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Indian Rocks Beach funds sewer system study
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 |
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH – Selling a sewer system may not cure what ails the system, but on the other hand it might offer some financial relief to a city faced with the perfect storm of rising costs and sinking revenue.
Tuesday night the City Commission wrestled with just that decision, voting unanimously to spend nearly $25,000 for a sewer and solid waste rate study; $12,500 for a study of each of the two enterprise funds was approved in the 2007-08 city budget, despite the fact that a rate increase is already being considered.
Then, in a surprise move, the commission added $6,000 to the contract with Burton and Associates, Inc., a utilities and governmental economics consulting firm headquartered in St. Augustine, amending the contract to include an evaluation of the sewer system, an enterprise fund commodity, on the chance that the county might purchase it. The initial RFP had included an item requesting the evaluation study in addition to the rate studies. Burton bid the first phase of the evaluation study at $6,000.
Calling the sanitary sewer system a potential “income stream,” Burton’s president, Michael Burton, said the rate study could be done simultaneously with the evaluation, provided the city would supply access to billing records, which when projected into the future would reveal the value of the system after calculating future maintenance and operation costs.
Dean Scharmen, Indian Rock Beach’s public services director, told the commission that county officials with whom his department had been holding discussions were in fact ready to enter into negotiations aimed at purchasing the city’s sewer system and had further indicated that the county would be prepared to take over the system by Oct. 1. Burton’s contract has a term requirement of 60 days for completion.
Subsequent discussion from the dais between commissioners and City Attorney Maura Kiefer, who had negotiated the contract along with interim City Manager Danny Taylor, concluded such an evaluation was therefore justified in anticipation that any future sale would render the rate study moot, ending the study, and saving the city any portion of the contract not yet complete. The contract now reads, “Compensation to be paid … not to exceed $24,994.” Kiefer said the contract would be revised.
Citizen comments for the most part expressed cautious approval of the contract with one exception, questioning why the commission had not first looked to the combined assets of city staff before commissioning a $31,000 study by outside consultants. Mayor R.B. Johnson, addressing the criticism prior to the final vote, asked Scharmen if he felt budget and public service staff could have accomplished the recommendations requested of the consultant.
Scharmen replied, “Yes, to staff’s credit we have provided to this commission a rate structure based on projected needs and budgeted capital improvement, which got to first reading,” referring to the commission’s first public hearing of the matter.
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Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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