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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,January 27,2014 Page 28 tenant building, or they remained unaware of it and it ends up on the tax statement at yearend. Mr. Rancone addressed the crux of the e-mail and their firm not finding out about these delinquent fees from 2009, until they received their first notice from the City in December of 2013. Mr. Rancone reviewed the history of the situation, their LLC's purchase of the property from UV Color, since bankrupt, and opined that staff could have found out who the property owner was before now. Mr. Rancone clarified that the majority of the billing, $9,393, represented on quarter's billing, with the former tenant being current with their previous billings until July of 2009. Mr. Rancone advised that, had they been aware of this delinquent bill, they could have incorporated them into the lease negotiations and assets of UV Color eventually taken over by Roseville Properties' LLC. However, since they were just noticed of them in December of 2013 that was no longer possible. Mr. Rancone advised that their meters go directly to their tenants as a matter of policy to avoid getting in the middle of situations. Mr. Rancone opined that better communication was needed between property owners and municipalities; and questioned whether the City Code was properly utilized, since there was no 90-day notification given, and notice was finally pro- vided after an agreement had already been negotiated with a new tenant. Mr. Rancone further opined that the City needed to take responsibility in this situation as well as the property owner, and sought a common-sense solution between the two parties for a fair resolution. At the request of Mayor Roe, City Attorney Gaughan reviewed state statute ena- bling local municipalities to impose just and fair charges, with state statute not in- cluding the term "shall," while City Code does include that provision. Mayor Roe questioned if that provision was consistent with other City Code provisions as well. Councilmember Etten questioned if it was possible for staff to identify or clarify those 100 or so commercial properties through form letter or e-mail to clear up any future issues and clean up the system expeditiously. Finance Director Miller responded that the effort could be made; however, he opined that the bigger challenge would be to maintain an accurate database, since when a property changed hands, the data would no longer be accurate unless there was a "but for" process in place to keep current. In this case, Mr. Miller ques- tioned if it would have been of value anyway, given this unique bankruptcy situa- tion, unless it had been possible when Roseville Properties had been marketing the property. At the request of Councilmember Etten, Finance Director Miller advised that staff could attempt to update the data on a quarterly billing basis provided enough re-