The City Council meeting this week has some opportunities for the city to increase revenue.
UTILITY COST RECOVERY (Item #14)
It looks like somebody hasn’t been minding the store. According to the staff report, we have “past overpayments” and “incorrect billing rates” along with unoptimized billing, and the result is we may have lost (or overpaid) $250,000. I say “may have” because no one is sure what happened, so staff proposes we hire a consulting firm that specializes in utility cost recovery.
The cost to the city will be 38% of any funds received and another 38% going forward for 3 years. The staff favors one company, but they look like they charge the highest amount and required the longest contract period. UCM will charge us 38% over 3 years. The low bidder, T&B, will charge only 24% and the contract is for only 12 months. According to the staff report, UCM’s technical score was only marginally better than T&B (252 vs 248).
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Getting money back that wasn’t spent appropriately is a good thing to do, but I have to wonder why the staff didn’t catch these problems in the first place. And if they didn’t, or can’t, why are we going with the most expensive contract firm?
RECREATION SOFTWARE TRANSACTION FEES (Item #17)
The city has a very successful recreation program. Our classes are always full, and they fill up pretty quickly. Credit card processing makes this possible, and to date the City has been eating these fees. In the past this has been about $24,000 per year, but moving forward the cost is likely to be #38,000 per year.
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Should taxpayer money be used to support the recreation programs, or should the Council apply the user fees to the people who use the service?
TRAFFIC SYNCHRONIZATION (Item #15)
The City can apply for a grant for more traffic synchronization programs by putting up about $75,000 and getting a matching amount from the County.
TREASURER’S REPORT (Item #11)
The good news is that our cash on hand has increased from $137,329,681 to $140,192,594 and our average annual return has increased from 1.09% to 1.12%.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.
Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 2 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.
