Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board  Meeting
September 3, 2020

Agenda Items

• All agenda items approved except for three items that are listed below. Resolution honored Robert Johnson for his work with STEM and Future Cities engineering programs. You can see him on YouTube.
• Resolution honored the 19th Amendment Passage, 100 years ago.
• Resolution honoring Sister Jean on her 101st birthday. Older than the amendment!
• Item #23 -It was emphasized that the seal coating for roads and patching, contains no coal tar.
• Item #49 - 87% of the levy has been collected. The Assessor will put in a Covid equalizer for the 2021 budget process.
• Item #53 - The Skokie Sports Park will be able to sell and consume alcohol on the premises. MWRD gets 25% of sales.

Stormwater Management

• Items #56 and #57 extended the Green Alley Program in River Grove and Skokie. It was emphasized that the Villages maintain the local projects but if maintenance is found to be lacking, MWRD will step in to fix it. The Village would then have to reimburse MWRD for the cost of this maintenance.

Deferred or Deleted Agenda Items

• Item #15 (rescinding of contract for native landscape areas maintenance) was deleted before the meeting. 
• Items #18 (affirmative action questions on contract advertising for marketing of biosolids) was deferred. It has been difficult to find subs that are qualified to sell the biosolids.
• Item #32 (more discussion needed on purchase order with firm that was to do the Affirmative Action Ordinance Disparity Study) was deferred. 

Observer - Peggy Kell                    Meeting Length: 2 hours 15 minutes

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

Retirement Fund Report:  

• Item 48, 20-0636:  Had a 18.3% return on investments last year, putting it well above average.  Fund is at the highest valuation ever.  However, payments out exceeded contributions by existing employees.  Given that employees being hired now pay in lower contributions (and in turn will receive lower payouts) than those who are now retiring, expect that payouts will continue to be higher than contributions in the foreseeable future.  Why returns on investment are so important.  Good that the Board has been authorizing additional payments, such as the extra $20 million in March this year, to help shore the Fund up. For 2020, reported that at the end of the 1st quarter, the Fund was down by 17%, but has recovered much of the loss during the 2nd quarter. Now at minus 3.6%.  

Some Items Passed with Discussion:

• Item 49, 20-0590:  Added Juneteenth to the list of days that an employee can select from to use as an “Additional Holiday.”  
• Item 51, 20-0521:  Authority to commence statutory procedures to lease 5,097+ sq.ft. of District land located on southeastern bank of Collateral Channel at 3152 S. California, Chicago.  Deferred from July 16 mtg to allow neighborhood groups to weigh in.  Richard Golf from Lakeshore Recycling System reported during the Public Comment Period that the company had met with neighborhood group and had meeting scheduled with Friends of the River.  Ald. George Cardenes (12th ward) spoke in support.  Comm. Davis asked that contract include a provision that lessee will comply with all state and federal requirements, including those regarding emergency planning; that emergency contact information be posted at the site in both Spanish and English; and that the lessee have a Spanish-speaking person available.  
• Item 54, 20-0648:  Authorization to declare as surplus and not required for MWRD use and sell to the Illinois Department of Transportation 0.15 acres located south of the Cal-Sag Channel in Alsip, Illinois.  During Public Comments, Friends of the River said that it wants to make sure that this sale would not adversely impact the long-term goal of connecting 2 channels of water.  Comm. Garcia pointed out that if MWRD doesn’t sell, IDOT can instead use eminent domain to acquire.  
• Item 57, 20-0623:  Intergovernmental agreement with Cook County Forest Preserve for a green infrastructure retrofit of a parking lot in unincorporated Proviso Township.  The permeable pavers and bioretention areas to be constructed are expected to mitigate flooding in the area.  MWRD contributing a little less than half ($203,107) to the total expected cost of $486,215.  Comm. Garcia asked about participation goals by the Forest Preserve, which are actually higher than the MWRD’s with respect to MBE/WBE.  Comm. Garcia wants to have a separate discussion in the future on the MWRD requiring other entities to use the MWRD goals, if the other entity’s goals are not higher, for the entire project, not just for the amount contributed by the MWRD, as currently provided. 

Items to Watch for at Future Meetings:
Items Deferred:

• Item 18, 20-0622:  Authority to advertise for professional services to market EQ (Exceptional Quality) Biosolids.  Comm. Garcia continues to be troubled that the District doesn’t have a single person/department overseeing a comprehensive strategy for dealing with bio-solids.  Also troubled by the lack of participation goals and would like an estimated return on investment.  Other Commissioners wanted to move forward because MWRD does not have marketing expertise and needs help, particularly given the elimination of trade shows due to COVID.  Comm. Morita also asked for staff memo to be prepared on where the District is with regard to the bio-solid program. 
• Item 30, 20-0602:  Authority to award contract to furnish janitorial supplies.  Comm. Garcia deferred and wants to know how many MBE/WBE, etc. entities participated and whether other government entities have goals for this kind of contract.  President Steele pointed out that this is a “furnish and deliver” contract which, under current Board rules, does not need participation goals.  However, this is part of the ongoing discussion regarding a possible modification of the Affirmative Action Ordinance.

Items Deleted:

• Item 11, 20-0591:  Authority to advertise for professional services to conduct facility needs studies for Hanover Park and Lemont Water Reclamation Plants.  Comm. Shore concerned that it has only been 10 years since the last Master Plan and Executive Director agreed that normally would expect a Master Plan to have a useful life of at least 20/30/40 years.  But main issue is the Comm. Shore wanted the scope to be expanded to include study of inflows during rain events.  Deleted, rather than deferred item so that scope could be expanded (which may also impact cost).
• Item 27, 20-0631:  Authority to issue purchase order for creation of Stormwater Master Plan for Avalon Park, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, and South Shore Study Area. (Deleted by Exec. Director, no discussion.)

Potential Amendment to the Ethics Ordinance:

• Comm. Davis said at the end of the meeting that he has heard from a number of non-profit groups that do not lobby for themselves, but for the public good, that they are being hurt by being treated as “lobbyists” and required to pay fees under the current Ethics Ordinance.  He would like to fine-tune the ordinance, but wants to have a Study Session at least 30 days after any proposed amendment to allow time for public comment.

Length of Meeting:  4.5 hours (including 70 minute Executive Session before last hour of meeting)

Observer - Priscilla Mims

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
​July 16, 2020 

All 9 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board members were present at the meeting.  Due to technical difficulties, only audio recording, without video, was available. The meeting also included input from several public speakers via phone hookup; MWRD Executive Director Brian Perkovitch and Director of Engineering Dr. Catherine O’Connor also participated.

Agenda Items 
The Board approved all agenda items except #54, which was deferred.
The following agenda items were treated as a group:
Issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement for Request for Proposal 19-RFP-32 Professional Services for Stormwater Master Plan for 

• #28 20-0531  Butterfield Creek Study Area Contract 18-848-AF, with Baxter & Woodman, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $249,140.00. 
• #29 20-0545  North Creek and Deer Creek Study Area, Contract 18-848-BF with Strand Associates, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $245,314.00.  
• #30 20-0546  Dixmoor, Dolton, Harvey, Phoenix, Posen, and Riverdale Study Area Contract 18-849-AF, with Donahue & Associates, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $250,000.00.
• #31 20-0549  Willow Creek and Weller Creek Study Area Contract 18-848-CF, with CDM Smith, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $291,188.00. 
• #32 20-0550  Austin, Humboldt Park, and West Garfield Park Study Area Contract 18-849-BF, with Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $249,970.00.

Commissioner Shore questioned whether some of the subwatersheds not included in storm water study areas had been omitted because they were not within the corporate boundaries. Dr.O’Connor affirmed that these areas had not been included because it was not known how to recover the associated costs.  Commissioner Shore asserted that these subwatershed areas should be included and Commissioner McGowan stated that the fees should be assessed first and the project should continue. She requested that staff visit the omitted areas.
The cost of a large contract was decreased slightly:

#39 20-0498 Authority to decrease Contract 18-611-11, Repair and Alterations to Various Water Reclamation Facilities in the Stickney Service Area and Other Installations, to Independent Mechanical Industries, Inc., in an amount of $470,099.70 from an amount of $12,962,035.59 to an amount not to exceed $12,491,935.89.

Two affirmative action policies were unanimously approved:

• #46 20-577  Authority to adopt a policy for increasing opportunities with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago for small business enterprises that are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender owned and operated to be designated as “LGBTBE Policy” .
• #47 20-0578 Authority to adopt a policy for increasing opportunities with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago for small business enterprises that are owned and operated by persons with disabilities to be designated as “BEPD Policy  

#53 20-0486  Authority to negotiate an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Chicago to reroute a section of the West Side 9 Interceptor, which had been deferred from the June Board meeting, was approved.  

Stormwater Management

• #67 20-0566  Authority to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with and make payment to the City of Des Plaines for the acquisition of flood-prone properties in an amount not to exceed $800,000.00.  Approved unanimously.

    
Miscellaneous and Deferred Agenda Items
#54 20-0521 Authority to commence statutory procedures to lease a parcel of District real estate located on the southeast bank of the Collateral Channel.   

• Several Commissioners spoke approvingly of Lakeside Recycling Systems, the potential lessee,  and were in favor of proceeding.  Others were concerned that feedback had not been obtained from community groups despite     attempts by Lakeside Recycling.  The difficulty of getting input from under-resourced community groups in light of the current pandemic and economic conditions in the Little Village area was noted. 
  
• Commissioner Morita requested the item be deferred, and the deferral was agreed to unanimously.

Commissioner Requests

• Commissioner McGowan requested the Executive Director have staff look into adding a Juneteenth option to the 6 Commissioner holidays currently offered.  Employees would then be able to choose one of 7 options for their Commissioner holiday at no extra cost to taxpayers.

Observer:  Ann Bolan                        Length of Meeting:  3 ½ hours