2015-03-24_PWETC_Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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advised that staff anticipated a discussion with the City Council at their April Work session and was seeking input from the PWETC before that time. Mr. Schwartz reviewed the background of this program since it was initiated in the 1970 subsequent to the state-wide burning ban, and noted that Roseville was one of the only cities in the metropolitan area offering such a service. Mr. Schwartz further noted the change to a fee-based service in 1998, dramatically reducing annual participation from approximately 4,500 participants prior to that time. The City Council has adopted a 2015 fee of$55 per property to fully cover the cost of the program, Mr. Schwartz advised that the drop in registrations has occurred at the same time we are seeing an increase in residential use of the City's recycling site. Mr. Schwartz noted that among the challenges with and costs of the program include weather due to short window available for the services, typically three weeks, while requiring having sufficient resources available to stay on schedule. Mr. Schwartz advised that this requires most of the street division staff in addition to temporary labor for clean-up raking; and in some years making it difficult to meet customer expectations based on those challenges. Regarding the decline in participants from 2000 to 2014, Mr. Schwartz reported that it had been reduced from 2,313 registered users to 694 users. Mr. Schwartz noted that there was an impact to the City's stormwater system if leaves are not disposed of properly, but advised that residents were finding alternatives to the City's leaf pickup program. Mr. Schwartz advised that total program costs for 2014 were $88,696 with 694 participants, or approximately 7% of the City's single-family residents; with $39,325 in user fees collected. For 2014, Mr. Schwartz advised that the total cost required a significant storm utility subsidy due to bad weather. Discussion included the cost of the program defined by the number of participants, as well as administrative and preparation costs, and the need to increase fees as the number of users decreases to cover actual costs of the program (e.g. equipment). Further discussion included City Code violation for leaves raked onto City streets; whether or not more leaves ended up in the wastewater system from leaving them on boulevards while waiting for pickup and depending on weather conditions. At the request of Chair Stenlund, Mr. Schwartz advised that staff had not yet determined the demographics (e.g. elderly residents) using the program and whether or not they would be significantly impacted if the program were eliminated. Mr. Schwartz did advise that staff had observed that typical smaller and less treed lots did not use the program as much as those larger area lots with more trees. Page 3 of 17