City of Santa Fe Buckman Direct Diversion Board met Oct. 5.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
1. CALL TO ORDER
This regular meeting of the Santa Fe County & City Buckman Direct Diversion Board meeting was called to order by County Commissioner Anna Hamilton, BDD Board Chair, at approximately 4:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 200 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2. ROLL CALL: Roll was called and a quorum was present as shown:
BDD Board Members Present: Member(s) Excused:
Commissioner Anna Hamilton None
Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth
Commissioner Anna Hansen
Councilor Renee Villarreal
J.C. Helms, Citizen Member
Tom Egelhoff, Las Campanas [non-voting]
BDD Board Alternate(s) Present:
Peter Ives, Citizen Alternate
Others Present:
Rick Carpenter, BDD Facilities Manager
Nancy Long, BDDB Legal Counsel
Kyle Harwood, BDDB Legal Counsel
Bernardine Padilla, BDD Public Relations Coordinator
Delfin Peterson, BDD Administrative Assistant
Randy Sugrue, BDD Operations Superintendent
Monique Maes, BDD Contracts Administrator
Bradley Prada, BDD Maintenance Supervisor
Jesse Roach, City Water Division Director
Jay Lazarus, Glorieta Geoscience, Inc.
[Chair Hamilton read the agenda captions throughout the meeting.]
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Commissioner Hansen moved to approve the agenda as presented. Mr. Helms seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
4. CONSENT AGENDA
Upon motion by Commissioner Hansen and second by Councilor Villarreal, the Consent Agenda was unanimously approved.
7. ACTION ITEMS: CONSENT
a. Request for approval of the 2024 Buckman Direct Diversion Board Meeting Dates
b. Request for Approval of the 2024 Fiscal Services and Audit Committ4ee Meeting Calendar
c. Request for Approval of laboratory analysis services with Hall Environmental Analysis Laboratory, Inc. for GY 24 in the total amount of $79,965.99
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: September 7, 2023
Mr. Helms moved to approve the minutes of September 7, 2023. Commissioner Hansen seconded and the motion passed without opposition.
6. PRESENTATION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
a. Monthly Update on BDD Operations
RANDY SUGRUE (BDD Operations Superintendent): Thank you Madam Chair and members of the Board. This is my report for BDD operations for the month of September 2023. Our raw water diversions averaged about 7.33 million gallons per day. Our drinking water deliveries through Booster Stations 4A/5A, 5.3 million gallons per day. Las Campanas diversions at Booster 2A, .94 million gallons per day. Onsite water storage variation was 1.09 million gallons per day on average. BDD is providing around 67 percent of the water supply to the City-County region for the month. Our year-to-date diversions are depicted on the graph. Again, we were somewhere above our 12-year average.
The regional demand and drought summary on page 2 notes that for September the regional demand was around 11 million gallons per day. Rio Grande flows approximately 800 cubic feet per second and they maintain a little over 1,000 cubic feet per second as we speak. Storage at Canyon Road combined was about 57 percent. The watershed inflow continues at about a little over 1 mgd. City, County, Las Campanas, SJC storage is about 10,500 acre-feet. And our El Niño summary still states that El Niño is anticipated to continue through the northern hemisphere winter creating a 95 percent chance of continuation through to February.
So I stand for questions.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Do we have any questions? Mr. Ives.
MR. IVES: Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just curious about the 800 cfs in the Rio Grande; does that involve a lot of releases from water in storage from the reservoirs?
MR. SUGRUE: Correct. Yes, they’re transferring water from Abiquiu to Cochiti that was held in storage after the excessive spring runoff. So that will continue probably through the end of the irrigation season. And then at some point they’ll begin to transfer that water from Cochiti down to Elephant Butte in November so that low river condition in Albuquerque will be alleviated somewhat at that point.
MR. IVES: Thank you. I was just wondering if that was a strategy for runoff flow.
MR. SUGRUE: It’s a strategy – yeah.
MR. IVES: That was my only question.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Commissioner Hansen.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Last night or the other night I saw on some television station that Cochiti is flowing and this was the reason why. But what I’m wondering is why aren’t they keeping water in Heron?
MR. SUGRUE: The transfer from Heron to Abiquiu I am not – I think they have to use Cochiti. Rick or Kyle, do you have additional information on why they’re not retaining water in Heron?
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: It’s flooding Cochiti. All the bathrooms are buried underwater. People can’t use the ramps. It just seems that they can keep water in Heron and why are they not doing that.
KYLE HARWOOD (BDDB Counsel): Madam Commissioner and Board, the balancing of water between Heron, El Vado, Abiquiu and Cochiti is driven by a lot of different drivers. There is water being held over in Heron. There are some San Juan Chama contractors that are going to hold – to hold this year’s calendar water until next year. So there is water being held in Heron to that point. Abiquiu has been flooding picnic tables all summer as you might be aware. And there are some capacity issues downstream of Abiquiu so they are trying to move water as well as they can and also keep the Rio Grande through Albuquerque wet. It did go dry, just about went dry, once or twice this summer so the challenge there is to try and support them.
We’ll have a short minnow update next month. It looks like some of the minnow propagations did well this past year. But specifically on Cochiti, I know that they’re moving water into Cochiti and releasing water out of Cochiti for environmental flow purposes. And so probably what you’re seeing is just the rebalancing of those four reservoirs. I hope that was responsive.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you, Kyle.
MR. SUGRUE: I know there’s a big project going on at El Vado also. So there’s not really any storage at this time at El Vado and that may be affecting it. Any other questions?
CHAIR HAMILTON: No other questions. Thank you so much.
b. Report from the Facilities Manager
RICK CARPENTER (Facilities Manager): Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board. Not a whole lot to report on Major Repair and Replacement for this month. We do have one project coming through that’s actually an action item, 8.a., on this agenda with Andritz centrifuge for our Andritz drives for our centrifuge. That’s the only big ticket items for this month.
As far as current vacancies, we’re working on the following: journeyman electrician, maintenance planner scheduler, equipment repairman advanced and equipment repairman intermediate. Those are all in various stages of being re-advertised. And with that, I’ll stand for questions.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Great. Does anybody have any questions?
Commissioner Hansen.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Yes, hi, Rick. I just wanted to ask you. It was like 3:30 or 3 o’clock and we all got an email. Maybe you haven’t seen it. It’s from Michael Smith at Positive Energy Solar. And –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Point of order.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Isn’t this the time –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Well, it’s not on the agenda and if we’re going to go back and forth on this it needs to be on the agenda.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Is it reasonable to have questions of the Facilities Manager about what this is?
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: I think that you could direct that we would like to know more. But I don’t think that we can get into a back and forth because it’s not on the agenda.
CHAIR HAMILTON: I agree with that.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I thought this was the place to bring it up because it’s the report from the manager and it seems to be –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: There does seem to be a problem but it seems to me we need more information and it should be an agenda item. COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Maybe it needs to be an agenda item or maybe we just need to find out what’s going on and it could be corrected at a staff level. I don’t think you can bring it up here.
NANCY LONG (BDDB Counsel): Madam Chair, Mr. Carpenter can review the issue and get back to you. It may not need to be an agenda item. COMMISSIONER HANSEN: It seems kind of serious. I don’t even know who Mr. Prada is but since everybody received it –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: He’s sitting in the front row with the black shirt.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay. So, welcome. So then the other issue is I would like some more information on what’s going on with this.
MR. CARPENTER: I would be happy to review that and bring it back to the Board or through an email to answer your questions if that helps.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, then the other question I have is – CHAIR HAMILTON: For facilities?
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Well, it’s for the Facilities Manager. What kind of succession planning are we doing?
MR. CARPENTER: That’s a good question and I am glad you brought it up. We’re having a lot of discussion on that recently including a long discussion with Dr. Roach just yesterday.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Again, point of order. I have no idea what they talked about. Is somebody leaving?
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Nobody is leaving but –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Again, I think – I don’t know who we are succession planning for.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: No, but we talked about this in general many times in this Board meeting and you know, it’s a general topic and – COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Since I’ve been a member, I have never heard this topic.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay. Well, both Commissioner Hamilton and I have been on the Board.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: You have been on here longer for sure. Again, point of order: I’m not sure if this is an appropriate topic either because it’s not noticed. There is no notice to the public that they could be talking about succession planning. The Facilities Manager provides a report and then we can ask questions based on that report but anything outside of that report – well, if you want to know about succession planning I think you need to ask the facilities manager to do a presentation on succession planning.
CHAIR HAMILTON: So a point for Nancy. In the past we’ve been able to ask how to fill certain positions. Are you – and what kind of planning are you doing for that sort of thing. It seems like – how do you make the break from that and planning for personnel slightly longer term which is what succession planning is. When does it become inappropriate to ask the Facilities Manager about facilities management?
MS. LONG: Madam Chair, I think it’s sort of a broader topic is that if there is going to be discussion on a specific item it should properly be noticed so that the public knows that it is going to be addressed. The Facilities Manager’s report typically have these are the number of vacancies, these have been filled and so Mr. Carpenter would write a report on that. Then there would be questions to him about that report and positions within that report because he had already mentioned it in his report. It really should be questions directed to the report. Something like this is related certainly if you’re talking about succession planning so probably if there’s going to be discussion on it to ask the Facilities Manager to consider that as an agenda item in the future or part of the this Facilities Manager report as a subtopic on that and then people would know that that’s what we’re going to be talking about.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Excellent.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Yes, I would like a report from the Facilities Manager on succession planning, not only just for employees but for yourself also, and what we’re doing to be prepared for the future.
MR. CARPENTER: I would be happy to do that.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Excellent. Does anyone else have questions for Rick? Thank you so much, Rick.
8. ACTION ITEMS
a. Request for approval of a General Services Agreement with Andritz Separation Inc. for Centrifuge installation including parts and labor in the amount of $172,416.00 plus freight and New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax
CHAIR HAMILTON: Rick and Bradley, I assume you’ll do this together.
MR. CARPENTER: Madam Chair, I can maybe answer and if there’s a question I can’t answer we’ll go to Bradley.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Excellent, thank you, and thank you for being here.
MR. CARPENTER: This was mentioned earlier under major repair and replacement and funded by that. It is for VFDs’ centrifuges. The centrifuges are integral to the operation of the plant. These are repairs that are absolutely needed. We did put this on our one-year plan for the major repair and replacement plan so we’re now bringing it forward for approval.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Did we approve something similar last month?
MR. CARPENTER: Madam Chair, we have never brought this to the Board. This is the first time that these VFDs are going to be replaced since they were originally installed.
MS. LONG: Madam Chair.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Yes.
MS. LONG: This was on the agenda and it was postponed until this meeting because we had some issues with the contract. So you’re correct that you saw this particular item before.
MR. CARPENTER: I’m sorry. I misinterpreted your question.
CHAIR HAMILTON: No, no. I just know that I had seen it before and I didn’t know if we had discussed under another needed repair topic. It just was familiar and I appreciate the refresher. So does anybody have any questions on this item? Yes, Commissioner Hansen.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I would like to know, if this is the first time that we are replacing them since 2011 or before?
MR. CARPENTER: These particular pieces of equipment were originally installed when the plant came on line in 2011.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, so is this their normal life?
MR. CARPENTER: They have reached their normal life span.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: What the manufacturer says is the normal life extension of these?
MR. CARPENTER: We can’t get any more use out of them. They have to be replaced.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Yes, of course. That’s all I had, Madam Chair.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Councilor.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a procedural or technical question. So we’re doing a budget adjustment request. Is that typically how we handle this, is that we have money in the Major Repair and Replacement Fund and then when we want to use it we do a budget adjustment request for the Major Repair and Replacement Fund to where? This is how we do this; is that right?
CHAIR HAMILTON: I think it’s through the operations budget.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Okay.
CHAIR HAMILTON: That’s the way –
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: I am just confirming because –
CHAIR HAMILTON: You should confirm.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: I know we have had lots of conversations about the major repair and replacement fund but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen us actually use it. Maybe we do all the time and I wasn’t paying attention. MS. LONG: Madam Chair and Councilor Romero-Wirth, I think this is how it is typically done. I questioned Antoinette about this as well and she had questioned Mackie about it that it is done as a budget adjustment request. That is how the City wants to see it even though it is going from Major Repair and Replacement. COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: So the budget adjustment request is to move it from Major Repair and Replacement Fund to – what did you call that, Madam Chair?
CHAIR HAMILTON: Operations budget. There would be a code for that and Antoinette would know it.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: And we don’t have Antoinette. I’ll follow up with her, thanks.
COUNCILOR VILLARREAL: Madam Chair.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Yes.
COUNCILOR VILLARREAL: Just to clarify. In the memo we talk about a budget adjustment, a BAR, and then in the caption we don’t say that.
CHAIR HAMILTON: That’s what I was just about to say. So thank you so much.
COUNCILOR VILLARREAL: So is that a problem that it doesn’t match?
MS. LONG: I think the only item that could be approved, Madam Chair, is what’s on the agenda and we’ll see if that presents any issues for Antoinette that requires any follow-up. But otherwise I would recommend that you approve just what has been noticed.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Yes. And thank you for recognizing and bringing that up.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Yes, I was asking her on the side – so we can’t approve the BAR but maybe we need to bring that back next time. We can approve this and the BAR can be approved next month.
MS. LONG: Yes, that is correct, Commissioner. I would advise just approving the contract and we’ll follow up with Antoinette and see if she needs approval for the BAR and we can add that to next month’s agenda.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Okay, that sounds great. Thank you.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Madam Chair.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Yes.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: I don’t think we need to ask her. I think that does need to – a BAR needs to be approved by the Board.
MS. LONG: I agree.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: So that needs to come back.
MS. LONG: If it is required for this contract and we will report back anyway. But I agree it would have to be approved by the Board.
COUNCILOR ROMERO-WIRTH: Yeah, I don’t think it’s required by the contract. I think it is required by the budgeting process procedurally. We have to approve budget adjustment requests; staff can’t just do that without our seal of approval. So I don’t think this is an if. I agree with Commissioner Hansen, this does need to come back to us so we can approve the BAR on the contract.
MS. LONG: Okay, we will follow up on that.
CHAIR HAMILTON: I think the question is, not having the BAR approved the first week of November is a problem and if there is an alternate way to vote on the BAR separately, if there can be a special meeting without meeting in person for just that vote – if there’s some mechanism, if it is needed. I have no idea. Okay.
MS. LONG: Yes, Madam Chair. I will follow up with Antoinette and see what she needs in order to get the contract going.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Madam Chair.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I will make the motion to request approval of a general service agreement with Andritz Separation, Inc. for a centrifuge installation including parts and labor in the amount of $172,416 plus freight and New Mexico Gross Receipts.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Thank you. I have a motion. Is there a second? MR. HELMS: Second.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Thank you. Is there any further discussion? If not, I have a motion and a second.
The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
9. MATTERS FROM THE PUBLIC
CHAIR HAMILTON: Is there anyone from the public that wishes to speak to the BDD Boards? Seeing none, I will close matter of the public.
10. MATTERS FROM THE BOARD
CHAIR HAMILTON: Are there any matters from the Board? Seeing none, I’ll close matters from the Board. I think I may be taking a record here. [light banter]
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Madam Chair, pardon me. I want to bring something up.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Okay, Commissioner Hansen.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: So, I want to know if it’s possible for us to write a letter in support of Secretary Kenney’s MDA C request for cleaning material disposal Area C at LANL. This is a huge pit that is unlined, has waste from the ‘50s and ‘60s and I would like to have a letter from the Board in support of his action to have this cleaned up because it is directly above our water system and we have no idea what kind of contaminants are in MDA C. I am writing a letter for the County and would be happy to share that information with Kyle and he could – because the comments are due on November 6th.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Okay. I think that is another thing that needs to come up for Board discussion next time. So if you want to share the letter and – is there a problem if Commissioner Hansen writes a letter and just provides it to Board members so they look at it and they think about when it comes up on the agenda next, if it comes up on the agenda, next time?
MS. LONG: Madam Chair, no, I don’t think there’s a problem with that public document that she could share. But in terms of the Board’s action on it, it would need to be on the agenda and you don’t know if your letter is going to match that exactly but it’s just informational.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Yeah, I wasn’t asking for any vote or anything right now. It’s just making a comment on it.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Okay, a request.
COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I’m making a request, thank you.
CHAIR HAMILTON: Okay, thank you. Anybody else while we have Board matters opened again?
11. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
12. ADJOURN
Having completed the agenda and with no further business to come before the Board, Chair Hamilton declared this meeting adjourned at approximately 4:26 p.m.
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