WES technical advisory team urges member communities to meet invoicing and reporting deadlines

Water Environment Services (WES) staff told member communities they need to submit final invoice documentation or good-faith estimates before the county finance close so WES can earmark funds for the current fiscal year.

Jessica Rener, an engineer in WES's capital group and meeting convener, said WES finances are now tied to county timelines and asked communities to prioritize invoicing. "I believe it's August 15th. We ask people to have their invoicing in by for the regional...so Aaron can earmark that as spent the past fiscal year and close the books," Rener said.

Rener also reminded members that a condition of receiving regional INI funding is an annual INI reduction report documenting project progress and use of funds. She said communities can choose whether to align the report to the end of the fiscal year or end of the calendar year but should keep the schedule consistent going forward. Rener offered to provide examples to reduce additional work for member cities.

On program monitoring, Rener noted WES has Jacobs under contract to rerun its INI model every two years using updated flow data and expects to assemble a modeling report in the fall that will document program progress.

Separately, Rener said Jeff Stalard, director of the capital program, is preparing the next fiscal-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and plans to distribute the draft to the technical advisory team in August or September for technical review before it goes to the West Advisory Committee in October.

The advisory team approved the minutes and then discussed other agenda items; members were encouraged to email follow-ups and the meeting adjourned.