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<br />Mayor Gamec stated that if the City raises the water rates, the City will raise residential rates <br />also. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jeffrey stated that the City has already done this. <br /> <br />Councilmember Olson stated that if the general idea was to share the costs. with Connexus <br />Energy and the businesses, why doesn't the City bill one-third of the amount to the businesses <br />and begin negotiations with Connexus Energy or sue them for one-third of the amount. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec stated he feels the City may be better served to just negotiate an amount with <br />Connexus Energy and move forward. He stated that the City should have known something was. <br />wrong and didn't pick it up. <br /> <br />Councilmember Dehen stated that he sees this as nothing different than a breach of contract <br />because the bill did not go away whether or not the businesses were billed the correct amount or <br />not. He stated that he feels the City should send out bills and see what happens. He stated that <br />the City should be open to give businesses some latitude to pay' the bills. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec stated that he disagreed with this idea. <br /> <br />Councilmember Look asked for clarification of whose mistake it was that caused the under <br />billing. . <br /> <br />Fire Chief Kapler explained that the water is metered and pumped out of the ground. He stated <br />that water is also used for fire suppression and ice rinks and that amount is not metered. He. <br />stated that City did not have a good handle of what the percentage of difference this should be <br />until an employee took a closer look, which led to the investigation of the meters. <br /> <br />The City Council discussed the installation of water meters and the difference. between <br />commercial and residential meters. <br /> <br />Fire Chief Kapler stated that the under billing was not the result of the wrong meters being <br />installed, but a data entry error at Connexus Energy of 1,000 versus 10,000. <br /> <br />City Attorney Goodrich asked if the City was wrong on our end also. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec stated that he was unsure but John Nelson was the first one who started checking <br />into the situation. He stated that at the time, the City was staffed very light, so things were <br />falling through the cracks. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund stated this was the reason the City accepted some of the blame also, <br />because we do. not have the hard copy of the information that was sent to Connexus Energy <br />regarding these accounts. <br /> <br />City Council Special Meeting /October 2, 2007 <br />Page 6 of 11 <br />