MWRD Board Observer Reports

MWRD Board Requests More Background Information on Several Agenda Items

3/18/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
March 5, 2020

Approved Items with Discussion:

#9, 20-0181: Discussion took place about the transfer of the $20,000,000.00 of Accumulated Investment Interest Income to the MWRD Retirement Fund. Questions were asked about the use of minority owned investment firms and in what way these funds will be allocated for investments. The outside investment manager is Marquette Investment; Commissioners asked what they charge for their services.
#23, 20-0207: Authority to lease 14.02 acres of improved District real estate at 6400 South Archer Avenue in Bedford Park, Illinois; Main Channel parcel 33.01. Currently, there is a tenant on the property. The Board requested more information.
#33, 20-0209 Discussion about the authority to amend the easement agreement dated March 24, 1949 between the District and Cornerstone Properties (successor in interest to ComEd) to use and maintain District owned portions in Stickney and Forest View. Commissioners questioned Com Ed’s obligation to alert the District about any problems occurring and would like this to be included in the new agreement.

Deferred or Deleted Items:

#13, 20-0177 Deferred by Commissioner Davis - more information was requested regarding why this money is sent to a law firm instead of directly to the Coalition and who the Coalition members are.
#14, 20-0205 Deferred by Commissioner Garcia - Much discussion took place about the relationship of this engineering project to the future Lincoln Yards Project. The Commissioners were assured that the project would have taken place because of TARP’s inadequate connections and are looking for others that need correction. The Commissioners requested more information.
#15, 20-0184 Ex. Director deleted a request to advertise for Scavenger Services estimated cost of $3,883,400.
#31, 20-0217 Deferred by Commissioner Garcia - More information was requested before the reappointment of Jose Lopez as Commissioner on MWRD’s Ethics

Commissioner Requests

Mr. Garcia requested a list of minority investment participation
Ms. Shore requested new leases include additional notices to the District
Mr. Davis requested the Diversity Department provide the Board message ready notices for district events.

All Commissioners were present

Observed by: Pat Lind Meeting Length: 1 hr. 45 min.

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Boundary Issues for Voting and Services Discussed at MWRD Board Meeting

2/28/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
February 20, 2020

Board Action:

Agenda Item 38. 20-0053 A. At the February 6 Board Meeting, the board asked to split this agenda item, the MWRD Legislative Initiative for Springfield, into 2 sections and deferred the resolution. In this meeting, the board approved Initiative #1 that would amend the District’s enabling ordinance to allow the Board to transfer excess revenue from any source legally available to the pension fund. Initiative #2 - to request amending the enabling ordinance to allow all Cook County voters to vote for MWRD commissioners regardless of whether they reside within the MWRD area - was deleted.
Agenda Item 29. 20-0169. The authority to issue a three month permit to Commonwealth Edison Co. to use 10,000 sq. ft. portions of land parcels in Bedford Park as helicopter landing zones for delivery and access to its transmission line. Further consideration of tree removal along with reclamation and remediation for the parcels will be built into the permit. This was approved with consideration that there be a $5,000.00 annual fee
Deleted Agenda Item: - Item 10. 20-0149 Authority to Furnish and deliver Sodium Bisulfite. No venders met the criteria for compliance. Commissioner McGowan asked if minority firms were contacted.
Deferred Agenda Item: Item 24. 20-0097 was deferred for a second time. The authority to award contracts to furnish, deliver and install an upgraded operator for TARP Gate 1 at the O’Brien Water Reclamation Plant.
Nine Resolutions were presented honoring February’s Black History Month and several individuals.

Public Comments:

Sally Stone and Rob Sulski spoke on behalf of land parcels 34A and 34C in Glenview and Northbrook regarding the lack of care and management of parcel 34B. Invasive plant specie’s seeds are flowing downstream and creating contamination problems in the other two parcels. Those two communities have volunteers that maintain those parcels. They suggested mowing earlier and often. The Board agreed to follow up with answers by the end of the week and agreed to consider community help.

Commissioner Request:

Commissioner Cameron Davis requested that in the future, proposed Ordinance resolutions be published at least 30 days in advance of board review or vote for public notice and comment.

All commissioners except Garcia were present. He arrived for the 1:00 p.m. Study Session covering the Affirmative Action Disparity Study Report.

Observed by: Pat Lind Length of Meeting - 2 hrs.

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MWRD Board Discusses Proposed State of Illinois Legislation Program for 2020

2/9/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
February 6, 2020

Primary Topic Discussed:
State of Illinois 2020 Legislation Program (Agenda Item 20-0053)

Legislative Initiative #1 of State of Illinois 2020 Legislation Program was unanimously approved. This will amend the District’s act to allow the Board of Commissioners to transfer excess revenue from any source legally available to the pension fund. Currently, there is only statutory authority to transfer property tax and interest income. An example would be if TIF surplus funds were redistributed. These could be transferred to the pension fund. The initiative would provide the Board with flexibility in utilizing excess revenue. A two thirds vote would be required for such action.

Legislative Initiative #2 - was separated from the original agenda item. This initiative would amend the District Act to extend the right to vote for the Board of Commissioners to all registered voters in Cook County. Currently, only voters within the corporate boundaries of the District have this right. The District has legislative authority for stormwater management throughout Cook County. Rationale: to bring the District political boundaries into line.

Commissioner Shore stated that this is a fairness issue for voters outside corporate boundaries. In the past grants have been rejected because residents were not within the district boundaries. There is no relationship between voting and paying taxes. All have a right to services.
Commissioners all expressed general support for the initiative but had questions to be answered before they could feel confident in voting. Commissioner McGowan asked for a specific list of the municipalities affected. There will be a study session on February 20 at which questions regarding the initiative can be addressed. The deadline for all bills to be out of committee is March 27, 2020.
The motion to divide the two legislative initiatives was approved unanimously.

Commissioner Garcia (in absentia) requested a weekly legislative report while the General Assembly is in session.

Other Board Activity:
The MWRD Executive Director gave the quarterly report for the Retirement Fund. (Agenda Item 20-0126)

He was gratified to report that 30% of the firms working with the fund are owned by women and/or minorities.
There is a net operating deficit because contributions do not cover payouts. Longer-lived pensioners, while a positive, bring funding challenges.
Returns on investments must fill this gap.

An Ordinance directing the County Clerk to reduce levy of taxes on Capital Improvement Bonds for levy year 2019 was approved with 8 ayes; 0 nays

New business:

Commissioner Davis reported feedback from his constituents regarding ethics ordinances. They requested thirty days for public comments on all ordinances.

Observer - Georgia Gebhardt Meeting Length: 2 hours

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MWRD Board Approves Amendment to Ethics Ordinance

1/25/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
January 23, 2020

Board Decisions:

The Amendment to the Ethics Ordinance of the MWRD of Chicago was passed unanimously without discussion. Commissioners Shore and Steele expressed how gratified they were to see this come to fruition.
There were a considerable number of items that requested an increase of existing purchase orders. The authority to increase the purchase order with the law firm of Neal & Leroy came under scrutiny from several commissioners. Commissioner Davis stated that these orders came up for change too often because they did not adhere to the fee policy of 2018. He suggested three choices: live within the policy, eliminate it or amend it. Commissioner Garcia observed that the board was not sufficiently well prepared and in possession of all the necessary facts before being asked to render decisions. There is a need for more timely response from staff when commissioners have questions. VOTE: 7 ayes 1 nay (Davis)

Board Discussion:

Commissioner Shore raised concerns with (pipeline) perpetual easements and their risk to the MWRD. Given that they are perpetual, can they be renegotiated to respond to a change in risk. The MWRD attorney said renegotiation was unlikely, but these easements still must meet insurance requirements and compliance expectations. All pipelines have IEPA and EPA requirements they must meet. Commissioners Shore and Morita expressed a need to review perpetual pipeline agreements and to address at a policy level.
State of Illinois 2020 Legislative Program. The deadline to submit this program was January 24, 2020 (the following day). While the commissioners were in support of the program, several expressed some frustration that there was no time to address their questions given the deadline. They were reassured by the legislative head that there were already shell bills in place, allowing for flexibility. Legislative initiative #2 was deemed particularly important because it would allow registered voters outside the District’s corporate boundaries to vote for the MWRD commissioners. Item deferred at Comm. Garcia's request. (Agenda Item #36,0053)

Observer - Georgia Gebhardt

Report corrected 1/27/2020 to note item #36,0053 was deferred

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Non-Profit Groups Urge MWRD Board to Modify Proposed Ethics Ordinance

1/16/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
January 9, 2020

The League of Women Voters of Cook County and Friends of the River both spoke in favor of modifying the proposed ethics rules the MWRD is in the process of trying to strengthen. The Ethics Ordinance had been pulled from the agenda due to letters sent by the League and other groups to commissioners, according to Commissioner Cam Davis, so that better language could be used to distinguish commercial interests from public advocacy interests.

The board recognized the plight of Puerto Ricans without drinking water and electricity after earthquakes. Commissioner Garcia had been in touch with his mother in Puerto Rico.

Board Items Discussed and Approved:

A software expenditure was discussed by Commissioner Shore as being very important for the security of a public infrastructure entity like MWRD especially with regard to current events with Iran. Mimecast is a security software that is used to protect public computer systems. She noted it was a small amount of money to pay for computer security. (Agenda Item 19)
Commissioner Garcia asked why MWRD would charge a small farm for use of MWRD land and bio-solids in Blue Island. Due to an ordinance, when a farm wants to sell its produce the MWRD is required to charge the entity rent. (Agenda Item 32)

Agenda Items Deferred or Deleted

Commissioner Davis asked that Bio-Solids Farming contract bids be made smaller so that smaller and minority companies would be able to bid on the contracts. He noted that many small non-profit farms are unable to bid on large contracts due to lack of scale. His argument was noted and future contracts will be smaller. (Agenda Item 13)
An item regarding the furnishing and delivery of liquid carbon dioxide to the Stickney Plant was deleted by the Executive Director. There was no discussion of this item. (Agenda Item 28)

Observed by Amy Little [by video] Meeting length - approximately 50 minutes

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board Approves $1.15 Billion 2020 Budget

1/7/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
December 19, 2019

Board Actions:

The Board passed its final 2020 budget without discussion while emphasizing that it represents a $70 million or 5.7% decrease from 2019. The estimated tax levy is $652.6 million [up 1.4% from 2019], and full time equivalent employees are down 14 from 2019 at 1,953. This represents no significant change from the budget that was tentatively approved on December 12.
Of interest is where the Corporate Fund money goes [in millions]:
       Construction & Design $254.4 / 23.4%
       Bond Redemption & Interest 233.0 / 21.4%
       Plant Operations & Maintenance 202.6 / 18.6%
       Staff Services 127.8 / 11.8%
       Stormwater Management 116.3 / 10.7%
       Retirement Fund 87.3 / 8.0%
       Claims & Judgments 34.4 / 3.2%
       Monitoring & Research 31.5 / 2.9%

The Board passed a one-year continuation of its intergovernmental agreement with the Cook County Sheriff’s office to continue and expand its very successful drug disposal program of expired and unwanted over the counter and prescription drugs. The purposes of which is to maximize the volume of drugs prevented from reaching and polluting Illinois waterways. Budgeted at $100,000. Commissioners want to expand to city halls and anywhere that dispenses drugs as collection sites. The Sheriff’s office wants to offer a mail back option for the elderly and disabled.

An on-site Mobile and Testing Service Contract was approved, but Commissioner Spyropoulos asked that information regarding the times use, the length of time the District has engaged in this contract, and what other options might be available for drug testing be provided to all commissioners for future consideration.

Published and filed was a report on public notification of significant industrial users having exemplary compliance and records and industrial users significantly violating pretreatment standards or other requirements. Commissioner Garcia asked if penalties could be increased. The Executive Director said staff would check it out.

Observer: Diane Edmundson Meeting Length 90 min.

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MWRD Board Requests More Background Information on Several Agenda Items

Boundary Issues for Voting and Services Discussed at MWRD Board Meeting

MWRD Board Discusses Proposed State of Illinois Legislation Program for 2020

MWRD Board Approves Amendment to Ethics Ordinance

Non-Profit Groups Urge MWRD Board to Modify Proposed Ethics Ordinance

Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board Approves $1.15 Billion 2020 Budget

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