Strategic Goals & Narrative

The District hosted the Contra Costa delegation on 04/22 to review the North Richmond Living Levee cost-share. Staff continue to advance the Board's direction to publish selected monthly reporting to the District website; a first internal draft is scheduled for the May Regular Meeting. No significant regulatory or operational issues arose this period.

Three of twelve divisional narratives remain outstanding as of the reporting cutoff, and the packet assembly timeline is currently the binding constraint on report delivery. Records staff processed 21 public records requests this month with all but one responded to within the statutory deadline.

Operating expenditures stand at 80.9% of the amended budget at period 10 of 12, tracking 2.4 points favorable to the straight-line position. Debt service coverage is projected at 1.31x against the 1.20x bond covenant. Utilities and energy spend continues to decline with partial microgrid commissioning.

Two recruitments closed this month — Maintenance Technician II and Accountant I. The Operator-in-Training pipeline remains the primary staffing risk; the Bay Area Consortium for Water/Wastewater Education partnership produced four candidate referrals, two of whom advanced to panel interview.

SCADA system upgrade planning is underway with a vendor market survey completed. Microsoft 365 adoption continues to climb, with Power Automate usage up 34% year over year. Two SharePoint sites remain without assigned owners and are queued for remediation.

Fourteen projects remain active against a $61.4M program. A change order on the Hilltop Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation for $184,500 has been pending review for 34 days and is the principal schedule risk this period. Headworks Screening Improvements opened bids on 04/21 with four responsive bidders.

Crews cleaned 42.6 miles of gravity main this month, bringing fiscal-year-to-date cleaning to 71% of the 249-mile system against a 100% annual target. Root-control treatment was applied to 11 known problem segments identified in the Q2 CCTV review. The Lift Station 7 standby generator load test remains overdue.

The plant operated in full compliance with Order R2-2024-0008 for all 30 days of the period. Average influent flow was well within permitted capacity, and secondary treatment removal efficiencies remained comfortably above the 85% permit floor. Recycled water deliveries to the North Richmond Water Reclamation Plant continued uninterrupted.

Preventive maintenance completion held at 74% of scheduled work orders. The standby generator load test program has one overdue station, scheduled for completion the first week of May. Two centrifugal pumps were rebuilt in-house, avoiding an estimated $38,000 in vendor cost.

Completed the annual proficiency testing round for BOD, TSS, and ammonia with all results within acceptance limits. The replacement autoclave was installed on 04/14 and validation is complete. Staff are preparing for the triennial ELAP accreditation site visit scheduled for August.

FOG inspections are 78% complete against the annual target with no significant noncompliance among permitted industrial users. The Bay Area Metal Finishing pretreatment permit expires 05/21/2026; the renewal application is under technical review.