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HomeMy WebLinkAbout091007 WorkshopCITY OF PORT TOWNSEND CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF THE WORKSHOP MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The City Council of the City of Port Townsend met in workshop session the tenth day of September 2007, at 6:50 p.m. in the Port Townsend City Council Chambers of City Hall, Mayor Mark Welch presiding. ROLL CALL Council members present at roll call were, Laurie Medlicott, George Randels, Catharine Robinson, and Mark Welch. Frank Benskih, Geoff Masci, and Michelle Sandoval were excused. Staff members present were City Manager David Timmons, City Attorney John Watts, Public Works Director Ken Clow, and City Clerk Pam Kolacy. 2007 WATER SYSTEM PLAN UPDATE Public Works Director Ken Clow stated that a public hearing has been set for September 17. After hearing comment, the recommendation is that Council will adopt the Water System Plan update. Discussion was held at the August 20 Council meeting and staff is present to answer any remaining questions from the Council. Mr. Clow stated that the recommendation will be to approve the Plan as stated; staff will submit an updated financing plan depending on the result of Council action on utility rates; adopting the plan will keep it moving ahead in the review process. In response to a question from Mr. Randels, Mr. Clow stated that the bottom line will not be lower and could be higher in the new iteration with revised Chapter 9. He stated that some of the projects in the plan have not been adjusted for inflation and that the secondary disinfection plant was not included in the rate study. Once the City identifies how it wants to address secondary disinfection, financing plans will be reviewed. In response to questions from Ms. Robinson, Mr. Clow stated that an application fora water right on the Dosewallops River submitted in 1954 was never processed and has been officially withdrawn. The City is still working slowly through the Forest Service special use permits; the issue is in the hands of USFS and they are currently working with the Tribes; since the application has been completed, two new species offish have been identified as City Council Workshop Meeting Page 1 September 70, 2007 endangered/threatened. The worst thing now is that we don't know what the final permit conditions will be. He also stated that when the department feels they need more staffing in response to expansion of the system, they would come back to Council with that request. Regarding the water service area, the area in the plan is the one Council adopted last spring, which holds the service area line at Jacob Miller Road. In response to questions from Mrs. Medlicott, staff discussed at length the state requirement for secondary treatment to deal with cryptosporidium. Mr. Watts stated that he would update the Council on the status of legal actions initiated by Portland and New York City. WATER/SEWER UTLITY COST OF SERVICE ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDED RATES Mr. Timmons reviewed the packet information, explaining that part of the follow- up study by FCS Consulting was the recommendation of three new utility classes. He stated this would help adjust the rates so that single family residential users are not subsidizing the other users such as Fort Worden, the Port, and the hospital. He added that the City will work with individual customers, but the bottom line is this takes the cost and distributes more equity within the utility by shifting away from single family residential and shifting more responsibility to commercial and multi-family class users. Mr. Randels stated he believes a revision is in order, such as elimination of subsidies from residential to commercial users. Because he feels the need to represent Fort Worden as a Fort Worden Advisory Committee member, he feels that having a system that identifies only one customer (the Fort) in a category is suspect and one must ask why that customer is singled out. He stated that if the 800,000-gallon per month rate were set lower, then three of the six commercial users would be included and there would be mare incentive for water conservation. Mr. Legarsky stated that conservation rates were eliminated in the billing system because it was determined that it was not working for the sewer utility. Mr. Timmons stated that none of the other commercial customers has such a high variance rate of usage so there is no apple-to-apple comparison. He stated the upper limit could be eliminated and perhaps better metering would be a solution. Mr. Randels stated it would be a good idea to eliminate the penalty for now and work with the Fort on sub metering and other solutions -more metering would also help to identify leaks in the system. City Council Workshop Meeting Page 2 September T 0, 2007 Mrs. Medlicott asked for a list of all entities that would be included in the Commercial classes. Mr. Legarsky will provide a list. Consensus was that staff will prepare two ordinances for next week's public hearing, one including the over limit class and one which does not. Mr. Legarsky noted that the consulting group would need to run numbers for the alternate ordinance. ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:07 p.m. Attest: Pam Kolacy, CMC City Clerk City Council Workshop Meeting Page 3 September 10, 2007