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L(}i~E._ RUM RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION !I By: Steven J..lankowski, City Engineer Backgro~ nd: [ The LRR¥iM~ was formed in 1985 by the communities of Ramsey, Anoka, Andover and Coon !RaPi~-q, i~ response to legislation demanding the execution of such an organization to protect ~a J~r fl~!ality within the basin. The organization is funded by the four communities based oh~ !fo. ~. ula which consists half upon area and half upon total property area within the cOrrlrD. iriiW[ Under this formula, Ramsey has been responsible for roughly 42% of the WM0'~ k h'u~l~budget. Over the past three years, Ramsey's share of the contributions to this orga! ~fi~ has increased as follows: ' ~ 1991 $3,570.00 1992 $6,139.50 1993 (Proposed) $7,740.46 The pu~e ~f this case is to review the causes for this substantial increase in the organiz~i[ffS..tannual assessment. To assist in this task, I have prepared a budget summa~ ~.f~ t ~ last several years. The organization's budget has been heavily oriented toward e~'~in{ iring services and in 1991 our half of the organization's budget was spent for engirl¢~rir , The organization's comprehensive plan was completed in 1991 and the empha~i~iei ~neering services subsequently shifted from plan development, a relatively expen~siV~'~¢fi ty, to review activities for what the majority of the costs are being collected . ; mt application fees. from deV~i~pr permit '~ il w ww Through tl~e fh'~st 10 months of 1992, $4,415 as spent on engineering re 'e . I have not included }l~is ~ount in the attached budget summary because it represents a reimbursable amount;~ In t;~ite of the fact that nonreimbursable engineering costs have declined substanti~y, t~e annual budget for these services has been maintained substantially at its 1991 le~,~l~ The .WM~t~ex~.nditures which is labeled as other expenditures on the attached budget sumniar~:l~¢!~ti~les those costs which are required to keep the organization functioning. There: haSl~eeg[a stgmficant increase m these budget amounts sance 1991. Insurance costs bring :a ~al0r~ew item responsible for a 25% increase alone. Nonetheless, several items in this ~_'.~i~ ~f the budget were anticipated in 1992 but have not been incurred to the degree bl~ifl ]e~elcl. Attorneys fees, newsletter costs and insurance are currently well under the antie~i ~ed ibudget amounts. In spite of this, the WMO maintained the 1993 estimation for these it~ rnsl ~tt the same level when it prepared its estimates in Au~st. Our final f~[tct~ ' in the substantial rise in Ramsey's annual assessment stems from the fact that in pre~0a, years, the WMO applied between 3,000 and 3,500 from its fund balance to the ann~l!~U [get to decrease the member assessment. At the time the budget was considerektlth~ attached graphic showed a declining fund balance and the WMO decided to assess rna yount of the budget to prevent further d :line of the balance. 1 initiate{l 'gdi~cussion of the annual budget and assessments at the December WMO meetingi .;'lhia ~tiscussion concluded that attention needed to be focused on defining what an approptiat~.i~fund balance for this organization should be. The organization made a motion tc5 ~i~ whether monies from surplus should be applied to the 1993 assessment prior to sen~ir~g of the bills for the second payment due in August 1993. Reviewed bYi Copies also distributed to: City Engin~ er ! City Administrator .~ .,i F'mance Officer Be: