Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Resolution 4875 Amending Systems Development Charge Methodology for Regional Wastewater System and Amending Resolution No. 4740 City Manager Taylor said Engineering Data Services Manager Fred McVey was available to answer questions. Councilor Bettman averred that the resolution before the council would decrease SDCs to the “biggest” contributors to the wastewater stream, which she felt were establishments involved with food preparation. She thought this was contradictory to information from the MWMC that indicated SDC revenue was not adequate to pay for its CIP. She thought it would be difficult to determine the range of uses in which a food service business engaged. She wanted language included that would restore the rate structure to the existing rate structure. She asked staff for language to amend the resolution before the item came back for action. Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. Seeing no one who wished to testify, she closed the public hearing. Mr. McVey clarified that if the City Council decided that it did not favor the request to modify the SDCs in the manner the MWMC requested, the City Council would have to return it to the MWMC with a request to modify the resolution because it would have to be consistent between Eugene and Springfield. In response to a question from Councilor Bettman, Mr. McVey stated that the item for the present meeting was a public hearing and a motion to amend could be made at the time of action. Councilor Kelly asked if a particular use, such as a restaurant, was judged to generate less gallons per day, would it be the expectation that a slightly higher pennies-per-gallon SDC rate would be charged in order to keep the funds that needed to be raised whole,. Mr. McVey said there was no specific way to anticipate the exact number and types of individual development at the time the rates were being set. He added that rates were set based on a system-wide projection. He commented that fine tuning of individual user categories was not factored back into the rate calculation. Regarding the rate schedule, Mr. McVey stated that it was originally adopted by a separate resolution and was separate from the methodology. Councilor Kelly asked if the MWMC considered a modified rate schedule. Mr. McVey replied that the commission was considering it in the coming week. Councilor Bettman commented that she hoped the council appointee, Councilor Poling, was “representing City policy in those deliberations as was called for in the approved Council Agreements.” She asked if the council could send the resolution back to the MWMC with a direction to set the SDCs at a rate where they were adequate to fund capacity enhancing improvements. City Attorney Jerry Lidz responded that the council could send the entire methodology or pieces of it to the MWMC for revision or for dispute resolution under the terms of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that was approved one year earlier. He pointed out that the methodology and the rates were distinct questions. He was uncertain as to whether the questions he heard thus far pertained as much to the methodology as to the rates. He explained that the methodology had to do with allocation of impact according to the different uses and not with how much will be charged. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 22, 2006 Page 9 Regular Meeting