 I'll call this budget workshop to order. I'm perfect, please call the roll. Recommend. Here. Present. Here. Here, I know it's not referenced on the agenda, but why don't y'all join me for the budget of allegiance. Thank you so much, Reverend Vidal, would you bless us with the word, please? Creator and merciful God, what are the benefits of your mercy, for grace, for this pleasant day, for the ability to have gotten up this morning. We simply say thank you. We come together now as a council and yet as members of this community we call Columbia. Ignite us, sensitize us, and yet undergird us with your presence. We ask it and claim it in his name. Amen. Amen. There's a motion to adopt the agenda. So move. So move. Second. Second. Discussion. Staying on with the previous question. Court call roll. Yes. Aye. Yes. Aye. Aye. David. Aye. Aye. I want a personal privilege in welcoming both, or all rather, councilwoman elect Herbert, councilwoman elect Bussles and councilman elect Taylor to the chambers and also congratulate mayor elect Rickenman. Obviously as we take up the city council meeting schedule for next year and the budget manners we take up today, want to give some significant deference to the new council as they'll be managing their way through this just as much as we have before the city council meeting schedule for the last two meetings of this year, December 7th and 21st, the schedule for next year, 2022, starting on the fourth, as part of the adoption of the meeting dates for 2022, I'd like the record to reflect as part of the motion of approval that the January 4th meeting will be a 4pm meeting that will consist solely of the swearing in of the new mayor and members of city council. And that will be the only order of business for that day. Yes, sir. Thank you. That's part of the motion, incorporating the motion to approve the city council 2022 meeting dates along with the last two meeting dates this year. In mind to incorporate for those last two meeting dates in December of the time, if you all recall, we're working on a couple of housekeeping matters dealing with state law, but also the fact that you all have previously been working under an emergency order. So technically we need to have you approve that we will still meet at two o'clock on the 7th and the 21st. Incorporate this in the motion. Thank you. Thank you. So move. Second. Second. Discussion. Yes, for just matter of discussion and I know it's already been noticed, but I do have a concern about the December 7th meeting, being a two o'clock meeting, as it is also the public hearing on redistricting, our community does not go through this very often. And to have that as a two o'clock meeting where people who are working cannot participate and ask their questions is a little concerning. I know that we've already noticed this. I mentioned it to our city attorney, Ms. Knox, but just for the record, would like to go on record that I would like us to look at having another opportunity for our citizens to come and hear, for us to hear from our citizens rather than understand the maps at a time that is convenient to those who work. Is there any possibility that's a well-noticed concern? Obviously we'll be here, well past 5 p.m., 6 p.m., I would expect, or at least thereabouts, keep the public hearing open. Obviously until we adjourn, maybe have a set meeting adjournment time, and obviously we'll accommodate the public as necessary, well past 5 p.m., 6 p.m., go. Yes, so I think that could work, and if council so wishes we can make ourselves available or have an additional opportunity in the evening for the public to participate, or either way you all would like to do that for such an important matter, we can look at that too. I think the fact that it was noticed, obviously we have to stick with the two o'clock, but yes, normally y'all are still in session. Unless it's specifically attuned to that concern, people who work 9 to 5 or 6 o'clock, if we can work to keep the public hearing open, you have to remind me, keep the public hearing open until beforehand. Is the microphone on still? We're gonna check that. Keep it open until hopefully well into the evening, in case there are citizens who wanna participate in the redistricting public hearing. So that motion, because I don't want your motions to get too convoluted, I have a couple other matters to bring to your attention. The motion is for the meeting schedules for 2021 and 2022, 2 p.m. meetings. The meeting on January 4th is at 4 p.m. Swearing in ceremony. And the 2 p.m. then as incorporated in that motion. Yes, ma'am. The mayor would be for 2022 as well. 2021. Okay, so we'll take the 2022 top step. Let's do some preference from the council and people. Mr. Mayor, please. This first I've heard about the 4 p.m. meeting. Goodness, we're getting plenty of feedback now. Our ordinance requires us to organize on the first meeting in January. And with legal guidance, the fact that you will have a January 4th meeting, it can only consist of the swearing in as long as you meet. That's part of the additional guidance. I need to give you our code. I'm not sure why we changed it. It's a little too specific. The code reads, Mr. DeVol, that the regular, well, this is about the regular meetings, but the oath shall be administered on or after January 1st, following the election and the effective date of service shall be the date the oath was administered. We changed, we're not exactly sure why, the fact that the swearing in would have to take place at the first meeting of the council. We think that's a little limiting. For one reason, right now, we're in a period of about three days from the 31st of the 4th, obviously, which is fine because we have an outgoing mayor and a mayor pro tem. But if we would go ahead and allow you all to make the motion today, I think you're fine to have the swearing in on the 4th in the evening as a preference to do that, particularly because of it being four members being sworn in and an effort to also have a public reception. The location that we're working on is the convention center. And so with the city attorney's guidance, we feel like you all are fine to do the swearing in as your council meeting on the 4th based off state code and our city code. Well, I'm not so much worried about the swearing in of the new council members. I think that's perfectly fine to do it at four o'clock on the 4th, but if that's gonna be a council meeting, we need to have some agenda item to organize the council. We've got six standing committees to fill in the mayor to pro tem to elect. Well, again, you can have an agenda, the only agenda item that way. So we'd move that to that operation to January 18th. Okay, we'll discuss it. We'll discuss it. That was the motion good with the January 4th. I'm fine with it. The reality is that most of the organizing other than the election of a mayor of mayor pro tem, the committee work can be done through those issues and done fairly quickly. Just make sure, obviously, and I would think prospectively, any conflicts that the ordinance may have with state code and practice. Let's make sure we find some way to resolve those. We'll be dealing with this in the future. But I think that's gonna work through those. What you're saying, the acoustics in here are horrible. Are we, do you have the appointments? Don't want to have to be in the first year. Will they accept a mayor pro tem? I'm sorry. Does the microphone work now? I was actually just making sure Howard could hear me. I wasn't worried about y'all. Okay. I didn't hear you too. I'm sorry. Okay, all right. Oh, it's, is this a, is that work better? Is that even better? Yeah. All right. I'm getting technicalization of Sam Davis here. I'm in bad shape, y'all. I think you can work through all this stuff pretty quickly. And if there's nothing in the, I mean, the ordinance, nor the code speaks to organization of committees. We didn't have committees until two cycles, three cycles ago would have you, we can work through, y'all can work through those, I mean, respectively. Yeah. So. Mayor Lytton, I'll talk about it. Y'all work, y'all work it out. I think we can do that. Just as long as you have some time to really have some discussions about the committees, whether or not, you know, their mission is going to change. I don't know that you need to rush into that, but that'll be y'all's decision. All right. So the last question the city manager did ask, is there a preference as to city council meeting times in 2022 that need to be incorporated into this motion? Daniel, Howard, Ed. 2PM. And that will actually, Mayor, that will actually have to be an ordinance change because every year you have to set the time and the location. So I just want it, we need to bring that to you though, at the December and December 27th and 21st meetings. To change it. So it won't be incorporated into the motion, but is there a preference that the staff needs to know about right now? Well, I think the intent would be that we, we have a two o'clock, but then we rotate quarterly into the plan, which would be an evening meeting so that people could participate. So 2PM meetings, 2PM meetings still and 6PM quarterly. Could I hear Mr. Rick? He said, keep it at 2PM and the quarterly meetings, going back to quarterly meetings around the city and those be at 6PM. Just want to another point. This would be up for, of course, the members who'll be sitting here, but the 2PM meeting was always a work session and we did have six o'clock evening meetings until COVID. I know that there are several members of the community who are expressed concern of not having six o'clock meetings. So moving forward, that's probably a discussion that needs to have more than just a quarterly 6PM meeting. One of the things we've noticed too, Mr. Biden and all of council, the efficiencies we've realized during COVID with the live stream and public participation and the remote platform we do not intend to get rid of. Again, we're sort of testing things in here today, but we will maintain the remote platform. We will maintain the ability for the public to participate remotely. The 2 o'clock meeting time start is efficient for the work that I've seen you all get done and for us as a staff, it's totally up to you. But again, I just wanted to make sure you all are aware. Well, yeah, but that- We don't need to decide that today. Yeah, so- So just the point of that is- Let's talk about it. Well, you kind of do because we have to- It has to be in the ordinance. Yes. So I'm just raising it because it is a concern and I understand the 2 o'clock, but if people are working, their attention should be on their job and not watching council at 2 o'clock. So again, doing the public's business, having a 2 o'clock meeting tends to not be as efficient or as public facing as it should be. But certainly that's up to the members who'll be here, but I did want to raise that because that is a concern I've heard on more than one occasion. I think it's Theresa and myself between now and- The 7th. Well, we'll be now on Friday because we've got to notice the meeting on Friday and those ordinances will need to be prepared- Well, we're set for this year. We're set for this year. We're set for the balance of 2021. Yes, sir. The ordinance needs two readings. Yes. And so that's what she's saying. For the two meetings in December, the ordinance would need to at least mention something. It could be amended later, but you have to have something in the ordinance. Is there a sense of the body? I assume I think newly noted and obviously ordinances are meant to be changed if need be. There's a sense that the 2 p.m. will stand and 6 p.m. quarterly meetings. And if in fact the concern is very legitimate, raised by Ms. Devine is something y'all want to address. You can address that going forward. 2 p.m.? 2 p.m. All right. 2 p.m. stands. 6 p.m. quarterly meetings. Council, if perspective, we want to change that. Then I'll be the prerogative to prepare the ordinance as requested. The rest of the motion is clear to you, clerk. All right, any further discussions? I'm sorry. I would just say, Mr. Mayor, I have the ability. I might have the opportunity to meet with all the new elected council members this week so I could get feedback to Ms. Wilson and Ms. Knox by Friday if we want to make adjustment. Obviously, we're going to have to have work session starting at 2 p.m. anyway. So we're going to start meeting at 2 p.m. no matter what anyway. So if we could just hold off on that portion until the end of the week, let's discuss it as a group and make sure that we're all on accord moving forward for 2022. Yes, sir. Is there a motion, Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor, just for final clarification, on January 4th, council will meet at 4 p.m. for the swearing-in solely with no other business on the agenda. For December 7th and 21st, the council will meet and there is a decision to extend the public hearing for redistricting on December 7th. Just into the evening. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. For the public input. My guess is we'll be here anyway. Yes, Mr. Brennan? Yes. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Thank you. All right, now we've got that done, I have an unintended motion to adjourn. All right. We've been here all day already. Let's keep on trucking, y'all. For your time with those matters that we had to attend to, we are moving into the fiscal year 2022 to the 2023 budget kickoff. Not sure where the time goes, but it is upon us. This Missy Kauffman budget program management grants director, as well as Jeff Palin, our ACM and chief financial officer will work through these items with me, with you. And we do know how important it is to kick off the budget in this timeframe to get instructions to our department heads. And particularly this year, this budget season to acclimate our council members a let to the process. And so I'm very thankful that they are joining us today. And if they have any questions, we'll be more than happy to answer them as well. So with that Missy, let's get started. We wanna try to be conscious of time. My goal is that we finish before one. So we're gonna try to do that. We also have on debt today a discussion of our priority projects and obligations. And it's important to me, as I know it is to the seated council that we always recognize obligations on the table and have a friendly reminder of those things as well as the American Rescue Plan funding that we were so thankful that we've received, but also know that there is limited in the grand scheme of things with all that we have to accomplish. And so we will work through those items. And finally, we will have the Columbia Water and Sewer Rates Study with Mr. Clint Shealy, our assistant city manager of Columbia Water and Mr. Robert Chambers, our principal consultant at Black and Beach. So with that. Thank you, Miss Wilson. I don't, let me make sure it's this microphone. I think it's on, but it needs to be turned up. Come up before you. Thank you as we adjust to returning home here. So it's great to be back in council chambers. Thank you again, Miss Wilson. It's good to see everybody. Good to see everyone in council chambers. And as Miss Wilson said, we're excited to be here today talking to you about a budget kickoff that may seem early for some folks. We are also trying to advance our schedule and get things moving early enough so that we can be able to address things as we move along. So with that being said, if we could go to the next slide. Today, what we will talk through is the, for the budget kickoff is our, we'll go through a little bit of review of our budget process, talk about our proposed budget calendar. We'll also talk about some priorities and budget drivers that we see that will be impacting the upcoming budget for 2022 Business Bill. So in that mention, we will talk through priority projects, not necessarily priority setting, but review of where we are with several projects, talk through several things that have been accomplished during this past year and in 2020, as well as obligations and some other things that are planned and in progress, along with a review of the American Rescue Plan and then finally into the rate study. Next slide, please. With all of our work and everything that we start with regards to the budget, work plans and our development, starts with our Envision Columbia, your Envision Columbia that is adopted by city council, addressing the seven focus areas for attracting and retaining talent, planning together, connecting our community, empowering our residents, economic prosperity and endless possibilities, enhancing Columbia's neighborhoods and leading the way and innovative and high quality municipal services. We try to make sure that we reply and include that in everything that we do going forward in the understates exactly where we're starting and where we will also end up. Our budget process starts in October, November. It's actually a year round process. We start working mostly on the budget, though, in the October, November timeframe, looking at our budget calendars, getting ready for instructions to be prepared for departments to submit their budgets, touched on with lights that start working towards a council retreat, priority setting in the October, November timeframe going forward. This is a little bit of an abbreviated version of what we'd like to memorialize with you all in the newly seated council in the October, November timeframe, more of a strategic planning work session retreat. As noted on your calendar, the council retreat with Tyler that many of you are used to and some will get used to is in February. So or end of January, early February, and that's on your calendar. That's a different type of retreat as you've all experienced. That's a retreat about you all and more of getting to know you, building the relationships. The retreat that we're referring to now it would be our time thing preparing for the budget. And so we'd like to start doing that every October. In the December to February timeframe, departments are beginning to prepare their budgets for submission to the city manager and executive review. We also start working on our capital improvement request and we go through executive review of those budgets along with beginning revenue, updating our revenue projections for the coming year as we get more information on the first six months as we and then close out of the prior year. Moving into March and April, the city manager begins to submit or review her proposed budget with city council starting usually by fund working through our different operating funds. I mean, we have different city council budget workshops reviewing the proposed budget. By May, we are targeting to have the budget ready for public hearing, first and second reading. That worked very well this year. We would like to stay on that trajectory of having a public hearing and first and second reading in the May timeframe. And as you all know, we must have a balanced budget passed by June 30th. And our fiscal year, of course, kicks back off again July 1st. Next slide please. Just a quick review of the budget. Again, we'll go through these real quick. Different components of the budget include, of course, our revenues. Certain revenues, of course, are dedicated for specific expenditures. For instance, our hospitality tax, accommodations tax, tourism development fee, our enterprise funds. Those are all funds and revenues that are generated for specific purposes and specific uses, many of which are set by state law. We must maintain our reserves, most of which are through our budget ordinances and our bond covenants. Usually those are on our financials. Sometimes you will also see them as a part of our budget. Of course, we have restricted uses for our debt payments and our employment taxes is another example. And then unrestricted uses, which we have fewer of those funds available, but we try to make sure we use them wisely. Those are revenues that must fund general services. Even though they are unrestricted, they are still must be used for public purposes and our state law determines which type of revenues we can collect. Of course, those rates that we're able to adjust. Next slide. Budget components, we have two budgets. One is the operating budget, which is comprised of our operations of the city. First item listed there of course is our debt payments. That would be our bonds and capital leases. Those are mandatory and must be paid obligations. So they sort of come off the top. Next, we include our personnel budget personnel, which includes salaries, fringes and so forth. The majority of the city's operating budgets, different operating funds, depending upon which fund it is. The budget comprises 60 to 80% is personnel. We are a service industry, so of course that means personnel and employees. Within some of the specific departments, their budgets may be anywhere from 80 to 90% personnel. So that leaves them little funds available for discretionary, if you will, uses. The next components of the budget include supplies or consumables. That would be anything from fuel to copy paper to tools and asphalt. Then we have services, which also are those things that are provided outside the department. Everything from electricity to postage to fleet repairs and so forth. Next, capital lease. That would be anything from vehicles or heavy equipment. Anything that becomes an asset. Those items are also few between certain departments. Some departments obviously have more resources available for outlays, capital outlays that we try to use to replenish our fleet and equipment throughout the year. Then another component of our budget would include the non-departmental and transfers, which include where you will see our debt service payments and then some other special projects, like for instance, our support for various county services, you include the public defender, the solicitor's office, and also our homeless services contracts and some other items that are not focused from a specific department. The capital budget, which includes the city's capital improvement programs by fund, those would be assets that become part of the city's infrastructure. And those capital improvement programs, they're investments, of course, in our city facilities as well. Next slide. Just a quick review of the fiscal year 21 and fiscal year 22 budgets that we recently have ended and now are currently in. Just reminding that as we prepared these budgets, we were still in the depths of the pandemic, so they were developed with uncertainty in terms of our forecast. If you recall, when we submitted both the current year budget and the prior year budget, departments were instructed to use their fiscal year 18-19 budget, actuals as a base. That means that most department's budgets currently are still reflecting costs from two to three years ago. So we're still not where we would be pre-pandemic in terms of departments' base budgets. And then several programs we were grateful to be able to restore in this current fiscal year. Departments have been able to begin hiring again if they can find employees. And then also too, we've been able to resume the security camera project, security camera upgrade, as well as our fleet replacement program, which is very obviously critical to our departments and the general fund. Police, fire, public works and so forth. That's a critical component for service delivery of our departments. Just to again remind folks, the operating budget that was passed for the current fiscal year is $376 million. Our operating budget is comprised of our general fund, water and sewer, stormwater, parking, accommodations tax and hospitality tax. Again, those are our main operating funds. Next slide. Our capital improvement budget that you passed included $133 million in terms of our water and sewer, our CIP, stormwater CIP and hospitality tax, which was one project, and that would be Finlay Park. Okay, so after that quick review, we'll talk through some of those things that we see that are going to be driving our upcoming budget for fiscal year 2223. That many of these items should not be of any surprise to you in terms of what you were seeing across the country, both in Columbia and across the state and the country. Of course, we are still continuing to budget in a pandemic. Workcasting is better, but still not clear. So we still are cautious in terms of making our projections on our revenues and expenditures, of course. As many of you all know, some of our primary concerns right now at this point would be being able to staff with hire and retain our employees. It is taking some toll on service delivery. We have been able to sustain some services through temp labor and contractors. Of course, that's not sustainable on an ongoing basis, but we are seeing some improvements and we do have some suggestions and thoughts on how we move forward there. In regards to revenues, our early review of revenues, we are doing better than projected on some of our budget revenues at this stage of where we are today. Better than what we were estimating at least. Some are still sort of lagging where they should be from pre-pandemic periods. So we are certainly taking those into consideration. Of course, those would be revenues that are primarily driven by consumer habits and consumer spending, such as our business license, our hospitality tax, accommodations tax and so forth. Let me see why we're making that point and we'll come back around to this when we talk about the ARP funding. But a big part of ARP funding is to help communities restore a lost revenue. And so in the based off projections, we're hopeful that we're gonna come out better than what we know right now for certain. But as you all know with us, we tend to err on the side of caution. And so with the ARP budget, you will see where we have accounted for lost revenue, particularly with parking, but also the general fund and hospitality. We certainly hope we're gonna fare better, but until we know that, we did go ahead and plug in those holes. So when we get to the ARP funding, I was just making that note, we're gonna come back to that and explain to you why we did that with the ARP funding. There's a great chance it can be reallocated. So that's a very fluid process still, but we'll talk about that more. Mr. Macy, may I ask a question? One of the things that has really troubled me and a concern of mine, and of course continues to be a concern, and that is the health hazards that firefighters is confronted with on a day-to-day basis. The carcinogens that are present, we talked about this one time before. I just wanna make sure that our firefighters are taken care of because it involves new equipment and wondering whether or not, we're gonna talk, I'm sure we're gonna talk a little bit about that, about the ARP plan and whether or not that's included in that priority list. Yes, sir. Okay, well I won't raise it anymore until we get the money. Okay, thank you. With expenditures, of course, we are anticipating impacts from inflation. We're already seeing some of those impacts and we anticipate more, especially as it starts to hit in the Columbia area. Of course that would be with our fuel, potential electricity, chemicals and materials. Supply chain is also impacted, both the supply chain is impacting things like chemicals but also tools and materials as well as inflation. Lead time to get products and items in is taking longer. That impact service delivery as well as employees need the materials in order to perform the services that they seek to do. So we are hoping to take that into consideration as we're moving forward and keeping that in mind. And of course, another area of it's good opportunity but something we wanna make sure we're cognizant of and aware of it is that as we move to a more cloud-based environment for our applications and our software, it's absolutely critical to be able to perform services across the city. Everything from business license to police services. As we move to cloud-based solutions, those costs are transferred from one time cost to reoccurring costs. Whereas you were buying a license or buying a product or buying a hardware. As we move to a cloud solution, that's a subscription so it becomes a reoccurring fee and a reoccurring cost. It's some of it as a trade-off but it's also something to keep cognizant as we look forward and especially as we move to a more virtual environment and as we continue to improve our opportunity to provide services remotely. Some of our systems include our financial system and banner and so forth. Next slide, that's pretty good. With that in mind, with those budget drivers in mind, city managers' priorities for addressing these items in the upcoming budget based on those drivers is that ensuring that our stability of our workforce and tools and employees delivered quality municipal services, that also, of course, also does include their safety and everything else. Staffing capacity, recruitment and retention are critical. Technology and equipment to be able to perform those services is critical. And then, of course, being able to do that with customer service and improving the quality of services that we provide is to continue to remain the city manager as well as city council's top priorities in terms of what we do. We also want to make sure that we're fulfilling our financial obligations with our debt payments and our lease obligations and other financial commitments that are made throughout the year. With the continuing, with the city manager's priorities, improving community assets by the addressing affordable housing, food insecurities and blight, that would be both commercial redevelopment and residential through our demolition programs, through our CRR programs and some other services, as well as also looking to do not just home repairs, but also be able to address affordable housing initiatives. And of course, food insecurities that has been high on everyone's priorities as well and making sure that we do address food insecurities where noted. And of course, addressing city infrastructure. City and municipal services is based a lot on city infrastructure. That is where, in essence, is our bread and butter to be able to provide these services. We'll go through a little bit of our priority projects. Also, one of our areas of concern right now is our parking system, being able to address and make our parking system whole and healthy. It is an enterprise of the city. It is a business recruitment tool for the city. So it was important that our parking system remain solvent and remain, of course, healthy. And the not ongoing needs for city infrastructure that we really need to put some effort and energy into on our coming budget is our ongoing replacement schedules for our sidewalks, what percentage of roads that the city has to be able to repair some roads, city facilities to include our police and fire stations, our fleet facility, our parks facilities, our city buildings. And then, of course, our water and sewer infrastructure that you will hear more about later today. Next, we'll go into the budget schedule. As you can see, we are starting now with the priority projects through our budget. We have a new pick-off in January. Departments will be submitting their budgets for executive review. We will start to review with city council revenue projections in February and then moving through the schedule for city council will be review of requested budgets by fund. We'll go through each of our different funds. By April, the city manager will be submitting her proposed budget. And then that will also be the last city council meeting before we advertise and public hearing advertised. We'll do all funds wrap up in May if we stay on this trajectory and this target. And then public hearing, first reading is also May and then targeting second reading, final adoption. The alternate dates there are if we were to go to a first reading, the second meeting in June, May and then the final reading in June. Are there any questions about the budget drivers or the budget priorities coming into the fiscal year 2022-23 as we move forward? After newly elected, they have any questions, please? Mr. Mayor, I have a question, sir. Right now? I have a question for you actually, Missy. Thank you for this wonderful information and snapshot of our timelines into the future. Can you comment on our efforts for recruitment and retention of bringing on new employees to fill these needs that I think every county municipality is going through right now. What are we doing unique in any sense? At Mr. Brennan, I'm gonna put her share a little bit, but we have started some new efforts, very new. Do you wanna come up? And I know there's gonna be- And if this is on the agenda down the road, we- It will be, but I mean, she can just quickly- Wonderful. To answer your question, I think, the resources director. Yeah, so we have recently hired who's focus is on just that recruitment and retention. We have started working with several different departments to get interns in early. We started with the high school, but we will be moving into the colleges as well. And so that is really what we're doing to a teacher in me. So that is what we're doing that we've started doing. We're looking at some scheduling alternatives as well, but Sharon has been on the job now for about two months and she's really started working with those departments to try to get people hired. We're also working with Cornerstone, that's our applicant tracking software, to try to help managers move through that process more quickly, interview and helping to interview and pre-screen candidates and to get them moved through that process so that our candidates will have a more positive experience. So we're there, we're working toward that and we look forward to being able to answer some more questions moving forward. Wonderful, wonderful. And I see there's something working through the state house about the CDL age coming down to 18. If we could review that and possibly send a letter of support, I know that is a big gap in filling our employment needs across the board. Thank you for that. Thank you. With the budget discussions, as we move forward with the 22-23 budget, we do wanna make sure we're reminding as well that we will be focusing on departments who are utilizing a priority-based budgeting approach. With that, we'll also be our budgeting for equity components. So we look forward to being able to demonstrate our priority-based budgeting delivery but also to how we're addressing equity with our upcoming budget and our programs. National leader in that space, thank you for your leadership. Thank you. Next slide. So we're gonna go into priority projects and the most trade-off and Jeff is gonna come review those for you. Good morning. So we'll talk about our priority projects obligations. So we'll focus first and these are several of the ones we've been talking about for several years now on Bull Street and we part rehab in municipal complex and we'll also talk about some of our, we'll have a list, we'll go through our computing. Sorry. Volume up too if you can. We'll also go through a review of our projects that we've completed that are in progress and planned over the next several slides. Is that better? Can y'all hear me now? So on the next slide, Bull Street. I think I've spent a quarter of my life talking to y'all about how we're gonna pay for Bull Street. So it's exciting we've kind of reached some of these milestones. We've completed the infrastructure spend out there, total $31,250,000. Our funding sources over the years have been a combination of water, sewer, stormwater. We had a geo bond series that we issued in 2016 to pay for some of that. And then we finalized the payment for infrastructure this past year and we utilized some of the funds from the installment purchase revenue bond that we issued last spring. Bull Street still has in progress. We have infrastructure going on. I'm sure everyone is driven by. You've seen our parking deck that's being built out there right now. We were obligated for a total of 1,600 spaces. These first two decks are 852 spaces. The total estimated cost or not to exceed amount, 16,500,000. We financed that utilizing our OPEB cash. And then in the future, I believe it's in 2030 for this first set, parking system will issue a parking bond to refund the OPEB cash. And I'll remind everyone that's also a pretty good return for our OPEB. We anticipate those two decks to open this March. So remaining is a third parking deck. We passed an ordinance. I didn't put a date up there. I know we passed it over the past year, but that was for the additional 748 spaces that amount not to exceed 20,400,000. It's also a similar financing utilizing our OPEB cash. Then we will issue an additional parking bond in 2037. We are anticipating that infrastructure for those decks to begin sometime in 2023. We mentioned that we are planning an orientation for the council members to go through lots of information. We meet with them individually this week to do some onboarding. But then in another week or two, we're having an orientation session with our departmental items. We do wanna include a full street specific orientation for you all to actually go on site and hear more detail and feed the project so that you wanna make sure they have a true understanding and answer any questions more specifically. And I think Mr. DeVall, you might be involved in the full street commission with that as well. I just wanted to mention that because I know we're glazing over some things right now. Thank you. Yeah. Good. Yeah, please. For the benefit of newly elected, would you give a brief explanation of installment purchase revenue bond and also tell them what OPEB is, other post-employment benefit? Sure, so OPEB, we'll start with that. Our other post-employment benefit account starting in around 2006 or seven, accounting standards changed and we had to begin recognizing future costs for our healthcare insurance that we pay for our employees that have retired. So that number is a liability that's on the books and over the years we've put cash towards that liability. We have roughly 55 million in cash for that obligation. So what we've taken a look at is utilizing some of that cash to make the early payments for the parking decks and then we'll reimburse the OPEB account, the full amount plus a return on that by issuing parking bonds in the next, now it'll be roughly the next eight years and then the next about 14 years. One of the advantages of this, doing it this way is it's kind of a win-win for both the parking system, our obligation and OPEB. So if the OPEB account historically has had a very small return, I believe it was under 50 basis points that's just been a factor in the way the market's been for the last decade and a half. We're paying a much higher rate of return guaranteed council pass in ordinance on this to give the guaranteed rate of return. So when those bonds are issued, the full 16.5 million and the full 20.4 million will be returned along with interest at that point. So it's a good return for our OPEB account. It's also important right now our parking system has an outstanding bond that we're paying off. This puts, this timeline that we have up here puts things more in line of when the parking system will have the ability to issue parking bonds to meet this commitment for all 1600 spaces. Overall, it's just a, this has worked well for the city. We've looked at, I don't know, we've probably looked at 10 different ways of how we pay for this and this really has put the least liability on our general fund and short term on the parking system by going through this process. So that's OPEB, the other question was OPEB. Installment purchase. What's an installment purchase revenue bond? So we utilize an installment purchase revenue bond for one of the, over the next couple of years you're gonna hear us talk about several different bonds. Typically you'll have a geo bond which we have used somewhat in the past. More often you're gonna hear a revenue bond. You'll hear that more from stormwater, hospitality tax or water and sewer. Each of those systems will have a bond that's issued and it's paid directly by the revenues. That'll be the direct obligation to make that payment. The advantage of an installment purchase revenue bond is it's not, it is backed by, in general it's backed by the authority of the government but it's not necessarily strictly from the general fund, water, sewer, stormwater, hospitality. It's not directly from any of those but it could be paid by any of those sources of funds in our case, we will probably make the payments well we will make the payments that will come out of our general fund but a big chunk of this is actually gonna be paid by the lease payments that come out of the 1401 building that will help make most of the payment. Anything additional will come out of the general fund and we've structured it so it fits within the existing debt service structure. So there's really no additional revenues that need to come to us from any other sources to make these payments. Mr. Mayor, I have one question, sir. Please, one. Mr. Palin has good stewards of public funds in these in progress infrastructure, full street projects. We have, we participate in the oversight through project manager on city staff, correct. Make sure the developer of no wacky change orders come through. Oh, yes, we do. Great, that's your question. His office is right next to me so whenever there's an issue, Dr. No is there to attend to him. Thank you. Yeah, it's maybe more in the weeds and for L, the parking garages, including the perspective on being built, will we have significant EV infrastructure there for electronic electric vehicles? We will, okay. She responded yes in case anyone did. All right, thank you, Jeff. Next slide. Finley Park rehabilitation. So we've been talking about this for several years. We did, unfortunately, we, things slowed down a little because of the pandemic. We had a plan, we've presented that to the public, presented to y'all. It's still a very good plan and a very doable plan. So the first half of that is the rehabilitation of Finley Park and last year's budget through hospitality tax, y'all allocated 1,500,000. So we're utilizing that for the engineering and design of our park. We do anticipate that being that actual contract being on an agenda this December. I'm not sure if it's gonna be next week or two weeks later. But again, that'll be fully paid out of the hospitality tax budget, which is important. That's what has slowed us down during the pandemic. We're all aware hospitality tax sales didn't take a dive. Hospitality tax sales, though, are coming back up. So that's a positive because we do have planned the additional 17 million for the construction will be a potential hospitality tax bond that we would look to issue here in the next one to two years based upon the outcome of the engineering and design. I did not mention, but it is up there. We also completed the purchase of the post office building over the last year and a half as well. And that is right adjacent to, that is right adjacent to Finley Park. So our ACM Missy Gentry is in constant discussion with them as we look to utilize its facility to improve the use of Finley Park. Any questions on that? Go to the next slide. The municipal complex, 1401 Main Street. I think we're all aware we purchased that roughly this time last year. We paid for that roughly 23 million through the installment purchase revenue bonds. Right now we're in progress. The outfit of the building is ongoing right now. Relocation from Washington Square and City Hall will be occurring between now. And we have an estimated completion date of December 2022 to June 2023. I think early on we were hoping for the December 2022 to June 2023 is probably more likely. And we did have a discussion and follow-up with y'all. I think it was about a month ago on that and where we're at with the spend. The up-fit is approximately $8 million and that's being paid out of the installment purchase revenue bonds. In addition to that, in the agreement that y'all approved last month, we actually had put in that there could be, I don't know the exact amount, but about a million and a half that comes out of water and sewer to help with that up-fit as well. Next slide, please. Priority projects completed 2020 and 2021. So I mentioned something slowed down during the pandemic. However, what didn't slow down was city staff and the projects that have been ongoing. So this is a complete list. Well, it's probably not a complete list, but this is a list of many of the projects we've completed over the last two years. We've put in there the amounts that we funded the funding sources and it starts with the municipal complex which we just reviewed, the post office. We have a funding source up there as HTAX and IPRB. Just a reminder, we did issue a small hospitality tax bond. It was a two-year note when we issued, because we purchased the post office two years ago. When we issued the IPRBs last spring, we utilized those funds to take hospitality completely out of the deal. So the post office is now owned by the general fund instead of hospitality. City Hall renovations, 50,000 was spent there out of the general fund, 2221 Divine Street. That purchase was initially funded through the parking fund. We have since taken that out, utilizing funds from the IPRB as well so that we can put the cash back in the parking system which has had, as we all know, a rough year and a half with the pandemic on its revenues. Next, we had the Hardin Street, the customer service payment center. We utilize water and sewer funds for that, 1.4 million. Several of y'all were out at the opening for that just in a month and a half ago. I've been by several times. That facility is wonderful. The employees like it, the people coming to it like it. I remind everyone, it has a drive-through which is something we did not have. It has ample parking, lots of parking, something that, of course, is a struggle downtown. We'll continue to market that so people are aware of that facility out there. In addition, for the police department, y'all may recall probably six, seven years ago, we were leasing the facility on Bluff Road for evidence. After we issued the IPRB this past spring, we used part of those funds to actually purchase that property so we own it outright. Don't have to worry about any future lease increases. Little Street Infrastructure, I've mentioned that earlier, 31,250,000. Several parks, top park there, Hyatt Park. I feel like we've talked about that for many years as well. Sorry, Councilman Davis, it's walked out of the room, but we did fund that through a variety of sources, General Funds, Stormwater, CDBG, and some DHEC grants. Several of the other parks are listed up there as well from TS Martin, Marshall Park, Owens Field, Farrell Park, Lorick Park, EB Sessions Playground. The ribbon cutting for Hyatt is tomorrow. The ribbon cutting for Hyatt Park is at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Then we have our priority projects that are in progress. Municipal complex, as we mentioned earlier, it's still the continual up-fit in the office relocation. Finley Park Rehab, we've allocated the 1.5 million out of each tax we anticipate an additional 17 million that will likely be a hospitality tax bond, which is what we had discussed about it. I think it was about two years ago. We'll bring that back to council as we move along. Ulstree Parking, we also discussed today that's ongoing. Missy Gentry, I'm sorry, Missy Kauffman mentioned earlier, the CUI security camera. We're in the process of implementing that right now. Out of the estimate cost of 9 million, that's a cost over several years. 2.5 million of it, we funded it initially with the IPRB, so the additional 6.5 million will most likely be part of the operating budget of the general fund over the next several years. I'm sure we will be highlighting that as we go through. Canal head gates, canal embankments, both of those, funding sources, CDBG, MIT, and through FEMA. Not sure Robert, as he speaks to y'all later today, may mention those, but those are two of our priority projects ongoing, Olympia Fire Station. I know we've been talking about that a lot over the last year and a half. That's also being funded by CDBG, MIT, Floor Drive Public Safety Training Facility. We utilized IPRB funds to purchase that. We're in the process of turning it into a public safety training facility. That's kind of a joint deal when we purchased it. We purchased that along with the Hardin Street facility where we put the water and sewer payment center together, both from Dominion, the EOC, the CAD, Roof, Mylar Windows, fencing. Total costs there, 960,000 is our estimate, and we're paying for that out of the IPRB bond as well. Canal alternate water supply, always an important discussion. Funding sources there are brick and water and sewer to the tune of 45 million, then CPD headquarters planning. Right now, we have budgeted 800,000. That's also coming out of IPRB. Now, as that goes down the road and as that develops, of course, that number is going to go up from 800,000. And then our fleet building. We've been talking about the fleet building, I think, since the day I came to work here. So we finally have identified funding. It's a combination of the general fund and IPRB. Right now, that combines for 1.7 million. Our estimated cost is 2.5. So because stormwater, water and sewer also utilize that facility, that will probably be where we'll look to get the additional 800,000. So Jeff, it's important to note for the record that the canal head gates, 8 million, canal embankment, 42 million, and the canal alternate water supply to deal with the redundancy issues of 45 million, all funded. All funded and moving forward. I think that obviously has a significant accomplishment given the challenge we went through in 2015. And I think a real testament to the tenacity. Teresa Clint, our entire staff, Joey, just of just continuing to push, push, push locally, our folks in Washington to make sure that all the money we send to Washington every single year, it was repatriated in some meaningful way. Mr. Clover and Senator Graham and others, all think to be thanked for their stewardship and push there. But that's the tune of $100 million. It's a big deal. And we got it done. I know that obviously we were set a radar rock and roll in the Finlay Park Rehab pre-pandemic. Jeff, any idea or projections as to, obviously H-TAC was a primary funding source of that and the pandemic upended that everywhere, not just here in Columbia, but around the globe. Any idea, any comfort as to when those funds might become more reliable and consistent to serve as a primary funding source for long-term financing needs? Yes, that's a good question. I actually kind of meant to mention this when I first came up here, but I was struggling with the mic. I think as we roll into January, we'll finalize our past year's audit, so we'll kind of know where the base is on our funding. That will also, in January, and I'm going to say late January, not early January, we'll have our December numbers. That will give us a full half-year look. In the middle of the year, that doesn't help us often looking at the general fund because a lot of those revenues come late in the year, but it sure will give us a good look at where we're at halfway through the year for hospitality tax, tourism development fee, state accommodations tax, and those are going to be the primary items, especially H tax. So looking through November, I hesitate to say, but I feel pretty positive that our numbers are going to come in strong. So I think as we go through this year and as we go through the budget process, talking about hospitality tax, I think we can start having the discussion of when we would issue a hospitality tax pond within the next year and a half. I honestly can't tell you how long the design and planning part is going to take. That's probably more of a question for Henry and Randy and others working on that part, but as soon as that part moves along and as we take a look at numbers in January, I think we can put together a good timeline. Jeff, refresh my memory on what the fleet building. That's how in the public works complex. So when you drive in past the new facility on Hardin Street, as you drive in through the gate, it's immediately there to the left. And you probably can't see it because we've got too many trucks blocking the views, which is why we need a bigger building. So every part of our fleet touches that. Our folks touch those vehicles from police to fire, public works, trucks, and it is they have long been at capacity. Ms. Devine. So Jeff, and I know that to say potential projects plan, this definitely is not all. And I know you probably hit the highlights, but just two things that I wanted to ask about since we talked a lot about parks and we made significant investments in our parks over the last couple of years. Excited about all the ones that have been completed. Two that I wanted to ask about was the status of the playground equipment for Hampton Park and the outdoor facility at Southeast that Ms. Plow would always talk about every time we had a retreat. And I don't see either one of those on this and I just want to ask the status of those. Yes ma'am. So when we get to the ARP budget, there's several projects that I didn't call out necessarily specifically, but you will see a line item for parks and recreation and the Southeast bathrooms and all of that is on our list for those projects. Okay. They're high on the list. Alright. In this course, although we're making some progress now at Greenview, I've heard really good things. I was asking some of our community members who utilize it often, they're very thankful for some progress there, but we know it got a little more work to do but those specific projects you just mentioned, I'm hoping we're tagging those for that ARP funding. Alright, thank you. Next slide. So our potential projects planned. Finley Park, WWC, that's the outpost that we've talked about. I believe some of y'all visited with them in the past year as well. So we still will continue to remain in discussion with them on how we can move forward as we go through the redevelopment. It is very important whether it's them or somebody that we have activated that park after we... Another item is the municipal court taking a look at that facility, move it elsewhere. After that, we're also looking, there's two items there that are kind of combined really, the convention center expansion and the convention center hotel. I'd call that the hotel and infrastructure associated with it. We did give y'all an update about a month ago. Me, Missy Gentry and Gregory Tucker will be back with y'all. We anticipate January, February as we're going through the due diligence right now working with Richland County and working with the developer to fully identify good costs and exactly what we're paying for and exactly how we would pay for it and understanding what the ask is of the county as well so we can bring all that information back to y'all. I'm gonna say January to February but I believe we've discussed as late as March but I'm sure the developer would like it a little sooner than that. So as soon as we have everything, we'll bring that back. The last two items on there are the quiet zone. Citywide, there's a cost there and then there's quiet zone zone one which is, I think, more. But Missy Gentry has talked with y'all past the requested amount. There's four million from both the state and from USC. We have 1.4 million so there's still a little funding. Devine mentioned these are certainly not all projects that we get potentially list here but we try to keep it a little high level and the first two, in my opinion from an internal needs standpoint are definitely things we need to be thinking about. The Finlay Park rehab itself is planned and moving forward. This private sector potential is the distinction here. So when you see the numbers look very much the same I wanted to make sure you were clear that we have it on the potential piece because the 17-5 here it would be an additional 17-5 to bring in a private entity to help activate the park but the first number that we went over with you is what we are doing internally with the H-tax hopefully buying that Mayor Benjamin mentioned and then of course you all know that the municipal court is for a very long time just busting out the seams and so that's something I'd love to keep on the radar as the capital city and where we have many lawyers and judges coming here we have a new court administrator but we also need the physical infrastructure to make sure that we're conducting the business accordingly over there so those are two things we wanted to keep in mind you've been briefed on the convention center there's a question mark there we're looking for the information so we put it on potential and then the quiet zone project was certainly a committee of council outside community members who worked very diligently with Missy Gentry and others and obviously there's State House support for the quiet zone project again we put these on there because they have a little bit more high profile nature to them but there are many other projects that we're of concern to you Mr. Davis and Mr. Rickerman and Mr. DeVine that's a quick question you mentioned I forgot the dollar amount for Finley that's my understanding or am I correct that that's beyond what we plan to do with the private partnership what would we be doing with the dollars that we've identified for the park just general landscaping or what I don't know that we have the slides readily available to you right now but the deck that we've shown the community and you all hasn't changed I mean you're so proud that our internal staff Todd Martin with the city helped put that plan together I mean it is much more than just landscaping and it is a phenomenal plan that we think we can do design is about to be underway and if you want Henry can come up and tell you more specifically but again that we feel will activate the part in and of itself as well I think the additional I think we publicly I've said it now but that was the whitewater plan that was talked about coming in and you know with everything that's occurred since post pandemic and we just you know not quite sure if that is doable anymore it may be but we want to at least move forward with what we feel we can do make it the jewel that it should be safe to secure we would have an attraction in spite of if that doesn't happen that's what I think that was the goal am I correct an attraction I think yes sir just the fact that it would be back in good repair safe and some additional things not necessarily the attraction like whitewater and that's not necessarily off the table again we're just looking at what's most doable from a funding standpoint and not wanting to wait wanting to go ahead and get started yeah I understand that yeah Mr. Rickman the divinely Mr. McDowell Miss Wilson do we have any numbers associated with the municipal court any kind of estimate the question was if we have any numbers associated with either a rehabilitation or a just a I mean we talked about maybe getting another building Mr. Rickman we actually had a building we're very interested in we do have some numbers yes sir I don't have them handy and I don't know if Henry or Missy do right now but at some point during this they don't have those handy but we can definitely go over that with and there's a potential building in the 4 on the perimeter that we're very interested in to just start over and we have that building for the court I just wanted to say since you mentioned these are radar and I know there are others on your radar but I feel like I need to definitely say since we've now finished the transfer of the DOT property that this that charrette process planning with the community needs to be high on the radar I think I've shared with Miss Herbert and Miss Bussells about this and I look forward to working with the city as citizen to meet up because this is a very important project but I don't want it to drop off the radar that extension of the greenway there's some green space I know there's lots of opportunities I'm not asking that a project that is funded be on here other than the public process is very important that we have made it clear to the public that they will be involved in the charrette process for that property and I'd like that to stay on the radar Miss Wilson may I just a point of personal privilege to ask Henry if he could just because if he could just come and say just a brief summary of where we are with friendly park it's important that communities are constantly being updated as to where we are with friendly park yes sir absolutely can we do that right quick yes sir and I'm saying their titles for the benefit of our members but this is Henry Simon the assistant city manager of operations oversight over parks and recreation I forgot to include all of the biographical stuff no problem thank you Henry thank you mayor council members absolutely we feel like we're in a really good place regarding friendly park as Miss Wilson described we have finalized the RFQ for the design process we just recently ended our protest period on 1119 so that will be on the agenda for you all to officially approve the actual design work on December 7th then the hope is once you approve that we will have the process to begin with design in January that process will take at least 12 months to get done the construction documents to get completed then the hope is as Jeff described to move into the actual construction phase of friendly park with the hospitality tax funding that will be made available so the whole process as we get started should take at least two years then that following year would give us time for the actual construction of friendly park so I think we're in a good place as you remember in 2019 we were set to pull the trigger go through the process with friendly park but of course because of the pandemic they really set us back but we feel like we're in a really good place now to continue to move the project forward well one excuse me one of the reasons I wanted Henry to just say a word is that we've had a lot of questions from the community and of course Parks and Recs has been journey on the spot in terms of disseminating that information into communities so we're right on target with that Tard Martin has done an excellent job in terms of designing that concept so we are grateful for that and just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of where we are with that project thank you sir there are no more questions regarding the project what you're going to do next Missy are you going to ARP yes sir I do want to make a note as Jeff takes his seat to again and this is for the edification of the new council members but also the reflection of the collective leadership of this council which I think has worked together very well and even more so to the people who do this every day Teresa, you and Jeff and Missy and Henry and others we've incurred budget surpluses 8 to the last 11 years y'all reduced property taxes tax mills has gone down 12 mills over the last decade we've seen our project revitalization of our downtown the largest redevelopment project in any downtown east of Mississippi and Bull Street and those obligations almost fully met with hundreds of millions in private sector investment we've invested more than three quarters of a billion dollars in water, sewer and storm water infrastructure including the first standalone storm water green bond certified green by the climate bond initiative initiative in the country's history we've received the GFOA award of excellence in financial reporting 2015 16 and I'm sure we'll see those continue to go we fully restored the city's reserve fund which has hit hard in the wake of the financial crisis and we've increased our police department funding still more to do there and certainly I know we're under good leadership under chief Holbrook but increased that funding by more than 80% while also doing all the things that represent I think smart investments in 21st century policing that's a we thing we were able to do that together and I guarantee you there are very few cities all across the entire country that can claim those same successes and we've got to make sure that we recognize that leadership and so Theresa, you and your team this council sets the policy priorities we've got a good amount of positive tension up here various varying degrees of interest on major policy issues but you all have to execute every single day and you've been executing excellently excellently so just Jeff as you took your seat I mean we all remember how challenging things were a decade ago obviously it's my job as mayor to take credit for everything and Daniel get used to it but the reality is this council and in the previous councils set the policy priorities held staff's feet to the fire giving the resources do the job you've executed very well and I wanted to say that on the record we thank you for your leadership a lot more to do and we'll keep pushing but I just wanted to say thank you all for your incredible leadership Mr. Mayor it's a good segue since you're talking about the award of excellence that we've gotten from Gatsby people for Jan Alonzo is leaving our staff and she was one of the people that's probably directly responsible for us getting those awards and she is going into retirement I told her I would be glad to sit down with her and tell her how to go into retirement properly that I probably failed that course but Jan has been a great person for our finance department and we're going to miss her talents and Jeff if you would pass on to her that the council did recognize the benefit that she has to our staff I thought we passed the ordinance that Jan cannot retire I will be sure to tell her and we actually have you mentioned fiscal year 2009 we did receive the award for fiscal year 20 as well straight years and I want to remark that the very first year we actually received was the very first year Jan was the full year that she was the finance director so we want to keep that going as she goes off into retirement I mentioned Teresa and senior staff we know that this extends down to every single one of our employees at the city we're really thankful to everyone for their work and hard work and execution so thank you thank you Howard I missed your point it was not the first year we received it in 2006 there was just a little bit of a gap there that we all remember those times thank you and Mr. Vine to your point yes this list was certainly not a comprehensive list of projects by any means but it does demonstrate the level of effort I think that's been underway for the past year and a half two years actually two years really leading into this certainly there's much more to point out comment on with regards to things that are underway so we're glad to be where we are and have a lot more things to look forward to we'll go on into the American Rescue Plan just as a quick reminder sort of where we are in an overview the American Rescue Plan includes a number of major initiatives specifically related to the city of Columbia and other local governments is the state and local fiscal recovery funds the SLFRF we still it's easier for us we're also ARP it's $350 billion that's going to state and local governments interim treasury guidance was released in May of this year we're still waiting on the final treasury guidance so we're still operating under the interim guidance at this point the compliance and reporting guidance was released in June that reporting and compliance guidance is what sets the requirements for the Uniform Administrator requirements cost principles and auditing requirements for federal awards under the 200 CFR you will hear us probably refer to that a lot that basically sets the rules and restrictions and requirements that we must use for any federal federal funds of course it sets out those allowable activities, the allowable costs the federal procurement requirements what we can do with program income reporting requirements and sub-recipient monitoring we did submit our interim report that was submitted in August 31st that was submitted of course at the time that we submitted there was no activity to report but we were still required to report to the federal government and we have done so next slide as a reminder of the eligible uses of the ARP state and local fiscal recovery funds the eligible uses and the placement of lost public sector revenue, specifically those revenues that were hit by the pandemic there are some restrictions and certain revenues but also too there's calculations as to how you can arrive at the amount of revenue that you can use for this use support public health expenditures those include our mitigation efforts medical expenses behavioral health care and certain public health and safety staff negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency arms workers households, small business, impacted industries and other public sector provide premium pay for essential workers this includes employees that have been to most bear the ability to provide services for our critical infrastructure sectors and then finally to invest in water sewer and broadband infrastructure to of course make sure that we have to provide clean drinking water support our wastewater storm water efforts and to expand access to broadband access next slide the American Rescue Plan for our update Columbia received a specific allocation a direct allocation of 27 million dollars that is the out of all of the infrastructure and all of the allocations from the funding whether it's from CARES Act and so forth these are the only funds that the city is receiving directly for assisting the city in addressing the impacts of the pandemic those funds are coming in two installments we received the first installment of 13.5 million in June we are expected to receive the second one within a minimum of a year from the prior from this past June the city is also in receipt of home ARP funds of 2.5 that's the other direct allocation specifically related to the ARP funds those funds are administered by our community development department as are all of our home and CDBG funds they are specifically related to the production and preservation of affordable housing and it is also subject to HUD rules just as comparison and just for information with regards to others also impacting our community the state of South Carolina is receiving roughly $5 billion directly in ARP funds Richland County is receiving $80.7 million and also HUD funds of 2.6 Lexington County is receiving $58 million so you see as comparison to the city our funds are obviously significant but not of course at the same level as we see in other communities even cities of similar size and population our funds are somewhat less significant but still meaningful you mean less in size just for context that's based on the formula employed by the federal government that highlights a number of other issues including poverty including unemployment rate so it's different than previous some so other cities similar size may have gotten more it's because they've been in pretty bad shape for a number of different reasons but there's another city that I've worked with that is similar size and population and similar budget to the city of Columbia and their allocation was closer to $140 million compared to our $27 million so proposed goals and use next slide just as we have moved through this process and as we've used different resources both everything from the Treasury U.S. Conference of Mayors including the cities international city county managers or ICMA a variety of different resources some of the goals that we have set forth as we move forward with the use of our funds we want to remind that these are one-time funds and so as best used for one-time expenses even though we are encouraged to use these over a four-year period we want to make sure that we're addressing immediate needs especially restoring city services we want to make sure that we're creating sustainable solutions and that the funds that we're using are sustained through our existing programming first and foremost we want to make sure we are compliant in the use of these funds and we are timely with the use of these funds and that we are reporting accordingly that's the best way to preserve both the city and our population finally we want to make sure that we're achieving some long-term benefits and making the best use of these funds and making sure that they are purposeful and allocated we have the next slide we have grouped some of our proposed funding into three categories to meet the eligibility first would be replacing of lost revenues these are the most direct funds the most direct use that the city has to help make sure that we are retaining maintaining our services through those loss of revenues so that we're restoring our budget restoring our activities and programs with these funds as best we can of course we're also using to address city projects and amenities we want to invest in projects that support city services but also invest in lifestyle assets to the community ensure our service delivery continues to be above standard to citizens of Colombia next we want to make sure we are addressing neighborhood and community investments this would be city led and managed projects that would support healthy lifestyles and revitalization efforts as we look to our colleagues across the country many are making investments in city infrastructure in terms of making healthy lifestyles available through sidewalks playgrounds other programs projects and investments that address economic disparities and encourage additional development and economic activity so as we go forward with proposed uses we've made some updates but this is similar to what you saw in July in terms of the stories that we just addressed the first section if you can make out from this slide here the first section refers to those things that we have actually committed to in our budget and those expenses we have actually incurred to date so Mr. Mayor please Daniel just to confirm that the lost revenue and everything just depends if there truly is lost revenue my understanding is that these in 21-22 and 21-23 are not set in stone correct those are programmed in our budget they're included in our budget of course they will have to be adjusted based on how we actually end the fiscal year so we have included in the general fund reflects use of ARP funds the hospitality tax budget included use of ARP funds as does our parking fund ARP funds in the current fiscal year both the previous year that just closed and the current fiscal year these amounts will be adjusted based on how we actually end these fiscal years and then we are anticipating use again in coming fiscal years for ARP funds next as of November 1st thanks to city manager and city council for the allocation for a premium to include for premium pay so far those payments have included roughly 3.7 million and then vaccine incentives through November 1st are $662,000 those funds will be adjusted as we continue to receive additional vaccine employees are getting vaccinated and we'll be paying additional incentives so those right now are both expended and allocated of those use the next section are planned or proposed of course as we point out here this also is not an exhaustive list of possible uses and needs but those that have risen to city managers intention to bring to you as she's had discussions with you going forward this list of course exceeds the available funds of $27 million this list totals $43 million breaking out by these additional categories for the replacement of loss revenue we have proposed using some of these funds for any expenses that we're continuing to incur to either keep our building safe, put up our partitions cleanings and so forth any potential expenses related there replacing rolling stock and capital equipment as we've mentioned the current year budget did include restoring our general fund capital lease program for replacing our rolling stock which is rolling stock and some technology that was $9 million programed in this current budget year but as you recall we did not do those funds we did not do at least last fiscal year so we were hoping to be able to utilize $2 million going forward to help us catch up and be able to get back this includes again our police patrol cars we've taken vehicles as well as our fire trucks fire equipment, our garbage trucks bucket trucks, forestry trucks this is all heavy equipment and then of course some of our technology updates as well as far as city projects and amenities being able to address some of our city our police facilities and equipment such as a rapid DNA equipment also fleet some additional funds I see I'm sorry and again a lot of the numbers are fluid so we'll be working with Chief Holbrook on exactly what he can do in the near term and then you'll see some additional funds and other lines that certainly affect PD whether it's the initiatives to address crime and gun violence or the demolition of vacant and abandoned and hazardous properties we're getting to those but I know in our last discussion we were concerned about body worn cameras and that's a reoccurring very big cost but again we've got some funding here that we've noted didn't put specifically what it would go to but as Missy said we'll be working with him to determine what needs to happen when as far as how the funding is utilized fleet facility this is a potential in the sense of depending upon how that project estimate comes forward in terms of the replacement and expansion of our fleet facility the fire station exhaust systems gear extractors and second set of bunker gear addressing some of the safety issues with our fire stations fire station improvements to address quality and station livability this is also addressing a couple of stations across the city the different city stations and so Reverend Dow those two lines would address the concern you mentioned those two lines would address the concerns you mentioned earlier thank you and then also the new and improved playground equipment in green space this would be helping to make some improvements in our parts I'm sorry and I was referring to probably should broaden that description a little bit Missy with building needs or technology this Wilson I just wanted to follow up on the fire yes we've gotten anything from the county on the fire fund and the reserve account for that to understand how we could leverage this so Mr. Rickman's question is in regard to Richland County and their participation where the fire fund sits on the balance over there so we're working through that Mr. Rickman Mr. Brennan are both on the fire service committee with chief Jenkins and the county elected representatives and we're due to meet Mr. Rickman on the 9th of December I'm not sure if we're going to have to change that date our employee luncheon is also that day and I didn't realize the potential conflict but either way yes sir those are discussions that I'll have in advance with county initiatives that address crime and gun violence with a number of initiatives that the chief has brought forward with regards to programs and other services addressing again crime and gun violence Ms. Wilson as Ms. Wilson mentioned demolition of vacant and abandoned hazardous properties additional funds this would help to really address a number of the vacant buildings and other code enforcement issues that we have commercial retention and redevelopment program as you all know as the CRR with facades and other improvements at a number of city at small and several small businesses would help to be able to target funds in certain areas food insecurities being able to address some food insecurities throughout the city as we previously mentioned addressing housing stability attainability and broadband accessibility some allocations there for different funding and programming and then finally the Catherine Belfill Center for rehab rehabilitation which includes also demolition the teaching kitchen and children's garden what's the million dollars for food insecurities what project is that going to devolve that it incorporates the potential for several things as you may recall when we briefed you our last the staff has for a while been working on the idea of a mobile food kitchen they have the cost for that over time what that would be under a million dollars I know Marilette and I've discussed his intentions for a different project or several projects in the in this space and so I know he'll be briefing you all any other questions about this specific list of those projects quick question Missy great list a lot of lists that we have to manage have you we talked in the past have you found a reputable compliance consultant we are actually meeting with some folks next week wonderful we're moving forward and this I guess as you move into the next slide the need for that Mr. Brennan is certainly not lost on us I know several of you mentioned Mr. Vine as well in our last discussion the dashboard idea for accountability and transparency with the funds as we're utilizing them and so all of that we as we are you know really beginning to more utilize the funds for these prospective projects we absolutely have to have help with compliance and Missy's about to tell you why so thank you Miss Wilson so and Mary you've already spoken to this a little bit we've had a lot of discussions about the different grants and seeking grants and grant opportunities we'd be remissed to take an opportunity to remind and share the amount of federal grants that we currently are managing right now most of these grants are being managed by city staff as well as consultants and it's a variety of consultants are bringing them together but our federal grants that we have awarded as of November as of November these are just a highlight of some major grants this is of course not an exhaustive list of all of our grants we have a number of grants that we can get on some re-occurrence but of course everyone's familiar with our HUD and CDBG funds the HUD CDBG MIT and then of course CDBG for home and ARP with regards to FEMA the public assistance October 2015 floods that's 22.7 million number that number will rise as we continue to move into closeout most of those projects are completed so we'll be moving into the closeout phase with FEMA for our work of course that excludes the canal the canal of course will be coming up as a major initiative which is underway the environmental process is underway public hearings and so forth so we're very excited to be moving forward with that FEMA PA refers to public assistance we also have a FEMA HMGP which is what we used for a number of initiatives to include the buyout programs generator at the EOC the some work at our Metro dike and some other projects that was not on our completed list is the completion of the EOC was not on our completed list I was thinking it was on there but the EOC is also a completed project that's on your schedule or actually some of the in progress and then finally the Treasury American ARP that's 27 million so we have committed at this point 152 million federal dollars underway that's as large as our major funds of general fund and water that's pretty significant in my history of the city that's the largest amount of federal grants that I can never recall the city ever receiving directly we have some pending awards and I say pending meaning all we're waiting on is a grant award document at least with the secondary water source and BRIC grant that's a 32 million dollar commitment that's a major initiative not just for the city of Columbia but for the state of South Carolina we're very pleased and excited to be able to move forward and look forward to be able to have some more announcement of that as we move to a final state and then we have potential for another phase two of an HMGP grant for our metro wastewater project at about 6.3 million so that's 190 million dollars kind of a back of the napkin list of different projects we have as mentioned a number of other projects that are moving forward and other projects other grants that we receive smaller dollar amounts but still nonetheless they are meaningful and impactful in terms of operations especially for our police department our fire department and our parks and our creation department that are able to take advantage of a number of these initiatives so with that being said we're all full after all of our discussions but we thought this would be a great opportunity to be able to share with folks sort of where we are with a number of our initiatives we have a lot on our plate excited about our work that we're doing and appreciate all of city council's work and efforts and all of your contributions and look forward to continuing to move forward thank you Missy thank you Missy thank you very much were there any other questions or comments with the math before we get started with the water and sewer great discussion our members have led we will keep going we have our great study presentation and this is really just the kickoff to the discussion much more as the budget process continues Clint, Julie, our Assistant City Manager, Columbia Water will get us started Good morning Mayor and Council Ms. Wilson, Council Member I'm pleased to be with you today and to start talking a little bit about our water and sewer rate study and the process Missy you really set us up by showing that food here and there we'll try to be as brief as we can I also wanted to mention I really appreciate him talking about the canal and where we are in our canal recovery I didn't mention that it's a great milestone that we've secured this funding we committed that we leave no stone unturned to try to find the funding to do these three legs of the stool that support a good portion of our water supply and we're grateful to be where we are there's a lot of hard work left but our commitment is to not stop until we get that work done there's a major civil works project but we're really making really very good progress so thank you for mentioning that I wanted to highlight a couple of things before we ask our rate consultants to come up and talk about the process as we move forward a few things that are really at the forefront of our mind Missy and Miss Wilson have already mentioned some of these things but they dovetail together staffing challenges right now we're at almost one-third vacancy in Water and Sewer and that is not unique to some other departments within the city but that is where we are and some of our field operations it's greater than that it's really a tough labor market right now we're excited about partnering with HR to try to recruit and get some new talent in to help serve our customers and meet our needs because of those staffing challenges we obviously have to continue providing essential services to our customers we do that through employing contractors to help us and so we're refining that process and in December I believe it's going to be the second meeting in December you'll see us asking for more funding to transfer some funding not additional but to transfer some funding from our staffing budget to employ contractors to do even more for us we've already worked three contractors out of money we need to re-up those contracts to continue having them fixing leaks getting metal plates off of roads patching asphalt those types of things and expanding that program it's been very effective it's necessary but it does come at a cost because contractor pricing has gone up as well I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our consent decree that is a court order as you well know between the city and the Department of Justice and EPA and we're right on track with where we need to be investing in our infrastructure and meeting those required milestones that is a major driver of our capital investment in our utilities and there are significant penalties as y'all are aware if we don't comply with that consent decree but thank you for funding that necessary infrastructure improvements to date so we appreciate that that dovetails in with the continued need to replace aging infrastructure when I think about our water system we've got a lot of piping that's out there that it's really at the end of it's useful life and we chase leak after leak after leak and repair those leaks and the answer is to replace that infrastructure to replace that pipe we're fighting a never ending battle and we're just chasing leaks on it piping that's 80 years old that had a 50 year life so we've been very strategic about making that a priority and we look to continue doing that and finally COVID of course Missy mentioned the supply chain issues the inflationary pressures it seems like every other week we've got a vendor coming to us with increased costs for our treating compounds and our big costs are our treatment plants are people, power and chemicals and we've got to have the chemicals to be able to treat the drinking water to make it into drinking water and to be able to treat the waste before we discharge it to the river to maintain our permit compliance so those are issues that we're seeing that are also important that our collections continues to be an issue as we battle the pandemic and we get our customers caught back up that is a real challenge for us as well so a couple of thoughts there to kind of set the table we're pleased to have Robert Chambers and Jeff Wells of Black and Beach and Teresa Hodge with CECS who is their local protege business partner doing our rate consulting work as you know it's best practice and required as part of our consent decree that we look at our financials every year to see how we're doing and project the path forward and they're going to go over kind of where we've been where we are right now and where we're headed and where we proceed through our war and sewer rate study so I'm going to turn it over to Robert with his smooth voice and let him come Clint, Clint may I ask just one question where are we with the installation of our AMI systems there has been it's sort of sporadic right now where are we with that yes sir thank you for asking that question we're doing a $1,000 investment in terms of residential installations we are on target to finish in calendar year 2021 so we're just a few weeks away from having 99% of the residential meters completed and we're about 6 months away from the commercial and industrial installations being completed the latest update council update that I sent to you folks I think back in last Wednesday I believe it was you may not have had a chance to look at it yet there are no more routes we've completed all the routes there's just a few dots red dots on the map to get full penetration of the system so that has been successful and we're able to reduce labor there reduce a lot of burning of fuel and mileage and that sort of thing and reconstitute that labor to help us in other areas so it's a huge success for us as a utility to enter into that space yeah I didn't want to made all those comments earlier I didn't want to gloss over the fact that we the mark of a great city is a safe city and a clean city but you're not a city if you don't have solid infrastructure particularly water wastewater stormwater infrastructure a journey that we've come over these last several years this last decade and particularly under your leadership Clint, you and Joey and Missy and others in the team I mean it's night and day the focus of pulling everything under one person obviously we never had much of a major stormwater effort obviously 2015 changes at this council unanimously making the decision to make significant investments there along with our residents and citizens and rate payers and the story that we can tell now versus just a decade ago because the leadership of this team I think is just amazing taking advantage of the historically low cost of capital Jeff that we've been able to participate actively in the capital markets it's been probably as I participate on the national stage is defining an issue of campaign on nationally on infrastructure investments and our city has a great story to tell and I'm thankful and obviously we all love to give Robert a hard time because he's been a part of the team every step of the way but we are thankful for this wonderful partnership I just wanted to give another tip of the hat to you for your collective leadership in this space, thank you Mayor, we appreciate all these tips of the hat that you're giving today and I think we know why I'm working with you in particular you stepped out of the room and Clint was mentioning that working relationship on a national scale as well so thank you for all you've done over the years and I know Mayor Lett is looking forward to continuing some of those national discussions you've been having I've been well aware of those introductions being made so thank you we do know what you do is for lack of a better word a hell of a job excuse the French but I just want to say thanks there has been situations where perhaps an error occurred you and your staff were able to get that fixed and we're talking recently a $5,000 fix that turned into $43 I want to say thanks to those persons and all of those persons who worked with water we know that there are some issues there we know that there is an inordinate amount of plates in the street a leak sort of develops every five minutes I want to say thanks because there are some situations that we are able to fix immediately with the help of you and your staff so thank you very much okay Robert it's your time now I appreciate that thank you Mr. Mayor Mayor Lett Council members City Manager thank you all very much for giving us the opportunity again to serve and walk with you through this journey I'm going to just get into the presentation but please don't hesitate to ask any questions and stop me at will we have a copy of this from it so the agenda we'll go through the purpose highlight a few drivers some of which are in line with the drivers you heard from Mr. Shealy we'll give an overview of how we got here and then go through the approach we'll take to execute the study this year along with highlighting some focus areas so to set the stage it's a three step process in completing any rate study the first of which is to get a basic understanding of what your requirements are how you'll fund those requirements in order to make sure revenues can support expenses thereafter we do a cost of service study whereby we try to understand what is the cost to provide services and then in balancing this effort we look at designing your water and sewer rates so that you can attain adequate revenues to meet your cost on an annual basis so every year black and beach does water, waste water and storm water survey and we survey over 400 utilities within the country we ask them a bunch of questions and this was one of the key questions you know the question is what are the most challenging issues these utilities are facing and as you can see here the first is age and infrastructure alright you've heard of age and infrastructure this entire discussion the next is how do we justify our CIP how do we set our rate requirements how do we manage capital costs and then in doing all of this how do we stay resilient to any circumstance these are issues you all have opined on continue to opine on and are dealing with and deliberating on a daily basis so it indicates that some of the same issues you are dealing with and facing are issues other utilities in similar positions are facing as well then in dealing with all of this you have COVID-19 and the impacts of COVID-19 as such what are the best practices what what is recommended for a utility to do and undertake in dealing with these issues on an annual basis and how are you doing Columbia water as it relates to some of these best practices so going about defining your financial planning or performance standards you know what your coverage should be what funds on hand should be what part do you take on an annual basis to remain resilient that's something you do as a part of your budgeting process the fact that I am here indicates and confirms and that best practice you perform an annual study as a part of your budgeting process which is recommended as the best practice keeping track of your financial resources and making sure you understand firstly and then are able to meet and support those requirements and in completing this study then taking the will making the action to do something whether it be by rate increases or just looking at the entire system to see how best you can support your requirements that becomes another best practice so in all these cases you've taken steps to meet that best practice or go about being in line with that best practice as a part of running and operating and managing Columbia water so what are the drivers we see the drivers as a three-legged stool that ultimately have a sustainable utility the first stool is the integrated planning outlining a roadmap outlining the part by which you maintain your financial stability you have business excellence that's the operation side that takes into consideration how you operate, what is the cost to operate are your customers happy are you providing the level of service that's required are you meeting your regulatory requirements that all becomes a part of the business excellence how do you run your business and then the third leg as we see it is how connected and engaged you are with your customers and that all works and comes together and sometimes in some forms some of the objectives can compete but that all comes together now looking at the specific drivers you've heard us say maintain revenue stability operating resilience how do you invest in your assets and your capital program how do you implement and execute that program you heard about aging infrastructure, you heard about cost escalation, your consent decree your staffing requirements and the vacancies these are issues specifically the staffing issue all utilities all jurisdictions are facing on some of these same issues as you are today but in doing that you still have to make sure that even though there may be these constraints and issues you still maintain your level of service you still price your rates appropriately and you manage the market and let's say inflationary pressures that may be evident specifically COVID-19 you have provided some help and support to the residents and the customers of Columbia water in the past there are supply chain issues which are slowly creeping in to a jurisdictional level whereby you may see some of those constraints come up in the near future how do we plan for these issues and make sure we continue to provide the level of service to your existing customers and residents and the foundation how do we inform stakeholders and keep them engaged as a part of this practice these are things that are driving the way you operate we've seen the drivers what are you doing currently internally in addition to those drivers you are maintaining your financial viability implementing your capital program at a sustainable rate you just implemented a new AMI program that's providing good data regarding how your customers are using flow how revenues are being contributed you are maintaining your storm water system and took some serious steps in 2015 to maintain the viability of that system you are going about implementing programs to recruit and retain existing employees to go about meeting the challenges with your current vacancies and you're providing services that will help to maintain the quality of life or existing and future customers along with residents so again you're doing all of this and staying connected to your stakeholders now there are things that may come up that you have no control over for example certain events in the past let's say the flood event you know building your storm water program clean water 2020 you have all of these issues that you may not be able to control externally and it becomes a prioritizing and balancing of what's driving the way you operate how you've implemented your program on the ground and how you go about balancing the challenges you can control that are external to your utility but do affect your utility so this is something that you all are pining on a daily basis and it drives how you put together and develop that roadmap as a part of your financial planning process so how did we get here so this illustration highlights the history of rate or revenue increases let's say over the last 7 years as we can see we we had no rate increase in 15 in 16 we did 17 we didn't and we had some increases in 18, 19, 20 none in 21 and we had a rate increase in 22 as I always highlight with this illustration we try not to have lumps we try to have steady and gradual increases to maintain the impact on existing customers but you definitely have taken the will and made a commitment to support the utility system and that's the biggest message I'd like to draw from this slide so last year we presented an increase of about just over 5% was passed and it's currently in place and what we like to do is just provide an outlook of what we said we would have done the previous year and then in the current year compare it to where we're trying to go so for the upcoming year line 5 of the table we estimated about under 8% for 23 the black and rich teams CECS and staff will work to see where we fall out this upcoming year as we go through this budgeting and rate study process we just wanted to highlight where we are as the baseline for initiating the study so over the last let's say 12 years years being 2008 to 2020 you know on an annual average basis your increase aggregates to about a 4 a 4.7% over those years you had years and periods where there was no increase you had a few periods where there was multiple years of no increase which made the impact in the year after the no increase year is a little higher okay and what we wanted to highlight we just wanted to show what we've done historically and then a few further slides compared to what the market is doing the future slides Robert show because we had several years in which we were not making adjustments in those of the years the system fell into disrepair there are years when you didn't make any adjustments and it had a so in many respects we were playing catch up yes sir will your future slides show that it's easy obviously for someone looking from the outside end to see the increase but it doesn't reflect the fact that if you don't make the infrastructure investments a $50 investment it becomes a $500 problem and it leads to a consent decrease so do we show the years prior to that okay so the future slides will not show exactly what the implicit impact and the risks are as you've described them but what it will show is how your increase compares to other utilities on average dealing with the same issues so next so what we wanted to highlight here is based on your current you know increase and your current levels of your rate the daily cost of water is about 76 cents wastewater is about 140 and next and you receive all these services associated with that daily cost okay Robert on the previous slide if you can back up then at the bottom it talks about the 6000 gallons and the 800 cubic feet it doesn't show this but in the city of Columbia's rate structure the first 300 cubic feet are the same as the basic charge for your meter and monthly service so if you went on vacation and you turned off your water system you'd still get a bill for that basic service but if you were using that water and you use 300 cubic feet which is about 2100 gallons it's a little over 700 gallons per 100 cubic feet you would still get that same basic bill that's correct so if you got on council and learned that there are many people that plan their water usage to stay within 300 cubic feet so they get the basic bill each month so that is a benefit from our rate structure that many other communities don't have that first 2100 gallons of water comes with the city of Columbia order system correct it's a minimum bill from zero to that first first 300 cubic feet on the Columbia water web so I get that question a lot people that go away for six weeks two months they come back and they still have a water bill they've gone through and turned all the water off is there somewhere I can direct customers yes sir and I'll give you the link I'll send that to you to everyone but we've got a rate page on our Columbia water website and it does talk about the first 300 units 2100 gallons being for the base charge of $8.53 per month for water we bill for every drop of sewer concern but we don't for the water and just making a point for record based on that question you know whether a customer uses flow or not Columbia water has to make sure the service is hooked up and available instantaneously so that when that tap is turned the water comes through a lot of times what we see is a big focus on the water that runs through the faucet and the water that flows and the wastewater that flows but because you don't see all the infrastructure that came from the source of supply to the plant to the pipe you forget about all the infrastructure that allowed and made this service available instantaneously so you know that's a part of the reason and the justification for having the base facility charge and in your case having a minimum bill to provide some support for those customers that may have usage in those lower levels so this is the slide that compares what has happened here at Columbia water over the last 12 years as compared to what we call the top 50 utilities that we survey every year and on average the sewer bill is just under 5.8% the water bill is just that 6% and Columbia water is at about 4.7% now we can look at this and extrapolate it in many different ways but the reality of what's showing here is that even with the gap years and having to play catch-up in some years on average you're still a little bit behind our shouldn't say behind you're still at a lower rate annually as compared to other utilities the next slide is the interesting slide because what this shows is for those utilities what has their water and sewer base charge increases or let's say inside city service look like over the last let's say 19, 20 years and you can see in 2001 when these utilities were surveyed on average both of those charges were maybe 5 somewhere in between 5 to 6 dollars and literally these charges have almost tripled and if you look at where they are now the sewer is at about let's say 15 dollars on average and the water is just over 12 dollars but compared to Columbia water your rate is at about 8.5, 8.53 so it just shows that that's coming back to the point of the base facility and maintaining making service available and why when somebody leaves for 3, 4 weeks or however long and they haven't used a speck of water they still get a bill the reason why is because you're making service available and compared to others you're still maintaining that level of a base rate adjustment any questions here as it relates to this slide from an educational in terms of customer information do we do this the information we send out the the explanation you just gave although you're not turning using your water for a week or two there's a basic charge I don't recall seeing that kind of information going to the customers households do we do that yes sir, Mr. Davis, Clint was just referencing on the website where the information is I'm sorry, start again Clint was just referencing on the website that we do have that educational link but that he's going to send it out again and maybe talk to you all about some additional methods to share that with our customers I've just never seen it I know my wife does whatever would I've never seen it if it's out there that's fine I've just never seen it and most of the people that call me it appears that they don't have the opportunity to determine that clarity in it as far as the costs that they get on a monthly basis Robert, from your earlier chart this seems to track on sewer if we put the same line up not hearing you well, Mr. Mayor the chart we're looking at now seems to track along with the rate increases the increases that you indicated we've seen since 08 do you have the same chart with the City of Columbia tracking alongside these yes, we do and we've presented just be curious to see how we rate alongside the 50 larger order in ways to order let's get a third line, I want to see it it's okay so going into our study approach as we highlighted in the beginning we're going to look at revenues to understand and make sure revenues are at a level to meet your current expenses we'll look about allocating costs and understanding the responsibility of your customer classes and their specific portion of that cost and then we'll go about designing rates that allows the rates to be in line with the goals and objectives you all have outlined for Columbia Water the next slide goes about highlighting and providing a little more detail specific to the three step process but what we wanted to highlight here was the benefits we're answering the first question how much money is needed and you'll get an integrated financial plan that allows you to understand the impact of your operating and capital requirements on your annual rates on an annual basis from the cost of service perspective from whom should you be collecting revenues it allows you to establish a defensible allocation methodology across your entire utility and the specific customer groups you serve and the third question is how should we price these services and this will allow you to develop a schedule your rate chart that provides information that allows you to make informed decisions that are consistent with your stakeholder requirements and objectives that you have put in place and affirmed for Columbia Water so areas of focus looking at your revenues and the impact specific to COVID-19 making sure that from a requirements perspective you're meeting certain metrics that service coverage you have the appropriate risk mitigating funds and you have the appropriate funds at hand making sure that you're implementing your capital program in a sustainable basis and that there is self-sufficiency in water and wastewater fund understanding the cost to provide service and making sure that as you provide service you understand what it costs and takes to provide that service and then appropriately setting the rate so that when you have existing customers and new customers and we understand the attractiveness and the nature by which development and new new customers big customers have looked on the city of Columbia and have relocated and explore options of being in the city of Columbia just getting a basic understanding of how that will impact your current system and existing customers and continuing to assess and establish unity on the system amongst your different customers has our mega user that we were anticipating turning on this year turned on, Clint? They're turning on right now I think we were out there touring the facility and they bottled their first sellable product about a week and a half ago and they are starting to consume water and send us waste they're about six weeks behind what their very aggressive projection was because they've encountered challenging issues but we're really looking forward to them ramping up they were doing some aggressive work even over the Thanksgiving holiday and things are really taking off we were there that day it's pretty exciting including we need some people to take some jobs out there we need less robots and more people so the next steps we've initiated a project transferred information requests we'll continue to review and receive we'll continue to work with staff to get the study done and completed in line with your budget schedule and yeah we're just really happy to serve on this capacity and thank you very much for your time any other questions? Robert can you get us all the details I'm looking at the financial plan and can we get the deeper deep dive on the numbers down between the expense cost of wastewater versus water and etc this is kind of a general but I'd like to try to get some more detail no problem as usual thank you all very much thank you Robert thank you Robert and Clint Mr. Mayor this concludes our action discussion and action items for today thank you all so much for your attentiveness as always and your guidance for to come and we did want to kick off the discussion and also begin to acclimate our newest members who were thankful for their attendance well again this is my last budget workshop I'm going to let y'all have all the fun after this again, Teresa you and your whole team great work alright I'm sorry is there a motion to adjourn we'll move yes yes hi yes hi hi thanks everyone thank you