HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/09/2009 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2009
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225
Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 5:33 p.m., with Mayor Leiken
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie (via conference phone), Leezer,
Ralston, Woodrow and Pishioneri (5:37). Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi,
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorneys Joe Leahy (6: 18) and Matt Cox, Clerk m
Trudy Borrevik and members of the staff.
1. Convention and Visitors Association of Lane County Oregon's (CV ALCO) Rebranding as
Travel Lane County (TLC).
Community Development Manager John Tamulonis presented the staff report on this item. The
Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County Oregon (CV ALCO) recently unveiled its
plans to launch a new organizational name and marketing brand for Lane County. CV ALCO will
become Travel Lane County and market the destination not as a 'little blue box' which was the
logo for CV ALCO but as Eugene, Cascades & Coast, with sharp graphics including a driftboat
and the slogan "Real Adventures. Real Close." Attachment 1 highlights the differences.
Following the culmination of nearly a year of research and planning, the new brand and logo
design focuses on key fmdings. The brand name of Eugene, Cascades & Coast centers on the
area's most recognizable community and the county territories from a visitor's perspective in and
outside of Lane County. The new brand further emphasizes research results indicating Lane
County's strength is in offering travelers easily accessible adventures within authentic, natural
settings.
Meanwhile, CV ALCO's new name change to Travel Lane County reflects a growing alignment
that convention and visitor associations are making across the state, including Travel Oregon,
Travel Portland and Travel Salem.
CV ALCO's new brand strategy will also be explored in the form of a new adventure-focused
visitor center located in Springfield's Gateway area near 1-5, increasing efforts to connect with
thousands of more travelers. The new brand will officially launch on March 2, 2009. There are
more details at the web site: www.TravelLaneCountv.org/brand.
Mr. Tamulonis introduced Karl Westlund, President and CEO, of Travel Lane County, formerly
CV ALCO.
Ms. Westlund presented the Council with copies of the new brochures and visitor guides. She
explained about the decision to change the name and logo ofCV ALCO to Travel Lane County.
She introduced Jeff Morton, member and owner of Travel Lodge at Gateway and Sally McAleer
from her staff. She presented a power point presentation about the history of CV ALCO and
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 2
explained the process in choosing the new name and logo. She talked about how she and her staff
worked with the eonsultants and the comments they had received from the stakeholder group.
She commented that the consultants were pretty strict about the county brand and about territorial
issues and community identities. She said they needed to be more specific about lead product,
lead activities and go out and market those activities more aggressively for the benefit of
everyone. The consultants also pointed out that the small operators and outfitters throughout the
county were not getting connected to consumers easily enough and the visitor center needed to
focus more on helping visitors really find how to buy the product when they are in the county.
Ms. Westlund said during the course of this process, destination issues came!Jp through the
stakeholder groups. In the consumer research meeting, planners and tour operators both raised the
issue about Lane County not carrying enough identity for them.. Throughout the process they saw
an overwhelming mandate for changing how they position the destination. She said there was a
lot of preference for using sub regional identifiers. No one felt they should be marketing Eugene,
but using Eugene and pulling in the geographical identifiers such as the Cascade Mountains and
Oregon Coast into the mix. She explained that they tested the market and the lead finisher was
Eugene, Cascades and Coast. She showed the Council the new logo design, renditions and ad
concepts. She explained that as staff they probably wouldn't have gotten to the point of keying in
on Eugene as the hub, but the market place was so clear as what they needed to do in order to
generate strong returns, they braced up and did it.
Ms. Westlund also told Council that they were.in the process of opening up an advtlnture center in
Springfield, a satellite information center, at Gateway next to Michaels near Best Buy, to access
visitors along 1-5.
Mayor Leiken thanked Ms. Westlund for attending and stated that getting away from CV ALCO
was a great idea and that the new name Travel Lane County was a good idea. At first he
wondered where Springfield was in the mix, understood Eugene was the County seat and had the
biggest hook with the University of Oregon, which probably had the highest name ID. Using
Eugene made sense. He said when the name change for Lane Metro Partnership was being
considered he thought it was crazy to use Lane but Lane County insisted. At that time probably
the person with the highest name ID in Oregon was UO quarterback, Joey Harrington, who at the
time was in the race for the Heisman trophy. People knew where Eugene was at that time
because of Joey Harrington, but didn't know where Lane County was and that was the challenge.
He liked what they had incorporated and the fact that when looking through the magazine,
Springfield had the opportunity to showcase. He did understand why they had to go with Eugene,
Cascades and Coast.
Ms. Westlund stated she wanted the Council to know that they weren't insensitive to the issues.
She said they did try and incorporate a lot of Springfield information and that was not going to
change. Springfield hadn't lost anything from CV ALCO and what they were hoping to gain for
Springfield was more overnight visitation and revenues throughout the hotel and restaurant
sectors.
Ms. Westlund said it would be interesting to see what the City Council in Eugene felt about it
because it was not aligned with their community branding, was not a Eugene logo and was not a
Eugene brand. Their (Travel Lane County) responsibility was for the entire 4,610 miles so it
didn't say arts and outdoors and it didn't say track town. They had probably found something that
would make everyone slightly on edge. They were targeting the market place and that was what
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 3
the consultant advised them to do. Their job was to bring people outside the area in and that was
what they needed to focus on doing.
Councilor Pishioneri commented that he had seen the presentation and understood the positive
tone of having Eugene, but couldn't see there would be a negative tone if Springfield was on
there as well, or underneath in smaller letters. He understood that it was a County wide
organization and needed to represent the entire County. Our community had been working very
hard to gain its own identity and his first take was that this didn't help that. At the same time it
might not hurt.
Councilor Leezer asked when it was going to be rolled out.
Ms. Westlund stated the launch date was March I st.
Mayor Leiken asked how the County Commissioner's felt about this.
Ms. Westlund said they had no problem and that they had been kept in the loop throughout the
entire process. Commissioner Fleenor and Commissioner Stewart were both in stakeholder
groups.
Councilor Pishioneri stated that the Commissioners were no longer going to participate as active
board members for Travel Lane County. They had pulled back on many of their committees.
Ms. Westlund stated that today was the launch date for the Travel Channel Europe series. It was
filmed in the area, would run twice a day, every day for 3 years throughout Europe. Millions of
people were going to see this program about Lane County.
Councilor Lundberg stated that the new name did bother her. She agreed with Councilor
Pishioneri in that there was a sense of our own identity. Springfield had been trying to work on its
own identity, development and growth and who knew where we would be in a few years.
Councilor Lundberg commented about the location of the new visitor's office, which will be
located in Springfield, right off ofl-5. People would be able to find it and it would be seen by
thousands of travelers. She thanked Karl for picking that spot.
Councilor Wylie had no comments.
Mayor Leiken thanked Ms. Westlund for coming and for the presentation. He suggested that she
contact Representative Nathanson regarding stimulus money.
2. Ambulance Rate Increase.
Fire Chief Dennis Murphy presented the staff report on this item. Due to changes in federal
reimbursement rates, increasing costs of operations, and the economic downturn, current
ambulance rates are not sufficient to cover the costs of operation of ambulance services in
Springfield. At the November 5,2007 Regular Session, Council adopted a resolution to
fncrease ambulance rates. That increase was an interim step to improve the ambulance fund
position. Another increase is necessary at this time.
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
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In 2002, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated a series of
ambulance reimbursement reductions that have resulted in a loss of income on all Medicare and
Medicaid patients transported by ambulance. A May 2007 report of the federal General
Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed that the new reimbursement level is an average of 6%
below the actual cost of providing services. The financial impact in Springfield has resulted in the
elimination of the ambulance fund reserves and request for a significant rate increase.
FLS requests an ambulance rate increase from $1,150 base rate to $1,600 and mileage rate
increase from $15.50 per mile to $17.50 per mile to raise approximately $400,000 annually. This
rate increase will not fully fund the ambulance operations section, but will allow the ambulance
fund to balance during FYIO. The rate increase will provide limited relief to allow further
evaluation while a long term strategy is being developed.
If no action is taken, the Ambulance Fund will continue to operate in a loss mode. In FYI 0, the
Ambulance Fund could lose over $400,000 by year end if ambulance service rates remain at
FY09 rates.
Chief Murphy talked about the economy and the way Medicare was funded. He said there were 3
things that could be done in regards to the ambulance fund: I) increase the revenues; 2) reduce
the service level; or 3) subsidize with General Funds. He talked about option #3 and how that
wouldn't be feasible. He discussed the level of service, how important it was to the community,
and why he wouldn't want to reduce the City's number one rated service. He said that only left
the option of increasing revenue and raising the ambulance rates.
Chief Murphy talked about FireMed and how Council had been vested in it since 1986. This was
Springfield's "brand." It was developed here and 27% of the citizens in Springfield belonged to
FireMed. It was currently in 80 locations throughout Oregon. It was a low cost alternative at the
rate of$52 per year for an entire household. We had some of the best quality in the state and
outside agencies had been saying that for 20 years. FireMed has been named best in the state,
best in the nation and ended up in Fortune Magazine. It has been hailed with an award from the
League of Oregon Cities (LOC). This was an award winning system.
Chief Murphy commented that there were a lot of agencies in the state waiting for Springfield to
get the attention of a rate increase in bad times, and then w6uld be right behind Springfield. Last
time Springfield raised the rates, every provider in Lane County raised theirs within 90 days. Half
of them raised them identical to what Springfield did. He felt we were squeezing an increasingly
small number of people who were insured, There was 70% of our population that would not see
this rate increase at all: the MedicarelMedicaid group; and 17% who were uninsured or
underinsured and wouldn't pay the bill. That left 17% of the insured that would be seeing the
increase. It was not good long term business, but bought us some time. It would give the City
the ability to maintain a service level long enough to give Council a permanent solution.
Councilor Woodrow stated he didn't see any Portland area rates listed.
Chief Murphy said they were a private agency and we weren't able to get their current rates.
Medford was missing as they were a private provider as well and Salem contracted with a rural
metro corporation. He explained the reason for the different rates due to the way agencies
charged for different calls and the reason for using a single rate for everything.
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 5
Councilor Pishioneri asked about residcnt and non-resident disparities. He asked if there was data
available regarding the percentage of non-residents that were insured and recoverability of
charges for those patients.
Chief Murphy said he didn't have that information.
Councilor Pishioneri asked about tourists traveling in the area that needed an ambulance and if
they were burdened with the rate. He asked if more money could be recovered from that
population versus the local population.
Chief Murphy said we currently got that because non-residents were not FireMed members. He
said we charged a mileage surcharge at $17.25, but also had a number of FireMed members from
the rural fire districts. In essence, this took revenue out of those districts. People that lived and
paid taxes in their district were paying us for FireMed. He discussed out of area charges and
when they were appropriately used.
Councilor Pishioneri stated that the citizens were paying for infrastructure and our streets which
supported the Fire Department. Oakridge did not have their own tax base for that so they had a
separate charge.
Councilor Wylie asked about Tillamook's charge of $31 per mile. She said it seemed that raising
that fee would help raise funds as well. She asked why Springfield's rate was at $17 and not $20
or $25.
Chief Murphy stated that was a matter of policy and as far as rate setting, there were really only
two rates that made it, and one of them was mileage. We could raise our mileage fee, collect
more money, and it would be a way to get the longer distance people be pay more.
Councilor Wylie stated that if we increased our cost we would be the highest by far. She asked
how other agencies were paying for their services and where they were getting their revenues.
Chief Murphy said to wait 60 days and the other agencies would be in behind Springfield. He
discussed taxes and subsidies and noted that many ambulance providers that were government
provided did not even know if they were subsidized or not. He discussed indirect costs the Fire
Department pays to the General Fund for services received from central services and noted that
this rate supported those costs. Most rates in the state, except for the private sector, didn't include
indirect costs. He was D:ot proposing F&LS stop paying indirects, but rather increase rates to
support all costs.
Councilor Woodrow asked about Tillamook Hospital Ambulance's charge being more than what
we were proposing for advanced life support. He also asked what STC was.
Chief Murphy explained that STC was a Specialty Transport Care. He explained.
Councilor Ralston said he liked the way Chief Murphy thought and agreed with the option
chosen. He stated that by raising rates $450, which was a substantial increase, it would raise an
additional $400,000 annually. The FireMed program brought in $568,000. He felt the FireMed
program was the best thing Chief Murphy had invented and he would look at raising the rates,
even though we may lose some people. When looking at the cost of an ambulance ride compared
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 6
to the cost of Fir eM ed, it would be a high motivator for people to sign up for FireMed, raising
another $250,000 in revenue.
Chief Murphy stated that was something they always looked at and it had only increased $17
from 1986 to 2009. People on the Oregon Health Plan didn't need FireMed, so for the lowest of .
our income people, $.27 on the dollar was accepted and that was payment in full. At the next
level there were people who were underinsured or uninsured. FireMed was the key to the system
and was created to make sure all citizens had access to the low cost health care. The increase in
ambulance rates would come from the user fee side and not cause a burden on the citizen.
Mayor Leiken stated that no matter what was done tonight, they would be back again next year
because of the economy. He talked about the economy and how companies such as Monaco
laying off 2000 employees, who had good benefits and now had none, was going to affect these
rates as well. He agreed with Councilor Ralston that there may be a need to look at the possibility
of increasing the FireMed rates.
Chief Murphy responded and said that before they came to Council again to talk rate increases,
they should talk FireMed.
Councilor Lundberg talked about the economy, what people would and would not pay for, and
the need to not increase one fee after another.
Councilor Pishioneri said he concurred that we needed to look at FireMed, the customer service
base, and the marketing. We could possibly offer a discount for a three-year plan instead of
paying yearly. People could avoid paying any rate increase during that period.
Chief Murphy stated that if there was an interest to talk marketing strategy, a 30 minute work
session item could be scheduled.
Councilor Woodrow asked about the sensitivity to the market and if it was a possible to set
something up in a tiered structure, by age or by income (for those unemployed) or whatever was
the best way to look at it.
Councilor Leezer asked about tiers and it being a bookkeeping nightmare to stay on top of it
causing the need for additional staff which would defeat the purpose for increasing the fee to raise
revenue.
Chief Murphy responded on the history of why they hadn't done tier pricing in the past.
Councilor Wylie commented that she would like to have the marketing session. She talked about
that sometimes instead of increasing fees, if you "rolled back" fees you might get more
customers, something to consider when looking at marketing.
Mayor Leiken talked about an ongoing trend that those back in Washington D.C. had obviously
turned their backs on timber dependent counties and on cities that relied on reimbursement from
Medicare and Medicaid. We were left once again trying to figure out how we were going to deal
with the situation. Thank goodness we had FireMed. He agreed that Councilor Wylie's
suggestion was interesting and he would highly recommend having a meeting on the marketing
strategy. He felt that would be very beneficial for all.
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9,2009
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Councilor Pishioneri agreed that it would be nice to have a shopping list that they could go
through and select which items they liked and which they didn't.
Mr. Grimaldi clarified that Council consensus was to bring back to Council a rate structure
showing a higher charge for non residents and a higher fee for mileage. Yes.
3. Local Wastewater Systems Development Charge Methodology.
City Engineer, Ken V ogeney, filling in for Len Goodwin, presented the staff report on this item.
Staffhas completed the process, begun in November 2007, to prepare an update oflocal
Wastewater Systems Development Charges (SDC). Following extensive work with a Citizen
Advisory Committee (CAC) including representatives of the business and development
community, and residents and property owners, a draft of an updated SDC Methodology is ready
for review with Council. This update, taken in combination with an extensive review of the
capital project list used to determine local wastewater SDCs, will result in a substantial increase
in charges if Council elects to impose the fees indicated by applying the methodology to the draft
project list. With Council's concurrence, staff will provide public notice of the draft methodology
and provide opportunities for public input in advance of formal action on the methodology and an
increase in fees, sometime in June.
Mr. Vogeney advised Council that the citizen advisory committee's (CAC's) recommendations
were presented for the wastewater SDC methodology as #3 and #4 in the packet. In addition the
citizen advisory committee had one area that they recommended from their discussions on
dealing with fmancing costs on projects. The current methodology did not incorporate the cost of
financing a public project as part of the SDC costs. The committee recommended that both for
history projects as well as new projects in the future, fmancing costs be incorporated into the
project.
Mr. Vogeney outlined some of the recommendations of the committee for both the
reimbursement fees and the improvement fees. Reimbursement fees applied to the system that
was already in the ground that had extra capacity available that development could use.
Improvement fees were applied to new projects, new construction and development, all of which
shared the capacity that was the basis for the costs of the SDCs.
One item the committee looked at was infiltration and inflow. Infiltration and inflow dealt with
water, ground water and stormwater runoff entering into the wastewater system. Currently, the
City had a significant portion of the flow in the system that came from infiltration and inflow. An
analysis was done on the improvement side of the fees to see ifit would make sense to actually
separate the fee for both capacity generated by the users, as well as the capacity generated to deal
with the infiltration and inflow. The analysis was based on the assumption of new pipe and
current technologies for the construction of pipe. The difference was quite small in terms of the
affect it would have on the improvement SDC, only about 12%, so it was the recommendation of
the CAC that we stay with the capacity measure that the City was currently using.
Another item taken to the advisory committee was on the reimbursement fee and looking at how
to actually place the grounding in the existing system. The current methodology took into
account the full replacement cost of the pipe system and a portion of the replacement cost for the
pump stations. Replacement costs were calculated in today's dollars. The advisory committee's
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 8
recommendation took a look at what would be a more realistic approach in the likelihood of
replacing the entire system' at one time, so they recommended that the fee be based upon the
replacement cost less depreciation.
Other pieces that were discussed with the committee had to do with the overall calculation of
system capacity. Two different ways of calculating what capacity was available in the system was
evaluated and discussed with the committee. The fIrst was on each individual pipe, which was
one rather vigorous approach, and the second was a method of overall averaging of the capacity
that was available. The CAC was recommending the second option.
Finally the CAC looked at geographic and if it made sense to charge a different local wastewater
SDC to different portions of the city. To do that analysis, Glenwood was looked at primarily
because it was self contained and distinct from any of the rest of the City's system. The CAC
determined, following analysis and discussion, that it did not generate a significant change in the
fee and could actually result in less of a fee in Glenwood for the improvement SDC and a higher
fee for the rest of the community. Overall the committee recommended staying with a City wide
average, but coming back when the Glenwood Refinement Plan Update was done to re-evaluate.
Susie Smith, Public Works Director, outlined where this fit in the scheme of things and advised
that it was directed by Council several years ago. The funding of capital and operations was a
zero sum game in that what wasn't funded with SDC got funded through user rates. The
complexity of the wastewater system CIP was dissimilar from the transportation SDC in that
much ofthis was regulatory driven and the wastewater master plan was 25 years out of date. She
reinforced that the regulatory nature of much of the project list was driving the fee. Updates to
the methodology needed to be compliant with the statutes which were part of the update that had
been done. She stated that Ken V ogeney had done a good job reflecting areas of flexibility that
Council may want to take advantage of and making sure we honored the CAC recommendation
because their recommendation defmitely had an impact on the ultimate cost of the fees.
Mr. V ogeney recognized Deb Galardi, the consultant they have been working with, and Fred
Simmons, one of the Citizen Advisory Committee members.
Mr. Vogeney stated that in looking at the impacts and the different opportunities for the SDC you
will notice that the proposed total wastewater SDC fee would be about $3400 per residential
dwelling unit. There had been conversations with the City Manager and amongst the members of
staff about what options there may be for Council to consider a different rate structure. A few of
the options were presented although Council was encouraged to take some of Ms. Smith's
comments to heart. Applying or adopting a methodology for what was called the maximum
permissible fee, that recognized all of the various other funding constraints, and provided a
balance between user rates and SDCs was the direction that the CAC was recommending to
Council.
The alternatives looked at several different methods for making some adjustments to the fees.
One of those, referenced on page 7 of Attachment I, had to do with reimbursement fees where the
alternatives were being looked at. One had to do with the methodology that was proposed for
valuing pUmp stations. The current methodology that the City was using did not look at the full
replacement costs of a sanitary sewer pump station; it looked at the cost for replacing the
equipment within the pump station. That was the basis being used today. The discussion with
the citizen advisory committee and the recommended fee here was based on a full replacement
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 9
cost as if we needed to construct that pump station from scratch. The difference in cost reduced
the amount of the system value that was eligible for the reimbursement SDCs by about $9.3M,
which resulted ultimately in a fee. He stated there was a small typo in the memo which said the
rate per drainage fixture unit would decrease by 7% for $2391.87. That was actually the
equivalent dwelling unit, not the drainage fixture unit rate.
The CAC and staff were recommending to Council to use the proposed full replacement cost on
the pump stations in order to capture, in the future, a cost that was appropriate or associable to
development for completing replacing the pumps.
Another option that could be considered on the reimbursement fee was to take a completely
different look at how to value the system. That was one that staff talked briefly with the CAC
about and that's an appreciated cost rather than a replacement cost. The appreciated cost was
looking at what it actually cost to construct the pipe or component at the time it was placed in
service, and an inflation factor up to today. That resulted in a much smaller fee than the
reimbursement fee, however it also reduced the amount of funds that we were able to collect to
actually replace and keep the system functioning on the capital side. Again the staff and the CAC
did have a consensus for Council on recommending the depreciated replacement cost as the
method to value the system.
Councilor Pishioneri asked if staff had taken a 5,000 foot view at where we were going with all of
our SDCs, not just wastewater, but public works, infrastructure and everything else. He asked if
we were going to halt the economy as slow as it was, or halt all future construction. He expressed
his concern that we could make this a very inhospitable environment for the people who worked
here.
Ms. Smith stated that we had the composite picture of all the SDCs and a comparative rate survey
so we could show how Springfield compared to other cities across the state. The best indicators
were our user rates and our SDCs. It was a balancing act between the two. Staff could bring the
information back to Council at a future Council meeting.
Councilor Pishioneri stated it would help him see this piece and the justification behind it.
Ms. Smith stated it was a similar picture as the ambulance fees, although we were not necessarily
out in front. Each community had the same kinds of issues. All had storm drainage issues,
wastewater issues, and street issues so they were coping with the same kinds of things. In our
wastewater and stormwater program we had the same rate issues that Chief Murphy talked about
in terms of the General Fund support.
Councilor Pishioneri stated that he knew commercial users paid a higher rate than residential
users. He asked if businesses shutting down and industrial slowing down or stopping was
negatively impacting the capital side of the wastewater operation. He asked if that was being
considered in any part of this.
Ms. Smith stated that on the local side, it was only a flow based, charge so everyone paid their
part of the flow. The MWMC charge was both flow based and strength based, so depending on
what the business or industry discharges, it paid a higher or lower fee. When Hynix shut down,
MWMC had to take a 7% increase because all of this was now driven by borrowing needed to
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 10
build infrastructure. There was not a lot of choice except to spread the burden back across the
existing user base.
Councilor Woodrow asked if there was a process in place for developers to receive SDC credits
for putting in sewer lines in their developments, such as in J~sper Natron.
Mr. V ogeney stated they could in a couple of different ways. One was through a Reimbursement
District, which Council recently approved. In addition, they could receive SDC credits for the
portion of the line that was eligible. Not 100% of Jasper-Natron was available for SDCs.
Councilor Woodrow asked if there was a process in place on all SDCs that the City charged so we
didn't have to update them more frequently.
Mr. Grimaldi stated there was a process in place.
Councilor Woodrow asked about the drain fixture units and the basis of 20 which was used.
Mr. Vogeney explained the basis of20 was based on review of building permits and single family
residential permits. For example, a washing machine has 3, a sink in the bathroom was worth I
and a dishwasher was 2, so the typical number of plumbing fixtures was counted and the fIxture
units were accounted for through the plumbing code. A rate was assigned for each different type
of fixture so when reviewing a residential building permit all the different types of fixtures that
were in that dwelling were counted and the factors applied. Twenty appeared to be about the
average for a typical residential house.
Councilor Leezer stated when she read the percentages of increases she was amazed. She felt we
should try to never get in this situation again. .
Ms. Smith advised that part of it related to the EP A compliance order that we were under which
determined the nature and the size of the project that we had to build to meet those EP A
requirements.
Councilor Lundberg stated we totally got behind the eight ball in terms of our fees. There were
transportation, wastewater and stormwater fees, gas tax, ambulance fees and user fees that
coincided with the storm and sewer, and the garbage rates were raised not too long ago. We were
on a roll when it came to rate increases and this was the worse time we could possibly have
imaged to do this. We couldn't let this happen again. We knew it was coming because it had been
in the works for quite awhile.
Councilor Lundberg commented about the SDC citizen advisory committee and that they were
extremely thoughtful. They had come to the table with lots of diversity and a lot of background
knowledge and preferences for one thing or another, but had been able to work through it. Their
recommendations were very well thought out.
Mayor Leiken asked as they looked at the percentages mandated by the federal government and
whether or not that was all of it. He asked if public works could give them an idea of the federal
mandates for cities the next time they look at this matter.
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Council Work Session Minutes
March 9, 2009
Page 11
Discussion was held regarding federal mandates put on the cities and having information
available for the public to know which mandates were under order by the government.
Mr. Grimaldi asked for direction on the effective date for residential rates. Consensus was to do
it the same way as the SDCs.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned 6:40 pm.
Minutes Recorder - Trudy Borrevik
Attest:
1ftwa-
Amy Sowa
City Recor r