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City of Nampa Board of Appraisers Meeting Agenda Wednesday, October 7, 2020, 10:00 a.m. City of Nampa Development Services Center (500 12th Avenue South, Basement Large Conference Room) Call to Order Roll Call of Board Members Proposed Amendments to Agenda Staff Communications 1) Review of Utility Billing Pool Adjustment Policy and Procedures – Jacob Allen, Public Works Business Manager 2) Review of Utility Billing Special Sewer Rate Policy and Procedures – Jacob Allen, Public Works Business Manager 3) Underlying Irrigation Districts Summary of Landowner Requests for Exclusion of Water Rights – Daniel Badger, P.E., City Engineer 4) Nampa Municipal Irrigation System Summary of Landowner Irrigation Tax Exclusion and/or No Benefit Rate Requests – Daniel Badger, P.E., City Engineer New Business 1) Action Item: Authorize Admiral Beverage Corporation Purchase of Wastewater Treatment Capacity – Nate Runyan, P.E., Deputy Public Works Director (Water) 2) Action Item: Nampa Municipal Airport Cost of Service Study and Recommended Rates and Fees Increase – Jeff Barnes, P.E., Deputy Public Works Director (Airport) and Jacob Allen, Public Works Business Manager Adjourn Page 1 of 60 Staff Communications #1 City of Nampa PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION OFFICE (208) 468-5420 500 12TH AVENUE SOUTH NAMPA, IDAHO 83651 MEMO Date: October 7, 2020 To: City of Nampa Board of Appraisers Copy: Tom Points, P.E., Public Works Director From: Jacob Allen, Public Works Business Manager Re: Utility Billing Pool Adjustment Policy The City currently has a Pool Adjustment Policy (Exhibit A) in place which adjusts sewer bills one time per year for filling customer swimming pools. Customers are charged for the domestic water used to fill the pool. However, the water used is not running into the sewer system and the water consumption on the sewer bill will be higher than actual usage. Pool water evaporates over time, or if drained goes into one’s yard not the sewer system. The policy is designed to credit the customer for the sewer portion of that water usage equivalent to the amount put into the pool. If a customer wishes to refill their pool within that same year additional credit will not be given. The current process only requires Nampa utility customers to call the City’s Utility Billing to request the pool adjustment. Utility Billing will obtain the size of the pool, in gallons, and credit the amount of water used within the same billing cycle. Again, only the sewer portion of the bill is adjusted. It has come to staff’s attention that some customer requests have not been processed correctly. In an effort to improve customer service and create stronger internal controls, staff makes the following recommendations to the Pool Adjustment Policy: A. Currently, Nampa customers only have to call Utility Billing to request the pool adjustment. Recommendation is made that the customer be required to fill out an online pool adjustment form via the City’s website. Implementing this change will, (1) create a procedural paper trail for needed action, history and auditing, (2) notify appropriate staff to ensure the request is accounted for and handled in a timely and efficient manner, and (3) provide the approver documentation of the customer request, staff action, and ensure the sewer credit is correctly calculated and applied to the customer’s utility bill. Page 2 of 60 B. The current policy does not include customer follow-up. Staff recommends, (1) the customer receive an email acknowledging their request. This communication should also provide information as to the sewer credit adjustment that will be applied to their account, and (2) create a separate line item for the sewer credit adjustment on the utility bill so it can be easily identified by the customer. a. Also, for additional customer service, staff recommends a direct link be added under the City’s “Utilities” webpage regarding the availability of the pool credit. C. Identify and implement audit controls to verify pool existence and size. Staff recommends residential visits, GIS mapping, and/or comparison of water usage. Page 3 of 60 Exhibit A City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 1 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 The City of Nampa will adjust off a portion of the estimated cost of a customer filling a pool once every calendar year (roughly the cost of the sewer charge for the amount of water used, as it will not be actually going down City sewers). The customer must call in and request the adjustment, which will be made on the bill covering usage during the time when the customer filled said pool. If, for any reason, a customer must re-fill their pool during the same calendar year, they will not be granted additional adjustments. Page 4 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 2 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 Customer must provide us with volume of pool (in gallons). Divide number of gallons pool holds by 7.5 cubic ft. This is the amount of consumption that needs to be adjusted off the sewer portion. To do this, select the adjustment batch for the day. Select new to enter a new adjustment. Page 5 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 3 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 Enter the customer’s account number. Tran Type should be Billing because you are entering an adjustment to a billing. Adjustment Type is PA for Pool Adjustment. Make sure to select Consumption for Cons Adj Type and put your initials after the description. Once all of this is entered, select Next. Page 6 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 4 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 Select the billing that needs to be adjusted, the period in which the pool was filled. Select Next. Page 7 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 5 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 Verify you have the correct consumption selected. In the cons Adjustment box enter in what change you want to make to the consumption. For example, this customer filled a 3,000 gallon pool. To calculate what adjustment needs to be done you would take the 3,000 gallons used and divide it by 7.5. The customer used 400 CF to fill their pool. In the Cons Adjustment box enter –400 to adj the consumption. Select Next. Page 8 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 6 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 You should get a pop up asking if you want the system to calculate the adjustment. Select Yes. Click on Next. Page 9 of 60 City of Nampa Utility Billing 401 3rd St. S Nampa, ID 83651 (208) 468-5711 Procedure Subject Pool Adjustment Page 7 of 7 Effective Date 02/10/2020 The screen will now show the adjustment amounts for water and sewer. Please note, the pool adjustments are only on the sewer portion since the water was used to fill the pool. You will need to select the water adjustment amount and change it to 0. Once you have changed the water adjustment amount to 0.00 select Finish. Submit your back up documentation (pink form) to the committer. Page 10 of 60 Staff Communication #2 City of Nampa PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION OFFICE (208) 468-5420 500 12TH AVENUE SOUTH NAMPA, IDAHO 83651 MEMO Date: October 7, 2020 To: City of Nampa Board of Appraisers Copy: Tom Points, P.E., Public Works Director From: Jacob Allen, Public Works Business Manager Re: Utility Billing Special Sewer Rate Policy The City’s Special Sewer Rate Policy (SESP) (Exhibit A) is designed for Nampa customers that do not have access to irrigation services which ultimately forces the use of domestic water. In doing so their water usage in summer months is higher than usual and portions of consumption is not flowing into the wastewater system as does most used domestic water. Therefore, the City has created the SESP to credit customers the incurred sewer charges of which has not been used. Customers must request the special sewer rate. Engineering staff will then determine whether irrigation services are available for the requested property. If irrigation services are available, but the customer does not wish to connect to the system, the rate is not available to said customer. Irrigation services must be unavailable in order for the Nampa customer to receive the special sewer rate. Upon approval for the special sewer rate, Utility Billing will credit a portion of the customer sewer bill for three billing cycles, or six months, during the irrigation season. During this time, the SESP states the three-cycle average during winter months will be used to determine the amount of sewer usage. There is an internal verification process currently in place to ensure credits are not being given when not necessary. During each billing cycle Utility Billing examines the current usage and compares it to the winter month average used for billing; if the current usage is less than the winter month average, no credit is given. Some Nampa customers do not have the ability to use irrigation services and are dependent upon domestic water to keep landscaping alive during irrigation season.

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