How to resolve AdBlock issue? During the half-hour-long meeting, Assistant City Manager/Finance Director Nick Walker presented to the council the items for the public hearings.
The first public hearing was for the purpose of approving a resolution identifying delinquent utility accounts to be submitted to the Lake County Auditor-Controller’s Office for inclusion on the property tax roll.
Walker said that, initially, the list accounted for delinquent accounts totaling $40,000. As of Tuesday night, that total had dropped to $14,000. Last year, the delinquent account totaled $10,000.
“This process did what it’s supposed to do,” said Walker, adding they will continue to collect delinquent funds until the deadline to submit the list to the county.
Councilman Kenny Parlet moved to approve the resolution, with Councilwoman Kim Costa seconding and the council voting 5-0.
Next up was a hearing to adopt a resolution changing the fees collected for the Water and Sewer Expansion Fee Program, which also can be described as developer fees.
Walker was careful to explain that the fees to be collected for the program are completely separate from the regular water and sewer rates paid by utility customers. Those rates were adjusted a few years ago.
He said this program is an attempt to equitably share the cost of the existing infrastructure between current customers and new customers connecting to the city’s water and sewer utility systems.
The fees, he said, are collected from developers.
Willdan Financial Services, which the city contracted with in June of 2022, completed the water and sewer expansion fee study. Walker said that’s the same company that did the study on utility rates a few years ago.
It took about a year for this latest study to be completed. Walker said the goal was to update the fees to reflect the cost of providing services to new or expanded development.
The last time the city conducted a water and sewer expansion fee study was in 2007. “It was very dated,” Walker said, adding the recommendation is to conduct such a study every five years.
He said a lot of the assumptions used in the 2007 study are outdated, particularly those involving population growth, which had followed the city’s general plan. The previous study called for a great deal of residential growth, “which just hasn’t happened,” Walker said.
The new study includes updated assumptions and actually lowers the fees for the expansion program, said Walker.
Mayor Stacey Mattina said the new study was long overdue.
Parlet moved to adopt the resolution, with Mayor Pro Tem Michael Froio seconding and the council approving the resolution 5-0.
The council also unanimously selected Froio as the voting delegate for the annual League of California Cities conference, with Mattina as the first alternate and Costa as the second alternate.
City Manager Kevin Ingram said the city usually gets one or two resolutions a year to decide on at the September conference, and will get the information packets on the resolutions in August so that the council can take its own action on them at the end of August or beginning of September.
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