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Attachment C Finance Commission Minutes November 10, 2020 Î Draft Minutes Page 3 of 4 89 Vice Chair Davies indicated a resident sent correspondence regarding getting a contract directly 90 with St. Paul. She asked what this was about and is it an option to have St. Paul do all of the 91 billing and everything. 92 93 Ms. Pietrick explained that question has been raised several times by the same residents and 94 Public Works Director Marc Culver did sent a response to that request. It is a little more 95 involved than one would think. She indicated Maplewood sold their water system to St. Paul 96 Regional Water several years ago and as such St. Paul Regional Water does the maintenance, 97 billing, and distribution. The resident referenced several cities were part of St. Paul Regional 98 Water, the only other cities that are a part of St. Paul Regional Water are Falcon Heights, 99 Lauderdale, Mendota Heights, St. Paul, and West St. Paul. All of those cities are smaller than 100 Roseville or Maplewood. In addition, the utilities staff in Roseville that works on the water fund 101 and the sewer fund, during winter events, those staff are utilized to plow the City streets and one 102 of the costs that would go up significantly if the City joined St. Paul Regional Water would be 103 the property taxes because residents would have to pay for more street maintenance staff to plow 104 streets or the streets would not get plowed as quickly as they are currently. In addition, the 105 commercial rates are significantly higher with St. Paul Regional Water then they would be with 106 either of the options that Ehlers has presented. Staff did some analysis and depending on how 107 much water a household would use the resident could actually pay more if the household used 108 more water. This is been over twenty years since it was last looked at and if the Council feels 109 strongly about its Public Works and Finance can provide more analysis. 110 111 Commissioner Lee thanked Ms. Vogt and Ehlers for putting this together for the City and he 112 really liked how equity and fairness in looking at the rates as well as including some 113 conservation in as well. He indicated he was really looking at the jumps to industry or 114 commercial consumption but in terms of equity that really made sense and if the Council wanted 115 to address those increases to the commercial sector that could be something that is done 116 separately. He noted as a homeowner he loves Option one. 117 118 Commissioner Sagisser thought Option one seemed more appealing because it was more 119 attributed toward use but he would say it is probably important to check with those high users 120 and understand them enough to make sure that the sudden jump in cost is not going to cause it to 121 be no longer viable to be in Roseville. 122 123 Vice Chair Davies wondered if the Commission should make a recommendation to the City 124 Council. She thought it was optional but had the opportunity to do that if the Commission 125 wanted. 126 127 Vice Chair Davies indicated she was leaning towards Option one because she is a conservationist 128 and would like to see more incentive for conservation. 129 130 Commissioner Sagisser moved, seconded by Commissioner Lee to recommend Option one with 131 the caveat of looking into the businesses that are going to be hit the most. 132