CITIZENS’ ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Minutes of the Meeting of April 17, 2003

 CAC Members in Attendance:  Theresa Worsham (Chair), Russell Burton (Vice-Chair), Jodi Adkins, Tim Flynn, Larry Keesen, Roberta Simonton, and Mary Vodneck  

Staff:  Marie Bassett, Tim Lowe and Joe Sloan  

Agenda & Minutes  

The Agenda, minutes of February 20, 2003 & minutes of March 27, 2003 were approved as presented. 

Staff Update  

Marie Bassett, Acting Director of Public Affairs, reported the following: 

Surcharges, the Board approved surcharges at the April 2, 2003 Board meeting.  Staff is working hard to get the word out about the surcharges.  The Denver Water web site has a page that customers can use to see how the surcharge would affect their bill.  Customers can also call the customer service line to see how the surcharge could affect their summer bills.  

Water Restrictions – The Board approved the Spring/Summer 2003 water restrictions at the April 16, 2003 Board meeting.  The CAC received copies of the complete list of restrictions.  The Board stated they would revisit the restrictions at future Board meetings.  The snow pack looks much better this year than last year yet the total storage in the system is at 44%.  The Board took many questions at the meeting regarding the restrictions but decided to keep stage 2 drought response in place until the snow pack actually runs-off and begins to fill reservoirs.  Marie reported there is a high number of customers calling with questions about zones, what a zone is and if those with more than 8 zones can use less time on 8 zones and add that time to additional zones.  An example 10 zones at 12 minutes equals same watering time as 8 zones at 15 minutes.  Larry Keesen suggested DW follow restrictions similar to those in Broomfield.  According to Larry, Broomfield has agreed to allow more time for rotary sprinklers and less time for pop-ups.  Larry said 15 minutes for a pop-up zone would be too much water and 15 minutes for a rotary zone would be too little.  If the goal is to save water then don’t allow pop-ups to over water.  Marie responded that the Board wanted the restrictions to be clear and simple to understand.   

Advertising Contract – The Board approved an advertising contract to do outreach to ethnic minority groups in the service area.   The advertising campaign will be launched in mid May.   

Water Budgets - DW staff is working with large customers who have 11/2 inch or larger irrigation taps to establish water budgets.  These customers are mostly public areas such as Parks, large schools, hospitals that are used by the public.  Each of these customers must reduce their average use by 30% (same as private residents).  If these customers go over 70% usage they will be assessed surcharges.   

Invitation to CAC - Marie invited the CAC to send a representative or two to some planning meetings.  Denver Water is working with a vendor to create a device that could read a water meter then send that reading to a receiver in the house.   It would allow customers to see how much water they are using.  Roberta expressed interest in attending the meetings.  Theresa suggested the selection of who would attend the meetings be postponed to see if other members, not present at the meetings, were interested.  Theresa also asked Joe to contact Jack Klienheksel and Don Thompson to see if they are interested in the project.  

Surcharges – Sources & Use of Surcharge Funds  

Tim Lowe, Budget Analyst, distributed a report on surcharge sources and uses (income and expenditures).  The Board has directed staff to use 85% of the surcharge monies on drought related costs and 15% on fire related costs.  A copy of the report, which contains a list of expenditures, is attached to the minutes.  Jodi Adkins asked in DW had a grant administrator to track the grants used in fire restoration projects and if other grants were being sought by DW.  Tim responded that DW does not have a grant administrator.  He was not aware of other grants being sought by DW.  Tim agreed to the CAC’s request for a monthly report on how the status of surcharge monies.  Russell requested as much information as is available on tap fee surcharges and their uses.  

CAC Business  

There was an extensive discussion on several topics as part of a planning process for the CAC meetings in 2003.  What role the CAC should take to encourage conservation efforts begun in response to the drought,  growth outside of DW service area and implication to DW, and the most effect ways to communicate with the Board were all discussed.  It was decided this planning process would be continued at the May meeting.  

Next Meeting  

The next regular meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Committee will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2003 at 5:00 p.m. , in the third floor Board Room at Denver Water, 1600 W. 12^th Avenue .  The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.