Title
Matters relative to rates charged by the city sewer treatment facility
Body
SUMMARY:
Councilman Souza will lead this discussion.
Background: As previously discussed rate charges are in effect as follows; $ .25 a gallon inside city, $.30 a gallon outside of city, and $.05 for septic outside of city from other waste treatment facilities in other sewer districts. Mr. Clark addressed the council with a recommendation that permitted haulers be restricted to preclude excess deliveries during inclement weather when storm water becomes a problem for the sewer facility.
Argument: Mr. Clark's recommendation brings to question two problems.
The first problem is the Council restricting commerce to selected individuals and denying access to commercial participation by all interested parties.
The second is that we have a problem with storm water that affects the production rate of the city sewer facility. I believe the second issue should be addressed separately. I see it as a bad policy to attempt to control who is and is not entitled to conduct business with the city. We went through this with the Kidwell bid incident and we don't need a repeat of this. In looking at this from a business view, when you have a service that is in demand and you cannot expand production, you go up on your price to adjust demand. Given that the utility is in serious debt, that appears to be a reasonable course of action. Where does our responsibility lie with the general public or our constituents? My position is our constituents. We have a fiduciary responsibility to look after their interest first and foremost. We have no legal responsibility to pursue those needs outside of our customers. To entertain assistance outside of our customers is a privilege we grant. Given that, I find it incredible that we are providing a service to treat sewage outside of our customers at a rate less than what we charge our own customers. That an argument exists that it is difficult to determine where the sewage comes from lacks merit. Supplying a list of water users in the city to Mr. Clark will provide a cross reference. Having the haulers provide a signed form prepared by the city manager would give the source location, i.e. the form would have the address where the sewage was pumped out, signed by the customer requesting the city to take the sewage with a confirmation phone number, and co-signed by the licensed hauler. A sign prominently displayed at the waste treatment facility stating any hauler who provides misinformation about the source of their load will permanently lose all privileges to use the City of Crossville facility. Given this argument, I will make a motion that the charge for accepting sewage will be $.20 for all city customers and $.35 for ALL customers outside the city.
BUDGET ACCOUNT:
Recommended Action
NECESSARY COUNCIL ACTION: