2001-11-26 JPWB Minutes
JOINT POWERS WATER BOARD MINUTES
Regular Meetmg of
November 26,2001
7:00 PM JPWT Plant Board Room
Present Olson, Kessler, PaullIn, Kottke, Hagerty
Absent 'fetsch
The meetmg was called to order at 7 00 PM
2002 ConnectIon fees added to agenda and regular meetmg date corrected to say October 22,
2001 on the agenda MOTION BY PAULLIN, SECONDED BY KESSLER TO ADOPT
AGENDA AS CHANGED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
No one was present for the cItIzen forum
MOTION BY KESSLER, SECONDED BY PAULLIN TO ACCEPT MINUTES AS
PRESENTED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Corrected budget report was mserted MOTION BY HAGERTY, SECONDED BY PAULLIN
TO ACCEPT CONSENT AGENDA AS CORRECTED MOTION CARRIED
UNANIMOUSLY
There was no unfinIshed busmess
Bob Carlson of Gruys, Borden, Carlson, & ASSOCIates was mtroduced to present the 2000 AudIt
Report Carlson went through the audIt report He stated that It baSIcally gIves Jomt Powers a
clean OpInIOn relatIve to the finanCIal statements Carlson explamed that part of domg an audIt IS
testmg transactIOns, but that they do not look at every transactIon, but dunng the audIt they found
nothIng that made them feel that these financial statements were anythIng but accurate He
stated that the balance sheet showed the organIZatIon's total fund eqUIty grew from last year by
apprmamately $600,000 00 There was cash on reserve of two mIllIOn dollars and restncted cash
of another two mIllIon dollars There were no adjustments of any consequences to the cash
balances, If any at all The growth of the fixed assets IS detaIled m the footnote dIsclosure
There are no real changes or surpnses on the balance sheet Assets are gOIng up faster than the
lIabIlItIes are gomg up Smce thIS IS an Enterpnse Fund vs a Governmental Fund there should
not be any capItal type Items on the mcome and expense sheet There were some Items such as
constructIOn costs, ect , that should be on the balance sheet He pomted out the footnote
regardmg DeposIts and Investments statmg that there was not suffiCIent pledged collateral at the
end of the year He stated that apprmamately 75% of hIS governmental chents run mto trus
problem, however, technIcally It IS not supposed to happen and It IS a departure from statutes
Hagerty asked If It was consIdered a vIOlation on the statute Carlson stated that It was and that It
was part of the comphance check they need to do when they audIt a government body Hagerty
then asked what a governmental body can do Carlson's response was that Ifthere was a bond
proceed come m or a bIg chunk of cash comes m we should Just work With them to make sure the
funds are covered Olson asked If that was a partIcular bank Carlson stated It was at one, but he
dIdn't have the detaIl wIth so could not say WhICh one Browmng commented that she thought It
was probably HIghland Bank, as PMA dId a collateral pledge when we first got the bond and that
Just keeps gettmg taken away from Browmng felt that It was probably connection fees that
tipped It as they were commg m from the CItIes Kessler stated that was under HIghland's old
reIgn and they have a new manager now that IS keepmg a closer eye on trungs
Carlson moved on to the Restncted Assets and Retamed Earnmgs Reservation, statmg that the
Board probably hasn't seen the current years reservatIons as part ofthese numbers were
calculated dunng the audIt and It probably should reqUire Board actIon at some pomt to say
that's how they want therr earnmgs reserved
Carlson went on to Comphance and Internal Control statmg that the mam thmg m there IS under
comphance The results of our tests, for comphance, show no mstances of reportable
noncomphance Carlson talked about the hmlted SIze of the office staff, statmg that most smaller
CIties do not have proper segregation of duty but that there IS notrung that can be done about It
He stated that that completed the audIt and vanous audIt reports
Carlson then presented what he called a management letter In trus letter they pomt out some
thmgs that are requrred and some that they feel are helpful Carlson commented on and thanked
Brownmg and Braunwarth for bemg open and helpful, but dId not want to go mto the audIt bemg
dragged out and late, sImply statmg that office staff made It easIer on them to go through and get
It done He stated that Brownmg and Braunwarth engaged them to help get the finanCIal
statements m order He stated they would also be helpmg wIth more trammg so that thmgs
would be m a better format He explamed that they had seen a number of cash reports that
showed a huge negative/net losses that really weren't there because they mcluded a lot of capItal
acqUisItion costs and bond and pnnclpal payments and stated that those are easy thmgs to clean
up He corrected the name "Frankhn Townsrup" where Jomt Powers should have been mserted
Carlson stated there IS a sIgmficant GASB 34lmplementatlon GuIde that Will Impact Jomt
Powers, although not for a few years, but stated that they wIll help to assure we're ready The
only change wIth any consequence IS as we phase out fixed assets It Will need to be tracked The
other thmg IS that the financial statements wIll be requrred to have an mtroductIOn and an
analytIcal overvIew called a MONA He apologIzed that the report was Just bemg presented
today and explamed that IS why It IS m rough draft form Carlson stated that they were open to
questIOns now or later and when that was completed they would pIck a date and Issue the audIt
formally, have them bound and get them over to the Jomt Powers Office Hagerty venfied that
the ImplementatIon of the GASB change IS January 1,2004 Carlson beheves trus to be correct
If the State of Mmnesota does not overrIde It Browmng stated we would hke to Implement the
changes sooner rather than later and asked Carlson If they had any InfOrmatIon on It for us to use
as a gUIdehne He stated he would put us on hIs hst of chents that would prefer to do thIs sooner
than later MOTION BY HAGERTY SECONDED BY KOTTKE TO ACCEPT THE 2000
AUDIT DRAFT MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Browmng stated that the Department of Health requIres a wellhead protectIOn plan One of the
fIrst thIngs that must be done IS to appoInt a manager, whIch they thought made the most sense
that It be Brownmg The next step would be to appomt a commIttee Olson asked what the tIme
lIne to appomt the commIttee was Browmng stated It could be dIscussed at next month's
meetIng Olson suggested that everyone make a lIst of pOSSIbIlItIes for the commIttee and brIng
them to the next meetmg MOTION BY HAGERTY, SECONDED BY PAULLIN TO
APPOINT BROWNING AS MANAGER MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY PaullIn
asked how many members strong the commIttee should be, venfied that It wIll be called
"Wellhead ProtectIon Plan CommIttee", and suggested puttmg an announcement m the Crow
RIver News to recruIt commIttee members Browmng responded to the questIon of numbers
WIth SIX to eIght and stated that there would not be a problem puttmg the ad m the Crow RIver
News
BroWnIng stated that St MIchaelIS sendmg a letter to theIr buIlder/contractors to gIve them a
heads up as to what fees they may encounter, therefore, the 2002 ConnectIon Fees must be
determmed MOTION BY KESSLER, SECONDED BY HAGERTY TO INCREASE THE
CONNECTION FEE BY $50 00 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
MOTION BY KESSLER, SECONDED BY KOTTKE TO APPROVE CBI PAY REQUEST #4
MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Olson brought It to the Board's attentIon that CBI has
mIsspelled "St MIchael" several tImes
In CatlIn's absence, BrownIng stated that he recommends approval of the Moorhead
ConstructIon FInal Pay Request be contmgent upon receIpt ofIC-134 forms and LIen WaIvers
are turned m by Moorhead ConstructIOn MOTION BY KESSLER, SECONDED BY
PAULLIN TO APPROVE FINAL PAYMENT CONTINGENT UPON RECEIPT OF FINAL
PAPERWORK MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Kottke notIced Gary RoeW was on the lIst to the certIfied to taxes He new that Mr RoeW had
had an aCCIdent where he fell off a roof and was pretty banged up He asked If there was any
way some ofthe amount could be waIved After some dISCUSSIon It was determmed that It would
be more benefiCIal for hIm to have It applIed to taxes MOTION BY KESSLER, SECONDED
BY PAULLIN TO ADOPT RESOLUTION 11/26/01 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Brownmg stated she has not had the tIme to gather more mformatIon on wells for spnnklIng, but
figured It was somethIng that could be looked mto over the slower, wmter perIod ThIS Item was
tabled
MOTION BY KOTTKE, SECONDED BY HAGERTY TO CHANGE THE DECEMBER
MEETING TO DECEMBER 26,2001 AT 5 P M MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
MOTION BY PAULLIN, SECONDED BY KESSLER TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT
8 10 P M MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
,Yd/ L~.;;zfl
Recordmg Secretary