District General Manager Report
General Manager Winquest provided updates on current projects. His written report is on pages 3-16 of the Board packet found on the District website. Highlights of the items discussed are:
- The Effluent Pipeline Project working group decided not to move forward with the sole responder to the District’s Request for Proposal to analyze and plan the District’s replacement of Segment 3 of the Effluent Pipeline and the Lining for the Effluent Storage Pond. After the group determined the next steps, Trustee Dent had an initial meeting with Granite Construction. Granite has vast experience in effluent pipeline infrastructure and the use of standard and emerging technologies in linear pipeline construction, replacement and rehabilitation. Granite has also completed pipeline installation in State Route 28. The working group followed up with a ZOOM meeting with Granite management and will be recommending this firm for Construction Manager At Risk (“CMAR”) services under a professional services agreement. CMAR is a project delivery method where a construction management firm acts as an owner’s consultant during the pre-development phase of the project, and throughout the project design and build, including participating in selecting design engineers. The District has successfully used CMAR for the Diamond Peak Culvert project.
- The working group is currently determining whether to issue a Request for Proposal or a Request for Quotation for the Utility Fund Performance Management and Asset Review and will be finalizing relevant documents.
- The General Manager’s Ordinance 7 Advisory Committee will hold their first meeting the last week of September and will complete their work over a 4-month period. To serve on the Committee along with GM Winquest and Board Chair Callicrate, Mr. Winquest appointed Diane Becker, Denise Davis, Kristen Ferrall, Scott Hill, Margaret Martini, Hal Paris, Trevor Smith, Bruce Townsend, Karen and Ken Viel, Frank Wright, and one additional community member to be announced. IVGID administrative support will be provided by Kari Ferguson, Susan Herron and Recreation Center Counter staff. GM Winquest stated his belief that Ordinance 7 is one of the most important things we will do as a District for the future of our community over the next 20 to 30 years. GM Winquest and Board Chair Callicrate provided assurance that the Committee represented a balanced profile of our community and that all members would work collaboratively and transparently and would welcome community input and feedback.
Long Range Calendar Review and Update
Among the upcoming agenda items planned for future Board meetings, GM Winquest highlighted ongoing Union negotiations in closed session; FY 2021/22 Budget kick-off; GM annual performance goals and objectives for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021; allocating excess fund balances for specific capital improvement projects; discussion of Recreation fee rebate to property owners; DP Ski Director Mike Bandolin’s presentation of operating plan options for Diamond Peak; and options for the rehabilitation of Ski Way parking.
Trustee Schmitz requested the addition of her completed revisions to the Trustee Handbook and Board Policy 3.1 for Board approval at the September 30th meeting. Trustee Schmitz also noted that the agenda item to restore public correspondence to the Board packet had fallen off the “parking lot” items and requested it be added. Chair Callicrate took the opportunity to correct his misstatement at the last Board meeting when he attributed comments to the Office of the Attorney General about liabilities the District could incur by including public correspondence in the Board packets. He stated that he was mistaken and would work with District Counsel Nelson to address compliance with Open Meeting Law and any potential liability issues to formulate the policy on including public correspondence in the Board packets.
Report by District General Counsel
Mr. Nelson reported on the two outstanding litigation matters against the District:
Katz vs. IVGID: Mr. Katz has filed a Petition before the United States Supreme Court for Certiorari. This is a request for the Supreme Court to entertain hearing his appeal of the Nevada Supreme Court decision. IVGID filed a response to counter his petition. Mr. Katz filed a subsequent reply to the Court. Mr. Nelson stated that legal counsel took action consistent with prior Board direction and authority.
Mr. Nelson stated that the US Supreme Court will most likely reach their decision at the end of this month and the District will learn of the decision in early October. At that time, the relevant legal options will be brought before the Board.
Smith vs. IVGID: In June, the District Judge appointed a Special Master to review 500 of the withheld emails requested by Mr. Smith to determine if they were within the scope of public records or were protected from public disclosure by the attorney client privilege. The review by the Special Master is ongoing. Mr. Nelson also reported that the Court granted former attorney Guinasso’s request and dismissed him as a party to the lawsuit on August 10th.
Trustee Treasurer Schmitz and Chair Callicrate requested that future District General Counsel updates include the dollar amounts of legal fees being incurred in these litigation matters. Mr. Nelson agreed to do so.
Report by Treasurer
Trustee Treasurer Schmitz reported that while she had been working with Director of Finance Navazio on a number of matters, his priorities have been completing deliverables for the independent accounting firm Eide Bailly conducting the District’s 2020 fiscal year audit. Therefore, Mr. Navazio has not had time to discuss several outstanding issues. These include the format of monthly financial reporting, and some matters she has observed with bill payment and procurement cards for which potential policies may need to be developed and/or refined. Trustee Schmitz asked Mr. Navazio when he would be finished with providing documents to the outside auditors and he responded that this task is anticipated to wrap up this week. He expects to get a draft of the new monthly financial reports format to Trustee Schmitz by the end of the week.
Report by Audit Committee Chair
Audit Committee Trustee Chair Dent reported the following from the last Audit Committee meeting:
- IVGID is hiring Moss Adams to consult on the topics of enterprise fund accounting vs governmental special revenue fund accounting for the Community Services and Beach funds; punch card utilization accounting; capitalization policies and actual practices; and central service cost allocation transfers between funds.
- In response to citizens’ correspondence, District Counsel Nelson is preparing a draft letter on Dillon’s Rule to be presented at the September 30th Audit Committee meeting.
- The Audit Committee has finished addressing the ad valorem tax question raised at the last Audit Committee Meeting.
The Burnt Cedar Pool; Engineering Manager Nathan Chorey requested that the Board approve a Schematic Design Services Contract for the Burnt Cedar Swimming Pool Improvement Project in the amount of $68,104 with TSK Architects. Chair Callicrate asked that District General Manager address the issue that no written contract was attached to the agenda item. GM Winquest stated that he understood that the formal proposed contract should be attached and he will try to include it in the future. Mr. Chorey explained that this was a proposed addendum to the existing contract that was approved by the Board on August 12th when Trustees selected the preferred design proposal of Option 1.
Trustee Schmitz expressed her concern with the loose language of the proposal and wanted to be sure that the wet play features and the wading pool were included. Trustee Schmitz cited the use of the word “pool” rather than “pools” in one area of the description and with the fact that the Aquatics Design specification referenced Option 1, but did not reference deliverables related to the wading pool.
Mr. Chorey assured the Board that he would work with Mr. Nelson on a written agreement and that the contract and proposal would assure that the wet play features would be provided for the wading pool. GM Winquest assured the Board that the Pool Working Group would also review the Contract before it is signed. The contract with TSK Architects for $68,104 was unanimously approved by the Trustees.
Staff was asked to please include the actual proposed contract to the Board in the future, and to have proposals written more accurately so that everything the District was contracting for was clearly included in each proposal and contract, and this was promised.
Board of Trustees Workshop on Punch Cards
A presentation was made by Director of Finance Navazio on Punch Card utilization and on how the current budget and current punch card accounting system work, as well as important issues and concerns related to the current practices, and a discussion of options as to how to approach the issues. Mr. Navazzio said that if the Trustees decided to do so they could eliminate contra revenue accounting quickly. A copy of the Presentation is available at pages 30-83 of the Board packet (found on the District website). The presentation demonstrated the instances where contra revenue occurs (See pages 43 and 44 of the presentation). According to Mr. Navazio contra revenue does not occur if a picture pass is used, or if a non-beach access punch card is used, or if the purchase is made using an additionally purchased punch card. Contra revenue occurs when punch cards with beach access are used; the “revenue” is booked for the venue, in prior fiscal years 85% of the transaction amount is deducted out of the Community Services Fund and 15% is deducted from the Beach Fund. The other issue presented is how the venues are recording the “rack rate” when picture passes and punch cards are used. The Director of Finance explained that if the Board decided to do away with contra revenue accounting and punch cards, the issue would go away. If the Board decided to retain punch cards but do away with contra revenue accounting, that would be an easy change. The Director of Finance said there are many ways to correct this contra revenue accounting, and he has listed some of them at page 49 of his presentation.
The Trustees had different views on this issue, and the public may want to listen to the meeting to hear their responses. Trustee Wong felt that this was a case where accounting was following operational issues and the operational issues need to be fixed. Trustees Callicrate, Dent and Schmitz believe that this is a serious accounting issue that must be corrected, but also agreed when Trustee Schmitz reminded the Board that this issue has been submitted to Moss Adams as part of their audit of the District’s accounting and reporting practices, and therefore their report on this issue should be received before additional accounting procedures are changed.