In 30 seconds
- Five of six council members were present. Council Member Adrian Messina was absent.
- The council voted 5-0 to buy CDs for the water and sewer reserve required by the 2024 rate ordinance, about $541,800. The treasurer reported $1.94 million in the operating account and $1.48 million in net income for January through August.
- Water Superintendent Saeed Rose said the DEQ wastewater items have been "due for over two years" and that the city is setting preliminary dates to ask DEQ for new due dates. The draft report in the packet leaves every anticipated completion date blank.
- Rose asked for eight new positions ($232,000 a year) and a 3.1% to 3.5% cost-of-living raise. The mayor said a base-pay amendment will be on the October 6 agenda.
- Rose said short staffing can stretch a billing period from 30 days to 40, which raises bills.
- City Attorney Andre Valley said any bill adjustment or payment plan must follow a policy the council adopts under state law, and that the city has never adopted one. He asked for a definite policy at the October 6 meeting.
Recap
The Meeting & Attendance
A special call meeting on the water department. Five of six council members were present: Council Member Maxine Miller, Council Member Monica Davis, Council Member Don Etherly, Council Member Joe St. Columbia and Council Member Dr. Kyle Miller . Council Member Adrian Messina was absent. Mayor Joseph Whitfield chaired; City Clerk Sandi Ramsey called the rolls. City Treasurer Derrick Turner, City Attorney Andre Valley and Water Superintendent Saeed Rose also spoke. The agenda listed no ordinance or resolution.
Treasurer's Report: CDs for the Reserve, 5-0
Treasurer Turner reported $1,944,971.87 in the water operating and maintenance account on August 31 . Net income for January through August was $1,480,755.67, and net surplus for water was $2,443,916.90 . He said the rates the council adopted are "having a positive effect" . The 2024 rate ordinance requires a reserve of 5% of gross sales. Since August 1, 2024, water sales were $6,446,382.96 and sewer sales $4,389,892.75, so the reserve comes to about $541,800 . Turner said he could not confirm an earlier council plan to rebuild the CDs because "we don't have the minutes" . Council Member Etherly moved to buy CDs at that amount, with denominations left to the treasurer and mayor . It passed 5-0 . Valley will draft the resolution . Valley noted the city cashed about $1.3 million in CDs to build the Boys and Girls Club well, so the reserve is still about $1 million short of what it was . The report also shows $2,018,208.79 owed to Sanitation . It was not discussed.
Consent Orders: Two Years Late, New Dates Sought
Rose said the city is in the second year of two consent orders, one with the Department of Health (water) and one with DEQ (wastewater) . The DEQ quarterly report is "at the end of the process" . He said the items "have been due for over two years" . The city is "setting the preliminary dates" to get DEQ to approve new due dates for the treatment system evaluation, the corrective action plan and the staffing evaluation . The draft in the packet lists 13 requirements; the oldest were due September 24, 2024 . It marks the treatment system evaluation and the sewer system evaluation as needing funding for engineering and field work . Its 'Date Submitted' line is blank , and every anticipated completion and submittal date is blank . The Helena plant's permit renewal, due September 1, 2025, is listed as in progress . Rose said the reports need mayor and city attorney approval before they are sent, not council approval . On the water order, Rose said the Health Department reports have been on time . The West Helena plant roof is repaired ; the engineer is near a final plan to rehab or rebuild the plant's filters .
Line Replacement and Water Loss
The DRA-funded replacement of West Helena's 2-inch lines began September 10, on Cook Street, Georgia Street and Westwood Street . Phase 1 is expected by February 2027 . Treasurer Turner asked whether stronger city lines would push leaks onto customers' lines; Rose said pressure testing keeps new lines in the existing range . Council Member Dr. Kyle Miller asked about water loss . Rose said the 70% figure came from the rate study, that loss later fell to about 50%, and that it is now about 30% by his estimate. He offered meter readings to back it . West Helena normally has a little over 20 known leaks; after the main break two weeks earlier it had 60 to 70 . Rose said leaks spike every September .
Staffing and Pay: Base Pay on October 6
Rose asked for eight new field positions , costing $232,000 a year . Meter readers would start at $23,000 . The department has 17 employees and is budgeted for 19; the base-pay ordinance lists 25 positions, not all funded . Rose said a system with two water plants and two wastewater systems needs 25 to 30 . Two meter readers cover the city, one per side, and Rose reads meters himself . Valley proposed tying license-based raises into the base-pay ordinance and said the state treats the city as two systems . He said the council is "compelled" to act on staffing, within what it can afford . The mayor said the consent order calls for competitive pay and that the water fund can carry it . Rose floated a 3.1% to 3.5% cost-of-living raise for current staff . The mayor said a base-pay amendment will be on the October 6 agenda, and recommitted to annual employee evaluations . The council report in the packet lists higher 'previously developed' ranges, such as $32,000 to $35,000 for a meter reader, and its dollar fields for the raise and new positions are blank .
Pumps, Trucks and Uniforms
A $75,000 Delta Catalyst grant is paying for pump-station work. Three bypass pumps have been removed and four remain . Rose said about $40,000 to $45,000 of work is done, and that a new pump at $20,000 to $30,000 beats continued rental and fuel . He will bring a full pump-station plan. The department's 2021 trucks are over 100,000 miles; he asked for three trucks and a dump trailer . The mayor asked for proper road-work signs and barricades . For uniforms, Rose presented three-year and five-year Cintas agreements . Council Member Maxine Miller said to take the five-year option, and Valley said that is legal . No roll-call vote was taken on uniforms.
Billing and Meter Reading
Rose said short staffing can stretch a billing period from 30 days to 40, which raises the bill; the number of days is printed on each bill . A work order to check for a leak is an investigation, not a finding that the customer has one . Council Member Etherly said clerks should not have to answer technical billing questions and asked for a technical person to handle complaints . Council Member Maxine Miller asked whether that would be one of the eight positions . Rose said it should be its own position . The council report calls billing "the most visible service issue" .
Bill Adjustments: A Policy by October 6
The mayor said he asked ANRC and the governor's round table what legal grounds the water utility has to help customers with abnormal bills . Valley said the city needs an ordinance under Arkansas Code 14-42-108: "the neutral policy that's fair to everyone" . Rose said the department already uses adjustments and payment plans, with limits . Valley said those practices must be adopted by the council so everyone is treated the same, and that he had emailed the council cases on the statute . He said he raised it with Mayors Hollowell, Franklin and Smith, and "the city has not adopted the policy" . He said the council needed "a definite policy discussed that Tuesday," October 6 . The mayor said he will make a recommendation from what he and Rose have shared .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
September 29, 2026 Special City Council Meeting Agenda
One-page agenda. Call to order, prayer and pledge, roll call, the treasurer's report, then one item of new business: a Water Department presentation in four parts (City Council report; state of wells and pumps; staffing needs; uniforms). Adjourn. No ordinance, resolution or vote was listed.
| New business | Water Department presentation (4 parts) | |
| Listed votes | none |
Text document — see the agenda link below.
August 2026 Water Treasurer's Report (pages 1-8: statements)
The water and sewer fund's monthly report for the period ending August 31, 2026, prepared by City Treasurer Derrick Turner. A management report, not an audit. The O&M account held $1,944,971.87. Net income for January through August was $1,480,755.67, and net surplus for water was $2,443,916.90. Cash rose $977,240.52 over the eight months, to $2,196,063.36. The balance sheet carries $2,018,208.79 due to Sanitation and $289,379.19 due to County Sanitation. Interest received for the eight months was $226.01. The report's remaining pages are bank reconciliations, which list individual customers' deposit refunds; they are not reproduced here and remain in the city's own packet.
| O&M account, 8/31/2026 | $1,944,971.87 | |
| Net income, Jan-Aug 2026 | $1,480,755.67 | |
| Net surplus, water | $2,443,916.90 | |
| Due to Sanitation | $2,018,208.79 | |
| Net increase in cash, Jan-Aug | $977,240.52 | |
| Interest received, Jan-Aug | $226.01 |
DEQ Wastewater Consent Order Quarterly Progress Report (Draft)
Draft quarterly report to DEQ under Consent Administrative Order LIS No. 24-126, covering both wastewater permits (Helena AR0043389 and West Helena AR0022021). Reporting period 9/24/2024 to 9/2/2026. The 'Date Submitted' line is blank. A status table lists 13 requirements; the oldest were due 9/24/2024. The corrective action plan for plant repairs (due 10/24/2024), the treatment system evaluation (due 10/24/2024), the staffing evaluation (due 11/23/2024), the sewer system evaluation (SSES, due 9/24/2025) and the Helena permit renewal (due 9/1/2025) are all listed as in progress or pending. Several items are marked as needing funding. Engineering is by Weiland & Smith under Task Order 3; Jack Tyler Engineering is assisting on Treatment Pump Station No. 6. Every 'Anticipated Completion Date' and 'Anticipated Submittal Date' field in the draft is blank, as are the construction start, completion and funding-source lines for the plant repairs.
| Reporting period | 9/24/2024 - 9/2/2026 | |
| Date submitted | blank in the draft | |
| Requirements in status table | 13 | |
| Helena permit renewal (due 9/1/2025) | in progress | |
| Anticipated completion dates | blank | |
| Construction start / funding source (plant repairs) | blank |
ADH Water Consent Order Quarterly Progress Update (Draft)
Draft Q3 update for the Arkansas Department of Health water consent order, dated September 28, 2026, for mayor and council review. The West Helena sanitary survey is complete. Roof repair at the West Helena plant is reported. The DRA-funded replacement of 2-inch galvanized lines in West Helena has begun, with phase 1 expected by February 2027. The West Helena plant operator and the water superintendent are scheduled for licensing exams in October 2026. Cleaning of West Helena Wells 8 and 11 is scheduled for November 2026. The report says West Helena's water-loss percentage improved but gives no figure. The Helena asset management plan was submitted to ANRC; West Helena's is in progress.
| West Helena sanitary survey | completed | |
| DRA line replacement, phase 1 | expected February 2027 | |
| Licensing exams | October 2026 | |
| Wells 8 and 11 cleaning | November 2026 |
Water Department City Council Report (for the Mayor)
Five-page report to the mayor and council dated September 28, 2026, from the water superintendent. It lists 'previously developed' pay ranges marked 'verify': meter reader/service $32,000-$35,000, maintenance $35,000-$39,000, equipment operator $38,000-$43,000, distribution operator $40,000-$45,000. It frames a 3.1% or 3.5% cost-of-living adjustment against federal South-region benchmarks, noting they are not city policy. Every dollar field in its COLA table and its financial-impact sheet is blank, pending figures from Finance/HR. It says the DEQ report is in engineer and city attorney review before submission, and calls customer billing 'the most visible service issue.'
| Meter reader pay range (previously developed) | $32,000-$35,000, 'verify' | |
| COLA benchmarks | 3.1% (CPI) / 3.5% (wages) | |
| Financial-impact fields | blank | |
| DEQ report status | engineer + city attorney review |
Water Department Staffing Needs & Operational Capacity
Four-page staffing request for eight new positions totaling $232,000 a year: two meter readers at $23,000, two meter reader/service technicians at $26,000, Equipment Operator I at $35,000, Equipment Operator II at $37,000, Service/Maintenance I at $30,000 and Team Lead/Maintenance II at $32,000. It shows current employees covering several jobs outside their budget titles and sets a long-term goal of about 25-30 employees for water and sewer. (Individual employees' names are not reproduced.)
| New positions | 8 | |
| Annual cost | $232,000 | |
| Meter reader pay (this request) | $23,000 | |
| Long-term staffing goal | about 25-30 |
Transcript
Auto-generated from the meeting video's captions and lightly cleaned for readability — wording is kept as spoken, not corrected, except that caption-garbled names of city officials are normalized against the roster. Speaker names follow the attribution work in our governance record; a ° marks a name our reviewers have not yet verified. Every timestamp plays the city's video from that moment. Watch the full meeting ↗
0:08
All present God forgive our trespasses and forive those who trespass against us and lead us not us. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for it stands nation.
0:45
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Dr. Kyle Miller, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. Absent: Adrian Messina. (Attendance for Dr. Kyle Miller, Adrian Messina verified in the Workroom review by Robert.)
0:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Okay. So, we got time to get started. We'll jump into um just a reminder for folks at home um today's meeting is all about special um today's meeting is all about the water department as um part of a special call meeting. So, Mr. Rose is in the audience today. He's presenting on um a a variety of topics that we're going to lay out the progress for the water department. But for um the first item of business today, um I'm going to yield to Mr. Turner so that he can provide any extra context for treasures report that was said yesterday. Everyone should have gotten a copy of that.
1:36
City Treasurer Derrick Turner Okay. Um I left a treasury report for the water department on each of you guys table and I kind of just want to go through a couple of items with you. Okay. So on page one, um if you look at line six where it says O andM, that's the operating and maintenance account. As you can see, uh through August 31st, you have $1.9 million in that account. It's uh 1,944,971.84. And uh I'll come back to that in a second. Um, on page two, I want to bring to your attention, uh, in the fund balance section where it says surplus carryover. As you can see, it has a net income for the period that would be through August 31st of 1,480,75567. That's net income through August 31st. And further towards the bottom, you will see net surplus water of 2,443,916.90. So you can see that the water rates that you guys put into effect to having a positive effect on the water department's uh financial status. Um going back to and I want to get back to the O andM account in a second. Um but on page three when you look at service revenue um we had in total water sales through from and this is what I did. I took I went from August 1st, 2024 um through August 31st, 2026 because the ordinance went into effect to raise the water and sewer rates on August 1st, 2024. And so during that period we raised uh well we had 6 million446,000382.96 that's not on on net but this is a calculation that I did uh through that period we had 6,446,382.96 in water sales and we had 4,389,89 $92.75 in sewer sales. And one thing you guys did with the ordinance, uh, the surplus account, you had to have 5% of, uh, gross sales. And so 5% of those gross sales would be $322,319,000.15 for the water sales and $219,494.64 64 cent for the sewer sales for a total of 5 thou 500,4 5418 $813.17. That is what we need to set up for our reserve account. Um and we wanted to purchase CDs to do that. We need permission from the city council to purchase the CDs. Uh, a couple of years ago, I remember Mr. Etherly stated that we were going to refurbish the CDs and when we started having the money, start start buying CDs and that would have been sufficient for the bank, but we can't we don't have the minutes. I don't know if they were noted in the minutes or not. So, we need permission from you guys to start purchasing CDs. Uh, and um, also if you guys had any input on what denomination that you would like, we I kind of thought about a various set 100,000, 50,000, 20,000 and you could cash them in depending on what the emergency was. And so that's what that's another thing that I need from you guys is permission to do it. I don't think we need a resolution. I just think we need to have it acknowledged in the minutes.
6:08
City Attorney Andre Valley uh legally once they vote and I'll just craft a resolution to affect their vote is they're going to need they're going to need a written written instrument to show that you've been authorized to open the county and who the signatorries are.
6:19
City Treasurer Derrick Turner Okay? And and another thing you guys might want to look at, I give you a cash flow statement and that's on page five and it's going to show the actual cash that goes through the water department. And um if you look towards the bottom on that last column from January 26 through August 2026, we had a net increase in cash of $977,000 200 $977,24052. So they they're bringing in good cash flow. Um and so we want to put it to good use. Uh, I know you guys have we there are some infrastructure things that we can do that aren't in that plan and you know with the loans and the grants from the ANRC, but there are some things that we can do ourselves and so this would be pretty much sufficient to do some of the other things that Mr. Roads uh wants to do. And I think yeah, I think that's it. But I kind of wanted you to guys to kind of take note of the cash flow statement so you guys can kind of know the the amount of cash that's going through. But some of it has to do and it's cash. So some of it is deposits. Some of that we can't actually spend, but that's how much cash is going through. Uh they're doing pretty good financially and um we just need a resolution kind of to help us establish whatever we're going to put in that reserve account. CDs that is
7:53
Council Member Don Etherly well I'll make a motion that we approve the CD
7:58
Unidentified as stated by you the the mathematical equation you did which was the amount which was 300 and 200 I think some $500,000 but
8:06
Unidentified so the motion will be to approve the uh purchasing of CDs at the amount stated by the treasurer
8:12
Unidentified um and that you be authorized to use whatever discretion between you and the mayor whatever discretion you think is necessary to determine the denominator Okay. And also these are going to be I'm going to split them up into water infrastructure and sewer infrastructure. Okay.
8:34
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes. Clerk's count: 5 yes (1 further vote the captions did not attribute).
8:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you.
8:51
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Were there were there any other questions as it related to the treasural report? Any other discussion?
8:58
Unidentified So, just one thing for the record, Mr. Turner, when we did the well, we cast in the city for was it 1.5 million?
9:04
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° I looked at that. I just moved that out today cuz I had it in construction in progress.
9:12
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° Then I moved it to water planning service. Um I think I I think it was 1.3. 1.3 slightly less than the amount I remember. We were just slightly short.
9:22
Unidentified Yeah. Yeah. It might have been 1.5, but
9:25
Unidentified yeah. Well, it we paid 1.3 actually. So, I don't know.
9:31
Unidentified Because when I say the well, we're talking about the well constructed at the Boys and Girls Club.
9:36
Unidentified Well, to get that going, we had to cash it. The city had to cash in. Yeah.
9:40
Unidentified Cash in CDs in order to get that done.
9:42
Unidentified Oh, you're saying CDs were short? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Right.
9:50
City Attorney Andre Valley Right. So, this this still puts us about a million dollar short of what we cashed in. Yeah. But it's a good start.
9:57
Unidentified Yeah.
10:01
Unidentified And a million was down from what we excused in the previous year through all repairs on well number and whatever else we did. So,
10:10
Unidentified yep.
10:11
Unidentified Got a long way to go.
10:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I think the benefit um the benefit is that um with all of the funds that the city does have access to, I talked to Mr. Turner um we we have some aid for the foreseeable future. So that'll help us set get some time to um make sure that that account is healthier. So absolutely. Um any other questions or conversation discussion around financial report from the water department? If there are none, um, we'll move on to our next item of business, which at this time, um, I'll give the floor to Mr. Rose. Um, again, these topics are going to cover a wide range of things from the consent administrative order to, um, needs within the department, including equipment, potential salary, potential personnel. Um, and I'll let Mr. Rose take it away.
11:17
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose days are going by. Um it's it's an honor once again to uh to be able to u speak on the water and sewer department um before you all. Uh there's been, I would want to say, significant progress uh since I've been in this seat um as a water superintendent, acting director, and um just seeing where we're the direction we're moving to. I'm a really lock in on the particulars of details. Let me make sure I'm talking to the mic. Um on what what all is happening. And um I know a lot of material is shared with you all today on uh the quarterly reports and um you know council report etc. It's going to take some time to kind of read through especially the quarterly reports but um I'm glad you have that in front of you all today. um wanting to say I feel the best approach on starting this uh special meeting for water and sewer is to first you know acknowledge and bring attention to that we're still under two consent orders. Uh we're under a water consent order with the Arkansas Department of Health and we're also under a consent order from DEQ Department of Quality. So, both of these consent orders uh went in effect, I believe, around 2024, and we're in the second year of being on these consent orders. And so, all of these items we discussed tonight in some form of fashion um is required by the consent order for us to fulfill. Um I would like to start with the quarterly reports. And so I want to start with the DEQ wastewater consent order. Um right now we are at the end of the process of submitting a quarterly report to update where we are on the missing items and the items that need to be submitted to DEQ and the dates that we're projecting to have these items completed by. Uh this is a lengthly report um because there is definitely a lot of items. Some of these items are going to take quite a bit of time and the state recognizes that. Um this is something that the governor spoke with us directly about and is offering assistance for us to get done. Okay. Um our wastewater system um unfortunately has not got the attention that our water system has. Uh but of course we have to have our water to have waste water. Um, but the deal is actually making sure that we're keeping the state, DEQ, all the offices of the state informed of our progress and what we're doing about these major items. And so this report really goes into preliminary detail on where we're at. um the engineer that signed the task order uh which is um Smith and Wan Engineering is also assisting us with our water consent order. And so I'm not going to go over every section of this uh particular quarterly report. Um but I do want to bring um notice to the progress that we are making. We have our DMR reports. Um, and these reports date back to 2022 and, um, yeah, pretty much all the way back to 2022 of incorrections and corrections that needed to be made. Um, not only on the DMR reports, which are the flow testing reports, um, but also our wet testing and testing of the water as as it goes through the treatment process and the sewer treatment process. Okay. And so these are submitts that are due. They've been due for over two years, but we're it took some time to get this information together. And so the report explains the steps that we have to take to get this information and to get it submitted. Right now, we're setting the preliminary dates that we'll have these items done to basically get approved for new due dates on all of these items. And just briefly, it'll be system treatment system evaluation comes corrective action plan and staffing evaluation. pretty much a whole overall detail of what steps are we taking to get our sewer system together and funded being able to make sure that we have the funds to put into our sewer system just like we've been working and advocating for our water system. So to shift to the water consent order um this quarterly report is among I believe this will be almost we're almost to the eighth this is either seven or eighth quarterly report. Uh we've been on time with these reports since this consent order has went into effect uh which has shown favor. We have taken many steps to abide by the consent order and the compliance issues that we were out of compliance. And so to start with the correspondence um first thing we were able to do over the past two years is getting the operator in charge. And so our licensing was an issue before we got the operator in charge which is D there in Peru while staff myself and plant operators are working on getting licensed. U but this started the ball rolling submitting the long-term plan uh which was done by the engineering department. And so this is pretty much a 20-year outlook on systematically how are we going to go about stabilizing this system. Okay. And so we've been consistently reporting on these efforts and efforts that we're taking outside of the loans that we've been awarded and the grants that we've been awarded. And so my reports really speak to more internally um steps that we're taking out of our own operation and maintenance. And so just to reflect what uh Mr. Turner shared, we've been able to make a lot more ground since our rate has increased. Uh, one of the highlights of this particular quarterly report is getting the roof repaired. We literally for the welina treatment plant, we literally had um holes in the roof to where it rain, hard wind, any type of weather conditions affected our control panels, which we were constantly replacing, which was thousands of dollars to keep the treatment plant running. Soon as these control panels go down, the filters go down. The filters go down, we're not able to backwash. no water is getting to the clear well before it goes to the storage tank. And so just like that, there's a domino effect that was causing a lot of issues over years um just because the roof and the structural um integrity of that roof has failed. And so we were able to get um basically a roof put on top of a roof, but it helped us to eliminate those issues that we were having um I mean almost daily if not weekly or monthly. And so with that one project being done, um we cleared up the room for under our ANRC because yes, the roof replacement was submitted in our long-term project. And where we are with that right now is the plans and specs particularly for the West Helen treatment plant. Are we moving to re rehabilitate or rebuild the whole entire plant or rehab the existing plant? And so we're Mr. Ken is literally in the final stages of being able to present a plan that we're going to decide on moving forwards on what are we going to do with this filteration system. What are we going to do with our backwash tank, our clear well and actually moving forward with the construction on that after we decide the best direction for the stability of the system. Now, another project since the roof is repaired, we're moving forward with repairing storage tank with the backwash tank that's actually at the West Helena treatment plant. And so, bringing the tank back in full service. We've literally been backwashing with the use of only the stem in the tank. And so just thinking about it, the water we've been using um is literally been coming from our main storage tank to backwash our system. And so we're moving from working against ourselves to actually we get our backwash tank correct and re rehabilitated, repainted, cleaned out, get the holes filled that's in the the structural uh beam and seam of the tanks. Now we have a better backwash system. Now we're cutting our plant runtime down and we're literally saving water. All right. And so that is a project that's been submitted and we're waiting for approval from the health department to uh to be able to move forward on that particular piece of the project as we're getting the finalization of the filter rehab beginning of the plant rebuild process. And please, if y'all have any questions, kind of slow me down, stop me because um I'm just gonna keep going over these items. And so, back to the quarter of the report. It uh reflects where we are, the steps on that. And um another big win I would want to say is the beginning of the line replacement under the DRA grant. All right, we're in full phase. I mean, they it kicked off September 10th and literally today they're already on the third area of the lime replacement phase. Okay. They started on Cook Street and the Boring is is is pretty much done on Cook Street. Now they're pressurizing and testing um the line before services are transferred over. And along with that, they got started on Georgia Street and today they're already on Westwood Street. So, they're rocking and rolling. And um I think that progress is significant because as they're putting these lines in the ground um of course they see the leaks that we keep coming right back to. We started in the worst areas that we're constantly coming back to doing p patch work and we're addressing that right now in multitudes not just one by one. Uh which is great. And so the report reflects the work that's being done and it's literally we can see it. Not only is that happening as we're fixing leaks, our plant run time is down, our wells are getting break. That's what we need to survive. We have to make sure until we increase the flow velocity velocity into the plant. We have to conserve water loss. It's it's a must. And so we're we're seeing that in our daily operations that we're we're moving forward with that. And so our goal um along with the engineers now here along with what we're discussing is literally keeping these contractors here to replace lines. Now this is only the first phase that is scheduled to be complete by February, but we want to move them right along to the second phase. start replacing lines in Helena or continue they actually have the capacity to bring in more um more teams under the same contractor to continue the line replacement in West Helena and possibly start in Helena as well. And so this is going to be a revolving process that's going to get us to where we need to be.
23:28
Unidentified Can I ask you a quick question? Yes, sir. I I remember you stayed in before and we've heard it from other managers at the water department is that when you fix a fix a leak, the leak the next leak goes to the weakest next weakest part, right?
23:46
Unidentified So you guys are starting to lay water lines.
23:49
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes.
23:50
Unidentified But it they're going to be our water lines on the city side. Mhm.
23:54
City Treasurer Derrick Turner So, as we strengthen those, are the customers going to start having leaks on their lines?
24:01
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Um, not not necessarily. Um, and that's why pressure testing is a critical aspect of line replacement. And so, pressure testing is to um test the durability of the line, uh, but make sure that there still we're still in the pressure range that our existing lines in our system is. And so, that is a big that's a good question. Uh but that's a big reason why this is a timely process. Uh but we're rolling. It's it's actually happening now. Uh which is great for the city. Another note I just want to make on the line replacement. The design is literally most of the areas especially in the neighborhoods where running on a service line coming off a bigger main that's on one side of the road. And so we're literally putting service lines on both sides of the road, which is going to just help tremendously. Um I I would want to say that if there's an issue uh with the service, we're pretty much more so out of the road than having to dig the road up. That may still be a possibility, but the boring and the things that we've had to do um the patchwork, etc. Um when the line is just on one side of the road is is pretty difficult. And so this is not the beginning of this type of design. Um back in early um 2000s, late 90s uh when the last line replacement was done, that's that's what they were doing. starting to actually have service lines on both sides of the roads instead of just one central in the middle of the road or one side of the road which cause excavation and construction to become difficult and and costly to the city because we have to repair what we tear up. And so line replacement, we um we're making significant progress in stabilizing this and the quarterly report reflects that because we are doing this understaffed, heavily underst staffed, relying heavily on contractors and making do with what we have. And so I want to go back to the numbers that was just shared. We we are in a space now to have what we need to make this water department sound and and and at least keep us on track on the plan that we're on. As I mentioned, we're on a long range pan plan that we have to keep to and we necessarily cannot wait for loans to projects to be approved by the health department which I think have become quicker and quicker as we as we you know submit and the surveying done the engineering aspect all of that. Um, however, we run into emergencies, you know, so I have to have a set of plans on addressing how do we financially deal with this situation right now and roof being repaired. That's an example. We couldn't continue to wait on that to happen. Uh, because we were spending money, we were working against ourselves just not getting that particular item done. And so a lot of the projects that I I speak on and I bring to the table here before you all is a focus on what do we need to get done right now? Repair to a high service pump so we're not blowing air into the line causing water to be cloudy or discolored. And so items like that are um essential and we're just able to do that now because of the rate increase.
27:40
Unidentified Before you go to the next
27:41
Unidentified Yes, please. Did you all get a copy of the plan from Mr. Wland, Smith and Wland? The actual repairs that's being done that Mr. Rose is talking about. He's supposed to give each one of you all the design,
27:54
Unidentified I think. So, was it an email one?
27:58
Unidentified Yeah. But so you can share with your constituents, you should have actual these are the roads that are being prepared like Cook Street and Georgia and etc. He had a plan that he was supposed to give each one of y'all a copy. No, go ahead. And we can um there can be electronic copy of that as well. Um and so I I would just let Ken know like hey let's send out electronic copy so we can see all the neighborhoods that's being um prepared for the first phase of design replacement project.
28:26
Council Member Dr. Kyle Miller Yes sir. I don't know the water water price of uh I think one number was quoted I don't know if you quoted or someone else that we were basically losing about 70% of our water do we have about a ballpark figure now of what
28:45
Unidentified um well
28:46
Unidentified water loses
28:48
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° yes that that was uh that was actually from a race study okay
28:51
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose and uh that was basically our measuring our sales and what we're actually bringing in basically that that is what brought that number. Now, historically, I would I would say it's a little bit lower than 70%, but after the many times we were running into a crisis and the tank was getting low after we stabilized the system um with the actual readings that we were performing um on our main transmission line to just actually see what we're lo losing after seeing what service that's what these meters are able to tell us. we started working our way down to around 50%. Which is still terrible because what we're bringing into the system with low flow going into the plant, we're losing it, you know, with all the leaks that we've had. And so that has kept us in a um I would want to say a urgent have to repair leaks. I mean, we can't afford to have big leaks state of mind and state of operation um for the last two three years. And so now where I would want to say the percentage that um we are at now on loss is actually more around 30%. Ideally we want to be at 15 and below but we're with the infrastructure the state of the infrastructure it's going to take some time. It's going to take a lot of lives being replaced and a lot of maintenance for that to happen. But right now we're we're around about 30%. And we can see that we can see that in our plant run time. Our wells are getting breaks. Um they're not running 24 hours. They're actually running about 16 going between 18 and 16 hours. Sometimes dropping a little bit below 16. But our plant is getting a few I mean I'm sorry. Our whales are getting a few hours of rest. Uh which I've noticed more rest the whales get the better they perform. You know, it's like it's like a brand new baby. They take care of your baby, they take care of you. Um, so yes, we're we're about 30% and that is u a estimated number. I can provide some meter readings on that when we conduct that. However, we have to we have to stay on top of the leaks. Um, I would want to say in West Helena, we're we're in the range of 20. Um, I always kind of put a little bit more because I just know it's leaks that we're not seeing. Uh, but we're in the range of about 20, a little over 20 leaks and some of them are kind of the hard to get to leaks that we don't want to tear up. Like for instance, off Richmond Hill, I know everyone sees that leak every day, but it's under a 16 inch concrete by the state and it's a galvanized line. And so we tear that up, fix that line, it's going to leak in another spot that could be in the road still before it gets over to to u I believe it was Hope Church. And so going back to the line replacement, the contractors that we have here right now, they are able and capable to bore a new line to remove that service line out of the road and we discontinue that line, solve that leak problem. And so those difficult leaks, yeah, we're not able to get to right away. Um, however, we have to keep our foot on the gas. I would like to say because two weeks ago when we had the main break that was reported on Facebook and in Plaza, yes, we isolated it quickly to where it didn't affect our tank, but that whole week after that main break, we were at maybe 60 or 70 leaks just in West Helena alone. And it was killing us. We literally was not even able to cycle our clear well and our storage tank was suffering. It was just plummeting and we as many many leaks as we we fixed it was still dropping but then it started slowly catching itself to where it was stabilizing. We never went below uh we never went below 45 ft and more leaks we fixed literally 10 plus leaks were getting fixed a day. It slowly started to gradually climb up and the whole time it's like is there another big leak we're not seeing? No, it was just so many leaks that happened just like that and it seems to happen periodically every September that it put us quickly back towards the 70% loss range just like that. And so um it's critical that we we have the staffing needs. I know the contractors I actually brought in additional contractors what I which I truly believe helped us get um out of danger way quicker but the personnel I have a small maintenance team um that is showing me that they are they're up for the challenge. They're they're up to learn more. they're up to grow into team lead positions to where they can train new staff coming in because one thing I know you have to know the system to be able to operate on it. Even contractors coming in um and mayor can attest to this as well, our employees have to be with these contractors um at least some type of supervision just to assist and help them navigate to know where to dig, what's in the ground. and they're a great addition, but we need to have the capacity to be able to maintenance and keep our own system in check. And this is going to be a process that's not going to end anytime soon. Yes, we're getting lines replaced. We're going to move from 2in lines to the bigger diameter lines, but we still have to continue to keep these leaks down while that process is happening. So we got to work hand in hand. I have a proposal. We're just going to shift to another document that I believe is in front of you all. The water department staffing needs and operational capacity. Now, in this proposal, this is to add eight additional field positions to our budget. I'm just going to go through the positions real quick. Um, actually have Okay, I have two meter readers um at a 20 20 23,000 annual pay. Let me back up a little bit. So the in this proposal with positions that we have, I think a issue that we're dealing with with maintaining and keeping talented employees, employees that's going to give a little extra and and and continue to learn and apply themselves, complete the licensing necessary and distribution and treatment and wastewater is have competitive rates. I know this has been said a lot with every department, but this is serious work that's being conducted day in day out. It's dangerous work. It's work that requires exceptional skill. Now, yes, there is entry- level positions, but I'm noticing um compared to other water systems, when they have a better rate, they retain their their employee longer. They're not losing their employees to other systems to poor city to central water to Dezart you know we we have uh we had a great employee that I mean he was talented he was able to do every position came from Barton Alexa and we just there that the pay wasn't there to keep him and he went to Mariana just like that and so I believe competitive wages will preserve the quality quality of the employee that we bring on. And
37:08
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I want to just I want to just add on on top of um the referral from Mr. Rose, this is re a recommendation that's mentioned in the consent administrative order um to cons not to consider but to move on making rates for the water department more competitive. So um I think Mr. Ro sees it from his vantage point as the director and then even as recently um as he alluded to earlier when the governor was here um a couple weeks ago. I mean this this was talked about then. So um so yeah I I just want I just wanted to add that that and say administrative order being a lawsuit. I think that's something that we ought to take seriously.
37:50
City Attorney Andre Valley And in addition if I may the governor not only Mrs. Then she mentioned it when she came last year uh when Mayor Franklin was here. She um mentioned the need for raises. Uh as for me as city attorney as it relates to your proposal uh for us adopters, we probably can adopt if the council we have to do a base pay
38:11
City Attorney Andre Valley° to go through and look at it. But one of the things we've all we've been discussing for years but haven't implemented is including the base pay licenses so you won't have to come back to get the raises when they attain achieve certain licenses.
38:28
City Attorney Andre Valley So we can already put those in there. Excuse me. They used to do that years ago was cut out sometime after consolidation. Each time a person gets a license, they're supposed to have a pay raise tied to it
38:40
City Attorney Andre Valley° for the incentive of them getting licenses for keeping employees. And for there to be a distinction between those who are skilled by license, verifiable skilled by license versus other employee who may have skills without the license. So it's incentive for people to get the license and we need as many people with a various license as possible.
39:00
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes. Yes, we do. And once again, we're required under the uh both consent orders to be licensed, correct? Multiple staff, not only the advertised positions of director uh plant operator, but our distribution treatment. And we were supposed to have multiple wastewater licensed
39:16
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose personnel as well, which we have more than that. We have three uh wastewater license personnel, which is uh part of the acts of that consent member straightening. Excuse me. strengthening daily operations is key. Um going back to um maintenance crew of five to six. Um there's this alternate. I know we had plant operators. We had a couple of service techs that has declined a little bit. We cannot wear out and burn out the employees we have right now holding the system together. We we we reached a a point a point of solid stabilization. I want to say we we learned how to we we know what we're up against. So, we learned how to keep the system from just failing. I mean, we're running into issues every day. It's is it's it's endless, but we're at the point to where we're okay now. We're we're it's no more down to go. Let's go up. And so being able to bring in the needed staff, a staff of um I mean a additional eight. We're right now staffed at um I believe 18 or 17 staff right now. This is including the office staff for a water department this size with two treatment systems um two wastewater systems. At minimum, we need 25 to 30 employees. And I know over time that just that dwindled down, but this is the less this the lowest number of field operators that this system has ever had. And um that is um really a salute. The ones doing work every day. I know you see it in overtime, but they're really doing the work to keep the system going, to keep the pump stations going, and to be able to add addition to that eight is not going to get us there. And it's not going to be overnight when we get fully or closer to fully staffed at 25 closer to 30 employees. Um, but with these additions, I think we can start we can start that ball rolling uh to getting us where we need to be. So I have a meter reader um annual pay. Thank you, Attorney Valley, for bringing up the base pay because what I did was a reflection of a similar system size which the closest size in this area before a city and so the 23,000 actually reflects the base pay um that they'll bring in and the licensing will come and you know and and actually increase that from 23,000 and so two meter readers at 23,000. Yes, sir. Are they I thought the meter is part.
42:12
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Um they can be. Uh right now we we've had no part-time employees, but that has been traditionally always part-time positions available uh for meter readers and service tech.
42:27
Unidentified This is what you're requesting.
42:30
Unidentified So you're
42:31
Unidentified this is question 23,000. He said additional positions
42:36
Unidentified and those are the salaries per the base pay ordinance that that that they would come in with the other and there's another document
42:43
Unidentified justice
42:44
Unidentified but would these be that you are requesting would they be parttime
42:49
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° um no I I based all of this on full-time yeah yeah this is um none of these numbers are based on part-time and so our okay meter readers the 23,000 then we have meter reader service technician just kind of explained the position titling is is not taken away from meter reader or laborer but a service technician is actually a repair of the meter. So meter readers are reading the meters. They're getting uh rereads done. They're making sure the readings are done accurately. The service technician is actually placing the meter in the ground, taking the meter out, troubleshooting the meter, working on copper setter, angle valve, etc. Over years, this has all been merged into one position to where uh we have one very skilled trained meter reader now that does all of these things. And I'm going to circle back around to this as I continue my my presentation.
43:46
Unidentified How many breakers do you have right now?
43:48
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Uh we have two. Um and I I've literally pulled from maintenance to have more support on the meter reading. But yes, we we've been very um we we have we have some issues we got to deal with.
44:02
Unidentified You had two president.
44:04
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Yeah, two president and it's been that way for a while. I have one meter reader um particularly focus on West Helena and one meter reader for um
44:12
Unidentified you're one more.
44:15
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yeah. And so that's why I wanted to explain the the distinction between meter reader and circle
44:19
Unidentified six meter reader.
44:21
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes. Yes. That that will be um that will get us out of um a lot of the issues that I see that we're dealing with that I'll circle back around to uh we're dealing with.
44:31
City Attorney Andre Valley If I may, Mr. Rose, one of the things that that I think we need to keep in mind that he's making a presentation as to water management, but when the state looks at the city of Helena, they see two systems. And so when you look at the personnel that's needed, when he talked about 25 people needed, the state is looking at two systems, not one system. When we were given the administrative orders, they were given for two separate systems,
44:55
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose right? And so, and again, thank you, Valley. We three years ago or four years ago now, we literally had at least three meter readers on each side of the system. Um, but that went up down to where it was just two and then it was just one. And you know, now it's almost just one meter reader reading both sides of the system. And then I'm filling in I'm literally meter reading uh making sure that we can have more consistent billing, which is pulling from my daily duties. But that's just as strong as a need that we have to have the supporting personnel of the office to complete meter reads, rereads, uh, work orders that, you know, if they're not done, there's no adjustments or at least an investigation in high billing that comes to you all, the mayor and myself. So, we need personnel to be able to deal with these matters. Um, to move on to equipment operators, I have equipment operator one. Uh this is a equipment operator that that is licensed but only with a CDL CDL license. And I have equipment operator 2. This is licensed uh but I'm sorry CDL license as an operator but with water or waste some type of um waste to sewer licensing which just brings them up a little bit more. Surface maintenance one team lean maintenance two. Same thing. service maintenance coming in almost entry level and team lead maintenance too a little bit more experienced have a license to show and um you know actually help with our compliance and consent to uh do the job efficiently and accurate. those right now we have one we have two we have two equipment operators I know in the the title that's presented on the budget um it says laborers but we literally have labor uh labor position titles that are operating as a you know machine operator and so that is critical for us to realize with our machine operators that is what we paying these contracts before we're paying them simply to use their machine to be able to get to these leaks. One of the most I don't want to say the most important positions but most one of the most critical and pivotal positions in our maintenance in our daily operations. So we are able to obtain and the annual 35 for one operator one 37 equipment operator 2 that is still that is still low. We all know operators go at a a very high rate uh because they're they're skilled and it's in high demand, but this will get us to the point to where we're able to build um multiple maintenance teams. We should at least have two or three maintenance teams maintaining and working on West Helena system and the Helena system. Right now, we're doing this with one team, and I'm keeping them together on purpose because they're able to get more done faster because they're not tiring themselves out. I mean, there's heat, there's elements, there's a lot going on. Um, in additional to equipment operators, service maintenance, um, team lead maintenance, um, service maintenance appear to be, uh, the idea of laborers, um, but specifically working on maintenance and they support service meter reading, service text when needed. but their jobs are more so maintenance, working on the distribution system, working on the wastewater system. Going back to what we currently have, five maintenance personnel, two operators supporting each other, um, three maintenance or laborers, we want to say they're working on water leaks and pump stations. I'm bringing in contractors to help with pump stations, but we have 12 pump stations on one side of the system. We have small lift stations and we have a a um a pond lift station in our West Helen system. So this in total that's 14 15 actual pump stations that we have to maintain, keep running at all times. I mean, they cannot even go down for 30 minutes or somebody's getting a call about sewer overflow or sewer going into their house. We have to get to a point to where we have a wastewater crew and water distribution crew. And so, we've been making a lot work um with very little personnel.
49:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Mr. Rose, I just want to take a second and just um check in with the body. Um I mean, being that Mr. Rose laid out the need um and the justification for it. I'm curious to know um there's no action that's going to be asked or required um tonight, but is there any hesitation about um changing or adding to those positions in in this department?
49:58
Unidentified So, how many total employees do we have now?
50:01
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Right now, we're at 17. We're budgeted for I believe 18 or 19. I don't have a budget. I
50:09
Unidentified think it's budgeted at 19.
50:11
Unidentified 19. Okay.
50:12
Unidentified There's 25 positions. All of them are not funded.
50:17
Unidentified That's correct.
50:18
Unidentified Um but what I'm seeing right here requires a um
50:22
Unidentified base pay amendment.
50:24
Unidentified Yeah. A base pay amendment. So I don't I don't I guess we're not in position really to answer that question. Um
50:30
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° yeah, I'm just Yeah, not we're not going to change base pay or anything tonight. I'm just curious to know are are we all on the same page that is I'm on the page that we need extra employees because I see have done a ride along. I see what they're dealing with.
50:47
Unidentified Um and that's the question.
50:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Are we on the same page that we would support um collectively
50:55
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° a change in increase an increase in employees for the water department but also potentially salary. Right now that number is not firm but I do think it's fair to say or safe to say both of those are necessary.
51:07
City Attorney Andre Valley° If I may ma'am
51:10
City Attorney Andre Valley city council sorry finances however this is a legal matter and I think you're compelled to do so and the state has said you you're not sufficiently staff we need to have certain u criteria for staff and the city city has to go ahead and do something. uh what that looks like on the in the end is what the city can afford budget-wise and that's what the financial but I think that we had to get due consideration to what Mr. Rose has to say about the staffing that he needs in order to comply with extend administrative order in addition Mr. rose. One thing about it too is when you bringing in a new positions, one of the things that would be helpful for the council also would be okay, you have current field people and what their salaries are and are we going to have to make any adjustments because of where you bringing in other people?
51:59
City Attorney Andre Valley° And I think that's one of the things the council also has to address when they're looking at that.
52:05
Unidentified That's true.
52:06
Unidentified Yes, sir. It's bringing people in, right? But other people make it.
52:12
Unidentified Police.
52:13
Unidentified Yeah, it's a police department mission. Yes.
52:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I I'll say I don't I'll just say quickly. I don't think that's going to need to be a conversation. um the water department has their own fund and I understand there might be some other people that look at you know and maybe that's a conversation that'll come up again but um that's part of the reason I'm in favor of I mean a we're we've been in so many words told to do it but also b we have seen a financial report that shows we can do it um and part of the reason why the water department can do it is because they have their own funds so
52:44
City Attorney Andre Valley° I agree but for clarity what I was saying is when you're bringing people in at higher salary than we used to bring people in at the employees that's there you have to do d do consideration of what they're making
52:56
City Attorney Andre Valley° and that's that's all I'm saying you can lay out both
53:00
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° I just want to make one note to that and um I got to take advantage of the opportunity training
53:05
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° listen new new employees coming in have to be trained I don't care if they got 50 licensing 20 years experience they have to be trained by who has been here working on the system you don't learn it overnight we're not learning overnight. Correct.
53:20
Unidentified It does an injustice to the current employees when they have to train an employee making hire to them. And I'm sure we we all understand that a certain some certain capacity.
53:29
Unidentified That's right. Yes, sir. Do do the positions do these positions align with what's already written in the basement?
53:36
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes. Yes, it it does. Um I I didn't want to read through the whole document presented, but I I had a breakdown um as on this particular document of current positions and who's in those positions and the work that they're doing. And so literally going through this document, you can see that each um employee is literally doing multiple positions. And I I laid it out this way for for a reason with the actual titles that you see on the budget of you know the pay that they're making uh to the title position that we hold.
54:11
Unidentified My understanding so a couple of the titles are different from what's on the base pay but my understanding is that we have a group of employees work in the lab that are categorized as laborers that are specifically doing these tasks. Is that
54:28
Unidentified So,
54:30
Unidentified so I mean, yeah,
54:32
Unidentified asking. So, so we're going to have to add some positions to the base
54:37
Unidentified or change maybe change the
54:39
Unidentified I think more so title of Okay.
54:42
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yeah. I mean, that that's exactly why I want to present it like this just just for future, you know, it it when it lines up to the actual duties being performed and title that's, you know, you all presenting um it it makes sense and make things go a little bit smoother and think. Okay.
54:58
Unidentified Just so the council knows, we have 13 laborers in the base pay. So I think that gives us um
55:05
Unidentified Yeah, that's what I was Yeah. Okay.
55:06
Unidentified Yeah, I got you.
55:09
City Attorney Andre Valley° For the sake of the public, the base pay is the ordinance that the city has with ces position created by base pay ordinance saying this is a beginning salary. Everybody know what the beginning salary is and then that there has to be a funding mechanism has to be approved approved by the council in a budget or some other funding mechanism to fund the position. So, we're trying to establish what the base salary is for these employees.
55:34
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Uh to continue, I I think it would be a good motion to move into existing employees and cost of lifting or compensation adjustment. This has not been done from my understanding and correct me please if I'm wrong since the last three maybe three or four years. I don't know where the water department when the last cost of living compensation adjustment actually went into play.
56:06
Unidentified I'm not I wouldn't I would not know. I' I've been told that that's I mean I've been told that the last cost of movement adjustment has been on the former mayor Smith. That's what I've been told. I could be wrong.
56:17
Unidentified Right.
56:18
Unidentified Okay.
56:19
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Yeah. I I just I didn't want I don't want to misstate that. Um but I I just have here a breakdown. I believe we're looking at incre increase um 3.1 or over the time of 3.5%. And so I'm I'm simply just putting this on the table for further discussion um for this to to be considered simply.
56:44
Unidentified Are you asking the council to consider a face play next week as the regular council meeting
56:48
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° if we are all on board with with moving forward with that? I think that would be appropriate. Sure.
56:56
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I do um thank you and I echo Mr. Rose. I would be ready to put this on um the agenda next week if we can all give given time uh come to an agreement. Something else that we've done internally has been um we've re um committed to doing employee evaluations annually. So the administrative department has stressed to all department heads that u employee evaluations need to be done but also done with fidelity. it what we see on the employee evaluation needs to match up with what we're seeing in the field because um I do believe that we ought to be able to justify raises should not be given to I've said this before compensate for cost of living um adjustments that need to be made um but whenever they are earned by employees I definitely want to wanted to make sure we had a system that showed that. So, um I just I know that I mentioned that before, but I wanted to put that back on your on your minds that um ideally we get we're getting to a place where those evaluations lead to whether it's a performance improvement plan, um promotion, demotion, whatever it is. We haven't had that system as far as I can tell um for a while. So,
58:12
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose no more questions on that. I I will want to move to my next item. And honestly, we could talk about so many things within the consent order. I I feel each consent order really needs its own meeting. I mean, literally, there's a lot of items we have to focus on, but I wanted to talk tonight about our Delta Catalyst fund and a $75,000 grant that is received for our pump stations. I believe the next steps we've removed two three we've removed three bypass pump we have four bypass pump um remaining there's um a need for me to basically present a comp comprehensive plan to you all on u where we're at with the current pump stations and the timeline for them being repaired essential is that we um as we We we have the funding to get these stations fully repaired. Now, some stations are going to take longer. I mean, they we need a full rehab on really all of the stations, but when we looking at moving pumps on old drive shaft systems above ground, that's going to be some money. It's going to be some time, but we're we're in a position to start that ball roll. And so what I would like to do is not talk about every single pump station this evening, but just have a plan that you all can see where we are and where we're going on these, you know, on these bypass pumps. Um now with the delta catalyst fund, the next um item with that is just reporting. Uh we've got I believe close to 40 $45,000 worth of work done. Um, and we've actually got work done before we received a grant u for this. And so I just wanted to make point to that. But we are we are making progress and I I think this is critical that we move forward with the engines. Not engines. I keep saying that the motors that we're needing for the pumps, the pumps that yes, to replace a whole new pump is 20,000, $30,000, but look at the numbers what we're spending on fuel renting these bypass pumps. We we could we could own some bypass pumps right now, right? And so just expect to see some some some large numbers, but it it makes sense for us to go ahead and okay it moving forward. Let's get these stations re rebuilt. When these stations are working properly, overtime is going to cut down. We're not having to come out every two hours, every three hours to restart a pump station to pull flushable wipes. I want to say right now, I know we don't have origins against flushable wipes, but they cause a lot of problems with our pump because they become like mop heads that literally create choke points in these pumps. And there there's no robot that can do. you got to manually pull this out to keep the pump running. And that is really a a strong reason why the pump stations are in the the um condition that they're in now. Um and speaking with that is operational. I hear a lot about planning and and we are required under both of these consent orders, particularly under this order with DEEQ, is to have a operation, planning and maintenance schedule fully laid out. And the ideal is this is where we're at. It's a very it's me and maintenance. That's we're working on these things. but they need to see where we're at and what we actually supposed to have with engineer approval for efficient operation. So, this kind of circles back around to the staffing need, personal equipment priority needs. Now, right now, I I think we're we're doing slightly a little better um with our with our vehicles. on the maintenance of our vehicles. We're on a maintenance schedule that is keeping our current vehicles operational. However, there's a lot of mileage. There's a lot of wear and tear because we're using um we're using a set of service trucks that were initially vault for two systems um for one combined system, if that makes sense. So let's back up a little bit. There was crews and service trucks that just stayed in West Selena and there were crews and service trucks that just stayed in Helena. This prevented the wear and wear and tear on the trucks to where there wasn't trucks transferring over city line. And I know the city was combined, but the op the water department literally operated the same as if the cities were still separate. And so but it made it made a lot of sense. It prevented trucks going down. And just from my time being here, my duration over the last three years, I mean, our trucks are well over 100,000 miles. And these trucks are what, not even not even four or five years old. I mean, 2021, these trucks were purchased under Benzin. And so, um, we're we're at the point to where, yeah, we we do need a new fleet of trucks, but I believe being able to add start at least three additional trucks, particularly two trucks for service and one truck um, heavy duty to be able to actually pull heavy equipment, pull our traders, pull our sewer machine, is it it will help us get to the point to where we can slowly start replacing trucks. Now, what we what I've been doing is refurbishing um the trucks that's been sitting up for years. No, nothing was never done with. Um seeing how much it would cost to get engines put in them, if they were even worth being put in them. And um I thank you all um for approving the items I put before you um with Red River Ford and uh I believe even Dodge, but we were able to get two of our service trucks uh back into the fleet that were been sitting out. So it's addition to what we already have. And uh the repairs on um cosmetic repairs and engine repairs, it's a it's a daily it's a daily thing. But um additional trucks will take the wear and tear and the constant money that we're putting into our current fleet and give us the operational capacity to bring in new employees. When we talking about adding um three to four, four to six more service techs um that's typically working on service, they will need a vehicle that's operational, that's not breaking down to be in. And so this will only make operations more efficient. The next item is a dump trailer. We've been spending thousands of dollars on these dump trucks that go down. They go down quickly. I'm I'm not going to sit here and blame it on a particular style of maintenance or a truck that was bought, but once again we we combine two systems that used to have their own dump trucks on both sides. So when we're we're ripping and running across the city um with our dump trucks, with our back holes, with our trucks, the wear and tear is significant and it's costly and ultimately it goes down. So, I was looking to removing ourselves temporarily till we get more capacity from a dump truck and just getting us another dump trailer. And I want to have that quote uh presented and ready for you all and we decide to move forward with this along with the service trucks. But a dump trailer will help us um significantly on just hauling um fillins etc that we um have needed for uh with a dump trailer and just not looking at replacing a dump truck until that's absolutely I also have on here meter reading equipment. Now, we've already uh replaced some of our reading tablets and just for the public, um a majority of our meters are electronically read. So, we actually have to we have a tablet and a router with an antenna. We drive by, we pick up your your sibian, we pick up your your uh your meter reading. With this system, there are still calls for investigation to where we actually have to go out, open the meter up, see what's going on, see why it's not reading correctly, just as we do with rereads. But I just wanted to make that um plain and clear because I know folks like ain't nobody came and read my meter. Yes, we we were able to get a reading uh because of the equipment. And so we have new equipment now, but yes, we do have to replace our router. Um that may not be an item that needs to go before the council. Um, but I just wanted to use that as a as a bridge to my next item I'll talk about. I'm sure there's going to be some questions on this one. Um, customer billing and meter reading. I I know there's been and before we get to
1:07:54
Mayor Joseph Whitfield that, I just wanted to add um I was checking to see if it was on here. Um, one item just to anticipate for the council. Um, I've spoken with Mr. roles about um repair and uh road and repair work signs for safety. Um, I've I've been able to kind of see a couple of project zones, construction zones, and um, I cannot stress enough how important I think it is that um, this department with all the work that they're going to be doing, cutting um, I mean, excavating, um, digging up concrete to make sure that if they're doing anything on the roadway, that there's proper signage, um, and equipment that lets people know how to navigate an area. So, I know that in a couple areas around the city, I think we have some pretty um subpar um bar barricades and barriers that we've used in the past. And I do think it's worth noting um as I've mentioned to Mr. Rose that the water department with the amount of work that they have to do should definitely have their own. So, I'm just saying that that's not on here, but I'm saying to anticipate seeing that.
1:08:59
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose And I I can have that ready with these other quotes as well. And I got a little ahead of myself. Uh, one very urgent um, need is uniforms. U, you should see in your handouts I have the two service agreements that we spoke on with centers for a three-year contractual agreement for uniforms and a five-year agreement for uniforms. And so, um, I know we've talked about this, but there there it is laid out. Um I the 5-year is a little more you know I don't want to use the word cheaper but a little bit more affordable option over the time. Um, but the three-year option is presented for three years as well. And I did want to quote with this centis, they are able to keep us uniform year round. And so what I mean by that is u they do offer a a cleaning service, a repair service, but they will be able to adjust as the weather adjusts. I would like to say uh provide jackets and um basically winter wear material as well as summer wear material. And I actually kind of plan to have a uniform on tonight to show, but it they're a pretty nice solid uniform that I think will will be durable against the work that performed out in the field. customer billing and meter reading. Um I just want to take opportunity to discuss there's a lot of there's billing issues. Um there's high usage um there's low usage there's fluctuation. Um I think there's been conversation um around the table about this and definitely a lot of adjustments have been made. um but continue to need to be made. And I want to reflect on our operational capacity will get us to more consistent billing. All right. I'm realizing the yes the equipment we have but the the turnaround the turnaround on readings getting done getting processed in time that is affecting the usage you're getting build for and what I mean by that be very clear what I mean by that is the the time period of it we have a billing cycle of 30 days but if we are having trouble getting readings done because the staffing that could shift to 40 days and then kind of go back to 30 days. Now, this information is presented on your bill. So, you'll see the billing period, how many days for that particular building period. So, that directly affects the water usage that you're being built for. So, it may be a little bit higher if we're fluctuating within that billing cycle. And so I'm being very clear and transparent but taking steps to remedy that will help bills. Now this is not solving all the situations. Um yes there is leak detection that is needed. Um I mean a lot of leaks are detected by the meter. There are some leaks that's not u when we put in a work order to check for a leak. We are not saying you have a leak. There's this is the investigation to figure out why this usage is higher and a consistency I believe is needed to continue on addressing what's what's causing the usage to go, you know, to be higher. It may not necessarily be what I stated about the billing period. It may be um a undetected leak. It may be a meter reading miscalculation. But once again with properly adequately saying tra of staff I'm sorry will let's not have the mistakes on misreading or just putting the wrong number in a slot that boom is causing your bills to go high. So these are things that we're catching when investigations, you know, take place, when complaints come in and rereads. We have to have the manpower to get these complaints resolved or at least looked into to begin some type of resolution. We have to get that done in a timely manner. And it has been a wear and tear on myself and the service tech and maintenance crew on on making this happen. And so I I don't want this to continue. we can structurally have a operation that is addressing and we're going to see more consistency with the building as we deal with the rate increase.
1:14:13
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I would like to add to that um that um what I've seen has been it's very um with utility funds it's very strict how those funds have to be used. Um I have spoken with ANRC I have spoken with um at asked this question at the governor's round table. um what can the city do with the funds from a utility company to provide assistance? Because one thing that we I think have to keep clear is that the water department has it it's it's its own fund. That's not necessarily that's not the general fund. And so it's a it's a utility. And so what that looks like is not just as simple as um us being a legally at least us being able to say we're going to um not charge for a month or something like that. I'm just speaking um arbitrarily. But um that is something that I myself am inquiring about. How can we um legally use our um or what legal grounds do we have within our utility, our water department to make sure we provide the best assistance in the cases where there might be some abnormal activity. So
1:15:31
City Attorney Andre Valley to do so, I think you would have to have an ordinance that does so uh so that you would not want to file u I believe it's 1442 108 where it discusses prohibited acts of people. Everyone has to be treated fairly. There has to be a policy by the city. Some cities uh do ordinances uh that that lays out the details of when the mayor can do and when the staff can do but it has to be a consistent policy and that's uh how the the city of Haw decides to do that is what the city of West decides. But the neutral policy that's fair to everyone, that's available to everyone.
1:16:13
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose I would like to add to um what can be done now and what has been done and will continue to be done is adjustment policy, payment plans. Right now, situations vary, but we still have to keep the policy on how we're doing adjustments, how many times we're able to adjustments, and the policy of payment plans. If you set on the payment plan and you do not reach the agreement or you do not keep to that payment plan, there's there's um we we can't keep giving you a payment plan that just to be simple simple and plain. And so the but these are solutions that we have in effect on irregular or um I would just want to say investigations or misusage or high usage bills that need to be resolved. And so I just wanted to put that out there that we we do offer adjustments and do have paper class.
1:17:16
City Attorney Andre Valley I think that what I'm saying is that well I know what I'm saying is we had to do that by ordinance so everyone could be treated the same. Uh there are cases I've sent you emails about it where a mayor was removed from office because he adjusted a person's uh water bill and he did it with the best intention but there were no policy on it and that man was banned from being in office. Uh we previously had charges brought against two city council members uh for violation of Arkansas code and I tell you 1442 108. uh whatever the policy is the city council has to first adopt it and that's the thing that I want to make sure that we're clear the city council has to adopt the policy even payment plan city council adopt the policy on those so it won't be arbitrary and precious it won't be just well on this can you get four months in this in this case you get two months um and etc u we have to do all those things by ordinance so everybody could be treated the same because it not only applies to the elected officials applies to the staff and everyone And there several cases on that I emailed to the council before, but 1442 108 is something of serious concern. Uh but if we have a policy that we've been in practice using that hadn't been adopted, we need to get it codified, adopted by the city council so that we can have a consistent clear policy. This is the policy.
1:18:40
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Now, I'm getting a little partial up here because I've been up here talking. That was the major items I wanted to touch on this evening. I just want to take a little time and I'll open it up to anything you all want to want me to give a little bit more detail on or questions you want to ask yourself.
1:18:58
Council Member Don Etherly Before we get away from the adjustments and we're talking about adjustments and leaks and all that kind of stuff or improper billing, this is just a thought. Feel free to tell me it's possible or not possible. But one of the issues um as it relates to customer service is that we have people who call and complain about billing and you know and then the clerks try to tell them check for leaks and do this and do that. I've been of the opinion that the clerk shouldn't be put or placed in that position to try to answer technical questions. So, to the extent that we're considering adding staff,
1:19:42
Council Member Don Etherly° is is it possible to assign someone who's a technical person to respond to those calls and those complaints? Uh, kind of like if you go over to the circuit clerk's office, they have a sign that says, "We are not permitted to give legal advice." In other words, they're not we're not lawyers. We just process paperwork. And I think our department should work the same because you get into battles, word battles between our constituents, our citizens, our customers and clerks. And the clerks don't are not technicians, but they're trying to answer people's questions about billing that perhaps should be answered by a technician. And so
1:20:17
Unidentified a better customer service. I understand what you're talking about. Well, and I think I think to get there, if we have somebody who's who can actually
1:20:26
Unidentified come out and look at the issue, they would be better suited to answer those questions. Yeah.
1:20:31
Unidentified Instead of the clerks just saying, "Hey, you you might have a leak. You might have this." And and they're not actually out in the field.
1:20:36
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Right. Right. And I uh I'm in total agreeance with that. That's a very solid point. I think the communication causes miscommunication because of technicalities of the situation. And from what I'm seeing, your your meter readers are are your responders. These work orders have to be completed for us to know the situation, to know how to start working towards resolving it. And I think that is possible now for it to be productive and make sense. I feel this is another item I'm just going to talk a little bit about, but actually having a system to where we can have a software system to where our work orders are done in the field. And what I mean by that, there's an ecosystem that the meter readers could literally tap into to execute the work order to respond directly to the calls coming in about their bill. It's going directly to the system instead of billing. All right. And then now now we have a structured process to where we have a a resolution or at least a update that can be given on when we have more information other than just a direct okay this is what's happening whoopde-woop you know now we uh now now there's a conflict or rudeness and that wasn't the intention of the response but that's what happens
1:22:09
Unidentified better customer relations and a better understanding of what what's transpiring because when a customer calls And people have called me about their water bills, but I don't know the answer. But you can give them a better answer and let them understand customer satisfaction.
1:22:28
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Well, case in point, I've get a lot of calls about billing.
1:22:32
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° You call me about billing. I know I am the water superintendent, acting head of the department.
1:22:37
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° I have no clue what's going on with your bill until I get with my office staff. So, I look at water audits, until we go through service orders. And so that makes sense, you know, because I can't just speak on exactly what's going on or give a a response because
1:22:53
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° I have to be informed and that should definitely be the same for the clerks and in the office staff for sure. So I think that can be a a role in conversation that that can be had internally and the software that is something that I was seeing that can make it more compatible and more efficient with operations between billing and field staff. But that would be on down the line. That's that's something we can we can talk about because we do have a a system that works and we make adjustments and we could continue to utilize the system to get better better information to the public and like you all say better communication. Definitely.
1:23:33
Council Member Maxine Miller So, if you had a person who did the uh technical um piece that attorney Anthony was talking about, are you saying that that person would also be one of these other positions you're already asking for or are you needing to go ahead and start putting in your request another position specifically for that?
1:23:57
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose That's a really good question, Max. I would I mean if if we're going to shoot for it, I would say have a person specifically for that.
1:24:05
Unidentified Yeah.
1:24:05
Unidentified Yeah. For that.
1:24:07
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yeah. Because that that individual will literally have to be in the field as well as the office. And I I think that is just making sure we have the systems to where field staff or the particular individual for instance that'll be in this position will have a a line to be able to be reached having a work phone or a system that communication can come directly into them or a dispatch essentially they' be kind of operating as a dispatch but the field technicality it has to happen in the field and so I you know we've done it with the office clerk and we we show them angle valves and and copper setters and and and and and different situations to where they they kind of know, but being in the field um I think would really change that response aspect when it gets to that point. I just think that would be a such such a better idea because I know that the clerks, they're trying to be helpful to the best that they can, but I'm sure that there are things that they can't really answer answer because everybody calling has a different specific thing going on. You know, everybody's not going to have the same thing. So, I think it would be great if if you could do that.
1:25:22
Unidentified We'll do. We'll do. I'll actually make a vote of that right now.
1:25:32
Unidentified both your quarterly reports for documentation purpose. Either one of those reports are both need to be approved by the council for for anything.
1:25:43
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Um not that I knew of. Um I we these quarterly reports want to make sure I actually really want to make sure that you all are seeing them um that I'm sharing with you all. But the mayor approval and and more importantly and especially the city attorney approvals before submit for submission is necessities.
1:26:03
Unidentified And then the um the uniform contract that's time what where we what else was
1:26:13
Unidentified it was table you try to serve three years or five years.
1:26:17
Unidentified Okay. So, do y'all have any preferences
1:26:21
Unidentified for the uniforms?
1:26:22
Unidentified Uniforms three or five years?
1:26:26
Unidentified So, you get a better rate at five years, right, Mr. Rose?
1:26:31
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Um, yes, you get a better rate five year.
1:26:34
Unidentified Five years.
1:26:34
Council Member Maxine Miller Go ahead and do a five year then.
1:26:38
Unidentified We can legally do that, Mr. Valer, right?
1:26:40
City Attorney Andre Valley° That's correct.
1:26:41
Unidentified Okay.
1:26:43
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Um, excuse me, y'all. I I don't mean to be disrespectful to the body at all, but I have a plan operator calling back to back. So something very
1:26:53
Unidentified No, we just the only question that you had was whether you going to do three years or five years.
1:26:58
Unidentified Okay.
1:26:58
Unidentified He made the presentation at at that time and it's been tangled ever since. Get back to
1:27:04
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Okay. Y'all mind if I go ahead and step up?
1:27:08
Unidentified No. Um, now we we have a regular scheduled meeting. Um,
1:27:20
Unidentified I'll just say
1:27:22
Unidentified Tuesday.
1:27:23
Unidentified Yeah. Okay.
1:27:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Um, but with with everything shared, I know there's a lot of information. Is there anything else that um we want to discuss or open? If not, I'll take that.
1:27:35
City Attorney Andre Valley I think two things. We need to make sure on the agenda we have the base pack and whatever he's asking. And also it sounds like for his discussion, council need to see look at 1442108 uh as it relates to the adjustments and etc. We did a policy on late plans and payment plans etc. They can't arbitrate and do that. I sent you an email last year contains a case called Allen versus State and because a mayor simply adjusted five people's sewer bills, he was permanently banned from office, removed from office. Uh and so the thing about it is that has to be a policy that's consistent that is adopted by the city council. And so tell you we have authority on city council. Um everyone that's in everyone that that gives an adjustment or anything like that is uh doing their own risk.
1:28:31
Unidentified Okay. So does he need to pull that together or who pulls that document together?
1:28:37
City Attorney Andre Valley I will contact him see what the policy is that that that he's been doing. We discussed this with Mayor Hollowwell, with Mayor May Franklin, Mayor Smith, and we've I've constantly reminded each person of the need to 142 108 to get this done. And the city has not adopted the policy, but all I need to know is a defamation and we can present it to you all your adopted so it can be discussed clearly. What what do
1:29:08
Unidentified well whether he going to approve payment plans late etc on bills etc. He discussed payment plans
1:29:14
City Attorney Andre Valley he discussed payment plans he discussed other things that that may be happening adjustments and when adjustments are necessary etc. We needed a definite policy discussed that Tuesday
1:29:23
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I will u make a recommendation um through through the information that I've shared and received from Mr. Rose. Okay,
1:29:32
Unidentified we there second.
1:29:34
Unidentified Second.
1:29:34
Unidentified Thank you. Me and the CH
1:29:38
Unidentified still
How this page was made: built from the city's own meeting video (YouTube ↗) and its posted meeting packet (Drive folder ↗). Dollar figures are quoted from the documents; nothing here is paraphrased from memory. Corrections: cheekforhelena@gmail.com.