2015-03-24_PWETC_Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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and issues that could arise if the City assumed liability of laterals, creating more potential for liability and costs. In response to Member Seigler, Mr. Schwartz advised that this additional unknown liability would also need to be built into the fee increases to cover those potential costs. In response to Member Cihacek, Mr. Schwartz confirmed that the approximate cost to install a clean-out for a residential property was $1,000 up to the property line. Member Cihacek calculated that, with 9,000 residents in Roseville, this would result in $9 million just for that portion alone. Member Cihacek opined that he saw a series of steps, including first the installation of clean-outs to help solve liability problems and maintenance concerns, and asked staff to determine a potential fee per household for clean-outs as step one, followed by mandated correlating steps in the future to improve capacity flow for both homeowners and the city. Member Seigler questioned if the clean-out would affect the failure ratio. Chair Stenlund questioned what the PWETC would recommend for moving forward: to continue status quo since the city did not have a lot of new road construction slated for some time, or penalizing those paying one house at a time versus installing a whole new infrastructure, or moving toward a completely new model. Chair Stenlund suggested continuing the status quo. Member Cihacek disagreed with Chair Stenlund, opining that clean-outs should be installed first, since the City would then know the status of its infrastructure and current records or liability database may or may not be accurate at this point. After that, Member Cihacek opined a better infrastructure database would be developed and could be disclosed with home ownership and any changes, with liability concerns being upfront allowing a homeowner to remedy the situation versus an unexpected expense. Member Cihacek opined that this also allowed the City in the future to target infrastructure development to move form a just in time solution to a shared ownership. Member Cihacek stated that steps could be taken now to move away from the status quo without the city assuming ownership and full liability at this time. Mr. Schwartz responded that this was still a monumental task, and if ownership of a property changed during clean-out installation, it would need to be addressed within the confines of State Statute, and could be a significant task. Member Wozniak asked if the City could consider a pilot approach for different segments of the city to draw conclusions about how and when the lines were constructed, and their current condition to use as a basis to model expectations, Page 14 of 17