CC - Agendas - City Council - REGULAR - 11/4/2008

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MAYOR'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON UNSEWERED AREAS COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION November 4, 2008 The Honorable Mayor and City Council On behalf of the members of the "Mayor's Advisory Committee on Unsewered Areas", please accept this report as our final recommendation. We want to thank you for your confidence in our ability to review the problems and develop suggested solutions that are acceptable to both our citizens and the City government. This report is the result of several committee meetings, extensive communication with City of Prescott staff members Craig McConnell, Connie Tucker, Jim Ciaffoni, City Manager Steve Norwood, Councilwoman Lora Lopas, and the excellent support of Teresa Ogle. Also, separate discussions were held between the City staff and Yavapai County representatives Ken Spedding, Geoff Meek, and Suzanne Ehrlich, and Michael Byrd of Prescott Creeks Preservation Association. As our members started exploring the facts concerning our committee's charge, it became evident that there are deep-seated feelings in our community regarding promises made decades ago. Many citizens in the North Prescott areas remember representatives of the City, in an effort to promote annexation of their neighborhoods, indicating sewers would be installed sometime in the future. They believed this would be at City expense. Apparently, there were no written agreements to support these representations, but we can assume they are factual and were made in good faith. In the interest of doing "what is right" for our citizens, this and future Councils should give consideration to these statements which were interpreted as commitments in the event future economic conditions allow sewer main development in the neighborhoods. In early conversations with Finance Director Mark Woodfill, we discussed the possibility of thinking "outside the box" with respect to formulating a financing plan to address unsewered areas. Any way we sliced it, the dollars were too high, and the timeframe too long, to ask our citizens to fund.