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Page 2 <br />Utility Rate Study <br />Committee meeting <br />September 28, 1995 <br />two weeks and we did not have a replacement person, and did not realize <br />that the meter readings were cycling out longer, so many of the <br />customers even though they may not have watered, they received a bill <br />for a period of time that was more than 30 days, and that is not <br />uncommon with any of the cities reading water meter to have bills for <br />more or less than 30 days, that is expected, but we had some that went <br />as long as 42 days, we regret that, and we are sorry that this has <br />happened. City Manager Malone said we have had long meter reading <br />cycles that has corresponded with a drought, people beginning to water <br />not realizing that the rate had been set with no cap, and not realizing <br />that yard meters were available and some people can not afford a yard <br />meter, so a lot of things have come together to cause this problem. <br />City Manager Malone advised that the City was taking steps to cross <br />train additional employees to read the meters in order to correct the <br />long billing cycles in case the regular meter readers are out for some <br />type reason along with having the meters read where the billing will be <br />for less than 28 day period, and not more than a 32 day period. <br />City Manager Malone said the reason we have this Committee is because <br />the Councilmembers have all received called and they recognized that <br />there is a problem with the rate that has been implemented, and the <br />City is about to change that. <br />After a considerable amount of discussion with the audience, City <br />Manager Malone introduced Dan Jackson, Consultant with the firm of Reed <br />and Stowe, Richardson, Texas. <br />Mr. Jackson said the City has asked his firm to take a look at the <br />potential of instituting a winter average for the City, and so the main <br />purpose of his presentation is to talk about the present situation here <br />in the City as well as to outline some of the benefits and potential <br />disadvantages of winter averages. Mr. Jackson presented the Committee <br />with a handout regarding the sewer rates, and on page two he pointed <br />out this was a background of Paris residential water /sewer usage. Mr. <br />Jackson said over the past several years the overall usage of <br />residences in the City of Paris has been relative stable, and you can <br />see from month to month there are peaks and valleys as you see in any <br />water system, but in some years, water usage during some winter months <br />has been higher than some summer months, and most customers return more <br />than 80% of water to sewer year round. The average residential <br />customer's winter usage is 650 cubic feet, and this is generally lower <br />than many other cities. because of stability in water usage, <br />experimenting with different months as the basis for winter averages <br />will not yield significant differences in rates. <br />Mr. Jackson pointed out from the next chart it gives a background on <br />what the volume levels were for the City during the test year for <br />designing the rates, you can not predict the future, you can not <br />predict how much water that is going to be sold the next year because a <br />lot of that depending on water, economic growth, recession, or <br />whatever, so the best you can do is take the previous 12 months of <br />usage and you make the assumption that the previous 12 months is going <br />to be the same as the next 12 months, now if you have a drought <br />