Finance Committee Meeting Minutes – July 19, 2017
For your consideration, please read the minutes from the Finance Committee Meeting held on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:00 pm.
Finance Committee 7-19-17 Minutes with Attachments
To read the minutes, please open or download the pdf from the link above, or you may see more below:
Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission
1703 Gloucester Street, Brunswick, GA 31520
Commission Meeting Room
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:00 PM
FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES
PRESENT:
Donald M. Elliott, Chairman
Steve Copeland, Commissioner
Mike Browning, Commissioner
Jimmy Junkin, Executive Director
John Donaghy, Chief Financial Officer
ALSO PRESENT:
Pam Crosby, Director of Procurement
Jay Sellers, Public Information Officer
Chairman Elliott called the meeting to order at 2:01 PM.
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
Jonathan Watkins – Job Corps – Mr. Watkins, the Work Based Learning Coordinator with Job Corps, advised the Finance Committee that students with the Job Corps Center have previously worked with BGJWSC. Mr. Watkins had presented this information in June of this year to the full Commission and was interested in the next steps to continue this relationship with the Work Based Learning Program. Previous students have worked in the Wastewater Treatment Division, in Administration, and also with the GIS. The standard agreements are normally signed on an annual basis between the Job Corps WBL and the BGJWSC. The Committee thanked Mr. Watkins for bringing this back to their attention and advised that it would be addressed in the August Commission Meeting.
There being no additional citizens that wished to address the Committee, Chairman Elliott closed the Public Comment Period.
APPROVAL
- Minutes from June 14, 2017 Finance Committee and Compliance & Legislative Committee – Combined Meeting
Commissioner Browning made a motion seconded by Commissioner Copeland to approve the minutes from the June 14, 2017 Finance Committee Meeting. Motion carried 3-0-0.
- Surplus Vehicles/Equipment – P. Crosby
Pam Crosby presented to the Committee a list of 5 vehicles that are no longer of use to the JWSC. As a formal procedure, items to be declared as surplus are brought before the Facilities, Finance and full Commission for approval to dispose of the items. She referenced an attached memo indicating the current conditions and mileage of the vehicles for the committee to review.
Commissioner Browning made a motion seconded by Commissioner Copeland to move that the Brunswick Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission approve the additional items to be declared as surplus and disposed of in a manner most beneficial to the JWSC. Motion carried 3-0-0.
- Banking Resolutions – SPLOST Account and BB&T Sweep Account – J. Donaghy
John Donaghy presented to the Committee a memo regarding the Banking Resolutions and signature cards. He advised that as a part of implementing the Innoprise Software, it was anticipated to move to BB&T for the lockbox service from the current provider. The system under the previous provider’s database does not have the provision in it to cross reference between the JWSC customers’ old account numbers and new account numbers. He further advised that there are some additional advantages to using the lockbox services with BB&T, and there will not be any additional costs. To facilitate this conversion and to most efficiently process customer payments a daily sweep account is required. This account will receive the individual customer payments and transfer those receipts to the Utility Revenue Checking account on a daily basis. The second account John noted is the SPLOST account with BB&T. The JWSC is receiving periodic payments of the SPLOST funds from Glynn County, and this account is necessary to segregate those monies from other operating funds. He added that Staff recommends that the JWSC approve the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Executive Director and Director of Finance be authorized to execute the necessary documents to establish a lockbox sweep account and a SPLOST Revenue account with BB&T Bank.
Commissioner Copeland made a motion seconded by Commissioner Browning to move that the JWSC authorize the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Executive Director and Director of Finance be authorized to execute the necessary documents to establish a lockbox sweep account and a SPLOST Revenue account with BB&T Bank. Motion carried 3-0-0.
DISCUSSION
- Accounts Receivable Collections – J. Donaghy
John Donaghy updated the Committee that to date on the collection efforts $201+K have been received from customers who have come in and made payments. Payment arrangements have been made for 78 established payment plans. He noted that the target is to collect on 100 accounts per week. Currently there are about 4,500 accounts that are 60 days or beyond. Efforts are being made to work with the customers based on their ability to pay the past due amounts. Mr. Donaghy provided a listing of the collection efforts from May and June on the 78 accounts that have established payment plans. The total amount in arrears for these 78 accounts was shown to be $638,417.78, of which $201,140.62 has been collected. Chairman Elliott added that this will be a monthly report to be presented to the Finance Committee and the full Commission, with some revisions.
- Innoprise Transition Update – J. Donaghy
John Donaghy also updated the Committee on the Innoprise transition. He advised that they went “live” on July 1st (actually July 3rd) with Innoprise. A staff member from Utility Services was brought over to fill in so that there could be 5 windows open. John and 2 additional staff members also assisted behind the counter. He reported that this was a very busy time of the month for customers making payments, but everyone did fairly well during the first couple of days. John also noted that there is still some additional implementation to take place, and that there are difficulties with the online portal within the JWSC website to be worked out. He added that bills are going out, but about a week late due to the transition and the need to check all the bills to ensure they are as accurate as possible.
- “Round-Up” Program Update – J. Donaghy
Mr. Junkin began this discussion by noting that while he does agree with the purpose of the Round-Up Program, and understands where it is going and how it will help, he indicated that in the ideal world, it may generate little funds. He added that at this time it may be more cumbersome to set it up than the funds it will generate, at least until we are working real hard on coming up with a formal policy proven by some other utilities that are ahead of us already. For the coming Fiscal Year, not the current one, he would like to see us hold this Round-Up Program until there are other funds that can be rolled in with whatever is collected from the Round-Up to allow there to be some substantial funds to do something with. He expressed concern that with a Round-Up Program in a community as small as ours is, there may not be many people checking the box, and there may not be a lot of money collected. He noted it will be a help in a small way, but the bigger part is if it can be held and put together with what will be budgeted in the Fiscal Year for 2019. Chairman Elliott noted that there should be a Program Officer assigned to the program to be responsible for putting the program together and providing periodic reporting on how we are doing on this. Commissioner Browning suggested that other utilities should be checked with for advice on how they are handling this type of program. John Donaghy added that the software for this program has been put on the back burner until the other systems were up and running.
- ARCO Sewer Systems Grants – J. Donaghy
Tom Boland provided some information about the ARCO Sewer Systems Grants. He noted that they did contact Monica with Glynn County who advised that JWSC cannot apply for this money. JWSC must work through the County or the City to see if we can get on the approved list to obtain the funding. Previously, this had been checked into and some of the engineering was done and it was determined that gravity lines could be put in, but the roads would have to be repaved and there were cost issues with paving. There was some additional discussion about looking at the possibility of using the Orenco Step System technology in this area. A step system is a lower cost to install and would only require a 4” force main. A meeting will be set up with the appropriate staff for further discussion, and Monica from Glynn County will be invited for further advice on the grant and application.
- June End of Month Financial Comparative – J. Donaghy
John Donaghy presented the end of month financial report for June 2017 to the Committee. He began with the Balance Sheet and the Bond Sinking Fund with a month end balance of about $320K, which is due to the June 1st payment to the Bond Trustee. Mr. Donaghy noted the second page of Cash Accounts, and pointed out that the SPLOST Account had been added. He mentioned that these statements are only internal at this time, due to the audit and other adjustments to be made for year end. He then noted that Accounts Payable had dropped, and that the books will be held open for invoices yet to be received. On page two, John also pointed out the Revenue Deposit Account with a balance of about $1.3M, and added that there were approximately $800K in tap fees on the last day of the Fiscal Year, and this amount will be transferred to the Capital Improvement Fee Reserve. He then moved on to the revenues and expenditures for the year, noting that the budget for the year was $28,075,000.00 in revenues and the actual was $29,646,225.00 before a few final adjustments to be made. In the next section, it was shown that the Net Revenue before Capital Revenues was at $651K, and when adding in the $3.5M in Capital Improvement Fees gave a Net Revenues over Cash Requirements of $4.2M for the year.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S UPDATE
There was no additional update at this time.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:57 p.m.