Minutes - Council Work Session - 09/14/2015 - Joint with Elk River CC

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project has been easier because the study has given businesses that time to plan and know what was going on. Ramsey City Administrator Ulrich stated the City has gone through a long discussion about using franchise fees and the Council decision was not to use that and decided that the best source of funding would be from the general fund and using land proceeds from The COR development and try to identify future sources of funding that might be available and Ramsey will continue to talk about franchise fees and whether or not it makes sense. Elk River City Administrator Portner reviewed the funding scheme they use in their City. He stated they were able to implement a utility fee rather than bonding for street improvements. Ramsey Councilmember Kuzma asked what the utility fee was. Elk River City Administrator Portner reviewed with the group the utility fee implemented in the City. There was discussion regarding franchise fees and how Elk River implemented it without residents objecting to it. Elk River Mayor Dietz stated Elk River City Engineer Femrite did a good job of communicating with the public. Anybody who gets an electric bill pays the fee and they did not think a person who has more money should pay more than another person. They set the fee at nine dollars a month and knew this would not change for a long time. He stated they have not raised the fee since they started it and do not plan on increasing it anytime soon. Ramsey Mayor Strommen asked if they had residents participating in the process because in Ramsey, residents were concerned this was a progressive tax and indicated they would rather use the property taxes. Elk River Mayor Dietz stated they did not have a lot of the public involved but they did put a lot of information out on social media and attempted to put out as much information that they could before it was voted on. Elk River City Administrator Portner stated they did a lot of upfront work so residents felt comfortable with the fee. Ramsey Mayor Strommen stated the City did look at implementing a franchise fee but the Charter Commission had a lot of concerns so the City Council decided to go a different route. The Charter Commission was concerned if the fee was legal to implement or not. Elk River Mayor Dietz stated he checked with their City Attorney and he did not think there was an issue. Elk River Councilmember Burandt stated she has had a lot of positive feedback from it, especially from the elderly on fixed incomes. They felt the fee was very affordable, equitable and the streets look good. City Council Work Session / September 14, 2015 Page 5 of 9