Mark Dolson
Mostly Routine Business Matters
As noted in my report last month, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) Board now
meets regularly on the first Thursday of each month, rather than on the first and third
Thursdays. Unfortunately, the meeting scheduled for April 4 th had to be cancelled due to lack of
a quorum, so a special meeting was held on April 18 th using the agenda originally prepared for
April 4 th . Director Mahood participated in the April 18 th Closed Session (from which there was
nothing to report) but was called away prior to the Open Session to attend to a family health
emergency.
The Board voted 3-1 to amend its contract with Raftelis (the firm that assisted the District with
its recent rate study) to allow for payment for some expenses beyond the scope of the original
contract (including some related work still in progress), increasing the maximum allowable
payment from $99,035 to $119,120. The Board also voted 3-1 to reinstate and continue its
contract with Miller Maxfield for outreach support. The original contract was for one year and
expired in July, 2023. The new contract is for two years beginning April 1, 2024 and is for a
maximum of $150,000 over this two-year span. (This is still considerably less expensive than
having a full-time public relations professional on staff.) Director Fultz cast the lone opposing
vote for each of these contract adjustments because he was unsatisfied with the performance
of the two consulting companies.
The Board voted 4-0 to approve a total of eight additional engineering change orders
distributed across three separate agenda items. In each case, the Directors had detailed
questions for District Engineer Garrett Roffe and Interim General Manager Brian Frus, but they
were ultimately satisfied that the District was pursuing the best available course of action. The
Directors also noted that some of their questions related to decisions that were made long
before Garrett and Brian joined the District.
The Board voted 4-0 to enable the District to pursue additional State funding in support of the
planned consolidation with Forest Springs. A key concern is that the Forest Springs and Bracken
Brae consolidations should not impose any additional financial burden on current SLVWD
customers. However, the $3.2 million in State funding obtained prior to 2024 and a recent $1
million earmark via State Representative Jimmy Panetta are not sufficient to complete all the
required improvements in Forest Springs and Bracken Brae. The current strategy is therefore to
proceed incrementally as additional funding becomes available. Meanwhile, the District is
working toward separate draft pre-consolidation agreements with Forest Springs and Bracken
Brae.
Interim General Manager Brian Frus delivered his quarterly status report for the District. The
new rate structure took effect March 1, 2024, but there will likely still be some further
customer reaction when the first corresponding bills are received in April. District spending is
currently tracking fairly closely to the budget, and Brian and Staff have recently taken steps to
update project priorities and improve efficiency. A new District Secretary has been hired to
replace the retiring District Secretary, but the search for a permanent Finance Manager is still
continuing.
The next public meeting of the Board of Directors will be on May 2 nd at 6:30 p.m.
