Tampa Bay Water: Budget Workshop & Regular Board of Directors Meeting - 04.20.26

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the budget workshop and regular board meeting of the Tampa Bay Water, April 20th, 2026. Can I, let's see, this meeting was noticed in the Florida Administrative Register and on the Tampa Bay Water website. The meeting is available for viewing through live streaming, and a recording of the meeting will be posted on the agency's website. And now our vice chair Waitman will lead in the pledge. Thank you. You may be seated. Can we please have a roll call here? Present. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. So we were originally going to start with a workshop, but we're going to accommodate, we have some special guests here, and so we're going to move items B2, Water Conservation Month Proclamation, and B3, the Community Water Wise Award, to the front. So we have Amelia Brown, our demand management program manager here. Good morning. Good morning to you, Madam Chair, and members of the board. This item is an action item to declare April as Water Conservation Month. So for the past 28 years, April has been recognized as Water Conservation Month throughout Florida. This effort is coordinated by the Florida Section of the American Water Works Association, Florida's Water Management Districts, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. And this recognition comes at a critical time as we're navigating a severe drought. April is typically the driest month of the year. The temperatures are increasing, and water demands increase, which is largely driven by outdoor watering. This year's theme of Water Conservation Month is related to rain shutoff devices, which are both required legally and also an essential tool for conserving water outdoors. Water Conservation Month highlights how simple, everyday actions, like ensuring your rain sensor is working, can make a meaningful difference in saving water. And we've seen the impact that the Tampa Bay water community has had in conserving water before. A couple years ago, during the drought, residents stepped up and saved water by adhering to watering restrictions and taking other simple actions. Tampa Bay water has proudly adopted this proclamation many times in the past, alongside our member governments. And we continue to support efforts that encourage responsible water use across our region. Therefore, staff recommends the adoption of the proclamation that April is Water Conservation Month. Do you want to entertain a motion? Move approval. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Board members, if you can enter your votes. First up, you can announce the vote. Passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. May continue. Thank you. Our next item is about recognizing the 2025 regional winner of the Community Water Wise Award program. And at the end, the board will be invited to take a photo with the winners who are in attendance today. The Community Water Wise Award is a regional program that recognizes homeowners and businesses for their landscapes that save water while remaining attractive and functional. This program has existed for decades and is coordinated by Tampa Bay Water and is done in partnership with the UF IFAS Florida-Friendly Landscaping Programs in Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough, as well as staff from the member governments. And this program recognizes excellence across these categories, retaining existing trees and vegetation, landscape design and plant selection, stormwater runoff prevention, efficient irrigation, of course, and aesthetic appeal. Some of you may have seen the presentation of this award in recent months. And the award is a handmade mosaic stone, which is made by a local artist, Heather Richardson, who is in attendance today from Safety Harbor. Every year, there are one or more winners per county and city. And last year, we introduced two additional types of awards for this program. We launched the Conservation Commendation, which recognizes landscapes that excel in at least one of the categories listed in bullets. And then the Best of the Region Award, which recognizes the best landscape among all the award winners throughout the three counties. So these awards recognize members of our community who are making a difference, which is more important than ever during drought situations like now. They've made a choice to positively impact the community and the environment, saving water every day. Today, we are pleased to present the 2025 Best of the Region Award to Michelle Burt and David Culp for their residential landscape here in Pinellas County. Their landscape was selected by an independent panel of judges as the top winner, based on its overall design and selection of plants, which are drought-tolerant. There are 77 varieties, 90% native and 10% edible. The irrigation system features micro-irrigation in the front and back, and they have a rain barrel to capture rainwater. In addition, it has terrific aesthetic appeal. Congratulations to Michelle and David. We thank you and all the award winners and applicants for their commitment to saving water and making a positive contribution to our community and local environment. And now we'd like to invite the board down to take a photo with the winners and the mosaic stone they'll be receiving. So thank you all for being here. That was just amazing. We moved you up because we thought you probably didn't want to stay for the workshop. So next up, we have our budget workshop for the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. Mr. Gardner, do you have a presentation? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning to all. Right. Christina Sackett, our Chief Financial Officer, is happy to present the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. And I know she has spoken to each of the staffs of all the members, and she's going to go through some of the highlights for us today. Thank you. Good morning, Christy. Good morning, Chair and members of the board. This workshop, as Chuck said, will provide the board with an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2027 operating budget, including the key factors and components of the proposed budget, and details on activities and costs in each division. The presentation will also provide a synopsis of the full 10-year capital improvement program, including the timing and estimated amounts of future funding needs, plus the capital improvement program estimated expenditures for fiscal year 2027. As part of the annual budget process, the proposed budget was sent to each member government staff, followed by meetings to present and discuss the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget and answer any questions. As you know, Tampa Bay Water was formed by the six member governments to work together to solve the region's water supply problems, develop new supplies and reduce groundwater pumping, and eliminate rate differentials. The member governments established a uniform rate to eliminate the rate differentials, thus more effectively enabling the agency to accomplish its goals and purpose. The uniform rate consists of two components, a fixed and a variable cost component. The fixed costs are billed to each member based upon their percentage of demand from the previous fiscal year against the budgeted fixed amount of the net revenue required from water sales. One twelfth of this amount is billed monthly to each member. Variable costs, which are the costs that fluctuate with the amount of water produced, such as chemicals and power, are billed differently. The variable costs are billed to each member based upon their water consumption from the prior month. The consumption is multiplied by the variable rate amount, which is a piece of the uniform rate. At the end of each fiscal year, staff does an annual true-up of the fixed costs billed to each member. As required by the master water supply contract, each member's contributions are adjusted to their actual pro rata portion of the current fiscal year's production, which results in potential amounts due to from each member government with no net revenue impact to the agency. Some of the key factors impacting the development of the proposed fiscal year 27 budget include the forecasted water demand, alignment with the agency's strategic plan, inflation impact on costs, rate stabilization funds, upcoming large capital projects, future funding needs, and balancing these factors with minimizing the impact on the fiscal year net revenue required from water sales and impacts on future budgets. The proposed uniform rate for fiscal year 27 is slightly below $2.66 per thousand gallons. This is an increase of about two cents over the current fiscal year. The variable rate, which again is a piece of the uniform rate, will be around 62 cents per thousand gallons. This is an increase of just under one cent over the current fiscal year. Part of our plan over the past few years has been to build up the reserve accounts. So when the agency needs to issue new debt, we would be able to use these funds to help offset the increase in the annual debt service and minimize the impact on the uniform rate. The fiscal year 27 proposed budget includes using $4 million from the rate stabilization account. Using these reserves lowered the increase in the uniform rate by five cents, bringing the increase to the two cents that you see now. The proposed budget does not include funding any pay-as-you-go funds. Annually, the budgeted demand is projected using various demand forecasting models and information received from the member governments. We are projecting a demand of 212.84 million gallons per day, which is an increase of 3.14 million gallons over the current fiscal year. The source selection for fiscal year 27 consists of operating the surface water treatment plant at an annual average of 79 million gallons per day, running the desalination facility with an annual average of 13 million gallons a day, and increasing the use of the agency's well fields to produce about 121 million gallons per day total of groundwater, around 86 MGD from the consolidated well fields and 35 MGD from the other well fields. The agency's total costs are divided into two components, as I said, variable costs and fixed costs. The agency's variable costs equal about 22% of the total fiscal year 27 budget. The fixed costs account for the remaining 78% and are broken down into four subcomponents, contracted operation and maintenance agreements, debt service for bonds, debt service for member acquisition credits, and the fixed costs to operate the agency. This pie chart shows the total debt service for the bonds and the member acquisition credits make up almost 41% of the fiscal year 27 total costs. The total costs for fiscal year 2027 are $223.8 million, which is an increase of $4.4 million over the current fiscal year. This chart shows the breakdown of costs by category for fiscal year 27 and compares them to the approved amount for fiscal year 26. Variable costs had a net increase of $1.4 million. Fixed costs had a net increase of $3 million. The following categories increased over the current fiscal year. Variable costs, as I said, had an increase of $1.4 million. This is due to both increased projected demand and increase in chemical costs. Personnel services increased by $1.1 million. This is a breakdown of an increase in the expected cost for employee insurance plus a 3% cost of living adjustment and a performance-based merit program of up to 3% plus payroll to develop an overlapping employment strategy for high-risk roles as recommended in the 2025 performance and management study and the request for four positions. These positions include one IT network engineer that would bring in-house currently outsourced contracted work and provide a net savings of about $75,000, one mechanical technician one that would help the maintenance department reduce reactive maintenance, and two mechanical technician trainees. As there are difficulties hiring these technical level positions and the agency is expecting to have continued retirement of long-tenured employees. Offering a trainee program will support the agency's goal of ensuring an engaged, skilled, and adaptable workforce and aligns, again, with the 2025 performance and management study recommendations. The other variances in the agency's fixed costs include professional services increasing by about $3.1 million. This is largely due to the funding needed in the fiscal year 27 agency's budget for the agency demand management program. The estimated rebate funding needed for the water rice program when it kicked off in 2020 was fully funded in the fiscal year 20 budget. However, due to extenuating circumstances, the program took off much slower than anticipated and the agency has been able to carry forward the unused budget throughout the current fiscal year to cover the consumer rebates. Over the past few years, with the water-wise savings increasing, these budgeted funds will be fully used in the current fiscal year. Therefore, in fiscal year 27, we need to budget for the fully anticipated amount of consumer rebates, totaling $1.64 million. However, we are anticipating receiving $540,000 of this in reimbursements with district co-funding. The remaining $1.46 million is due to increased ecological and hydrological services needed for permit compliance, forecast model calibration and updating, contracted lab services, and software maintenance support costs. Capital expenditures are increasing by about $565,000, largely due to the Clearwater office needing a new roof, an increase of about $417,000 in the O&M contract agreements, repairs and other services increasing by about $199,000 due to increased communication costs for system redundancies and sludge removal increases, rent, leases, and insurance, agency insurance increasing by $173,000, no changes in the legal services budget, and materials and supplies budget decreasing by about $65,000. In October of 2024, the agency issued the series 2024 B and C refunding bonds, and in July of 2025, the agency issued the series 2025 refunding bonds. Completing these three bond refundings over the past year and a half not only provided annual debt service savings of $2.4 million in fiscal year 27 budget, but it also allowed the agency to restructure some of the annual debt service and reduce the volatility the agency was facing on future uniform rate projections over the next few years and provide the agency with more financial stability. The total projected adjustments of $13.2 million and the $4 million use of rate stabilization funds are netted against the total cost of $223.8 to get the net revenue required from water sales of $206.6 million. Water sales are the total cost to the member governments before any acquisition or water quality credits are applied. After adding surcharges and applying both the water quality and acquisition credits, the total estimated net member costs are $197.5 million. The pie chart shows the estimated breakdown by member government, and this is based upon the fiscal year 26 budgeted demand for the fixed cost component and the fiscal year 27 projected demand for the variable cost component. The next few slides will provide summaries of the agency's divisional organization along with each division's purpose, department, staffing, budget, and initiatives for fiscal year 27. The organizational design consists of six divisions, business strategies, finance and administration, information technology, planning and projects, science and water production which report directly to the general manager. This pie chart shows the percentage of total budget for each division and you can see that the budgets for the water production and the finance and administration division account for about 82% of the budget. This is because the variable costs and the contracted operations and maintenance agreements are included in the water production budget and the agency's annual debt service is part of the budget for the finance and administration division. The general manager and general counsel are appointed by and serve the agency's board of directors. The general manager provides leadership to develop and expand the organization in a multitude of activities throughout the agency. The office of the general manager has one employee and a budget of $486,000. General counsel oversees a variety of legal matters for the agency and is performed through contracted services with a legal budget of $600,000. The business strategies division oversees the agency's strategic and business planning, ensures employee and facility safety and security, trains and develops agency staff, directs change management throughout the agency, and builds and maintains relationships with stakeholders. The division is led by the chief of staff, chief strategy officer, and includes five departments, continuous improvement, government affairs, human resources, public communications, and safety services. This division also handles the agency emergency management function. The division includes 17 employees. The division's budget is a total of $11.4 million, and the initiatives include employee benefits for all agency employees, which makes up about 43% of the division's budget, community, media, and digital outreach and engagement on the agency and our projects and programs, continued funding of the knowledge to implementation program, which provides access to the agency and our member governments to share best management practices with other utilities throughout the world, continued security at the agency's facilities, support of the agency's emergency management activities, and agency-wide staff training and continued legislative and grant funding services. The finance and administration division oversees the agency's finances, cash management, payroll, debt management, financial reporting, procurement, inventory, risk management, and records. The division is led by the chief financial officer and includes three departments, finance, purchasing warehouse, and administrative services records. The division includes 19 employees. The division's budget is a total of $99.4 million, and the initiatives in the budget include debt service, which makes up about 92% of the division's total budget, managing the agency's investments, developing and managing the operating budget, compliance and reporting of the agency's financial information, strategic procurement, vendor relations, and contract management, maintaining and managing inventory needed for the system maintenance and office supplies for the agency, and continued compliance and management of the agency's records, including public records requests. The information technology division oversees the efficient management and security of the agency's data and digital technologies, the IT division is led by the information technology director and includes three teams, applications, infrastructure and security, which includes cyber security, and SCADA. The division currently has 13 employees and is requesting the one additional position, the IT network engineer. The division's budget is a total of 8.1 million and is for continued support of all the agency's various software applications and technology infrastructure, funding for data and voice communications, development and implementation of the agency's data management strategy, and continued maturing and monitoring of the agency's cyber security program. The planning and projects division oversees the planning and delivery of projects to ensure reliability of our existing and future water supply infrastructure. The planning and projects director leads the division, which includes five departments, engineering, surveying, real property, construction, and project management, and includes 21 employees. The division's total budget is 5.9 million, and the initiatives include providing oversight and coordination to locate, document, maintain, and protect the agency's underground pipelines, managing the cathodic protection program, reviewing and evaluating electrical safety plans, conducting surveys and converting CAD record drawings to geographic information systems, and planning, designing, constructing, and managing the various projects in the capital improvement program. The science division oversees and supports environmental and water quality data collection and analysis, permit compliance, systems modeling to support agency decision making, and coordinates water conservation activities and implements water saving rebate programs to reduce water demands across the region. The division is led by the chief science officer and includes six departments, water use permitting, system decision support, water quality, source water assessment, environmental monitoring, and the laboratory, and includes a total of 31 employees. The division's budget is a total of 13 million, and the initiatives include achieving the high target goal for the agency's water-wise program in fiscal year 27, complete system modeling analysis to support the long-term master water plan project recommendations, support the design and optimization of water treatment processes for the regional system, conducting environmental monitoring and assessment and maintenance of mitigation areas to maintain compliance with agency permits, and expanding laboratory testing abilities and services for water quality parameters and constituents of emerging concern. The water production division, which operates, supports, monitors, and maintains agency facilities to continuously provide high-quality drinking water to our members. The chief operating officer heads the water production division, which includes five departments, operations, maintenance, maintenance planning and reliability, reservoir compliance, and building grounds and fleet. The division currently has 62 employees and is requesting three employees, one mechanical technician one and two mechanical technician trainees. The division's budget is a total of $84.9 million, and it focuses on operating and maintaining the regional system. Managing the supply source, which encompasses water treatment chemicals and power, accounts for 57% of the division's budget, overseeing the contracted operations and maintenance of the surface water treatment plant, and the desalination facility, which accounts for 20% of the division's budget, continued asset management system support, maintaining the physical plants of each facility, including HVAC systems, roadways, and fire safety systems, and managing and maintaining the agency's fleet, and continued compliance monitoring and maintenance of the reservoir. Next, I will deliver a synopsis of the full 10-year fiscal year 27 through 36 capital improvement program. The agency's 10-year capital improvement program is a comprehensive plan that includes ongoing and planned projects from multiple sources. The plan assures effective management of the agency's capital assets and aligns with the agency's strategic plan and our long-term master water planning process. During the annual update process, staff evaluates the addition or removal of projects, reviews the schedules and costs of projects, identifies funding sources and needs, and estimates the annual expenditures for each fiscal year. The 10-year capital improvement program includes a total of 91 projects with a total cost of $1.697 billion. The next few slides will provide some additional detail regarding the full 10-year program. The agency has already paid $162.2 million of the total cost, leaving a balance for these projects of $1.534 billion. This slide shows the funding sources and estimated amounts that will be used to fund the full 10-year improvement program. It reflects that about $207.4 million or 14% of the funding will come from either district co-funding, grant funding, or member government funding. About $560.8 million or 37% of the funding will come from cash on hand, either through existing pay-as-you-go funds or existing revenue bonds. Currently, we are estimating needing about $691.3 million of the total balance in future funding. The projected schedules for each project identifies the timing of when the board will be requested to approve contracts for each of the project's key stages. Once staff identifies the timing of these projects, we evaluate the agency's cash position and determine if we have sufficient funds on hand or if the agency will need to issue new debt before entering the contract. When new debt is issued, it adds to the agency's annual debt service amount, which impacts the uniform rate. Therefore, when new debt needs to be issued, staff looks at the contract amounts in two-year increments to determine the issuance amounts. This allows the agency to only issue debt for the funds needed to enter these near-term contracts and to not take on additional debt before it is needed. This also gives staff the flexibility to reevaluate any potential changes in the future funding needs, resulting from changes in either project costs and or timing. The future funding needed for the 10-year program is currently estimated, as I said, to be $691.3 million. This chart reflects the estimated funding amounts needed and timing of the agency's future debt issuance. The first issuance is anticipated in August or September of this year for about $292 million. The issuance amount is based on the agency's anticipated contracts in fiscal years 27 and 28 and will be largely used to fund the South Hillsboro Wellfield Project and the design contracts for the PFAS and TOC treatment projects. The next issuance is estimated to be needed in 2028 for agency-anticipated contracts in fiscal years 29 and 30. Currently, the issuance is estimated to be $301 million. This amount includes the construction contracts for the PFAS and TOC projects. However, since EPA requirements and or board actions may change the timing or cost of projects in fiscal years 29 and 30, having the flexibility to change the amount and timing of that next issuance is important. Again, so we do not take on more debt before it is needed. In July, I will be requesting board approval to issue debt in August-September for the $292 million. The agency at that time is also looking at the opportunity to recognize some savings in our existing debt service by refunding all or a part of our standing series 2016-A bonds, which become eligible for refunding at the beginning of July. Currently, the agency's underwriting team is putting together proposals outlining various financial strategies that will best benefit the agency in issuing this new debt and refunding the series 2016-As. And staff is also working with our full financial team to complete the upfront work required when issuing bonds. This includes working on the consulting engineer's report and working with our financial advisors, general counsel, bond counsel, and disclosure counsel on the preliminary official statement for the bonds. This would then be followed by working with rating agencies for bond ratings and reaching out to investors to make them aware of the upcoming bond issuance. This completes the overview of the 10-year program. The next few slides will provide some additional details regarding the estimated expenditures for fiscal year 27. For fiscal year 27, the Capital Improvement Program is estimated to have expenditures totaling $291.4 million. This chart shows the planned funding sources of these expenditures and illustrates that about 86% of the funding is coming from either existing revenue bonds or the anticipated issuance. Hillsborough County will be funding about $25 million of the expenditures and we anticipate receiving about $20.1 million from grants and district co-funding during the fiscal year. The Capital Improvement Program for fiscal year 27 includes 43 active projects ranging from planning through closeout. This pie chart shows the estimated expenditures for these projects and it reflects that there are three projects that account for most of the expenditures in fiscal year 27. 71.6 million will be spent on the surface water treatment plant expansion and 123.2 million will be spent on the two segments of the South Hillsborough pipeline. The types of these 43 active projects are shown in this pie chart. This shows that almost half of these active projects in fiscal year 27 are either renewal and replacement projects or level of service projects. While the other half of the active projects address other issues such as studies, system reliability, utility complex, water quality and treatment requirements, mitigation, information technology and other facility improvements for safety and security. Just to recap some of the highlights of the proposed fiscal year 27 budget, a uniform rate of $2.66 per thousand gallons, slightly more than two cents higher than the current fiscal year. This includes a variable component of 62 cents per thousand gallons, anticipated demand of 212.84 million gallons per day, requesting four positions, bringing the FTE count up to 167, total costs of 223.8 million using 4 million from the rate stabilization fund, net revenue required from water sales of 206.6 million plus fiscal year 27 capital improvement program estimated expenditures of 291.4 million. The next steps in the budget process will be to hold the budget public hearing on May 18th. Following the public hearing, we will ask the board to approve the fiscal year 27 operating budget and approve the fiscal year 27 capital improvement program estimated expenditures. This does conclude my presentation and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Great job, only almost 50 pages. I don't understand why they didn't want to stay. It's a riveting presentation. You know, I'm also wondering too. So board members, any questions, comments? Commissioner Eggers. Yeah, thank you, Christina, for all of that and all the detail. Just a few questions. Of the performance-based merit, we've talked a little bit about that. Most of the increases that I've seen in the cities and counties is about 3% on salaries. This is an additional up to 3%. What's that been looking like? What part of that 3% have we been using? In the past several years, it's been anywhere from an average of, sorry, I have that on this page, of 1.86% to 2.04%. Okay, so somewhere around 2%. And in this last fiscal year, the average for managers was at 2% and the average for staff was at 2.04%. We find our, okay. And then on the new positions, the four new positions, what's the net of those positions? The net is actually about $185,000. The three mechanical technicians are about $260,000 and then the IT network would bring a savings of $75,000. So it would be about a net of $185,000. Okay. On the, you said we've been having trouble getting people, so we want to implement the technician training program. How's the interaction with the AmSkills program going? I know we've had some interaction with that. I'd just like to get a sense of how that's going. Yes, we've been in discussions with him. We have not concluded a program. What I would say is the trainee programs for this could or could not use the apprenticeship program that we would work with AmSkills. We would do the trainee program whether we use their program or not. But I'm targeting if we do an apprenticeship with them, it would be October 1 would be what I was hoping to start that. But we haven't done that yet. No, sir. I would just encourage you to at least explore it. Yes. And then, okay, a little bit on the network engineer position, if you could, just maybe a little detail on that. I am going to ask the IT director to give you more detail on that position. Sure. We've been, good morning, members of the board and Madam Chair. I'm Casey Lallamy. I'm the director for the IT organization here at Tampa Bay Water. So this network position, we currently staff through staff augmentation. And we feel that bringing this position onto our staff will help our resilience. And primarily focused on ensuring the cybersecurity program that we've implemented continues to expand. And just a little bit on the cybersecurity program maybe. Sure. We have a comprehensive program here really focusing on the fundamentals of cybersecurity and ensuring that we protect the agency's digital assets. And the network is key to that because all of our data runs on that network. And we actually have two networks here. One for our corporate environment and one for our operational technology, which is our SCADA system. So this role would bridge the gap between those two networks and ensure that we have support that we need across both those networks. Feeling good about that then? Yes. So bringing these positions in-house is essential to us because we want to develop the knowledge and skill sets internally to make sure they're managed and protected. Thank you. Appreciate that. Just on the investments that we're talking about, the bonding, what kind of percentage rates are we seeing? I mean, is that all over the board? Yes. Okay, so tell me what all over the board looks like, high and low. Anywhere, I don't know. I know we're looking roughly, roughly we forecast using getting about 5%, but I think we're kind of looking in that range as well. Obviously, with the agency's strong rating, it helps us. So we're able to, you know, try and get lower interest rates than that. But with the 2016 A refundings, it is refunding currently debt that's out there at about 5%. So that will provide us some savings because we are anticipating it being less. A lot lower. That's all I have. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. First question is, can you get me a more detailed breakdown of the professional services column? Yep. And are these internal or external professional services? External. Yeah. The reason that I ask is because usually when I see professional services, I'll see legal services like in that bucket, but since it's not, I just want to get a better understanding as that grows to over $30 million a year. Just some observations. I see that PFAS is in here. We just had another really in-depth briefing at the county. I think that that is a problem that's going to be very pervasive going forward, far more than people are understanding. I think that the issue is worse and costs for that are going to continue to rise. So that's just an issue that I think that people need to stand by on. I did want to point out that only a four, I think you're only growing the staff by four people. And I think that that is indicative, especially considering the explosive growth, suggesting that you guys are running a really lean and efficient organization. So I'm appreciative to see that, and I look forward to getting that professional services breakout. Good job, as always. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? I don't see any from the board members. Great job. Thank you. Next up, we have public comment. Each speaker has three minutes. I have two requests to speak here. The first is David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Good morning, sir. Good morning. David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. With all the deliberate mismanagement of the water supply, never in the history of the world has a civilization abused its water resources so completely, so absurdly, so foolishly as we have done to ourselves under the misguidance in our government. Today, we are facing a modified stage three water crisis as self-evident. Did anybody foresee us as being in such a life-threatening predicament as based on the 14th amendment? Or is our predicated predicament a prepostured purposeful legislative objective? Instead of protecting and conserving our water, instead of deploying a waterless incinerating toilet program, as referenced in statute 381.0065, which would help us reduce water, which would remove nitrates from the water. To remove nitrates from the water supply, legislation intends on capitalizing on the water and using reclaimed water as a potable water supply, quantifying, adding reclaimed water directly to the water supply, coupled with the simultaneous injection of reclaimed water directly into the groundwater supply, affecting, destabilizing the integrity of the aquifer. What could possibly go wrong with the science of that? Okay, drinking reclaimed water and then sticking it anaerobically into the aquifer. Very foolish science-based thinking. Has anyone ever wondered, even more so, why Walt Disney has postured his carnival on top of the headwaters of the Everglades? Is Walt Disney coveting what remaining water supply we have left under his carnival prejudicially capturing the water supply to the headwaters of the Everglades, attempting to establish his powers in the state over that what remains of our viable water? Is legislation being directed by a bunch of carnies and gypsies and thieves puppeted out? Is our government a carnival by day and setting fire to the place by night? Funny how the carnival has a way of laughing at our hindsight, doesn't it? Isn't it? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Mark Lutho, good morning. Mark Lutho, Largo. Oh, that budget, that was great. And the 14th Amendment, wonderful. I love it. B2, B3, what a joke. Oh, man. Didn't you fools see the article in the paper? The bees. Where in that landscape was anything that was going to benefit the bees? Our pollinators. What a joke. People are so damn stupid. And here's the headline. Record drought sparks worries about fires, water supply, and food prices. So I look at the big gas hogs out here in the parking lot. And like this article states, climate change is making for the droughts. And you'd have those lights burning, shining on the wall for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And look at this. Now, there aren't lights shining there in front of the screen. Why do you need all these other lights shining? Someone going to be doing an appendectomy in here? I remember that fool that said you were going to get an award for this daylit building. People are so damn stupid, it's pathetic. Look at those kuntis out there being mutilated. Now, what kind of landscape do you have here? Is there anything to help the bees? No. Thank you, sir. The future is dim. Next up, we move to the consent agenda. Are there any items that are being pulled? If not, I'll consider... So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine. Voting for numbers, please enter your votes. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Next up, we have the general manager's report. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to ask Warren Hogg to work with me at the beginning here. I wanted to talk about the statewide drought that is continuing. We're about two months away from the wet season. And most of the Tampa Bay area continues to be in extreme drought condition. The entire region is under a modified phase three water restriction. And our three county areas in a stage three regional supply shortage. So I did want him to go through some slides to show you where are we and our plan to get us to the wet season. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board. Just a few slides that you've seen in past months. This is our regional system water delivery from our three different source types. Green is from groundwater. Blue is what we take from the local rivers. Red is fed from the reservoir. And yellow is desalinated seawater. So it's good to see that desalinated seawater has been constant for us since it came back online around December of 24. Through March, through the end of March, we delivered 203.1 million gallons a day for the fiscal year to date. That is about 8 million gallons a day or 4% higher than the previous year, those first six months. One thing I would like to point out, let me get my pointer, is the month of March 26. The total height of the bar is what we delivered. The blue line is what we expected to deliver. So the gap here, we delivered less than we expected to. This indicates that our regional conservation messaging and the enforcement of watering restrictions has taken effect and is benefiting the region. So it's important as we move through the drought to continue with our messaging as the region and also the enforcement on the local scale. We were about 15 million gallons per day less delivered than we expected. So that's a substantial decrease. This is the state of the consolidated water use permit. It is, if I can get rid of this laser pointer. This shows the monthly delivery from these 10 well fields. Our permit limit is 90 million gallons per day. And we ended the month of March at 92.49. So we are over our permit limit. We expect with conservation and deliveries through the spring, we may hit close to 100 million a day on a 12 month average basis. But that should begin to decline in June and hope to be back under that permit limit around perhaps October, November of this year. As we look forward, we'll have to balance bringing the well field pumping rate down with filling the reservoir so we're ready for next spring dry season. And the South Central Hillsborough regional well field, our permit limit increased to 26.82 million gallons a day recently. And our running average is 26.39. So we are under our permit limit for this well field, although it's going to be close to the permit limit as we get close to the end of the year. Our regional reservoir was about 5.2, 5.3 billion this weekend. That's one third full. We are managing that currently at about 50 million gallons per day of withdrawal. And that should extend the reservoir use to the early part of July at that withdrawal rate. That's the point in which we'll be down to about one and a half billion. And we have to start making some operational decisions about how to continue or not with that use. One bright note, the rain we received a week ago today or two weeks ago today, especially in Polk County and Southern Hillsborough County, substantially increased the flow in the Alify River. And since that time through yesterday, flows have now declined below the point where we can take water. But we were able to harvest 300 million gallons from the river, Alify River, just from that one rain event. And that is added several days of storage available in our reservoir because we didn't have to take as much during that time. So that is a piece of good news during the middle of this drought. Continuing on, some updates. Legislative update. We do not have one scheduled for this meeting per se. But as you know, the session ended March 13th and they are trying to schedule the budget session. And we did ask for some appropriations and they are still in the budget. We are funding the skate improvement project for a million dollars. It is included in the House budget. And also the surface water treatment plan expansion is at two million dollars. It's retained in the Senate proposal. No action has occurred on our federal funding request. And our legislative team continues to keep a close watch on things. Also wanted to mention, at our February board meeting, we had our performance and management audit presented by Baker Tilly. That was the firm that performed the audit. And I had mentioned that I'd be back in front of the board with how are we going to deal with recommendations and bring it to the board for progress reporting. I do not have that today ready, but I will be bringing it back in May. And also wanted to give a heads up on the next item, the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Facility Reverse Osmosis Project. As you recall last year, we, over two years ago actually, we replaced five out of the seven trains that take the water and desalt it for us in the plant. And we determined to wait on the other two to see what direction we were heading. So I'm letting you know that you'll see a board item in May for the remaining two racks to be completed and take the plant back up to the seven racks. Real good news, for the second year in a row, Tampa Bay Water has been named the 2026 top workplace by the Tampa Bay Times. I know there was the top 165 and I know it was in the newspaper and I want to congratulate staff for another great year. And so that was awarded to us as well. And also leading into the next slides, the media and public outreach. We've been very heavily promoting conservation and communications during the drought conditions that we have. And if you flip the slide here, we'll show you just a few of them. I believe there's 255 stories to date for the last several months that we've done. That's a lot of stories. You can see Warren and Amelia in these slides and they've been on all of the major news outlets, Bay News 9. You see Dennis Phillips live there and all of the coverages. The next slide shows Amelia doing the fix a leak week month last month. So she's there on Fox 13 and the morning blend as well. And then shortly after our last board meeting in February, we held an open house for the engineering teams in the Tampa Bay area to come in and see what projects we are proposing into the future. And then I think last week we did the same workshop for construction companies. And both were, I think, over 100 attendees on both workshops to let folks know what is it we are doing. And I know Pinellas and Hillsborough County were also there and they had a table set up. So it was a huge successful event, both of them. We have the picture here of our groundbreaking at the surface water treatment plant. And I want to thank the board members who were there. You can see them in the picture. And so we are kicked off and that project's underway. And then just yesterday, we participated in the WaterWise Earth Day celebration hosted by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida at Camp Wailani. And our chair, Lizette Hanowitz, was there yesterday in attendance. And I think it was very well attended and it was a great event. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. And so I think the next slide is the end. And that's where I have any questions, I'd be happy to take it. Any questions? Well, first of all, I went yesterday to the Girl Scouts and if you want to spend a fun afternoon, hang out with the Girl Scouts at camp. And it was great. And what was actually fascinating about it is they started the program because the lead there, one of the Girl Scouts was pouring water from the tap. Or she asked her, I'm thirsty. And she started pouring water from the tap and she's like, I can't drink that water. And she's like, no, this water is safe. And like she had worked with Tampa Bay Water and she's an engineer and she thought this would be a great program for the girls to like learn about water and where it comes from. And they did some amazing projects and they were all very engaged. So great job with Girl Scouts. And these grants, they really do a great job. So thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, I just have one question. Yeah. In Warren's report on page two, the Tampa Bay Water monthly water delivery, it looks like there's no desalinated water in September 26 at all. And I'm just wondering, is the plant going offline for that upgrade that you were talking about? Or is there a reason that we don't have any, we're not taking any projection of desal in September? Uh, commissioner, we are planning to continue through the summer. That was probably a forecast from the beginning of the year. But since then we realized the state of the drought and we'll continue running the desalination facility. So, so in other words, you thought back when the forecast was made that you wouldn't need it, but you expect that you would revise it to needing it now. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You were everywhere, Mr. Hogg. You're like our Jim Cantore. No question. No question. No question. Commissioner Eggers. Weatherman Warren, what are you seeing on the horizon? Seriously, for this summer, you know, what are they, what are they talking about? Uh, we are just, we are hearing that a, an El Nino climate pattern is expected to start sometime this summer. The springtime forecast have less accuracy than the rest of the year. So we're waiting to see how that forecast turns through the next month or two. But the trend is good. Uh, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are increasing. And what that does, it makes the jet stream focus on the southeastern United States, which usually brings us cooler, wetter winters. It also suppresses hurricane activity. Uh, the initial hurricane forecast from Colorado State is slightly less than average for both number of storms and intensity. And that's because the sheer that comes across with the jet stream tends to either keep hurricanes at, at sea or it shears the tops off to keep their strength from growing. If it does set up and that jet stream sets up in our region, it could be a cool, wet winter, which would be wonderful for water supply and pulling us completely out of the drought. So we're optimistic. Good. Thank you. And I would just leave the board with, uh, three key takeaways for what we're doing. First thing is to keep the reservoir, uh, no lower than 1.5 billion and get it, get it to stay there. Uh, no lower than that by July. And then we'll have two goals after that in, uh, that is to get back to full by October one, but also get under 90 as fast as possible. So those two are going to need to be balanced, uh, going through the summer. We need to get back to under 90, but we also need to start the, the, uh, the year, the new water year. Uh, with a full reservoir. Okay. Well, thank you. Although I think, um, Mr. Hogg, you mentioned that although we have less hurricanes, Hurricane Andrew did happen during an El Nino year. It only takes one and it can be a big one. That's right. That's right. Okay. We move up to action items. Uh, the first one is C one. Ms. Brown. Right. Good morning again, Madam chair and members of the board. Um, I'm going to be providing a brief update on the Tampa Bay water wise program. And then at the end of this presentation, I'll be requesting approval of the cooperative funding agreement with the Southwest Florida water management district. Uh, so as you may recall, the goal of our regional water conservation rebate program, Tampa Bay water wise, is to save up to 3.8 million gallons per day by 2030. And so far the program's cumulative savings are over 1.1 million gallons per day. For this fiscal year, uh, we have a high goal set of about 560,000 gallons per day. And the low savings goal is 200,000 gallons per day. And the high goal is high. It is a significant increase, um, from each of the last two years savings results, which were each over 300,000 gallons per day. So in order to achieve this high savings goal, uh, the working group adopted these program changes for this fiscal year. And as a reminder, the working group is comprised of member government staff as well, because they ultimately decide the direction, um, of the program, such as these changes. So we increased the toilet rebate amounts for all customer classes. They were 40 and a hundred and now they're 100 and $200. And we're measuring the impact of that change. We've increased the rebate amounts for commercial irrigation projects. And the program will now cover up to 50% of irrigation efficiency related project costs. And the working group is also reviewing, uh, several potential changes to the residential sprinkler system rebate program. Based on feedback from the irrigation contractors who participate. This is a snapshot of where we anticipate our rebate, uh, numbers to land for 2026 and just compared with 2025 here. So in the multifamily sector, we can see that we will, uh, complete more projects there. And that is our major water saving, uh, program among all the rebate types. Hotel projects are looking about the same as last year. We've increased the number of projects in the commercial and institutional space as well as the residential sprinkler rebate. The residential toilets appear pretty similar in terms of numbers to last year. Um, and lastly is the Florida water star program, which is a rebate for new construction, uh, single family homes, multifamily. That ensures that the water efficiency of the new construction is high both indoors and outdoors above what standard code provides for. And while we've not issued any rebates for that, there are several potential projects, maybe as many as 900. Um, there's uncertainty about the volume and the timing of those projects, but we certainly hope to be able to do, to work with builders and issue these Florida water star rebates. Our water savings to date just for this fiscal year is over 122,000 gallons per day. Our forecast puts us quite a bit higher than that. Every year we do a billing data analysis and we traditionally get a significant bump in water savings from our multifamily projects. And there, as I mentioned, there's a fair amount of uncertainty with these Florida water star projects. How many will land in this fiscal year? If they all come through sort of at the, the highest marks, then there is actually a potential to meet the high savings goal. No promises, but that's what we're certainly aiming for. And the program expenditures to date are on track with what was planned for our budgets in the administrative marketing and rebate categories. And now we're going to shift our focus to the cooperative funding agreement with the district. Uh, the district has co-funded the Tampa Bay water wise program since it launched in 2020, which really underscores the district's, uh, confidence and support for this program through this agreement. Through this agreement, the district would reimburse up to $528,000 for program implementation costs for activity in the program this calendar year in 2026. And the agency would be providing an equal or greater amount in project funding. Therefore staff recommends board approval of agreement number two six CF zero zero zero four nine seven zero with the Southwest Florida water management district. Moved approval. Moved approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Board members, please enter your votes. Or if you can ask, vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Ms. Brown. Thank you. Next up we have C2, Mr. Hogg. Good morning again, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh, I'll begin this morning with a very quick summary of our water quality update and then present recommendations for new water quality treatment at five locations to reduce PFAS and total organic carbon. This is an action item and I will be requesting a board action at the end of the presentation. Tampa Bay water continues to deliver water to the members that meets or is better than current primary drinking water standards and exhibit D requirements. Our 2025 water quality report was issued to the member governments and posted to the agency's website at the end of last month. Looking at the regional water quality study, this is an effort that we began in 2017 at the request of the agency's utility directors and it was looking focused primarily on reduction of several parameters but mostly total organic carbon. And that was an issue that we were requested to examine because reducing total organic carbon or TOC makes the disinfection residual in the regional system and the member government distribution systems last longer and become more predictable, especially in the hot summer months. As we were concluding our study in 2022, the utility directors asked us to pause because the EPA had just issued new regulations for PFAS. So we tasked Carollo engineers to update their original study and see what treatment may be necessary and at what locations given the new PFAS regulations and the data that we and the members had been collecting from the regional system that was completed in January of this year. And we presented that to the board in February, the report identified targeted treatment actions for both PFAS and TOC reductions in finished drinking water. The actions were stated to support long term regulatory compliance and again to strengthen those chloramine disinfection residuals across the region. We presented the estimated capital improvement costs for all of the treatments that were recommended and the study reprioritized based on the PFAS that was identified in some parts of our system and divided the recommendations into three phases. Our staff have evaluated that report and its recommendations and we're now coming to you to recommend treatment at five sites, which I'll discuss in a moment, three for PFAS reduction and two for total organic carbon reduction. These are the projects that were recommended in phase one of the Carollo study. We are not recommending moving forward with those projects in phases two and three. To achieve compliance with the regulatory limits for PFOS and PFOA staff recommends moving forward with projects at three locations and they're shown in the orange stars on the map. The first is the regional surface water treatment plant site and also Brandon urban dispersed wells treatment sites five and seven. The two locations where all the water from the brand and urban dispersed wells are treated first for regional delivery. The three locations are recommended for PFAS reduction somewhere between the years 2026 and 2031 to comply with the current limits and the current implementation schedule. And we'll be developing interim steps to meet compliance if needed if the current date of April 29 remains in place from EPA to strengthen the disinfection residual stability in the regional system and the member government distribution systems. We are recommending TOC reduction treatment at the Eldridge wild well field and the South Pasco well field. These two sites were selected because they have the groundwater. There has some of the highest total organic carbon concentrations in our regional system and reducing it. Those two locations will help all of the members downstream of those facilities with those all important residuals in your systems. And when those are reduced we maintain that within your distribution systems it can lead to less flushing and also less cost for treatment chemicals. One additional benefit particularly for the South Pasco well field is that treatment there of the well field water will bring down the total organic carbon load. And as that water comes south primarily to Hillsborough counties Lake Park pumping station. We should be able to deliver more well field water to the county at that location because that total organic carbon load has been reduced. That's important to us because we're looking ahead at the consolidated water use permit. Can we obtain more than 90 million gallons per day on a cost effective basis? Section 21 well field is one of those well fields that has been underused in relation to environmental recovery since it was reduced in 2004. There is more water that can be safely harvested there at a cost effective manner. We will implement these projects in a step wise manner especially with the EPA PFAS regulations still as the subject of litigation. The EPA has signaled that they are looking to hold to four parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA but to scale back or eliminate the other PFAS substances that were part of their regulations. They're also indicating that they're also indicating that they're looking to extend their compliance deadline from April of 29 to April of 31. But that is under litigation and the timeframe for resolution of that is unsure. Our construction would well we would begin with design work and we would not proceed until construct into the construction phase which is more expensive until we have certainty for what we need to do with the final regulations. The full cost if these three sites are implemented actually these five sites for PFAS and TOC are summarized here on the slides and these would be implemented by 2031 if we need to move forward with all five. Our staff recommends approval of PFAS reduction treatment projects at the regional surface water treatment plant and the two brand and urban disperse well treatment sites and also total organic carbon reduction projects at Eldridge wild and south pass. We'll be happy to answer questions. Thank you for articulating the benefits that we're receiving for the TOC reduction treatment capital costs we had that discussion on the one on ones and you know we're spending you know about 51 million dollars and what is it that we will see because obviously the other part the PFAS that's regulatory we have to do certain things in the system. In the system but I was questioning the TOC reduction and what would be the benefits that we would derive from that treatment or the spending of the 51 million and it's not just the residuals you know with and less flushing but it's also the ability to produce more water. Correct. And it leads to other things with our limits and all that so thank you. Commissioner Wastel. Thank you. How many did we already select a vendor for these treatments? I can't recall. We have not. The first step would be to go to design and then to construction later. I can't imagine that there's very many people that are in this space right in ion bed exchange. It is a technology that is used so there would be a number of contractors that would be interested. The other treatment is granular activated carbon which is used at most surface water treatment plants. So the technologies are known and they're proven. They are effective. Yeah. Oh I know that the ion bed exchange, I don't know much about the other one. I just, I don't understand what's going on with the lawsuits. So even if the lawsuit that's going on, I'm a fan of doing this. You guys presented a pie graph maybe three years ago. It was one of the first things I got from you. And it basically said that you should avoid eating pizza out of a, I just went through this. Commissioner Cohen at our EPC meeting, you should avoid eating pizza out of a pizza box. Women shouldn't use mascara. They shouldn't use a variety of other beauty products. I don't, and I went down this deep rabbit hole of trying to understand it. And I just don't think that anyone is taking serious the issue of what it does to women's reproductive system. And not only that but also wildlife that drink out of this. It also affects their ability to reproduce. And so even if the lawsuit goes through and are you saying that if the lawsuit prevails that there would not be these requirements? And if that was the case, are we suggesting that, I mean, I understand it's a lot of money. And I'm hoping that the federal government is going to be involved in supporting us on these issues. But if the lawsuit prevails, are we just going to backtrack and not do these things or? We believe there will be regulations. There's actually multiple parties in the litigation now with EPA. A.W.A. and AMWA were challenging it, basically saying that have you evaluated the methodology used to set the four parts per trillion? Have you examined the cost to very, especially to small utilities? And they're wanting EPA to bolster or maybe relook at those. But then there were other litigants that said, no, we support this. We don't want any changes and we don't want any, you know, reduction of the timeframe. Don't get rid of any of the PFAS regulations. So both sides are there with EPA in court now. That's why the date that we'll know is so uncertain. Well, anything that we can do to avoid being alarmists but educating people of the harms of these phthalates and different endocrine disruptors, I just think is a very important issue. So thank you. Thank you. Move approval. Second. Commissioner Akers. Yeah. Thank you for bringing up those comments, Commissioner. I was actually going to just talk about the education part and I think that's great. So of the $240 million that we're talking about and approving, we're generally approving the approach. What's the design part of that, of the cost of these? Design is usually about 15 to 20%. 24 million would be the estimated design cost for those projects. So by approving this, we're approving the start of the design? We're approving the start of the projects. The first thing we would do is to go procure services for design. At that point, we would bring those contracts to the board for review and consideration. And that would be the first official step and expenditure of funds. I will be asking for some expenditure for design of the surface water treatment plant pilot for the next agenda item. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. I see no other further comments. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine. Board members, please enter your votes. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Mr. Hock, you have the next item. Good morning again. As we pull this up, as I mentioned, we will be requesting approval of a contract amendment in this agenda item with Veolia to begin design services for both an interim and a permanent pilot facility at the surface water treatment plant. We must comply with EPA's limits. We must comply with EPA's current PFAS limits and currently the compliance is set for April of 2029. As we discussed, that is the subject of litigation and the result of that is unclear. But in order for us to comply, we are now requesting approval to initiate design for pilot facilities at surface water treatment plant to help us design what we need for future treatment and operating strategies. By getting this started now with piloting, it will help us achieve compliance with the new regulations before full treatment systems can be implemented. Having a permanent pilot at surface water again will help us to optimize the treatment at that water supply facility, which is part of the backbone of our regional system. So it will help us make operational changes with the existing technology to optimize treatment and costs. The amendment to the Veolia contract includes design phase services for both the interim pilot and a permanent pilot. This will be focused primarily on PFAS treatment and total organic carbon reduction. The interim pilot will help us to do some testing now, perhaps looking at the suspended ion exchange process or six that the city of Tampa is implementing at their surface water plant to see if that would be beneficial for us as well. A benefit of our studies here is not just total organic carbon, but as Mr. Fleischacker has explained in past presentations, you have to bring down the total organic carbon before you can remove the PFAS from the water. So it would have a, if we go to full construction at the surface water plant, it will have a benefit to all the members with that ever important disinfection residual in your systems by bringing that organic carbon load down and reducing PFAS. Both of these contracts for construction will be brought to the board separately. What we're asking for today is just the design services and it's $1.83 million. That includes some early equipment purchase of the active flow mini system that will be essential for our pilot. As I mentioned, this will help us not only to implement interim treatment if needed to meet the EPA regulations, within the existing plant infrastructure, but also helps us design that future work for the permanent pilot and for the permanent changes, additional water quality treatment for PFAS at surface water. Our staff recommends approval of the negotiated contract with Veolia for the design services of $1.8 million. $1.8 million. And these dollars will be taken from the PFAS settlement litigation fund that we received in the past months. With that request board consideration. Mr. Eker. Just one quick question. We just talked about $24 million on the design and the previous project. Is this part of that? This should be, this should, this is part of that. Starting to go into that. This is the beginning piece of that. Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion? Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, you open the machine. Four members, please enter your votes. Clerk, please tell the announce vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hogg. Next up, C4. Ms. Thomas. We have the Morris Bridge Wellfield Improvements. Yes, ma'am. All right. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm Nicole Thomas, your senior professional engineer and project manager for the Morris Bridge Improvements project. I'm here to present item C4, requesting action and approval at the end of the presentation for the construction contract award. Part of this project will include retiring and properly abandoning five wells. And this was per our well field right sizing report that was presented to the board back in 2016. This will be the fifth well field where we have made improvements or moved these improvements through the right sizing program. The equipment has reached its useful life and we will be updating the components to modern standards which typically garner energy savings through improved efficiencies. This well field was installed by the City of Tampa in the 1970s. Tampa Bay Water acquired the facilities in 1998. And like I said, this equipment has reached its useful life and we're going to be updating the components through our renewal and replacement program. This will be pumps and motors that will be replaced, including electrical components that will include safety improvements, as well as officially retiring those five wells per that right sizing program. And of the five retired wells, kind of an exciting and different approach, a piece of the project that I kind of like personally, is that we're going to be donating three of those well house structures to the parks, the Flatwoods Park, and we'll move forward. So to talk a little bit about the pricing of this project, through our engineering, our value engineering process, we actually adjusted the design to go ahead and rehabilitate the structures and not installing new structures. In addition, I'd like to highlight a couple other savings that will be in play. We will be using our owner direct purchase program for tax savings of about $300,000. And also, we have been awarded up to about $1 million in EPA grant funding. Therefore, staff recommends that contract 202620 be awarded to Southeast Drilling Services in the amount of about $16,300,000, which is inclusive of the $895,100 in owner's allowance. And just one thing I'd like to say, just a thank you to our project team. A lot of hard work and support got us to this big milestone to be able to head into construction, so I just want to thank them. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to take any questions. If that, I'll entertain a motion. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, can you open the machine? Board members, enter your votes. Clerk, please tally announce the vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Well, thank you, Ms. Thomas and your team. Congratulations for the great work and getting those savings, too. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Maribel Medina, who's going to be presenting C5. Good morning. Hey, good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board. Agenda Item C5 is an action item for the Crossbar Ranch Wellfield Transmission Main Utility Conflict Project. At the conclusion of this presentation, I will be asking your approval for contract 2026-017 with JDS Pipe Incorporated. This project is the result of a utility conflict with the Florida Department of Transportation, or FDOT. The project proposes improvements to State Road 52 in Pasco County, including road widening and drainage improvements, which conflict with our existing 60-inch Crossbar Ranch Wellfield Transmission Main. A portion of this transmission main is located within the existing right of way and requires relocation. Tampa Bay Waters project includes the construction of about 500 feet of 60-inch diameter pipe to be installed via open-cut and microtunneling operations under State Road 52, as well as the installation of a 36-inch and a 60-inch valve and cathodic protection systems. About 250 feet of the old 60-inch diameter pipe will be removed and the reminder will be grouted in place. This project was competitively bid and five bids were received. The design engineering consultant, Wade Trim, reviewed and evaluated the bids and determined JDS Pipe Incorporated to be the lowest, most responsible bidder. Staff recommends approval of the Crossbar Ranch Wellfield Transmission Main project and the contract to JDS Pipe Incorporated in the amount of $6.2 million. With a note that FDOT will be reimbursing Tampa Bay Water about $4 million of the construction cost. And, Madam Chair, this concludes my brief presentation. I will be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, can you open the machine. Board numbers enter your votes. Clerk, you please tally announce the vote. Councilman Miranda, we need your vote. Thank you. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Medina. Now we move on to presentations and reports. And we have the City of St. Petersburg presentation today. Hi, Mr. Palinshar. Thank you. Hello, Councilmember Hanowitz, Chair Hanowitz. And Board. I appreciate the opportunity today to come and talk to you. You know, it may be a little bit old hat for Councilmember Hanowitz as we go through Chair Hanowitz. But I think it's going to be beneficial for everybody to hear the presentation that I have. But before I get started, I should admit, I had a little help putting some of this together. And some of the team images in this presentation and exhibits were created by AI. Now, AI is being used for incredibly complex things. Engineering analysis, predictive modeling, and I'm going to use it to make these slides a little funny and interesting. Maybe not the highest and best use, but it was fun. That said, what I want to talk about today isn't technology or projects, it's people. Lisa Ray from Hillsborough County set the tone at our last meeting, and I wanted to build on that. So, after about ten years, this may be the last time that I'm presenting here to this Board. And when I look back, it's not the projects I remember most, it's the people. So, I'd like to tell a story, a water story. On paper, it's treat, deliver, protect, reclaim, hundreds of millions of dollars annually on capital and O&M. But that's not the real story. The real story is the people, the quiet guardians of the system. So, let's follow along there and back again. Every drop goes on a journey, from the environment, to Tampa Bay water, to St. Pete, to reuse, and back to the environment. It's a loop, and it's always returning. And the people that manage that are what's behind everything. This is where St. Pete's journey begins, turning raw and treated regional water into something people trust. Thousands of decisions, most unseen. Shown here are Wanda Henry, the water treatment plant manager, in the center. Vic Gregory, the plant maintenance supervisor, left. And J.P. Van Horn, the plant operations supervisor, right. This next video highlights J.P. sharing hurricane preparedness guidance with residents. Hi, I'm Jeremiah with the City of St. Pete's Water Resources Department. And I'm here to talk to you about what you need to know when we issue a boil water notice. There's a few reasons the city may issue a precautionary boil water notice. Due to a line break caused by pipe failure or the roots of falling trees damaging our potable water pipes. These events could affect water pressure and could allow contamination to enter the system. That's why experts recommend storing at least one gallon of water per person per day for three days. Use this supply first for drinking, cooking, and hygiene. If you must use tap water, boil it for at least one minute, then cool before using. Another option is adding a quarter teaspoon of plain unscented bleach to disinfect two gallons of water. Showers are safe if you're careful not to swallow water or get in your eyes, nose, or mouth. Children and those with weakened immune systems should take extra precautions. A boil water notice typically lasts at least 72 hours. When it's lifted, run your taps, flush your fountains and ice makers, and replace filters. Knowing these things before making a decision on evacuation is important to consider as a storm approaches. To stay up to date on events as they unfold, visit stpete.org slash hurricane and follow our social media channels for updates. What stands out there is that our responsibility doesn't stop at producing safe water. It extends into community readiness and trust. And once water leaves the plant, that responsibility shifts into a much larger and more complex system. So from here, we move into the distribution system. St. Pete's distribution maintenance team protects and repairs a vast network of pipes and valves running just below our feet. But what customers experience is simple. It just works. That reliability is built on constant vigilance. A 12-inch main break after midnight is just another day at the office for this team. Shown here are Scott Lewis, the Water Operations Senior Manager Center, Mike Renshaw, the Distribution Maintenance Manager left, and Eric Lynch, Distribution Supervisor right. And while all that's happening, another layer ensures everything stays safe. Parallel to distribution, our compliance division continually verifies that water remains safe, performing environmental analytical laboratory operations with over 40 NELAC certified methods. Shown here is John Stanley, the Environmental Compliance Manager in center, Naveen Nariz, the lead chemist in left, and Les Boardman, the laboratory supervisor right. This is where science supports everything we do. It's where that science protects public confidence. Our team doesn't just test water, they safeguard trust through transparency and expertise. This video highlights Naveen and the work behind the Environmental Compliance and Monitor. My name is Naveen Nariz and I'm a lead chemist in the Environmental Compliance Division Laboratory. Our lab here is a monitoring lab, so we test the water to make sure it meets the standards. It's Water Resources Department, so we test all the water resources within the city and outside the city to make sure it's safe for consumption or for recreational reasons and make sure the community is safe and the environment in general is safe. After all, everyone needs water. So we test the drinking water from all over the city on a monthly basis. So every month we cover all the areas in the city and also we do beach monitoring. We do the beaches on a weekly basis. We found that we have more control over the data and we produce more reliable data in the lab here than the private labs. We make sure that all the water in the city is safe for you, your family, your pets, the animals, the aquatic life. To protect the water, I feel I'm giving back to the community as well. I do a lot of troubleshooting and problem solving. I'm like a scientist and detective as well, so it's very interesting. I really like my job because it actually has a real effect on people's lives. You know, like no one can live without water. What stands out is the level of precision and consistency required to main public confidence every day. And that assurance doesn't exist in isolation. It supports everything downstream in how we operate the system. From here, we move into the teams who support operations behind the scenes. The unsung heroes, training, safety, culture, and programs like our private laterals program. Shown here are Cara Barrera, the Special Projects Coordinator Center. Helene Roberts, my personal bodyguard and administrative assistant on the left. Terry Hendricks, our safety and training officer. Every system depends on people. Our administrative support team enables these operations to take place. The lateral lines are the lines that lead from your house through to the city sewer system. And it's really important for the total functioning of a house. Maintaining an older house takes a little bit of attention. And so because it was a 60 year old house, I wanted to make sure that I had the most up-to-date improvements that I could make on this house. And so the city lateral line rehab program was that resource for me. It's a pretty simple program. They've made it about as simple as possible. And the city is a great resource to work with. I filled out a form that was sent to me and then they approved the application and sent me a list of authorized plumbers. I was very happy with the plumber that I chose and everything took a fairly short period of time as these things go. I think the city's resiliency infrastructure is a critical piece of quality of life in a city. The lateral line rehab program is one of those very important programs that allow for improvements to take place at a very base level. It's a piece of the overall big pie that I can contribute to through my participation in the city's lateral line rehab program. It makes me feel more comfortable living in my house and not worrying about this portion of the infrastructure of my house. What stands out there is how even the less visible parts of the system are very real and have a very direct community impact. And that foundation allows us to plan and invest confidently for the future. So I'll now move into our capital planning and infrastructure investments. Shown here are Tom Menke, our capital improvement senior manager center, Lindsay Denzer, the money lady, our administrative services manager left, and Igor Lagonia, the technical services manager. Long term reliability depends on discipline planning. Capital programs evaluate future regulatory requirements, aging infrastructure, growth patterns, and resiliency needs, ensuring we never fall behind. Every pipe, pump, tank, basin depends on responsible financial planning. This group maintains rate modeling, capital funding strategies, project prioritization, and operational budget management. Planning for 5, 10, 30 years, balancing growth, aging infrastructure, and resiliency, every decision echoes into the future. And now, now more than ever, that is being tested. So from there, I'll move into wastewater, our wastewater team. This is where the system comes full circle, but it's also where complexity and leadership meet in real time. Our operators don't just manage wastewater systems, they lead through experience, skill, and dedication in a demanding environment. Shown here are Dr. Ivy Drexler, the wastewater operations senior manager center, Frank Niles, the water reclamation facilities manager left, and Terrell Holmes, the wastewater collection maintenance manager right. This next video highlights our Northwest plant chief operator, Sylvia Rosario, and her leadership in a traditionally male dominated field. My name is Sylvia Rosario. I am the first Hispanic, Latina, female chief plant operator for the city of St. Petersburg. You don't wake up wanting to be a chief plant operator or a wastewater operator. This is a job that you are either born into, your parents did it, or maybe a family member did it, or it falls out of the sky for you. It fell out of the sky for me. I was a nail tech, and I came to my wastewater interview with beautiful old nails, fancy hair, all the makeup, and the operators and the team behind the table, they looked and they were like, what is she thinking? We sat there, and we had a great conversation. They had confidence in me, and it happened. I was like, I don't know if I want to do this. This is crazy. The change is so big. I decided to go for it. I figured, you know, I had four sons at the time, and they deserved better. I looked up to my mother. She also was a single mother. We were living in New York in the Bronx. She went back to Puerto Rico with me where I went to school, went to high school, some college. I looked up to her, and she was always so proud of anything I did. That was very encouraging to me to see that no matter what, how simple something I did, she was always a big cheerleader. Two of my sisters were older than me, and they also were accomplished, so I had that to look up to. So I had a lot of females to look up to. Of course, my favorite color is pink. This is a very male-dominated field. I want to say I've met four to five females operators, so I always keep my office as girly as I can because I tell the guys I am part of this team, but I'm still a girl. I'm very proud of what I've done. I'm very proud to work for the city. I'm very proud of what we do. I'm proud of the water we put out. We do it for the environment. We do it for our children, for your children, for our families, for the families out there. You have to be driven in life. There has to be a goal, and there has to be a reason. There will be obstacles, but you have to be the person sitting back figuring out how you're going to approach those obstacles and how you're going to get through them. My definition of a trailblazer is a person that has a vision and can see an opportunity come their way. Just grab onto that goal and know that you have a meaning and a reason and go for it. What stands out there is Sylvia's leadership, her dedication, her expertise, resilience, and the trust that she earned from her team. From there, our story comes full circle. Reclaimed water extends every gallon's life. Shown here are Chris Claus, our conservation coordinator center, John Appel, our reclaimed water inspector left, and Sherry Greer, our hydrogeologist right. In the wet season, supply can exceed demand, and that is where reclaimed water becomes a resource we actively manage. It's also where we balance nature and system capacity. Our team doesn't just distribute reclaimed water, they also manage seasonal variability and system storage responsibly. We produce reclaimed water at all of our plants. During the rainy season, no one wants to use it, so our demand is low. So we have this water, and we only have a specific amount of storage capacity for that water on plants. So when we exceed or come to the point where we're going to exceed that storage capacity, we use the injection wells to get through it. Since 2015, we have added four deep injection wells. Each one of them are rated to 18.65 million gallons a day, so the total increased capacity is 75 million gallons. What stands out there is our adaptability. We make sure to manage our resources and adapt to shifting conditions. That adaptability brings the entire system back to balance, preparing us for the next cycle of use and reuse. So from there, we close the loop. Over the past 10 years, I've presented on a lot of projects, but what stays with me is the people. On a side note, as I was putting this together, I used AI to help generate this final image. The skyline shown says St. Petersburg, but I think it may have given us Tampa instead. Thanks, Amy. Thanks for that. So congratulations to our friends across the bay for taking the rays of spotlight away from us. In all seriousness, whether it's St. Pete, Tampa, or the region, the system only works because we work together. Different skyline, same shared responsibility for the water that connects us. Thank you. If you have any questions. Thank you. Well, I don't think he made it very clear, but we have to, we are going to have to congratulate. He's going to be retiring this year. So from the city of St. Petersburg, right? That is correct. My, my, my March of 2027. Yep. So let's give him a big hand of congratulations. Commissioner, I mean, council member Miranda. Thank you, Madam Chair. And you know, this is great. I've never seen a presentation like this in all my years here, but it reminds me of the TV movie or TV show to tell the truth. And on the other side, you might be an award with Cecil B. DeMills or Arthur Hitchcock, because I've never seen a presentation like this. That's factual, but yet humorous. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I have to say it's, it's always a pleasure to work with you and everyone in water resources. You did a fantastic job of not just highlighting our employees, but you also actually put in some of the programs that our city is doing, like the lateral line program and what's happening when the presentation and the innovative work they're doing. So it's very much appreciated. You've always been wonderful to work with. Thank you. I appreciate everybody's, everybody's patience. I know it was a lot to go through. I tried to stay on script to get through as quickly as I could, but I appreciate everybody bearing with me through that. I thought it was a fun presentation. By the way, there's some things I will never be able to unsee now after I've seen the AI versions of y'all. Commissioner Eggers. Well, thank you. That was entertaining. It was good. It was informative. Makes me want to know what some of our Tampa Bay water employees would look like in the same garb. I'm even thinking about our utility director back there and what he would be wearing. Paul, with your beard, you'd fit right in. Anyway, I really appreciate it and thank you for your years of service to the city of St. Petersburg as well. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have receive and file. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Clerk, you open the machine. Second. Clerk, you please. Callie announced vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. And then the final item we have is the attorney-client session, and I am going to read the legal requirements. To initiate the session, we're now going to move into a private attorney-client session pursuant to Florida Statute 286.011, Subsection 8, to discuss Polk Regional Water Cooperative versus Southwest Florida Water Management District and Tampa Bay Water. In attendance will be General Counsel Kelly Fernandez, Deputy General Counsel R. David Jackson, Special Counsel Timothy Riley, Elizabeth Ross, and Greg Ross, me, Vice Chair Seth Waitman, Board Members Harry Cohen, Chopper Davis, Dave Eggers, Charlie Miranda, Ron Oakley, Kathleen Peters, and Joshua Wastel, General Manager Charles Cardin, and a certified court reporter. The expected duration is hopefully not 60 minutes, but it says 60 minutes, and we will come back afterwards to conclude the session. So at this point, we're going to go into executive session. Private attorney-client session has concluded, and the regular meeting is resumed. At this moment, this item requires a board vote. Is there a motion? Move approval. Roger. This is a motion to approve the settlement with a second. Clerk, you put in the machine for voting. Board members, enter your votes. Clerk, please tally announce a vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Well, I think our big, large agenda has come to a conclusion right before noon. This board meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.