City of Port Wentworth 7224 GA Hwy 21 Port Wentworth, GA 31407 October 6, 2022 Clearwater Solutions LLC Steve Cawood, President 2178 Moores Mill Rd Auburn, AL 36830 Dear Mr. Cawood, Please accept this letter as notice that Clearwater Solutions LLC (“CWS”) is in material breach of its contract with the City of Port Wentworth. Effective immediately the contract with CWS is suspended without pay and CWS is stopped from operating within the City of Port Wentworth. This letter serves as notice that CWS has thirty (30) days to cure or commence taking reasonable steps to cure the multiple and varied breaches. The contract was executed on or about December 21, 2021, and CWS is in material breach of multiple provisions and obligations of this contract. The contract spells out numerous general obligations and the scope of work required to be performed by CWS. specifically in sections 2 (CWS’ General Obligations), 3 (CWS’ Specific Scope of Work for Water and Wastewater Services), and 4 (CWS Scope of Services — Public Works Departmend). Generally, these obligations and services include, but are not limited to: management, operation, and maintenance of our wastewater treatment plant, wastewater system and all life stations, our water lines and the City wells, public roads, grass cutting on all City right-of way, ditch dredging within the City right-of-way, and along with other reporting and record keeping responsibilities. CWS is hereby notified of multiple material breaches of the contract, generally described as follows: ~ Lack of training and workplace compliance} + Lack of required yearly reporti~ Lack of required maintenance documentation and reports: ~ Lack of appropriate staff, staffing, and trainings ~ Lack of full-time onsite manager: ~ Failure to maintain vehicles and equipment properly; + Failure to repair storm drain piping, inlets, and catch basins: ~ Failure to dredge City ditches} + Failure to pressure jet culverts, storm inlets, and storm pipe: ~ Failure to cut grass within the City’s rights-of way - Failure to trim trees for roadway safety; and ~ Lack of required financial reporting. + CWS has had 16 violations relating to either spills or effluent discharges ~ City under current EPD Consent Order with another Consent Order coming. More specifically, CWS is notified that it is in material breach of the following sections of the contract: + 26; > 24s - BL - B12; - B14 + 3.155 + B21 + 8.255 - 3.31; - 4.25 4.55 - 463 7 4A + 411jand - 66. Pursuant to the contract, in order for the City to determine if CWS's proposed curative steps are reasonable, please describe in detail the curative steps CWS plans to address each and every listed breach. Such description should include: A) Description of the breach, including the nature and scope of the breach; B) Explanation as to the basis and cause of the breach, including dates of when CWS has been previously notified of problems or issues have arisen regarding the breach’ ©) Explanation whether CWS believes there is a breach: D) Explanation, with supporting documentation, of all current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations CWS currently has for itself or for employees regarding the specific topic of the breach E) Explanation of new or proposed changes to current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations CWS believes is part of its reasonable steps to cure the breach; F) Timeline of implementation of curative steps}G) Timeline of breach and issues to be actually cured; and H) Any other description, explanation, documentation, or other material that CWS believes would assist the City in assessing wither CWS's proposed curative steps are reasonable Additionally, there have been a number of recent events that have impacted CWS's ability to perform under the contract. These include: On or about September 24, 2022 a CWS employee using a City vehicle for personal use. Ultimately this employee was removed from working on City projects all employees were reminded not to use City Vehicles for personal use; + Onor about October 1, 2022 and October 2, 2022 a CWS employee using a City vehicle for personal use; + On or about October 8, 2022 City Manager removes privileges of CWS employees to take City vehicles home, this is clearly communicated to all employees both by the City Public Works Director and by CWS Acting Supervisors - On or about October 3, 2022 a CWS employee took City vehicle home without permission and continued using a City vehicle for personal use. + On or about October 4, 2022 a CWS employee using unacceptable abusive language. Ultimately, this employee was removed from working on City projects: and * Onor about October 4, 2022 a CWS employee being arrested while in a City vehicle for selling illegal drugs. The status of this employee at the time of this letter remains unclear. Following the CWS employee's arrest for selling drugs while in a City vehicle, CWS attempted drug tests on its remaining employees. The City has previously been told that CWS should have 13 employees working to fulfil its obligations under the contract. Three spots are vacant, 1 project manager and 2 employees for ditch dredging. Only 7 CWS employees were actively working for the City, and of those 6 were sent by CWS. Acting Supervisor for drug tests on October 4, 2022: 8 passed (negative tests), 1 refused to test, 1 submitted a tampered sample and then refused to retest, and 1 did not show up to test. The other wasn’t present on the day of testing. Given these glaring and overt actions by CWS employees, in describing your curative steps, please also specifically and separately address the following: 1) Current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS’s and CWS employees’ use of City vehicles; 2) Current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS's and CWS employees’ use of City equipment; 3) Current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS's and CWS employees’ drug testing, drug testing requirements, and drug testing results reporting: 4) Current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS's and CWS employees’ code of conduct, specifically and especially as it relates to CWS employees’ interactions with other CWS employees, City employees, City residents, and others while working;5) Explanation of new or proposed changes to current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS's and CWS employees’ use of City vehicles: 6) Explanation of new or proposed changes to current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS's and CWS employees’ use of City equipment; 7) Explanation of new or proposed changes to current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS’s and CWS employees’ drug testing, drug testing requirements, and drug testing results reporting: 8) Explanation of new or proposed changes to current policies, procedures, standard operating procedures, or other such rules and regulations regarding CWS’s and CWS employees’ code of conduct, specifically and especially as it relates to CWS employees’ interactions with other CWS employees, City employees, City residents, and others while working; and 9) Any other description, explanation, documentation, or other material that CWS believes would assist the City in assessing wither CWS's proposed curative steps regarding these specific issues are reasonable. As CWS is hereby suspended, the City shall hire an outside company to temporarily operate the wastewater treatment plant and to perform the other duties outlined in the contract. To reiterate, effective immediately the contract with CWS is suspended without pay and CWS is stopped from operating within the City of Port Wentworth. By this letter, CWS has been notified of multiple and serious material breaches in its contract with the City. Please provide the required and requested information before the end of the 80 day cure period so that the City may appropriately consider the reasonableness of CWS's proposed cures. ‘Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Respectfully, Steve Davis, MPA CPM City Manager, City of Port Wentworth