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Water and Sewer Subcommittee <br />April 22, 2003 <br />Page 8 <br /> <br />actually pay bonuses and incentive pay, part of which is stock ownership in their <br />company. <br /> <br />Ms. Ross stated that when they come to a city and assume the employees, they <br />always try to give equivalent or enhanced compensation and benefits over what <br />they have. They would not be able to do what they do successfully if they did <br />not do that. They have a fully funded pension program for the employees, a <br />401K program, and they give merit based annual increases and individual and <br />team based performance incentives. She said that this is something that cities <br />cannot do, but private companies can do. They are able to incentivise the <br />employees and reward them for thinking and acting like owners and coming up <br />with new and better ways of doing things. <br /> <br />Ms. Ross stated that they can provide cost effective services for their clients by <br />utilizing national purchasing agreements because they have so many clients <br />across the country. She said they have agreements with vendors that give them <br />better prices and they are able to pass that on to their clients. She said that they <br />collect data from all of their operations and facilities across the country and use <br />those figures to benchmark. When they come to a new city and take over that <br />facility, they look at that data and where they have had experience in operating <br />similar plants before and they are able to apply the technology and efficiencies <br />that they have learned over the years at similar facilities. Ms. Ross told the <br />Committee that they have chemical and energy management programs where <br />they take a look at how much energy the plant is using, how much chemical is <br />being consumed to accomplish the treatment and they are able to really get those <br />working efficiently based on their experience at similar facilities. She said they <br />use a lot of cross-training. They do not have associates that just do water or just <br />do wastewater. They normally get employees trained and certified so that they <br />can cross utilize them. <br /> <br />Ms. Ross said that sometimes their clients may not have monitoring and control <br />systems installed and they are able to help them with that and that is another way <br />to become more efficient and possibly reduce staff. She said they were also able <br /> <br /> <br />