02-08-17 Regular Meeting of the La Porte Area Water Authority

Browse Search

LA PORTE AREA WATER AUTHORITY MINUTES September 07, 2016 The meeting was called to order at 6:02 PM by President Ken Schlather. Members Present: Ken Schlather, President; Doug Martin, Vice President; Charlie Perry, Secretary; Randy Woodard Positionl Members Absent: Excused absence: Stephen Barr Position 2; Others Present: Corby Alexander, General Manager; Sharon Valiante, La Porte Public Works Director; Michael Dolby, LaPorte Finance Director; 2. The February 10, 2016 minutes were reviewed and unanimously approved with Doug Martin making the motion to approve and Charlie Perry seconding. Ken Schlather opened up the floor to Sharon Valiante to present the proposed FY 17 Operating Budget for the LPAWA; CM Corby Alexander reviewed Fund Summary (pg. 5-10 & 5-11); discussion following: 1. Woodard — Clarification of water rate set by City of Houston not by LPAWA, Alexander & Dolby -- City of La Porte absorbing cost increase and not passing along to customers; up to each jurisdiction in LPAWA to make that choice (noting in the covenants restricts City from absorbing the cost increase); Woodard, Alexander, & Dolby -- discussion relating to accounting practices in relation to CIP improvements and bonds; i.e., looking forward in next 5 years --- LPAWA has Capital Recovery set aside for this; . Doug Martin made the motion to approve budget as presented with Randy Woodard seconding the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. 4. Sharon Valiante provided the board an update on the status of the contested City of Houston FY 16 budget and the FY 15 True -up. The City of Houston and the co -participants bad progressed to mediation for the budget dispute and other operating issues without a final resolution and decided to go back to the table to continue negotiations. As of September 7ri', the Co -Participants met with the City of Houston and made a counter offer to the City of Houston to reduce the FY 16 City of Houston's Aug 1 offer from $16,026,077 to $15,264,768, which basically removes a "redundant" overhead charge. Sharon explained that the goal of the negotiations was to get City of Houston nailed down on methodology that was acceptable to both parties so that this could be applied to the FY 16 budget and in the same way to the FY 15 True -Up and in any succeeding year's budgets. She also explained that the City of Houston did not have anyone in authority at the meeting to accept or reject the counter offer. Discussion followed with questions from Randy Woodard regarding the possibility of seeing actual budget numbers for the SEWPP plant for the year's in dispute. In addition Randy requested to see an Income Statement, a Balance Sheet, and actual budget breakdown of expenditures for the SEWPP. Sharon Valiante agreed to follow up. Randy will be notified when the information is available. Ken Schlather opened up the floor to Sharon Valiante to present the information regarding the Co -Participants action on disputing the FY 17 adopted City of Houston budget. Sharon explained that this item was to be presented at the LPAWA Board meeting for the board to take action on at a meeting that had previously been scheduled for August 10', but that meeting had to be rescheduled because of attendance conflicts. The next available date that the board meeting was scheduled for happened to be the same date as the scheduled meeting between the Co -Participants and the City of Houston where the action to dispute was to be formerly done. Sharon informed the board that the Co -participants meet with the City of Houston had taken place earlier in the day. The meeting was held at 1.30 PM where the Co -participants informed the City of Houston that they were formerly disputing the FY 17 adopted budget. This action was taken by the Co -Participants with the LPAWA City of La Porte staff representing in favor of the dispute. She further explained that the vote in favor of the dispute was based on the history regarding the FY 15 True -Up and the FY 16 Budget disputes. She explained to the board that had an option to rescind the vote, but recommended to the board that they ratify the vote in favor of dispute of the FY 17 City of Houston budget that was taken earlier in the day. Doug Martin motioned to ratify the vote in favor of dispute, Charlie Perry seconded; motion passed.