5.1. SR 04-05-1993 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ITEM 5. 1. TO: MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL FROM: LORI JOHNSON, FINANCE DIRECTOR GARY SCHMITZ, RECYCLING COORDINATOR BILL BIRRENKOTT, ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES DATE: APRIL 1, 1993 SUBJECT: GARBAGE BILLING At the March 22 City Council meeting, the City Council requested that the garbage billing issue be tabled until such time as Bill Birrenkott of the Elk River Utilities could be present. At that meeting, Councilmembers brought up several issues regarding the information presented at that meeting. Before presenting any new information, it is important that the issues discussed at that meeting be addressed. First, the cost estimates put together for the March 18 memo were put together by City staff and the Elk River Utilities staff which would include Gary Schmitz, Bill Birrenkott, Pat Hemza, Vivian Schmidt and Lori Johnson. All of us agree that the numbers, as well as the time frame included in the March 18 ~ memo, are exactly what was discussed at the staff meetings. Second, the March 18 memo gave a comparison of the City doing bimonthly billing and the Utilities doing monthly billing. The reason the comparison was done this way was because the City currently bills on a bimonthly basis and the Utilities assumed that the City wanted billing done on a monthly basis. Councilmembers requested that the billing be done on a monthly basis which is why the Utilities provided monthly billing information. The billing can be done on either a bimonthly or monthly basis by either the City or the Utilities. Another item discussed at the March 22 meeting was the time frame in which the Utilities could take over garbage billing. Bill did indicate and agrees that at the staff meetings he stated that January would be the preferred time the Utilities would take over billing; however, it could be done earlier with more confusion, cost and chance of error. For your information, when the City ordered utility bills in early March, the bills were ordered to cover the billing cycles through September in case the Utilities were to take over billing some time in 1993. ~ Based on the Council's request for monthly billing, a cost comparison was recalculated. If the Council wants monthly garbage billing, it will be less expensive for the Utilities to do the billing simply because the postage and billing costs can be split with the other utilities. Changing to monthly billing done by the Utilities will cost approximately $5,100 more per 720 Dodge Avenue N.W., Elk River, Minnesota 55330 (612) 441-7420