Director Linda Butler argues against the creation of a new IT position at the Rancho Murieta Community Services District Board meeting on Feb. 21. President Tim Maybee is to her right.

RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Except for a bone of contention over adding a full-time information technology (IT) position and the attorney’s wry report about the wooden bridge, most of the discussion at the Feb. 21 meeting of the Rancho Murieta Community Services District (CSD) was about the monthly staff reports.

IT Position

At their December Board meeting, the board approved a request by General Manager Mimi Morris to create a part-time IT position to replace contracted services.

At the February meeting, Morris asked to make the position full-time because staff had determined there were far more duties than originally envisioned. The salary would be about $120,000 with a total cost of $185,000  with the inclusion of benefits. Morris said a full-time position would allow the district to consolidate all information technology work, (including the surveillance camera system,  the security database, and computers for the plants and lift stations),  under one position to better control costs and fully integrate all district IT needs.

Morris said she was proposing a reclassification of an existing position that hasn’t been filled since July. In her memo, she said it would cost $62,000 to transition from contracted services to an in-house IT manager.  After Directors Linda Butler and Stephen Booth raised strenuous objections, Morris clarified that eliminating the contracted IT services would more than pay for the increased salary for the already budgeted position and leave the district about $20,000 in the black. At the end of the discussion, the board voted 3:2 to approve the new position. Butler and Booth were the nay votes.

Butler said she couldn’t understand paying an additional $62,000. “We are in no financial position to spend more money unless it is an emergency,” she said. “In my opinion, this isn’t an emergency…We can survive until we are better shape financially.”

Booth said the timing wasn’t right for the district to create another high-paid, full-time administrative position although he still favored a part-time IT position.

Director Randy Jenco asked Morris to explain some of the arguments she made to the Personnel Committee to justify the new full-time position. She said that even since then her laptop has been malfunctioning for 10 days even though the contracted vendor has made three attempts to fix it. 

Morris said the district has struggled for years with limited IT support. “Between my database capabilities,  Mark’s (Matulich) abilities with information technology,  and this IT person, I think we would get the district’s multiple systems that rely on technology to a much higher mode,” she said. “It is all related to moving the organization forward.”

After Director Martin Pohl asked her about the math, Morris provided a rough estimation off the top of her head. The salary for a budgeted, vacant position for an accounting technician is $70,000. With benefits, the total cost would be $105,000 to $110,000. Reclassifying the position and increasing the salary to $185,000 with benefits would increase the costs by about $70,000. However, the savings from eliminating the $120,000  in contracted services would leave the district $50,000 in the black. On the other hand,  the $30,000 cost for a parttime payroll clerk must be subtracted,  which would leave the district about  $20,000 in the black.

Butler again objected to creating a full-time position. “We are very financially stressed at this point, not because we have too little money necessarily,  but because we don’t know how much money we have,” she said.

Morris told her that staff has moved district funds from a bank and a state fund to significantly increase the interest rates. That will mean new revenue of $600,000 from one of them.

Morris also told Butler she couldn’t be any more cost-conscious. “I do not recommend wasting money ever,” she said. “But I think this will be like a jetpack for us.”

Booth told Morris he was impressed with her revenue enhancement efforts, but he still didn’t think the timing for a full-time IT position was right and wouldn’t recommend it to the community.

Jenco said the issue was being mischaracterized.  “So in the big picture, we are trading one position for another, and we are really not adding any expenses to our budget,” he said.

Audience member Mike Martell, a past CSD Board member, recommended a full-time IT position, saying it would be essential for getting the most benefit as the district increases its surveillance camera system after more funding comes in from the new housing.

After President Tim Maybee called for the vote on the full-time IT position,  he, Jenco, and Pohl voted yes. Butler and Booth voted no.

Wooden Bridge
District Counsel Andrew Ramos provided an update on the district’s efforts to transfer the wooden bridge to the Rancho Murieta Association, which has been going on for years.

Ramos said the most recent effort was a board resolution in November asking that the bridge be exempt from surplus property under the Surplus Lands Act, which is administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

After spending two months reviewing request, the department attorneys ignored “the rules of geometry that no houses could fit on the property,” Ramos said. However they did suggest the district could use another exemption that Ramos was presenting to the board.

“The bottom line is they didn’t know what to do with us. The department’s job is to make sure public agencies are making property available for affordable housing uses before selling it on the open market or doing something with it,” Ramos said. “They didn’t know  what to do with a wooden bridge over the Cosumnes River.”

The board voted 5:0 for the new resolution to seek a different exemption.

Other business

-Morris reported she expected the release of the long overdue audit 2020/21 fiscal year the following week. She said the Finance Committee would review it on Feb. 29.

-Director of Operations Michael Fritschi reported the final phase of the Integrated Water Master Plan would be presented to the board on March 20, with a town hall meeting the following day. The other board members agreed with Butler that the community must be given at least 14 days to consider plan before scheduling a town hall. A  town hall date hadn’t been determined as press time.

 A document shows the wooden bridge parcel lines imposed over aerial photography from Google Maps.

-Morris delivered the security report since Security Supervisor Kelly Benitez has resigned.  See the story in the Feb. 23 issue. Of 93 patrol shifts in January, 27 weren’t covered. She also reported that two dash cameras had been installed in the two patrol vehicles. 

-Morris said four information requests has been made to the district in January. One was from Richard Gehrs, who asked where footage from the CSD patrol dash camera would go. She said it would be stored on a district server.

-The River Valley Times protested a decision to discontinue publication of the security logs after Benitez’s resignation.

-Fritschi said the district will put a project to improve safety at Granlee’s Dam out to bid with funding to come from a $1.3 million state grant.

-Morris staff is preparing a report on progress made since the Sacramento County Grand Jury published a critical report in March 2023. She said it should be ready by the March 20 board meeting.

-Although approval of a contract with the employee union, Operating Engineers Local 3, was on the agenda, the board tabled it because one small issue is still being worked out.

-Fritschi reported that the utility staff spent much time over three weeks remodeling the front office at the CSD Building.

-Fritschi also reviewed the updated matrix of capital improvement projects for the current fiscal year.

-Speaking during public comments, resident Ted Hart warned the board that all three major entities in Rancho Murieta are heading for a collision. See the RMA meeting story this issue.

-The board approved changing the entity that handles employee payroll deductions for retirement savings. Morris said the new CalPERS 457 Plan won’t result in any cost to the district but it will reduce the administrative costs  for employees on their savings.

The board will hold its next regular meeting at 5 p.m. on March 20.