05-07-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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dile °anal?' 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 (651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 -4048 www.ei.ifille-conada.mn.us MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener and Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: May 3, 2012 RE: City of Birchwood Village — Utility Billing MAYOR Bill nlesener COUNCIL Rick Montour John Keis Michael McGraw Shelly Boss ADMINISTRATOR Joel R. Hanson Back in late 2010, we entered into an agreement with Birchwood Village to provide utility billing services. (A copy of that agreement is attached.) Some additional services were also provided outside the scope of the utility billing arrangement. Earlier this year, City staff did a cost analysis of the utility billing and other services that Little Canada provides the City of Birchwood Village. The results of that analysis indicated we were not recovering our costs. As a result, I put together a proposal to the City of Birchwood Village for a modified agreement (copy attached). I attended the Birchwood City Council meeting on March 13, 2012 to provide our perspective on my proposal given the City Clerk's report did not seem to present our request in a favorable light. At that meeting, a Council Committee was assigned to study the issue and work with Little Canada to resolve the matter. Since that time, I have sent a few e -mails to the Birchwood City Clerk in an attempt to work on this issue. He informed me that are doing some price checking with other communities. On May 1, 2012, I again emailed the Birchwood City Clerk asking the status of this issue, and received the attached response. Based on this response and the indication they won't be discussing this until after our next billing cycle, it would be my recommendation that Little Canada give Birchwood six months notice of termination of utility billing services to ensure we do not provide this service any longer than necessary if we are not recovering our costs. (With six months' notice before June 1 ", we would be obligated to bill two more quarters. If we wait until after June 1", we would have three more.) It should be understood that our notice would not close the door on a continued relationship if are costs are being covered. I also respect Birchwood's desire to make sure our pricing is reasonable. However, given their apparent timeline, I believe we need to take this action at this time to protect our interests. 1