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City Council Minutes <br />November 2, 2015 <br />Page 6 <br />There was discussion regarding the Elk River Municipal Utilities Payment in Lieu of <br />Taxes for utilities and the difficulty in administration of this for utilities staff Mr. <br />Simon stated making a change by showing the costs in each city departments budgets <br />may help to make staff more aware of their utility usage and to seek ways to reduce <br />those costs. The budget increase will be offset by the additional 1% payment in lieu <br />of fees and will have no levy impact, but will adjust the department expenditures <br />upwards for 2016. Staff will present this as a separate item to be included in the final <br />budget adoption on December 7. <br />There were no additional questions about the 2016 budget. <br />10.6 Commercial Haulers Composting License <br />Mr. Thompson presented the staff report. <br />Mayor Dietz expressed concerns with the new policy as it applied to commercial <br />haulers. He stated there are elderly residents who can't pick up their leaves and <br />branches and they need to hire the work out. He stated these residents would end up <br />paying more because of the additional costs to utilize a private composting company <br />and it wouldn't be fair because they also pay taxes for the city/county compost <br />facility. <br />There was discussion regarding how scenarios affect the issues and it was noted <br />enforcement would be difficult without hiring additional staff. <br />Mayor Dietz stated he spoke with Sherburne County Commissioner Bruce <br />Anderson, who told him this matter is strictly the decision of the cities. <br />Mr. Thompson expressed concern with Elk River allowing commercial haulers and <br />not the rest of the county compost sites because then all the commercial contractors <br />would come to Elk River. He stated this would cause a large increase in their <br />workload to process the material. <br />Staff was directed to explore other options with the Recycling Board. <br />10.7 Vacation Accrual Carryover Discretion <br />Mr. Portner presented the staff report. <br />Council expressed concern about setting a precedent but Mr. Portner explained how <br />this was a unique situation. <br />Council consensus was for staff to move forward with drafting language to allow the <br />vacation accrual payout for consideration at a future meeting. <br />Polo[all 81 <br />A TUR <br />