Water Documenters: Read meeting notes from the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District

Date/time: 3 p.m. on Oct. 11, 2023

Summary

The Scene

Arriving early for the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District (JVWCD) Board of Trustees Board Meeting at the District Administration Building, located at 8215 S. 1300 W. in the city of West Jordan, at 2:20 PM. Drivers are to be advised of the street construction on 1300 W. Right alongside their Administration Building, is their partnered/owned Conservation Garden Park. To the left of the entry of the ‘A’ building is the Board Room: four exits, 41 seats, three desks (two straight, one with two seats facing towards the direction of the projector screen, the other straight was longer with six seats, then a U-shaped desk with name plates with additional 11 seats) 13 active microphones, a projector for virtual members, for displaying agenda information and meeting packet material. Each filled seat had a complimentary water bottle provided.

All visitors were asked to fill out a yellow slip with their names, their titles, where they were coming from or on whose behalf they were there for. Individuals, board members, trustees, and other visitors were dropping in periodically throughout the following 30-35 minutes. The energy in the room was very casual and everyone essentially knew what was going to happen and how it was going to happen. Those in the room were friendly and bantering until the 3:00 PM mark when the meeting promptly began. Half if not the majority of the seats were taken by the yellow-slipped visitors, employees, and a few guest speakers.

Present JVWCD Trustees:

Corey L. Rushton - Chair, Division 1: West Valley City (Granger-Hunter Improvement District)

Karen D. Lang (Remote) - Vice Chair, Division 1: West Valley City (Granger-Hunter Improvement District)

A. Reed Gibby (Remote) - Division 6: Draper Irrigation Company, Draper City in Salt Lake and Utah Counties, Utah Dept. of Corrections, and Midvale City

Sherrie L. Ohrn - Conservation Committee Chair, Division 8: Bluffdale City, Herriman City, and Riverton City

Dawn R. Ramsey - Division 5: City of South Jordan

Zach Jacob - Division 4: West Jordan City

John H. Taylor - Finance Committee Chair, Division 3: Taylorsville City (Taylorsville-Bennion Improvement District)

Barbara L. Townsend - Division 7: JVWCD retail system, Murray City, City of South Salt Lake, Willow Creek Country Club, White City Water Improvement District

The lone trustee who was not present in-person or remote was Mick M. Sudbury.

Other speakers

Assistant GMs Shazelle Terry and Matt Olsen,

Deputy GM Jacob Young,

General Manager Alan E. Packard,

Controller Brian McCleary,

HR Manager Kurt Ashworth,

General Counsel Mark Stratford,

Executive Assistant Beverly Parry

Engineering Department Manager/Chief Engineer Shane Swensen.

Community Perspective

There were no public commenters either in the boardroom or via remote for today’s meeting. All commentary was made by members of the board/employees or by the Trustees themselves. That being said, there was some data provided by Shazelle Terry on water quality updates that highlighted “public perceptions of tap water”. This included an 2023 award for the best tasting water at the annual AWWA Intermountain Section Conference, as well as retail customers being 93% satisfied with JVWCD services and water services being rated good/excellent in the 82 percentile.

Goals

At the top of the meeting, the Board went to approve the minutes of both Executive Committee and regular Board meetings from the month previous, in addition to the Trustees’ expenses report; minutes and expenses were both approved unanimously. Upon that, the board also looked to get Core Mission reports and Standing Committee reports detailed, consider approval of grants/funding for Landscaping Conversion Incentives Program, 2023 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) JVWCD Regional Water Treatment Plant Drought, Wildfire, and Earthquake Resiliency Project, and the consideration of adoption of Resolution No. 23-17, 18, and 19. Lastly a few reporting items were addressed, like media coverage pertaining to an article from Bloom Garden Magazine involving supposed temporary/seasonal staff members.

The Debate and Outcomes

The floor was opened up for debate upon item 6 on the agenda when Matt Olsen, who previously gave a presentation on conservation updates, was invited to speak on the consideration of approving a grant agreement in junction with the Utah Division of Water Resources, that involved landscaping conversion incentives and was seeking sponsorship from JVWCD. Essentially, for four years, the programs would be funded by an initial invoice of $250,000. From that point on, Olsen explained that on a “first come, first serve” basis projects will be funded, including that basically whoever does the most work will get the most money.

For item 7, Jacob Young presented, and not for the first time, an application for FEMA BRIC funding to upgrade the regional water treatment plant. He mentioned, “We have applied for this grant in the past, just last year most recently, and were unsuccessful… that was our second year applying and we improved our score significantly, so we’re going to give it another try. We feel pretty confident that we have a project that is exactly what this program was developed for…” Corey Rushton let Young know that what he was doing was beneficial and that they have had similar conversations on this grant before, but that what is perhaps the biggest precaution is that the approving governing board could change by the time the grant is awarded; Rushton was unspecific on exact changes to the board, but did hint that new members could be brought on and that an appropriate budget process would take place. Young acknowledged his feelings towards the approval process of this grant saying, “There’s not a whole lot of discussion that happens in this grant application process unfortunately, it’s one of our complaints about it…” Dawn Ramsey also asks to clarify if there is any “background support” that is needed to move this forward; Alan Packard and Young make it be known that it is “separate.”

Chair Corey Rushton and GM Alan Packard both made it be known after the meeting that Resolution 23-19, which revolved, in Mark Stratford’s words, “When we sign a what’s called take or pay agreement with our member agencies, it commits them to take in a certain amount of water each year, and if they don’t take that, they’re still obligated to pay for that. That provides us with financial stability…” was going to be tricky to implement given the scope, application, and cost management. Stratford made his argument for “Amending Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District’s Personnel Rules and Regulations for Wholesale Water Service” in the name of water conservation and confusion on how to charge for unused water that’s already been allocated by stating, “...over time, some member agencies find that because of conservation or growth, or other reasons, that they’re still not always taking the full 100%. Sometimes they’re in a position to have to pay for water that they haven’t used.” Packard stated, “Assuming this policy change gets approved, we’re gonna reach out to all of our member agencies tomorrow… to talk through the logistics and details of this policy change…” The discussion on this topic was lengthy, which carried on for nearly 30 minutes. The resolution was approved after some language/terminology was changed and tightened on behalf of Rushton and Barbara Townsend.

The last motion to cancel the Conservation Committee meeting scheduled on November 6th, was approved with a resounding unanimous vote. The meeting was adjourned at 4:43 PM.

Water Documenters is a collaboration between The Salt Lake Tribune and City Bureau and funded through grants from the Great Salt Lake Collaborative and the Rita Allen Foundation. College student journalists from all over Utah are hired to attend and take notes at public water meetings in Utah. These notes are then published for anyone to read or use. The project is aimed at providing better public access to meetings where major decisions are made about a limited Utah resource. For more meeting notes, click here. For more information, click here.