RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Although the agenda appeared light, the Rancho Murieta Community Services District Board discussed a range of issues at its Jan. 21 meeting, including repairs to a lift station and gate arms, as well as the need to update the district’s water conservation plan in the event of a drought.

The board also heard public concerns about the upcoming Feb. 10 moratorium meeting, considered what would be involved in converting Lake Clementia into a drinking water source, and discussed efforts to identify potential groundwater options. (See three separate stories in this issue.)

During staff reports, the board returned to the long running problem of malfunctioning entry gates. Interim General Manager Amelia Wilder said security staff have been working to repair the gates but are “waiting on parts,” adding that the supply situation “feels a lot like COVID.”

Even with those efforts, Director Bill Gere pressed staff on why the issues had persisted for roughly six months, describing “musical, broken gates” at the north entrance and a very slow opening gate at the south. He asked who, specifically, was responsible for fixing the gates and questioned whether the district was overcomplicating the problem, saying he’d talked to a former state security gate manager who “just went to Grainger and bought the parts off the shelf.” Gere said he found it hard to accept that parts could really be unavailable for that long.

Wilder responded that the main constraint is budget, not just parts: The district cannot simply buy all new gates because the money is not in the current budget, so staff is “limping” along with the old equipment. 

Director Linda Butler, who chairs the Security Committee, added that the gates are very old and have been discussed repeatedly at committee meetings. She said staff have been moving components from one gate to another to keep as many lanes functioning as possible, that one gate remains out of service, and that her committee has now developed a three year capital improvements plan to replace all of the gates, which must be placed on the CIP list and worked into the budget.

Despite resident frustration, Butler said she has “utmost confidence” in Security Sgt. Brandon Arino’s efforts to manage the aging system within those financial limits.

The board voted to move forward with preliminary engineering work for culvert repairs at the Equestrian Center, approving a $42,000 contract with the district engineer to begin design and permitting. The action authorizes hydraulic modeling of the outfall channel, environmental review under CEQA, permit preparation, topographic survey, and final design for replacing the aging culverts, following a recommendation from the district’s Improvements Committee.

During the discussion, staff emphasized that the committee selected the least expensive repair option after earlier concepts – including a much more complex rail-car bridge installation – were estimated at more than $600,000. The approved approach would replace the existing culverts with four 60-inch corrugated metal pipe culverts, each about 50 feet long, at an estimated construction cost of roughly $284,000. The ditch banks also will be secured with riprap.

 Staff said the culverts must be replaced this year due to their deteriorating condition, and Jeff Pearson, representing the Equestrian Center, said he would restore the road surface once the drainage work is complete.

“So it’s a collaborative effort, and we appreciate that,” Wilder said. 

Wilder told the board that the utilities crew had “done an awesome job” resolving the Lift Station 6B emergency and that the station is now functioning properly. She said the agenda item was to end the emergency repair status and reported that the total outside costs were about $119,000, excluding internal labor.

The station suffered a mechanical and control failure during heavy rain on Nov. 14 that could have led to a sewage spill into the Cosumnes River. The station is located near the wooden bridge. Utility supervisor Corey Carskaddon said crews installed Jim caps on cleanouts in The Retreats subdivision and poured concrete to seal pipes, sharply reducing inflow and infiltration. Crews also cut off an illegal connection at a manhole and repaired another with inflow problems, allowing the station to keep up with flows again.

Later, Travis Bohannon confirmed the lift station is operating normally and said remaining work includes backfilling trenches near the yellow bridge and Lift Station 6B and placing stakes to mark line locations, in case the district later needs to connect an existing 10-inch line to the lift station.

Gere and Board President John Merchant reported that their ad hoc Administrative Oversight committee has been meeting weekly with senior staff to restore regular staff meetings, untangle missing or outdated policies and procedures, and shift misplaced duties – such as payroll and paycheck liaison work – into the accounting department. Gere said key staff are effectively working seven days a week, concluding the district needs two or three more higher level employees to handle the workload.

Director Randy Jenco agreed the problems are serious but said the top priority must be hiring a permanent general manager. He said that many of the problems the ad hoc committee is uncovering will not truly be fixed until a permanent general manager is in place to lead and sustain the reforms.

District counsel Patrick Enright told the board that Senate Bill 552 requires the district to update its water shortage contingency planning and bring it into compliance with current state law. In a Jan. 5 letter, Enright noted that the district’s existing plan was adopted in 2012 and has never been updated, even though SB 552 now requires small water systems to adopt an abridged water shortage contingency plan and update it every five years. 

He recommended directing staff to update the plan now, while noting that once the district exceeds 3,000 connections, it will be required to adopt a more detailed plan as part of an Urban Water Management Plan.

Board members questioned how well state-mandated, multi-stage templates fit Rancho Murieta’s system. Merchant favored using standardized language from other agencies rather than starting from scratch, while Jenco argued that the district effectively operates with only two real conditions – whether winter pumping is possible or not – making percentage-based stages unrealistic. Merchant agreed the fit is imperfect but said state law requires a six-stage framework, leaving the district to adapt the template as best it can to local conditions.

Butler, who chairs the Personnel Committee, reported that the committee has been actively working on the general manager job description and the broader framework for the position. She said the committee hoped to complete a draft at its Feb. 3 meeting. 

The committee later approved the description and forwarded it to the board for discussion on Feb. 18.

The board agreed to reschedule a special security meeting originally set for Feb. 5. The meeting will focus on the “observe and report” role of patrol officers, finalizing the patrol officer job description and deciding what equipment they will carry.

Plant Operator Travis Bohannon reported that the district’s water treatment plants produced about 512.8 million gallons of water in 2025, equivalent to 1,574 acre-feet.

The board considered – but ultimately rejected – a staff proposal to change the regular board meeting start time from 5 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The board approved a new organizational chart that consolidates operations under the interim general manager, making utilities, water/wastewater, IT and security report directly to Wilder, while keeping finance under Cecelia Min, director of Finance and Administration.

After briefly reviewing committee assignments, the board approved two changes. Gere will replace Merchant on the Improvements Committee, and Merchant will replace Gere on the Security Committee. All other committee assignments remain the same.

The board’s next monthly meeting will be at 5 p.m. Feb. 18.