07 City Council (6/16/03) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular City Council Meeting June 16, 2003 Page 5 data and the historical data. He said the city could use the 2001-2002 audit if the city wanted to. Mr. Stowe advised that the city would have to use the new production and sales data and that could be done without a problem. Mr. Stowe said the fastest way of doing it, in his opinion, for where the city is today, as this is already June, and if these rates do not go into effect this summer, the city is looking at 30 days before you can do an effective date. He said that would put the increase in the middle of July and you are only going to have about a month and one-half to two months of water sales and they are going to be looking at some serious financial situations. He said what the city could look at is their 2001-2002 budget compared to the 2000-2001 budget and compare to the 2002- 2003 budget to see how much increase would be in the budget. He said if there has not been a significant shift from one year to the next in the budget, and by significant he meant 3, 4, or 5 hundred thousand dollars, and he would be surprised if there is that much change. He said that the production and sales data is so static it stays pretty much constant that he felt the city could get a feeling. He said he would be glad to enter the data and it would take a couple of weeks probably to get it back to the city. Councilman Bell said he and Councilman Guest attended one of Mr. Plata's committee meetings prior to them election. Of course, Councilman Weekly and Councilwoman Neeley were also present. Councilman Bell stated that during the course of that discussion, it became apparent that our water rates appear to be driven by debt. He said if that is the case, the city needs to be looking at debt in 2000 and 2001 and where the city incurred more debt and debt service, which is based on the information that Mr. Campbell gave them. The cost of water production was not up and he was of the impression that only debt and a decrease in revenue by the sale of water has gone down because of consumption and that is what is driving this particular cost. Councilman Bell wanted to know if Mr. Stowe, under his opinion, what would allow the city to produce that. Mr. Stowe explained that the debt is about 30% of the revenue requirements. He said the electric cost is another 15% to 20% and the balance of it is salary and wages, material and supplies, capital outlay, transfer to the general fund and franchise fees. Mr. Stowe said if Councilman Bell is asking if there are expenses that can be cut, he cannot answer that question. He advised that he has not looked at that