HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GUS_05.20.2003
Minutes of the Meeting of the
Georgetown Utility System Advisory Board
and the Governing Body of the
City of Georgetown, Texas
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
The Georgetown Utility System Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Tuesday , May
20, 2003.
Board Members Present:
Ken Evans, Doug Smith, Jack Hunnicutt, John Gavurnik, Stanley Bland, Larry Brown, Kendall Young
Board Members Absent:
NONE
Staff Present:
Jim Briggs, Paul Brandenburg, Glenn Dishong, Joe Lara, Terri Calhoun, John Aldridge, Joel Weaver,
Mike Stasny, Laura Wilkins, Mike Mayben
Others Present: Kerry Russell, Legal Counsel, OMI, Severn-Trent, Brazos River Authority, Mike
Cunningham – Cunningham Construction, John Kirby – Council Member
Minutes
Regular Meeting
Meeting called to order at 2:00 by Ken Evans
Meetings will be 3rd Tuesday of each month. Schedule to follow. Mr. Smith will not be at June
meeting.
A. Presentation of the Water and Wastewater Plant Operating Proposals by Operations
Management International (OMI), Severn Trent, and Brazos River Authority (BRA).
2:20 p.m. Severn Trent
Presentation for Severn-Trent, Vice-President, Joseph Graziose (New York).
Stop him and ask any questions the Board may have. Graziose introduced Severn-Trent staff: Gary
Mechler, Scott Manuel (not present), Skip Ferris, Scott Jones, Dave Gentry, Bill Fry, Joe Graziose, and
explained staff functions. Introduced th e company and their philosophy. Outlined the services provided
by Severn-Trent & location of various functions. Explained how the company operates its business -
mainly a water company (some equipment). Mission statement and Values statement. People are their
assets.
Gary Mechler – 250 of 1000 operations staff are in Texas. They have been in Texas for 20 years. Active
in the community. Festivals, schools, scholarships, etc. Have been in Chickasha, OK for 22 years.
Approach to managing projects: Planning, Quality and Control, Operational Activities, Human Resources,
External Relations. Scott Manuel would be Project Manager (“A” licensed). System overview – noticed
several items need to be addressed (maintenance), Analytical Trailer, Water Wastewater Plant
Operations. Focus on the people – employment offered to employees currently in these positions.
Question from Smith - How long will transition manager to stay on the job? Answered - as long as it
takes, but probably around 6 months. Severn-Trent lives by their values statement. “Report everything
no mater how small” Internal auditors to audit all facilities. Question from Gavurnik – How many
contracts do they have in Texas for the 250 employees? Answered - approximately 100 contracts (varied
– not all water operations contracts). Question from Young – Of the things they noticed needed to be
changed – will any of those items improve operations? Answered absolutely. Any major Plants looked
like they were running high solids. Smith – when you run into problems and call in backup staff – do you
report that you are calling in the back-up staff? When things happen – they keep the client informed as
the back-up staff are part of the overhead costs. Young – have you paid fines before? Sometimes they
have to “step up to the plate and worry about the cost later or just “step out of the game”. Severn-Trent
has always “stepped up to the plate”. Briggs – of the plants they operate in Texas – how many are less
than 100,000 population? Answer – only Pasadena is over 100,000. Briggs - When mission statement
was on the screen it said “solutions driven” – please explain. Answer - Bring in all aspects of the
company. Focus on the best solution for the client regardless of whether or not is it best financially for
Severn-Trent. What is best for the client in the long-run ends up being best for Severn-Trent. Briggs -
How do you respond to threat levels for Home-Land Security? Answer - Banding at remote plants and
bands are checked routinely and if broken alert appropriate person. Crisis management program – teach
staff what to do when security breach (broken band). Question about reuse from Dishong. Question
about time frames on awards – list recent awards and what they were for. Answer most recently – TCEQ
award for Loop 360 (five years compliance).
3:00 Brazos River Authority
John Baker – General Manager, David Collinsworth, Curtis Smalley, Jim Forte, John Hawes.
BRA was behind in Williamson County’s needs. Board has made major changes at BRA to
accommodate these needs. San Gabriel watershed evaluation along with Alliance. Interested in our
project and it will compliment their other efforts in the area and benefit the community in the long -run.
Have recently rented office space to have a presence in Georgetown (whether selected or not for
operations contract) to better meet the community’s needs. Made intensive effort to evaluate
Georgetown’s plants.
Curtis Smalley – Transition is important to BRA as it is to the City. Currently work with OMI in Temple
and interface with them on a regular basis. Transitioned from OMI to BRA at Brushy Creek a few years
back. Tommy Dickens (“A” licensed) for project manager. Staffing available 24-7 if necessary. In-house
training –haz-mat certified staff. City employees are invited for all training provided by BRA. Not asked in
the RFP to evaluate energy costs – they would be willing to look at ways to save energy. Opportunity to
regionalize; reuse bio-solids; reuse effluent, etc. Hand-me down vehicles – will provide their own
vehicles and return the City’s vehicles to the fleet. They do their own maintenance labor/rehab. Question
from Evans about how the City will see the returns they are referring to. Answered by Briggs – if
maintenance funds are not used – then they are rolled back into the fund or applied to next year’s
contract. Operational culture – compliance – they want to do better than “meet compliance”. BRA works
hard to be good neighbors. Expertise – 30 years of operations experience in Texas. Longevity – 20% of
staff have been with BRA for 20 years – over half have been with BRA for over 10 years – 29 staff
members within 30 minutes of Georgetown. Buying power for chemicals. Standardization for budgeting.
Tradition of Excellence. Twenty-three awards in Texas. Encourage employees to be involved in water
organizations.
David Collinsworth – State agency (no bonuses, etc.) - Community work –curriculum for 4th grade
students; book covers for students about conservation; volunteer water quality monitoring; compliance
history.
Question from Evans about Alliance – would it create a conflict of interest if BRA is chosen. Answered –
no. Are they a state agency or private funded by the State. Answer – Quasi-State entity – but under
most of the requirements of a State agency. Board appointed by the Governor. Hunnicutt – regarding
the Regional initiative - what is the relationship of the services unit to the portion of BRA that is involved in
the initiative? Answer – BRA manages water supplies but have begun to realize that they should learn to
treat water and wastewater - this will protect the water quality and enable them to better manage the
water supply. More cost effective and higher quality will result. Gavurnik – power savings – in their
evaluation did they notice a power savings issue. Answer – no they did not – but this is a part of their
operations. Question from Young regarding biosolids. Answer - Biosolids reuse in Belton – don’t have
biosolids program other places. Round Rock biosolids go to the landfill. Would like to do a composting
site in Williamson County – but so far not cost effective. Young – if they are the operators and have a
failure – since they are a state agency how does that affect us/them. Answer does not affect the fact that
they must be in compliance and pay fines just like anyone else. Young – how many fines has BRA had?
Answer – BRA has not paid any fines for violations or non-compliance (almost – but not yet.). Young –
Security – what are you prepared to do to make for higher security. Answer – concentric circle approach
– identify vulnerable areas and find a way to protect those areas. Briggs – Composition of Boards etc. –
legislation to regulate Board composition, etc. How concerned should we be about these operations as
relates to the legislature. Answer – knows there is cynicism about River Authorities, etc. Does not believe
that this contract would be a problem as far as what Jim asked. Briggs – where will the project manager
be – Answered - Belton – but with Operations supervisor in Georgetown. Question from Glenn about in -
house training - does this include training on the distribution system and collection systems? More into
treatment than collection/distribution – but are currently building lesson plans, etc. for this. – but would
be able to provide the level of training we need in the future. Dishong – explain a little about the Industrial
Pre-treatment. RFP required that they evaluate the City’s ordinance – it is a good ordinance - but they
believe that because Georgetown has exceeded the 5 MGD – that at some point the TCEQ will ask
Georgetown to invest in an Industrial Pre-treatment Program.
3:40 Operations Management International
Shirley Ross, Randy Massie – Project Manager, Don Evans - President OMI/CH2Mhill
City’s plant operations provider since 1993. Would like to renew for 5 more years. Approached this
proposal as if it were new business and went over the proj ect as such. Flexible cost arrangement.
Currently have contracts all across the State. 100% Employee-owned company. 23 years in business.
Don Evans – Strong plans for the future for Georgetown – want to remain a part of what is happening in
Georgetown. Partnership awards. 1993 start-up issue with boil-water notice – flew in international
experts to review and resolve. Shared risks – protect assets.
Randy Massie – Regional support – Corporate support - value added services ($100,000) at no
additional cost to the City. High quality personnel, preventive maintenance. Over the last three years –
decreased cost of service to treat water/wastewater. Good prices on chemicals – bulk buying.
Personally committed to providing Award-winning service in the future.
Question from Smith – When you call on people for help – do you notify the City that you are calling in
someone? Answered by Massie – yes – most often he has already Question by Smith about former
manager with OMI – who discovered this? Answered by Evans - Manager was convicted of
embezzlement – this was discovered by OMI and funds reimbursed to Georgetown in case some of the
dollars embezzled had come from the repairs fund. Young – GET FROM TAPE Answered by Massie –
internal audit every year. Young – Labs nearby? – Answered by Massie – yes there is a lab in
Georgetown. Answered also by Evans that EPA labs check the OMI labs. Briggs – If we reestablish the
contract – does OMI have a problem going through this process again in 5 to 10 years. Answered by
Evans that no – they are fine with however the City wants to manage the selection process.
B. Discussion of proposals and possible recommendation of firm(s) for operation of the
City's Water and Wastewater Plants.
Briggs gave information to the board regarding staff review of the proposals submitted. Staff listed facts
and concerns related to the proposals. Recommendation that BRA and OMI be the two considered.
Recommend also that after the presentations that the presentations/proposals be reviewed prior to
making a final decision. At this time it appears that a recommendation would be for wastewater contract
to be awarded to BRA and water to OMI, but staff would like to review the presentations prior to making a
final recommendation. It appears that separate contracts would be cheapest option also.
Smith – asked if Kerry Russell had any comments regarding the proposals. Russell stated that there is
“No looser whoever you choose”. Severn-Trent did not make the final cut. Russell has had experience
dealing with S-T on laboratory side – good reputation – has not had dealing with them on the operations
side. Russell has noticed some maintenance issues over the last 2 or 3 years with OMI (could be due to
the previous manager) – but knows that this does not follow with OMI’s corporate philosophy. Based on
presentation – OMI would be very good operator- but keep in mind compliance issues. Curtis Smalley at
BRA the best Water/Wastewater treatment operator in the State. Legislative issues are a factor with BRA
and a concern for us to remember. Costs – pretty much the same – BRA is critical for wastewater
regionalization.
Question from Young – if there would be a problem to have one provider for water and one for
wastewater? Answered by Briggs – no Round Rock is currently doing something similar and are doing
fine with this option. Question from Brown regarding is the costs in proposals are i n-line with what we
anticipated. Question from Hunnicutt about scoring. Answered by Dishong that it is a weighted average.
Hunnicutt requests why staff is recommending OMI when serious issues have been raised with OMI.
Briggs answered that he has not noticed what Mike Cunningham may have noticed. If anything is out of
line – he would like for those individuals to bring those issues to he or Glenn Dishong to investigate.
There are occasional issues as with any vendor – but we have been able to resolve what comes up as it
is brought to the attention of staff. Evans has concerns about the bid price between 02-03 and 03-04.
Motion by Gavurnik , second by Evans that the Board recommend to City /Council that the operation
contract for both water and wastewater be awarded to BRA. Approved 6-1 (Bland opposed)
C. Review and possible approval of the minutes from the regular meeting, held April 17, 2003.
Motion by Young, second by Gavurnik to approve the minutes – Approved 7-0
D. Project review and updates: (including but not limited to items listed).
Motion by Gavurnik – second by Young to adjourn the meeting – meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 PM.
Approved : Attest:
_______________________ ________________________
Board Member Name Secretary