Loading...
11012012CouncilMinutes CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL - AGENDA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 – 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Steven Fuhriman at 7:00 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance – Councilmember Christensen Prayer – Councilmember Powell MINUTES: September 13, 2012, October 4, 2012 ITEMS FROM MAYOR: CONSENT AGENDA: Business License Accounts Payable – Exhibit A ITEMS FOR/FROM TREASURER: PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: (5 Minute Limitation) PUBLIC HEARINGS: None ACTION ITEMS: 1.Utility Rates and Fees 2.Resolution 2012-015 – Adoption of Utility Rate Fees (if approved) 3.Misc. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Misc. EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1.Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2.Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3.Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Sean Coletti Councilmember Russell Slack Councilmember Brad Christensen City Attorney Scott Hall City Clerk/Administrator/Planning Director Ron Folsom Deputy City Clerk Rachael Brown City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Engineer Lance Bates City Officials Absent: None CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Steven Fuhriman opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the City Hall building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. Councilmember Christensen led the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember Powell offered a prayer. 14 City Council Minutes 11-1-2012Page of MINUTES: September 13, 2012: Councilmember Kirkham moved to approve the minutes, as presented. Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Kirkham– Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Christensen – Yes, Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Abstain (Absent), and Councilmember Coletti – Yes. The motion passed. October 4, 2012: Councilmember Kirkham moved to approve the minutes, as presented. Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Kirkham – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Christensen – Yes, Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, and Councilmember Coletti – Yes. The motion passed. ITEMS FROM MAYOR: None CONSENT AGENDA: Accounts Payable – Exhibit A: Councilmember Powell moved to approve the Accounts Payable Exhibit-A, as presented. Councilmember Kirkham seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Powell – Yes, Councilmember Kirkham – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Slack – Yes, and Councilmember Christensen – Yes. The motion passed. ITEMS FOR/FROM TREASURER: None PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: (5 Minute Limitation): None PUBLIC HEARINGS: None ACTION ITEMS: 1. Utility Rates and Fees: Ron explained the proposed increase of the water rate by 3% and the sewer rate by 3%. The sewer would become $45.00 for each ERU (Equivalent Residential Unit). The monthly water rate in RP/RPA/RE zones would increase to $46.00 and in all other residential zones would increase to $38.35. The water rate without the bond payment is $19.35, with the bond payment being $19.00 per month. Scott Hall said as he recalled from the last sewer meeting, the City of Shelley is paying $24.50 on their sewer bond. Councilmember Coletti said yes he thinks that’s right. Scott said he thinks they could get a push from the region to increase our sewer bond to the same amount as the City of Shelley. Councilmember Coletti said the discussion was that everyone would pay the same amount for the bond payment. Councilmember Kirkham said she doesn’t understand why our bond payment and their bond payment need to be the same, because they are different bonds. She understands why both Cities need to have the same connection rate and usage fee, but not the same bond payment amount. Discussion ensued regarding the sewer bond. Councilmember Thompson said he had a meeting with Husk Crowther and Dave Forsgren and he feels they are trying to do damage control after what he said to them the last meeting; Councilmember Thompson distributed documents he received from Husk and Dave to the Council. Councilmember Thompson said according to Forsgren, the $9 the City pays for the sewer treatment includes the amount it would cost to keep the 14 mile sewer line going and is included in their O&M. Councilmember Powell said if it includes the maintenance of the 14 mile line, who is maintaining it. Lance said no one is maintaining the line. Councilmember Kirkham said the City of Ammon is going to service the line in addition to the $9, and that’s why we just approved the service rates. Discussion ensued regarding the sewer line. Councilmember Kirkham said she thinks the Council agrees that it is necessary to increase the sewer rate. Councilmember Thompson said the City is still subsidizing the sewer with reserves, and said if we are ever going to take care of the original town site we need to have money set aside to do that. If the Council had started in 1980 with the increases of 3% per year, the City would be at this rate anyway, and would have had money saved for future projects. Councilmember Powell said the Council is looking down the road at a $12 million project expansion for the wastewater plant in the City of Shelley, and also looking at the upgrading of the lines in the original town site at $6-8 million dollars. Councilmember Kirkham said even raising the sewer rate 4% every year the City will still be deficient. Councilmember Powell said he drove down Midway a couple times today and the road is falling apart and needs to be replaced; why not when City staff are replacing the roads, take a look at what pipes are there and replace the lines at the same time. Lance said even when we put down the IBSD separator line, the City ended up repairing a lot of the water lines, but we didn’t actually tear out and put in new pipe. Discussion ensued regarding the water lines in the original town site. Councilmember Kirkham asked the Council if they are in favor of a 3% increase to the sewer rate. Discussion ensued. Councilmember Christensen said his hesitation isn’t that he is not in favor of raising the sewer rate. He is looking at FY2012; if you look at the City’s end of year budget, you can’t look at the waste water and make any determination because there is so much capital expenditures you do not know what is what. Councilmember Christensen said he is comfortable raising the sewer rate, but with the understanding that the money the City has set aside in reserves needs to be used to pay down the bond. Councilmember Kirkham said she thinks that is fair, but in reality the Council will not know if there are any reserves left until the bond is closed. Councilmember Slack said he sees two uses for the money; the first is to pay down the bond, and the second is the additional train. Councilmember Christensen said he thinks the Council needs to secure additional growth and plan for that in 24 City Council Minutes 11-1-2012Page of the future. He is afraid that the Council will raise these fees to the point where people no longer want to come to the City of Ammon. Councilmember Kirkham said Ammon’s growth has been slow for the last two years due to the economy, but also because our fees are higher than the County and the City of Idaho Falls. This has been the reality of having to do these bonds. Councilmember Kirkham said the bond has been set to pay off based on the City’s population in 2005, and hopes there is enough growth that we don’t need to continue raising the fees. Councilmember Kirkham said the water proposal was to not raise the water fee, because it is an arbitrary number right now. Discussion ensued regarding the proposed water rate increase. Councilmember Powell said he could go either way with the increase, and explained that a 3% water fee increase will not get the City where it needs to be, but if the Council does increase the water rate by 3% then he would like to see the funds put back into the reserve that we took out to subsidize the rate to begin with. Councilmember Powell said the City took $500,000 out of reserves to subsidize the water rate over the last couple of years. Councilmember Christensen asked Jennifer according to the Sept 2012 financials we were supposed to pay $1 million on the bond, which we did not do, but we paid $415,000 in interest. Jennifer said when we do the budgeting we show everything in the income statement, all the revenues and expenses we are going to do. The bond is a liability on the balance sheet, and when we make the payment every month it reduces the liability on the balance sheet and the interest shows on the income statement. Councilmember Kirkham said she understands where Councilmember Christensen is coming from in not wanting to put a hardship on the community, but at the same time it’s good to return what has been taken from reserves; and the argument that you could make that this why the City has reserves. She is willing to support the idea of not raising the water rate this fiscal cycle, but the reality is that in the next fiscal cycle it will have to be raised; but the question will be how much. Councilmember Kirkham hopes we will have the answers; either the City will go to meters, or we will not use meters but start saving for the project in the original town site. Councilmember Christensen said staff has demonstrated they are efficient with the assets and resources they have. We have been able to live within the budget we have and can make do for another year. We need to look at our next year’s budget and ask ourselves if we can operate within the budget without the 3% rate increase. He thinks the answer is yes. Discussion ensued regarding meters. Councilmember Slack said he feels it will be less expensive in the long run if the Council raises the rates now. Whatever we don’t raise now to put into reserves for future expenses, we will have to bond to update the pipes in the original town site. He asked Jennifer how much a day we pay on interest for the sewer project. Jennifer said on the sewer we pay $1,364.40 per day in interest and the water $1,148.62. Councilman Slack said that is $1,300.00 a day we could have in reduced expenses if we had started saving the money 20 years ago. Councilman Slack said this is not an investment account; It is putting money aside for a capital expenditure that we know is coming. Councilmember Kirkham said she thinks that we continually discuss what our future is with the water but, we never make a decision, and we are at the point that we need to make a decision whether to meter or not. Discussion ensued regarding metering the water. The Council requested information be compiled on the water usage at various sized lots in the City and the cost in today’s dollars of the upcoming projects. Councilmember Powell asked Lance how much it would cost to put in a well. Lance said drilling was $85,000.00 and the buildings were another $120,000. Councilmember Kirkham pooled the Council about the increase. Councilmember Thompson, Councilmember Powell, Councilmember Slack and Councilmember Coletti are in favor of increasing the water and sewer by 3%. Councilmember Christensen is not interested in raising the water rate. Councilmember Kirkham said she wanted to make sure that Councilmember Christensen is clear that the Council wants to look at paying down the bond when we get there, but there is no guarantee that is what is going to happen. Councilmember Kirkham said she could go either way on the water. Councilmember Powell said when we had the public hearings; residents said $9.00 would have been better than $11.00. Councilmember Christensen said that was when they were faced with a big increase. Councilmember Powell said we got to that point because we did not increase fees like we were supposed to do, and he does not want to make that mistake again. Councilmember Kirkham said she knows the Council talks about future issues, and she is conscious of what future members of the Council will have to face because of her decisions. Councilmember Slack moved to approve Resolution 2012-015 – Utility Rate fees, as presented. Councilmember Powell seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – No (because he feels the Council should give the residents a year off without an increase on the water), Councilmember Kirkham – No, (because she believes that it’s ok to live within our means for a year and figure out what we need to be saving, and work towards that, but there is going to probably be a yes next year), Councilmember Thompson – Yes, and Councilmember Christensen - No, (for all the fore mentioned reasons, and to live within the existing budget). Mayor Fuhriman was asked to break the tie vote. Mayor Fuhriman – No (because the Council needs a plan for why the Council is increasing the rates, and to have a ten year plan in place, but with the knowledge that he would ask for a 5% increase next year instead of only 3%) The motion failed. 2. Resolution 2012-015 – Adoption of Utility Rate Fees: Councilmember Kirkham moved to amend the resolution to omit the water increase, and amend the effective date to December 1, 2012. Councilmember Powell seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Kirkham – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Slack – Yes, and Councilmember Christensen – Yes. The motion passed. Councilmember Christensen would like to use the existing reserves to pay down the sewer bond and close the bond as soon as possible. 34 City Council Minutes 11-1-2012Page of DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Misc.: Ron explained that every month the City receives a monthly construction report; the schedule shows that the City of Idaho Falls has issued 86 residential permits this year, and Ammon has issued 64. Ron said based on our population we are doing considerably better than Idaho Falls and their rates are considerably less than the City of Ammon. Discussion ensued. Councilmember Thompson distributed documents he received from Forsgren and Associates for the Council to review. He said Forsgren will most likely be coming to the Council to explain their position. Councilmember Coletti asked Ron if he was able to find an ordinance for sewer discharge in the City of Ammon. Ron said that staff is drafting one. Councilmember Coletti asked if the ordinance would be based on the EIRWWA model. Lance asked who the director of EIRWWA was, because the Director has a lot of specific duties in the EIRWWA ordinance. Councilmember Kirkham said th they meet again December 12, and asked Lance if that was soon enough to obtain the information. Lance said yes. EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1. Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2. Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3. Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) Councilmember Kirkham moved to adjourn into executive session pursuant to Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c&f). Councilmember Slack seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Kirkham – Yes, Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Christensen – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, and Councilmember Coletti – Yes. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m. ___________________________________________________ Steven Fuhriman, Mayor __________________________________________________ Ron Folsom, City Clerk 44 City Council Minutes 11-1-2012Page of