Citizens' Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 16, 2005

CAC Members in Attendance: Myrna Poticha (Chair), Michael Buchenau, Russell Burton, Tim Flynn, Jim Legas, Rick Sackbauer, Roberta Simonton
DW Staff: Marie Bassett, Linda Firth, and Joe Sloan

Agenda & Minutes

Agenda – The agenda was approved as presented.

Minutes – Minutes were approved with the following correction; page two, third paragraph change form to from.

Denver Water Update – Marie Bassett, Director of Public Affairs

Proposal from West Slope – The Board and staff have received the proposal from the West Slope group. Staff will now take several weeks to model the proposal. Rick stated the group does not have an official name. He requested the CAC receive a copy of the Executive Summary of the document. Marie stated it could not be released as it was a document under attorney/client privilege. Rick stated twenty Boards had participated in the process to produce the document. County and local government Boards as well as Boards of local water districts participated.

Large Lawn Residential Customers – 300 large lawn customers were invited to participate in a conservation study. 80 customers agreed to be in the study which made the remaining group the control group. The results of the study will be shared with the CAC. Myrna asked if the Conservation section was going to study land use/land shaping as a way to conserve water. Marie stated Denver Water plans to meet with the City of Denver on land use issues such as hell strips and grass planted in narrow medians. Currently there are no plans to discuss land shaping but issues of land use or requirements to landscape certain areas (hell strips,

industrial areas, etc) will be addressed.

Summer Watering Program – DW has received 99 requests for new watering days and 16 requests for monthly meter reading. Overall there have been few calls regarding the watering program.

Subcommittee Reports

BMPs – Myrna requested the BMPs subcommittee meet on June 27, 2005 to follow up on the topic of BMPs for land shaping and land use. Joe will contact Liz Gardener to see if she can attend. Tentative date was set for June 27, 2005 at 11:00 am.

Community Relations Activities – Linda Firth, Manager of Community Relations

Rate Design Workgroup – Staff discussed the CAC's request to allow all CAC members to be a part of the Workgroup. A similar request came from the Distributors. If all are allowed to be on the Workgroup it will be too large. All members of the CAC, the distributors and the general public will be encouraged to attend the meetings of the Workgroup. However, the workgroup will be limited in number. In July those who have submitted an application for the Workgroup will be interviewed. Myrna asked who had been contacted to represent the environmental community. Linda will contact the organizations suggested by Myrna. Myrna suggested the Water Caucus. Roberta asked if the Board had set parameters for the Workgroup. Linda responded the process will be discussed with the Board. The current idea is to have Denver Water staff chair the first few meetings. This would be done to convey the parameters and give the participants a primer on rates. After a few meetings the participants would select a chair. Roberta stated the City of Denver uses consultants in their large process projects. She would like to see DW use a consultant who focuses on the process. She would also like to see public outreach done throughout the process. Linda agreed that a process consultant could be part of the facilitation team however no facilitators or consultants have been hired.

2005 Customer Survey & Use of Current and Previous Surveys – A summary of the survey results was distributed to the CAC in the packets. Linda covered a few highlights. 33% of customers believe we have water problems because we give too much water to California. Many customers don't know DW is a non-profit, citizen-owned utility. Those in the survey knew little about the process involved in collecting and delivering water to customers. The three most consistent predictors of an understanding of Denver Water and water issues were; education level, income and longevity in the service area. Those with higher education and income had more knowledge of DW. The longer a customer had lived in the service area, the better their understanding of Denver Water and water issues.

Community Awareness Program – Linda is now referring to this as messaging. She will interview the Board and management staff for their opinions on messaging for DW. This will be a three year campaign. There may be no ads this year but rather spend energy on clarifying what message(s) need to be put out to the customers. Rick asked if DW would be doing an education campaign as part of the messaging. If so he would like DW to work with the Colorado Foundation for Water Education (CFWE). Linda stated Stacey Renouf is working on an education program and has been in touch with CFWE.

CAC Business

Agenda of Future CAC Meetings – The July meeting will be moved to July 28, 2005. The Board has a workshop on July 27, 2005. 2006 Rate information will be available after the workshop therefore the meeting will be moved. Roberta will attend the Board Workshop on July 27, 2005. Rick will be at the Board meeting on July 13, 2005. This meeting will be held on the West Slope.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.