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Water and Sewer Subcommittee <br />April 22, 2003 <br />Page 12 <br /> <br />compliance; which means they have management programs, laboratories, and <br />quality assurance staff within the region who pay attention to regulatory <br />compliance. She advised that, from time to time, there might be minor <br />violations, but they are usually due to delayed capital investment in many cases <br />where they are actually operating treatment plants that are beyond their design <br />capacity and the capital improvements are in the works, but they have not been <br />implemented. So, they do have those type situations. Other situations may be <br />weather related or possible electrical outages; but through their management <br />system and experience, they are able to react quickly to those situations and <br />correct the problem. <br /> <br />Mr. Higgins said their company finds that one of the drivers for particular cities <br />is that the city is out of compliance and they say the state tells them what they <br />have to do. He said, a lot of times, what they can do with their services is to <br />make a system get as close to compliance as possible, but sometimes that does <br />not mean it is always in compliance. He said they would get it as close as they <br />can get it before capital investment must be made. <br /> <br />Councilwoman Neeley questioned whether the firm does all the reporting and <br />permitting. Mr. Higgins advised that they do not get involved in the permitting <br />but they will work with regulatory authorities and see if the city' s permits are in <br />compliance and make recommendations on the permit review. They do the <br />monthly compliance report for the cities. <br /> <br />Chairman Plata asked if every year OMI keeps up with their costs and if they <br />have rate increases, do they have to go back and look at staff or anything else and <br />do cost cutting and operate as lean as possible when they come in and take over <br />a city. Mr. Higgins said their goal is to work for the city as a service provider. <br />They do not want to go away and the only way they can do that is to be as <br />efficient as they can. If that means they have to reduce cost in some operation <br />and try and find a more efficient operation, it may involve capital improvement <br />or the cross-training in trying to get full utilization from the staff plus that <br />provides opportunity for staff where they might want to move to another OMI <br /> <br /> <br />