Mohawk Valley Water Authority – June 18, 2007

Chairman Gaston called the meeting to order at 5:03 PM and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call:  Present: Bruce Brodsky, Rolf Buchner, Vincent Coyne, Elis DeLia, George Gaston, Nathaniel Price, Millicent Rader-Harris, Donald Ryan, A. Eugene Snyder, Bette Szesny and Frank Trevisani.  Absent: Joseph Hobika, Jr.  Also present: Patrick Becher, Mario Bequer, Edward Earl, James Korfonta, Connie Schreppel and Donald Weimer.   

Approval of the May 21, 2007 Minutes:

Ms. Rader-Harris objected to the minutes because her comments at the last Board meeting were not included.

Motion made by Mr. DeLia to move the minutes as presented.  Seconded by Mr. Ryan.   

Vote:   (8) Ayes   (1) Nays (Ms. Rader-Harris)  (2) Abstain  (Mr. Coyne & Mr. Price)   (1) Absent     

Motion carried.

Presentation: Updated Water Loss Audit

Mr. Weimer stated that the unaccounted water ratio measures the Authority’s loss of treated water from the filtration plant to its customers.  Best Practice (Industry Standard) states that water systems with 20% – 30% loss are in the medium range for standard losses.  Factors such as fire fighting, leakage, evaporation and amounts used for system backwash may impact the percentage of water loss.  Other factors for water accountability are theft, tank cleaning and refill of tanks, change in reservoir storage, water pressure regulators, GIS and flushing to improve water quality.  Leaks and main breaks account for 29.1% in CY 2006.  Additional master metering in the West Canada Zone would improve water audit accuracy.

Mr. Snyder stated that he would like a tour of the MVWA’s Water Treatment Plant.  Mr. Becher stated that he would set that up.

Committee Reports:

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

Budget and Finance:  Mr. Brodsky stated that the MVWA’s cash position is above estimates but  will be reduced in the next few months.  The Comptroller will continue to monitor the impact of legal costs on overall cash into the new fiscal year.  The budget is on target.  New production in consumption charts are in the report now.  There will be a Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, June 21 at 5:00 pm.  The following issues will be discussed: update on the audit, discussion on an executive summary addition to the financial report and discussion on zero consumption and estimated read meters.  The field audit is complete and the feed back was good.  The opinion will come in a couple of weeks.   

Personnel Committee:  Mr. Coyne stated that the committee did not meet this month.

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

Executive Director’s Report: 

• Mr. Becher and Mr. Korfonta spoke with Rich McCarthy from Environmental Capital LLC regarding the MVWA’s investments of the 2006A Debt Reserve Fund, which will give the MVWA a 4.6% yield.  This will amount to approximately $30,000 of additional interest earnings for the current fiscal year.    
• Mr. Becher suggested that the Operations Committee meet with Steve Gassner, Customer Service Manager to discuss partnering with other agencies in the area for shared services.   
• Mr. Becher and Mr. Goodney gave a presentation to the Herkimer County Legislature along with Barton & Loguidice on May 30, 2007 at 7:00 PM regarding the water dispute.     
• A Media Briefing was held by Mr. Becher on June 15, 2007 at the Radisson Hotel and the following are highlights from the briefing:

-          Today there are no companies with surviving rights under the 1917 Agreement.  The agreement is defunct.

-          The Gray Reservoir has been empty since 1984 because it was deemed unsafe.

-          Some of the ongoing damages are to Kirkland and Schuyler funding for new water districts has been lost. 

-          Hinckley Reservoir was designed to have a minimum “safe yield” of 285 million gallons per day (mgd) at all times.

-          The reservoir water level was intended to fluctuate by nearly 35 feet during each year.

-          MVWA currently uses about 3% of all water passing through Hinckley Reservoir.

-          All of the data and modeling analyses clearly demonstrate that the reservoir can supply MVWA’s permitted 48.5 MGD and 5 times the amount currently used for canal operations from Hinckley Reservoir.

-          The analysis also shows that this amount of water was available even during the worst drought of the century in 1964.

Mr. Becher had a list of deposition dates coming up in the next month and stated that this Fall there should be a conclusion to the litigation.  Mr. Becher stated that the depositions are public knowledge and are readily available.

A motion was made by Mr. Buchner to take a vote by a show of hands that the MVWA Board supports the Executive Director in all that he has done so far and that the Board supports his position, his actions and all the records that he has brought forward so far.  Seconded by Mr. DeLia.

Mr. Snyder asked for a roll call vote.  Mr. DeLia asked to amend the motion to show a roll call vote.  

Ayes:    Mr. Brodsky, Mr. Buchner, Mr. Coyne, Mr. DeLia, Mr. Price, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Snyder,

Ms. Szesny, Mr. Trevisani and Mr. Gaston. 

Nays:    Ms. Rader-Harris

Absent: Mr. Hobika, Jr.

Motion Carried.

Old Business: 

Ms. Rader-Harris thanked Mr. Earl for giving her a copy of the 1998 Resolution No. 19 – Board Adopts Roberts Rules of Order for Small Boards.  Ms. Rader-Harris read the first sentence of the resolution.

Ms. Rader-Harris showed the Board a manila envelope that she received in the mail from an anonymous person containing a document/study that Malcolm Pirnie wrote as relates to the 1917 Contract with the Canal Corporation.

Ms. Rader-Harris stated that she is still waiting for information from Mr. Becher from a FOIL Request dated June 4, 2007 requesting information on the MVWA’s approximate 4 thousand lead service lines in the water system.   

Mr. Snyder asked Mr. Brodsky where the three motions were that were brought up under New Business by Mr. Brodsky at the March 26, 2007 Board Meeting.  They were:

1. The executive committee should review and submit an updated code of ethics for consideration and report back to the Board in three months.
2. Take the model audit committee charter as proposed by the NY State Budget Authority Office and refer it to the Finance Committee requesting it to return to the Board with a proposal within three months.
3. Recommending that the model governance committee charter as prepared by the NY State Budget Authority Office be referred to the Personnel Committee requesting it to return to the Board with a report and proposal in three months.

Mr. Brodsky stated that he is postponing the three motions until July’s Board meeting.

The next Board Meeting is scheduled for July 16, 2007 at 5:00 PM.

Mr. Brodsky moved to adjourn the meeting.  Seconded by Ms. Szesny.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:47 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

__________________________ 

Suzanne M. Harmon, Secretary 

Mohawk Valley Water Authority