HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-02-03 - City Commission Special Meeting MinutesIMSED NOTICE
PUBLIC ITARING/SPECIAL MEETING
CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT nE T",RAC CITY COUNCIL WILL CONSIDER ADOPTION OF A
RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING AND MODIFYING RATES AND CHARGES APPLICABLE TO ME
UTILITIES OWNED BY THE CITY SERVING CUSTOMERS WEST OF STATE ROAD 7. ME
PROPOSED CHANGE(S) PERTAIN TO IRRIGATION CUSMERS ONLY.
A Public Hearing/Special Meeting will beheld on Tuesday, February 3, 1981
at 7:00 P.M. in Council Chambers, City Hall, 5811 N.W. 88th Avenue, Tamarac,
Florida.
The full text of the Resolution is available for review and purchase in the
Office of the City Clerk between 8:30 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. weekdays.
Council may consider such other items as may come before it.
Pursuant to Chapter 80-105 of Florida Law, Senate Bill No. 386: If a person
decides to appeal any decision made by the City Council with respect to any
matter considered at such meeting or hearing, he will need a record of the
proceedings and for such purpose, he may need to ensure that a verbatirn record
of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testitmny and evidence
upon which the appeal is to be based.
�arolEvans
Assistant City Clerk
PUBLICATION DATE: Fort Lauderdale News
January 31, 1981
CITY OF TAMARC, FLORIDA
SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL
PUBLIC HEARING
WATER & SEWER RATES - TU WEST
February 3, 1981
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Falck called the meeting to order on Tuesday,
February 3, 1981 at 7:10 P.M. in Council Chambers, City Hall, Tamarac,
Florida.
ROLL CALL:
PRESENT: Mayor Walter W. Falck
Vice -Mayor Helen Massaro
C/M Irving M. Disraelly
C/W Marjorie Kelch
ABSENT AND EXCUSED:
C/M Irving Zemel
ALSO PRESENT: Actng.City Mgr., Laura Z. Stuurmans
Finance Director, Steve Wood
Accnt., Util.West, Barry Magnes
Asst. City Clerk, Carol Evans
Mayor Falck read the official notice of the meeting.
V/M Massaro asked Mr. Arthur Birken, City Attorney to rule on the fact
that there were two different official notices.
Mr. Birken stated that adequate notice was provided and therefore, the
meeting can proceed. Mr. Birken read Temp. Reso. #1835 by title.
1. Public Hearing - Utility Rates Amendment - Temp. Reso. #1835 -
Discussion and possible action to amend commercial, water rates
and irrigation rates for residential and commercial.
SYNOPSIS OF ACTION: Adopted with commitment
to further review rates. RESOLUTION NO. R - r/_ 4Xaf_ PASSED
Mr. Birken indicated that this matter was discussed last Wednesday at
a Public Hearing held by the City Council after a number of workshops.
He said after the action was taken by Council to enact the resolution,
it was discovered that a word was typed in that could not have been
included in the resolution on the subject of commercial irrigation
water rates charged for consumption per 1000 gallons; Council has taken
action already and there was a Public Hearing on the other matters
concerning irrigation rates and there is no proposal made by Staff to
affect those rates in any way, shape or form --there is no Staff recom-
mendation concerning changing those rates, the only Staff recommendation
has to do with taking out the word "no" before"consumption charge per
1000 gallons"for commercial irrigation water rates.
V/M Massaro indicated that the question that is uppermost in many of
the sections is the effect it will have on their rates for the club-
houses; she feels clubhouses are entitled to residential rates and this
should be taken up in the very near future; however it is not an issue
for this meeting.
Ms. Laura Stuuarmans said the Administration recommends that in Section
1, Paragraph 8, Commercial Irrigation Water, that the correction is
reflected in this resolution,which would be consumption charge for 1000
gallons $0.60,be approved by Council; regular utility rates are based
upon a minimum service availability charge with a consumption charge per
1000 gallons.
The Mayor indicated that this was a Public Hearing and asked if anyone
from the Public wished to speak.
Mr. Barry Eden representing the Tamarac Chamber of Commerce stated that
he thought the resolution was going to be reviewed de novo and
discussed the changes in the residential irrigation rates and the
commercial water rates. He reviewed the proposed rates and indicated
that irrigation rates affect a very small group in this City; the
residential rate effects on irrigation water meters affect the majority of
home owners in the Woodlands. He further indicated that the business
people, prior to this resolution, were payinw more than the residential
customers for water consumption, this being in the charge for sewer usage.
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Irrigation and commercial customers were paying the ;same charge until
the proposed resolution. He indicated that with the proposed change
on irrigation rates, for a 1"' meter, there would be a commercial rate
of $17.80 for service availability and for residential, $4.65 and he
wanted to know why there is a 283% difference.
There is some question as to the computation of the formula on
commercial rates as reviewed by C/M Disraelly and himself with the
Finance Director. Mr. Eden has heard it said that commercial people
are not paying their fair share of the water rates and, if that is
so, unfortunately for the commercial users, there might be a handful
of very big water users --the majority of commercial, users in this City
have 5/8" meters like the homeowners and use less water than the
residential users. In his opinion, and he indicated that he is speak-
ing for the Chamber of Commerce also, the commercial users are less of
a burden on the utility company than the homes and they should pay less,
not more.
Mr. Eden discussed the irrigation rate increase of 53%, the residential
charges being decreased by 592% average, and the proposed rate of
service availability being raised for commercial users by 297o. If the
City feels that there is a reason for reducing irrigation water rates
f-or the resi ale f_iai .; tc, let --gym-he -ret4- tees':. 1^ut_....dorr`-.t_.try_to maw
up the short -fall on the commercial users. Mr. Eden then mentioned an
article which had quoted Mr. Gross as saying that the Utility Company
was in good financial shape; and he further stated that if there is
relief to be granted to a certain group, then that relief should be
granted.
Mr. Eden said he is in favor of clubhouses being able to use a residential
rate as mentioned by V/M Massaro, but his group is asking for equality
and until it can be justified that commercial users should pay this
increase to absorb the loss in revenue by the reduction in the residential
irrigation water charges, he doesn't think it is fair and equitable for
the small business man to be burdened in this City. They feel that this
matter should be entirely reviewed so that there is no question that the
commercial. people have to pay the increase and suggested that this matter
be tabled for further review.
Mr. Charles M. Zimmet of Lime Bay representing the Chamber of Commerce
of Tamarac thanked the Council for holding a night meeting and said he
is interested in broadening the tax base by creating a more liberal
climate to attract more business in the area and as a Tamarac resident
he would favor any constructive effort to lighten the future tax burden.
Mayor Falck closed the Public Hearing.
Mr. Steve Wood, Finance Director reported that when he made the rate,
this was based on the fact that it was desirous to grant some relief
to the irrigation single family meters and that it was also desirous
that the net effect on revenues of the utility be zero; meaning that
any relief granted to one group would have to be passed on to another
group --also that residential irrigation users consist of about 390
customers, commercial users of the City are 410 customers --both groups
are basically equivalent in size. The consolidation of the rates based
on an average is that if you take a look at the whole group, all
commercial users or all single family users or all multi -family users,
t h e average rate per 1000 gallons paid by those groups, you will
find that the commercial users pay less per 1000 gallons. Therefore,
to make all groups more equitable, the single family irrigation meters
which were charged the most, their rate would be reduced and that
incremental cost would be passed on to the commercial users who were
paying the lowest average cost per 1000. The City doesn't have the
ability to pass it on in consumption charge per 1000 gallons because
of the computer limitations, so the cost was built in to the minimum
service availability charge, which is passed through when it is spread
over the consumption that each meter has in a monthly period.
Ms. Stuurmans asked Mr. Wood what the average rate was per 1000 gallons
at the current time and what it would be after the adoption of this
resolution.
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Mr. Wood reported that the average cost per 1000 gallons right now for
residential irrigation,before the resolution it was $1.35344; after
the resolution, it was .90185--for commercial irrigation, before the
resolution, it was $1.04329, after the resolution, it was $1.27781---
for single family residential it will remain the same $1.35031 before
and after the resolution --for multi -family it will remain the same,
$1.33292--for commercial, before the resolution it was .70129, after
the resolution it was .86569.
V/M Massaro reiterated her comments on establishing residential rates
for clubhouses.
C/W Kelch said she is very interested in knowing how many commercial
users use a 5/8" meter, how many are using the 1", etc. She felt
we could have a much better idea of where the volume is coming from;
if the large meters are being used by those persons who are in a larger
use capacity, they are already paying more in their availability charge.
C/W Kelch MOVED that rather than a tabling motion, we have an enactment
with the commitment that we will look into it and if we feel that any
further revisions are necessary, we will call for them.
C/M Disraelly mentioned that when these rates were made by Mr. Hung--
berger 12 years ago, he was trying to produce the revenues that were
required in order for the City to float bonds and to have the bond issue
validated. At that time there was a discussion as to whether it would
be 110% or 120% or even 150% of the required revenue for the bonds to be
handled at that time.
C/M Disraelly went on to say that when the rate was adopted last year,
the indication was that we would have excess funds for two or three
years and that no major rate change was to be anticipated before 1985.
We know that there would be additional costs that would be coming in
based on the cost of services and the cost of chemicals, etc. and the
projection was that we would have surpluses in 1980/81/82 which would be
used up partially in 1983/84/85, bringing us down to a net figure where
at that time, we might have to raise rates across the board.
C/M Disraelly stated that this study started several months ago and it
is realized that there were some inequities, as Mr. Wood indicated in
the difference between the residential rates, the irrigation rates, etc.
The suggestion was made at that time that the proper procedure would be
for the commercial rates instead of being $0.60 per 1000 gallons, to
be somewhere between $0.62 and $0.65 in order to be equitable. Unfor-
tunately, our computer and the computer service that we were using,
could not handle this and it couldn't be broken down. Therefore, the
only means of handling it so far as our computer is concerned, would be
changing the service availability char gF and the nearest figures that
Mr. Wood could come up with to offset that 2� to 50 per gallon was in
the service availability charge. The City is in the process of looking
for a new computer and it will be sophisticated enough to be able to
handle all types of details of this sort and at this moment, it is the
only way in which it can be done.
V/M Massaro agreed with C/W Kelch and also felt that the proposed rates
were not out of line.
C/M Disraelly SECONDED the motion.
VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE.
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V/M Massaro said she will promise the commercial accounts one thing --
that she is not going to drop it there --she is going to review and
re -review this and also asked Ms. L. Stuurmans to please contact the
Finance Director and Mr. Magnes, whos is working with the utility
figures and come back with a recommendation at the time we refer to
the various clubhouses in the City.
MAYOR FALCK ADJOURNED THE MEETING AT 8:10 P.M.
ATTEST:
ASSISTANT CITY -CLERK
This public document was promulgated at a cost of $: i.►,S , or
$ per copy, to inform the general public and public officers
and employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City
Council of the City of Tamarac.
APPROVED BY
CITY COUNCIL ON
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