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Staff Sgt. Mark Phaney stated he has been selected to remain in the United States to assist with family issues of deployed soldiers. He has spoken with John Nelson of the Utilities Department. Mr. Nelson informed him that the water flow through the meter at Ms. Smith's home was at 3 lh million gallons, he also made the point that water meters do not read high, and would normally read short. Sgt. Phaney stated he has not seen the property; he will be looking at the property after this meeting to see what the size is of the lines that burst. He stated he would like to say a few things about the situation to try to get the Council to consider looking at this in a different light. Sgt. Phaney stated this homeowner bought the house last July. The husband spent the summer digging up and repositioning the sprinkler heads, but didn't appear to know about winterizing the system, so when he left to go off to war in September he did not relay any instructions about this to his wife. Connexus does not appear to include information with the water bills as the residents in Coon Rapids receive informing them of maintenance things to take care of. In addition, Ms. Smith's January bill included an estimated reading on it with the exact same water meter reading of three months prior. It is entirely possible that this break took place before the December water meter reading date, and had that meter reading been taken, this water usage may have shown up earlier and this whole situation avoided. Sgt Phaney stated Ms. Smith has contacted her insurance company; this is not something covered under homeowners insurance, and she will be stuck with this $6,000 bill. He questioned what can be reasonably expected of a 23 year old, first time homeowner to know about this type of situation. He stated he would have a hard time sleeping at night charging a $6,000 water bill for something that ran under the snow; these water meters do not click off as the gallons are counted like the meter in his home. Finance Officer Lund indicated Ms. Smith had said it sounded like a continual toilet flushing in her meter. Councilmember Jeffrey stated he is very sympathetic of the situation. He noted there may not have been a difference in what occurred even if Ms. Smith's husband were there, as Sgt. Phaney has indicated he did not know to winterize the system. Councilmember Elvig stated he appreciates the comments, and it sounds as though Sgt. Phaney has many questions, as did the Committee members. He suggested the first thing should be to determine the impact of this, because if this is a lh inch pipe they will be working with a different number. Some of Sgt. Phaney's questions are very valid for him to research. He explained the problem for the Committee is that they are working with public money and setting a precedent is a real concern. The precedent that is set may be to allow a long time to pay the bill. He suggested Connexus be drawn into this discussion to determine their part in this; as a private body they may have more flexibility than the City. He stated there certainly should be consideration of Ms. Smith's husband being a member of the armed forces and taking his time to protect the country. Sgt. Phaney stated he appreciates that the Committee is taking care of the public's money. This is a tough situation, but he would be doing the same thing if he heard of this happening to a private citizen. At this point, he has questions; he understands the Committee needs to take care Finance Committee / May 23, 2006 Page 2 of 4