented at the hearing to prove allegations in the complaint. The public official has the same opportunity. Six, the BOE shall determine by a majority of vote whether the complainant has shown the evidence more than likely than not shows that there may be a potential violation of the prohibited conduct. Please note that this section right here that I'm going to read in asterisk also adopted by the City Council Council adopted on January 27 2026 Which reads all evidence shall be taken in its totality with equal weight given to both parties next slide Continuous sub-conference procedures, number seven. If it is determined by the BOE that the evidence shows it is more likely than not that there may be a potential violation of the prohibited conduct has occurred, then a hearing panel is selected by random draw of the BOE members to consist of five members and one alternate. The city clerk sets a hearing date for no later than 45 city business days following the pre-conference. Eight, if it is determined by the BOE that the complainant failed to show that it is more likely than not that there may be a potential violation of a prohibited conduct, the chair of the BOE instructs the city clerk to prepare a statement of findings for adoption at the next regular meeting of the BOE. This statement of findings is the final decision of the BOE. Next slide. Going into hearing procedures, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.080. A, public officials shall file a written reply no later than 20 calendar days prior to the hearing date. B, city clerk shall provide copy of written reply to complainant no later than 10 city business after receipt. C, board of ethics shall have authority to adopt hearing procedures not in conflict with this chapter. D, pre-conferences and hearings on their merits are not formal judicial proceedings. Technical rules of evidence do not apply. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures. E, chair of hearing panel presides over the hearing. F, no new witnesses or evidence other than what was submitted may be introduced at the hearing unless hearing panel determines complaint is discovered after the filing. G, prior to commencement of the hearing, either party may ask for a continuance. H, only one continuance of the hearing shall be granted to each party. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures, I. Complain and goes first and shall have burden of proof by preponderance of the evidence. J. Public official proceeds second and may make an opening and closing statement. Examine witnesses, evidence, and introduce rebuttal evidence. K. Neither party shall be allowed to examine the other party, however may it cross-examine. L, hearing panel may ask questions of the parties or witnesses. M, parties may present rebuttal evidence. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures. N, upon conclusion of the evidence presented, the chair shall facilitate verbal deliberations by the hearing panel. O, all findings shall be approved by majority of vote and panel shall direct city clerk to prepare statement of findings or designate members to prepare statement of findings to include recommendations for sanctions. Panel must approve within 30 city business days. p within five city business days of approval city clerk notifies all parties in writing of the decision of the hearing panel and the appeal procedures next slide continuous of hearing procedures q no member of the board of ethics who is to complain it of subject of the complaint shall sit as a member of the hearing panel or neither the complainant, not the public official against whom the complaint is filed, shall be represented at the hearing by an attorney. Although an attorney may be present and consulted at the hearing, the attorney shall not address the hearing panel nor participate in any aspect of the hearing. Next slide. Going into appeal procedures, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.090A, a decision of the hearing panel may be appealed to the city council. Appeals of pre-conference decisions may only be appealed if the appeal is based upon a clear procedural error. Appeals are filed in writing with the city clerk within 10 city business days following the date of the decision. Appellate must specify the clear procedural error or abuse of discretion. The city clerk shall place the appeal on a city council agenda within 30 city business days. Next slide. Continuous of appeal procedures. pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.090. B, if there is no appeal, the decision of the hearing panel becomes final and there shall be no further right to appeal. The city council would then determine if sanctions should be imposed, if applicable. C, the record on appeal shall consist of a transcript of the hearing, the complaint and the tangible evidence and testimony considered at the hearing. No new evidence will be received nor considered by the city council at the hearing on the appeal. Next slide. Continuous of appeal procedures. D, city council shall review record. If no finding of clear procedural error or abuse of discretion, the city council shall adopt findings of the hearing panel. there is a finding by the City Council of a clear procedural error or abuse of discretion by the hearing panel that finding shall be clearly stated and the matter shall be referred back to the hearing panel for rehearing to consider the matter in light of the findings of the City Council on appeal II if the City Council finds a violation was committed the City Council may determine sanctions city clerk notifies all parties and there is no further right to appeal next slide Continuous appeal procedures. F, city clerk shall notify all parties of the findings and determine of the city council on the appeal. The findings and determination are final and there is no further right to appeal. G, complaints and replies, supporting documentation, transcripts of hearing, notice of appeal and decisions thereon shall be public record and retained by the city clerk for a period of two years. H, no public official who is a party to the complaint shall participate in the appeal of a decision of the hearing panel and must recuse themselves from the participation. Next slide. Going into enforcement and sanctions. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100, Upon a finding by a majority of the City Council that any public official Violated any provision of the prohibited conduct or no appeal has been made to the Board of Ethics Finding such violation the City Council may impose any of the following sanctions next slide Going into enforcement and sanctions continuance pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100A, elected officials. Number one, public apology by official complainant. Two, recommendation for training. Three, removal from regional committees. Four, removal from mayor pro tem rotation. Five, public censure. Or six, restrict from traveling to attend meetings, conferences outside city limits. Next slide. Continuous enforcement and sanctions pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100. B, appointed officials of boards, commissions, and committees. One, public apology by the official to the complainant. Two, recommendation for training. Three, referral to the board, commission, or committee of which the appointed official is a member for public censure. Four, public censure by the mayor and city council. Five, removal of chair, removal from chair, vice chair, or other leadership positions. Or six, removal from office as provided by city charter. Next slide. Going into monitoring and oversight. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.110A, prior to end of July of each year, the boards and commissions shall agendize and discuss at regular meeting the effectiveness of this code of ethics and conduct code. and make recommendations to the Board of Ethics for consideration. B. Prior to end of August, Board of Ethics shall discuss effectiveness of this code, consider Board Commission recommendations, and submit recommendations for amendments to the Governmental Process Committee, BGPC, for consideration. C, prior to end of September, the GPC shall discuss effectiveness of this code and instruct the city manager to present a report to the city council for its discussion and consideration. D, prior to the end of the year, the chair of the GPC shall present a report to the city council at a public hearing in the evening The city council shall make an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of this code and consider those recommendations of the BOE, boards, commissions, and GPC. The city council shall direct city attorney to make any changes to the code it deems appropriate. Next slide. As you can see, we now have ended this presentation for the annual Code of Ethics and Conduct Annual Review. At this point, I would like to state the recommendation, Chair, that the Board of Public Utilities discuss and review the Code of Ethics and Conduct for its effectiveness forward any recommendations revisions to the Board of Ethics for consideration once more my name is Tola Perkins representing the Port of the Board of Ethics tonight to provide you with this annual presentation Thank You chair and board members thank you very much do we have any public comment okay any comments or questions from the board

Tom?

Thank you, and thank you for your service on that board. It can't be easy. Would you go back to the slide, the list of prohibited, there was one that talked, well, yeah, if you could go back to it. Are you going to put it on the PowerPoint?

Yes, we're going to go back to that slide. You're speaking of all the prohibited conduct, correct?

Well, yes. The one that was something about putting signs or whatever on company city-owned vehicles and equipment.

Please go back to slide, yes, 11. Thank you, team. So prohibited conduct, are you mentioning for the vehicles, correct? That is on slide 11. Letter H, display of campaign materials in or on city vehicles?

Yes. is it restricted to for example there are during a campaign season you see campaign signs put on all kinds of places including city property like power poles street light poles etc um this strict is strictly that that is isn't included in the code of ethics

So what I would like to advise you that all the prohibited conduct was in your package for municipal code 2.78.060, and then I will go to the city attorney. Would you like to chime in on related to what type of display of materials that they can display on the vehicles under 2.78.060?

Could you put that section back up on the presentation?

Yes. Please go back to slide 10, please, team.

So, Board Member Evans, what is your question from this slide?

Well, it talks about putting signs on company cars.

On this slide, is that on a different slide?

It's on page 11, slide 11. However, this is for the use of your official title or position for personal gain, personal gain. So then let's go back to slide 11, the city attorney. And the board member, Evans, is speaking of letter H, display of campaign materials in or on city vehicles, which is prohibited.

Right, okay, so a person running, a person who's in a city council member who is running for re-election, can they put their signs on their own, on a personal vehicle for which they get reimbursed by the city? Is that considered a company vehicle or a personal vehicle you're just getting reimbursed?

So don't hold me to this because I haven't researched it. But I would say if they're getting a car allowance and they use that allowance towards their personal vehicle, my presumption, which is not solid legal advice at this point, is it's probably not prohibited. If the city provides them with a car, which is identifiable as a city vehicle, yeah, it would be prohibited.

I've never seen anybody do it. But as far as posting... campaign signs on city property, that's outside the jurisdiction, if you will, of the code of ethics. These are all very narrowly defined and there's no, I'm taking it to an area that doesn't apply, correct?

Possibly. The code of ethics, the last time I looked at it, prohibited illegal conduct in general, right? OK. And I don't know if it still does. I know that. Our sign code addresses where campaign materials can and cannot go. So I suppose if there was some violation of the sign code, somebody, it used to be that they could bring that before the code of ethics, but I don't know if that's the kind of thing the code of ethics still looks at anymore. I'd have to look into that. I'm flat-footed at this point.

Okay. Because part of it is that when you talk about recommendations, this process is extremely time consuming. And if you have a problem, There's no time to fix it, particularly this campaign sign thing, which is a pet peeve of mine, to be perfectly honest with you. The campaign period is three months or so. You file a complaint, this process is going to take six, eight, nine months to go through. And by the time you get to the decision, the remedy of what the problem was is impossible. So just in terms of suggestions, is there a way where there's an egregious issue to accelerate the process so that the problem can be fixed and not let time essentially reward the person for non-performance?

And on behalf of the Board of Ethics, Board Member Evans, I would like to state to you, if we go back to the last slide at the end of this presentation, we openly advise that you send all your recommendations to the Board of Ethics for us to review. You can also use your team lead, Diana. She can get that information over to the Board of Ethics. Again, we encourage recommendations and thoughts and considerations so that we can review those as a Board of Ethics.

Okay, well, I don't know how we do that.

To follow up on my prior comment on whether or not you could use your car, which you're getting an allowance for, it just occurred to me that you would be well advised not to do that during working hours, to and from work, while doing any work. I mean, there's another minefield. If I was an elected, it's the last thing I would do, but if everybody did what they were supposed to, I wouldn't have a job, right?

Mm-hmm.

OK, well, that's my comment, that if there's a big problem, this won't work to solve the problem, given the time that you, the structure of getting to a decision. If there's something egregious, it seems to me that there ought to be a way, and there's a feedback to the commission to make the decision. that there ought to be a way to accelerate it to solve the problem that otherwise the time is going to go by and it becomes moot.

And we appreciate this comment that you have and recommendation. And once again, we openly recommend that you send those thoughts and recommendations to Diana, and she can get that over to the Board of Ethics, and we will review those. And that's the purpose of this annual review also, is so that you can read and review and give us your thoughts and recommendations. And thank you, Board Member Evans. Chair, anyone else?

Yeah, Rebecca?

A couple of things. One, structurally, when these come to us in a packet, we're not likely to review them by any stretch of depth. So if there is true desire to have this utility board look at them, they need to come to us in an email packet through the clerk's office, not just with our packet. So if there's feedback that's wanted in the future that would be a separate recommendation if these are going to all of them Because it's not really fair to toilet. Thank you for coming out to spend time going through these because we're not going to give meaningful feedback to her here that she's going to take back it's not like a staff report like we have to direct it through the clerk's office and or through a different public comment channel um but on item h um i think one that item specifically one tom to your point um i think it would be interesting to change that from city vehicles to city property um and so if there's a way that i can put that through um because that would eliminate some of the issue But the other point that you're highlighting is that's actually a code violation and so code should be going out promptly to eliminate the issue that then therefore would not become a Board of Ethics issue because they will have taken down off of city property before it became said violation or they take pictures and then it goes through what is a bureaucratic slow review process to make sure that people are not being Unduly harmed. I don't know what the right word is accused But code should be able to get out and address the promptness of said violation, I guess part of the question and maybe Anthony this isn't the right place, but if there and toilet maybe knows somewhere in the document that If an elected official or appointed was to knowingly violate said code, is that a standalone ethics violation or no? No.

You know, I don't remember. Before I weigh in on something like this, I'd have to review the ethics code. And it was substantively amended a year or two ago. And as I recall, it no longer became a vehicle to not every and any violation was considered fodder for the ethics committee.

Sure.

So I really couldn't tell you. I'd have to look at that.

Because you're right. There was a major overhaul.

There was.

A couple of years ago.

And it kind of cleaned up what everybody could sweep in to a complaint. And off the top of my head, I don't remember exactly what those amendments are, and I don't want to misspeak on it.

That's fine. And forgive me, somewhere in the presentation, you probably said this. When are comments, when is the BOE expecting to have feedback by?

So the presentation was given tonight. So we appreciate it if we can get it as soon as you can at your next, because you have a whole other month before you meet again. So let's, I'll say Diana, if you can start reaching out to the board here and ask them particularly what are their recommendations, then Diana can get those over to the Board of Ethics. So that's what my recommendation would be on behalf of Board of Ethics.

Okay. I saw, like, August 9th was in there somewhere. Is that when you're planning to go to council, or do I make that date up? Let's go back to those dates.

Maybe I made the date up. Let me ask you, Diana. Oh, no. I believe board member Goldware, you mentioned that you didn't get the package of the code of ethics. No, no, no, no, no. I got it.

But when it comes to us as the board packet, as opposed to a separate like, hey, you're invited to this event. You should RSVP by a certain date. We're going to pay deeper attention to it. And the recommendation was to review and comment. So we've tried to do it up here before on a couple of different things. And it doesn't always go well.

All right, just wanted to make sure that you all board members did receive the packet. Oh, for sure I got the packet. Okay, thank you. For sure, for sure. Wanted to make sure I got that. Thank you. And then let's go to slide, one second. Please be patient. Let's try slide 20, 21. Are we saying the public official shall file a written reply no later than 20?

No, I'm sorry. It's okay. You don't have a schedule permitted, so we can get back to you in the next 30 to 60 days, and we'll coordinate any comments to and through Diana. Is that fair? Okay. That's all I had. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Board Member Goldware. Chair, is there any other additional questions?

I have none. Any other comments? Okay, thank you. There's nothing to vote on, right? Is it receiving file or something? Okay. Do I hear a motion? Oh, okay. Okay, we don't have to do that. All right. Thank you very much.

All right. Once more, my name is Tola Perkins, representing the Board of Ethics, and thank you for your time for your annual review. Thank you, team.

Thank you. OK, we will now open public comment for item number 10.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star 9. When called to speak, press star 6 to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

And we call for a presentation of item number 10 by Jennifer Tavaglione.

Yes, good evening.

Good evening, Chair Siena and members of the board. My name is Jennifer Tavolone. I am the manager of our technology integration group under Scott Lesch. And I'm happy to be here tonight presenting to you on our PI software agreement. On May, well, I'm not going to, sorry. In 2016, the Board of Public Utilities approved a five-year agreement with OSIsoft for a software called Pi for just over $2 million. Internally, we refer to this as our operational data management system, similar to how we would refer to an asset management system or a customer information system. And Pi is the software we use for that. In 2021, the board approved a five-year extension for $1.2 million. Since then, OSIsoft was acquired by Aviva. Therefore, the agreement with OSIsoft will be terminated, and we're seeking approval for a new agreement with Aviva. This is a visual representation of our PI System, which acts as a data hub to manage our operational data. It integrates data from disparate systems and transforms it into meaningful information that can be displayed through visual dashboards and reports. PI collects, archives, and distributes real-time information from hundreds of sensors in the field from field devices, our three SCADA systems, and all the systems that we use to manage operational data. This visual shows nine of our integrations. We have over 40 at this time. And there are numerous benefits to our PI System. It's been a game changer for us, and it's being used in every department throughout the utility. We've moved away from gathering information, analyzing and presenting it on spreadsheets into this robust tool that allows operators, engineers, and our staff to visualize and more easily act on information. And these are just some of the examples of the benefits. Overall, it's greatly improved our operational efficiencies and significantly reduced staff time for non-essential, inefficient tasks such as data entry and searching for data for multiple systems. It increases our visibility into systems and assets. It improves our ability to monitor and track performance. It gives us better ability to analyze and make data-driven decisions. We have automated many workflows through our PI System, and it gives us the ability to see real or near real-time data, allowing us to act more quickly and reduce the risk of potential equipment failure. Pi also helps us better manage our assets and workforce. We use this data to make more proactive decisions, to reduce costs. It gives us better historical data and the ability to analyze trends for future system planning. And it improves our ability to monitor market activity to optimize our bidding strategies. It also allows us to more quickly and efficiently pull data if we were to have an audit. For the return on investment, we consistently realized measurable benefits, financial benefits from using the PI System. We were here in 2019 and presented a staff report showing our ROI of nearly $673,000 savings per year. And then we came back in June of 2021 and presented additional ROI from May 2019 through December 2020 in the amount of $640,000, which totaled over $1.3 million a year, substantially exceeding the annual cost of the software. These calculations are based on quantitative factors, mainly reduction in staff time. There are other quantitative factors that are not specifically captured in the ROI, like reduced truck roll, reduced operating costs, and reduced overtime. There are also numerous qualitative benefits, not including the ROI because they're harder to calculate as tangible savings, but things like avoided equipment failure, avoided costs for lawsuits, reduced length of system outages, fewer customer complaints, and improved system planning. Since the 2021 board report, we have continued to expand the use of PI. We just don't track the ROI to that extent as it requires staff time, but we do still find measurable savings continuing to be realized. This is one example of a PI dashboard used by our water operations group. It incorporated data from multiple systems, presents it visually. And in the past, we could not do this using Excel and the software that collects the data. Another good example is our water blend dashboard pulls data from our water SCADA system and also a System we use called water tracks and it provides real-time data to our water quality team There are over 500 calculations that run in the background for that dashboard and it was that was previously done in Excel They had to manually gather data from multiple systems put it into Excel calculate the data and then they would see if there was a water quality issue a day or two later and which now they find out immediately with real-time data through Pi. It sends alerts, and so they can act on the information immediately. The new agreement replaces the legacy OSI agreement with the attached Aviva terms and conditions and order form, and under the new agreement, our server will be updated to the latest version, which has additional cybersecurity benefits. This is an outline of the five-year agreement for a total of $1.6 million through August 14, 2031. And we are asking that the board authorize the termination of the existing agreement that was effective in 2021, approve the new five-year agreement with Aviva for software licensing support and services through August 14, 2031 in the amount of $1,662,803, and authorize the city manager to approve or sign the agreement with Aviva. I'd be happy to answer questions following public comment.

Thank you very much. Do we have any public comment? Okay, no callers any. Oh, okay. Send the caller through.

okay so having no public comment uh any questions or comments from the board tom yeah thank you um was this bid in uh what 2015 was when you were initially engaged in it was put out for a competitive bid yes it was an rfp we had three responders um at what point would you bid it again

Generally, we keep an eye on software availability, but it's sort of like building a house for $5 million and then 10 years later tearing it down and building a new one. It's going to be more cost effective to continue utilizing the software that we have in place that we've spent significant funds to set up. There's been a lot of staff time and integrations. So at some point, if we don't find that it's useful or it is cost prohibitive, if the costs go up significantly. But generally, if there's not an issue, it's more cost effective to continue with an existing software.

Well, I hear that, but every five years you roll this thing forward, pretty soon what's the point of, at what point do we consider competition and let others perhaps have a shot at providing the service? But obviously it's too late to do that now. I was trying to go back to the benefits The one was improving bidding, and I can't find it, but could you explain how this system improves the ability to put out, to do bidding? You know which one I'm talking about?

Yes, that's Scott's area of expertise, so I'll let him answer.

While Scott's coming up, the caller did have their hand raised, Diana, so we need to revisit that. Go ahead.

Good evening, Board. Scott Lesch, AGM Power Resources. That is for day-ahead bidding for the real-time marketing team in market operations.

For power purchasing? Yes. Okay, because it's not clear here. It's like you're going to go out to bid for buying some pipe or something.

No, no, that's it, yeah. Apologies. It's for market operations.

OK. And what I would have, one example you used about the benefits that were not included were, for example, reduction of overtime. To me, that would be far more meaningful to know because that's a hard dollar savings. Most of what I hear you say and you describe in your ROI are all soft dollar savings.

Our ROI is 100% based on staff time reductions, staff time savings. We just didn't calculate. We met a certain threshold of our benefit, and we just did not spend additional time to calculate additional, because it takes us a lot of time to do that, and that takes staff away from other work. But all of the savings that we realized is from reduction in time that staff spends doing inefficient, redundant tasks. and allows them to utilize their time on reallocating those staffs to other more important tasks, not data entry and searching for data.

Okay. Well, I guess we have a difference of opinion about savings. Because to me, savings you should be able to capture and make a choice. I don't want to spend that money anymore. It's going to go into reserves, which reduction of overtime is one of those. saying, well, we're going to be more efficient. And I'm not saying don't be more efficient, but you save a little bit of time here, a little bit of time there, a little bit of time there, you'll never capture that time.

Board Member Evans, if I can comment on that. The utility has not increased its number of employees in over a decade.

Okay, good. See, that's the kind of thing that ought to be in these reports. Here's a direct benefit from doing what appears to be your dashboard example is a good one, to be able to respond particularly with quality sooner. Well, there's a tangible benefit there. But again, the idea of you're not increasing staff because you're able to be more efficient. You're reducing overtime. being able to schedule work on straight time versus overtime, all that kind of stuff, to me, would make this far more meaningful to me and confident that, in fact, we're getting the benefits that you're describing.

Yeah, duly noted.

I'm going to interrupt because apparently there was a public comment, so apologies. But okay, so can you please send the caller through?

Hi, good evening. Melissa McKee. I have a couple comments on this particular item. The first is there have been significant changes in technology. Since 2024, I think we're all experiencing it with AI, and it is a kind of a paradigm shift from where we were between 2019 and 2024. I am concerned, I don't know, but it's a question for Scott. Is a five-year contract too long in light of the fact that the city may be adopting different software programs to integrate AI that we would want to coordinate with, and five years I'm, you know, when they start looking at the light speed with which this is really materially changed work, I assume that you've considered those issues. I share Mr. Evans' concern that we're just turning over a five-year contract, but I can appreciate why a software change would be very challenging for the utility. So again, two years might be more sensible than five years at this point in time. Secondly, as a consumer of RPU, when I'm accessing bills online, there's virtually no information other than the current monthly bill. You can't even pull down older bills. And if you can, somebody should call me and let me know how to do it. There's no way, unlike other water bills I get in different cities where I have property, where it'll show you year to year changes, graphs over time. Sure, for those of us who get the gas bill, there's just a lot more meaningful information in terms of usage, which is not available to customers. And finally, I just wanna say, given AI and given what it can do with graphics and the like, the fact we have seven full-time marketing people, yeah, great. I'm glad that RPU hasn't hired more employees, but considering the city's budget and the like, and the fact that we are gonna have more efficiencies, I just really want to make sure we have robust technical systems that perhaps can do some of those mid-level jobs so that we don't have all-in employee salary benefits, et cetera, if it can be avoided. And I know that's probably a very unpopular comment to make, but it's going to be reality in every single aspect of our lives. Thank you very much. Good night.

Thank you. OK, we will return to board comments. Tom, did you have anything else? No? Any other comments? Rebecca?

I love the analogy of building a multimillion dollar house and then starting over. I don't disagree with Ms. McGee's comments or some of the things that Tom said, having said that. I also know there's not a lot of information on the bill. And at some point, we just got to catch up. And we don't have the parts of the technological back end. I think it's immense, the visual options that your team now has available, because I know eventually that will translate into what goes out to customers in some form or fashion, because the technology is going to keep getting better. And they will continue to fit together. To the comment that was made about not hiring, that was over a significant period of time over multiple iterations of multiple of these kinds of projects. I think it is well placed. I think it's, once again, the utility doing a good job of the work and not necessarily promoting and patting themselves on the back. And part of that is because it doesn't sit with you all anymore. I don't remember who it was. It might have been David Crone made the comment about awards. And that's in the same space. The work that gets done behind the scenes that nobody sees that doesn't require us to hire 10 years worth of employees that would have happened. Those things are meaningful in terms of how you promote and share the story and continue to have this logo um propagated because i did also notice that most slash all of the presentations tonight were on the council of template and format and those things matter when people get their utility bill because they need to know who they're paying so i appreciate the work i continue to hope that more and more technologies and widgets go into the system because it makes the system highly strong and reliable and i appreciate it every day when i turn that on thank you

I do have a follow-up.

OK, go ahead, Tom.

Suppose we said no. What would happen?

We would have a lot of issues. We rely a lot on the efficiencies that come through the system for our operational data specifically. So I don't know, Scott, can you answer that?

Yeah, you're talking about foundational software here that it's very similar to our power settlement software that we use to schedule all of our energy into the KISO and do our daily bidding, or my production cost modeling software that forecasts out a quarter billion dollar budget each year, power supply. These things take a long time to integrate. When you do integrate them, you spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours of staff time making them work across your system. Quite frankly, I'm disappointed that this has to come back to board every five years. I think that it was done under an open, full-blown RFP process back when it was chosen. Their prices are competitive with industry, and we've been extremely pleased with the service and the quality of the product. So if we get to a point where that product no longer meets our needs, no longer provides us the service we expect, no longer achieves our goals, then it's appropriate to go out and do another RFP. Now there's a rule now in the city that there are no more evergreen contracts. That's fine. That's what we abide by. I'm sure you have a different opinion than I do on whether or not what the value of an evergreen contract is. However, Everything with this software is proving to work out very well. We've integrated over 40 of our systems. We now finally, I have the ability to reach out from SAS, grab SCADA information on the same day, get real-time information flowing in, write code that was never possible before. These are the benefits. We've tried to show a little bit of it in prior reports. I apologize if it's not a good enough job at showing the true benefits of the software. However, it is foundational software. And if you said no, then it would all shut down. and everything we're basing all of our daily reports on, all of our monitoring reports on, all of our bidding strategies on, would all stop.

If I may add, I would liken it to not receiving email anymore as far as what we use it for. So just the daily communications that is foundational to what we do as a utility. There's also a compliance aspect to it because of the automation within the software and the dashboard that Jennifer showed earlier. It's showing minute-by-minute compliance data that if we don't meet our compliance requirements, we're looking at fines. and potential notifications to the public, which could lose some of our confidence in what we do in relying on safe water and electric service.

Can I also add to that? We do have fallback plans, right? There are times where IT is doing software upgrades, and we have to take a pause. Or when they're doing their patching, the software doesn't come back up, and we have to take a minute to reconnect some things. And our different departments have to fall back to the manual processes. And it's an immediate panic because the things that take them seconds to do become hours and days again. And they don't have access to information. They have it. I mean, you have to because obviously software doesn't always work. Things don't always come back up. But it is a huge, huge, huge issue. And we don't have the resources to deal with things inefficiently like we used to.

Okay, well, I appreciate that, because I think that what your description gave life to the question, whereas your staff report, you know, I know gets structured into what they have to say, but I would just encourage that thinking about the staff report, thinking about the presentation, you need to give life to this stuff. Well, I'll stop there. Thank you. Okay, Christian.

Thank you. Just from a staff perspective, I think it's important to recognize that any true training to a new system is extremely expensive. So say we were to say no to this, it would take probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrain staff on a new system. The RFP process takes a significant amount of time to do so. But based on my conversation with staff, the fact that they're liking the system, that it's functional, that it's working great on their end, I think lends itself to say there is no need to go out to an RFP because it's working. It's working wonders, it seems like to me. I understand where you're coming from, but to rock the boat in a way that would cause major disruptions to not only staff, but the reporting processes is significant. I'm looking at $640,000 in return on investment. I mean, that's not in terms of monetary, but in terms of staff time is significant as well, because now they're using those resources to focus on other issues that they need to be focusing on. So with that said, I think it's important to think through that. I mean, RFP for every five years, I think is actually quite short for a system this complex from a SAP perspective. So I just wanted to note that, put that on the record. Secondly, is there flexibility for this system to include advances in AI in the next year or two?

Yes, we have started exploring advances in AI. And I just will also point out that in the last 12 years, we've kept an eye, obviously, on the industry and where technology is moving and other software tools. And we have not seen, we go to conferences, we're out in the industry, and we have not seen anything that comes anywhere close to this software or does anything near what this software does. So they really don't have any competitors. viable competitors. But yes, they are looking at ways to incorporate AI, and we're continuing to stay up to date on that. You know, it could change our contract terms in the future, and even within the five years, if we add additional functionality, that may be something we come back for. But we are definitely keeping an eye on, and they are cutting edge in their realm.

If there is an advancement, say in the next year or two, that staff designates this as something to bring forward, can we have an amendment to this body to do so?

Yes, and that would apply, too, to anything. So say we get a new software in one of our groups that needs to be integrated, Aviva doesn't generally charge us for that on their side. Sometimes they may have to if they have to develop an integration. But anything that we decide that we need additional in the five years, we would just come back with an amendment after being vetted by staff and determining the benefit.

Great. Thank you.

OK, thank you. I will say, I thought you made a compelling case that the cost savings were there. I, too, had an initial concern about how captive are we, right? Could they just ratchet up the prices? But they're not ratcheting up the prices. Very similar price in this five year to the previous year. So it's not like they've set yet. So given the initial upfront investment, putting all this together yeah I think it's very reasonable for another five years so that's all the comment I have I'd like to move okay any second okay thank you Sean please roll call motion passes unanimously thank you thank you thank you Okay, so do we have any board or staff communications to report on item number 11?

Okay.

Are there any items for future consideration for item number 12? What? Thump.

Not so much a future consideration, but, David, I couldn't find the report that talked about your schedule on when things are going to come back that have already been defined.

That wasn't in this – well, if it was, I – No, it's on the – it'll be on the agenda for the 13th, for July 13th. So that report will be in the GM's report in your packet.

Okay. So within that, does that include the public benefit, a basket of public benefit activities that were approved by the council and we talked about here? So you'll put those on the schedule when we see it again?

So those items would be brought back individually as programs. As far as the priority of the item that is being brought forward, that's something that we could discuss. I will discuss that with staff. I know Tracy already has a bucket of items that are going to come back. But we could add those to the list as far as scheduling on a timeline, how we expect items to come back to the board as far as those programs are going to be considered. And then I will work with the chair and vice chair to prioritize those items.

OK, because I think one of them's already on. You have that battery item ready to go, right?

Right, right. So that'll be the first one. It's kind of a low-hanging fruit, and it's one that's one of the more popular ones anyways. So that one will be coming back to the board.

But I think the other one that would be worthwhile is a discussion about the mobile home part. direct install or whatever. Because that one's almost a standalone versus some of the other ones that are a little less specific, I guess.

Sure.

So I guess I would just, well, however you want to do it. But I think they ought to be included somehow in that schedule.

Absolutely.

I have a follow-up question. I, I also didn't see it, you know, just looking now and, uh, are we not putting that on every agenda or not listing that every time?

No, it comes out about monthly.

Okay.

Okay.

Just as a point of clarification for item number nine, the code of ethics review, if there are any recommendations, they must be approved by the board and voted on. So we just did a receiving file with no recommendations. So if you want, I can bring the item back.

I want to make a point of order. We talked about this at least a year ago. I don't know if it was Board of Ethics or if it was a different group. And I feel like it was Pete that brought up that us reaching consensus on what our nuance changes might take more time than we want to provide from the dais and that as individuals we could do that. I'm happy to do it either way. If we as a board want to take a collective vote, I don't know that it gets any more weight with the Board of Ethics. Then individual comment, but I also don't know that they're overrun with comments But it would require that we as a collective go through the Board of Ethics document and then come prepared for a discussion Which clearly was not the case tonight. I Mean Okay, so we as individuals could submit comments that could go under consideration. It's only if we're taking action as a body. I

I didn't hear any compelling case that maybe as a board we really want to emphasize something collectively, some change or something.

The only thing that I would point out is that Tom's point was about political campaign signage, primarily as it relates to utility resources. Usually you don't see them on the boxes, but usually they're somehow affixed to a pole, whether it be an electric pole or a light pole. So if we as a body, because that would be the primary function, And I would be happy if we as collective wanted to do it make the recommendation that it's a city property a new line be added that it's a city property as opposed to just city vehicles to capture all of it because we are we as a Entity are likely to be the place where it's going to go assuming. It's not on some kind of fencing So that that's a point to the collective I'm happy to make the motion if we want to

Yeah, I'll second that if we can do it.

Yeah, we've already... We took an action, though.

We can go back to the item.

We didn't take an action, and we can go back to them.

Right, so we will bring this item back, and then you can discuss at that point and make recommendations.

Okay, so at the July 13th meeting, it can still make that agenda? Yeah. Yes. Thank you.

And with that, it would be nice to know if, you know, is this already a violation, right? I mean, if it's already on city property and it's not supposed to be on city property and that's already in the code of ethics, but whatever, part of city code, it would be nice to know if it's already a violation anyway, right?

Well, that would be a violation of code versus then this is like a next step that would only be eligible in theory to elected or appointed officials. Where Joe Q. Citizen on the other side would not have that same, they would just be hit with a code violation. Right.

Right. Okay. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so I think we're good. All right, we'll now turn the time over to David Garcia for the general manager's report.

Thank you, Chair. The general manager reports are in your packet. I have nothing further to report out this evening.

Okay, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.