Agenda - Council - 04/24/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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encouraged the City to find the number for franchise fees that would feel right, get some traction in the program, and then review to determine if the fee needs to be adjusted. He provided a suggested process for implementation of franchise fees, should the Council decide to go down that path. He stated that he cannot think of any reason that the City shouldn't chose franchise fees. He stated that there may be opposition in the beginning but once the program moves ahead it will help the City to get control of the roads and people will like the program and support it. Ms. Edison stated that homeowners are actually excited to see their road being repaired and therefore construction moves much more smoothly. Mr. Weiss stated that they provide flexibility to the contractor, stating that the project can be completed between May and October but only within a 60-day window once they begin. Mayor Strommen stated that the key argument she heard is the cost efficiency in the franchise fee method and perhaps WSB staff could provide assistance if this moves forward. Mr. Weiss noted that they have real world examples that they can provide for comparison. Councilmember Riley stated that now that the City is a few years into this program, it is easy to see what the debt is doing to the City's levy. He stated that it would be very powerful to show the correlation and that the City's levy could be reduced if you remove the road financing. Mayor Strommen agreed that perhaps the City did not make the financial argument very well in the last discussion of franchise fees. She stated that it may be good to continue this discussion with the budget in preparation for the 2019 budget discussions. Councilmember LeTourneau stated that he would want to see a few scenarios that would show the levy without road financing compared to the current levy that includes the road financing. Finance Director Lund agreed that she could provide that comparison of the current levy and what the levy would have been if the City would have gone with the franchise fee method. Mayor Strommen noted that it would also be interesting to see the funding that would be available if the City used a rate of $4 and $5 rather than simply using $8. She stated that perhaps $8 was too high as a starting place. Councilmember Riley stated that the decision would also need to be made to the people that have been assessed, as the method would need to be fair. He noted that the hit might not be too bad as many people chose to finance their assessment over a number of years. Councilmember LeTourneau stated that it will be interesting to see the reply of the residents on his topic through the resident survey, which may be an opportunity to open the discussion for road financing. City Council Work Session / March 27, 2018 Page 4 of 7