WATER/WASTEWATER TASK FORCE MEETING

August 12, 1999

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Civic Center, Room 325

1) CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order by Councilor Paul Wulf, Chairperson.

2) INTRODUCTIONS

Introductions were made. Members, staff, and citizens were in attendance as noted below.

1) Where should the transition for sewer lateral replacement responsibility be? Should the property owner be responsible to the sewer main (owner)? Should the property owner be responsible to the property line and City in ROW (joint)? Should the City be responsible to the sewer main (City)?

Mike Gotterba moved that the Task Force approve Option 2. The motion was seconded and discussion followed. After considerable discussion, a consensus was reached that there should be joint responsibility.

2) How should Sewer Lateral Replacement be accomplished? Home sales approach, coordinated with Sewer and R/R, combination of both?

Don Scott - Both, but we need to address the situation where the City has replaced the main but did not do at the job with the lateral issue at the time. Two different scenarios: one, we have a new main in the street, but all we've got are the laterals, both the City portion and the private property owner portion are bad or may be bad; the other is the situation where we went five feet from the foundation and stopped. What I would suggest is a combination of both of those but also developing a strategy to go back through on a retro basis to those areas where the City has put new mains in because we are not going to get back into those in terms of doing Rehab & Restoration (R&R) there for a long, long time to come. I would like to see us at least consider at least the possibility of some type of remedial program to deal with either all or part of that situation, the situation being basically two groups. One is where they got a lateral which stops five feet from the house. The other is where no lateral work was done but there is a new main in the street. I would like to see us capture back something on those two scenarios, or at least give it some consideration. At a minimum, we ought to be going to those areas where we did not actually do a test, but just went up about five feet from the foundation and stopped, go back to those neighborhoods and put in a cleanout at the property line and conduct a test of the home system and require the upgrade.

Frank Mauldin: This assumption is based on doing about three million dollars of main and lateral replacement and also doing smoke testing around the city to determine where there are I&I problems and dealing with those specific problems.

More discussion of this item followed - how sewer lateral replacement should be accomplished.

JB Summers - What we have been wrestling with today are the draft philosophies. Maybe next time we can come back with some draft policies which put those philosophies into some kind of perspective.

No decision on Policy #2. Diane will come back to the next meeting with some options to look at for this Policy.

3) Should Deferred Payment Loans for sewer lateral replacement be available? What interest rate, when is loan due, under what circumstances? There are CDBG funds available for low income households and this could be structured many different ways.

Don Scott proposed that we take cost of funding plus overhead for doing loans and balance due on sale with an option for payments such as utility billing for those who want to do it and that would be with the possibility of UGB Community Development block grants for low income who qualify for such money and that sort of thing. Also excluding this from the home sales because with cash available here it doesn't make any sense. Don stated that what he is talking about is where we go thru and replace the mains and put in the new lateral up to the property line, test the line, if it is bad, we have to replace it. We've got some period of time - 90 days or whatever it is - and they can pay cash, they can take a second mortgage on their house, or they can come to the City and get City money (City cost of funds plus City overhead to make the money available) and we will deal with it. The City is not out any dollars for providing the service. Have at least two methods of payment, one being the utility billing, or some other method. Nothing out of pocket for ratepayers.
John Russell, Redevelopment Supervisor from Community Development Department, asked for clarification of what was meant by CDBG funds - what the expectation is. Grant or zero percent deferred payment loan?
Don Scott - Don't know what is available under Community Development, but obviously we want the money to go as far as possible. I would prefer some reduced interest or zero interest or something like that. Whatever we can do to recycle the money and help more people on down the road.

John Russell - That's typically been the policy with the single-family rehab loans. They are zero percent DPLs and we actually have a pretty substantial income out of that now.

Diane Dennis - As the last item to consider - What would the Task Force like brought back for September 9, 1999, meeting? Issues to be discussed will include: Additional program cost information (extraneous water removal, inspection/certification, deferred payment loan administration, development of blended approach for home sale and sewer main R/R); Financing Options including local improvement districts and deferred payment loan options considering reimbursement option with interest.

Task Force requested information on other cities besides Alameda California, and more I&I data.

8) OTHER

Chairperson Paul Wulf requested that Diane do a letter to Council to fill the vacancies on the Task Force. There are currently two vacancies and Bob House announced today that he is retiring November 19 from Truitt Brothers and the Task Force.

9) ADJOURN

Meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

These minutes are transcribed from notes and the tape recording of the Task Force meeting on August 12, 1999, as an overview of the meeting. They are not verbatim. The tape recorded meeting is available for review in the Office of the Public Works Director. The attachments are to the file copy only. Copies of the attachments were distributed at the meeting and by mail to those unable to attend the meeting. These minutes were approved as written at the Task Force meeting on September 23, 1999.

Linda Nelson, Staff Assistant II
September 23, 1999

Attachments:
Attendance Sheet (file copy only)
Presentation Materials (file copy only)