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CI"1Y OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK on time are paying more because they are covering the bad debt of those that don't. We wanted to prevent that from happening as much as we could, but still live within the letter of the legislation. That is why we've gone to this tiered approach where we've got part of this that we will still lien, and then we've got deposits to cover part of this, as well. Hopefully, that mitigates some of that but that is one (1) of the things we will look at. Councilmember Broden stated, I think that would be interesting in terms of the context of other cities and if they are having difficulties. Sometimes, or even oftentimes I'd say, these things are passed downstate without the real impact known on the local level. Some of that collaborative impact from other cities, I think, will be important to inform this a year from now. Committee Chair Teshka stated, We talked about how it is incumbent upon the landowner and the tenant to get those services transferred. Are there any efforts to push out and get this information out? Are we going to be in touch with REIA? Press releases? How is all that going to be handled? Ms. Thompson replied,We do plan on putting it inside the water and utility bill. In fact,we've had several property managers who have come to speak with us. We do plan to push that out to the folks who already have come and asked about it. Then we will have KBAs on our 311 Portal that explain the requirements for starting. Committee Chair Teshka stated, I know I've heard from a lot of landlords myself. I know they were following this legislation pretty closely, so, I think a broad swath of them are up to date. But, for those that aren't, I wanted to see what that was. Mr. Horvath stated, Mr. Miller's second (2nd) question earlier this afternoon was if someone had a bill and they weren't using. That is true. On sewer, we do have a base charge. Rate structures are all different and you've got variable rate structures that are increasing or decreasing or set. The way we've got ours set up is our fixed charges, which we've got certain costs that are fixed such as the sewer, the ground, the bill, those are all costs that aren't variable. Then we've got variable costs like how much water you use and how much sewer we have to treat, because we have to do additional electricity for that and treatment chemicals, all that stuff. A lot of the times,those fixed costs are built into a base charge and that is pretty common in utilities. You'll see it with electric utilities as well. So, if you didn't use any electricity in a month, you'll still get a base charge. That is same with the sewer, you'll still get a base charge. You just won't have that additional use charge. So, you'll be billed at zero (0) consumption, but you'll still have a bill. We have a base charge but that also includes a minimum use. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, I would like to discuss this at a later time.There have been some concerns about that. I think we and the public need more education on that. Councilmember Broden stated, Councilmember Teshka touched on this but I would also like to support the need for a real robust public awareness. 311 is kind of passive. They call 311 when they have a problem, but I think this potentially could blindside a lot of people who are trying to charge residency or start a rental situation. I think this is significant and even though that seventy dollars($70) I commend you for massaging the actual collection stuff,but nonetheless, a seventy- dollar ($70) charge that you have to overcome in order to start service, that is not a small charge for individuals in our community. As long as it's out there and people are aware, a multi-pronged approach would be beneficial. I appreciate you reaching out to the landlord side, but frankly they EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 VV.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 7TD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5