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BOARD MEETING MINUTES

REGULAR MEETING
SATURDAY, JULY 21, 2007

A.    CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

Director Sapanai called a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Stinson Beach County Water District to order on Saturday, July 21, 2007 at 9:00a.m., at the District Office located at 3785 Shoreline Highway in Stinson Beach, California.

Directors present:
Elizabeth Sapanai, President
Jim Zell, Vice President
Lawrence Baskin, Director
Barbara Boucke, Director
Scott Tye, Director

General Manager present:
Ed Schmidt

Staff present:
Toby Bisson
Christine Casper

B.    PUBLIC EXPRESSION

Director Boucke asked for a status report on the Park Service's pool of water on the beach. Toby Bisson stated that there are two areas of concern, the seepage at the central bathrooms and the area near the lifeguard station. Director Tye added that the area near the lifeguard station has been posted with "contaminated water" signs.

C.    SETTING OF AGENDA

Motion to adopt the agenda as presented made by Director Baskin, seconded by Director Tye and approved by unanimous vote.

D.    APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion to approve minutes for Wednesday, June 6th made by Director Baskin, seconded by Director Boucke and approved by unanimous vote with the following amendments: page 2, line 10 eliminate the space in the numbers, page 2, line 38 the word "board" shall be changed to "District," and on page 2, line 48 "Construction in Progress Reserve" shall be changed to "Construction Reserve."

Motion to approve minutes for Saturday, June 23 made by Director Baskin, seconded by Director Boucke and approved by unanimous vote with the following amendment: page 3, line 42, "Fruckman" shall be changed to "Fruchtman."

E.    APPROVAL OF DISBURSEMENTS

Motion to approve disbursements for June 6, June 13 and June 28 made by Director Boucke, seconded by Director Baskin and approved by unanimous vote.

Director Sapanai asked the board to consider for approval two board compensation request forms in addition to the one in the board packet submitted by Jim Zell. Motion to approve the following Board Member Compensation Requests made by Director Boucke, seconded by Director Baskin and approved by unanimous vote: Jim Zell, May 14 Water Operations; Director Sapanai, 6/25 Legal and 7/20 Wastewater; Scott Tye, 7/2 Water Operations and 7/20 Wastewater.

E.    MANAGER'S REPORT

Ed Schmidt stated that he is impressed with staff's cooperation and willingness to help each other. Staff has been preparing for the annual financial audit. The Water Operations committee has met. Chris Kelly has been busy completing wastewater inspections; a few controversial inspections have required additional staff time. Field staff has completed considerable work at the fire department. They installed the water line and the fire hydrant and brought in some topsoil and gravel. Toby has ordered parts to replace the tie-ins for the streets that the county plans to overlay this summer.

Director Zell asked for an explanation regarding the complaints from the backflow inspectors mentioned in the Manager's Report. Ed Schmidt replied that the private enterprise backflow inspectors feel that the District is taking business away from them; those inspectors would like an automatic backflow test notification sent to them instead of to the homeowners. In addition, the private enterprise backflow inspectors have complained about the low quality of the water on Dipsea Road, which could be caused by an incorrectly installed backflow device or by the District not flushing the line enough to keep it clear. Mr. Schmidt added that one of the backflow inspectors complained of water loss because a failed backflow device was dripping water; Toby was asked to monitor the loss with a bucket and a stopwatch, and the water loss was determined to be approximately seventy-three cents a billing cycle.

Mr. Schmidt reported that he has not yet received a response on the letter included in the "Correspondence" section of the board packet.

G.    PUBLIC HEARING

  1. Consideration/Adoption of a Draft Resolution Granting a Variance for Property Located at 3715 Shoreline Highway, AP# 195-162-45, Lynette Sutton, Owner: Director Zell excused himself from the meeting due to a conflict of interest (his home's proximity to the property in question). Director Baskin announced that he would be abstaining from voting on this public hearing since he previously advised Mr. Sutton on the development of his property, but would be participating in the discussion. Director Sapanai stated that she has not yet received a report from the Regional Water Quality Control Board for this project; Blair Allen (at yesterday's Wastewater Committee meeting) stated that he did not have time to forward written comments; thus, Director Sapanai recommended continuing the hearing to August.

    Jamie Sutton stated that he has a time-sensitive permit from fish and game to remove Elwood's off the creek. And, since he sent out a notice to all of his neighbors that today is the hearing to learn the particulars of the project, he would like to have the hearing today.

    Director Sapanai replied to Mr. Sutton that she can not hear an application without comments from the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Director Sapanai stated that she plans to challenge his "neighbor notification" for this meeting because the notice went out as a letter from Questa Engineering with the "Notice of Request for Variance" form tacked on to the back of the packet. Director Sapanai added that due to this occurrence, the District has begun the process of changing its procedure, such that the District will take over responsibility for neighbor notification; personal information and engineer's information does not go out with the variance notice. Therefore, Director Sapanai advised Mr. Sutton that it would behoove him to renotice his neighbors.

    Mr. Sutton replied that the notice did not go out as described by Director Sapanai. Notice for the Onda property went out at the end of May for a June hearing. He personally stuffed the envelopes. Attached to the notice was the application, and the application includes the findings of fact. For the Onda property he sent out a second notice, which was clearly a notice of postponement of the hearing to this date. Mr. Sutton stated that his notification procedure cannot be challenged.

    Director Sapanai replied that she disagrees with Mr. Sutton's statement because she saw the notification packet received by two separate homeowners, and the date of the notice was not in front of the other documents.

    Mr. Sutton clarified that he is referring to the notice for the Onda property. Two notices were sent out for the Onda property; the first one was the whole package, and the second one was a letter that was a notice of postponement to this date from the originally scheduled date in June.

    Director Sapanai replied that she may have been looking at the notice for the other property. Mr. Sutton said that he prepared the same information for the other property, but he did not personally stuff the envelopes. His secretary stapled all the documents together and sent them out with the findings of fact on top and the notice in the back.

    Director Tye stated that he has a problem with the notification, too. Director Tye addressed Norm Hantzsche since the notification went out of his office, and said that by splitting the lot and sending the notifications out to different groups of neighbors he acted inappropriately. Mr. Hantzsche acknowledged the possibility that some neighbors were missed. Mr. Hantzsche stated that in the past his office has always had cooperation from the District Office to obtain notification information, but this time someone from the District Office told him that he couldn't get any information at the District Office and that he would have to go to the county. Director Sapanai asked the name of the staff member that denied him the information; Mr. Hantzsche replied that he does not know, that he did not personally make the contact. Ed Schmidt stated that he would follow-up with Mr. Hantzsche to investigate his allegation.

    Director Sapanai stated that Mr. Sutton's request to present his side of the meeting without the ability to ask/respond to questions based upon comments from the Regional Water Quality Control Board is problematic. Director Baskin suggested that as a convenience to the members of the community who attended the public hearing, that the board might hear their comments/concerns today. Director Sapanai stated that those who speak today will be precluded from speaking again on the same issues at a later date, but it would not preclude them from discussing anything new that comes up at the next meeting.

    Crispin Livak, of 3 Calle Del Resaca, asked the name of the agency whose comments are pending. Director Sapanai responded that it is the Regional Water Quality Control Board; the District needs to obtain their approval on variances before action is taken. Ms. Livak stated that it seems in her best interest to hold comments until the information from regional is obtained.

    Director Sapanai suggested that before Mr. Sutton addresses any issues that were discussed by Blair Allen at the Wastewater Committee meeting yesterday, that he wait until the District has written comments from him. Director Sapanai stated that Blair Allen has 30 days to respond; July 3 was the day that the District received the plans, so Blair Allen probably received them July 10th or 12th.

    Norm Hantzsche stated that he believes there is an error in the listing of variances [by the District's engineer] because importation of soil is not a variance.

    Director Sapanai stated for the record that the applicant wants to proceed with the hearing, understanding that he will be limited at the next meeting to discussing only new information.

    Director Boucke suggested that, since section 4.64.040 "Importation of Soil" is listed as a requested variance for both of the properties, the board address that issue now. Mr. Hantzsche said that the importation of soil applies to the need for additional soil to meet the soil depth requirement; bedrock is at 20 feet on the property, so they don't have the soil depth requirement. Director Tye stated that he did not see an engineer's report establishing Mr. Hantzsche's claim. Mr. Hantzsche replied that the site has been drilled and those reports are on file; Director Tye replied that the District's engineer [in his reports] disagrees with Mr. Hantzsche's assertion. Mr. Hantzsche said that the code specifies that the soil depth shall be three feet; they have greater than the required three feet, so a variance does not apply. Director Tye replied that it is three feet to groundwater. Mr. Hantzsche said that they used the raised bed design to meet the depth to groundwater.

    Director Sapanai stated that she believes it is in the applicant's best interest to have all parts of the public hearings heard at the same time [at the next board meeting].

    Director Sapanai stated that by consensus and agreement of the applicant, this item is continued to the August 18, 2007 board meeting.

    Mr. Sutton asked the board if he should renotice his neighbors. Director Sapanai replied that there is no need to send out a new notice when an item has been continued; however, she is concerned that for one of his parcels the notice was inadequate because the variance notification form was not on top of the documents sent with it.

    The board members stated that they will keep the board packet materials for Mr. Sutton's hearings in their binders for the August 18th meeting.

    The board made the following request of staff: the wastewater engineer's memos to the board regarding variances shall include two columns "required" and "requested."

    Mr. Sutton stated that he [and his consultants] have been to a number of Wastewater Committee meetings with Rich Souza and Mr. Dinges, seeking guidance from the board and committee in an effort to solve the problems associated with developing his property; he has hired the best people to try to solve the problems, but the input he receives from District representatives changes. Mr. Sutton stated that following each of his meetings with staff, he is faced with a different set of requirements. Following some discussion, Mr. Sutton stated that he is willing to meet again with the Wastewater Committee to discuss the possibility of addressing the parcels as a single property.

    A Wastewater Committee meeting to discuss Mr. Sutton's property was set for Friday, August 10th at 2:00p.m.
  2. Consideration/Adoption of a Draft Resolution Granting a Variance for Property Located at 3715 Shoreline Highway, AP# 195-162-46, Homer Theater LLC, Owner: This item was continued to the Saturday, August 18th board meeting.

H.    GENERAL BUSINESS

  1. Consideration/Adoption of a Resolution to Approve an Amendment to Contract with the California Public Employees' Retirement System: Motion to approve the resolution made by Director Baskin, seconded by Director Boucke and approved by unanimous vote.
  2. Discussion and Possible Direction to Staff to Convene a Public Hearing at the August 18th Board Meeting for the Purpose of Raising Fees for some Wastewater Program Related Services and Increasing the Initial Water Connection Fee. Motion to approve revised fee schedule made by Director Baskin, seconded by Director Boucke.

    Director Tye asked why "Site Review and/or Field Consultation" was changed from $400 to $200; Toby Bisson replied that that line item should actually reflect two separate fees; site review for a vacant lot should be $400 and site review for an existing house should be $200.

    Director Zell asked if the design review fee [for wastewater systems] is charged a second time if a new set of plans is submitted for a property. Director Tye replied that recharging the design fee is dependent upon the extent of the changes in the resubmittal. Director Sapanai stated that the District should clearly define what constitutes a simple resubmittal versus a complex resubmittal, and that the District should also draft language to specify that the Design Review Fee shall cover "x" numbers of engineering hours; once that number of hours in exceeded, the applicant will be billed for additional hours. Director Sapanai suggested researching what the county charges for comparable services before drafting the parameters of the fees. The board referred the investigation of design review fee parameters to staff.

    Director Sapanai stated that since the Wastewater Committee is discussing changing the [public hearing of variance] neighbor notification procedure to be the responsibility of the District instead of the applicant, the board may consider adding a "neighbor notification fee".

    Director Tye stated that the "Water Service Feasibility Study" fee seems low.

    Director Zell stated that the copy of the "District Wastewater Policy (Title 4)" seems low.

    Director Baskin withdrew his motion to approve the attached fee schedule and requested that staff revise the fee chart so the board can revisit this agenda item at the next board meeting.

I.    COMMITTEE REPORTS

Director Sapanai and Director Tye reported that the Wastewater Committee discussed wastewater alarms, neighbor notification of public hearings, and the park. Director Zell asked if there have been any new developments regarding the step system in the park. Director Tye replied that a reporter from the Chronicle returned his call regarding doing a report on the showers, but informed him that the Park Service does not plan to do anything regarding the issue. Director Sapanai stated that at one time the District made a formal request regarding the step system; Brian O'Neil responded with interest but did not follow-up on the project. Director Tye noted that at that time there was not a perceived wastewater surface and subsurface polluting problem, but now there is; therefore, there may be more interest in the project now. Director Sapanai agreed that it may be time to raise the issue again. The board agreed to revisit this topic in the near future.

Director Boucke, of the Finance Committee, stressed the importance of posting the fourteen day notice regarding the proposed raised frees for 2007-2008 so that the public hearing can be August 18; delaying the hearing may effect the budget.

Ed Schmidt stated that staff will prepare a resolution for the proposed fee increases for the August 18th board meeting. Motion to set the public hearing on fee increases for Saturday, August 18th made by Director Tye, seconded by Director Boucke and approved by unanimous vote.

Director Zell, of the Personnel Committee, stated that he would like the Personnel Committee to meet with Ed Schmidt in October or November to discuss staff.

Director Zell asked for a status report on the contract with Verizon. Ed Schmidt responded that the Legal Committee forwarded some suggested changes to the contract to Ray McDevitt, District Counsel, for review.

The next regular board meeting was set for Saturday, August 18th at 9:30a.m.

The board members requested that staff leave the information for the two public hearings in the binders for the August board meeting.

J.    ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned by unanimous vote.

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