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REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 25,2013 <br /> look at. We do currently have water insurance allowed for customers outside of the city limits. <br /> We do capture methane and we've got digester's being rebuilt right now that the methane <br /> capture will be used to power our C&G vehicles. The gentleman on College Street had a number <br /> of good questions, we will have a series of bonds, those bonds would be yearly,those rates & <br /> terms would vary depending on the time. We would look at either a sewer bond or a SRF Bond <br /> depending on what conditions, whether conditions are favorable or not. Currently we have a <br /> really strong financial position which puts us in a good position to get low rates on bonds. I <br /> don't have an answer on percentage of basement flooding or percent of decline on overflows, but <br /> I can get those answers to you. <br /> Chairperson White: The number of sewer rates payers who live outside of the city. <br /> Eric Horvath: Yeah, I did provide that before. I believe it's 4,000 of our 40,000 customers are <br /> outside of the city limits or about 10%. I can verify that for you. <br /> Chairperson White: We will make sure that the administration will get all the questions that <br /> were asked during the public hearing portion. And would recommend that somehow these <br /> questions could be made available to the public so that they know that we have heard the <br /> questions and you can have the answers to those questions as well. <br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis: Could we put them on our website? <br /> Chairperson White: Yes. <br /> Eric Horvath: The customer count by class inside the city limits is 36,476; outside city limits <br /> 3,591, so close to ten percent(10%), a little less. <br /> Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand: Could you also supply a copy of this power point. <br /> Eric Horvath: Absolutely. <br /> Chairperson White: The public hearing portion is now closed. We will go down the line for <br /> Council comments and then would like to entertain a motion. <br /> Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Thank you Chairman White. As I stated before and this is <br /> why I was asking Mayor Buttigieg to be at these conversations. Obviously these conversations <br /> get a bit intense not only because of your presence, but you also provide a roll as a visionary for <br /> the City of South Bend and what happens next and what's going to happen next as planning <br /> takes place. When we are able to have those conversations and match them up with what's <br /> happening now it gives the Council as well hopefully your office as well to put things in their <br /> proper perspective or points or list them as priorities. It's not a way of taking attendance, it's just <br /> a way of having a progressive conversation that is really not political but addresses the needs of <br /> the citizens of South Bend. Based upon what we are looking at it is almost looking like water is <br /> becoming a commodity here in South Bend. What I mean by that is that if you can look at the <br /> some of the extreme cases across the city but I am going to start with District 2. You have folks <br /> using water hoses from the neighbor's houses to help put water inside their houses because <br /> clearly the water has been turned off somewhere and at some time and if we go with a rate <br /> increase you are going find a situation where that water will never get turned on and you have <br /> people who will probably will (inaudible) and you have here the situation with kids or whomever <br /> don't have water,running water in their houses and how do they get it turned back on, if they <br /> don't have any money and the rate has increased. I was also provided with probably a bit of a <br /> solution, I don't necessarily know if this is a total solution, but having a tiered scale when we are <br /> dealing with large consumers of water here in the city. We talked about this, there was a court <br /> case some time ago and we kind of pulled back on it, I think that the more you use, the more you <br /> should pay. Just because you use huge quantities, you shouldn't get a huge discount because you <br /> use huge quantities, this is not Wal-Mart; this is not Sam's Club; this is South Bend, Indiana. So, <br /> I am just really thinking about it. You stated earlier that 9.9%was the employment rate, I would <br /> go for that right now,but when you talk about the chronically employment, you are probably <br /> going to times this about 2, and then if you go into minority communities you could probably <br /> times it by 3. And so you are going to be looking at a big situation with the haves and have <br /> not's. And not having water says a whole lot about a city. I was just looking earlier at the <br /> poverty rate, it's like 16% we really have to pay attention to what is going on with our residents. <br /> 14 <br />