2015-11-24_PWETC_Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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several years before offering that option, initiated last year, and representing their newest offering by their firm after the point of entry of the laterals. Ms. Shiwarski noted this could provide another small revenue stream, as their firm provided a 50 cents/month revenue sharing plan to the municipality for each contract they received from individual homeowners as a form of royalty allotted to the city every January. Ms. Shiwarski advised that cities did a variety of things with that revenue, with the most common thing to develop a fund to assist low- income families with their utility bills or for those experiencing a high water bill due to a leak, and used to offset some of the cost for that resident. Ms. Shiwarski noted other municipalities chose to put that revenue back into the public infrastructure program. Specific to marketing their warranty program, Ms. Shiwarski reported that they do not do any door-to-door solicitation, but plan three separate campaigns in the spring, fall and winter to market each of their three products separately to limit confusion for residents. Ms. Shiwarski advised that residents could choose all three warranty programs, or any combination of the three. Ms. Shiwarski further reported that their firm did not send out any mailing to residents in a community without prior city review and approval of the marketing letter itself and envelope in which it will be sent. Ms. Shiwarski advised that this procedure was followed for each and every campaign, even if previously mailings had been approved by the municipality, allowing the city to have input on the mailing itself and the exact mailing dates. Ms. Shiwarski advised that their firm worked with each municipality on tools to limit calls to the city for the initial campaign, and to customize press releases for the media of the city's choice. Ms. Shiwarski advised that this typically involved a letter offering the city partnership and their firm's contact information, a customized web banner for the city website featuring a live chat for residents to visit with a customer service agent at their preference. Once their firm partners with a municipality, Ms. Shiwarski reported that each city partner had access to their firm's online partner portal for city access and up-to- date resident enrollment for each product and a list of the number of claims and accruing royalty for the municipality. Ms. Shiwarski noted that each resident was surveyed to determine their satisfaction and to immediately address any problem areas. Of their 290 municipal partners across the United States, Ms. Shiwarski noted there were seven in the State of MN as listed in the information provided to the PWETC tonight, including the City of St. Louis Park. At the request of Member Cihacek, Ms. Shiwarski reviewed standard pricing for water, sewer and in-home plumbing averaging $6.765, $7.75 and $6.99 respectively. Ms. Shiwarski noted that a resident could cancel at any time, and receive a refund of remaining premiums submitted. Page 12 of 18