108 utility ordinance changes water restrictions

38:39Okay. Okay, we have a time certain on uh R 106 at 11 o'clock, so at that time that's uh attorney client uh session, closed session, and we'll break for that when it comes to that time. And then 107 has to follow 106, so we move on to 108.

39:03Good morning, Chairman Mariano Members of the Board. For the record, I'm Sandra Anderson. I am Director of Information and Customer Service for Pasco County Utilities. What we're here today is to ask for the permission to open up and make recommendations for changes to a couple of our ordinances.

39:24One of the um ordinance we want to open is Chapter 62, which is natural resources. The main thing we're going to focus on within this section, within this chapter is the year-round water restrictions. We want to get more in lockstep with what the Water Management District is doing and upgrade a couple of the items in there. That's our main focus for that whole section.

39:46And then the other chapter is chapter 110, and we'll be looking at sections 2, 3, and 5. That means we'll be looking at things for potable water, reclaim water, as well as solid waste sewer, sewer system. And under here, it hasn't been updated in a while. We got multiple type of changes that we'll be looking at within this area.

40:08We will not be doing this in a vacuum. We don't do anything at the utilities we do with our customers in mind and with that said we will be doing it with all the individual stakeholders, the builders that we work with now, the irrigation societies, the developers, the HOAs, the golf courses, the community leaders, etc. Everybody that we communicate and engage now in the services we provide and or will be providing to them in the future will make sure we do meet with them and they will hear what we're thinking and we will hear what they're thinking. Just to give you an idea of a couple

40:38of the examples of amendments, things that may be taking place. Um a lot of it is clarifying language. When we communicate and how our customers communicate with us or the other organizations throughout the county, we all use different words interchangeably and it's really leading to some miscommunication. So we want to get in there and um update some of the definitions and really clarify things that may make it easier for and all impact the parties to follow along. We want to clarify the application of fines. Right now we

41:08have been getting more aggressive in about the last 18 months of ensuring that we have access to our meters at all times. That's a requirement for you to be our customer. And we do uh right now do fines for illegal connections and or anybody tampering with our system. That's a major health and safety issue and we take that very seriously. So that's one of the things we're gonna look at, how we're applying that and making sure that everybody understands what you can and cannot do when you sign up to be a customer of Pasco County Utilities. Uh we also will need to update some outdated

41:39policies. One of the things that we have in there now is a payment of the commitment fees. That policy actually Um Sunset on 2010 and we are in 2021. And the main thing about that commitment fee process that's put in there, they used to pay the They would pay 50% up front when they begin the development, and the second 50% of the commitment fees would come in it at when they have 51% build out or 18 months, whichever came first. So that that expired actually in 2010. And the other thing we're going to look at

42:09is when we release the deposits for the accounts back to the customers. Right now we hold those for 24 months, and we're looking at releasing those at 12 months. Back to the customers. And then the other thing is that the final bullet there is again more of a housekeeping type of thing. We did restructure within our branch. We were three departments. We are now one to be utilities. So get some of that language in there properly stated as well as the delegation authority where it says the assistant county um Uh administrator, we want

42:39to get that so h and or his her design. It does not mean we're going to violate or create our own policies. It just allows us to react faster. uh to resolve any conflict or issues our customers may have. That's the main thing I wanted to share with you today. And again, this is a two-part process. We come today to ask permission basically to work open it and and work with all of our customers and stakeholders. We expect to come back in about twelve months with any recommendations to any of these um fo to these two main ordinances

43:10and we'll make sure it gets workshop prior and as we said we will definitely work with all of our stakeholders.

43:17Any questions? Mr. Chairman? Just a couple of comments. I I first wanna say um that I'm glad you're bringing this forward, but I just wanna compliment you, Sandra, for the great service you give our customers. I mean whether I have a realtor's problem that I haven't had in two years, three years, so you you handle that well, or were they just a got got a s simple constituent service problem that goes on. Your customer service has been absolutely phenomenal every step of the way, and I greatly, greatly appreciate it.

43:44Thank you very much. We have a fabulous team and I I really feel blessed to work for the customers.

43:48You're doing a phenomenal job. Thank you. And thank you, Changes with that.

43:51Thank you. I will.

43:51Mr. Wall. Just just go ride with coattails a little bit. He thank you for this. But again, he's right, because we don't get to see you up here. Thank you for your excellent service. We really appreciate it. I as a customer Sandra has helped me. You know, as a non-commissioner, I know it sounds silly, but you know, I s I saw my water this is true. I saw my water bill going up. I'm like, oh geez, my water bill's going up now. She gave me the ideas of things to do around the house to see if that was the problem. It was the

44:21problem. Had people come in and fix it, water bill went down to 35 to 40 bucks. It's trip really good. So she thank you. Thank you. And and I'm just saying that because you know the this is what you do for customers on a regular basis. I was a customer that day. Gave me exactly what you're gonna give one of our constituents. Here's what you need to try, here's what you should do. That's what I did and it worked. you know, small amount of out of pocket for myself to have a plumber come in and do it. But overall, it was my issue. It wasn't the

44:52county's issue. You need to help me fix it. So thank you.

44:55Thank you.

44:55Yeah, we appreciate all you've done for the helping us reach out to our customers and do things for the citizens of Pasco County so She just presented here weeks or two ago about at Tampa Water about our new web page and it looked very good and very helpful and I think uh everybody appreciated hearing that. So

45:16thank you.

45:16Okay. This time I entertained a motion to so they can carry out this work. Second. Got a motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed like sigh. Motion passed 4-0.

45:29Thank you. Thank you very much.