Meeting Minutes 2015
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HWEA will be the organization of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals
recognized for preserving and enhancing the water environment in the Pacific Island Region.

HWEA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

Thursday, August 20, 2015, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Sand Island Treatment Center – Conference Room

ATTENDANCE:  
Board of Directors  
Emily Dong President
Staci Taniguchi Vice-President
Audrey Haerle Secretary-Treasurer
Wayne Salas PWO Representative
   
Committee – Representatives  
Greg Arakaki Biosolids/Co-Generation Committee Co-Chairperson
Brad Takenaka Water Quality Co-Chairperson
Scott McAdam Conference Committee Co-Chairperson 2015/16 Safety Co-Chairperson
Audrey Haerle Public Education Co-Chairperson, Rebrand Co-Chairperson
Lori Morikami Public Education Co-Chairperson
   
NOT ABLE TO ATTEND:  
Lance Manabe Delegate
Jon Baker PWO Vice Representative
Pat Markham PWO Committee
Shannon Holman Past President
John Katahira Ad-Hoc Committee
Roy Abe Ad-Hoc Committee
Wayne White Biosolids/Co-Generation Committee Co-Chairperson 
June Nakamura Board Advisory/Constitution & Bylaws Co-Chairperson 
Lee Mansfield, Board Advisory/Constitution & Bylaws Co-Chairperson
Kristie Ching Board Advisory/Constitution & Bylaws Co-Chairperson
Jon Nishimura Collection Committee Chairperson
Tina Ono Collection Committee Chairperson
Leland Lee Communications Vice-Chairperson
Mark Goodrowe Communications Chairperson
Lori Kahikina Conference Committee Co-Chairperson 2015
Puna Kaneakua Conference Committee Co-Chairperson 2016
Tim Steinberger Government Affairs Chairperson
Walter Billingsley Government Affairs Vice-Chairperson
Merlita Alimagno Laboratory Co-Chairperson
Layne Otomo Laboratory Co-Chairperson
Joni Tanimoto Membership Chairperson
Edie Alipio Pretreatment/On-Site Treatment Chairperson
Quintin Beltran Pretreatment/On-Site Treatment Co-Chairperson 
Dorreann Kaehuaea Pretreatment/On-Site Treatment Committee
Lori Morikami Public Education Co-Chairperson
Jason Nakata Rebrand Co-Chairperson
Jack Tano Registration Committee
  Rebrand Co-Chairperson
Carol Zuerndorfer Registration Committee
Trudy Hamic Registration Committee
Roger Babcock, Jr. Research Chairperson
Carly Kaneko Safety Co-Chairperson
Mindy Yoneshige Student Affairs Co-Chairperson
Keith Miyashiro Student Affairs Co-Chairperson
Jay Stone Water Quality Co-Chairperson
Eassie Miller Water Reuse Co-Chairperson
Elson Gushiken Water Reuse Co-Chairperson
Susan Mukai Young Professional Co-Chairperson
Alyssa Smith Young Professional Co-Chairperson
Jessica Agsalda Young Professionals Co-Chair

 

 

PRESIDING: Emily Dong
RECORDER: Audrey Haerle

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Call to Order

  • The meeting was called to order at 11:51 am.

Approval of July Meeting Minutes

  • No comments received.
    • Greg moved to approve the July meeting minutes as amended. Emily seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Committee Reports

  • A.Board Advisory/Constitution & Bylaws Committee – Lee Mansfield, Kristie Ching & June Nakamura
    • Unable to attend. No report

    B.    Board of Certification of Operating Personnel in Wastewater Treatment Facilities – Kevin Nakamura

    • Kevin has transferred to DOH as their representative. Wayne and Eassie are interested in filling the position so the Board will need to vote.
    • Wayne has been on the board before so he has concerns to address with the Board of Certification.
    1. He thinks that the operators should get CEUs to train for the Ops Challenge even though there was not a competition. They had decided to do that in previous years so it should not have changed.
    2. Apparently the decision was not discussed with the Board of Cert, Kevin Nakamura made the decision without consulting the rest of the BOC. Wayne and Jon will go to their next meeting and dispute it since they were not involved in decision making and certifications can affect their employee’s eligibility as an operator.
    • The CEUs should be based on preparation time since the competition itself does not take much time.
    1. Emily inquired if this was the same people that are going to WEFTEC.

     

    C.Biosolids/Co-Generation Committee – Greg Arakaki & Wayne White

    • Received letter from DOH regarding CEUs for the Biosolids/Storm Water, they will only give credits for the Biosolids sessions. Wayne said that the BOC will vote on certain items so it can be hard for the BOC to monitor eligibility.
    • Brad called to ask why they would not grant the CEUs and they have not returned their call yet.
    • The committee will write a letter and Emily will print on letterhead
    • Still waiting for payment from ENV (storm water division).

    D.Collection Systems Committee – Jon Nishimura/Tina Ono

    • Unable to attend.
    • Emily: Conference in December. Call for abstracts has been distributed.

    E.Communications committee – Mark Goodrowe & Leland Lee

    • Unable to attend. No report.
    • To be merged with Rebrand Committee. A meeting will be scheduled with both committees.

    F.Conference Committee 2016 – Scott McAdam & Puna Kaneakua

    • Website is active.
    • Registration should be opening first week of September.
    • Slight increase in fees from last year.
    • Wayne to charge $100 per Ops Challenge event. Teams do not have to do every event. This will hopefully draw more participants.
    • Wayne to send out flyer.
    • Wayne will inquire about CEUs for individual events.

    G.Government Affairs Committee – Tim Steinberger & Walter Billingsley

    • Unable to attend. No report.

    H.Laboratory Committee – Merlita Alimagno & Layne Otomo

    • Unable to attend. No report.
    • Emily followed up with Merlita - she is no longer available to do lab event but will help Alicia and Darnell with golf tournament.
    • Emily to follow up with Jon.

    I.Membership Committee – Joni Tanimoto

    • Unable to attend. No report.

    J.     Pretreatment Committee – Quintin Beltran & Edie Alipio

    • Unable to attend. No report.

    K.    Public Education Committee – Lori Morikami & Audrey Haerle

    • No report, looking into events.

    L.Research Committee - Roger Babcock, Jr.

    • Unable to attend. No Report.

    M.Safety Committee – Scott McAdam &Carly Kaneko

    • No report.

    N.Student Affairs Committee – Mindy Yoneshige/Keith Miyashiro

    • Unable to attend. No Report.

    O.Water Reuse Committee – Eassie Miller & Elson Gushiken

    • Unable to attend. No report.
    • Emily: Eassie is looking for a replacement.

    P.Water Quality Committee – Jay Stone & Brad Takenaka

    • Committee will draft a letter re: CEUs (see Biosolids report) and request it to be added to the Board of Cert agenda.
    • Reviewed WEF website and it has lots of good references from states around the country, technology examples etc.

    Q.Young Professionals Committee – Susan Mukai, Alyssa Smith & Jessica Agsalda

    • Unable to attend. No report.
    • Alyssa is moving to Sacramento so they will need to decide how to deal with succession.
    • June 27th Beach clean-up at Magic Island with AWWA/ASCE & Sustainable Coastlines. Executive Director Kahi Pacarro spoke at our luncheon last year.
    • Audrey is considering doing a clean-up at Sand Island Beach Park. There are a lot of cigarette butts so we will need sand sifters.
    Board of Directors Items  
       
    Secretary/Treasurer's Report: Audrey Haerle  
    o   Account Balances as of 8/20/2015  
    ML Conference Checking $252,789.31
    Bank of Hawaii $8,985.30
    Petty Cash $50.00
    CD Investments $100,000.00
    TOTAL: 361,824.61
       
       
    Total Income $41,674.08
    Total Expenses $83,166.79
    Rolling Balance ($41,492.71)
    • Received letter from Board of Cert for Biosolids/Stormwater CEUs (see Biosolids/Co- Generation Committee for more details).
    • $10,000 was transferred from the ML account to the Bank of Hawaii account to accommodate for WEFTEC expenses.

    ·President Report: Emily Dong

    • New website is now live, having some issues with the mailing list. It is getting filtered by spam now that it is from a new mail.
    • Rebrand Committee will meet with developer about app.
    • Operators Study Session Program:
      • Last session was this past Saturday.
    • Students are taking a test today.
    • Last session had six people. Scott McAdam attended.
    • Emily will probably restart it in October.
    • There are study guides online but Emily will need to provide the password.

    ·Vice-President Report: Staci Taniguchi

    • Booked WEFTEC.
    • Contacted Dianne re: event but no response so far.
    • Staci will attend Leadership event.
    • Let Staci know if there are certain events or info that she can attend or obtain/hand out for you.
    • Wayne said that Ops Challenge people can attend the conference too.

    ·Federation Matters: Delegate, Lance Manabe

    • Unable to attend. No report.

    ·PWO Matters: Wayne Salas

    • Flights and hotels are booked but Emily said that the prices are above budget and average. The operators purchased before reviewing it with her. She is concerned because PWO expenses are usually higher than other attendees. Emily offered to front the costs for the attendees and requested that he provide the CCH form.
    • Wayne said that there were only two hotels available and Chicago is expensive. Emily noted that these are only the hotels recommended by the WEFTEC, she requested that they look into other hotels.
    • Wayne is not sure if they will have enough time to re-submit new expenses since the CCH approval process takes some time. Also, other hotels can be problematic because of additional transportation costs.
    • Wayne said not all employees have the money to front and then the coaches may end up paying for it and lose out on money. For instance, one operator dropped out because he could not afford it and last year Jon was unable to attend so he didn’t submit to be reimbursed on the flight.
    • This year the CCH has a new policy for their Council to approve expenses and it can take up to a month to process. This can complicate the purchasing process because the final cost has to be exactly equal to what is requested/reimbursed.
    • They are still within budget because they have reduced costs in other areas.
    • Still planning for chili cook-off, recipe calendar and Subway fundraiser (BOGOF).
    • Greg suggested that the budget needs to be reassessed for next year so we consider the costs in different cities.
    • Emily and Wayne will coordinate with Jessie to fill out the CCH forms.
    • KK Tunnel Tour limit is 10 people so they may do multiple days.
    • Wayne is in contact with a company for math training but it will have to include statewide plants. He will have to decide whether to run it under HWEA or CCH. The hours cannot be used for CEUs. It will be free of charge and on operator’s own time.
    • Wayne expressed that training can be a challenge for workers who are already working overtime and have families to take care of.
    • Ops Challenge team is finalized and they are going to register.
    • Scaffold for training is getting moved from ENV facility, Jon inquired about

    getting it moving to SI or borrowing it.

    • Working with pump rental company Pacific Pump for estimates.

     

    ·Past President: Shannon Holman

    o Unable to  attend.

    Old Business

    • None.

    New/Miscellaneous Business

    • None.

    Internet Inquiries

    • None.

    Next Meeting:

    Thursday, Sept 17th at 11:30 am

    Up-Coming Events:

    • December 4, 2015: Collections Systems Conference (call for papers)
    • February 2 – 4, 2016: Pacific Water Conference

    Up-Coming Webcasts

    Sponsor eShowcase: Peristaltic or Diaphragm Metering Pump – How to Choose?
    2015-08-27

    Advancing Asset Management in Your Utility: Performance, Sustainability, and Resiliency Management
    2015-09-02

    Meeting adjourned at 1:10 PM.

     

    Audrey

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    Contact Info

    Hawai‘i Water Environment Association
    PO Box 2422
    Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96804
    General Inquiries: info@hwea.org