You can attend this meeting in person or virtually. The virtual meeting link and the address for the in-person location can be found here: glwater.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.…

Here is the link to the meeting agenda, with hyperlinks to all the attachments. glwater.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=AA…

Here are screenshots of the first 4 pages of the agenda, which include approval of minutes from a December 13, 2023 meeting, items/contracts for consent, public comment, and several items under new business.

Here are the last 2 pages which include a closed session to discuss pending litigation between DWSD and GLWA versus the city of Highland Park, attorney-client communications, and labor negotiation strategy.

The Great Lakes Water Authority made news last year with a tentative deal to settle a dispute with the City of Highland Park over 55 million dollars in unpaid water bills. michiganpublic.org/politics-gover…

Here are some frequently asked questions, released from GLWA, about the proposed agreement between Highland Park and the State of Michigan. glwa.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/upl…

On the agenda will be the proposed Captial Improvement Plan for FY 2025-2029 with a presentation and resolution for approval. Click to download that plan here: glwater.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M…

That's all for now, see you at 2pm. In the meantime, check out the latest #DetDocumenters newsletter! outliermedia.org/newsletter/two…

The meeting began with an approval of the consent agenda. Now they are moving to public comment. No public comment, but seems early 2:03 in the meeting, I'm assuming people are still joining.

They are onto this presentation. It's moving a bit too fast for me. I'm not sure who is presenting.

I believe it's Nicolette Bateson who is giving this presentation.

January is a busy month for the proposed budget and charges. Office hours aren't the only time they meet with member partners.

February 28th, the board will conduct a public hearing for the proposed budget. They will continue to meet weekly in March if the budget isn't finalized in February.

Next up: executive summary of the charges rollout: Three key takeaways: charges, sewer shares, and simplified water charge methodology.

The GLWA is saying that charge adjustments are well below inflation.

These are the proposed system charge adjustments. They are continuing to see declining sales, which drives up the cost of water charges.

Sewer shares are being updated for the FY 2025 sewer charges.

The water charge methodology has been simplified.

GLWA's financial plan

Financial plan documents that can be found on the GLWA website.

GLWA recently wrapped up its last audit.

FY 2025 Budget & Charges Goals Overall

Operation & maintenance budget: navigating dynamic increases & decreases

10-year plan: what's next after the 4% promise on annual budget increases "sunsets" after FY 2025.

Ten-year forecast executive summary: "Do they have enough money, enough aid to cover their debt payments?"

History of average service adjustments.

GLWA Budget adjustments compared to utility indices

transparency in the budgeting process.

The FY 2025 Water Charges Report

Proposed Water System Charge Adjustment

FY 2025 Water Charges Summary: Three member partners, Grosse Pointe Shores, Highland Park and Romeo have modified contract demands since original units of service were presented in November.

This new methodology received a consensus approval in December.

85 water member partners have not modified their charges. Flint and Detroit's charge adjustments are slightly higher since the contract adjustments are fixed and not subject to budget adjustments.

FY 2025 Sewer charges report

FY 2025 Sewer charges summary:

FY 2025 Sewer charge adjustment summary. With one exception, the overall changes in sewer charges to individual member partners varies slightly from the overall system charge adjustment of 3.0%

There is a motion to receive and file the FY2024 First Quarter Budget Amendments.

Question about the higher rates potential in 2026. the 7% rate could end up being a higher charge. Bateson answered by saying it's a concern. Motion to receive is approved.

Now onto the presentation of the FY2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan. Dima El-Gamal will give the presentation. You can download the presentation at glwater.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M…

They will start with key takeaways. On December 12th, the capital planning committee recommended approving this plan. Nothing on the screen yet, but here's the table of contents of the report.

El-Gamal is going through this schedule in the report: This "alignment" she is speaking about seems to be about aligning funds with projects.

El-Gamal is referring to slides, but we can't see those in the virtual meeting. I'll try to find relevant sections of the report as the presentation goes on.

Now onto project highlights: 159 projects in the CIP. 6 are new and part of the ongoing cycle of improvements.

182 million will be invested in wastewater... "They are on a better path to improve realignment..." I am having trouble following without seeing the presentation,

The projects within this plan are needs, not wants.

ok, I found the slide presentation, included within the agenda. Click here for a download. glwater.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M…

Here are the key takeaways from the presentation:

They are recommending postponing an approval today until the public hearing. They have received and filed the presentation.

Question: In the previous decade, of the projects projected, how many led to a shovel in the ground & were completed? A: They have data on individual projects, & they are working on pulling those metrics together. In the appendices you can look at projects & their past history.

They have closed 9 projects this year and 10 the year previous. Here's the 5-year outlook on 159 projects from the slide presentation. The same member is asking again about completion. He's curious to know on an annual or 2-year basis, when are they actually finished?

Discussion is continuing and it sounds like they will work on consolidating that information for a future meeting.

There's a question of what cost they are passing on to communities. Is it really below inflation for our customers? Are there opportunities to wring out savings? I'm not sure which member is speaking. The board of directors can be found here: glwater.org/about/leadersh…

A: They don't want to raise charges if they don't have to. But the high priorities are public health, public safety, the environment, etc. The public still expects a high level of service.

Confirmed through that exchange that it is Gary Brown is the one who has been asking these questions. Gary Brown is the of the Detroit Water and Sewage Department. Motion approved to move this decision to the public hearing.

No committee reports, no chairperson remarks, no member remarks.

Now onto the CEO's Report, Suzanne Coffey who is welcoming David W. Jones who has joined GLWA as their new General Counsel. He will stand up and speak.

Jones is a Detroiter and is telling a story about his father. He was 23 when his father passed--but a family friend he spoke to at the funeral pushed him to become a lawyer.

He said he loves the city of Detroit and "we love our water". A member chimed in after and said "don't forget about the sewer."

Here's a link to download the CEO's report as Coffey is going through it. There is no presentation we can see on screen. glwater.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M…

Question on new hires. A: They took down job postings and did a pause in onboarding for December. Motion approved to receive and file the CEO report.

There are 3 closed-session requests. They have approved 3 motions to move A, B, and C to closed session. They will be back for more items or adjournment.

While GLWA is in closed session, take a look back at this 2015 article in @freep on the creation of the new authority, which entered into a 40-year lease to take control of the then-city-run water system as a part of Detroit's bankruptcy restructuring. freep.com/story/news/loc…

Here's an article from last year by Farah Siddiqi in the @metrotimes on water affordability. @MonicaLewisPat2 said water rates can run as high as 25% of some households’ income. metrotimes.com/news/michigan-…

It looks like members are returning to the meeting room. The recording started again, was turned off and the zoom virtual meeting ended at 4:04 pm without a word from the board.

The GLWA was in closed session for around 30 minutes, without returning to continue or conclude the meeting in public. This concludes my coverage of the Jan 24th Board meeting of the GLWA for @DetDocumenters. For more meeting coverage, check out detroit.documenters.org

If you believe anything in this coverage is inaccurate, please email documenters@outliermedia.org w/ "Correction Request" in the subject line. 📝