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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-03-2026 Minutes�k•er 1950 SOUTH TAHOE PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICT Joel Henderson, Director BOARD MEMBERS Kelly Sheehan, Director Nick Haven, Vice President Shane Romsos, President Nick Exline, Director Ryan Lee, Acting General Manager Andrea Salazar, Chief Financial Officer REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS SOUTH TAHOE PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICT September 3, 2026 MINUTES The South Tahoe Public Utility District Board of Directors met in a regular session, 2:00 p.m., at the District Office, located at 1275 Meadow Crest Drive, South Lake Tahoe, California. ROLL CALL: Board of Directors: President Romsos, Directors Haven, Sheehan, Henderson and Exline Staff: Ryan Lee, Andrea Salazar, Robert Wakefield, Melonie Guttry, Shannon Chandler, Shelly Thomsen, Alex Tyler, Chris Skelly, Aaron Buckman, Greg Dupree, Lauren Benefield, Brent Goligoski, Adrian Combes, Anthony Gregorich, Mark Seelos, Madilynn Chavarria, Thea Ragsdale, Jennifer Marshall, Jim Kelly, Phil Trella, Luara Hendrickson, Star Glaze 1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 2. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: None 3. CORRECTIONS TO THE AGENDA OR CONSENT CALENDAR: None 4. ADOPTION OF CONSENT CALENDAR: Moved Exline/Second Sheehan/Haven Yes/Romsos Yes/Henderson Yes/Sheehan Yes/Exline Yes to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. a. 2026 WATER METER INSTALLATION PROJECT (Laura Hend(ckson, Associate Engineer) (1) Approved Change Order No. 1 to White Rock Construction, Inc. in the amount of $24,383.22; and (2) Authorized the Acting General Manager to execute Change Order No. 1. b. AL TAHOE WELL REHABILITATION AND EMERGENCY POWER PROJECT (Mark Seelos, Water Resources Manager) (1) Approved Change Order No. 3 with Resource Development Company in the amount of ($545,650.10); and (2) Authorized the Acting General Manager to execute Change Order. No. 3. REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES: September 3 , 2026 PAGE - 2 c. JUNE 30 2026 PRELIMINARY FISCAL YEAR END FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Andrea Salazar, Chief Financial Officer) Received and filed the June 30, 2026, Preliminary Income Statement and Balance Sheet Reports. d. RECEIVE AND FILE PAYMENT OF CLAIMS (Greg Dupree, Accounting Manager) Received and filed Payment of Claims in the amount of $5,758,105.41. e. REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES: August 6, 2026 (Melonie Guttry, Executive Services Manager/Clerk of the Board) Approved August 6, 2026, Minutes. 5. CONSENT ITEMS BROUGHT FORWARD FOR SEPARATE DISCUSSION/ACTION: None 6. ITEMS FOR BOARD ACTION: a. Director Henderson recused himself at 2:01 p.m. as his wife works for VertexOne and for the record he stated that she does not receive any compensation from this contract. VertexOne VXsmart Customer Platform Contract Renewal - Chris Skelly provided details regarding the Vertex One VXsmart Customer Platform Contract Renewal and addressed questions from the Board. Moved Sheehan/Second Romsos/Haven Yes/Romsos Yes/Henderson Recused/Sheehan Yes/Exline Yes to authorize the Acting General Manager to execute a three-year Contract with VertexOne with a total value of $106,304.09. Director Henderson returned to the meeting at 2:04 p.m. b. Consideration of Revision to Board Policy Regarding Designation of an Acting General Manager- President Romsos provided details regarding the Revision to Board Policy regarding designation of an Acting General Manager and indicated that these changes include more continuity in executive leadership. The Board discussed the revision and the need for the change. Moved Sheehan/Second Haven/Haven Yes/Romsos Yes/Henderson Yes/Sheehan Yes/Exline Yes to adopt revised Board Policy Manual Section 4.1.5 - General Manager Absence, Vacancy, and Succession. c. Resolution No. 3344-26 in Appreciation of General Manager, Paul Hughes - President Romsos read Resolution No. 3344-26 in appreciation of prior General Manager, Paul Hughes. Moved Sheehan/Second Henderson/Haven Yes/Romsos Yes/Henderson Yes/Sheehan Yes/Exline No to adopt Resolution No. 3344-26 in Appreciation of General Manager, Paul Hughes, for 18 Years of Service. REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES: September 3, 2026 PAGE - 3 7. STANDING AND AD -HOC COMMITTEES AND LIAISON REPORTS: Director Sheehan welcomed Ryan Lee and thanked him for serving as Acting General Manager. Director Haven provided an update from the Ad -Hoc General Manager Recruitment Committee stating that they are working closely with Human Resources on the longer -term recruitment. The process is proceeding with Ryan Lee as Acting General Manager for approximately four weeks. The next appointment will be for the Interim General Manager for a period of approximately six months, while the Board works with CPS Recruiting and Human Resources to recruit the permanent General Manager. The Board is inviting external as well as internal candidates for the interim position, while soliciting information from staff through a survey regarding staff needs. The Board is looking at measuring organizational health as a focus for the new General Manager. President Romsos added that he is communicating this process where necessary. Director Sheehan thanked President Romsos and Vice President Haven for thinking through this process and allowing adequate time to make the right decision while soliciting staff's input. Applications are due Sunday, September 13 for the Interim General Manager position. Director Haven reported that El Dorado Water Agency will be at the District on Wednesday, September 9, for their Regular Board meeting at 10:00 a.m. in the Board Room. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS: Director Exline appreciates all the timely communication regarding the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) odors. President Romsos reported that he attended the Lake Tahoe Summit, which was well attended. Two days prior to the Summit he and District staff met with Congressman Ami Bera to discuss the District's needs. There was a nice sendoff for Paul Hughes on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Director Henderson and Aaron Buckman attended the recent California Association of Sanitation Agencies Conference, which was good but there was not a lot of new information in terms of legislature. 9. STAFF/ATTORNEY REPORTS: Madilynn Chavarria and Thea Ragsdale introduced themselves and provided a presentation regarding their work at the District over the past year. Thea Ragsdale will be working for Tahoe Transportation District after leaving the District today and Madilynn Chavarria will be at the District for another year. This is the fourth year that the District has hosted CivicSpark Fellows, which is an 1 1-month, federally funded internship. They thanked District staff for their mentorship during their time at the District. The Board thanked them both for their efforts and thanked staff for providing a meaningful experience, as well as the presence in the community, over the past year. Aaron Buckman and Phil Trella reported that approximately four weeks ago the Wastewater Treatment Plant experienced a significant upset that severely affected the activated sludge process. Activated sludge treatment relies on a stable, healthy population of microorganisms to remove organic material and other constituents from the wastewater. Because this is a biological process, recovery requires careful management of many factors. During the first week of upset, staff adjusted plant processes and allowed the activated sludge time to recover naturally. Under typical conditions these operational adjustments support recovery of the biological treatment process. However, in this instance, the system did not recover as expected. As a result, secondary treated effluent was diverted to the Emergency Retention Basins (ERB). Staff then proceeded to reseed the activated sludge process with healthy biomass from our neighbors at Douglas County Sewer Authority. After three days, biological growth remained limited while elevated influent began to continue to exceed the recovering system's treatment capacity. As a final operational measure, staff began to split the primary effluent flow to the ERBs. This reduced the loading on the activated sludge process allowing it to continue treating wastewater while providing the REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES: September 3, 2026 PAGE - 4 biological system an opportunity to rebuild and regain capacity. These actions were taken to protect public health and the environment while meeting our waste discharge requirements without violating our permit. On August 22, the treatment plant regained capacity to process all of the incoming flow and routing to the ERBs was discontinued. On September 2, staff began returning water from the ERBs to the treatment pond. This drawdown will be managed gradually to avoid overloading the recovering biological systems and maintain stable treatment performance. This process will take anywhere between two and four weeks. Buckman and Trella thanked Operations staff for their dedication and technical expertise and close attention to the process, which was critical throughout this recovery effort. They further thanked all departments as it was a team effort and all are greatly appreciated. The Board thanked staff for their efforts and for providing a report today. This was a dramatic event that could have been much worse. There are odor and other issues, but the alternative would have been far worse in terms of significant environmental impacts. The issue happened so quickly that it's hard to determine what exactly caused it. 10. ACTING GENERAL MANAGER REPORT: Ryan Lee reported on several items: • He thanked the Board for the opportunity to serve as Acting General Manager and thanked staff for the support that he has received. • It's been a busy summer, with high profile and impactful projects out in the community. He thanked the Engineering Department for all their efforts with special emphasis on customer communication. Laura Hendrickson has been on the Tahoe Keys Cured -in -Place Pipe (CIPP) Project and doing a great job. Customer Service is receiving good feedback on the outreach of these projects. There is a new well being drilled at Tanglewood, and there has been lots of customer interest and lots of questions. Brent Goligoski addressed questions regarding the timeline at the Tanglewood Well, and once finished, staff will then be mobilizing to the Sunset Well. • August is one of the District's busiest times operationally and there were a few absences with Jeremy Rutherdale, Frank Abbondandolo and Adrian Combes all out at the same time, so thank you to staff including Francisco Avina, Ron Goralski and Chris Stanley for stepping up during these absences. 11. NOTICE OF PAST AND FUTURE MEETINGS/EVENTS 12. BREAK AND ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION: 2:58 p.m. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION: p.m. a. Pursuant to Section 54956.9(d) (1) of the California Government code, Closed Session may be held for conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation: Yolo County Superior Court Case CV 2021-1686, Alpine County vs. South Tahoe Public Utility District; et al. No reportable Board Action. b. Pursuant to Section 54956.9(d) (2) of the California Government code, Closed Session may be held for conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. No reportable Board Action. REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES: September 3, 2026 PAGE - 5 c. Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957(b) (1) consider the appointment of a public employee. Provide staff with recruitment direction. No reportable Board Action. a. Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957(a), discuss matters involving threat prevention of essential public services or facilities, in consultation with South Tahoe Public Utility District Information Technology Manager, Chris Skelly. No reportable Board Action. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION: 4:12 p.m. 13. ITEMS FOR BOARD ACTION a. Backup and Disaster Recovery Software Maintenance and Support Renewal - Chris Skelly provided details regarding the Backup and Disaster Recovery Software Maintenance and Support Renewal. Moved Haven/Second Sheehan/Haven Yes/Romsos Yes/Henderson Yes/Sheehan Yes/Exline Yes to authorize the Acting General Manager to execute a Contract for the District's backup and disaster recovery solution in the amount of $78,032.99. ADJOURNMENT: 4:14 P.M. Shane Romsos, Board President South Tahoe Public Utility District Melanie Guttry, Executive ervices Manager/ Board Clerk South Tahoe. -Public Utility District