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Home My WebLink About20120709 UC Minutes ROSE1ulOLINT PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT • UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES JULY 9, 2012 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof the regular Utility Commission meeting of the City of Rosemount was held on July 9,2012 at 530 p.m.in the Conference Room of the City Hall. Commissioner Mulhern nominated Don Harmsen, second by Speich and since this is an informal session Don Harmsen accepted the office of Pxesident. A brief discussion took place regarding the calendax for next year. MOTION by Mulhern to set the 2012 Utility Commission meetings per the attached calendar. Second by Harmsen. Ayes: Harxnsen,Speich,Mulhern. Nays: None. Motion caxried. Commissioner Mulhern reminded the Commission that the calendar is always subject to change. Pursuant to due call and notice thereof the regular Utiliry Commission meeting of the Ciry of Rosemount was called to order on July 9, 2012 at 5:32 p.m. in the Conference Room of the City Hall by Pxesident Don Harmsen. Those pxesent were Commission Members Mulhern, Speich,Mapor Droste,City Administrator Johnson, Ciry Engineer Brotzler, Finance Director May,Accounting Supervisor Miller,Management Analyst Watson and Recording Secretary Dorniden. • ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO THE AGENDA Executive Director Brotzler recommended removal of Item 7c.—VRWJPO Funding Request. Pxesident Harmsen removed it from the agenda. AUDIENCE INPUT None. MOTION by Speich to approve the minutes of the March 12,2012,regular Utility Commission meeting. Second by Harmsen. Ayes: Speich,Mulhern,Harmsen. Nays: None. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS No Old Business. NEW BUSINESS 7a. Utility Billing Software Purchase Finance Director May addressed the Commission regarding the purchase of new Utiliry Billing software. Initially staff had looked at four vendoxs and narrowed it down to the two they presented • to the Commission, Caselle Clarity and Tyler Technologies Incode. Sta.ff went thxough SPIRIT OF PRIDE AND PROGRESS 2875 145th Street West• Rosemount,MN 55068-4997•651-423-4411 •TDD/TTY 651-423-6219• Fax 651-322-2694 www.ci.rosemount.mn.us UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES J U LY 9, 2012 • comparisons, site visits and demos. Both have the capability of on-line payments,which is something staff was directed to look into. Between the two,it came down to cost,with Caselle Clarity almost half the cost of Tyler Technologies Incode. Both systems will interact with the financial software the City now has and would successfully integrate. Finance Director May introduced Accounting Supervisor Miller and asked the Commission to direct questions to Ms. Miller. Commissioner Mulhern asked if this system can handle an increase in the number of anticipated accounts as the City gxows in future years. Finance Director May e�lained that every softwaxe package has a useful life. This one could certaixily handle growth for a numbex of yeaxs,but may have to be upgraded or replaced at some point down the road. OuY current software has been in place fox 12 years but it now needs to be Yeplaced, so new software would likely be similar. Commissioner Mulhern asked if three user licenses were enough. Ms. Miller explained that we currendy have that many. The City has two full-time Utility Billing Clerks as main users,but sevexal other employees have"read-only" capability. This has not caused problems in the current system so we don't anticipate that changing. He also expressed concern as to whether 3 days would be enough time for training. Ms. Miller stated that we believe this will be adequate because the screens and general processing steps are very si.milar to our current system that the clerks are working in every day. Many of the changes will be n,nning in die background of the software to make the processing more efficient,but the clerks would still have to learn the new features including on-line payments. • Residents will be able to look at 2 years of usage history and account information on-line. Ms. Miller spoke to the annual data security compliance of credit cards and how this portion of the direct pay wouldn't be housed within the City system. The on-line payments would be downloaded as one file and then applied by the utility software. Then a file would be created for all transactions that would import and post to our financial software. This will create fewer manual entries. The Mayor asked how much labox would be saved. Finance Director May said it would depend on how many users would utilize the on-line system so we'd have no way of predicting that number at this time. Commissioner Mulhern asked if the new program would be able to handle monthly bills. It would be able to;however,when the City had processed that way many years ago,it didn't realize the cash flow it had anticipated and experienced the same amount of delinquencies. MOTION by Harmsen to recommend the City Council approve the purchase of Caselle Clarity Utility Billing software from Civic Systems. Second by Mulhern. Ayes: Speich,Mulhern,Harmsen. Nays: None. Motion carried. 7b. 2013 Urilit�Budgets Executive Director Bxotzler reported that nothixig substantial has changed within the budget. The slight increase in the water budget is contributed to itnprovements at the wells and well houses at Well#9 and Well#14 and reconditioning at Well#10 and#12. • 2 UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES JULY 9, 2012 • A 15-yeaY long term maintenance plan was handed out to the Commissioners for their informarion. The sanitary sewer budget remains steady howevex the storm sewer budget had an increase due to salaries and benefits. There has been a reallocation of staff costs with the re�ement of Rick Cook, the Operations Superintendent. Council has directed staff to reorganize/restructure new posirions within the department. Commissioner Mulhern asked if the costs of chemicals will be going up. Staff hadn't heard any comments about chemicals however Executive Director Brotzler did say that the CONDAC organization he attends does meet to addxess concerns such as this. They are investigating joint purchasing for items such as chemicals,hydrant materials, etc. It would be similar to the State bid for purchasing equipment. Cities do realize a savings under a joint powers agreement. MOTION by Harxnsen to appxove the 2013 Water, Sewer and Storm Water Utility Budgets. Second by Speich. Ayes: Mulhern,Harmsen, Speich. Nays: None. Motion carried. PRESIDENT'S REPORT None. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT • 9a. Project Update Executive Dixector Brotzler briefly reviewed the project update with the Commissioners: • Prestwick Place 2°a and 3'�Additions and Connemara Trail Extension has been carried ovex from last year,all projects axe substantially complete. • Diamond Path Trail Improvements will be awarded at the next Council meeting. • 2012 Street Improvements started with McNamara Contracting la,st Thursday. It was started in Shannon Hills neighborhood as the first phase. The second phase won't start until after Leprechaun Days and that's from along Shannon Parkway from 145`'' Street to County Road 42 and south of Shannon Paxkway along 145�'Street to Cameo Avenue. • Greystone 1$`Addition is on the east side of Akron across from Prestwick 2°d and 3`� Additions. It encompasses 28 lots. • Lift Station#1 Renovations are to be completed by July 20`". • TH 3 Trail Extension from the Communiry Center to Dodd Boulevard connecting to Connemara Trail is planned to get staxted in September. • Brazil Avenue Improvements include the paved part in fxont of the City Hall campus and the gravel portion to the north edge of Erickson Park plus the parking lot. Bids will be open the end of the month and work will start after the Fall ball season. • TH 3 Underpass starts south of the south driveway of the Community Centex by the shot put/discus area and comes out into the Glen Rose neighborhood tying into the Koch Trail. • Plans and specifications are being worked on. 3 UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES JULY 9, 2012 � • Since the Joint meeting with Council on the Stormwater Plan 1. Shannon Pond—Looking into redirecting the flow to Empire Township. Discussing the feasibility. 2. Staff has been speaking with Don Kern of Flint Hills regarding property,plans, etc. 3. Staff will be reengaging with Met Council in regards to the Outfall project and investigate the status of the old Waste Water Treattnent Plant. 9b. Informational Attachments No discussion on the Interim Financial Report It was noted that water consumption was up 24% from last year. A brief discussion took place as to the end users and the Mayor brought up an article regarding the way Woodbury has been reusing theix storm water for watering. The Commission Members felt this would possibly be a subject for the Park and Recreation Committee. Mayor Dxoste felt that both the Commission and Committee could possibly work on this together. Executive Director Brotzler will contact the City of Woodbury and see just how this system works. The City had used grant money at Central Park when they relined the pond with clay to hold water with a pipe system in the northeast corner of the wetland to ovexflow onto the soccer field. Executive Director Bxotzler wanted to let the Commission know that woxk has been started on the • review of the water/sewer/stortn sewer rates for 2013. 9d. SET NEXT MEETING AGENDA FOR AUGUST 13.2012 Executive Director Brotzler apprised the Commission he didn't have anything at this time,however that's always subject to change. MOTION by Speich to adjourn. Second by Harmsen. Meeting adjourned at 6:28 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, � Cindy Dorniden Recording Secxetary • 4