MINUTES
APPROVAL:
October
3, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting
October
3, 2005 – Consent Report
October
4, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting
October
7, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting
Corrections: none noted.
FINANCIAL
REPORT (Eaton)
ASSOCIATION
DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Gerads)
The AWWA Board of Directors met in Austin, Texas the
weekend of February 11, 2006. Following
are the highlights from the meeting.
Election of
Officers
The winter board meeting is the event where new
officers are elected. The newly elected
officers officially take office this summer at the ACE. They are:
President-Elect: Nilaksh
Kothari, Wisconsin
Vice-Presidents: Luis
Aguiar, Florida, Glenda Dunn, Texas, Joseph Mantua, Chesapeake, Janice Skadsen,
Michigan, Craig Woolard, Alaska
Director-at-Large: Trina
Mastran, Virginia Section
Treasurer’s
Report
AWWA had a great year in 2005, recording the second
highest net income on record. Other
items worth mentioning in this arena include:
·
A subcommittee of the
Finance Committee is evaluating the qualified defined benefit pension plan for
AWWA employees; and
·
The reinstitution of
approximately $30,000 to support AwwaRF.
This money was removed from the budget a few years ago due to fiscal
restraints. It equates to approximately
$1 per individual member.
Jon Eaton is on the Association’s Finance Committee
and would be more than happy to discuss any of these and other AWWA financial
information in more detail.
Ad Hoc
Committee on Governance and Structure
Approved several items including:
·
Grant voting rights to
WFP and AwwaRF representatives on AWWA Executive Board;
·
Add one additional
Vice-President;
·
Assign one
Vice-President to each Council as liaison member;
·
Create a standing
committee on Governance; and
·
Vice President becomes
VP for remainder of term (I tried to kill this one unsuccessfully).
Affinity
Credit Card Program
Basically you can get a credit card with the AWWA
logo on it and AWWA will get a kickback based on charges incurred. There is no financial risk to AWWA and
minimal impact to staff. Similar
programs yield up to $300,000 yearly.
AWWA
Wastewater Standards Development
Presently no one is doing this or plans on doing
it. It will take awhile to get the
program up and running, but in the long-term it will be an additional revenue
stream for AWWA.
Miscellaneous
Items Worth Mentioning
·
Nebraska Section offers
P.E. exams at their annual conference as a way to attract YP’s and students;
·
Michigan Section has a
new member luncheon attend by new members and committee chairs. New members are offered committee
assignments;
·
The Association has the
125th Anniversary logo available; Fiesta 125;
·
…and we will be
receiving a survey from the Association on risk management.
DISTRICT
REPORTS
NW District
(Hall)
The
NW District water operators’ school scheduled for November 29 to December 1 in
Thief River Falls was cancelled due to an ice storm in the northwestern part of
Minnesota. A one-day school has been scheduled on February 22, 2006 at the Best
Western in Thief River Falls, a Wednesday. The program will be similar to the
first day of school that was cancelled. A split session will be held in the
afternoon, a Small Systems session and a Treatment Issues session. A business
meeting will be held just prior to lunch. A new Northwest District trustee and
vice Chair will be elected at this meeting.
A
planning meeting for the three day school later in 2006 will be held in May. A
location and official dates will be selected at the February 22 business meeting.
NE District (Lubovich)
The AWWA Northeast District planning committee
re-conviened on Tuesday January 10th 2006 to carve out the schedule for their
2006 Northeast District Water Operator School.
Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge, Grand Rapids will be the location of the
school. Class dates are Wednesday,
April 26 to Friday, April 28, 2006.
Registration will be $115.00 per person, with an increase to $125.00 per
person after April 19th. Ruttger's is
holding a block of rooms until March 26th.
Studio rooms will be $65.70 per night and Lodge rooms will be $104.03
per night. This pricing includes tax.
Attendees may call 1-800-450-4555 and mention American Water Works Association
to get the special rate. This will be the first time the Northeast District has
held its school in the Grand Rapids area.
Wednesday,
April 26 will begin with a welcome from the Mayor of Grand Rapids. The morning topics of discussion will be
Grant Monies, Water System Security and Water Resource Programs. The afternoon session will consist of the
Northeast District Business Meeting, Gopher State One Call updates, and
Recreational Surface Water Technologies.
Thursday,
April 27 will consist of two off site tours.
The morning will include a guided tour of the Blandin Paper Mill. The afternoon will offer a $4.00 per person
guided tour of the Forest History Center.
Friday,
April 28 will touch on such subjects as Meters, Hydrant Maintenance,
Automation/Flow Control, Sampling Techniques/Preservation, as well as a Panel
Discussion on Operator Issues.
The
Northeast District is anticipating a great turnout and encourage AWWA members
as well as non AWWA Operators to attend.
Central
District (Stai)
The
next Central District Three-Day School will be held June 7 - 9, 2006 at
Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge located at Deerwood, MN. A block of rooms has been
reserved for people that want to arrive the day before. The Central District
Education Committee will be meeting soon to set up the agenda for this school.
There
were 115 registrants (75 regular and 40 students) for the annual St. John's
School which was held October 26, 2005. Due to popular demand, this school will
again be held at the same site this fall with the date yet to be determined.
Metro
District (Blommel-Johnson)
Meeting
was held at the Champlin Legion on 1/25/06 and moderated by Paul Coone /
District Chair.
48
Member were present.
An
election was held for the vice-chair for the metro district with one nominee;
Mark Hartfiel / City of Brooklyn Center. Paul Coone announced the election winner.
Mark Hartfiel – City of Brooklyn Center. Mark was not present. Paul extended a
thank you to Mark and the City of Brooklyn Center for accepting the nomination
and position as vice-chair.
Trustee
Report / Carol Blommel – Carol stated that she attended the Regional Meeting in
Chicago with other section officers. She met many new people in the AWWA
organization and enjoyed the opportunity. She learned more about the direction
and vision the AWWA has for our section.
Water
Utility Council / Curt Johnson– Met on January 19th and discussed
Legislative involvement regarding impaired water issues / Xcel energy and pumping rate structures /
Discussed how to structure Mutual Aid on an AWWA level. / Discussed the
creation of a “calling tree” for a quick response to our legislators when
needed for hot issues.
Glen
Gerads / Its election time and we have four candidates running for president
elect and seven for vice president. Glen would like any input you can share on
the candidates.
Energy
Committee – Vern Jacobsen – Ed Sorenson/ Vern stated that all large and small
utilities should plan on rate increases in the upcoming year. Anywhere from
seven to sixteen percent depending on the size of your utility.
Education
Committee – Stew Thornley stated that Metro school dates are April 18th
– 20th. This will be the last year we hold our Metro School at the
Thunderbird due to rising costs and The Thunderbird indicated their profits
with our school are poor and they will increase their rates to nearly double
what we are currently paying. The 2007 Metro school will be held at the Earl
Brown Center located in Brooklyn Center. Estimated costs are 5500 to 6000
dollars. You can expect registration fees to increase about 40 dollars per
person next year.
Paul
Coone asked any new members and guests to please stand and introduce themselves
to the group. He thanked them for there involvement.
Paul
Coone solicited any new business. With none received, he adjourned the meeting.
SW District
(Moulton)
The
officers and school planning committee of the Southwest District of the
Minnesota AWWA is scheduled to meet on January 26, 2006 at the Mankato office
of the Minnesota Department of Health. The topics to be discussed include the
following:
1. Discus and
set an agenda for the April 4, 2006 training session to be held in Wells,
Minnesota.
2. Discus and
set a preliminary agenda for the October 12, 2006 training session to be held
in Windom, Minnesota
3. Prepare and
set locations for 2007 training sites
4. Conduct an
officer's business meeting to examine budget requirements and future expenses
5. Discuss and
solicit District Officers for the upcoming calendar year
SE
District (Halvorson)
The
S.E. District Fall One-day water school was held Friday, October 28, 2005,
at the American Legion in
Faribault. There were 45 operators in
attendance.
On
January 5, 2006, the planning committee held a meeting at the Southeast
District Office of the Minnesota Department of Health to plan the upcoming
Spring Water School. Attending: Myron
Volker, Owatonna; Dean Huschle, Northfield; Bob Keiper, Winona; Karla Peterson, Stew Thornley, Jeanette
Boothe, Cindy Cook and
Paul Halvorson, all from MDH.
The
S.E. District Three-day Water School will be held Thursday thru Friday
March 29-31, 2006 at the Ramada Hotel
and Conference Center in Rochester: http://www.ramadarochester.com/
The
tentative agenda and a registration form are linked at:
http://mnawwa.org/section/southeast.html
The
Southeast District business meeting will be he held the last morning of the
school on Friday March 31, 2006 at 8:30am.
The registration fee for the school will be held at the same
level of the past several schools; $125 pre-registration (before March 20) and
$135 at the door.
Trustee-At-Large (Sadler)
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Administration
Council (Cockriel)
The Finance Committee met on February 1,
2006 at the Bloomington Water Treatment Plant. Barb Woolsey (chair), Doug
Rovang, Dave Brown, and Jon Eaton were present. Karl Streed was absent.
The section financial status and investments as of Dec 31, 2005 were
reviewed.
Action items from the previous committee meeting (Sep
05) were reviewed and board action noted.
The committee was told the
board approved the expenditure for the creation of an educational CD through
Hamline University. The section and MDH have each approved a $30k expenditure
(total of $60k). The contract has been modified and returned to Hamline with
the first of three payments. The second payment is expected to be due around
the May board meeting and the final payment in July 2006.
The
secretary/treasurer will review and clean of old information from the archive
(records management).
A quote was requested from KDV to prepare and file
the section 2005 tax return. The committee recommends approving the $800
budgeted expenditure.
We’re
on track with our financial plan! Expenses have increased
this past year and the profit was lowered from $42K to $21K.
The committee reviewed all bylaws,
policies, and procedures applicable to the committee. The following
policy/procedure changes are recommended:
ARTICLE VI
SECTION FINANCES
The Section has approved a dues
assessment of ten
dollars ($10.00)5%
of annual AWWA member dues that will be charge annually to each
member of the Section at the time of a new or renewed membership. This assessment does no apply to students or
retired members. Per bylaw 6.1.
The Section will charge an administrative fee of
three dollars ($3.00) per registrant per day for all schools and
conferences. This fee will be used for
the general support of the Section. Per bylaw 6.2.
The Section will pay the expenses of the Association
Director and his spouse to attend the Association Winter Board meeting.
The Section will pay the expenses of the
Secretary-Treasurer to attend the Annual Association Conference and Exposition.
The Secretary/Treasurer shall utilize the free ACE registration given to the
section by AWWA to attend to Section business and volunteer at the annual
conference.
The Section will pay the expenses of the
incoming chair (chair-elect)
to attend appropriate leadership training (RMSO, Summer Leadership, etc) sponsored by the
Association.
The Section will pay the registration and hotel
accommodations for the visiting Association Representative at the Annual
Section Conference.
The Section will pay the expenses of the Assistant
Secretary to attend the Annual Section Conference
The Section books will be audited by the financeial
committee annually. The books will be
audited by a professional auditor every three (3) years. Per bylaw 6.4.
The fiscal year shall be the calendar year
The Section Chair, Director,
Secretary/Treasurer, and Association Representative MnAwwa Fall Conference
hotel accommodations will be paid by the section.
The Section will waive the registration
fee for other Association Section’s Officers to attend MnAwwa Fall Conference.
The section should adopt a reimbursement
and travel policy.
The section should adopt an investment
policy.
The Section will waive the banquet ticket
fee for the AWWA Life Member awardees and their spouses to attend the Fall
Conference banquet.
The Section will charge district approved
and/or section approved fees to support the Drinking Water Institute: ten
dollars per fall conference registrant (approved at the Fall 2003 conference),
five dollars per 3-day school registrant for the NW, NE, Central, Metro, and SE
districts and two dollars per school registrant for the SW district.
Fund levels should be maintained as
follows:
Operating Fund – Money retained
in the checking account to cover expected expenses without transferring money
from the reserve. This is a contingent liability operating fund for the current
fiscal year, not a long term reserve The Board approved the minimum amount to
be 10% of the budgeted expenditures.
Reserve Fund – The amount of
money (capital) retained for future or contingent liabilities. The Board
approved the minimum amount of 50% of the annual budgeted expenditures.
David Morris
Endowment Fund – The investment interest of this fund will provide a perpetual
source of money for section scholarships needs.
All target financial levels should be
reviewed every 3-5 years to assure they meet the Section’s goals and needs.
ARTICLE VII
SECTION GOVERNANCE
Section
Secretary-Treasurer
The Secretary-Treasurer shall
be responsible for the preparation of the business and recording of the
proceedings of the Section and Board Meetings.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall
perform such other duties as the Board may direct.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall
prepare a budget for review and adoption at the pre-conference
Board meeting of each year.
The
Secretary/Treasurer shall provide monthly updates of the section finances
including any investments.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall
prepare a financial statement based on a financial year beginning January 1 and
ending December 31. This statement
shall be audited by an Auditing Committee appointed by the Administration
Council Chair. The Committee shall
report the findings of the audit at the annual Section business meeting.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall pay be responsible for payment of all
authorized bills.
All
by checks, which
shall be signed by the secretary/treasurer, countersigned
by the Chair, and initialed by the section bookkeeper (if one exists).
The secretary/treasurer may utilize a debit
card issued against the section checking account to pay authorized expenses.
Assistant Secretary
The Section
Assistant Secretary shall be responsible for the preparation of the business
and recording of proceedings of the Section and Board Meetings in the Section
Secretary-Treasurers absence.
The Section Assistant Secretary does not have Board
voting privileges except in the absence of the Section Secretary-Treasurer.
The Section Assistant Secretary has general
responsibility for the registration and financial
documentation of the Annual Section Conference.
ARTICLE IX
COUNCILS/COMMITTEES
Assigned To: APC as a committee
Purpose:
To manage the financial activities of the Section
and to advise the secretary treasurer on financial matters.
Members:
The committee consists of five (5) members: three
members are appointed by the Section chair, the fourth member is the Section
Secretary-Treasurer, and the fifth is the Section Assistant Secretary.
Members appointed by the Section Chair serve three
(3) year terms that are staggered so that one new member is appointed each
year.
The committee chair is appointed by the Section
Chair to a 1 year term. The chair can
be appointed for multiple terms.
Policies, Procedures,
Activities:
See bylaws (article 6), policies, and procedures
(article 6 and 7) for specific guidelines.
The
committee recommends a letter be sent to Dave Peterson thanking him for his 3
year service to the finance committee.
Items
for the next committee meeting include reviewing the year-end report and
auditing the 2005 financial records.
Action Items:
1. Approve
the 2005 tax preparation cost as presented
2. Approve
the policy & procedure changes as noted
The
IT Committee met in January 2006 at the Bloomington Public Works building. Scott Anderson, Carol Kaszynski (chair),
Stew Thornley, and Lisa Vollbrecht were present. Dave Wagner was absent.
As
a relatively new committee, a good portion of the meeting was spent determining
the goals, objectives, and direction for the upcoming year.
Conference
Council (Schultz)
We
had a great turn out for this year’s conference in Duluth. Total number in attendance was 425. This is the largest number in attendance
ever for Minnesota Section AWWA. The
weather could have been a little better but it was fun to watch the 15 foot
waves come in from lake Superior. Total
net profit for the conference is $22,381. This is $1,266 better then
budget.
Next
years annual conference in Duluth will be held September 20th – 22nd
2006. We are well into the planning of
this conference. We are working hard to
improve the conference and attendance to make this years conference even better
then last.
Manufacturers
Council (Norton)
The
MAC Consent Report consists of the minutes of our 12/8/05 MAC meeting held at
Engineering America's Office. The minutes of this meeting were also handed out
at our Business Plan Meeting Friday, 12/9/05, held at Bloomington Fire Station
#1.
The
only change since that meeting is that MAC will not be hosting the Minnesota
Breakfast at the National Conference in San Antonio since this is the 125th
Anniversary and we will participate in that special function
instead.
There will not be a Minnesota Breakfast in San Antonio. We talked about picking
that up again in 2007 and that is the plan for now.
Public
Affairs Council (Lange-Haider)
Public Information (Stew Thornley)
The Public Information
Committee continues to put out a "This Month in Minnesota AWWA"
bulletin with news for AWWA members.
The committee also had a booth at the Education Minnesota Professional
Conference on October 20, where it promoted drinking water as a career as well
as our annual Drinking Water Institute for teachers. The committee is planning on having a booth at this conference
again this fall.
Also, by next year a new
chair should be in place to take over this committee. Stew plans to remain active on the committee as a member. Committee members have been informed of this
desired change and to determine if any current members are interested in
becoming chair.
Publications (Erik Juhl)
For
2005, the Publications Committee had an income of $18,658.50 and expenses of
$15,189.39. The expenses included
computer and software maintenance, bulk mailing fees, and all graphics layout,
printing, and mailing expenses. Please note the Autumn Breeze expenses are not
included as the publication was not mailed until January 2006. Even with that
“minor bump in the road”, income exceeds expenses.
Some
errant design elements were introduced into the Autumn Breeze (Issue 122) by
our print provider. (Did you notice, for example, the "Emphatic Phrase:
Here" at the top of the first page, or the missing logo in the banner?)
None of the aberrations resulted in any factually incorrect information in the
magazine's content, so rather than demanding that they reprint and resend the
run, we agreed to a 50% discount for the cost of printing.
The
committee produced four issues of the Breeze and all the 2005 Conference
materials including the exhibitor registration, conference registration, and
conference program.
The
Publications Committee expectation continues to be that we will break even or
have positive income in 2006.
Water for People (Bernie Bullert)
The
Water for People Committee met on 1-5-06. Present were Scott Anderson, Bernie
Bullert Ed Sorenson, Lyle Stai, Chris Voeltz, and John Chlebeck.
Summary
of discussion:
Scott
listed where he raised funds last year.
·
SE District – Rochester
3-day school, Myron Volcker and Shawn Mulhern put on a raffle. Dates Mar. 29-30, 2006.
·
SW District – Hasn’t
had any fund raising efforts. Chris will check with the district. They have
only one-day schools.
·
Central District – Lyle
has handled 3-day school fund raising efforts in June.
·
Metro – Dawn Horner at
HDR did the fund raising at the 3-day school in April.
·
NW – 3-day school in
December has been handled by Troy Hall for fund raising efforts.
·
NE – 3-day school in
April is handled by Cory Lubevich
·
Rural Water is not
participating
·
Golf Tournament @ fall
conference, hole sponsors pay $200 to WFP. Longest drive and putting contest
also go to WFP. ( closest to the pin goes to endowment) The Twins tickets in
the past have also gone to endowment fund. The collection at the banquet has
gone to WFP.
Raffle
gifts are usually $25-$50 and are provided by exhibitors or speakers.
Annual
fund raising efforts have been $10,000 to $15,000.
Bernie
discussed he has been talking to MAC about an alternative sponsorship where MAC
members would make a annual WFP contribution or combination WFP/Endowment
contribution for a year and receive recognition in the Breeze, a sign for their
booths, and at the golf tournament. MAC
is interested and has set up a sub-committee to pursue it further. Bernie is on the sub-committee.
There
was also discussion on other groups to pursue for contributions:
·
Water Quality Assoc.
·
Well Drillers
·
Minnesota Ground Water
Assoc.
·
Rural Water Assoc.
·
Waste Water group
·
APWA
·
ASCE
·
CEAM
·
Rotary
·
Underground directional
drillers
·
Large regional
corporations outside of National’s pursuit.
·
John Packard – Culligan
·
Glenwood – Inglewood
There
was also discussion on a spring walleye fishing contest, or a skeet shoot.
The
next meeting will be Feb. 16 @ 10:30 at Eden Prairie City Hall. Bernie will present current videos or Power
Points available for the conferences.
Scholarship (Gerry Smith)
The
activities of the Scholarship committee have focused on the management institute scholarship. An announcement of management scholarship
was mailed to approximately 700 public water systems that would qualify for the
scholarship based on the number of service connections. This year we received 12 applications. Three applicants did not qualify for the
scholarship because of not meeting the membership conditions. Six scholarships were awarded. The process developed by Jon Eaton and the
scholarship committee has worked very well.
The scholarship application has been taken off the website at this time
as we are now past the deadline. It
will be reposted in April or May as a reminder for utilities in their budget
planning.
The
advanced degree scholarship application has been updated is available on the
Section website. An announcement and
application has been placed in the January Breeze Light. The same announcement and application will
be published in the director (February) edition Breeze Light and Directory
Issue. The same announcement will be
sent to MRWA for their spring edition of the “Today” publication. Plans are in the works to have the
scholarship materials available at the schools and at the AWWA Section booth at
MRWA.
Membership
activities should be wrapped up in February.
Work
on the new scholarships and review of existing scholarships is on track, and an
update on this information will be available for the spring board meeting.
Young Professionals (Chris
Glassing)
The
committee met in Maple Grove on November 18, 2005 and conducted a conference
call meeting on January 20, 2006. Major
accomplishments of the committee since our meeting in October 2005 are outlined
below.
The
committee developed a guidance document
to introduce structure within the committee and direct committee members now
and in the future. The committee will
vote to accept this document at the March meeting.
Four
sub-committees were created;
membership, social, public affairs (community involvement), and fresh
ideas. All YP members are encouraged to
participate in at least one sub-committee.
Decisions and work will be conducted within the sub-committees and
updates reported to all YP committee members.
The
membership committee will focus on
building membership within the YP committee as well as within the section. This committee plans to conduct a lunch
seminar at the University of Minnesota.
The seminar will include a discussion of career opportunities and
invitation for membership to AWWA.
The
social committee is planning an event
in conjunction with Minnesota Rural Water Association Conference in March. The event will include a social meeting at
the Green Mill Restaurant followed by a tour of the Cold Stone Brewery. The committee will be extending invitations
to all AWWA members as well as MRWA members.
In addition, the social committee will be working with the conference
committee to plan a social event sponsored by the YP committee at the sections
annual conference.
The
public affairs committee was
developed to focus on YP involvement within the community. The committee is currently working on
organizing two events. The “Water Tower
Competition” will target grade school students through teacher
involvement. The “Student Poster
Competition” will involve any student who would like to submit a poster,
including AWWA member children.
The
fresh ideas committee has developed
preliminary documents to initiate a competition as directed by national
AWWA. The committee is currently
working on ideas for implementing the program including participation, prizes,
and logistics.
The
next YP committee meeting is scheduled for March 9, 2006 in St. Cloud, MN.
Training
Council (K. Peterson)
The
Northwest District of Minnesota AWWA had its fall school in Thief River Falls
postponed because of a storm. The
district has rescheduled the event as a one-day school, which will be held in
Thief River Falls on Tuesday, February 22.
The
various districts in the section have been holding planning meetings for their
spring schools and are using the training-needs survey, which was among
superintendents of municipal water systems in Minnesota last year, to help
determine their agendas.
This
will be the last year that the Metro District will hold its spring school at
the Thunderbird Hotel in Bloomington.
Costs for meeting rooms at the Thunderbird have risen significantly and
will take an even bigger jump in 2007.
As a result, the district has scheduled its 2007 school for the Earle
Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center.
The Education Committee will be conducting Water Works!
Drinking Water Institutes for Educators at the Minneapolis Water Works
ultrafiltration plant in August. The
committee is continuing to work with Hamline University’s Center for Global
Environmental Education (CGEE) to expand the scope of the Institutes through a
module on a CD-ROM and on-line learning.
In November, Dean Huschle, Karla Peterson, and S. Thornley met with the
CGEE staff to begin developing the content for the module. The Minnesota Department of Health has given
Minnesota AWWA a grant of $25,000 (and will eventually pay another $5,000 for a
license to use the program on its web site).
Minnesota AWWA has committed $20,000 for the program with another
$10,000 pending after it receives a progress report. John Shepard of the Hamline CGEE, along with the other committee
members, will present this report at the February 17 Minnesota AWWA board
meeting.
March
13-15, 2006 at the University of Minnesota
Sponsored
by: American Water Works Association (AWWA) and College of Continuing
Education, University of Minnesota
In
Cooperation with: Suburban Utility Superintendents Association (SUSA)
For
complete program information, please visit our web site:
http://www.cce.umn.edu/management_institute
Key
Objectives:
*Learn
new skills to enhance an individual's ultimate effectiveness in an organization
*Provide
new supervisors with technical backgrounds an opportunity to gain valuable
insight into management issues
*Discuss
issues and approaches with others in the water utility industry and build a
network for sharing information in the future
*Offer
experienced managers a chance to enhance their current strengths and compare
their present practices with approaches discussed at the Institute
*Investigate
new approaches to management with outstanding instructors
Program
Topics:
Monday,
March 13
"Introduction
to Supervision"
"Leadership:
Getting Work Done Through Others"
Tuesday,
March 14
"Understanding
and Positively Affecting Organizational Behavior"
"Building
Teamwork and Commitment"
Wednesday,
March 15
"Delivering
Great Service"
"Exercising
Organizational Influence"
If
you have questions, please contact:
Julie
Grazier
University
of Minnesota
College
of Continuing Education
Continuing
Professional Education
PH:
612.624.3044 FX: 612.624.6225
Purpose:
To draw a
bridge between small systems and AWWA by bringing these systems into the
organization, providing mentoring opportunities; and as a result, gaining
valuable input from these small systems.
Action Items/Tasks:
1) Intends
to meet three times per year.
2) Plans
to host at least one informal coffee session for small system operators in each
district.
3) Also
intends to recruit 10 new small system operators as members.
Budget:
..... Revenues.......... $0
..... Expenditures..... $1100
Water
Utility Council (K. Johnson)
The meeting was held on Thursday January 19, 2006 at the New Ulm Civic
Center, 1212 North Franklin St., New Ulm, Minnesota.
Attendance
Lisa Andrews (for Dennis Martenson), Bernie Bullert, Steve Gleason, Carol Blommel Johnson, Kurt
Johnson, Allen Lamm, Doug Mandy, Dick Nagy, Dave Scheerer, Ed Sorensen, Don
Volk.
Housekeeping
Kurt Johnson chaired the meeting.
The Water Utility Council was welcomed by the Mayor of New Ulm and
Director of Utilities.
Meeting Minutes
The Meeting Minutes of October 5, 2005 were approved. Motion by Allen Lamm; second by Steve
Gleason. Motion approved.
Congressional/EPA Update:
No Report.
Legislative report from LMNC Representative: No Report.
State-Related Water Issues
a.
Gopher State One-Call (GSOC) No Report.
b.
Environmental Quality Board (EQB) Ed Sorenson
Nothing
to report from September to present.
Reports
a.
Minnesota
Rural Water Association. No Report.
b.
Metropolitan
Council. No Report.
c.
Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources. No
Report.
d.
Association
Director. No Report.
e.
Minnesota
Department of Health - Doug Mandy
1.
MDH
notified State water utilities via letter of need to collect $6.36 drinking
water fee effective July 1, 2006.
2.
EPA has
promulgated 2 new rules, LSIITSR and Stage II …which are being implemented and
interpreted by the Minnesota Department of Health.
3.
Legislative
Agenda:
a.
Legislation
is being proposed that would make address information of sites for lead and
copper sampling throughout the State protected by data privacy.
b.
Interconnect
between Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
While the Governor did not include this initiative in the proposed
bonding bill, other legislative committees may include this initiative in their
recommendations. MDH will be available
to provide technical information about the project.
c.
Drive to
Excellence:
i.
Under this
State initiative all “codified” departments report to the Department of Labor
and Industry. This means the plumbing
program is no longer a function of the Department of Health.
ii.
It is
proposed all State “certifications” be issued through one department. MDH is concerned Water Operator
Certification and Licensing should remain a function of MDH.
4.
Anti
Terrorism Monies:
a.
MDH may
request monies currently earmarked for anti-terrorism activities from CDC be
re-directed toward developing a State-wide water emergency response/resource
web-site. MDH envisions a “water
web-site” listing equipment, staff and/or other mutual aid resources that may
be available to a town or utility in time of need. MDH would like to know cities, utilities etc are interested in
development of such a resource before working to re-direct any funding.
b.
Discussion: (MN APWA) Metro area Public Works
Association has mutual aid pact that lists equipment that may be available and
might serve as model. Similarly, police
and fire departments throughout the state operate under mutual aid agreements
that might be modeled. WUC undertook a
similar initiative following the flooding of Grand Forks. Draft mutual aid documents are likely
available. Perhaps hiring a consultant
to birddog the initiative and follow through to implementation would be
desirable. A motion to request the AWWA Board of Directors take steps to
formally support MDH making investment in a statewide emergency
response/resource web-site was made by Allen Lamm. Second by Don Volk. Motion approved. WUC is recommending investment in this initiative. Further, Doug Mandy suggested he could
prepare a written description of the project vision for the Board’s
consideration. Bernie Bullert and Allen
Lamm will try to find draft copies of previously prepared but never executed
mutual aid agreements. Monies directed
to this initiative would ideally include consulting costs.
Discussion/Action Items
1. Calling Tree
This
is a proposed initiative for creating an SOP for “effective” notification of
members. Currently MN AWWA does not
operate with paid staff. Accordingly,
communications are most efficiently passed along via e-mail. However, not all members operate e-mail and
further, a phone call from a “neighbor” may be well received and be more
meaningful.
A
calling tree would be a mechanism that might be used for emergencies or for
getting feedback (grass roots response) on pending legislative issues with
short timelines, etc. Further, a
calling tree would compliment the proposed emergency response “water web-page”.
Al Lamm will look for a map he had identifying
all the water systems in Minnesota that have AWWA membership. Doug Mandy offered to provide a report of
member water systems as needed. WUC would like to review such a map in
considering if a calling tree might be best organized around the AWWA
districts.
2.
Service Lateral Locating Rule.
Under
newly legislated rules, municipalities are required to field locate all buried
sewer and water utilities installed in the R-O-W after January 1, 2006. MNOPS may reconvene a rules committee to
continue review of the GSOC rules. Don
Volk will keep WUC advised.
3.
Continuing
items
a.
DNR Emergency/Conservation
Plan Guidelines
No change for now.
However, new reports are due from municipalities in fall 2006 so it will
be helpful to find out the results from DNR later.
b.
Water Appropriations
No change for now.
4.
Washington
Fly-in.
a.
National
AWWA is offering to finance [travel, room and board] the attendance of one (1)
Mn Section AWWA representative for the 5th annual “Water Matters”
Fly-In in Washington, D.C., on March 29-30, 2006. Kurt Johnson, as Chair of the WUC, has twice represented MN Section. It is a complex process to arrange for
meeting Minnesota’s representatives in the Senate, Congress etc. It is difficult to get appointments etc.
b.
A motion
recommending the Chair of Water Utility Council attend this program and further
recommending (for Board consideration) Mn Section AWWA finance [travel, room
and board] a 2nd attendee to become familiar with the appointment
process and further to bring more to bear on each issue. Motion by Al Lamm. Second by Doug Mandy.
Motion approved.
Kurt Johnson will send out an e-mail to determine if another member is
interested in accompanying him to the program.
5.
Energy
Committee
a.
The Energy
committee is organized under the auspices of WUC. The group is convening on Friday January 20, 2006. Dave Wagner, SPRWS, is committee chair. The committee plans to review rates proposed
by Excel energy, consider pros and cons of intervening in a rate case and may
look to WUC for assistance in taking any actions.
Legislation being advanced:
Last year a proposed bill senate file No. 1009, relating to landlord and
tenant; which proposed to make unlawful collection of outstanding water utility
charges by way of; 1. Attempting to collect from the property owner who has not
contracted for the service 2. Conditioning service on payment of an outstanding
bill when previous customer has vacated the property 3. Placing a lien on
property whether created by local ordinance or otherwise … was not
advanced. It may be advanced during the
2006 session.
A motion for WUC to prepare letter of objection should this
legislation be advanced was made by Steve Gleason. Second by Al Lamm. Motion
approved.
The
league of Minnesota Cities objected to the bill in 2005.
Will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday March 16, 2006 in
Lakeville, MN.
Meeting Adjourned
There being no further business, Kurt Johnson adjourned the
meeting at 12:00 noon. Motion by Allen Lamm; Second by Steve Gleason. Motion
approved.