Mohawk Valley Water Authority – July 20, 2009

Chairman DeLia called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call: Present: Rocco Arcuri, Bruce Brodsky, Vincent Coyne, Elis DeLia, George Gaston, Nate Price, Don Ryan, A. Eugene Snyder, Bette Szesny and John Wallace. Absent: Mr. Trevisani and Mr. Wicks. Also Present: Edward Earl, Mario Bequer, Steve Gassner, James Korfonta, Jim Mack, Connie Schreppel, and Donald Weimer.

Chairman DeLia presided and Suzanne Harmon took the minutes.

Approval of the June 8, 2009 Minutes:

Motion made with two amendments in the committee reports by: Mr. Coyne.

Seconded by: Mr. Brodsky

Vote: (8) Ayes (0) Nays (2) Abstain - Mr. Arcuri & Mr. Ryan (2) Absent

Motion Carried.

Vehicle Auction: Consideration for Outside Auctioneer

In accordance with the MVWA current policy for the disposal of surplus assets, the MVWA accepts competitive prices when auctioning off older vehicles as they are replaced. Under the present procedure, an advertisement is placed in the newspaper inviting potential buyers to inspect the vehicles at the property on Kemble Street. Written bids are submitted and the vehicles go to the high bidder per item.

An auctioneer company, J.J. Kane Auctioneers of Rome, has proposed selling the vehicles for the MVWA. Their auctions are well advertised and open to the general public and done on an absolute basis. The MVWA would have to deliver the vehicles to the Rome site and they handle everything else including title transfers. The auction company would be paid by retaining a 5% commission off the sale price of each vehicle. J.J. Kane conducts three such auctions in Rome per year, with their next scheduled auction on August 29. The MVWA presently has 8-10 older vehicles ready for disposal. We recommend the Board consider granting permission on a one-time trial basis to send these to the J.J. Kane auction.

Motion made by: Mr. Snyder Seconded by: Mr. Ryan

Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion Carried.

Presentation on the Vehicle Tracking System

Jim Mack, Director of IT gave an AVLS presentation on the tracking system for the MVWA. Jim showed a trip report with a map of the vehicle locations, distance report and a detailed report with vehicle number, time, speed and location.

Amending Contract with CH2M Hill

During the past several months, MVWA’s IT Department has installed an updated operating system for the network and has added considerably more file space to the servers. The
GIS software that was supplied and installed by the firm of CH2M Hill also needs to be updated to their newest version in order to get the full use of the application in conjunction with the updated platform. It is therefore requested that the firm of CH2M Hill be retained to accomplish the GIS upgrade at a cost not to exceed $600. Funds for this improvement have been included in the capital budget for the GIS and Hydraulic Modeling programs.

Motion made by: Mr. Ryan Seconded by: Mr. Brodsky

Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion Carried.

Committee Reports:

Chairman DeLia asked the chair of each committee to remain the same with the exception of the following:

Rocco Arcuri to chair the Budget and Finance Committee.

Bruce Brodsky to chair the Audit Committee.

Vincent Coyne to chair the Governance Committee.

Mr. Brodsky and Mr. Coyne will get back to the Chairman on names of Board members serving on their committees.

Capital Projects: Mr. DeLia stated that the committee did not meet this month due to a lack of agenda items.

Budget and Finance: Mr. Korfonta stated that the MVWA went through the audit and under the Public Authorities Law the MVWA had to file by June 30, 2009, which they did, and we are in compliance with the audit and financial reporting. Copies of the Audit Report are available for Board members. Mr. Korfonta will be sending this report to county, towns and villages in our area with a cover letter. In the monthly packet there was the May and June financial report. Consumption was down by approximately 22 million cubic feet. Water sales are on track and cash flow went up by one percent. What the MVWA is billing they are collecting. April consumption went up, May and June went down, which needs to be looked at by the Budget and Finance Committee along with the rate model.

The auditors are required to meet with the Audit Committee and after that meeting they will come to the full board as well with their report.

Mr. Arcuri will be setting up a schedule for the committee to meet every month on the same day and time, along with sending an agenda out every month and taking a look at the financial statement.

Personnel Committee: Mr. Ryan stated that the committee did meet and would like to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel matters.

Operations: Mr. Price stated that the committee did not meet this month.

Chairman DeLia asked Ms. Szesny to set-up a By-Laws committee meeting this month to wrap it up.

Executive Director’s Report:

Mr. Becher stated that he will cover his report in executive session.

The engineering position has resumes coming in now and hopefully by next month HR will have candidates for interviews.

Old Business:

Chairman DeLia asked Steve Gassner to talk about a letter he received regarding a customer of the MVWA. The company shows 9 accounts linked to this one company, GID Properties, with past due balances. The HELP program has adjusted their balance twice in the past few years. The current issue is a series of billings totaling over $11,000 in water and sewer charges. These are rental properties. Due to the situation the MVWA allotted another $5,000 in credits to the customer’s bill but they did not seem happy with that. Mr. Gassner asked them to make a good faith payment, which they did not do. Mr. Gassner feels that the MVWA has gone above and beyond to try and handle this situation. Chairman DeLia stated that Mr. Gassner has been operating under the MVWA’s guidelines that the board has set and that he can proceed with the process. If the landlord would like to speak to someone from the MVWA it will be Mr. Gassner.

Mr. Coyne wanted to compliment Mr. Brodsky on the fine job he has done as the past chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.

Mr. Snyder would like to know if there are any board members who have not yet attended the Public Authorities Board training. If so, they should attend the next class being held in Syracuse.

Mr. Brodsky stated that there is an update on Public Authorities Law. A few of the highlights are: 1) Board members are independent of who appoints them, 2) Purchases – fair market price and 3) the Whistleblower Policy at a State level.

The Senate passed the bill a month after the Assembly passed it 140-0. The Governor still needs to approve it.

Mr. Coyne moved to go into Executive Session at 5:40 PM to discuss litigation communications and MVWA personnel matters. Seconded by: Mr. Snyder. Motion Carried.

Executive Session:

Went into executive session at 5:46 PM.

Motion made by Mr. Gaston to come out of Executive Session at 6:35 PM.

Seconded by: Mr. Coyne Motion Carried.

Motion made in Executive Session by Mr. Coyne to extend the Executive Director’s Contract for one year bringing it to 3/31/10. Seconded by: Mr. Ryan.

Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion carried.

Motion made in Executive Session by Mr. Coyne to extend the Comptroller’s Contract for one year bringing it to 3/31/10 conditional on the Comptroller signing the contract. Raise the Comptroller’s pay, based on current salary, by 4% for the time that he did not sign the contract and from there forward receive a 4% retro active increase for this year only.

Seconded by: Mr. Gaston.

Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion carried

The next Board meeting will be held on Monday, August 17, 2009.

Respectfully submitted,

__________________________

Suzanne M. Harmon, Secretary

Mohawk Valley Water Authority