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05/22/2014 - Minutes ,;„ Minutes e'• `' DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC UTILITIES f7 F i-1 ADMINISTRATION Salt Lake City RECEIVED Public Utilities Advisory Committee AUG 2 1 Minutes 2014 May 22, 2014 CITY RECORDER The Public Utilities Advisory Committee meeting was held at 7:oo a.m. May 22, 2014 at 153o South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. Committee members present: Dixie Huefner, Larry Myers, Allen Orr, Roger Player, Kent Moore and Jani Iwamoto. Committee member Dwight Butler was absent. Salt Lake City Public Utilities employees present were Jeff Niermeyer, Tom Ward, Jim Lewis, Jesse Stewart, Chuck Call, Jason Brown, Laura Briefer, Brad Stewart, Dave Pearson, David Koltz, Dale Christensen, Andra Ahrens and Zee Smith. Also in attendance were Rusty Vetter, SLC Attorney's Office; Jim Olson, WaterWorks Eng.; Mike Wilson, MWDSLS; Cristina Nelson, Bowen Collins & Associates; Jermey Williams, Carollo Engineering; Holly Hilton, SLC Mayor's Office; Jeff DenBleyler, CH2MHILL; Mark Haik, Peter Erickson & Peter Phillip Hancke, Epic Brewing Co. Approve Minutes of April 24, 2o1.4 Meeting Committee member Larry Myers moved and committee member Allen Orr seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the April 24, 2014 meeting as amended. All members present voted aye. Financial Report —Jim Lewis Mr. Jim Lewis briefed the Committee on the financial report for the period ending April 3o, 2014. Mr. Lewis stated that all four funds are in good financial condition. He stated that in spite of one of the hottest summers on record our water sales are still below the previous year by 4.5% but water sales have improved and are no longer 6.9% behind last year as reported last month. The improvement is based on the hotter dryer March period. Currently water sales are looking up as we have had some hotter and dryer days with a warm forecast for next month. He stated that during the spring period water sales can change drastically from one year to the next based on weather conditions. He then presented a chart showing water consumption monthly for the past six years. He stated that you can see the volatility in water sales based on weather conditions in each of the May and June periods. Mr. Lewis is hoping for a very dry and hot spring season to bring our water sales up to last years. The next slide presented was a comparison of revenue for all four funds versus budget. Mr. Lewis stated that revenues from the Sewer Utility are higher than last year due to the 6% sewer rate increase effective July 1st of this past year. The Water Utility revenues are below last year by approximately $3 million due to the wetter than normal summer season. It is anticipated that sales will improve over the next couple of weeks and bring the total water sales closer to last year. The Stormwater Utility and Street Lighting are slightly below our expected levels for this time of year. It is expected that Street Lighting will be under revenue estimates at the end of this year by as much as $400,00o due to overestimating the new revenue potential of the new fund. May 22,2014 PUAC MEETING MINUTES The next slide presented was a comparison of operating costs, comparing last year with the current budget amounts. Mr. Lewis stated that operating costs for the Water Utility are lower than last year by $1.6 million, which relates to a decrease in water purchases from MWDSLS over the previous year, offsetting the decrease in revenues. The Sewer costs are higher than last year by $i million as legal and professional consulting fees are higher than last year. The Stormwater costs are almost even with last year. Mr. Lewis stated that overall the Department has been doing a very good job of controlling expenditures over the last couple of years. The last slide presented listed the capital improvements for each of the funds as compared to budget. The chart was revised at the request of the Committee to show the anticipated capital projects to be compared to the total budget amount. This will help show projects that are multi- year projects and the related budget amounts. The Water Utility has expended $10.5 million in capital improvements with $5 million encumbered at the end of April. The Sewer Utility has expended $6.4 million with $13.1 million encumbered. The Stormwater has expended $2.4 million with $369,00o encumbered. The Street Lighting Utility is just starting to upgrade some of the lights to energy efficiency lights in the amount of$68o,000. Total for all four funds equals $19.9 million expended and $18.5 million encumbered as of April 30, 2014. Mr. Lewis informed the Committee that there have been about 3,50o sewer warranty policies purchased.And that letters would be sent out to County Customers this next week Property Exchange 1'70o South 600 West— Brad Stewart The owner of Nate Wade Subaru would like to make a land swap that affects Salt Lake City's west detention basin located at i7oo South and 50o West. The owner of the Subaru Company owns the property to the west of the City's parcel. The two owners share a diagonal property line. The proposal is to square off both properties by trading a o.3 acre triangular section in a way that doesn't result in a net increase or loss to either property. The volume and hydraulics of the detention basin will remain the same. There will need to be some storm pipe reconfiguration and the developer will install a new public sewer line under one of the berms to service the property in the future. The Department of Public Utilities would like to make a proposal to accept and allow the property swap. The Committee recommended that the Department go ahead with the process and allow the Land Swap. Private Street Light Concept— Brad Stewart Brad Stewart presented the Committee with some information regarding policy for future "Private Street Lighting" requests.A popular street lighting option for residential neighborhoods wanting a higher service level has been a program called`Private Street Lights". Background—interested neighborhoods petition the city for matching grant money to subsidize upfront capital costs (often 50/5o split). The Street Lighting Manager reviews plans for spacing, selection of poles, fixtures and constructability. A private contractor installs the lights, wiring them to the adjacent house. These are sidewalk level, decorative lights that are 1 cu placed in the public Right-of-Way. The on-going responsibility for maintenance and power costs tao rts stays with the property owners. The city has no ownership or maintenance role. a, SALT LAKE CITY DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC UTILITIES 1530 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE STREET WVWV SLCGOV COM SALT LAKE CITY UTAH 84115 2of5 TEL 801-483-6770 Z May 22, 2014 PUAC MEETING MINUTES Discussion — In the past year there have been 6 requests from new neighborhoods interested in installing the lights. But the program has been on hold because of with the new enterprise fund and the City Council's desire to revisit the concept of private street lighting. The Department is seeking an "if and how" discussion about the program with the Public Utilities Advisory Committee and then the City Council. Possible direction for private lights: • Do not approve private light requests. One of the concerns with these lights is that the City has no involvement once the infrastructure is installed. This means that if a property owner chooses not to maintain or repair a light there is nothing the City can do. • Approve private lighting requests according to past practice contingent on matching funds being available. • Continue private lighting program without matching funds and have property owners carry the full capital cost. • Designate a portion of the enterprise capital fund, to provide the matching portion for capital.This would further equity issues between neighborhoods. • Craft a hybrid program to fit between the current private light program and the SAA program. Under this scenario the City would retain ownership of the lights. Power and maintenance costs would be paid by the Street Lighting Enterprise Fund to be reimbursed by a user fee. This option would require a modification to the Consolidated Fee Schedule to allow surcharge billing for extra levels of service. Upfront capital costs could happen through bonding, grant money, or donation. Pros: • On the pro side, there are currently 3,098 private lights within the city boundaries. These lights are generally spaced at about every third house, which means that about io,000 home owners have been involved and financially participated in this program. As a percentage of the total number of single family homes (38,138) about 26% of our single family home neighborhoods are currently enjoying the private lighting program. • The private lighting option is a more affordable option than the Special Assessment Area (SAA) and works particularly well for smaller scale areas. SAA's are another alternative that has been available for neighborhoods which elect to participate in receiving a higher level of lighting service. The set-up fees for SAA's are in the $40,000 to $50,00o range, which makes this option too expensive for smaller neighborhood areas. The out-of- pocket expense for private lights, with a matching grant, has been in the $i,000 dollar range and there is not any on-going assessment.Abutting property owners pay the power bill, which is less than $1o/year, and replace the bulbs and any other maintenance work that might be required. • There is a day-time aesthetic to the fluted sidewalk-level lights that many neighborhoods find desirable. • There is a perception of safety and theft deterrence in neighborhoods with private lighting. • Privately lit neighborhoods are more "walkable" after the sun sets. • There is little cost to the city in setting up a private light area. Cons: • Property owners are responsible for all power and operation and maintenance costs CY) including infrastructure replacement. This means that the City cannot respond to service requests or insist that reluctant property owners repair lights that are out-of-service. a. SALT LAKE CITY DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC UTILITIES 1530 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE STREET WWW SLCGOV COM SALT LAKE CITY.UTAH 84115 3of5 TEL 801-483-6770 \L412 May 22,2014 PUAC MEETING MINUTES • Some neighborhoods don't have sufficient ability to organize or fund private lighting. This problem might be exacerbated if there is a new user fee requirement. • Future owners are sometimes surprised that they are responsible for the sidewalk light. • Matching capital for new installations is a function of availability of grant money. Some questions asked by the board: • How many of the 3,000 lights are not repaired? (Maybe 2 or 3%was Mr. Stewart's estimate.) • Is continuing with a private light option important? If so,to whom? • Do we need to continue the matching grant for capital costs? (The city seems to have deliberately created an incentive for neighborhoods to establish the program. If we don't continue the matching grant, are we creating negative equity/fairness issues for neighborhoods?) • Does the City Council desire to keep the program? Does it still want to encourage it, despite lack of evidence from staff of any correlation with improved safety? • Would matching funds come out of the general fund rather than the enterprise fund? • Is light pollution a problem with the lights used in this program? (The staff thought not, as new lighting is directed down, not up.) • If the program is working why change it? • If people want more lights,why shouldn't we require them to pay to put in the lights? • Should there be a uniform standard? After discussing various alternatives, the Committee recommended that if the City Council believes that private lighting is a benefit to the City,then they should support it to the extent they determine there are funds to do so. The committee felt it important that citizens have choices if they (the citizens) are interested in private lighting. Epic Brewing Sewer Charge Appeal Epic Brewing Company, LLC disputes the Public Utility bills it has been receiving since Epic believes two erroneous BOD readings were taken in mid-November 2013 by Salt Lake City Pretreatment staff. The first suspect sample was taken on November 20, 2013 and then another sample was taken on the very next day. The 40,350 average of these two samples is more than quintuple the 7,820 average of all the other samples ever taken at Epic. Mr. Peter Erickson Managing Member of Epic Brewery is requesting an adjustment on Epic's Public Utility bills for the billing period 12/7/2013 to 1/8/2014 along with subsequent bills indicating a previous balance as a result. He believes the current BOD testing averages, represent a more fair and accurate representation of the waste stream and should be used to calculate the billing during this period. Mr. Erickson stated that he feels like these sample are anomalies that they do not accurately represent the composition of Epic Brewing Company's waste stream. Epic is not satisfied with the adjustments to their bill to date, and Epic respectfully requests PUAC require Public Utilities to recalculate Epic's bills since November 2013 without using the results of the sampling on November 20 and 21 in its calculations and issue a credit for the difference. After discussion and information from the staff, the Public Utilities Advisory Committee found no basis for thinking that the high readings were in error, although it recognized that they were anomalous compared to samples taken before and after the November samples. It proposed that a SALT LAKE CITY DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC UTILITIES 1530 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE STREET WWW SLCGOV COM/I' SALT LAKE CITY UTP.H 34115 4 of 5 TEL 801-483-6770 \Li May 22,2014 PUAC MEETING MINUTES for the January billing the department continue to use the November test samples even with the high readings but then for the February and subsequent billings that the staff use the average of the lower readings and recalculate the charges and then make an adjustment on Epic's bill. Committee member Allen Orr made a motion and Committee member Roger Player seconded the motion to recommend that Public Utilities recalculate the bill using the two samples from November 2o13 to calculate the January 2014 billing, but omit those calculations from the February billing onward. The motion passed unanimously. The Committee also requested that Jeff Niermeyer report the final decision to the Committee. Adjourn 8:44 a.m. a) an SALT LAKE CITY DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC UTILITIES 1530 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE STREET WWW SLCGOV.COM SALT LAKE CITY UTAH 84115 5 of 5 TEL 801-483-6770 10,i in /L/-6 MUMMY/ coliTukamf PUBLIC UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECEIVED 1530 SOUTH WEST TEMPLE SALT,LAKE CITY, UTAH 84115 AUG 2 1 2014 CITY RECORDER Public Utilities Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda August 28,2014 1530 South West Temple Street 7:00 a.m. 1. Approve Minutes of June 26, 2014 Meeting 2. Financial Report—Jim Lewis 3. City Source Applications—Nick Kryger 4. Water Conservation Master Plan— Stephanie Duer 5. Sanitary Sewer Management Plan—Mark Stanley 6. Private Light Program—Brad Stewart 7. Adjourn Please visit our web page at www.utah.gov/pmn/index.html. Public Utilities News, Issues and Events are updated weekly Assisted listening devices or interpreting services are available for all public meetings. Salt Lake City Corporation complies with the American Disabilities Act(ADA). For Further Information, contact the TDD Number 535-6021