V. Hugh Lewis II/Jefferson Jimplecute
Osiris Brantley is the new Executive Director/General Manager for the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District. Brantley had been serving as the interim general manager since the departure of Wayne Owen on March 31.
The job was posted for less than 30 days on the NETMWD website and the Texas Municipal League website. Three applications were received by NETMWD.
Public comment at the start of Monday’s meeting indicated the quick, and private discussions were inadequate to hire Owen’s replacement, according to those making comments.
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The Board also approved a “Public Comments Policy” restricting speakers to three minutes per person speaking on topics on the agenda, and a total of 30 minutes of time for non-agenda item topics. Non-agenda item speakers are also limited to three minutes per speaker.
“It’s ironic if you enact a policy to restrict comments with what we’ve been through over the last four months,” said Nelson Roach during public comment. “If it hadn’t been for people speaking on a non-agenda item, you would not have know of the opposition to the water sale.”
Other comments repeated requests to not continue to try and sell water to North Texas Municipal Water District from Lake O’the Pines, and on how the board should consider restructuring itself to allow for members who are not residents of the seven member cities.
“You need a better meeting time so people can attend more easily,” said Marion County resident Shar Parr. “Every board member should have at least a TCEQ Level 2 Water certification, and there should be at least two citizen seats on the board.”
The Board members are appointed by each member City and must be a resident of the City.
The Board also approved a water agreement with RFE Operating LLC, an oil/gas company which buys untreated water for production uses. The Board has had similar agreements throughout the years.
In the financial reports, the Board heard that Lone Star Steel had not been paying the minimum required per their contract with NETMWD for the last year, owing the District about $36,000. Brantley said she would bill LSS moving forward, and the Board expressed desire to back-bill LSS for the unpaid contract requirement.
During the Operations report, Dominik Sobieraj pointed out that the three-days of rain recently received added 50% of the conservation pool back into LOP, and the USACE has released 283,000 acre feet of water over the last three months.
Sobieraj also provided updates on various repairs ongoing in the District including the removal of a raw water pump to have it refurbished. Once completed it will be more energy efficient. Sobieraj opted to pull the pump with his staff instead of hiring it out, saving the District over $25,000. They also replaced lift station pumps in Pittsburg which were over 50 years old and are doing other projects across the District to make monitoring easier for member cities. Jefferson recently received new meters which will be more accurate and allow for 24/7 monitoring of tank levels. The previous meters were over 20 years old and parts had become hard to find.
Lastly the Board ratified the acceptance of Owen’s separation agreement and the appointment of Bradley as interim GM from March, due to an unclear agenda concern.