09-24-18 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath replied, So what we requested in the budget was two dollars ($2) for residential and then it went to, depending the size of the property, five dollars ($5) and then ten dollars ($10). With that formula, it will generate about$1.25 million in revenue per year. Committee Chair White stated,You had shared with me that other cities have investigated income- based. Maybe we could research that too? Mr. Horvath replied, That is something we are definitely looking at as an opportunity that didn't used to exist, at least in the State of Indiana. The legislature has opened the door to allow us to do rates other than strictly cost of service rates. Before, we were governed by making sure what we did was solely based on cost of service. That means that you're going to pay for a gallon of water what it costs for us to pump that,treat it, and get it out to your house. Regardless of your ability to pay, everyone was paying the same for that gallon of water. There are some folks who have recently looked at trying to find a way to make that income based so that those who have the ability to pay will pay a little bit more and then those that don't will pay a little less. It would restructure rates in a way that would have the lower income folks pay a little less in their rates. That would be easier to do on the waste water side through our waste water rates because it is local control and we could structure a rate that would allow us to do something creative there that would hopefully help people with lower income. We are looking at that now but we don't have any rates to bring to Council.We haven't even done legal research on how that would be rolled out but it is definitely something we are interested in. Councilmember Broden stated, I hope I have just two (2) questions. What was the net resident loss,the impact from the 2016 flood event?And what was it from the 2018 flood event?Plus,what is the total for the legacy drainage events that we've known about for some time? I would like to put that context around this because it's not just the flood event. I think we need to have a real sense,as Council, of the issues City-wide. We've just had these recent flood events where four(4) particular areas were affected and then there was a subset where that was overlapped if you look back to the previous year. So I would like to bring those numbers up and I have them and I'm sure you have them but I think we all have to look at them. My last point is it is only going to get worse in terms of impact and in terms of flood events. I rather be more aggressive on this because we've been hit by some historical events back to back. I think we should be sensitive to that overall as we consider if this is the right level right out of the gate. She went on,As a follow up to that,the post-flooding reports specific to the North Shore Triangle, we had significant follow up to the citizen's question about Angela Boulevard. We know that is adjacent to the old St. Joseph High School property site. We know as soon as you cross there, it is County. Solving that and working on that, I want to make sure that is included in our punch list. I want some assurances because that has been at least a two (2)year issue. I think it is pretty evident that is a long-term issue. Though it is not in our City's boundaries, it is certainly impacting City residents. Mr. Horvath replied,I will say, quickly,that we are working with the property owner on that issue. We don't have any solutions as of yet but we will continue to work with them. Secondly, I want to make sure that we are really transparent about what this fee will do. It will not solve issues like we had in the flood event. That would take hundreds of millions of dollars and we would talk about a fee that would be nowhere near just two dollars ($2). I don't want people thinking that they are paying two dollars ($2) and all of these issues will go away in the future. We are a long way from EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld I south Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 i TTD 574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov 6