10-12-94 Council Workshop Minutes

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MIN[ITES CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 12, 1994 concern brought up by cities in meeting on this issue a year ago. The Administrator pointed out that the current system has a high impact on wet cities. The Administrator suggested the need for the City engineer to do an inflow and infiltration analysis of the City's sewer system to make sure there are no problems with the system. Morelan asked if it were costly to televise the system, and suggested that it would seem the City could save a lot of money if a problem is identified and corrected. The Administrator replied that televising the system is not very expensive, however, infiltration does not necessarily occur on a constant basis. As part of an inflow and infiltration study, meters would be place in manholes for a period of time to study the flows. The Administrator suggested that he discuss this study with the City Engineer and brinq back a recommendation for the Council to consider. Morelan asked if Professional Services expense was for the audit. The Administrator replied that it was. The total audit fee for 1994 was about $25,000. Each year over the last few, the City has made substantial progress in reducing audit costs by handling more items in-house. The Administrator pointed out a projected net loss in the Sewer Budget for 1995 of $103,398. It would require an 11 1/2% rate adjustment to make up that loss. A recommendation for sewer rate adjustment will be made after the first of the year, when fourth quarter results are available. Morelan pointed out that the second largest expenditure in the Sewer Budget is depreciation. There are a lot of ways to figure depreciation which could change results considerably depending on the accountinq system. Therefore, the City is not actually loosing dollars. The Administrator pointed out that the City is using depreciation to build up dollars to cover the cost of future repairs. This ensures that there are no major 10