CC Minutes - 05/29/01 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Peter Ruffier of the Public Works Department submitted the budget of the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission to the council for approval. He said the budget included expenses associated with the administration of the regional program as well as operations and maintenance costs for the regional facilities, which included the main wastewater treatment plant, the bio-solids facility, and the seasonal industrial waste site. Mr. Ruffler noted that the Wastewater Management Commission was administered by an intergovernmental agreement between Eugene and Springfield. He added that the City of Springfield was responsible for the financial administration of the regional program. He introduced Susie Smith, the Manager of Springfield's Environmental Services Division and General Manager for the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission, and Eileen Stein, a Senior Management Analyst for the City of Springfield. Ms. Stein provided a summary of the budget. She noted that Lane County was scheduled to ratify the budget the next morning and the City of Springfield was scheduled to ratify the budget on June 18. She noted that the new budget raised regional rates by five percent. Ms. Stein emphasized that the FY00-01 budget saw the completion of the commission's goal to manage the regional wastewater program for five years without a rate increase. Ms. Stein said that the rate increase would allow the commission to fund operations in capital improvements over the next five years with stable rates. She said that the rate increase amounted to a monthly charge of $8.53 for residential customers which was an increase of $.40 based on average monthly water usage of 5,000 gallons. Ms. Stein called attention to a survey, distributed to the council, which showed how the regional rate compared to other Oregon communities. She emphasized that administration and operations and maintenance costs in the proposed budget were within the range of inflation. She noted that staffing levels remained stable. She said that personnel costs increased six percent, largely due to increases in health care coverage. Councilor Rayor said that he found the budget process to be very clear and concise and recommended the passage of the budget to the council. He thanked commission staff for its work. Councilor Taylor, seconded by Councilor Kelly, moved to approve the FY02 Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission Budget. In response to a question from Councilor Bettman regarding reassurance that there were no Systems Development Charge (SDC) eligible expenditures in the capital budgets that were not paid for by SDCs, Ms. Smith said that one of the main reasons that the SDCs seemed Iow was that a huge percentage of the cost of the facilities were covered by federal grants. She added that the SDC methodology used by the commission was reviewed in 1997-98 with the idea of dealing with large industrial users. Ms. Smith said that previous SDC methodology had been based on a five-year capital improvement program and noted that there was currently a well-defined ten-year capital improvement program. She stressed that the SDC methodology was being reviewed in the current year to reflect a ten-year time frame. MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 29, 2001 Page 3 Regular Meeting