Minutes - Council - 02/12/2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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cutting the bill down to 1/3. This is livable, but in the same token, sewer and water, along with electricity and everything else are part of the CAM charge on their building. He questioned if he should go back to 2002 and 2003 to find out who was renting the property at that time and send them a bill. Mr. Sharp distributed a letter to the Council dated February 21, 2007 that he had submitted to the City about one year ago about various properties owned by Sharp & Associates, LLC in Ramsey. He stated he would like to reiterate the costs in Ramsey. He needs to be able to sell his product. He used to be able to tell tenants that they could do business a lot cheaper in Ramsey than across the river, but he cannot say that anymore. He used to have vacancies in Maple Grove; now they are all in Ramsey, and it costs more to do business in Ramsey. He stated it is a tough time right now to look at these additional costs, and it makes a lot of difference to him. The City should look at some of these costs and see if they can figure out why they are so much higher here than in some of the cities across the river. Mayor Gamec stated the City keeps up on the costs, and they know their cost for sewer and water is higher. The original billing to Sharp & Associates was about $20,000, and Council reduced that cost and only went back two years. This was done because with the error in the billing and the meter reading they considered that maybe it should have been caught right away. The fees were dropped considerably for all the businesses, and basically it was the industrial area that got hit. He stated the billings were sent out in the past six weeks and payment has been received on quite a few of them. He believes the intention of Council is to try to get reimbursed as much as they can. They have looked at putting it onto the tax roll if the billings are not paid in a certain amount of time. Mr. Sharp is right that Ramsey's rates are a little higher than Maple Grove where they service a larger area, which actually brings their costs down. He stated Council discussed this for almost two years and had to make a decision. A lot of people were not happy with the situation, but the intention is to stick with the two years the City billed for. Mr. Sharp stated he appreciates what the City is doing. However, he doesn't understand the amount because of what they were paying before. It was not a small amount and was still higher than what they were paying on the other side of the river. It was indicated that a zero was missed on the reading, which means the billing should be ten times the amount it had been. This would be $5,000 instead of the $500 they were paying. City Administrator Ulrich stated in regards to the issue of costs for businesses as they compare to other communities, the EDA is doing a survey of surrounding communities to determine which areas Ramsey is competitive in and which areas they are not. Mr. Sharp stated this is not something that will make or break anything, but he wanted to bring it to Council's attention. It is hard to live with 38% vacancy in one of the buildings he has in Ramsey, and his buildings are all filled or close to it in Maple Grove because of the total costs. Finance Officer Lund explained the correction to the meter reading should be at ten times the usage amount, rather than the dollar amount. For example in one of the buildings on Sunfish Lake Boulevard, Sharp & Associates was billed a total of 28,000 gallons for two years worth of business, which should have been 280,000 gallons. City Council / February 12, 2008 Page 3 of 13