Mark Dolson
Board appoints Jayme Ackemann to fill vacant Director seat.
The May 6th Board Meeting for the SLVWD was most notable for the unanimous appointment of Jayme Ackemann to fill the Board’s vacant Director seat. The Board publicly interviewed two candidates and concluded that both were highly qualified. Jayme has previously worked at San Jose Water and is particularly skilled in facilitating group decision-making and engagement with the community. In contrast, Alina Layng cited an extensive background in fisheries and aquatic biology. The Board ultimately selected Jayme but encouraged Alina to remain involved with the District.
In the remaining ninety minutes of the meeting, the Board (now including Jayme) efficiently worked its way through a long list of agenda items. Jayme was assigned to take the place of President Mahood on the Administration Committee, and the Board agreed to let the Chairs of the Budget and Finance Committee and the Environmental Committee recommend next steps with regard to recently created vacancies for public members on their respective committees.
Following some illuminating discussion, the Board reaffirmed the District’s current Stage 2 Water Shortage Emergency status (which was similarly reaffirmed in 2018). Accumulated SLV precipitation is only at 40% of average, and several of the District’s surface water diversions are still offline due to CZU Fire damage. Nevertheless, the District has determined that water supply conditions are still being met, so it would be premature to move to Stage 3. The District will be focusing attention this summer primarily on reducing outdoor water use (and it will also continue its current drive to reduce leakage within its distribution system).
The Board also approved multiple contracts with external service providers. One of these was for $134,200 for rehabilitation of a trail cut immediately following the CZU Fire for pipeline construction (this will be 75% funded by FEMA). Another was for $162,130 for investigation and design of a new access road for the District’s Lyon water treatment and storage complex. The idea here (which appears promising) is to take advantage of CZU Fire damage (which forced the removal of some 400 trees) to find an alternate path up the hill to the Lyon complex. This could greatly reduce the expense of the still-pending hillside stabilization project which has been in the works since a 2017 landslide damaged the original access road.
In addition, the Board approved a contract with Susan Robinson as a grant writing consultant with a limit of $35,000 through the coming Fiscal Year. Susan has an impressive track record of helping clients (including the City of Santa Cruz) to identify and obtain grants to assist with funding for operations, infrastructure, and other programs. Currently, many grant opportunities are being missed due to insufficient staff resources, so this is an attempt to find a cost-effective way of overcoming this limitation.
In other business, the Board approved a connection fee waiver for a new meter for a property that had been receiving free, unmetered water from the District via an ancient pipe (dating back over a century to a previous water supplier) before it was destroyed in the CZU Fire. Lastly, the Board approved a revised version of the District’s badly outdated Purchasing and Procurement Procedures.
The controversial SLVWD/Scotts Valley Water District consolidation proposal will be revisited at the May 20th Board meeting when the two District Managers complete their initial report on potential benefits and drawbacks.
