2001-12-19 Enviromental Management Commission Minutes

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Minutes for Wednesday, December 19, 2001Page 3 of 4 6.OLD BUSINESS Establishing Solid Waste and Wastewater Fees by the Environmental Management Commission  Looking at the current code, Gerald Takase proposed sending a bill to Council eliminating all the language about the fees and saying that the power to set fees will be transferred to the Commission. If Council approves, that ordinance eliminates the Council’s power, the Commission has to be ready to act. If Council approves, you will need to change the Commission rules to give you this rate making authority. The Commission will need to discuss how to set the rates, and actually going through and setting them. Gerald Takase will check on Chapter 91 to adopt the rates by rules. Currently, the Wastewater user fees are calculated and proposed to council by the Wastewater Division. Peter Boucher looks at his projected expenses for the next few years. Then he modifies the rates for different classes and the projections for future users and adjusts the numbers and comes up with proposed fees. Peter Boucher makes a recommendation, runs it through the Department, on to the Mayor and then it goes to Council. Residential rates are based on unit cost or flat rate since it is difficult to separate irrigation water. Nonresidential rates are based on water consumption. Currently, the operations, maintenance, replacement and administration costs are funded by the sewer user fee. Our system can handle a certain flowrate, but it operates under capacity because we don’t have the hook-ups. The users are paying for the operation of a system that is costing more than it should if it was ideally operated. If we can bring up the level of connections, we can maintain or reduce the fees. Need to extend the sewer farther. David Frankel stated that some of the capital costs may be recovered through the capacity assessment fees. David also suggested that the Commission should determine the Wastewater rates and have the authority over the budget similar to the Water Commission and the Department of Water Supply. Galen Kuba commented that there is a strategy to presenting the ordinance to the Council. Must decide to handle it incrementally or give them everything at once. Galen stated that the Department will submit the ordinance to the Mayor’s Office. Gerald Takase will have a draft ordinance transferring authority for the next meeting. Peter Martin moved to defer the discussion to the next meeting. Carolyn Witcher seconded. Motion was unanimously carried. Update by Carolyn Witcher Re: North Kona Improvement District  Deferred. 7.NEW BUSINESS General Agenda Items for the Year  Deferred. 8.FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Deferred. 9.ANNOUNCEMENTS Wednesday, January 23, 2002, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Kona Police Department Conference Room, 74-5221 Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i 96740. file://C:\Test1\minutes121901.htm6/22/2011