Finance Committee Minutes 10-18-17 with Attachments<\/a><\/p>\nTo read the minutes, please open or download the pdf from the link above, or you may see more below.<\/p>\n
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Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission<\/strong><\/p>\n1703 Gloucester Street, Brunswick, GA 31520<\/strong><\/p>\nCommission Meeting Room<\/strong><\/p>\nWednesday, October 18, 2017 at 2:00 PM<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nFINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES<\/strong><\/p>\nPRESENT: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nDonald M. Elliott, Chairman<\/strong><\/p>\nSteve Copeland, Commissioner<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Browning, Commissioner<\/strong><\/p>\nJimmy Junkin, Executive Director<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Donaghy, Director of Finance<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nALSO PRESENT: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nThomas A. Boland, Sr. \u2013 Interim Deputy Director<\/strong><\/p>\nPam Crosby, Director of Procurement<\/strong><\/p>\nJay Sellers, Director of Administration<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nChairman Elliott called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nPUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD<\/strong><\/p>\nThere being no citizens that wished to address the Committee, Chairman Elliott closed the Public Comment Period.<\/p>\n
APPROVAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Minutes from September 20, 2017 Finance Committee Meeting<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Commissioner Browning made a motion seconded by Commissioner Copeland to approve the minutes from the September 20, 2017 Finance Committee Meeting.\u00a0 Motion carried 3-0-0.<\/u>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nDISCUSSION<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Customer Service & Payments<\/strong> \u2013 J. Sellers<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Jay Sellers presented to the Committee with an update on customer service. He began by noting that the customer service standard is 100% satisfaction, which doesn\u2019t mean that every customer contact results in their happiness. Customer satisfaction level is a percentage of all calls offered versus answered, not call resolution rate or overall customer service satisfaction level.\u00a0 He added that the call volume more than doubled from the first of this year through the summer, and the service level over the last two periods reviewed dropped from 65% to 28%, through no apparent fault of the customer service representatives.\u00a0 That customer service level does not tell us how happy our customers are, it\u2019s only a reflection of well we are able to handle the surge in call volume.\u00a0 He provided a graph indicating the \u201cWalk-ins Processed\u201d and the \u201cCall Volume\u201d, along with a Customer Service and Payments Executive Summary. \u00a0Mr. Sellers noted that in preparation for the next HR meeting, he is in the process of developing a history of the call volume increase in aiming to project the future demand.\u00a0 The data for the call history was gathered from the Mitel Phone system.\u00a0 He mentioned that out of 28,000 customers 16% walk-in to the lobby to make their payments, which has been consistent with little deviation since 2014. He indicated that payments presently performed in person would be unlikely to drop even if the credit card processing fee were absorbed.\u00a0 With respect to the call volume, Mr. Sellers said he would like to see JWSC move towards staffing a dedicated call center, and suggested that hiring 2 employees to handle the incoming calls who would also have to become familiar with the billing system. There was some discussion pertaining to payment by credit cards.\u00a0 It was confirmed that when a customer pays over the counter by credit card, JWSC does pay a charge for that transaction. The customer is not charged that fee, JWSC absorbs that cost. Mr. Junkin asked if the Kiosk was still being checked into, and Jay is still researching that and after being asked by Mr. Junkin, advised that the drop box for the front of the building has not been ordered yet, but can be ordered soon. Chairman Elliott questioned if new customers have to come in to open a new account, and John Donaghy confirmed that they do have to come in, be identified with photo ID and also provide a Social Security Card. Once activated, a customer can then process transactions without having to come inside the building. There was some additional discussion pertaining to the history of incoming calls and that the data indicated dropped calls increasing from 3 out of every 10 up to 6 out of every 10.\u00a0 Mr. Sellers noted that some of these calls could have been trouble calls relating to outages or main breaks in the systems.\u00a0 He added that with not knowing when the call volume could drop, he recommended starting out with two employees for a call center to take on the higher volume of incoming calls, along with a suggestion of staggering the call center staff.\u00a0 Additional advantages of having a call center staff was also mentioned. Mr. Junkin noted that he would like to see the breakdown of walk-ins by cash, checks and credit cards.\u00a0 He is interested in what kind of impact a Kiosk could make on walk-ins and payments.\u00a0 Chairman Elliott suggested looking at part-time positions rather than full-time positions, since there are often people who are looking for a part-time job.\u00a0 He also advised that before taking this subject matter to HR, to also have a list of responsibilities that they will have.\u00a0 Jay indicated that he does have the job description drafted.\u00a0 It was noted that hiring part-time persons might be the better solution in order to reduce the overall costs since no benefits would be provided.\u00a0 The training period and use of the software products was also briefly discussed, along with additional discussion on hiring of local persons.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Water Production Report<\/strong> \u2013 J. Donaghy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
John Donaghy presented to the Committee a visual chart on the OpenGov website showing the billed and unbilled water production for each month of the Fiscal Year 2016-2017. The unbilled amount on the charts represented water measured as produced, but not going through a meter for billing purposes. It was noted that there are erratic differences caused by when the meters are read versus the production reports being ran at the end of the calendar month.\u00a0 This can cause some overlapping on the charts. Mr. Donaghy indicated that normally 90% of the water produced should be able to be accounted for.\u00a0 The portions that are not accounted for are the amount that is flushed out each month in line flushing, the estimate for firefighting, fire hydrant water used by the city and county in street sweeping, etc. There are other pieces that are sometimes hard to obtain for the measure of unaccounted water. He explained that the mag meters on the production wells is where the readings are taken for the accounting for the total water production.\u00a0 Leaks, water main breaks, inefficiencies in the field, inconsistencies in the billing system, fire department use are all examples of the portion of the variables in the water produced and unbilled.\u00a0 After the numbers and information is refined, these charts are planned to be placed on the JWSC website.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Hurricane Irma Storm Expenses<\/strong> \u2013 J. Donaghy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Regarding the expenses incurred by BGJWSC during Hurricane Irma, John Donaghy advised the Committee that there was an estimated $400K paid for personnel expenses.\u00a0 Additional direct out of pocket expenses during the storm are estimated at $108K. There was some additional discussion pertaining to the specifics of reporting to the insurance, and then to FEMA for reimbursements. \u00a0Hagerty Consultants are working with BGJWSC on the FEMA reimbursement.<\/p>\n
\n- Bond Issue Calendar<\/strong> \u2013 J. Donaghy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
John Donaghy presented the Bond Issue Calendar to the Committee.\u00a0 John introduced Courtney Rogers of Davenport & Company, the financial advisors for JWSC and noted that the schedule as provided was prepared with their assistance.\u00a0 He advised that the Bond Counsel RFP Proposals were received on Tuesday October 17.\u00a0 They are to be reviewed.\u00a0 He added that the Pre-Qualification meeting was held on Tuesday for the Underwriting RFP, of which the proposals are due on October 31, 2017. Courtney Rogers gave a brief introduction to the presentation he will be making at the Commission Workshop on Thursday morning (October 19).\u00a0 Items such as financial policy guidelines, recommendations, the calendar, etc. will be discussed.\u00a0 Chairman Elliott asked Mr. Rogers if there can be some discussion regarding the decisions the Commission needs to make regarding the bonds and advantages and disadvantages of taking the old bonds and rolling into new bonds.\u00a0 He indicated that this can be done.\u00a0 He continued that perhaps by breaking down into two, some now and maybe in 2018 and then depending on how the spending goes to come back in 2020 or 2021 with a second piece. There will be some numbers provided by Raftelis as they are working through the modeling.\u00a0 Mr. Rogers suggested that as the Bond Resolution is brought to them, perhaps Davenport and Raftelis could do presentations at the same time as the numbers start formulating. Chairman Elliott commented that this is something that all the Commissioners need to be comfortable with and well versed on when they vote and make their decisions.<\/p>\n
\n- September End of Month Financial Comparative<\/strong> \u2013 J. Donaghy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
John Donaghy presented the end of month financial report for September 2017 to the Committee.\u00a0 The complete packet included the Balance Sheet, a summary and detail by GL description Combined Revenue Statement, the Overtime Report, and the Project Report. He noted on the Balance Sheet that cash balances and cash equivalents have decreased, and that corresponding to offset that under liabilities, accounts payable also went down significantly. \u00a0He then reference the Combined Revenue Statement for the first three months of the year which includes some of the hurricane costs that will hopefully be reimbursed. Net income before Capital Fees and SPLOST YTD were at $26K net revenue over expenditures, which puts it right at breakeven in terms of actual expenditures. He noted $795K in encumbrances, which would put the balance short. Total SPLOST collections to date are at $1.276M. Chairman Elliott noted a concern that there we are not generating any fees in Planning & Construction, and there was a lot expected from that. Mr. Donaghy noted that there have not been developer\u2019s coming in since the budget was adopted to build new projects.\u00a0 He advised that we are still doing County reviews. Mr. Junkin noted that some of these were holdovers from before the policy was implemented. John added that there should be some capitalization of wages in there too for in house labor spent on projects. Those numbers do need to be obtained from Planning & Construction and added in to the report. Commissioner Copeland asked about the \u201cOther Revenues\u201d on this summary page and where they come from.\u00a0 John advised that this included items such as rent received by CVS, fees (rents) collected from cell phone companies for their antennas on the water towers, monies paid for meters and installation of meters, interest income, monies from scrap or surplus items sold, and things that don\u2019t fit into rates charged on a monthly basis to users.\u00a0 He added that the details of exactly what is in those accounts is in the GL detailed section of the report.\u00a0 Chairman Elliott requested for this report to be e-mailed to the Commissioners before the Finance Committee and the following Commission Meeting for their review and ability to formulate questions.\u00a0 Mr. Donaghy indicated that his goal is to have it ready and sent out by the 10th<\/sup> day of the month. The Overtime report was then reviewed.\u00a0 It was noted that much of the overtime on the report was caused by overtime due to the hurricane and some overtime due to billing.\u00a0 There was some additional discussion concerning reserves and emergency situations.\u00a0 The Project Report was then reviewed for the projects that are still remaining open. Chairman Elliott asked if it can be determined what portion of the tap fees are from residential and what portion is from commercial, and from restaurants.\u00a0 He then also asked for a chart that shows the expectation of fees to be received and the progression towards that number.\u00a0 He then asked for the make-up of that number, residential, restaurants, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Tap Fee Cap<\/strong> \u2013 D. Elliott<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Chairman Elliott discussed that there is a concern that tap fees could possibly be too high for restaurants.\u00a0 There was also some additional discussion on the possibility of financing tap fees in the future.\u00a0 It was requested for this to be something that the staff researches and looks at.\u00a0 Chairman Elliott would like some policy suggestions for the Commission to consider to help alleviate some of the burden placed on restaurants. He asked for the Finance Department to take a look at a way to cap tap fees based on water pipe, or meter size coming into restaurants.\u00a0 Mr. Donaghy indicated this was something that could be looked at as the technicalities of setting up financing are not difficult.\u00a0 There was discussion on concerns about a reduction of new restaurants coming in because they cannot afford to build.\u00a0 With the variety of fees that are concerned (not only from BGJWSC), hardship is placed on new restaurants in their financing.\u00a0 Mr. Junkin indicated that he has tried to consider what can be done, and does want to do what can be done as he understands that new jobs are created, but that does not do anything to help improve the situation for JWSC.\u00a0 This will be looked at, but tap fees are what they calculate to be.\u00a0 There was some final discussion between the Committee on this matter.<\/p>\n
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR\u2019S UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\nThere was no further update at this time.<\/p>\n
Meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For your consideration, please read the minutes from the Finance Committee Meeting held on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. Finance Committee Minutes 10-18-17 with Attachments To read the minutes, please open or download the pdf from the link above, or you may see more below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance-committee-minutes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldenisleslepc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}