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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes October 22, 2019 Page 4 1 Finance Director Rueckert reviewed Ordinance 2019-10, amending multiple sections relating to 2 sewer, water and stormwater fees and other fees with the Council and indicated that this is the 3 first of three readings. 4 5 Councilmember Jenson asked approximately in what year did Finance Director Rueckert expect 6 the flat fee increase to top out. Finance Director Rueckert thought the City had another two to 7 three years and based on the past rate surveys done, even with the rate increases the City should 8 still be within what the average residential user pays for water overall. It is a matter of shifting 9 the cost from a usage base over to a fixed base. 10 11 Councilmember Gray indicated at the last Coffee with the Council, there were a few people from 12 apartments and condominiums that were there and one of the things brought up is there is a flat 13 fee in the apartment buildings for what is paid for water and sewer and some indicated they used 14 less then their neighbors and wondered why the apartments cannot have something like the 15 households have that is based on usage. He asked staff to look at the feasibility of requiring it 16 for future developments. He would like to be able to encourage the conservation and by 17 charging by usage per unit would be beneficial and made sense to him. 18 19 Mayor Faust thought that could be an item for goal setting discussion for the Council. 20 21 Councilmember Stille thought the sources and uses did not match up in the buckets so what the 22 City is doing is trying to rectify that and making these funds self-sufficient. 23 24 Mayor Faust thought what everyone has realized is that everyone tends to use less electricity 25 than ten to twenty years ago, yet everyone is paying more for it. He thought the transparency is 26 the reduction in one rate and the increase in the other shows that these are being used for sources 27 and uses as appropriate, which adds to that transparency. 2g 29 Motion by Councilmember Stille, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve the first 30 reading of Ordinance No. 2019-10; An Ordinance Amending Multiple Sections of Chapter 33 31 Sewer, Water, License and Permit Fees, Storm Water Facilities and Chapter 52 Water Reading 32 and Billing. 33 34 Motion carried 5-0. 35 36 VII. REPORTS FROM CITY MANAGER AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. 37 38 Councilmember Stille stated he attended a cookout at Mirror Lake a couple of weeks ago as a 39 celebratory event of putting in their new infrastructure. He noted these are private roads and 40 private utilities and Mirror Lake had to put their own in and had to raise their own funds. The 41 City of St. Anthony was helpful in that because the City allowed Mirror Lake to use their 42 assessment process in order to pay for that. He congratulated the residents of Mirror Lake and 43 thought it was a nice project. He stated he also attended the October 19th Coffee with Council 44 and a Worksession on October 15t. 45