09-24-18 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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:®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Broden followed up, And you had chosen a flat rate over the alternative method? Mr. Horvath replied, Correct and that was mostly for the ease of implementation. The more complicated the system is, the more money would be spent on billing and billing processes and that would mean less money that actually goes into capital. Since we are starting at a lower rate, it would be best to keep it simple and use that money on capital projects.Again,the money generated is going to go into capital projects and related services. It will not go into offset costs of folks cleaning sewers or sweeping streets. Councilmember Broden then asked,And the South Bend Dam project, how does that relate to the storm water issue? I thought it had nothing to do with the flooding. Mr. Horvath replied,No, it doesn't do flood control. That is typically where you pay for any dam repairs is from storm water fees because it is managing water that is going through the City. There is no Dam Fund. The Dam is either an asset or a liability but, really, it's both. It is something we have to maintain otherwise it breaks and then it is gone. We have to do minor maintenance on it and that is what the funding is for. Councilmember Teshka stated, A lot of what I'm hearing from residents is that we are already paying too much. So I would like some clarification on the difference between what you pay for with water usage and this new storm water. So if I'm just a resident and I'm looking at it, it is just water. There are a lot of us that wouldn't mind paying an extra twenty four dollars ($24) a year to ensure we have proper ways to manage storm water better. Obviously with residents on a fixed income, that may be harder to encumber. This fee also doesn't factor into the EPA and their guideline on our water rate should be in ratio to our low and fixed income folks, correct? Mr. Horvath replied, What you are alluding to is our financial capability analysis and what that does is it looks at a number of different factors in our community's ability to pay. One(1)of those factors is comparing the percentage of the bill to the median household income. At a point where the bill gets above two percent (2%) of the median household income, they call that the point of severe economic burden. What that does is it doesn't give you a break but typically they give a longer period of time to do these programs. They'll typically start with saying we want you to solve this CSO issue in a ten(10)year period,but because you have high burden,we will give you fifteen (15) or twenty (20) years to do it. Our current consent decree is a twenty (20) year plan because we were at high burden. We were somewhere around three point seven percent(3.7%) of the median household income. That is not the only indicator but that is a significant one (1). With the new plan at $200 million, we are still at burden. We are just over two percent (2%). We are right around two percent (2%) so we are still at the high burden. If you added a storm water fee, we would include that as part of the financial capability analysis because it is an associated fee we can include in that calculation. We don't include drinking water but we include storm water because they are related. Committeemember Voorde asked, How much does twenty four dollars ($24) a year generate for capital improvements? EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov 5