To: Board of Directors, Sonoma County Water Agency
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Water Agency
Staff Name and Phone Number: Susanne Oliver 524-1155; Lynne Rosselli 524-3771
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Sonoma Water Allocation Change Requests
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Adopt a resolution effective September 13, 2022, to:
A) Add one (1) Full-Time Equivalent Department Analyst (DA) and one (1) Full-Time Equivalent Senior Office Assistant (SOA) to the Emergency Management/ Security/Project Management Division to plan, organize and manage an active security program.
B) Add one (1) Full-Time Equivalent Water Agency Coordinator to the Maintenance Section of the Operations and Maintenance Division to supervise and manage fleet services and treatment plant facilities.
C) Adopt a Resolution Authorizing Adjustment to the Board Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2022/2023 for the Sonoma Water General Fund in the amount of $421,034 for the Sonoma Water Allocation Change Requests. (4/5th Vote Required)
end
Executive Summary:
Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water) staff recommend the addition of three key positions to effectively respond to Sonoma Water’s commitments to the community and achieve Sonoma Water’s strategic goals.
Department Analyst and Senior Office Assistant - The Emergency Management/Security/Project Management Division needs to build out overall support to the Division while also developing a Security Section to support planning, organizing, and managing an active security program for Sonoma Water. Sonoma Water is a wholesale provider of potable water for approximately 600,000 people in Sonoma and Marin counties. Safe drinking water is essential, and a contamination incident or the interruption of drinking water services would have far-reaching public health, economic, environmental, and psychological impacts across Sonoma County. Other critical services such as fire protection, healthcare, and heating and cooling processes would also be disrupted by the interruption or cessation of drinking water services, resulting in significant consequences throughout the community. A comprehensive security program is essential for ensuring the primary water source serving Sonoma County is protected and secure.
Water Agency Coordinator - The Sonoma Water Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Division requests the addition of a Water Agency Coordinator to manage Sonoma Water’s Fleet Services and to supervise and manage the following maintenance facilities: Sonoma Valley, Airport-Larkfield-Wikiup and Geyserville Treatment Plants, and Warm Spring Dam hydro-electric plant. The Coordinator currently responsible for these functions will be retiring at the end of the 2022 calendar year. This position was dual filled with an Electrician/Instrumentation Coordinator in the Operations Section of the O&M Division at the end of FY 21/22 due to a critical need for that incumbent to focus on emerging and ongoing electrical engineering demands at Sonoma Water.
Sonoma County Human Resources has reviewed this request and concurs with the recommendation.
Discussion:
Addition of one (1) Department Analyst and one (1) Senior Office Assistant
Adding these positions will allow Sonoma Water to build out overall support to the Division while also developing the Security Section in support of planning, organizing, and managing an active security program. This will include providing direction for security efforts throughout the agency and coordinating the development and maintenance of a comprehensive security program across divisions and sections. The added roles will support the division in conducting and facilitating regular security assessments and directing activities protecting Sonoma Water infrastructure, assets, and personnel. The additional staff will help lead and support the development and maintenance of various security plans, including enforcing security policies, procedures, and regulations, and developing and conducting regular security trainings and drills that support field-level incident management.
The basis for the establishment of the Security Section is that Sonoma Water currently has no dedicated security resources or programmatic support, leaving the organization with no security program in any capacity. At the same time, there are numerous identified security gaps, vulnerabilities, and risks raised through multiple risk and security assessments, the most recent completed in 2020 as part of compliance with the America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA). Sonoma Water’s intent is to follow water sector industry standards and expand the emergency management program to assume security program responsibilities, and ultimately to develop overall resilience and preparedness measures for both natural hazards and malevolent acts.
Sonoma Water currently has no dedicated staff committed to developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive security program. Additionally, a recent string of thefts at various Sonoma Water facilities has highlighted a need for a robust program.
The Department Analyst will be responsible for the following:
• Developing and updating an enterprise-wide security policy and program.
• Ensuring timely reporting of all security incidents and conducting after-action reviews to support continuous program improvement.
• Conducting regular security vulnerability assessments and incorporating findings into future security program updates or enhancements.
• Conducting regular security exercises and drills through vulnerability testing and risk analysis to address the full range of threats.
• Establishing monitoring mechanism(s) to track and address vulnerabilities.
• Supporting field level emergency operations and providing site security training and support to field staff.
• Developing and maintaining an active threat assessment program to monitor current threat conditions and establish procedures for adapting to increased threats.
• Ensuring development and maintenance of appropriate site security, access control, monitoring, and other type surveillance systems.
• Coordinating with other divisions and sections to ensure security considerations are included into internal utility design construction standards for new/updated infrastructure, facilities, and major maintenance projects.
• Incorporating security priorities into Sonoma Water’s business continuity program.
• Establishing procedures to identify and control security-sensitive information.
• Establishing and maintaining a mechanism for employees, partners, and the community to notify Sonoma Water of suspicious occurrences and other security concerns.
• Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with all Sonoma Water divisions and sections, other County departments, and other agencies.
• Organizing and leading various program meetings, briefings, and workshops.
• Preparing and evaluating reports, studies, correspondence, long-range security plans or presentations.
• Using state and federal standards, establish policies, programs, and procedures for ensuring protection of critical infrastructure information.
• Direct activities protecting Sonoma Water property, infrastructure, assets, and personnel, including development of monitoring and alarm programs, written policies and response procedures, trainings, and drills.
• Enforce security policies, procedures, and regulations.
The Senior Office Assistant will support the entire Emergency Management/Security/Project Management Division by:
• Preparing reports, plans, and related documents for all functions within the division.
• Publishing internet and intranet information and resources.
• Updating and distributing emergency contact rosters, standard operating procedures, and other related response documents.
• Maintaining accurate and detailed records; verifying accuracy of information; researching discrepancies; and recording information including updates to divisional records, tracking systems, and online information and resources.
• Supporting and administering trainings and exercises, including course announcements, registration, materials development, and other related needs.
• Providing general clerical support duties to staff and project teams.
• Providing training and support to staff in work methods and systems use.
• Monitoring and ordering office and other related supplies; assisting in preparing, processing, and tracking purchase requisitions for services and materials, and assuming responsibility and verifying payments to vendors.
• Identifying and recommending opportunities to improve processes and procedures.
These two positions will immediately begin developing a comprehensive security program aimed at protecting Sonoma Water property, infrastructure, assets, and personnel. The AWIA requires water utilities to conduct security/vulnerability assessments, which Sonoma Water has completed through the work of a consultant. This assessment, specifically the highlighted vulnerabilities and/or deficiencies with Sonoma Water’s current security elements, provides an immediate roadmap for these positions to begin working in the development of the security program.
This critical priority, if left unfilled, continues to put Sonoma Water’s resources, infrastructure, and the broader community that relies on Sonoma Water, at significant life safety risk and internal staff is needed to support the development, implementation, and maintenance of a security program. Certain private sector resources will supplement our security program, once established (i.e., alarm monitoring), but there are no cost-effective solutions for outsourcing the development, implementation, and permanent maintenance of a comprehensive security program. Extra-help positions are not a viable option due to the critical nature of the role and the sensitive and critical information the position will have access to. Due to these considerations, the program needs to have long-term, full-time in house support.
Addition of 1 Water Agency Coordinator
Sonoma Water requests the addition of 1.0 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Water Agency (WA) Coordinator to manage Sonoma Water’s Fleet Services and to supervise and manage the following maintenance facilities: Sonoma Valley, Airport-Larkfield-Wikiup and Geyserville Treatment Plants, and Warm Spring Dam Hydroelectric Plant.
Currently, Sonoma Water has five WA Coordinators in the Maintenance Section of the Operations & Maintenance Division. Responsibilities are divided as follows:
• One Coordinator is responsible for all Field Operations including flood control,
• One Coordinator is responsible for environmental services, collection systems maintenance, and Sonoma Water facilities.
• Two Coordinators are responsible for mechanical maintenance services in the following areas: Water Supply Pumping Plants; Water Treatment Facilities; Russian River Treatment Plant, including 11 Lift Stations throughout the Russian River County Sanitation District; Water Transmission including the Petaluma Aqueduct, Santa Rosa Aqueduct and Sonoma Aqueduct, Cotati Intertie; metering for billing of its Water Contractors along with the surplus meters; and maintenance of the Santa Rosa Plain Wells.
• One Coordinator, who will be retiring by end of calendar year, is currently managing Fleet Services and the following maintenance facilities: Sonoma Valley, Airport-Larkfield-Wikiup and Geyserville Treatment Plants; and Warm Spring Dam hydroelectric plant. Management of these maintenance facilities consists of supervision of three light and heavy fleet mechanics; five wastewater mechanics and one maintenance worker. These responsibilities include:
o Management of the Sonoma Water’s Fleet including pool vehicles, procurement of new fleet vehicles, maintenance of equipment including chippers, trailers, backhoes, excavators, skid steers, vacuum trucks, tanker trucks and Utility Terrain Vehicles.
o Management of all regulatory reporting with California Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
o Management of the Fleet budget and oversight of the asset management system and all Computerized Maintenance Management System for fleet. In addition, the State mandate for implementation of an electric fleet are underway and will be required by 2025.
o Coordination of the treatment plants and reclamation processes including maintenance of the filtration processes, chemical treatment processes and distribution to reclamation facilities throughout Sonoma Water holding ponds.
o Electric power generation from Warm Springs Dam which will be brought online again shortly and will require ongoing maintenance of that facility.
The fifth Coordinator will be retiring at the end of 2022. This position was dual filled with an Instrumentation/Electrical Maintenance Coordinator in the Operations Section of the O&M Division at the end of FY 21/22. This was an area of critical need as the Principal Engineer who had been supervising the Electrician/Instrumentation Technician team was also managing all of Sonoma Water’s ongoing electrical engineering demands and did not have capacity to manage the Electrician/Instrumentation Technician team. As one of Sonoma Water’s only electrical engineers, it was necessary to focus his expertise on critical electrical engineering projects, aligning him under the Engineering Division where he could more effectively supervise other engineers, and collaborate with the rest of the Sonoma Water’s engineering team on electrical engineering projects. The Electrician/Instrumentation Technician team was then assigned to the newly hired Instrumentation/Electrical Maintenance Coordinator in Operations, and subsequently, due to the required collaboration between the two groups, his responsibilities were expanded to include the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) team.
Sonoma Water analyzed whether the workload of the retiring Coordinator could be absorbed by the remaining four Coordinators. As described above, the four Maintenance Coordinators each have a great deal of responsibility and do not have capacity to absorb the additional fleet and maintenance responsibilities. The Instrumentation/Electrical Maintenance Coordinator also does not have capacity to take on additional assignments, as the supervision of the Electrician/Instrumentation Technician and SCADA teams is a full load. Based on internal analysis, Sonoma Water staff have concluded that a WA Coordinator must be added in order to effectively manage Fleet Services and assigned SW Maintenance Facilities.
The benefits of implementing this position will be the ability to oversee Sonoma Water’s $1,000,000 Fleet Budget, prepare for the upcoming requirements by the State of California to implement an electric fleet to combat climate change, coordinate the mechanical maintenance of three sanitary sewer treatment plants throughout Sonoma County, and oversee the reimplementation of power generation maintenance at Warm Springs Dam. Existing managerial staff who are already working at capacity cannot absorb these responsibilities.
Alternatives to filling this position include sub-contracting out fleet maintenance to County Fleet as well as utilizing vendors to complete this work. The time and cost associated with subcontracting out fleet maintenance is untenable due to long wait times and the added costs. In addition, Sonoma Water staff looked at the possibility of absorbing all of these responsibilities among the remaining four Coordinators, but there is far too much responsibility and workload to make this a viable option.
The requested Water Agency Coordinator will also manage and comply with the updated Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) purchasing policy which instituted a “ZEV and hybrid vehicle first” requirement and increased the ZEV purchasing mandate annually by 5% so that it will be 50% by 2025. The ZEV and hybrid first purchasing mandate requires departments to purchase light-duty vehicles according to a priority structure, when available on the statewide contract: (1) pure ZEV’s, (2) Plug-in Electric Hybrids, and (3) hybrids.
Primary duties of the new position include:
• Supervise Sonoma Water Fleet Maintenance light and heavy mechanics. This encompasses all Sonoma Water Fleet including pool vehicles, maintenance staff and mechanics vehicles, procurement and specification of new fleet vehicles, maintenance equipment including chippers, trailers, backhoes, excavators, skid steers, vacuum trucks, tanker trucks and UTV’s.
• Manage fleet regulatory reporting with California Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation, and Environmental Protection Agency.
• Manage the budget for Fleet Maintenance
• Asset Management including CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) oversight.
• Coordination of all maintenance activities for the following treatment plants, including supervising five mechanics and a maintenance worker:
ü Sonoma Valley Treatment Plant
ü Airport Larkfield Wikiup Treatment Plant
ü Geyserville Treatment Plant
ü Warm Springs Dam Hydroelectric
• Oversee filtration processes, chemical treatment processes, and distribution to reclamation facilities throughout Sonoma Water holding ponds, as well as the Town of Windsor and the City of Santa Rosa.
• Oversee electric power generation from Warm Springs Dam, which will be brought online again shortly and will require ongoing maintenance of that facility.
County of Sonoma Strategic Plan Alignment: N/A
Sonoma Water Strategic Plan Alignment:
Sonoma Water Strategic Plan Alignment: Water Supply and Transmission System, Goal 1: Protect drinking water supply and promote water use efficiency.
Sonoma Water Strategic Plan Alignment: Our Organization, Goal 3; Continue to improve emergency preparation and response to natural disasters.
Sonoma Water Strategic Plan Alignment Vehicle Fleet, Goal: Improve safety, reliability and cost efficiency of the vehicle fleet.
Adding the requested allocations will provide Sonoma Water with the appropriate staffing to continue efforts toward achieving these strategic goals.
Prior Board Actions:
N/A
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 22-23 Adopted |
FY 23-24 Projected |
FY 25-26 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
|
$647,339 |
$663,523 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
$421,034 |
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$421,034 |
$647,339 |
$663,523 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
$647,339 |
$663,523 |
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
$421,034 |
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$421,034 |
$647,339 |
$663,523 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Salary and benefits are budgeted in the General Fund which is funded through property tax revenue and grants. The General Fund is reimbursed by Sonoma Water’s enterprise funds through the overhead rate using project costing. Sonoma Water’s cost accounting system allocates labor costs to its projects and are specific to its enterprise funds.
Adding these allocations represents a total net increase in FY 2022/2023 labor costs of $421,034. For FY 2023/2024 the net increase for salary and benefits will be $647,339 and $663,523 for FY 2024/2025 assuming a 2.5% COLA each year. The budget adjustment for FY 2022/2023 cannot be absorbed with the existing budget so a budgetary resolution has been submitted with this item. FY 2023/2024 and FY 2024/2025 appropriations will be budgeted in these fiscal years. See detail below:
• Adding a 1.0 FTE Department Analyst represents an increase in labor costs in FY 2022/2023 of $137,239 (based on an annual cost of $205,858 prorated 8 months). For FY 2023/2024 the net increase for salary and benefits will be $211,004, and $216,279 for 2024/2025, assuming a 2.5% COLA each year.
• Adding a 1.0 FTE Senior Office Assistant represents an increase in labor costs in FY 2022/2023 of $85,668 (based on an annual cost of $128,502 prorated 8 months). For FY 2023/2024 the net increase for salary and benefits will be $131,715 and $135,008 for 2024/2025, assuming a 2.5% COLA each year.
• Adding 1.0 FTE WA Coordinator allocation represents an increase in labor costs in FY 2022/2023 of $198,127 (based on an annual cost of $297,190 prorated 8 months). For FY 2023/2024 the net increase for salary and benefits will be $304,620, and $312,236 for 2024/2025, assuming a 2.5% COLA each year.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Department Analyst (0826) |
$6,250.92 - $7,598.86 |
+1 |
0 |
|
Senior Office Assistant (0003) |
$3,916.83 - $4,760.37 |
+1 |
0 |
|
WA Coordinator (5057) |
$11,724.40 - $14,251.55 |
+1 |
0 |
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
If approved, this request will increase Sonoma Water’s allocation tables as follows:
Department Analyst from 4 to 5
Senior Office Assistant from 7 to 8
WA Coordinator from 9 to 10
Attachments:
(1) Resolution
(2) Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None