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UVWA staff reports phone-system consolidation, building purchase and new cross-connection compliance needs
Summary
Staff reported consolidation of phone and billing functions through the City of Ukiah, purchase of a centrally located facility (bond funding previously set aside), and new California cross-connection control requirements affecting roughly 1,500 backflow devices that could require a three-person in-house program or continued contracting.
Staff told the Ukiah Valley Water Authority Executive Committee that the JPA has consolidated district phone numbers into a City of Ukiah customer-service phone tree and that the first conversions have been completed; training with MillSoft occurred on-site to verify account transfers and billing accuracy.
Staff also summarized a recent property purchase intended to centralize fleet, field services and inventory. The property was obtained with funds set aside in a prior bond (staff said roughly $15,000,000 had been allocated toward a new facility), and it includes a FedEx tenant expected to provide rental revenue to offset costs.
On compliance, staff said California now requires agencies with more than 1,000 service connections to have cross-connection control plans and that the merged authority's device count is roughly 1,500 backflow devices. Options discussed included continuing to contract testing and survey work or creating an in-house unit; staff estimated an in-house team could be about three people (two full-time testers/repair technicians and one compliance/survey specialist) to test, repair and survey devices annually. "We're required to test every device every year," a staff member said when describing workload and staffing implications.
The committee also heard a brief introduction of the upcoming joint rate study: staff plan preliminary presentations to member agencies in October to gather feedback before any potential UVWA adopton of rates, and noted member agencies can isolate themselves from joint adoption under the JPA if they properly isolate cost-of-service.
Staff will return with contract proposals and a cost comparison for in-house staffing vs. continued contracting, and will report progress on billing and facility consolidation at future meetings.
