Chairperson Scheer called the Regular Session Meeting of the Water and Sewer Advisory Commission to order at 6:10 p.m. with the following members present: Vice-Chairperson Diehl, Secretary Armel, and Commissioners Crabb, Gregory B. Murray, Director of Water and Sewer Operations, and Vicky L. Malott, Office Associate IV.

Commissioner’s Fishack, Parks, and Renn were absent.

Other Attendees: Clint Wiley, candidate for County Commissioner, and Mr. Ray Horst, President of the Southwest Metropolitan Area Civic Association, Inc.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion made by Commissioner Crabb, seconded by Vice-Chairperson Diehl, to approve the Regular Session Minutes of March 26, 1998 with noted addition. Unanimously approved.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Mr. Ray Horst asked the Advisory Commission to address the disparity of multiple residential units not being charged a minimum base rate for each living unit.

OLD BUSINESS

Discussion - Rate Equity/Method of Calculation - A handout titled "EDU’s For Residential Accounts That Have Multi-Units" (Attachment #1) was given to the Advisory Commission that Dawn Barnes of the Budget & Finance Department prepared. Chairperson Scheer and Director Murray explained the information on handout. Director Murray explained the criteria and methodology included in the initial recommendation for billing water and sewer customers from the Black & Vetch Study. He also explained the implemented method for billing which consisted of combination of a per EDU rate, calculated on a cost of service model. Director Murray noted that the cost of service method is a nationally accepted practice among similar utilities. Chairperson Scheer noted two concerns for recommending any change to the current procedure; 1) the legal test that a change would have to withstand without metering all customers; and 2) the fairness issue regarding which class of user that a change would affect. Discussion followed.

Other points of discussion included the notation that other billing methodologies were previously used by Washington County government and are used in other jurisdictions.

Secretary Armel also postulated it as a point of discussion that within the cost of service methodology of the Black & Veatch Study, reconsideration of the distribution of certain costs within the "local collector sewers" category by some criteria other than "number of bills" (e.g., by volume, by EDU, by some other equitable criteria) could yield results that may be viewed as more fair. The application of a factor of 17.6 to the $39 million capital cost and to the $600,000 O&M costs based on a "number of bills" criteria was cited for comparison to the 1.6 factor applied on a volume basis against $34 million capital costs and corresponding O&M costs for treatment. (See tables 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 of Black & Veatch Study.)

DIRECTOR COMMENTS

Director Murray noted that a complete Project Status Report will be given to the Advisory Commission at their next regular meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion made by Vice-Chairperson Diehl, seconded by Commissioner Crabb, to adjourn at 8:25 p.m. Unanimously approved.
 
 

_________________________________ Date: April 29, 1998___________

Vicky L. Malott,

Office Associate IV
 
 

Reviewed by: Approved by:
 
 

_________________________________ ___________________________

Gregory B. Murray, Michael V. Armel,

Director of Water and Sewer Operations Advisory Commission Secretary

Date: May 8, 1998__________________ Date: May 28, 1998___________