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would work with each utility to assist them in drafting language to be added to their invoices to alert their customers <br />to the fact that the franchise fees are a pass through expense initiated by the city to help pay for our long term street <br />improvement program. The city of Elk River developed and published such literature when adopting their franchise <br />fees to help their utility providers spread the word to their customers regarding the purpose and intent of the <br />franchise fee, and to make sure their customers know the fee was initiated by the city to help pay for their street <br />improvement projects. If Council so chooses, staff can prepare similar literature that could be mailed with our utility <br />bills, posted to our web site, etc. to assist our local utility providers. Examples of Elk River's literature will be <br />available at the workshop Tuesday evening. <br />Funding Source: <br />Staff recommends utilizing Franchise Fees to fund the city's long -term street maintenance and reconstruction <br />program in the future. Although these fees are essentially taxes, the term franchise fee follows state statute language <br />so staff recommends using the same language to avoid any confusion by the public. <br />Council Action: <br />Staff is requesting Council direction regarding their preferred funding options to help pay for the city's long -term <br />street maintenance and reconstruction program. If franchise fees are to be pursued, staff requests Council direction <br />on the monthly amount to be charged each utility, as well as a proposed sunset date for the ordinances. Most <br />franchise fee Ordinances tend to have a 20 year sunset date, but in this case it might make sense to apply a 5 or 10 <br />year sunset date to the Ordinances to align with our CIP. With this information in hand, staff can then begin <br />developing the draft franchise fee Ordinances for each of the utilities, and can work with them to develop clear <br />language for their use in communicating the purpose of the fee and the fact that it is being initiated by the city and <br />not the utility themselves. <br />Fig 1 LT SMP Est CostsPr <br />Fig 2 SMP Fund Opt Pros Cons <br />Fig 3 FF Calcs <br />LMC HB Ch25 <br />Attachments <br />Form Review <br />Form Started By: Kathy Schmitz Started On: 08/29/2013 <br />Final Approval Date: 08/29/2013 <br />