BOARD MEETING MINUTES, April 26th, 2025 DRAFT

The meeting will be a hybrid format, both in person at the DWA building and online via Zoom. All shareholders are invited to attend.

Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5160276420 Meeting ID 516 027 6420.

Call To Order: 10:03 AM

In attendance: Patrick, April, Sam, Dave, Darton, Paul, Todd, and Susan in person.

Guests: Bruce Cleland and Richard Foulkes in person, and Penny Cleland online.

Consent Items:

Approve: Contents and order of this Agenda.

Approve: Minutes of March meeting approved.

Information Items:

Guest Speakers comments (if any):

• Bruce: I’ll have feedback from the groundwater meeting I went to this week.

Board Member comments (if any): None.

President’s Report:

• April: Thank you for all the work everyone has put in to DWA the last month. Annual meeting Saturday June 28^th.

Manager/Operator Report:

• Dave: The second pump at the springs will be $23,000 to fix. Install will happen pretty soon.
• Todd: Do we have a place in the budget for this?  We can put it in budgeted funds for unexpected projects this year.
• Dave:
  • We installed new water on 97^th Ave at our cost. Parcel used to have a meter, but they didn’t put a new service in because it was a vacant lot.
  • Bruce and I have been working on water loss numbers. Gave Bruce 4 years of water loss information and he put together a graph that shows the water meter correctly for a while, then the meter would under and over report in big swings. We now know we have a problem down at the springs with the meter – the flow meter sends signal to panel, and we need to start taking information reading straight from the flow meter. There may be a programing issue with the panel. There’s a problem with the new billing software. Billing software was combining old water reports with new water reports. We ended up with 8.1% water loss.
• Darton: Does the panel show volume per time from the flow meter? And they don’t match up? The time increment for collecting data may not match up with the water pumping and reporting.
• Dave:
  • Correct. They don’t match up. We’re trying to fix it ourselves before the company has to come out and fix it for us.
  • Skyler and I have been working at the springs on wellpoint maintenance for the last couple weeks.
  • Five wells down at the springs: I found a map that shows the location of the five wells, King County roads water way, and the vacated section that DWA asked to get vacated in 1992. Our property lines go to the end of that vacated section. According to new map, the four existing wells are in the existing King County roads right-of-way and one well is on our property. The map we’ve been working from is off. We’ll be dealing with King County roads from now on and not King County parks. Four out of the five wells are on the right-of-way. Met with Duncan to map out property markers and they correlate with the this old map we found. We can show we’ve been pulling water there for a long time. We’re going to go to King County with this map that show the well point locations correlate with the map. This shifts who we’re talking to. We were talking to King County Parks, and now we need to talk with King County Roads.
• Susan: What’s the timeline for next steps?
• Paul: We don’t know at this time. Talking with Duncan about next steps. We need to move forward this this year, possibly within six months.
• Dave: IRS late fee & Chris Hunt. No luck getting ahold of Chris. Called IRS and asked for them to wave that fee, Todd filled out a document, and submitted to the IRS. The issue is in the hands of the IRS at the moment.
• Todd: We will need to look for a new CPA.
• Susan: Preferable to keep the CPA business on the island.
• Todd: Send CPA references to me. Ask them if they’re comfortable with non-profit 990s.
• Dave: PRV project waiting for stamp of approval from Sarah. DOH has big backlog of projects to review and approve.
• Darton: We can put the project out to bid before DOH approval.
• Dave: I’ll talk with Ryan on Monday about that.
• April: What’s the estimate of total construction time.
• Dave: 4-6 weeks.

Water Production Committee:

• None.

CIP Planning Committee:

• None.

Finance Committee:

• Todd:
  • Third quarter:
    • We’ve sold less water this year than we sold last year.
    • We’ve been under collecting for Good Neighbor Fund.
    • We’re keeping up with funding and transfers to capital accounts.
    • We had renewal of billing software which raised IT costs.
    • We had no unscheduled maintenance this quarter (i.e., water leaks).
    • Dave and Angie are doing an excellent job controlling costs.
    • We had a pump repair as an unscheduled replacement project.
    • The interest we’re earning is more than the interest we’re paying for the loan we’re paying on the Sandy Shores loan.
    • Our net funds increased $47,000.
    • For the quarter, no surprises.
  • Budgeting – Vote on proposed budget to share at annual shareholder meeting. This is based on base rate going from $40 to $45. We could go to $44 instead of $45. The base rate covers a portion of operational cost, and the usage fee covers the rest (increase of usage rate by $0.002).
• Darton: If we have to lower rates, I propose keeping base rate at $45 and dropping usage rate.
• Paul: If we’re talking about a $5,000 surplus, we’re not really talking about anything. Keep the prosed budget the same.
• Todd: System replacement budget – We just identified another unscheduled repair project for this fiscal year. We need base rate up to cover these costs.  Capital charge isn’t changing (monies at Kitsap Bank). Most of the PRV project is the under capital improvement category. We’ve decreased the amount spent with meter upgrades. Hake Rd $70K project goes under the improvement category.
• Motion to approve proposed budget by Todd, second by Darton: Motion approved.
• Motion to approve rates by Todd, second by Darton: Motion approved.
• Susan: Good Neighbor Fund – 11 households using fund, $5300 spent monthly, however, community donations still result in negative numbers. Ways to improve program:
  • Send out notice in next billing explaining program and asking for more donors.
  • Reduce subsidy from $40/month to $30/month. Raise monthly donation rate from $2 to $3.
  • Do another ask around thanksgiving and Christmas time.
• April: Is $30 per month on average going to cover what those folks need?
• Todd: DWA’s contribution to GNF was last year $2000, this year DWA donated $1000. Next year we have planned to contribute $2000, but we could consider $3000. Let’s keep it at $2/month, increase DWA contributions to $3000.

Community Outreach Committee:

• April: New board member is needed.

Old Business / Carryover Items:

• Todd: Finalize budget.
• Sam: Finalize ballot, candidate statements, financial review.

New Business / Discussion Items:

• April: Change fiscal year and change annual meeting date more accessible for all shareholders. We would need to make bylaw changes if we want to make the meeting in early June for next fiscal year. We could also look at the end of September to get through construction season. Not going to change fiscal year right now and going to move annual meeting to first week of June for 26/27 fiscal year.
• April made motion to amendment to bylaws that annual meeting will be held first week in June (combining May and June meeting), Patrick seconds motion: Motion approved.
• Susan: DWA building – We should let people know that we’re doing maintenance and improvements on building, but no other plans at this time.
• Bruce: Discussion about conservation easement offer at annual meeting?
• April: We’re waiting to come to some agreement with other King County departments before we move forward with the project.

Other Business:

• None.

Follow-up for Next Meeting

• Darton: Pass off info and files.
• Dave: Contact BHC and talk to Ryan about PRV project, follow up with Duncan.
• Patrick: None.
• Paul: Talk with Duncan, candidate statement, CPA recommendation.
• Sam: Finalize ballot, candidate statements.
• Susan: New GNF form, CPA recommendation.
• Todd: Finalize budget, treasurer statement.
• April: Bylaw adjustment for change in annual meeting date, help Susan with GNF formatting, follow up with Zach on proposal for conservation easement.

Meeting End: 11:52 AM

Next Board Meeting: Saturday, May 24th, 2025 @10AM

Board meetings are usually held on the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM. The November and December meetings are often combined into a single meeting in early December to avoid conflicts with holidays. Upcoming meeting dates are on May 24 and June 28.