CC - Minutes - City Council - 4/1/2008 (3)

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Prescott City Council Workshop —April 1, 2008 4 Mr McConnell said it has only been a couple of years since the City did complete its water model, which gave them an objective basis for looking at water rates and fees, which the Council did two years ago. He said at that time they knew the wastewater was coming and nobody two years ago would have anticipated what was coming in the economy, as mentioned by Mayor Pro Tern Suttles He said since then they have done the sewer model and this is where they are on sewer rates and fees. He said the reality is the City of Prescott is out of capacity and has inadequate levels of service at some locations in the community. Even if they did nothing other than fund capacity improvements for the existing system, it would still be a big number. Mr McConnell said they have public safety issues because when the fire department goes out and needs to fight a fire they need to have adequate pressure and flow. He said because of the growth of the cities in the last decades they have some issues like that and they absolutely have to deal with those as a fundamental responsibility. He added what they have not seen today, but what they have talked about, is what happens with the annexations and major development areas. Those major annexations are not in the impact fees figures and the City of Prescott will require new financing mechanisms for those major annexations. He said if growth is going to pay for growth, which is the policy of the City of Prescott, then as they annex lands and have major developments then the City will need to look very strongly at community facilities districts to identify those costs of growth and allocate those costs of growth to the benefitting properties. Annexations are a separate discussion and determined by policy decision. City Attorney Gary Kidd said if the rates are to be adopted there will be a full public hearing process and will be posted as such. Mr. McConnell agreed and said there is a process set out in the laws of Arizona for adjusting rates and impact fees with specific time frames and so forth. He said the purpose today was to have Mr. Jackson give the presentation to get comments from the Council in order to go to the next step, which is the public arena for the hearings He said if the Council has any specific comments or suggestions after some time to digest the information to please pass those on and they will come back to the Council with a more specific schedule for the public hearings. Mayor Pro Tern Suttles asked Mr Kidd about the process. Mr. Kidd said once they get the report in a final form with all the information to be included that will be filed in the office of the City Clerk. He said there is a 30 day public comment period where citizens have access to the report and then they have to schedule a public hearing process. Mr. Kidd said they have to go through the ordinance and resolution process just like the City normally does for any municipal rate increases. The ordinance is not effective for 30 days so the time frame for the whole process is about 90 days