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Mike McGill's Platform, Priorities and Biography

Wastewater treatment is essential for public health; protecting our waterways; and water recycling. Since being elected Director, Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) in 2006 (President 2009 and 2015), Mike McGill's focus is to assure that Central San provides high quality services; with fair fees and minimizing costs to ratepayers; protecting our environment; and reusing precious resources, such as using agricultural recycled water for urban farming.

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Priorities

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On the Central San Board, Mike McGill is the primary proponent of creative uses of recycled water such as the CoCo San Sustainable Farm on Central San land using recycled water to: grow fresh produce for schools and the Food Bank; teach hands-on science, technology, engineering and math for students; demonstrate environmental protection; and foster economic development.

                                                 

 

Mike McGill championed selling recycled water to other districts, instead of  discharging water into the Bay.

 

 

Mike McGill's financial priorities include: minimizing ratepayers’ costs, supporting our excellent employees, paying down pension liabilities (which has resulted in AAA Bond Rating from Standard and Poors) and establishing a “rainy day” fund.  Pension benefits are now based on normal salary; spiking abuses eliminated. Mike McGill will continue to provide excellent services and demonstrate fiscal responsibility, while maximizing water recycling and environmental protection.

 

Central San's Awards 

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Central San has won innumerable awards, as an outstanding public agency. Central San's mission is to protect public health and the environment by collecting and treating wastewater, recycling water for reuse and promoting pollution prevention.  Central San has now been awarded 20 National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ Peak Performance Platinum Awards and the California Water Environment Association Large Treatment Plant of the Year Award for 2008 and 2012 and Collection System of the Year for 2007 and 2012. In addition the District was awarded its 14th consecutive Certificate for Excellence in Financial Reporting; the District won awards for its Safety Program from the California Water Environment Association (CWEA) and the Water Environment Foundation (WEF); the National Purchasing Institute’s annual Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award; both the Sustainable Design and People’s Choice Awards from the Walnut Creek Action for Beauty Council for the District’s new Collection System Operations facility; and the Transparency Certificate of Excellence from the California Special Districts Association.

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Mike McGill's Background

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Mike McGill is a ProfessionaI Engineer with Bachelors of Engineering and two Masters Degrees (Water Resource Engineering and Civil Engineering) from the University of Michigan. "I love protecting our water resources and worked on Lake Michigan preservation." Mike McGill is licensed in California, and Michigan is an Expert Witness, qualified in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano Superior Courts. As Founder, President and Lead Engineer of a small business (1983 - 2018), Mike McGill developed efficient business practices and managed billions of dollars of civil engineering improvements.

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Highlights of Mike McGill's public service leadership includes: Chair, Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County (WDB: 2013 - 2017 and Member WDB 2011-Present); Chair, Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) (2011 and 2018); Secretary, The 16-member California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions (CALAFCO) (2018). Mike McGill is a Board Member of the East Bay Leadership Council and Past Co-Chair of the Land Use Task Force. Mike Mike McGill is a Founding Member and Past President (2014-2018) of the Los Medanos Community College Foundation. He is Co-Founder and Member of EC2: The Collaborative, a group partnering with local government to improve economic prosperity and the quality of life in East Contra Costa. Mike McGill also serves as Vice-Chair of the BART Measure RR Bond Oversight Committee formed to oversee that the monies from Measure RR are spent as promised. 

 

Mike McGill's Selected Awards:

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*   East Bay Leadership Council Outstanding Task Force Chairs Award, 2014

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*   Antioch Chamber of Commerce Chair’s Award, 2013

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*   Kennedy Citation for Outstanding Leadership, John F. Kennedy University, 2004

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*   ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement,, 1999 (McGill Martin Self, Inc Design Associates aka MMS Design Associates)

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AAA Bond Rating for Central San

Updated: Aug 24, 2018

MARTINEZ – Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) recently received Standard & Poor’s “AAA” rating for $19.43 million of wastewater revenue refunding bonds. The “AAA” rating is the highest assigned by Standard & Poor and allows Central San to achieve low interest rates. The bonds were priced on August 14th at yields significantly below a benchmark index of municipal bonds (the Thomson Reuters Municipal Market Data (MMD) index), reflecting very strong investor demand for the agency’s debt. The proceeds from the new bonds will be used to refinance bonds issued in 2009, saving

customers more than $8.2 million in interest costs over the next 11 years.

The savings will be used to fund critical infrastructure improvements identified in a 20-year master plan. Using a combination of pay-as-you-go and debt-financing, Central San continues to fund extensive infrastructure improvements that will upgrade the regional treatment plant, service and repair pumping stations, and replace several miles of sewer pipe each year to provide sewer service reliability for decades to come. Using external consultants to validate the analysis, rates are reviewed annually to ensure that charges accurately reflect the cost of providing service to customers.

Standard & Poor ratings opinion is available on Central San’s website, and cited “

the combination of an extremely strong enterprise risk profile and an extremely strong financial risk profile”. Factors supporting this include strong operational management practices and policies, alignment with strategic goals, and strong financial management practices and policies, including reserve policies.

Strong financial management practices include controlling costs and addressing employment related liabilities. The agency has had essentially a flat O&M budget for about five years. In 2018, the Board of Directors established a trust for funding employee retirement obligations beyond the required annual contributions, adding $5.4 million to the trust. Additionally, the agency has also made contributions to further fund other post-employment benefit (OPEB) commitments. Setting aside funding to address these obligations is an industry best management practice which demonstrates fiscal responsibility and ultimately reduces operating costs for customers.

About Central San

Central San’s mission is to protect public health and the environment through safe and effective wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal. It also operates a household hazardous waste collection facility, provides recycled water for landscape irrigation, and promotes pollution prevention through various educational, informational and inspection programs. It serves nearly half a million residents and over 3,000 businesses over 145 square miles in central Contra Costa County. Central San is operated by 280 employees and a five-member elected Board of Directors.

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