We've got five consecutive meetings today. The schedule and the agendas can be found here: dwsd.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Zoom kicked in with the meeting already in progress. They adopted the agenda and approved the previous meeting's minutes.

They are just receiving the correspondence from Legal and Government Affairs. All without discussion

Moving on to new business, senior director Gray Lepley is presenting the investment update

The city partners with these guys to make their investments, by the way pfmam.com

The Fed has been surprisingly aggressive with rate cuts lately, and they expect even more rate cuts.

The unemployment rate is sitting below five percent, which is ostensibly good news. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate has been shown to be a flawed measurement of what people want from a measure of unemployment.

This whole thing gets a little weedy (kind of by design) but if you want a very broad overview of the philosophy that has driven Fed policy for over 40 years, check this out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetaris…

Thread continues here: https://twitter.com/nachumdetroit/status/1831383239514321096

I've noticed a trend across several meetings I've attended. Namely, investment firms working for the City have been buying up for shorter-term commercial paper.

That is to say, instead of a more classical buy-and-hold strategy, these firms have been buying paper issued by private companies for 6-12 months in order to raise money.

I just wonder about the slooooow increase in risk in order to keep up with expected returns. It seems like it might be compensating for a kind of unacknowledged economic downward trend.

Gary Brown says the board would like to divert some (read: a lot of) money to help fund lead pipe replacement through the winter. They need to talk to GLWA and several others first, but there is concern that if we run out of operating funds, contractors will split.

Brown said that Detroit pays just under $10,000 per line, meanwhile Chicago pays over double that, so if we get shifty about funding even a little bit, there's big incentive for local contractors to take their business across the strait.

That was a play on "take one's business across the STREET" and I don't wanna brag but I think that was pretty clever

Now a rep from Plante Moran is going to talk about a big audit they're getting ready to start

Just going over some areas that might be sticky or difficult to quantify

There isn’t going ti be a financial report for this meeting because they’re getting ready first this big audit.

Now they’re moving on to contracts

They have a much beefier agenda than we do, by the way.

I'm posting these screenshots because we haven't been given ANY of these ck tracts in the agenda they posted.

We're throwing around goofy money to be so cavalier about putting it on agendas. We need that packet!

PACKET! PACKET! PACKET!

They approved 2024-170, 171, 172, 173, 174, and 175 were approved unanimously, one after the other.

Ok moving on to the Capital Improvement Program and Operations Committee, they approved the agenda and previous minutes.

Now on to public participation

Meeko Williams, CEO of Hydrate Detroit, called in to ask about what is to be done about water main breaks in the city. People are getting such bad water pressure they're calling Hydrate Detroit for help.

Williams basically asking for the board to be better about telling people what they're doing. The board just thanked him and moved on instantly.

Oh hey the next caller asked why they do that and if they could move public comment to the end to accommodate questions. Answer: We do it that way because that's the way we do it. If you want a response feel free to send an email

Makes public comment pretty perfunctory. Very letter-of-the-law

DWSD Security and Integrity is giving the presentation over the phone

They've got an issue with vacant homes busting pipes and then basically pumping free water onto the floor/ground. They've dealt with about 700 of these cases so far this year.

Now Anil Gosine is going to give the Capital Improvement Plan update

Over 10,000 lead service lines have been replaced since 2018, says Gosine.

Now the Customer Service Committee is up. They approved the minutes and agenda unanimously

Caller says his street was torn up to mud and can't get an answer from DWSD. Board says they'll get him an answer

Next caller says people don't know about recertifying for Lifeline. Caller after them says the same thing. Meeko Williams called again and criticized the board for a lack of communication.

Shockingly low percentage of recerts, according to the board. About 10%.

The department says they are sending out tons and tons of notifications. The low recerts seem to belie that assertion. Where's the disconnect here?

They accepted the correspondence unanimously

Now moving on to Customer Service Metrics, presented by Kimberly Crowell.

Crowell says the response time is so bad because they do not have sufficient staff.

Thread continues here: https://x.com/NachumDetroit/status/1831407546789457990?t=hoo7ruX0dnkrR4SxFFr2ig&s=19

DWSD is farming out EasyPay to a company called Promise Pay. The company promises it'll be great and everything will be great.

Now moving on to the Human Resources/Organizational Development committee. They approved the agenda and minutes unanimously

And now HR director Patricia Thornhill is going to give the HR presentation, but is having trouble using Powerpoint

It's giving "what button do I press?"

They keep talking about residents not being able to use technology as a reason for bad customer service, but I can't tell you how many high level government employees I've had to watch struggle to operate Microsoft Office suite or be unable to negotiate a microphone.

Are EMPLOYEES being trained to use these fancy new software programs all across city departments?

How can they be when director-level civil servants and elected officials seem fundamentally unable to grasp the basics of a graphical user interface, the basic shape of which has been essentially standardized for nearly 40 years?

PowerPoint was released in 1987. I learned how to use it in middle school, about the same time I was mastering fractions.

We keep hearing about QR codes and payment portals, and I'd be surprised if a single board member could explain what either of those things are, let alone evaluate the best way to troubleshoot municipal software startup issues.

They're moving on to Legal and Government Affairs committee. Agenda and minutes passed unanimously

I think I just saw Commissioner Kinloch Zooming in from his car! 🚗💨

Debra Prospiech is giving a presentation on the proposed water affordability legislation

Thread continues https://twitter.com/nachumdetroit/status/1831421799424520272

The meeting was adjourned at 4:17pm

Well folks, this closes my coverage of the board of Water Commissioners meeting for September 4th. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings at documenters.org

If you believe anything in the coverage today is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line