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would go along with them. He stated, We're hoping that, early on in the process, there will be a couple of no- brainers that everybody will agree that, yes, you're going to have to do these projects. We don't have any rate stuff planned at all right now. Committeemember Dr. Varner responded, But you're going to have to do something, because your scheduled rate expires this year, is that correct? Or is there a rollover that falls in there? Mr. Horvath responded, It carries as it is, but there will be no increase. Committeemember Oliver Davis asked, The people working with us, will they still be the same or are we going to get a new team in now? The EPA or— Mr. Horvath responded, There's a good probability that there may be a new team. We can speculate, but I don't think anybody knows yet. Committeemember Dr. Varner stated, As of the last of the a -mails I received — because what we're talking about is Sewer, now —has the City or has not the City been in contact with IBM or the EPA about renegotiating or reconsidering or changing? Mr. Horvath responded, We have had a number of conversations, specifically with the EPA- Committeemember Dr. Varner interjected, Not IBM. Mr. Horvath responded, Not necessarily IBM and not necessarily the DOJ either, and those have all been generic in content. These are the things we're looking at. We haven't gotten into any specifics because we have purposely not wanted to until we were certain we had all of our stacks behind us so that when we renegotiate, we can negotiate through a position that's finalized. Committeemember Dr. Varner stated, But we have that old famous part of the agreement in the original full sub - decree. It's not something that can be denied. Or it can be denied. I thought both parties had to agree, even though it was there? Mr. Horvath responded, There are provisions that we can open, but regardless of that ... we won't be able to use their specific reopeners because we're going to be asking for more than the reopeners allow, but they are always willing to sit down. Committeemember Davis asked, When the final agreements are made, is that the decision of just the Mayor who makes the final decision regarding accepting the offer, or will that have to come up before the Council? Committeemember Dr. Varner stated, It's become so public knowledge that there's going to have to be a public discussion of it, and it will be deemed at that point in time acceptable or unacceptable, and we'll go from there. But this can't be conducted in the manner in which the last one was, where the Mayor unilaterally decided to sign- Committeemember Davis interjected, That was where my concern was. 2