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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. -1-February 3, 1981 /pe 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. -2- February 3, 1981 /pe J 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. -3- February 3, 1981 /pe 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 -4- February 3, 1981 /pe