City Council Minutes 2014 03 11 SP

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City Council Special Meeting Minutes March 11, 2014 Page 10 of 11 Council member Jasiak agreed with the smoothing approach. She preferred to tie equity with efficiency and felt it was time to move in that direction. She was interested in the GPS landscaping component. She thanked Mr. Giardina for his presentation. Council member Keany agreed with the smoothing approach, but was concerned about the financial impact to the citizens. He requested a slide indicating dollar amounts corresponding to the percentage increases. He was not comfortable with the water budgeting component. Mayor Muckle reminded staff of the request for additional information for the next meeting: 1) Percent used by class on an average month; 2) Percent used by class on a maximum month and 3) The Percent expected on an allocation of water rights purchase for system development. There was Council consensus on the smoothing approach, no changes to the stormwater charge, tying wastewater AWC rate to the water use and using the utility bill to provide public information on water conservation. There was no interest in pursuing water budgeting in the next calendar year. Public Works Director Kowar stated staff will provide some of the requested data for the next City Council meeting and some for the May 6 Council meeting. He suggested in the future, when the City sells a water tap based on size, the City should consider whether the water is allocated per meter. He asked Council to consider setting the first tier for residential and commercial water accounts on AWC, which would tie it to wastewater. Council member Stolzmann stated the big difference on wastewater and winter consumption is it does not deal with the public property rights. Wastewater does not affect the residential property rights because it involves what the public throws away. Council member Lipton preferred to keep it as simple as possible. He requested a 5 to 10- year capital plan, which would enable Council to understand what flexibility exists. Public Works Director Kowar stated at the next Council meeting, staff will present the smoothing rate increase with dollar values, without doing the redistribution of class allocation and recommend for 2014 the smoothing rate increase illustrated in the tables. It may be continued to the following Council meeting to allow staff more time to provide the information Council requested. The rate structure is scheduled for the May 6th meeting and additional information can be added about the Capital Improvement Projects. The 10 -year table in the financial model will be incorporated. On May 6th staff will ask for direction on how to proceed for 2015; if the smoothing approach is appropriate without reallocation of equity, or whether it should be reallocated for 2015. He thanked Council for their clear direction. ADJOURNMENT