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Home My WebLink AboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 10/05/2021 - MOUNTAIN RIDGE FARMS HOA APPEAL OF EXCESS WATER US Agenda Item 22 Item # 22 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY October 5, 2021 City Council STAFF Wendy Serour, Utilities Customer Accounts Gretchen Stanford, Interim Deputy Director Eric Potyondy, Legal SUBJECT Mountain Ridge Farms HOA Appeal of Excess Water Use Surcharge. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this item is to consider the “on the record” appeal of the Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association (HOA), brought by the HOA’s property manager Touchstone Property Management (Touchstone), regarding Fort Collins Utilities’ (Utilities) decision (final decision, dated July 9, 2021), upholding the application of the Excess Water Use Surcharge (surcharge) to one of the HOA’s sprinkler accounts, located at 1103 Wabash Street for water use in 2020. The appeal was filed on July 23, 2021. BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION This item is an appeal of a final decision of Utilities. The appeal is under the procedures of Chapter 2, Division 3 of City Code and is “on the record” that was before Utilities when the decision was made. See City Code Section 2-51. The entire administrative record is attached to this Agenda Item Summary (AIS) as Attachments 1 through 9 (Record). The purpose of this AIS is to summarize information from the administrative record in order to explain the nature of the appeal and the decision being appealed. See City Code Section 2-54(a)(1). The HOA is a Utilities water customer. Two of the taps on site are “looped” and connected via an irrigation system. See, e.g., Record (Hearing Packet – Attachment 2). Each tap has a separate water service permit and a separate annual allotment pursuant to City Code Section 26-149(d). See Record (Water Permits – Attachment 6) Pursuant to City Code Section 26-149(d), water use above the annual allotment incurs a surcharge. In 2020, water use under one of the taps exceeded its annual allotment. Utilities thus applied a surcharge, totaling $7,745.97. See Record (Hearing Packet – Attachment 2). The HOA objected to the surcharge and a hearing for reconsideration was held on June 24, 2021, where Utilities upheld the application of the surcharge. See Record (Correspondence – Attachment 3). As grounds for the appeal, the HOA’s appeal alleges that Utilities failed to properly interpret and apply City Code Section 26- 721(a)(4). See Record (Notice of Appeal – Attachment 1). Because of a delay in Utilities’ billing system, the bill for the surcharge was sent in December 2020, instead of September 2020. See, e.g., Record (Verbatim Transcript of Hearing – Attachment 9). Overview: Utilities Customer Hearing and Council Request • Original Request: The HOA requested Utilities to waive their surcharges incur red in 2020. See Record (Correspondence – Attachment 3). • Outcome with the Utilities Hearing Officer: Hearing held on June 23, 2021. Waiver request was denied, July 9, 2021. See Record (Hearing Officer Decisions – Attachment 4). Agenda Item 22 Item # 22 Page 2 • Why Utilities Denied Waiver Request: Code does not allow waivers for non-residential customers who exceed their annual allotments and receive surcharges. See Record (Hearing Officer Decisions – Attachment 4). • Appeal Request for City Council: Did the Utilities Hearing Officer fail to properly interpret and apply the provisions of City Code Section 26-721, (4) entitled Meter Failure? See Record (Notice of Appeal – Attachment 1). Key Terms and Definitions Developers must meet a Water Supply Requirement. NOTE: These are not the focus of this item. They are, however, provided to help explain the nature of the appeal and the decision being appealed. See City Code Section 2-54(a)(1). • Water Supply Requirements (WSR): A requirement for water service from Utilities. See Chapter 26, Article II, Division 5 of City Code. A WSR accounts for the additional water demand, defined in gallons or acre-feet of water, brought into the Utilities water service area by a new development or redevelopment. The developer satisfies a WSR by paying a cash -in-lieu of water rights fee to Utilities or using existing credits and water certificates. The WSR has historically also been met by con veying water rights to Utilities. Post-Development: Utilities Non-Residential Water Annual Allotment Non-residential customers have an annual allotment of water and may face Excess Water Use surcharges. The following are related definitions: • Annual Allotments: All non-residential taps (e.g., commercial businesses and irrigation taps) installed after March 1, 1984 have an annual allotment (volume of water in gallons) that is based upon the WSR that was satisfied at the time of development or redevelopment. See City Code Section 26-149(d). Customers can pay an additional CIL fee to increase their annual allotments at any time. See City Code Section 26-149(g). • Excess Water Use Surcharge: Non-residential taps with annual allotments face this surcharge i f their annual water use exceeds their annual allotment. See City Code Section 26-149(d). This charge is in addition to the standard water use rates. The surcharge provides revenue to purchase additional water rights and/or infrastructure to account for the additional water demand over the annual allotment and, therefore, over the WSR satisfied for the property. The surcharge is based on the cash -in-lieu fee. The surcharge is currently $10.39 per 1,000 gallons over the annual allotment and is updated every two years. See City Code Section 26-129(c)(2). Customer Information Customer: Mountain Ridge Farms HOA Appellant: Touchstone Property Management (property manager) Location: 1103 Wabash Street, Fort Collins, CO Utilities Service Type: Non-residential sprinkler account Customer Account Summary The HOA is located on the southwest corner of S. Shields and Wabash streets. The property’s water taps were installed in 1997 and the water supply requirements were obtained in 1997. See Record (Water Permits – Attachment 6). The taps are part of a looped irrigation system. Looped irrigation systems connect two taps to mitigate pressure issues in irrigation design. See Record (Verbatim Transcript of Hearing – Attachment 9). Both of these taps have annual allotments, based on the WSR satisfied in 1997, and receive surcharges if they use more than their annual allotment. See Record (Water Permits – Attachment 6). Agenda Item 22 Item # 22 Page 3 Table 1 - 1103 Wabash Street (338337-25407) – Annual Allotment: 1,955,112 gallons 2020 2019 2018 Annual Water Use 2,722,800 1,501,400 1,462,300 Excess Water Use Surcharge $7,745.97 $0 $0 Table 2 – 4014 Wabash Street (338339-25408) – Annual Allotment: 1,955,112 gallons 2020 2019 2018 Annual Water Use 160,600 1,621,100 1,605,200 Excess Water Use Surcharge $0 $0 $0 See Record (Water Use Notifications and Analysis – Attachment 7) TIMELINE OF EVENTS Utilities and Customer Communications Timeline See Record (Hearing Packet – Attachment 2) (Correspondence – Attachment 3) (Water Use notifications and Analysis – Attachment 7) 2020 • May 1 – Letters were sent to non-residential customers who exceeded their annual allotment at least once in the past two years. Because the HOA did not have a history of exceeding its annual allotment, they did not receive this letter. • Sept. 17 – Reminder sent to apply to the Allotment Management Program (AMP). AMP provides up to a three-year waiver for surcharges provided the applicant implement a project that reduces outdoor water use. • Oct. 13 – Utilities identified billing delay in Utilities billing system. • Oct. 29 – Water report emailed to customer indicating 1103 Wabash sprinkler account average daily water use had increased by over 53% (~9,000 gallons a day) compared to the same time previous year. This report links to the online water monitoring portal where customers can via use compared to allotment. • Nov. 4 – Memo was sent to Mayor and City Council regarding billing delay. • Dec. 8 – Utilities staff spoke with Touchstone and emailed with additional information abou t surcharges for the HOA’s sprinkler located at 1103 Wabash Street, #338337-25407. Also provided the following: ✓ Letter overview with contact information ✓ Payment arrangement option - 6-months ✓ Opportunity to meet with Water Conservation and Energy Services t eams to explore efficiency opportunities to help reduce operational costs for property. ✓ MyWater online monitoring tool instructions • Dec. 21 – Touchstone emailed the City Manager expressing concern regarding their surcharge and stated if they had known they were going over their allotment, they would have turned off the water in Aug. 2020. They did not receive a response. • Dec. 29 – Notification that the Allotment Management Program deadlines had been extended to accommodate those impacted by the billing error. Agenda Item 22 Item # 22 Page 4 2021 • March 23 – Touchstone requested a 6-month payment arrangement for 1103 Wabash Street account. Customer made several payments and currently owes, $4,910.82 of the $7,745.97. • April 13 – Touchstone requested a Landscape Water Budget. Water Conservat ion team created and shared with the customer. • April 16 – Pyramid Landscaping called Interim Water Conservation Manager inquiring about the surcharge and asked if there were any opportunities to mitigate the fees. • May 22 – Customer Account Manager contacte d Touchstone regarding scheduled turn-offs for delinquent accounts. Touchstone shared their email they sent to the City Manager and Council in December 2020. • May 24 – Staff called Touchstone and discussed looped irrigation system issue and followed up with Water Conservation team to schedule a time for everyone to meet, discuss and work together to help reduce water use for this account. The appellant did not follow up to schedule a time to discuss. • May 24 – Touchstone requested an appeal to waive the account charges with Utilities Customer Accounts Manager, waiver request denied. • June 10 – Appellant met with Utilities Customer Connections Interim Deputy Director; waiver request denied. • June 23 – Formal appeal hearing held with Utilities Hearing Officer; w aiver request denied. • July 23 – Appeal to City Council filed by Touchstone to the City Clerk’s office. Appeal Hearing On June 24, 2021, an appeal hearing was held with the appellant, Touchstone, on behalf of the HOA, and City staff to consider a request to waive surcharges of $7,745.97 incurred for a Utilities sprinkler account located at 1103 Wabash Street, owned by Mountain Ridge Farms HOA. See Record (Verbatim Transcript of Hearing – Attachment 9). The request was denied on July 9, 2021, based on the a ccount’s annual allotment, 1,955,112 gallons, and the amount of water exceeded, 2,722,800 gallons. See Record (Hearing Officer Decisions – Attachment 4). The customer was given an option of an additional six -month payment plan to pay the remaining balance on the account which is $5,910.82. Customer Appeal “Failure to properly interpret and apply relevant provisions of City Code Section 26-721.” See Record (Notice of Appeal – Attachment 1). “There was an undercharge due to City of Fort Collins billing error. The total of two taps was under the allocated amount. Section (4) entitled Meter Failure states as follows in (b): Customers who have been under billed for services received, will be rebilled, at no interest, for the actual or estimated services based on utility service records or other information acceptable to the utility that verify previous billing statements do not appropriately reflect action (actual) consumption”. Total use for the looped meters was under allocated amount: “Mountain Ridge had two taps and one of the backflows was turned off due to vandalism that we were not aware of at the time. If you add together the total for the two taps, the water consumption is lower than the regularly allotted total amount. This does not appropriately reflect actual consumption.” Appeal Question for Council: Did the Appeal Hearing Officer fail to properly interpret and apply relevant provisions to the City Code 26-721 by denying the waiver of the incurred water use for the HOA? Attachment of the staff report discusses the water used by the appellant’s Utilities sprinkler account. Agenda Item 22 Item # 22 Page 5 ATTACHMENTS 1. Notice of Appeal (PDF) 2. Hearing Packet (PDF) 3. Correspondence (PDF) 4. Hearing Officer Decisions (PDF) 5. Post Hearing Information (PDF) 6. Water Permits (PDF) 7. Water Use Notifications and Analysis (PDF) 8. Hearing Video (PDF) 9. Verbatim Transcript of Hearing (PDF) 10. Powerpoint Presentation (PDF) ATTACHMENT 1 Notice of Appeal Filed by Brian Ball and Kathy Louderback Touchstone Property Management on behalf of Mountain Ridge Farm HOA ATTACHMENT 2 Hearing Packet presented to the Hearing Officer June 24, 2021 Utilities electric ꞏ stormwater ꞏ wastewater ꞏ water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities 12/1/2020 Re: Excess Water Use Surcharge Correction Dear Fort Collins Utilities Customer: Your account has a water allotment (see definitions on back), and our meter readings indicate the account exceeded its 2020 water allotment. Due to a system error, the Excess Water Use line item was not included on your previous 2020 bills. This error has been corrected, and the Excess Water Use surcharge is included on your December utility bill as a one-time adjustment. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. Allotments are determined at the time of development based on the water rights or cash-in-lieu that were turned in and represent the annual volume of water the account can use in a calendar year without receiving Excess Water Use surcharges. The surcharge is collected when an account uses more than its annual water allotment, charged at a rate of $10.09 per 1,000 gallons over the allotment in 2020. To reduce impacts: 1. Participate in the Allotment Management Program (AMP): Customers implementing a water conservation project may be eligible to receive up to a three-year waiver from their Excess Water Use surcharges. Customers interested in a 2021 waiver should start the application process as soon as possible. For more information and to determine if your property qualifies, visit fcgov.com/AMP. 2. Apply for double toilet rebates: Double toilet rebates are available for projects submitted between Nov. 16 and Dec. 31 (or until funds run out). Learn more at fcgov.com/water-efficiency. 3. Monitor your use with MyWater (formerly known as WaterSmart): Sign up, view your use and receive leak/high use notifications with our free online tool at fcgov.com/MyWater. 4. Reduce water use through efficiency and conservation projects: Receive up to $50,000 in rebates for any indoor project that saves water. Visit fcgov.com/water-efficiency. Please contact us at 970-212-2900 if you would like to discuss payment options. You also may call 970-416-4268 or email UtilitiesCustomerAccounts@fcgov.com with any questions. Sincerely, Mark Cassalia Customer Accounts Manager Fort Collins Utilities DEFINITIONS: Non-residential Water Supply Requirement (WSR): Developers must provide water supplies to meet the demands of a new development and ensure a reliable source of supply in dry years. The WSR methodology is generally reviewed every five to seven years. Customers can meet the requirement through water rights or cash. The cash rate is based on the cost to develop additional water resources and is reviewed every two years. Non-residential: All commercial, industrial, public entity, group housing, nursing homes, fraternities, hotels, motels, commonly owned areas, club houses, and pools, including HOA common spaces and irrigation accounts. Allotment: The volume of water a given tap can use per year before incurring Excess Water Use surcharges (only non-residential taps installed after 1984). The allotment volume is based on the amount of WSR satisfied at the time of development plus any increases to the allotment paid for after development. A customer may increase their allotment at any time by paying cash or providing additional water rights. The current cost is approximately $41,187 per 325,851-gallon increase. Excess Water Use (EWU) surcharge: A volumetric charge assessed on all water used through the remainder of the calendar year once a customer has exceeded their annual allotment. The EWU is applied in addition to the regular utility rates. This surcharge is tied to the cash rate for the WSR and is evaluated every two years. Revenue from the EWU surcharge goes toward acquiring, developing and improving Utilities’ water supplies to address the impact of customers exceeding their planned allotment. The current EWU surcharge is $10.09 per 1,000 gallons over the allotment. 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=OUeC7ZphoEuQs... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:45 AM 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=3ctcVYTsvzGVHR... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:47 AM 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=UQ66g8OGOjeS2... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:47 AM 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=Omt9GCnD0SsjT... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:49 AM 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=fL5wm0EIcz8KW... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:49 AM 1 Of 1 Zoom 75% | | Logout View Document https://secure7.i-doxs.net/CSR/wv_View.asp?nonce=XUOk5rRP2TRA... 1 of 1 6/23/2021, 6:50 AM Utilities electric · stormwater · wastewater · water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities June 10, 2021 Touchstone Property Management, LLC Attn: Kathy Louderback and Brian Ball Mountain Ridge Farms HOA 2850 McClelland Drive Fort Collins, CO 80525 Decision – Excess Water Use Fee (Account #338337-25407, 1103 Wabash Street) Dear Ms. Louderback and Mr. Ball, It was a pleasure to meet with you last week and I appreciate you taking the time to discuss your concerns. Again, I want to apologize for our delayed billing of these charges which should have appeared on your bill in September 2020. Our system delay caused the accumulation of excess water use (EWU) charges on Mountain Ridge Farms HOA’s December bill. I realize receiving these charges at the end of the year was not welcomed news, especially after learning the backflow for the sprinkler looped with this account located at 4014 Wabash (account #338339-25408) was turned off resulting in increased water use on this account. Due to the unfortunate series of events, this has not been an easy decision. For three principal reasons, Fort Collins Utilities is unable to waive the EWU charges: (1) EWU back charges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified at Municipal code sections 26-129 and 26-149; and (2) the City’s water utility is a cost-of-service enterprise fund allowing up to six years for managing over and under charges associated with billing errors. Fort Collins Municipal Code section 26-721(a)(3) requires Fort Collins Utilities to bill the customer for undercharges, without interest. (3) Utilities documentation verifies the property water permit had an allotment with recognition of an excess water use charge should the property exceed the water allotment. Although I cannot waive these fees, I would like to offer to extend your current interest free, 6-month payment arrangement to 12 months. If you would like to increase your payment arrangement to 12 months, please advise Wendy Serour and she will coordinate this extension. If you choose to appeal this decision per Fort Collins Municipal Code sections 26-53 and 26-351. Please note to successfully appeal this decision, you will need to provide information that is contrary to that provided, e.g. demonstrate an error in water meter reading, and provide evidence that City Code has not be applied correctly. The following are the steps to appeal this decision: • Within 10 working days of this decision, provide written request for reconsideration of this decision to the Fort Collins Utilities Finance Director, Lance Smith, lasmith@fcgov.com, setting forth in detail the facts supporting the request. • Within 10 working days of receipt of your letter, the Finance Director will hold a hearing. • Within 10 working days of the hearing, the DCM will act upon the request and hearing. • If you are not satisfied with the final decision, you may appeal to Fort Collins City Council by filing a written Notice of Appeal with the City Clerk within 14 calendar days of the final decision. Thank you for partnering with our Water Conservation Team and signing up for MyWater to monitor water use. They are available to help you further explore the water-saving options listed below. • Participate in the Allotment Management Program (AMP). Qualified participants can receive up to a three-year waiver from the EWU surcharges provided implementation of project that reduces outdoor water use. Visit fcgov.com/amp. • Reduce water use through efficiency and conservation projects. Receive up to $50,000 in rebates for any indoor project that saves water. Visit fcgov.com/water-efficiency. • Participate in the Xeriscape Incentive Program. Receive up to $15,000 in rebates for conversation to a water wise landscape. Visit fcgov.com/xipxl. If you would like to appeal this decision, Wendy Serour and/or Mark Cassalia will support you through this process. Sincerely, Gretchen Stanford Interim Deputy Director, Utilities Customer Connections gstanford@fcgov.com CC: Wendy Serour, Public Engagement Specialist, Utilities Customer Connections Mark Cassalia, Customer Accounts Manager, Utilities Customer Connections Lance Smith, Utilities Finance Director Communications Timeline with Touchstone Properties and Fort Collins Utilities: Mountain Ridge Farms HOA, Sprinkler Account 2020 EWU Surcharge Account overview: 1103 Wabash Street, Fort Collins, CO Customer Name Address Ind. Cust/ Prem Meter Class Allotment 9 10 11 Total 2018 Use 2019 Use 2020 YTD Use (Through Sept. Use) MOUNTAIN RIDGE FARM HOA 1103 WABASH ST SPKR MDU 338337- 25407 Irrigation- Only 1,955,112 $ 5,217.42 $ 2,528.55 $0 $ 7,745.97 1,462,300 1,501,400 2,722,800 Irrigation account looped with 1103 Wabash Street: 4014 Wabash Street (338339-25408) - Annual allotment = 1,955,112 gallons - 2020 total use = 160,600 gallons 5/1/20 – Letters were sent to customers who historically exceed their allotments (based on two years). This account historically didn’t exceed. 9/17/20 – Reminder sent to apply to the Allotment Management Program 10/27/20 – Water report emailed to customer. Note emails were sent to email of previous property manager. 10/29/20 – Water report emailed to customer. Note emails were sent to email of previous property manager. Shows that average daily water use has increased by over 53% (~9,000 gallons a day) compared to the same time last year. 12/8/20 – Utilities staff spoke with Brian Ball with Touchstone Properties and emailed with additional information about EWU surcharges for Mountain Ridge Farms HOA sprinkler located at 1103 Wabash Street, #338337-25407. Also provided following:  Letter overview with contact information  Payment arrangement - 6-months  Opportunity to meet with Water Conservation and Energy Services  MyWater online tool instructions 12/29/20 – Notification that the Allotment Management Program deadlines had been extended to accommodate those impacted by the billing error. 3/23/21 – Brian Ball coordinated with Utilities Customer Accounts staff to set-up a 6-month payment arrangement for account. 4/13/21 – Landscape Water Budget requested, created and shared with the customer. 4/16/21 – Landscaper (Kris Walsh) called Abbye Neel asking inquiring about the surcharge and if there were any opportunities to mitigate the fees. 5/22/21 – Mark Cassalia contacted Brian re. scheduled turn-offs for delinquent accounts. Brian shared update re. Kathy’s outreach to City Manager and Council. 5/24/21 – Wendy Serour called Brian and discussed looped irrigation issue. Wendy followed up with Water Conservation schedule a time for everyone to meet, discuss and work together to help reduce water use for this account. City of Fort Collins, Colorado Water Utilities PERMIT FOR WATER UTILITY SERVICE Permit No.20844 Building Application No. Name of Applicant:Miramont Associates LLC c/o Nordic Construction Address of Applicant:309 W Harmony Road FTC 80526 Description of Property:Meter pit in tract at SW corner of Wabash and Shields Streets Mountain Ridge Farm P.U.D. 1st Filing Address of Property:1103 Wabash Street Use:Commercial Rate:W/ 522SqFt: Date:9/10/1997Sewer Cat: Account 5020.473120 5020.475230 5030.473120 5030.475320 5020.473310 503.211690 Total Water PIF Water Tap Sewer PIF Sewer Tap Water Right Sanitation District Sewer Repay Water Repay Allotment:1,955,112 Gal/Yr $12,700.00 ($235.00) $12,465.00 Fees Included with the water meter charge is one trip for inspection and delivery of the water meter. The maximum water pressure at this site may exceed 80 p.s.i. APPROVED: Kevin R. Gertig Utilities Executive Director Applicant Date by Validation Date CREDIT FOR 1 1/2 IN. METER COPPERHORN Surcharge:Yes 1 1/2 inch metered 6. Ac-Ft - irrigation only 5020.473370Water Meter Charge Rate: Calc Fac:SqFt:Stormwater: Water: Stormwater Fee 9/10/1997 PAID 5040.473510 5020.452040Construction Water Charge (one-time) 5020.4521106% PILOT (Payment in Lieu of taxes) 5020.473130Water Development Review Fee: 5030.473130Sewer Development Review Fee: 5040.473130Stormwater Development Review Fee: Permit is revocable. If applicant does not connect to the permitted utility within six (6) months of payment date, the permit will expire. 502.211690 503.211690 COPY City of Fort Collins, Colorado Water Utilities PERMIT FOR WATER UTILITY SERVICE Permit No.20845 Building Application No. Name of Applicant:Miramont Associates LLC c/o Nordic Construction Address of Applicant:309 W Harmony Road FTC 80526 Description of Property:Meter pit E. side of Wabash St. in large tract N. of Lakecrest Ct. Mountain Ridge Farm P.U.D. 1st Filing Address of Property:4014 Wabash Street Use:Commercial Rate:W/ 522SqFt: Date:9/10/1997Sewer Cat: Account 5020.473120 5020.475230 5030.473120 5030.475320 5020.473310 503.211690 Total Water PIF Water Tap Sewer PIF Sewer Tap Water Right Sanitation District Sewer Repay Water Repay Allotment:1,955,112 Gal/Yr $12,700.00 ($235.00) $12,465.00 Fees Included with the water meter charge is one trip for inspection and delivery of the water meter. The maximum water pressure at this site may exceed 80 p.s.i. APPROVED: Kevin R. Gertig Utilities Executive Director Applicant Date by Validation Date CREDIT FOR 1 1/2 IN. METER COPPERHORN Surcharge:Yes 1 1/2 inch metered 6. Ac-Ft - irrigation only 5020.473370Water Meter Charge Rate: Calc Fac:SqFt:Stormwater: Water: Stormwater Fee 9/10/1997 PAID 5040.473510 5020.452040Construction Water Charge (one-time) 5020.4521106% PILOT (Payment in Lieu of taxes) 5020.473130Water Development Review Fee: 5030.473130Sewer Development Review Fee: 5040.473130Stormwater Development Review Fee: Permit is revocable. If applicant does not connect to the permitted utility within six (6) months of payment date, the permit will expire. 502.211690 503.211690 COPY CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE STATEMENT CITY OF FORT COLLINS, COLORADO The following disclosure statement is submitted to the Clerk of the City of Fort Collins pursuant to the requirements of Article IV, Section 9 of the City Charter and, to the extent applicable, Section 24-18-109(3)(a), C.R.S. or pursuant to City of Fort Collins Personnel Policy 5.7.2.F. Name: Title: Decision(s) or contract affected (give description of item to be addressed by Council, Board, Service Area Director, etc.): Brief statement of interest: Date: Signature: REMOVAL OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST I affirm that the above-stated conflict of interest no longer exists. Date: Signature: cc (if Councilmember or Board or Commission member): City Attorney and City Manager cc (if City employee): HR Director Updated: March 2014 Theresa Connor Interim Utilities Director The potential appeal of an Excess Water Use fee by Mountain Ridge Farms HOA. I am a resident within the Mountain Ridge Farms HOA, so I would be financially impacted by this decision. 06/09/21 DocuSign Envelope ID: 562C80EC-BA9F-48CE-9A90-69F53F9139AE ATTACHMENT 3 Correspondence Utilities electric · stormwater · wastewater · water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities MEMORANDUM DATE: December 17, 2020 TO: Mayor Troxell and Councilmembers FROM: Lisa Rosintoski, Deputy Director, Utilities Customer Connections THRU: Darin Atteberry, City Manager Theresa Connor, Interim Utilities Executive Director RE: Update - Excess Water Usage Surcharge Billing Error ______________________________________________________________________________ On November 4, City Council received a memo titled “Excess Water Usage Surcharge Billing Error.” The memo provided awareness of a billing error discovered on October 20 that determined the Excess Water Use (EWU) surcharge was not being billed to 198 commercial accounts that impacted 161 customers. Utilities Customer Accounts and Water Conservation staff contacted impacted customers by phone to provide awareness on the billing error and options for payment arrangements. Below is a summary of the feedback staff heard from customers. • Customers appreciated the individualized outreach. • There were many customers who have become familiar with EWU charges since the increase in charges in 2017 and had budgeted for these costs. • Customers who were not familiar with EWU charges said receiving a bill earlier in the year with these charges would have helped them to address it sooner and reduce their costs. These customers were encouraged to sign up for the MyWater tool to monitor their future water use on a daily or monthly basis. The following is a summary of the actions taken to address the situation with the impacted customers: • Staff called 116 customers with EWU charges of $2,000 or more prior to receiving their December bill. • Total EWU charges from January through November 2020 were applied to customers’ December 2020 Utilities bill(s). December bills were sent on December 7 accompanied by an individualized letter explaining the error and offering payment arrangements as well as programs and tools to reduce future costs. • Accounts with water consumption in December may also see additional EWU charges on their January bill. Approximately 90 of these are sprinkler accounts and will not receive an EWU charge in January; there should not be water use on these accounts in December. • Currently 4 customers have requested and been granted a payment arrangement. • Customers can take advantage of Water Conservation programs to help with overages, including the Allotment Management Program (AMP). AMP provides a temporary waiver from the EWU surcharges for qualified customers provided implementation of a water efficiency project. Currently there are 12 AMP participants and five additional applications have been submitted for 2021. CC: Lori Clements, Senior Manager, Customer Connections SeonAh Kendall, City Recovery Manager, Economic Health Lance Smith, Director, Utilities Strategic Finance Mark Cassalia, Manager, Customer Connections 1 From:Wendy Serour Sent:Tuesday, December 8, 2020 11:04 AM To:bball@touchstone-property.com Subject:Follow-up: Mountain Ridge Farm HOA - water account billing error Attachments:EWU Fee Billing Error 2020_Final.pdf Hi Brian, Thanks for taking the time to speak with me last week about the water account at Mountain Ridge Farm HOA (listed below) and the Excess Water Use fees on the December bill. Attached is the letter that I mentioned will be included with the December bill ‐ it explains the billing error in our system and highlights some steps you can take to reduce water use to avoid future charges (check out the MyWater tool – it’s really helpful!). The estimated charges of excess water use surcharges are highlighted below in green. The Dec. bill will indicate the final amount due including Nov. charges. Also highlighted in the chart is the annual water allotment (indicated in yellow), which is the amount of water the account can use annually. The right side of the chart highlights the last 2 years of use as well as the estimated water consumption for 2020 is highlighted in blue. Customer Name Address Industry Cust/Prem Meter Class Allotment 9 10 11 Total 2018 MOUNTAIN RIDGE FARM HOA 1103 WABASH ST SPKR Multi Family 338337‐ 25407 Irrigation‐ Only 1,955,112 $ 5,217.42 $ 2,528.55 $ ‐ $ 7,745.97 1,462 Per your request, below is the other water account that serves this property – this includes the account number and address along with the annual allotment. Account Number Account Premise Account Name Address Address Annual Allotment 338337 79851 MOUNTAIN RIDGE FARM 1576 WESTFIELD DR SPKR FORT CO 80526 293,266 gallons If you have any questions about this charge or would like to schedule a meeting to review and learn more about our programs, please let me know. Thanks again for your time – have a great day! Best, ……………………………………… WENDY SEROUR Utilities Customer Accounts City of Fort Collins (970) 416‐2311 | Office (970) 420‐5081 | Cell Utilities electric ꞏ stormwater ꞏ wastewater ꞏ water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities 12/1/2020 Re: Excess Water Use Surcharge Correction Dear Fort Collins Utilities Customer: Your account has a water allotment (see definitions on back), and our meter readings indicate the account exceeded its 2020 water allotment. Due to a system error, the Excess Water Use line item was not included on your previous 2020 bills. This error has been corrected, and the Excess Water Use surcharge is included on your December utility bill as a one-time adjustment. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. Allotments are determined at the time of development based on the water rights or cash-in-lieu that were turned in and represent the annual volume of water the account can use in a calendar year without receiving Excess Water Use surcharges. The surcharge is collected when an account uses more than its annual water allotment, charged at a rate of $10.09 per 1,000 gallons over the allotment in 2020. To reduce impacts: 1. Participate in the Allotment Management Program (AMP): Customers implementing a water conservation project may be eligible to receive up to a three-year waiver from their Excess Water Use surcharges. Customers interested in a 2021 waiver should start the application process as soon as possible. For more information and to determine if your property qualifies, visit fcgov.com/AMP. 2. Apply for double toilet rebates: Double toilet rebates are available for projects submitted between Nov. 16 and Dec. 31 (or until funds run out). Learn more at fcgov.com/water-efficiency. 3. Monitor your use with MyWater (formerly known as WaterSmart): Sign up, view your use and receive leak/high use notifications with our free online tool at fcgov.com/MyWater. 4. Reduce water use through efficiency and conservation projects: Receive up to $50,000 in rebates for any indoor project that saves water. Visit fcgov.com/water-efficiency. Please contact us at 970-212-2900 if you would like to discuss payment options. You also may call 970-416-4268 or email UtilitiesCustomerAccounts@fcgov.com with any questions. Sincerely, Mark Cassalia Customer Accounts Manager Fort Collins Utilities DEFINITIONS: Non-residential Water Supply Requirement (WSR): Developers must provide water supplies to meet the demands of a new development and ensure a reliable source of supply in dry years. The WSR methodology is generally reviewed every five to seven years. Customers can meet the requirement through water rights or cash. The cash rate is based on the cost to develop additional water resources and is reviewed every two years. Non-residential: All commercial, industrial, public entity, group housing, nursing homes, fraternities, hotels, motels, commonly owned areas, club houses, and pools, including HOA common spaces and irrigation accounts. Allotment: The volume of water a given tap can use per year before incurring Excess Water Use surcharges (only non-residential taps installed after 1984). The allotment volume is based on the amount of WSR satisfied at the time of development plus any increases to the allotment paid for after development. A customer may increase their allotment at any time by paying cash or providing additional water rights. The current cost is approximately $41,187 per 325,851-gallon increase. Excess Water Use (EWU) surcharge: A volumetric charge assessed on all water used through the remainder of the calendar year once a customer has exceeded their annual allotment. The EWU is applied in addition to the regular utility rates. This surcharge is tied to the cash rate for the WSR and is evaluated every two years. Revenue from the EWU surcharge goes toward acquiring, developing and improving Utilities’ water supplies to address the impact of customers exceeding their planned allotment. The current EWU surcharge is $10.09 per 1,000 gallons over the allotment. 1 From:Eric Olson Sent:Thursday, April 15, 2021 4:29 PM To:Abbye Neel Subject:FW: Message from KRISTEN WALSH (9709883246) Attachments:VoiceMessage.wav Abbye, I just spoke with Kris from Pyramid and he’s in a situation at one of his HOA’s where a looped tap was shut down early last season and the water was used by the other tap and you know where this is going… I know this doesn’t happen all the time but is there a chance you could call Kris or point him in the right direction? Kris is a great landscape contractor and of course he’s a CLP. I’d be interested in the City’s position on this and the outcome; If you “Teams” it I’d like to join. Let me know and thanks! Eric Eric Olson CID, CLIA Irrigation Specialist Water Conservation Fort Collins Utilities eolson@fcgov.com 970-221-6704 Office 970-222-1702 Cell COVID19 Resources For all residents: https://www.fcgov.com/eps/coronavirus For businesses: https://www.fcgov.com/business/ Want to help: https://www.fcgov.com/volunteer/ From: Cisco Unity Connection Messaging System <unityconnection@netcomm‐chw‐cuc1.fcgov.com> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2021 3:11 PM To: eolson@netcomm‐chw‐cuc1.fcgov.com Subject: Message from KRISTEN WALSH (9709883246) 1 From:Wendy Serour Sent:Wednesday, May 26, 2021 11:20 AM To:Water Conservation Staff Cc:Brian Ball; Mark Cassalia Subject:FW: Mountain Ridge Farm - tap data Attachments:MTRF water usage.xlsx Hi Water Conservation Team, I’m including Brian Ball on this from Touchstone Properties. It sounds like your team has worked with him in the past. Brian contacted Mark and I the other day to see if there was a way the City could waive the fees for the back billed 2020 EWU charges for account ending 25407 since this is a looped system and they had a backflow issue in 2020 that caused this account to use a lot more water. Unfortunately, we shared that we cannot waive these charges. I was thinking it would be helpful to schedule some time to meet with Brian and possibly the landscaper for this property, to review their Water Budget report and any additional data/resources that could help decrease water use in 2021. Brian – anything else you’d like to add, please let us know. I would be happy to coordinate a meeting either online or in person. Thanks all! ……………………………………… WENDY SEROUR Utilities Customer Accounts City of Fort Collins (970) 416‐2311 | Office (970) 420‐5081 | Cell COVID‐19 Resources For all residents: fcgov.com/eps/coronavirus For businesses: fcgov.com/business/ Want to help: fcgov.com/volunteer/ United Way: uwaylc.org/ From: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Sent: Monday, May 24, 2021 4:54 PM To: Wendy Serour <WSerour@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Mountain Ridge Farm ‐ tap data Hi Wend, Here is the spreadsheet I was referring to about historical data (2020 & 2019) for mountain ridge farm. Thanks, Brian Ball, CMCA Community Association Manager Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 Bball@touchstone‐property.com (970)282‐2096 Phone (970)223‐5282 Fax MTRF water usage (in gallons) 2019 actual usage 4014 Wabash st sprk 1103 Wabash st sprk 1576 Westfield dr sprk 4800 6900 300 370400 300 25450 410600 342300 31750 554800 381700 36750 280500 511800 34950 1621100 258400 129200 1501400 4024 Seneca st sprk 3953 Woodview ct sprk Total 2019 Water Usage 1040 50 4691560 205350 63000 285230 89350 350520 103800 2020 YTD Water Usage‐11/3 263550 73200 4586810 4770 329400 1110460 2020 YTD usage 4014 Wabash st sprk 1103 Wabash st sprk 1576 Westfield dr sprk 23600 185100 10780 137000 720700 42350 160600 811200 60090 755200 48780 250600 26010 2722800 188010 4024 Seneca st sprk 3953 Woodview ct sprk 69020 21040 306320 92320 369080 102480 364900 39890 121380 28970 1230700 284700 1 From:Mark Cassalia Sent:Thursday, May 27, 2021 9:30 AM To:Gretchen Stanford; Wendy Serour Subject:RE: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen, Wendy and I have both spoken to this customer. Wendy is working on this with Abbye, but as I understand it currently we can’t waive these past due fees. Wendy, please know what support you need. Following the same procedure as the ones Lisa was involved with we should do the following. Gretchen and I should meet with the customer to understand their perspective CA can draft a letter of decision for Gretchen to approve and send to the customer – in this letter is info about escalating this to the UED There would then be a hearing a decision from Theresa‐ability to escalate to City Council (as Code stands now). Wendy, can you setup the following? Setup an internal meeting with Gretchen, myself, you and Abbye as optional (30 min) Setup a meeting time with the customer for Gretchen and I to meet with the customer (30 min) Thanks Wendy, appreciate you working on all of the escalations this year! From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone‐property.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:35 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen and Mark, We protested this billing in December 2020. We did not receive a response to our inquiry. Can you please check into this for us. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:33 PM 2 To: Pyramid Landscape <pyramidlandscape@comcast.net> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI We are going to contact our new mayor and new city council person. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Darin Atteberry <datterberry@fcgov.com> Subject: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Darin, Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association received a billing in the amount of $7,867.07 months after the fact. If we had known that the water was going over the allotment, we would have turned off the water in August 2020 or whenever the overage was created. This is very unfair and damaging financially to our associations. Can you please assist us with this problem This form was sent to us by Wendy Serour. From:Brian Ball To:Mark Cassalia; Kathy Louderback Cc:Wendy Serour; Gretchen Stanford Subject:[EXTERNAL] RE: Mountain Ridge Farm Excess Water Use Surcharge Date:Thursday, May 27, 2021 12:41:57 PM Hi Mark, all, Thanks for setting this up. Something that I’ve apparently missed in all this is that the water usage for the two taps in question (1103 & 4014 Wabash st) in 2020 was lower than the combined annual allotments. (the tap at 1103 Wabash received the EWU charge and the two are on a loop). Combined usage – 2,883,400 gallons (1103 Wabash – 2,722,800 gallons and 4014 Wabash – 160,600 gallons) Combined allotment – 3,910,244 gallons (1,955,112 each) Since the combined usage was 1,026,844 under the combined allotment, can this be taken into consideration? Thanks Brian Ball, CMCA Community Association Manager Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 Bball@touchstone-property.com (970) 282-2096 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax www.touchstone-property.com From: Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 10:30 AM To: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone-property.com> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone-property.com>; Wendy Serour <WSerour@fcgov.com>; Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com> Subject: Mountain Ridge Farm Excess Water Use Surcharge Good Morning Kathy and Brian, I apologize that this issue has not been resolved. When I spoke with Brian last week we discussed moving this issue to the Utilities formal escalation process as soon as possible, as City Code doesn’t permit staff to waive these fees. Specifically, the excess water use surcharges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified in City Code Sections 26-129 and 26-149. The next step to escalate your concerns are to meet with Gretchen Stanford, the Interim Director of Customer Connections and myself. Gretchen and I want to ensure we fully understand the situation and your position. Following this meeting Gretchen will send you a letter of decision and outline next steps if you remain unsatisfied with that decision. Here are available times to discuss: 6/1 12:00, 12:30, 3:30 6/2 12:00, 12:30, 3:30 6/7 9:30, 10:00 Please let me know what date/time you prefer, and should none of these work for you let me know and I’ll send additional dates/times. Also please let me know if you prefer Microsoft Teams, Zoom or in-person as well as folks I should include from your end – please send emails or you are welcome to forward the invite. Thank you, Mark Cassalia Fort Collins Utilities Customer Accounts Manager mcassalia@fcgov.com 970.224.6123 From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone-property.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:35 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen and Mark, We protested this billing in December 2020. We did not receive a response to our inquiry. Can you please check into this for us. Thanks - Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:33 PM To: Pyramid Landscape <pyramidlandscape@comcast.net> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone-property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI We are going to contact our new mayor and new city council person. Thanks - Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone-property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Darin Atteberry <datterberry@fcgov.com> Subject: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Darin, Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association received a billing in the amount of $7,867.07 months after the fact. If we had known that the water was going over the allotment, we would have turned off the water in August 2020 or whenever the overage was created. This is very unfair and damaging financially to our associations. Can you please assist us with this problem This form was sent to us by Wendy Serour. Thanks - Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax 1 From:Mark Cassalia Sent:Thursday, May 27, 2021 9:44 AM To:Wendy Serour Subject:FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Attachments:EWU Fee Billing Error 2020_Final.pdf; MTRF December 2020 bill.pdf FYI for Mountain Ridge Farm From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone‐property.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:35 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen and Mark, We protested this billing in December 2020. We did not receive a response to our inquiry. Can you please check into this for us. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:33 PM To: Pyramid Landscape <pyramidlandscape@comcast.net> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI We are going to contact our new mayor and new city council person. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone 2 (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Darin Atteberry <datterberry@fcgov.com> Subject: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Darin, Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association received a billing in the amount of $7,867.07 months after the fact. If we had known that the water was going over the allotment, we would have turned off the water in August 2020 or whenever the overage was created. This is very unfair and damaging financially to our associations. Can you please assist us with this problem This form was sent to us by Wendy Serour. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax 1 From:Mark Cassalia Sent:Thursday, May 27, 2021 10:30 AM To:Kathy Louderback Cc:bball@touchstone-property.com; Wendy Serour; Gretchen Stanford Subject:Mountain Ridge Farm Excess Water Use Surcharge Good Morning Kathy and Brian, I apologize that this issue has not been resolved. When I spoke with Brian last week we discussed moving this issue to the Utilities formal escalation process as soon as possible, as City Code doesn’t permit staff to waive these fees. Specifically, the excess water use surcharges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified in City Code Sections 26‐129 and 26‐149. The next step to escalate your concerns are to meet with Gretchen Stanford, the Interim Director of Customer Connections and myself. Gretchen and I want to ensure we fully understand the situation and your position. Following this meeting Gretchen will send you a letter of decision and outline next steps if you remain unsatisfied with that decision. Here are available times to discuss: 6/1 12:00, 12:30, 3:30 6/2 12:00, 12:30, 3:30 6/7 9:30, 10:00 Please let me know what date/time you prefer, and should none of these work for you let me know and I’ll send additional dates/times. Also please let me know if you prefer Microsoft Teams, Zoom or in‐person as well as folks I should include from your end – please send emails or you are welcome to forward the invite. Thank you, Mark Cassalia Fort Collins Utilities Customer Accounts Manager mcassalia@fcgov.com 970.224.6123 From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone‐property.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:35 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen and Mark, We protested this billing in December 2020. We did not receive a response to our inquiry. Can you please check into this for us. Thanks ‐ 2 Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:33 PM To: Pyramid Landscape <pyramidlandscape@comcast.net> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI We are going to contact our new mayor and new city council person. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Darin Atteberry <datterberry@fcgov.com> Subject: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Darin, 3 Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association received a billing in the amount of $7,867.07 months after the fact. If we had known that the water was going over the allotment, we would have turned off the water in August 2020 or whenever the overage was created. This is very unfair and damaging financially to our associations. Can you please assist us with this problem This form was sent to us by Wendy Serour. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax 1 From:Abbye Neel Sent:Friday, May 28, 2021 2:37 PM To:Gretchen Stanford; Mark Cassalia; Wendy Serour Subject:FW: Excess Water Use Surcharge Concern Follow-Up Attachments:VoiceMessage.wav FYI – this is the same landscaper that is working with Mountain Ridge Farms HOA. Eric originally received the call but I was the one that followed up with Kris. Abbye From: Abbye Neel Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2021 12:54 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Cc: pyramidlandscapes@comcast.net; Wendy Serour <WSerour@fcgov.com>; Eric Olson <EOlson@fcgov.com> Subject: Excess Water Use Surcharge Concern Follow‐Up Dear Gretchen and Mark, I wanted to pass along feedback from a conversation I had earlier today with Kris Walsh, from Pyramid Landscaping, who is also copied on this email. One of the HOAs he manages received a $7,000 surcharge bill in December. It was the first time the account had exceeded in over 15 years and he, nor the HOA, were aware of their allotment. The system is looped. One of the backflows was accidently turned off, resulting in the high overage on the other tap without anyone being aware until they received the bill. Because the surcharges didn’t appear until December a problem, that could have easily been corrected earlier in the year if it had been billed correctly, resulted in a $7,000 surcharge fee and deep distrust of Kris and his ability to properly manage the property. Over the course of his time with the HOA, Kris has reduced their water use by over 20%. He and the HOA have participated in our rebate programs and have replaced irrigation clocks, heads, and have flow sensors throughout the property. Pyramid Landscaping is an active participant in the Certified Landscape Program and does his best to get the word out about Water Restriction and other City Programs. Kris expressed frustration about the City’s lack of flexibility and willingness to partner with customers and landscapers who are trying to do the right thing. Landscapers face particular challenges, because they are often unjustly blamed for the high surcharge bills in scenarios when surcharges are being applied due to inadequate allotments or errors. He requested we work with customers and property managers to get the word out so burdens do not fall solely on those who manage the water. I want to thank Kris for taking the time to talk to me this morning and reiterate that we understand what a difficult situation the error put him in. I did my best to capture his concerns here but I invite Kris to chime in if he wants to add to the conversation or correct anything I have misrepresented. Thank you for taking the time to read through this concern. Please let me know if you have any questions. Best, Abbye Neel (she, her, hers – what’s this? ) Interim Water Conservation Manager 1 From:Wendy Serour Sent:Friday, May 28, 2021 10:29 AM To:Theresa Connor Cc:Dawn Kennedy; Robin Pierce; Mark Cassalia; Gretchen Stanford Subject:FW: Assistance with customer escalation: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Attachments:EWU Fee Billing Error 2020_Final.pdf; MTRF December 2020 bill.pdf Importance:High Hi Theresa – Looks like you’re out of office today but wanted to send this in case you have any knowledge of this customer escalation from Dec. 21 to Darin. I spoke with Dawn this morning and Darin is in interviews today but she and Kyle were thinking the email might have been forwarded to you? I don’t have a record of seeing this email on my end – any thoughts you have, please let us know. See below for background info – thanks in advance and have a safe and fun holiday weekend! Background: EWU fees and 2020 billing error Customer: Touchstone Property Management, Kathy Louderback Service Address: 1103 Wabash Street, Sprinkler Excess Water Use 2020 charges: $7,867.07 Water Use History: Account is looped irrigation and typically exceeds its allotment. In 2020 there was a backflow issue and so it caused water use to just come from the one tap and not both, increasing the water use and charges. Outreach: I contacted Brian Ball from Touchstone in December about the EWU charges and our team and Water Conservation has worked with them on and off since then. They requested a payment arrangement which they’ve been paying monthly. This account is on a looped irrigation system and typically exceeds its allotment – looped irrigation systems are on staff’s radar to explore aggregation but this work has not moved forward based on other priorities. Escalation: Kathy and Brian with Touchstone have since reached out to Mark saying they requested that Utilities consider waiving these charges and upset that staff has not responded. Mark and Gretchen will be meeting with them next week. Gretchen, Mark, Abbye and I are meeting today to gather the facts and prep for the meeting. ……………………………………… WENDY SEROUR Utilities Customer Accounts City of Fort Collins (970) 416‐2311 | Office (970) 420‐5081 | Cell COVID‐19 Resources For all residents: fcgov.com/eps/coronavirus For businesses: fcgov.com/business/ Want to help: fcgov.com/volunteer/ United Way: uwaylc.org/ From: Wendy Serour Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 10:50 AM To: Dawn Kennedy <dkennedy@fcgov.com> Cc: Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: Assistance with customer escalation: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Importance: High 2 Hey Dawn – I hope you’re doing well! We have a customer escalation we’re working on and there’s been some missing pieces we’re trying to resolve in preparation for a meeting Gretchen and Mark are scheduling with Touchstone Properties. See the email below that was sent by Kathy with Touchstone to Darin back on December 21. I’ve been working with one of their property managers on these fees with the understanding that we aren’t able to waive these fees. This might be a miscommunication within their team – my initial thought is Kathy with Touchstone may be thinking because she emailed Darin in Dec. that this would be addressed however Brian, the property manager I’ve been speaking with, was well aware we couldn’t waive the fees and worked with us on a payment arrangement. Mark and Gretchen are hoping to get on the same page with Kathy and Brian once they’re able to schedule a meeting. Darin and Council were aware of our billing system error for Excess Water (EWU) Fees last year – essentially it delayed billing until the end of the year on EWU fees and some, like this account, were very high. Let us know your thoughts on best approach – maybe just asking Darin if he actually spoke with her or emailed her would be a start as that’s what we’re missing. Any questions, let us know – thanks! ……………………………………… WENDY SEROUR Utilities Customer Accounts City of Fort Collins (970) 416‐2311 | Office (970) 420‐5081 | Cell COVID‐19 Resources For all residents: fcgov.com/eps/coronavirus For businesses: fcgov.com/business/ Want to help: fcgov.com/volunteer/ United Way: uwaylc.org/ From: Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 9:44 AM To: Wendy Serour <WSerour@fcgov.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI for Mountain Ridge Farm From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone‐property.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:35 PM To: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com>; Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Gretchen and Mark, We protested this billing in December 2020. We did not receive a response to our inquiry. Can you please check into this for us. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax 3 From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 4:33 PM To: Pyramid Landscape <pyramidlandscape@comcast.net> Cc: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI We are going to contact our new mayor and new city council person. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Brian Ball <bball@touchstone‐property.com> Subject: FW: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm FYI Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Kathy Louderback Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 10:53 AM To: Darin Atteberry <datterberry@fcgov.com> Subject: Utilities ~ Mountain Ridge Farm Hi Darin, Mountain Ridge Farm Homeowners Association received a billing in the amount of $7,867.07 months after the fact. If we had known that the water was going over the allotment, we would have turned off the water in August 2020 or whenever the overage was created. This is very unfair and damaging financially to our associations. Can you please assist us with this problem 4 This form was sent to us by Wendy Serour. Thanks ‐ Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax 1 From:Gretchen Stanford Sent:Saturday, June 19, 2021 7:39 PM To:Mark Cassalia; Utilities Customer Accounts Subject:RE: FCLWD Updates from the Board Meeting on 6/15 Follow Up Flag:Follow up Flag Status:Flagged Nice, thanks for the update Mark! . . . . . . . . . . . . GRETCHEN STANFORD Interim Deputy Director, Customer Connections Fort Collins Utilities - fcgov.com/utilities/ (970) 744-1835 (cell) I recognize we may be working different schedules and there is no expectation for an immediate response. From: Mark Cassalia <mcassalia@fcgov.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 9:17 AM To: Utilities Customer Accounts <UtilitiesCustomerAccounts@fcgov.com> Cc: Gretchen Stanford <GStanford@fcgov.com> Subject: FW: FCLWD Updates from the Board Meeting on 6/15 FYI From: Mark Cassalia Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 9:17 AM To: Phil Ladd <PLadd@fcgov.com>; Mark Kempton <mkempton@fcgov.com>; Abbye Neel <aneel@fcgov.com> Cc: Lance Smith <lasmith@fcgov.com>; Theresa Connor <TConnor@fcgov.com>; Randy Reuscher <rreuscher@fcgov.com>; Meagan Smith <mesmith@fcgov.com>; Joni McCown <jmccown@fcgov.com>; Annetta Maestas <AMAESTAS@fcgov.com>; Susan Smolnik <SSMOLNIK@fcgov.com>; Jill Oropeza <JOropeza@fcgov.com>; Donnie Dustin <DDUSTIN@fcgov.com>; Liesel Hans <lhans@fcgov.com>; Eric Potyondy <epotyondy@fcgov.com>; Jason Graham <jgraham@fcgov.com>; Jill Oropeza <JOropeza@fcgov.com> Subject: FCLWD Updates from the Board Meeting on 6/15 Hi all, First, a quick note of thanks to Randy and Meagan (and Amy Volckens) for presenting at the FCLWD Board meeting last night. FCLWD staff has been helpful in getting these items to their Board and the Board was very receptive and interested in continuing to collaborate with Utilities and the City. Billing Error – There was an error in the calculation and Utilities underbilled FCLWD per the Water Capacity Agreement. The FCLWD Board made the decision to pay the $260,155 in a lump sum this year. The Board was satisfied with the additional review process and coordination with FCLWD staff. ACTION: Annetta can you develop an invoice for this amount? Water Matters – Although only slated for 15 mins the FCLWD Board took 30+ minutes to provide input for this study. They were well engaged and recommended a number of actions that would improve water coordination efforts 2 in Northern Colorado. There was lots of discussion about the zoning and development process as well as NISP. I will follow up with FCLWD on Donnie’s idea to have a conversation with FCLWD on the City’s concerns and what items would need to be resolved to either support or not oppose the project. Thank you, Mark Cassalia Fort Collins Utilities Customer Accounts Manager mcassalia@fcgov.com 970.224.6123 1 From:Mark Cassalia Sent:Wednesday, June 23, 2021 1:39 PM To:Brian Ball; Kathy Louderback Cc:Eric Potyondy; Lance Smith; Wendy Serour Subject:Reconsideration Hearing Information Attachments:Mountain Ridge Farm HOA_hearing packet 6-24-21.pdf Hi Brian and Kathy, We will be holding the Reconsideration Hearing tomorrow at 3:00 p.m for the Excess Water Use charges applied to Mountain Ridge Farm HOA. I sent you a calendar invite with a Zoom link – PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO KRIS WALSH. Lance Smith, the Utilities Director of Finance, will hold the hearing as Theresa Connor, the Interim Utilities Director, has filed a Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement‐she is a resident of Mountain Ridge Farm HOA. The hearing follows steps: Introduction Parties present Procedural overview Official Record – here any documents are disclosed (see attached documents) Evidence may be presented – appellant may provide any evidence relevant to the issue Objections or concerns regarding the hearing process Staff presentation ~10 min (Mark Cassalia) Appellant presentation ~10 minutes (Brian Ball, Kathy Louderback and Kris Walsh) Director of Finance questions and clarifications (Lance Smith) Closure or the hearing The Official Record contains the following documents: Letter – Excess Water Use Surcharge Correction Copies of utility bills for 1103 Wabash St July – December of 2020 Letter – Letter of Decision from Gretchen Stanford, Interim Deputy Director of Utilities Customer Connections Communication Timeline Water Service Permits for 1103 Wabash St. and 4014 Wabash St. Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement If you have any questions please reach out to me prior to the hearing. Thank you, Mark Cassalia Fort Collins Utilities Customer Accounts Manager mcassalia@fcgov.com 970.224.6123 From:Lance Smith To:klouderback@touchstone-property.com; bball@touchstone-property.com Cc:Wendy Serour; Mark Cassalia; Gretchen Stanford Subject:Decision Letter to Mountain Ridge Farm HOA 7_8_21.docx Date:Friday, July 9, 2021 12:57:57 PM Attachments:Mountain Ridge Farms Water Usage Analysis.xlsx Decision Letter to Mountain Ridge Farm HOA 7_8_21.docx Kathy and Brian – Thank you for meeting with me in the appeal hearing on June 24th. I am sorry that the circumstances were around resolving a billing issue but appreciated your professionalism and willingness to answer my questions as I worked to understand the issue. Given the various issues which contributed to the allotment exceedance, ultimately my decision was to not change the excess water use surcharge. I am attaching the formal decision letter on your appeal of the 2020 excess water use surcharges as well as a spreadsheet that I used for a few graphs in the letter. The spreadsheet provides a little table that can be updated each month with water consumption to track how close each tap is to the allotment. Sincerely, Lance From:Kathy Louderback To:Abbye Neel Cc:Brian Ball Subject:[EXTERNAL] RE: Allotment Meeting Follow-Up Date:Tuesday, August 3, 2021 6:32:36 PM Attachments:image002.png Hi Abbye, Thanks - Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Abbye Neel <aneel@fcgov.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 3, 2021 1:45 PM To: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone-property.com> Subject: RE: Allotment Meeting Follow-Up Hi Kathy, The account was reset on March 31, 2021. Prior to Brian Pyramid landscaping was the contact in the system. Best, Abbye Neel (she, her, hers – what’s this? ) Interim Water Conservation Manager aneel@fcgov.com Office: 970-416-4371 Cell: 303-246-5520 The City of Fort Collins is an organization that supports equity for all, leading with race. We acknowledge the role of local government in helping create systems of oppression and racism and are committed to dismantling those same systems in pursuit of racial justice. Learn more. Icon Description automatically generated with medium confidence Fcgov.com/water-status | Fcgov.com/water-restrictions From: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone-property.com> Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2021 5:26 PM To: Abbye Neel <aneel@fcgov.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] RE: Allotment Meeting Follow-Up Hi Abbye, Who were you sending the water notifications for Mountain Ridge Farm prior to Brian Ball? Thanks - Kathy Louderback, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Managing Agent Touchstone Property Management LLC 2850 McClelland Drive, Suite 1000 Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 223-5000 Phone (970) 223-5282 Fax From: Abbye Neel <aneel@fcgov.com> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018 1:30 PM To: Kathy Louderback <klouderback@touchstone-property.com> Subject: Allotment Meeting Follow-Up Hi Kathy - I hope all has been well! I know it has been a few weeks but I wanted to follow-up from the March 30th “Know Your Allotment” Event. Below is information regarding the Landscape Budget Program and the WaterSmart Portal. At the meeting we discussed the fact that your managers are not technically primary account holders. If you, or someone from your accounting team, can give me a list of your accounts and the okay to share information with them directly we can remove you from having to be the middle man. Additionally, I know it is a busy time of year for everyone but we are hosting an additional event on May 22nd for those would could not attend the March event. Registration can be found at fcgov.com/water-fee. If you have any additional questions or if I can help with anything else please let me know! WaterSmart Monitoring Tool At the event you expressed interested in the WaterSmart Monitoring Tool. Through this tool you will be able to combine multiple accounts, receive high use and leak alerts, and monitor water use before you get the bill. To activate your account: 1. Visit fcgov.watersmart.com 2. Enter your account number and zip-code 3. Begin monitoring your use today! If you do not have the account number you will have to coordinate with the primary account holder to gain access. If you have multiple accounts, and you don’t want to enter them individually, please email a list of your accounts and I can upload them in a batch with a follow-up email with log-in information. Attached is a PDF manual with information on how to utilize the tool. Landscape Budget Program At the event you expressed an interest in participating in the Landscape Budget Program. Only Fort Collins Utilities commercial water customers can participate. By signing up for this program you agree to: 1. Receive initial report outlining recommended water use compared to current water use. 2. Participate in a one-hour site visit to review budget and basic opportunities. We ask that the community manger/property manager, landscaper, facility manager, and a HOA member (if applicable) attend to increase communication between groups and encourage common goals. 3. Receive subsequent reports through the 2018 irrigation season outlining recommended water use and current water use. Subsequent reports serve as “check-ins” to see how the site is performing. Sign up here once you have read the 2018 participation guidelines (see attached). Best, Abbye Neel Water Conservation Specialist Fort Collins Utilities aneel@fcgov.com Office: 970-416-4371 Voice message to Eric Olson, Water Conservation from Kris Walsh with Pyramid Landscape, verbatim, 4-15-21 Hey Eric it’s Kris, Pyramid Landscape, hey, I have a unique situation that I’ve never run into uh, with an HOA, um, they have – um, it’s Mountain Ridge Farms, um, it’s the water tap that’s the issue is 1103 Wabash, um and they got, they just informed me that in 2020 they had a massive excess usage of $7000 worth of overage charges that they weren’t made aware of until after the water season was over, I think it was in, there was a glitch in the system and they were made aware of it in December. The thing is with this is there’s two backflows that are looped, one backflow looks like it must have been shut off by somebody, um, we don’t think it was us, we think it might have just been a kid turned the handle or something like that. So one tap got all the usage – they were actually under their 2019 water usage when it all gets added up but they had, uh, a couple million gallons of overage here, um, so this is a legitimate issue and you’re the only one I could think of I could explain this to, um, so I’m hoping you can point me in the right direction or help me sort this out for them um and so we use less water on the area but one of the taps got shut off mid season and it put a bunch of overages on the other – sorry for the long message but I really want to get somebody on this so if you could give me a call back at 970- 988-3246 I’d appreciate it, thanks, bye. ATTACHMENT 4 Decision Letters Utilities electric · stormwater · wastewater · water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities June 10, 2021 Touchstone Property Management, LLC Attn: Kathy Louderback and Brian Ball Mountain Ridge Farms HOA 2850 McClelland Drive Fort Collins, CO 80525 Decision – Excess Water Use Fee (Account #338337-25407, 1103 Wabash Street) Dear Ms. Louderback and Mr. Ball, It was a pleasure to meet with you last week and I appreciate you taking the time to discuss your concerns. Again, I want to apologize for our delayed billing of these charges which should have appeared on your bill in September 2020. Our system delay caused the accumulation of excess water use (EWU) charges on Mountain Ridge Farms HOA’s December bill. I realize receiving these charges at the end of the year was not welcomed news, especially after learning the backflow for the sprinkler looped with this account located at 4014 Wabash (account #338339-25408) was turned off resulting in increased water use on this account. Due to the unfortunate series of events, this has not been an easy decision. For three principal reasons, Fort Collins Utilities is unable to waive the EWU charges: (1) EWU back charges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified at Municipal code sections 26-129 and 26-149; and (2) the City’s water utility is a cost-of-service enterprise fund allowing up to six years for managing over and under charges associated with billing errors. Fort Collins Municipal Code section 26-721(a)(3) requires Fort Collins Utilities to bill the customer for undercharges, without interest. (3) Utilities documentation verifies the property water permit had an allotment with recognition of an excess water use charge should the property exceed the water allotment. Although I cannot waive these fees, I would like to offer to extend your current interest free, 6-month payment arrangement to 12 months. If you would like to increase your payment arrangement to 12 months, please advise Wendy Serour and she will coordinate this extension. If you choose to appeal this decision per Fort Collins Municipal Code sections 26-53 and 26-351. Please note to successfully appeal this decision, you will need to provide information that is contrary to that provided, e.g. demonstrate an error in water meter reading, and provide evidence that City Code has not be applied correctly. The following are the steps to appeal this decision: • Within 10 working days of this decision, provide written request for reconsideration of this decision to the Fort Collins Utilities Finance Director, Lance Smith, lasmith@fcgov.com, setting forth in detail the facts supporting the request. • Within 10 working days of receipt of your letter, the Finance Director will hold a hearing. • Within 10 working days of the hearing, the DCM will act upon the request and hearing. • If you are not satisfied with the final decision, you may appeal to Fort Collins City Council by filing a written Notice of Appeal with the City Clerk within 14 calendar days of the final decision. Thank you for partnering with our Water Conservation Team and signing up for MyWater to monitor water use. They are available to help you further explore the water-saving options listed below. • Participate in the Allotment Management Program (AMP). Qualified participants can receive up to a three-year waiver from the EWU surcharges provided implementation of project that reduces outdoor water use. Visit fcgov.com/amp. • Reduce water use through efficiency and conservation projects. Receive up to $50,000 in rebates for any indoor project that saves water. Visit fcgov.com/water-efficiency. • Participate in the Xeriscape Incentive Program. Receive up to $15,000 in rebates for conversation to a water wise landscape. Visit fcgov.com/xipxl. If you would like to appeal this decision, Wendy Serour and/or Mark Cassalia will support you through this process. Sincerely, Gretchen Stanford Interim Deputy Director, Utilities Customer Connections gstanford@fcgov.com CC: Wendy Serour, Public Engagement Specialist, Utilities Customer Connections Mark Cassalia, Customer Accounts Manager, Utilities Customer Connections Lance Smith, Utilities Finance Director Utilities electric · stormwater · wastewater · water 222 Laporte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 970.212.2900 V/TDD: 711 utilities@fcgov.com fcgov.com/utilities July 9, 2021 Touchstone Property Management, LLC Attn: Kathy Louderback and Brian Ball Mountain Ridge Farms HOA 2850 McClelland Dr. Fort Collins, CO 80525 Re: Decision – Excess Water Use Fee (Account #338337-25407, 1103 Wabash St.) Dear Ms. Louderback and Mr. Ball: Pursuant to City Code Sections 26-53, 26-351 and 26-721, this letter represents my final findings of fact and decision based on my review of Mountain Ridge Farms HOA (accounts #338337-25407 and #338339-25408). It also includes the relevant evidence in response to your letter dated June 16, 2021, disputing excess water use surcharges applied to one of these accounts in 2020. A hearing on this matter was held remotely via Zoom on June 24 at 3:00 p.m. Following the hearing, I reviewed the history, data and customer service responses as well as City Code. My final decision is to uphold the decision to apply the excess water use surcharges for the water consumed by the tap under account #338337-25407 at 1103 Wabash St., Fort Collins, CO in the amount of $7,745.97. This decision is based on the findings and competent evidence below: Mr. Ball’s letter dated June 16, 2021, indicated that these charges are the result of Touchstone Property Management, LLC not being able to monitor the excess water use surcharges due to the City’s billing error not showing the application of excess water use surcharges to account #338337-25407 until December 2020. However, o The billing error did not affect the accuracy of the consumption being shown each month on the bills for the two irrigation accounts. o Monitoring for the surcharges means identifying the exceedance only after it has occurred; had the billing error not occurred, the first excess water use surcharge would have been on the bill issued in September after the exceedance had already occurred. o Per City Code Section 26-721(c) “Each utility customer is responsible for using reasonable diligence to review billing statements and for immediately notifying the utility of a billing error.” Mr. Ball’s letter and testimony given in the hearing by Ms. Louderback indicated that Touchstone Property Management monitors annual water consumption monthly to avoid excess water use surcharges. However, o In 2020, account #338337-25407 consumed a total of 2,722,800 gallons of water, which exceeded the annual allotment of 1,955,122 gallons. o In 2020, account #338339-25408 showed zero consumption for June, July and August with those monthly bills only reflecting the base charge of $121.10 each month. o The 2020 water use patterns for these two accounts were significantly different than the previous two years with one account having no consumption and the other having twice the expected consumption. Based on previous years, consumption patterns indicated monthly consumption was not being monitored closely when the excess water use occurred. • Touchstone Property Management, LLC transitioned internally from one property manager to another in the summer of 2020 which resulted in a disruption in the oversight of the utility bills by a property manager. o My Water email notifications showing year-to-date consumption for each tap were being sent to the previous property manager’s account along with all other electronic communications. o Mr. Ball indicated in testimony that no emails were forwarded to him from the previous property manager’s account. o Neither of these account’s June bills were paid in July indicating that the disruption was not limited just to email communications (both accounts past due balance were paid Aug. 8, 2020). • The irrigation tap associated with account #338339-25408 was turned on and then back off in May 2020 due to a backflow issue, which resulted in all irrigation water coming through account #338337-25407. o Meter data taken from the monthly bills suggests the backflow issue was not addressed for over three months as this tap remained turned off until sometime in late August. o A dual tap system is designed to provide a consistent use of water through both taps. o Historical water use shows the water allotment for each tap is not sufficient for the total irrigation use. Account:338339-25408 Account:338337-25407 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 800,000 900,000 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Gallons of Water Consumed Per Month -Year Over Year Comparison 2018 2019 2020 2021 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 800,000 900,000 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Gallons of Water Consumed Per Month -Year Over Year Comparison 2018 2019 2020 2021 Based on the evidence, it is my conclusion a confluence of the personnel change by Touchstone Property Management, LLC, the backflow issue on one of the two irrigation taps, and the systemic challenge of having one person handling the bills and another person from a landscaping company determining the water consumption, resulted in the exceedance of the allotment on account #338337-25407. In addition to the evidence above, the City is subject to Municipal Code, which requires: • The annual allotment and excess water use surcharges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified in City Code Sections 26-129 and 26-149. • The City’s water utility is a cost-of-service based municipal utility allowing up to six years of managing overcharges and undercharges associated with billing errors, which per City Code 26-271(a)(3) requires such billing errors to be billed to customers without interest. • Utilities documentation verifies the property water permit had an allotment with recognition of an excess water use charge should the property exceed the water allotment. Administration Determination To recover the unpaid excess water use surcharges for water services consumed by the property at 1103 Wabash St, Fort Collins, CO in 2020 in the amount of $7,745.97 (including taxes) recognizing that a six month payment plan has been established and the total outstanding amount remaining is currently $5,910.82 Dated this ninth day of July 2021. If you are not satisfied with the final decision, you may appeal to Fort Collins City Council by filing a written Notice of Appeal with the City Clerk within 14 calendar days of the final decision, pursuant to City Code Section 2-541. If you would like to appeal this decision, Wendy Serour and/or Mark Cassalia will support you through this process. Sincerely, Lance Smith Utilities Strategic Finance Director lasmith@fcgov.com CC: Wendy Serour, Public Engagement Specialist, Utilities Customer Connections Mark Cassalia, Customer Accounts Manager, Utilities Customer Connections Gretchen Stanford, Interim Utilities Deputy Director, Utilities Customer Connections Account:338339-25408 Account:338337-25407 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual Allotment Watch 2018 2019 2020 2021 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual Allotment Watch 2018 2019 2020 2021 ATTACHMENT 5 Post Hearing Information ATTACHMENT 6 Water Permits City of Fort Collins, Colorado Water Utilities PERMIT FOR WATER UTILITY SERVICE Permit No.20844 Building Application No. Name of Applicant:Miramont Associates LLC c/o Nordic Construction Address of Applicant:309 W Harmony Road FTC 80526 Description of Property:Meter pit in tract at SW corner of Wabash and Shields Streets Mountain Ridge Farm P.U.D. 1st Filing Address of Property:1103 Wabash Street Use:Commercial Rate:W/ 522SqFt: Date:9/10/1997Sewer Cat: Account 5020.473120 5020.475230 5030.473120 5030.475320 5020.473310 503.211690 Total Water PIF Water Tap Sewer PIF Sewer Tap Water Right Sanitation District Sewer Repay Water Repay Allotment:1,955,112 Gal/Yr $12,700.00 ($235.00) $12,465.00 Fees Included with the water meter charge is one trip for inspection and delivery of the water meter. The maximum water pressure at this site may exceed 80 p.s.i. APPROVED: Kevin R. Gertig Utilities Executive Director Applicant Date by Validation Date CREDIT FOR 1 1/2 IN. METER COPPERHORN Surcharge:Yes 1 1/2 inch metered 6. Ac-Ft - irrigation only 5020.473370Water Meter Charge Rate: Calc Fac:SqFt:Stormwater: Water: Stormwater Fee 9/10/1997 PAID 5040.473510 5020.452040Construction Water Charge (one-time) 5020.4521106% PILOT (Payment in Lieu of taxes) 5020.473130Water Development Review Fee: 5030.473130Sewer Development Review Fee: 5040.473130Stormwater Development Review Fee: Permit is revocable. If applicant does not connect to the permitted utility within six (6) months of payment date, the permit will expire. 502.211690 503.211690 COPY City of Fort Collins, Colorado Water Utilities PERMIT FOR WATER UTILITY SERVICE Permit No.20845 Building Application No. Name of Applicant:Miramont Associates LLC c/o Nordic Construction Address of Applicant:309 W Harmony Road FTC 80526 Description of Property:Meter pit E. side of Wabash St. in large tract N. of Lakecrest Ct. Mountain Ridge Farm P.U.D. 1st Filing Address of Property:4014 Wabash Street Use:Commercial Rate:W/ 522SqFt: Date:9/10/1997Sewer Cat: Account 5020.473120 5020.475230 5030.473120 5030.475320 5020.473310 503.211690 Total Water PIF Water Tap Sewer PIF Sewer Tap Water Right Sanitation District Sewer Repay Water Repay Allotment:1,955,112 Gal/Yr $12,700.00 ($235.00) $12,465.00 Fees Included with the water meter charge is one trip for inspection and delivery of the water meter. The maximum water pressure at this site may exceed 80 p.s.i. APPROVED: Kevin R. Gertig Utilities Executive Director Applicant Date by Validation Date CREDIT FOR 1 1/2 IN. METER COPPERHORN Surcharge:Yes 1 1/2 inch metered 6. Ac-Ft - irrigation only 5020.473370Water Meter Charge Rate: Calc Fac:SqFt:Stormwater: Water: Stormwater Fee 9/10/1997 PAID 5040.473510 5020.452040Construction Water Charge (one-time) 5020.4521106% PILOT (Payment in Lieu of taxes) 5020.473130Water Development Review Fee: 5030.473130Sewer Development Review Fee: 5040.473130Stormwater Development Review Fee: Permit is revocable. If applicant does not connect to the permitted utility within six (6) months of payment date, the permit will expire. 502.211690 503.211690 COPY ATTACHMENT 7 Water Use Notifications and Analysis Mountain Ridge Farm Hoa Account Number: 338337-79851 Irrigation-Only THIS WEEK LAST 30 DAYS • Water Report • Jul 22, 2021 LAST 6 MONTHS • Water Report • Jul 1, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.9x higher than normal • Jun 30, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.7x higher than normal • Jun 26, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.7x higher than normal • Jun 24, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jun 22, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.7x higher than normal • Jun 20, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.7x higher than normal • Jun 18, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 16, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.9x higher than normal • Jun 15, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 13, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.7x higher than normal • Jun 11, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 10, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 9, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 8, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal • Jun 6, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.6x higher than normal • Jun 4, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 5.1x higher than normal • May 29, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 5.2x higher than normal • May 27, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 5.2x higher than normal • May 26, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.6x higher than normal • May 22, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 5.3x higher than normal • May 16, 2021 • Subscribed to email Bill Forecast Notifications • Apr 13, 2021 • Subscribed to email My Use Notifications • Apr 13, 2021 • Registered • Mar 31, 2021 • Link to Customer Portal • Mar 31, 2021 • Account reset • Mar 31, 2021 LAST 2 YEARS • Water Report • Oct 20, 2020 • Water Report • Sep 22, 2020 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Aug 9, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Aug 6, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Aug 4, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jun 29, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jun 28, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal • Jun 25, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal • Jun 21, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal • Jun 19, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal • Jun 16, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jun 13, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal • Jun 9, 2019 Mountain Ridge Farm Hoa Account Number: 338339-25408 Irrigation-Only Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Aug 4, 2021 • RESEND • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jul 30, 2021 LAST 30 DAYS • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jul 28, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jul 25, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 23, 2021 • Water Report • Jul 22, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jul 21, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jul 18, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 14, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 11, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 9, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 7, 2021 LAST 6 MONTHS • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 4, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal • Jul 2, 2021 • Water Report • Jul 1, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jun 30, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 9.9x higher than normal • Jun 29, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal • Jun 26, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 11x higher than normal • Jun 24, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 6.7x higher than normal • Jun 22, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 11.1x higher than normal • Jun 21, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 24.9x higher than normal • Jun 20, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 27.1x higher than normal • Jun 18, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 28.4x higher than normal • Jun 16, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 9.7x higher than normal • Jun 14, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 2.4x higher than normal • Jun 12, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 28.4x higher than normal • Jun 11, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 11.3x higher than normal • Jun 10, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 28.7x higher than normal • Jun 9, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 10.9x higher than normal • Jun 8, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 28.7x higher than normal • Jun 6, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 8.5x higher than normal • Jun 4, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 6.6x higher than normal • Jun 3, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 18.6x higher than normal • May 30, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 26.6x higher than normal • May 28, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 38.8x higher than normal • May 27, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 39.1x higher than normal • May 25, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 26.6x higher than normal • May 24, 2021 • Email Bill Forecast Notification - 7.1x higher than normal • May 23, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 10.3x higher than normal • May 22, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal • May 20, 2021 • Water Report • May 18, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 3.5x higher than normal • May 18, 2021 • Email Use Notification - 26.6x higher than normal • May 16, 2021 • Subscribed to email Bill Forecast Notifications • Apr 13, 2021 • Subscribed to email My Use Notifications • Apr 13, 2021 • Logged in • Apr 13, 2021 • Registered • Mar 31, 2021 • Link to Customer Portal • Mar 31, 2021 • Account reset • Mar 31, 2021 LAST 2 YEARS • Water Report • Oct 20, 2020 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Aug 7, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Aug 4, 2019 • Text Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Aug 2, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Aug 2, 2019 • Text Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 17, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 17, 2019 • Text Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 14, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 14, 2019 • Text Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 12, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 12, 2019 • Text Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 10, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 10, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 2.1x higher than normal • Jul 5, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 7.5x higher than normal • Jun 29, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 21.8x higher than normal • Jun 27, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 7.5x higher than normal • Jun 25, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 7.7x higher than normal • Jun 18, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 22x higher than normal • Jun 13, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 41.4x higher than normal • Jun 12, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 40.8x higher than normal • Jun 10, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 21.4x higher than normal • Jun 8, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 3.3x higher than normal • Jun 6, 2019 • Email Use Notification - 21.4x higher than normal • Jun 4, 2019 LESS Mountain Ridge Farm Hoa Account Number: 338337-25407 THIS WEEK Email Use Notification - 3.4x higher than normal Aug 4, 2021 Logged in Jul 30, 2021 LAST 30 DAYS Water Report Jul 22, 2021 LAST 6 MONTHS Water Report Jul 1, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 30, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 25, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 23, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 20, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 18, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 16, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.9x higher than normal Jun 14, 2021 Email Use Notification - 4.8x higher than normal Jun 12, 2021 Landscape Water Budget form status change Jun 10, 2021 Logged in May 26, 2021 Reminder: Your water allotment May 26, 2021 Email Use Notification - 6.7x higher than normal May 21, 2021 Water Report May 18, 2021 Email Use Notification - 5.8x higher than normal May 18, 2021 Email Use Notification - 34.2x higher than normal May 17, 2021 Landscape Water Budget - In... Apr 27, 2021 Note added to Landscape Water Budget Apr 21, 2021 RE: Landscape Water Budget Apr 19, 2021 Landscape Water Budget Apr 16, 2021 Unsubscribed from all Unplanned Use Notification Apr 13, 2021 Subscribed to email Unplanned Use Notification Apr 13, 2021 Subscribed to email Bill Forecast Notifications Apr 13, 2021 Subscribed to email My Use Notifications Apr 13, 2021 Landscape Water Budget subm... Apr 13, 2021 Landscape Water Budget Form Submitted Apr 13, 2021 Registered Mar 31, 2021 Link to Customer Portal Mar 31, 2021 Account reset Mar 31, 2021 LAST 2 YEARS Water Report Oct 27, 2020 Water Report Sep 29, 2020 Text Use Notification - 2.9x higher than normal Jul 31, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.9x higher than normal Jul 31, 2019 Text Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 28, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 28, 2019 Text Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 24, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 24, 2019 Text Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 21, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 21, 2019 Text Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 19, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.8x higher than normal Jul 19, 2019 Text Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 17, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 17, 2019 Text Use Notification - 3x higher than normal Jul 14, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal Jul 14, 2019 Text Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 12, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 12, 2019 Text Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 10, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jul 10, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal Jul 5, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal Jun 30, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal Jun 28, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal Jun 26, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal Jun 21, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3x higher than normal Jun 19, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.2x higher than normal Jun 16, 2019 Email Use Notification - 3.1x higher than normal Jun 14, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal Jun 12, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal Jun 9, 2019 Email Use Notification - 2.2x higher than normal Jun 5, 2019 Account: 338339‐25408 Account: 338337‐25407Account: 338339‐25408 Account: 338337‐254070100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecGallons of Water Consumed Per Month ‐Year Over Year Comparison20182019202020210100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecGallons of Water Consumed Per Month ‐Year Over Year Comparison20182019202020210500,0001,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,0003,000,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecAnnual Allotment Watch 2018201920202021Allotment0500,0001,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,0003,000,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecAnnual Allotment Watch2018201920202021 Address1103 Wabash StPremise25407YTD DataAllotment YTD Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec2018 1,955,112 1,462,300 6,100 27,400 470,600 304,000 376,300277,900 0 0 0 6,100 33,500 504,100 808,100 1,184,400 1,462,300 1,462,3001,462,300 1,462,3002019 1,955,112 1,501,400 6,900 300 342,300 381,700 511,800 258,400 0 0 0 6,900 7,200 349,500 731,200 1,243,0001,501,400 1,501,4001,501,400 1,501,4002020 1,955,112 2,722,800 185,100 720,700 811,200 755,200 250,6000 0 0 0 185,100 905,800 1,717,000 2,472,2002,722,800 2,722,8002,722,800 2,722,8002021 1,955,112 109,400 8,500 100,9000 0 0 8,500 109,400 109,400 109,400 109,400 109,400 109,400 109,400 109,4002022 1,955,112 00000000000002023 1,955,112 0000000000000Annual Allotment 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 19551120100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecGallons of Water Consumed Per Month ‐Year Over Year Comparison20182019202020210500,0001,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,0003,000,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecAnnual Allotment Watch2018201920202021Allotment Address4014 Wabash StPremise25408YTD DataAllotment YTD Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec2018 1,955,112 1,605,200 6,800 30,100 510,900 335,600 404,900 316,900 0 0 0 6,800 36,900 547,800 883,400 1,288,300 1,605,200 1,605,200 1,605,200 1,605,2002019 1,955,112 1,621,100 4,800 0 370,400 410,600 554,800 280,500 0 0 0 4,800 4,800 375,200 785,800 1,340,6001,621,100 1,621,1001,621,100 1,621,1002020 1,955,112 160,600 0 23,600000137,000000023,60023,60023,60023,600160,600 160,600 160,600 160,6002021 1,955,112 120,700 9,700 111,0000 0 0 9,700 120,700 120,700 120,700 120,700 120,700 120,700 120,700 120,7002022 1,955,112 00000000000002023 1,955,112 0000000000000Annual Allotment 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 1955112 19551120100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecGallons of Water Consumed Per Month ‐Year Over Year Comparison20182019202020210500,0001,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,000Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecAnnual Allotment Watch2018201920202021Allotment 1.5 inch meter 1.5 inch meterAllotment 1,955,112 Allotment 1,955,112 Address1103 Wabash StAddress4014 Wabash StPremise25407YTD Premise25408YTD TotalMay‐21 100,900 109,400 May‐21 111,000 120,700 230,100 Apr‐21 8,500 Apr‐21 9,700 Mar‐21‐ Mar‐21‐ Feb‐21‐ Feb‐21‐ Jan‐21‐ Jan‐21‐ Dec‐20‐ 2,722,800 Dec‐20‐ 160,600 2,883,400 Nov‐20‐ Nov‐20‐ Oct‐20‐ Oct‐20‐ 767,688 Gallons over allotmentSep‐20 250,600 Sep‐20 137,000 768 kgals over allotmentAug‐20 755,200 Aug‐20‐ 10.09$ $/kgalJul‐20 811,200 Jul‐20‐ 7,745.97 backbillJun‐20 720,700 Jun‐20‐ May‐20 185,100 May‐20 23,600 Apr‐20‐ Apr‐20‐ Mar‐20‐ Mar‐20‐ Feb‐20‐ Feb‐20‐ Jan‐20‐ Jan‐20‐ Dec‐19‐ 1,501,400 Dec‐19‐ 1,621,100 3,122,500 Nov‐19‐ Nov‐19‐ Oct‐19‐ Oct‐19‐ Sep‐19 258,400 Sep‐19 280,500 Aug‐19 511,800 Aug‐19 554,800 Jul‐19 381,700 Jul‐19 410,600 Jun‐19 342,300 Jun‐19 370,400 May‐19 300 May‐19‐ Apr‐19 6,900 Apr‐19 4,800 Mar‐19‐ Mar‐19‐ Feb‐19‐ Feb‐19‐ Jan‐19‐ Jan‐19‐ Dec‐18‐ 1,462,300 Dec‐18‐ 1,605,200 3,067,500 Nov‐18‐ Nov‐18‐ Oct‐18‐ Oct‐18‐ Sep‐18 277,900 Sep‐18 316,900 Aug‐18 376,300 Aug‐18 404,900 Jul‐18 304,000 Jul‐18 335,600 Jun‐18 470,600 Jun‐18 510,900 May‐18 27,400 May‐18 30,100 Apr‐18 6,100 Apr‐18 6,800 Mar‐18‐ Mar‐18‐ Feb‐18‐ Feb‐18‐ Jan‐18‐ Jan‐18‐ ATTACHMENT 8 Customer Hearing Video June 24, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua6l dB0uxbY ATTACHMENT 9 Verbatim Transcript Customer Hearing June 24, 2021 UTILITIES CUSTOMER HEARING Held June 24, 2021 Remote Meeting In the Matter of: Mountain Ridge Farm HOA Customer Hearing Meeting Time: 3:00 PM, June 24, 2021 Hearing Officer: Other City Staff Present: Appellants: Lance Smith Eric Potyondy Brian Ball Mark Cassalia Kris Walsh Wendy Serour Kathy Louderback 2 MR. MARK CASSALIA: Alright, so we’re going to do…I’ll just do a quick 1 introduction. So, this hearing is to consider a request for the reconsideration…this is based on 2 the letter that we received from Brian Ball on June 16th, 2021, pursuant to City Code Sections 3 26-53 and 26-351 regarding excess water use surcharges. This hearing will be held remotely 4 today, at 3:00 PM , and of course, we’re recording this. So, with that, we’re going to have Eric 5 Potyondy, who is the Assistant City Attorney, give us a quick overview of the hearing process, 6 and then we will go into introductions. 7 MR. ERIC POTYONDY: Alright, hello everyone…just going to give a brief overview 8 here. First, I just would mention that this is the type of hearing that’s normally heard by the 9 Utilities Executive Director. The current Interim Executive Director is Theresa Connor; she filed 10 a conflict of interest form and has delegated her authority to Lance Smith who is the Utilities 11 Director of Finance, so Lance will be hearing this hearing as the presiding officer. In general, 12 the outline is there’s going to be a phase where everyone introduces themselves and then Lance, 13 as the Hearing Officer, will kind of walk through the procedures. Generally it’s basically there 14 will be a staff presentation with the chance for questions by Lance and the appellants, and then 15 the appellant will have a chance to make a presentation with time for questions, and then there 16 will be some time for questions and some answers from Lance’s questions. 17 Just a quick moment on next steps after this hearing. Under City Code Section 26-18 351(A), the appeal shall be acted upon by the Utilities Executive Director within ten working 19 days from the date of the hearing, so that’s, you know, basically two weeks from today, and 20 under City Code Section 26-351(B), and appeal can be made to City Council of that decision. 21 The appeal would need to be filed within fourteen days of the decision from this hearing, so you 22 know, that gives you ten working days for Lance to make his final decision here, and then the 23 appellant could have a chance to appeal to City Council if they want to. 24 MR. CASSALIA: And one thing that we always do is provide in a letter of decision… 25 obviously Lance has the opportunity to go either way on this one…but instructions just like we 26 did in the last one to say, here’s how you would appeal to City Council. So we’ll make sure 27 we’re very clear on that, and Wendy and I are here to support you guys through that process and 28 happy to do that as well. 29 MR. LANCE SMITH: Okay. 30 MS. KATHY LOUDERBACK: Is that fourteen days from the decision? 31 MR. CASSALIA: That’s correct Kathy. 32 MS. LOUDERBACK: Thank you. 33 MR. SMITH: Okay, so I think this is…I’m going to…Eric’s done and I’ll start kind of 34 the procedure here. As he said, I’m Lance Smith, the Utilities Strategic Finance Director there. 35 So, there will be a staff presentation, evidence can be presented…and of course it’s got to be 36 relevant to the excess water use surcharge here. The parties are expected to object if they have a 37 concern about the admission of evidence rather than relying upon me, the Hearing Officer, to 38 object to new evidence. So, be aware that if something is being presented and you’re not okay 39 3 with that, then raise an objection as it happens. Do the parties have any objections or concerns 1 regarding the procedures themselves before we get to the presentations? 2 MR. BRIAN BALL: No. 3 MR. CASSALIA: Let’s make sure we do introductions of who is here as well. 4 MR. SMITH: Okay, yeah, so I introduced myself, Lance Smith as Utilities Strategic 5 Finance Director. How about if we introduce staff and then we can get to the parties. So, Mark? 6 MR. CASSALIA: Sure, I’m Mark Cassalia; I’m the Utilities Customer Accounts 7 Manager. 8 MR. SMITH: Wendy? 9 MS. WENDY SEROUR: Hi everyone; I’m Wendy Serour with Utilities Customer 10 Accounts and I’m one of the Strategic Accounts Reps. 11 MR. SMITH: And Eric? 12 MR. POTYONDY: And I’m Eric Potyondy; I’m with the City Attorney’s Office. 13 MR. SMITH: Okay, and Brian? 14 MR. BALL: I’m the Community Association Manager for Mountain Ridge Farms with 15 Touchstone Property Management. 16 MR. SMITH: Okay, and then Chris. 17 MR. KRIS WALSH: I’m Kris Walsh with Pyramid Landscape and we oversee the water 18 usage and the landscape maintenance for Mountain Ridge Farms. 19 MR. SMITH: And then Kathy? 20 MS. LOUDERBACK: I’m Kathy Louderback, also with Touchstone Property 21 Management. I work with Brian. 22 MR. SMITH: Okay, nice to meet everyone. Okay, so we’ve gotten through 23 introductions, and then we will start with a staff presentation and then the appellant presentation. 24 So… 25 MS. SEROUR: Lance, could I just say something really quick? I needed to just let 26 everyone know, I need to sign off at 3:30, so anyway…like Mark said, we’re here to support this 27 team, and yeah, I don’t want to be rude, but I’ll have to cut out at about 3:30. 28 MR. CASSALIA: There’s always a chance, if you guys need clarification from Wendy, 29 especially as one of the Strategic Account Reps who works with this account most in depth than 30 any of us, that we could always get feedback from her on the side and make sure that gets 31 evidence…or opinion gets to Lance as well, or any other information that you guys would like. 32 MR. SMITH: Okay, so with that, Mark is going to give the staff presentation. 33 4 MR. CASSALIA: Yeah, so this is mainly for Lance’s benefit, but Brian, Kris, and Kathy, 1 please correct me if I’m wrong, object to anything I say…I’m really trying to paint the picture so 2 Lance kind of understands the concerns that you all have, and what the outline of kind of what 3 has happened. 4 So, real quick, Mountain Ridge Farm HOA was impacted by the 2020 billing error. This 5 error made our system, our billing system, not charge excess water use fees until December of 6 2020. Therefore, excess water fees that should have been accrued in the September bill as well 7 as the October bill…they were not notified of excess water use charges on their bill until 8 December. On or around December 1st, Mountain Ridge Farm HOA was notified via letter, and 9 was contacted by customer accounts via phone on December 8th, of the error, and you all 10 received a bill for the excess water use fees in the sum of $7,745.97 when you received your bill 11 shortly after that time. On December 21st, Kathy, you emailed Darin Atteberry, City Manager, 12 protesting these charges. Kathy, it’s my understanding that you never heard back from Darin nor 13 the City Manager’s Office. On March 3rd, Brian Ball contacted Customer Accounts to set up a 14 six month payment arrangement…this is something that was offered in the initial conversation 15 when we found out about this error, that, you know, we want to give an opportunity for people to 16 have a payment arrangement knowing that these were large sums of money. 17 On June 2nd, Brian, Kathy, Kris and myself met with Gretchen Stanford, she is currently 18 the Interim Deputy Director of Utilities Customer Connections, to appeal…to contest the fees 19 and appeal the charges that were being assessed to Mountain Ridge Farm HOA. On June 10th, 20 Gretchen shared her decision, which was a denial for the request for consideration. At that time, 21 she did offer a twelve-month payment arrangement. She cited three reasons for her decision, one 22 is that excess water use fees, back charges, are a condition of receiving City water service, 23 adopted by Council and codified in Municipal Code Section 26-129, as well as 26-149. Number 24 two, the City’s water utility is a cost of service enterprise, and by Code is permitted up to six 25 years for either, let’s say, charging for undercharges, or providing that money in the case where 26 the utility overcharged. And then, number three, let’s see…so we are required to bill customers 27 for undercharges without interest, and she believed that there was verification and 28 documentation, including the water service permit, for…getting my…so 1103 Wabash Street. 29 On June 14th, Brian, we received an email from you asking us to reconsider that and 30 requesting an appeal, and that’s why we’re here today. Brian cited two main reasons: that the 31 City’s billing error did not allow them to take action, timely action, to reduce water usage or to 32 correct the issue, including turning on the tap that had been turned off inadvertently, that’s 33 attached to this irrigation system. Brian contended that without accurate billing, they were 34 unable to identify the over usage, and in the past they have gone to great extents to make sure 35 that they shut down the irrigation system to avoid any excess water use fees and overages beyond 36 the allotment. He also said that the account operates on a loop system, so the tap at 4014 37 Wabash Street had an issue with the backflow, and therefore resulted in much more flow through 38 the 1103 Wabash Street. He also mentioned that the combined water usage for those two taps, in 39 that looped irrigation system, was less than the total aggregated allotment between those two 40 taps. 41 5 And then just a little bit more information about the property, Lance, for you, from what 1 I’ve…the conversations I’ve had with Brian and Kris and Kathy. So, Mountain Ridge Farms 2 does not historically exceed their allotment on either 1103 Wabash nor 4014 Wabash. They have 3 a looped irrigation system, which according to the irrigation association is a best practice. It 4 does help with pressure adjustments, long runs, and pressure differentials. That being said, 5 knowing that that loop system is there, there is no way for really a landscaper or an irrigation 6 contractor to figure out…to control how much water comes from either tap. Of course in this 7 scenario, one of those taps was fully turned off, but generally pressure differentials can result in 8 more or less water coming from one tap. The backflow on 4014 was caged, but I don’t believe 9 was locked. It was turned off somehow, unknowingly, in early summer. The other things that 10 I’ve gathered from these conversations is Touchstone, although they have been the property 11 manager for the most recent years, they did have a changeover of the property manager 12 associated with this property, so Brian took over…Brian, if I’m not mistaken, in August or 13 September of this last year is when he took over. And the other thing is, Brian, because there 14 was a turnover, they were not receiving the My Water updates that were going to the email of the 15 previous property manager. Brian has since corrected that information and updated that 16 information on the My Water account so that he does receive that information moving forward. 17 So, in terms of documentation, you guys received a few things from me yesterday, just as 18 kind of, you know, the documentation that we have on this. So, that is the original letter from 19 me in December noting that there was the error and that you will receive that charge on your bill. 20 Wendy was gracious enough to gather a couple of the bills…we kind of looked at it from that 21 time when you started exceeding that allotment through the end of the year on 1103 Wabash. 22 The other thing is Gretchen’s decision letter, the communications timeline that we agreed 23 upon…and I do have to apologize, when Gretchen sent her letter of decision, it did not include 24 that nuance that Brian was not receiving those emails from My Water because of the change in 25 the property manager, so that’s been corrected in that information that you received yesterday. 26 The other things that are in there are permits for water service, so your water service permits for 27 both of those taps, and then finally the conflict of interest and why we’re meeting with Lance 28 Smith today instead of Theresa Connor, the Interim Director of Utilities. 29 MS. SEROUR: Mark, I have a question. 30 MR. CASSALIA: Yes, Wendy? 31 MS. SEROUR: The information in the packet…it doesn’t seem like the timeline that is in 32 there is the same as what you just read. 33 MR. CASSALIA: So, in other words, just the last couple of things, Wendy…in other 34 words, Gretchen’s decision letter and those types of things? That could be amended if you guys 35 would like for me to include those last few things, I’d be happy to do that. So, Lance, just as a 36 clarification, Wendy is saying that timeline that we provided was the one that Gretchen 37 reviewed, and was not updated to include the fact that Gretchen…that Brian, Kris, and Kathy 38 met with…Touchstone as well as Pyramid Landscaping, on June 2nd, the letter of decision, and 39 6 the email from Brian…so that should be added to that timeline. Is that what you’re referring to 1 Wendy? 2 MS. SEROUR: Yes. 3 MR. CASSALIA: Okay, great, thanks for the clarification. 4 MR. SMITH: Okay…I do have a couple of questions, but I think I want to kind of let the 5 appellant give the presentation, if you’ve got one, first. But…do Brian or Kathy, Kris…do any 6 of you have any questions around what Mark has said? 7 MR. BALL: No; I think that was a pretty good run down of what’s gone on so far. 8 MS. LOUDERBACK: As a point of clarification…for many years, what we do is we 9 look at the bills when they come in, and we watch the bill overages, regardless of the My Water. 10 So, we’ve done that for years, and in other years, we have actually turned off the water early so 11 that we did not exceed an allocation. So we’ve monitored the water and there have been times 12 when we’ve turned water off at the end of August, you know, September…I mean, so that we 13 didn’t, you know, miss anything. The My Water system, you know, it’s fairly new…it isn’t 14 really what we look for in terms of…we look at the bills when they come in. 15 MR. SMITH: Okay, so, Kathy, I’m not sure if you are going to…if you have a 16 presentation to make, or Brian is going to do that, or…? 17 MS. LOUDERBACK: Brian, do you want to kind of go through things? 18 MR. BALL: A lot of it is the same as Mark had talked about, but, you know, we…I had 19 no idea that there was really, the whole Water Smart program or anything going on when I first 20 started here, so I was relying on the system that was in place here with the monitoring the 21 charges with the billing, and as soon as I had found out about this issue and went and changed 22 over the Water Smart notifications to myself instead of the previous manager, I’ve been 23 forwarding those along to Kris ever since to make sure we’re still in communication about that 24 and taking a look at things. I went through the historical usage…well, for 2020, for all of 2020, 25 and then the historical from 2019, and see a great disparity in how the water was used between 26 the two different taps that were going on here, and then determined…looked at the allocations 27 and that, even though there is the two different taps here, they’re in a loop, so the water is 28 apparently coming from the same source, and you know, we still did not exceed the combined 29 allotments for 2020. So, you know, would like to have that taken into greater consideration on 30 this, because even though the water was coming out of one place than the other, it’s originating 31 from one. So, that was my main concern there. 32 MR. SMITH: Okay. Kathy, is there anything you would like to add? 33 MS. LOUDERBACK: Well, I’d like to give Kris an opportunity to kind of talk about the 34 system, and you know, kind of share his thoughts about the whole looped system. 35 MR. WALSH: Thanks Kathy. I think the critical thing here is that this system can 36 function quite well just on one water tap, and the developer included two water taps to use so 37 7 that we didn’t go over our allotments, which is fantastic, but in that, we actually do not…there 1 was no way to really notice that we were only using one tap. So, in our programming, in our 2 monitoring of the system, we were actually under the usage of the previous year, so you know, 3 this isn’t a case of us using more water than we should have, or more water than we did the 4 previous year or anything like that, it’s…inadvertently, somehow, one of the irrigation taps was 5 shut off, nobody knew about it. The water bill would have been the obvious way to catch that if 6 we would’ve gotten those surcharges in that water bill. I’m sure Kathy, Brian, you know, 7 everybody would have seen the skyrocketing water bill and would have called me immediately. 8 And, in that case, we could’ve shut off that tap and just used the other tap for the remainder of 9 the season. You know, we’ve never had this happen…I think we’ve been there since 2008, and 10 we’ve never had a situation where we’ve had overages like this. We’ve always had both taps 11 running simultaneously. It was never really an issue in the past. You know, just the fact that it 12 was months and months after we had the ability to do anything about it…that’s where this, you 13 know, this issue really comes up, and it becomes, you know, a huge expense to the HOA as well 14 as the HOA has, you know, contributed to all of the programs that the City has put out there over 15 the years for water conservation, with high efficient heads and, you know, smart controllers, kind 16 of everything that Eric Olson pushes. They’ve been kind of the…one of the test pilots for a lot 17 of that stuff over the last ten or fifteen years. So, I think that they are, you know, a really 18 responsible customer of the City utilities, and it, you know, that’s where I think that some 19 understanding of what the situation actually is for these two taps would be critical to look at. 20 MR. BALL: One other thing…I think I had heard that the actual issue that caused the 21 billing error happened much earlier in the year and not at the same time that we started using the 22 allotments. Is that correct? 23 MR. CASSALIA: Correct, Brian, it seems as though your irrigation tap on the 4…I’m 24 going to get this wrong, but… 25 MR. BALL: 1103? 26 MR. CASSALIA: 4014 Wabash Street…seems like that backflow was turned off pretty 27 early in the season. So, of course you started aggregating a lot of use out of that 1103. That 28 being said, 1103 did not exceed until August, which would have showed up on the 29 September…that consumption showed up on the September bill, but being transparent, you guys 30 did not receive the excess water use charge on your September bill because of the billing error. 31 MR. BALL: Yeah…I was kind of referring to, like, when the actual problem happened 32 within your system, much earlier in the year, so that there was several months where the City 33 either didn’t know about it, or you know, would have had the time to correct it before these kind 34 of billing, you know…when we found out, so. 35 MR. CASSALIA: So, Brian, I mean you’re correct on that as this error happened early in 36 the year when the checks that kind of say, yes, this customer should be…could be charged excess 37 water use fees. So, that being said, some customers who go over their excess water use fee…or 38 excess water use and their allotment as early as March, received a bill in December for their 39 8 March through December bill. Mountain Ridge Farms HOA started going over in August, which 1 is the first time you guys would have noticed any error of the glitch that we had. 2 MR. BALL: So, at like what point did the City know that they had a problem with the 3 billing? 4 MR. CASSALIA: Yeah, sure, so that happened in…I can’t necessarily say the day, but it 5 was the end of October. 6 MR. BALL: Okay. 7 MR. CASSALIA: When we found out about the error. 8 MR. BALL: Okay, thank you. 9 MS. LOUDERBACK: This particular association, fifteen years ago, had decided to 10 do…to make water conservation very important, and they actually at the time were considering 11 buying additional water, but they didn’t. They decided to go with conservation, and they enacted 12 all the different things that the association, you know, it was recommended for them to do. And 13 it was monitored very carefully. So, monitoring it very carefully, saving water, we actually 14 didn’t have to buy additional water because of conservation efforts…it just seems like, you 15 know, you’re…of all the responsible associations that we have in terms of water, it just seems 16 that, you know, there should be some consideration that they have worked very, very hard and 17 they have significantly reduced their water from when, you know, from years ago. But, it’s been 18 a long-term process, so…I’d hope that that could be taken into consideration too. 19 MR. SMITH: Okay, so I do have a few questions. So, Kathy, Mark had said that you’d 20 initially communicated with the City Manager, Darin Atteberry, and you didn’t receive a 21 response. Is that correct? 22 MS. LOUDERBACK: Yeah, that’s correct. And it seems like there might have been 23 somebody else on that email as well. I didn’t hear back from anybody. We had actually called 24 the City Water department to discuss the overage at that time, and they pretty much said there 25 was nothing they could do, and that’s the bill, and we had to pay. And then we had a payment 26 plan. So, I just thought that, you know, I needed to reach out to somebody else to try and, you 27 know, get some kind of resolution, because I felt that, you know, trying to…we’re trying to 28 protect the associations, work with them as best we can, encourage conservation…we are 29 conserving, you know, there was no way we really could have known about the whole water 30 issue with the two taps. Who knows who turned off that tap? It could have been a mailman that 31 got sprinkled, I mean, you know, it could have been anything. But, there was no way we could 32 tell from the performance of the system that that was turned off. And we really watch water, you 33 know, for overages. So, we just felt like there was no way to get that handled. And then, you 34 know, in the beginning, I thought, well, you know, he’s busy, he’ll get back to us, because our 35 experience has been in the past that he’s always been very responsive, so…I understand he has a 36 lot on his plate, but still, yeah. 37 9 MR. SMITH: Okay. So then, Brian was mentioning that he’d taken over, I think in 1 September, but the previous manager…things were going to the previous manager’s email 2 address. Is that a Touchstone company email address, or private email addresses? 3 MR. BALL: So it’s a, like, to one person at Touchstone. So, it’s not monitored by 4 anybody else. It would have been…the way it’s set up now, it can only go to one is what I’ve 5 been told, so it goes to me, bball@touchstone. So, it is a company email address, but it goes 6 directed to one person. 7 MS. LOUDERBACK: When somebody leaves, the email is forwarded to the next person 8 that is responsible for that association, so you know, whoever that was before, that would have 9 been forwarded to Brian, so, you know, I would be curious to see if those emails actually arrived, 10 you know. 11 MR. SMITH: So, was there a period of vacancy though? 12 MS. LOUDERBACK: No, there wasn’t a period of vacancy. 13 MR. SMITH: And so that person stopped working on Friday, and Brian started on 14 Monday, and nobody was looking at the email for that previous manager? 15 MS. LOUDERBACK: I’d have to look at the dates, but usually what happens is, Brian, I 16 think, was already in place, and an association was assigned to him from someone else, and those 17 emails were forwarded to him. But, I just wondered if those emails really came out, mainly 18 because I’ve signed up for a My Water notification on one association for one particular condo, 19 and when those come out, you know, it all seems to be geared toward making you receive 20 your…your water bill via email. So, we didn’t want our water bill via email, and in that 21 particular situation with another association, we had to call and call and call to get them to still 22 allow us to receive the emails for water issues, but that we still wanted to receive a paper bill, 23 because that was how we do our processing. So, I don’t think that those are always maybe as 24 effective as we would like, and you would like, so… 25 MR. BALL: So, Kathy, I took over for David, and he did not have Mountain Ridge 26 Farms in any of his folders here, and he had a couple…or he had a couple associations that I do 27 not manage, so I think that’s what happened. 28 MR. SMITH: Okay, so, and I also…I thought I understood Mark to say that the tap on 29 1104 was closed due to a backflow issue, but then I heard that we don’t know why it was closed, 30 so do we know why that was closed? Does anyone know? 31 MR. WALSH: I don’t think we do know why it was closed, and it…I think somebody, or 32 somehow, it was shut off it sounded like in June. So, that would have been very early on in the 33 season. That tap is right next to the mailboxes that service, I don’t know, probably forty or fifty 34 homes, so that’s really the only thing I could think of, of why it would have been shut off, is 35 either it happened…somebody just trying to shut off the sprinklers because it was, you know, a 36 rainy day, or something like that. Somebody, you know, just shut it off and nobody was aware 37 10 of it, and nobody would have been aware of it because the system can function just as adequate 1 without that tap running. 2 MR. CASSALIA: Lance, just to clarify, that was the one at 4014 Wabash, that’s not the 3 one in question, that’s the one that had under, well under, average consumption on it. 4 MR. SMITH: Right, and so, so I understand the irrigation association saying that that’s 5 best practice to have a loop system, but I think what you’re saying, Kris, is that you weren’t 6 seeing any kind of pressure differential, you weren’t seeing any difference in terms of the 7 landscape itself? 8 MR. WALSH: Yeah, not at all. We didn’t have any dry spots, really no issues at all. I 9 didn’t realize it would function so well just on one irrigation tap, because we never would run it 10 like that because we’re very aware of the monthly overages and the annual surcharges and stuff 11 like that, so you never want to do that because you put yourself at risk for these overages. So, 12 we would never run it like that, there would be no reason to, and we haven’t for the last, you 13 know, I think it’s been since 2008 since we’ve been there. You know, if we had an issue, we 14 would shut them both off, fix the issue, you know…there would be no reason to run one tap. 15 MR. CASSALIA: Lance, on that too, the high pressure…or sorry, the low-pressure heads 16 that they put on there as part of probably their conservation efforts, had an impact on the ability, 17 probably, to run that system with only one tap. I imagine, Kris, and you know, correct me if I’m 18 wrong, but your heads that you’ve replaced over time were much higher flow, and that probably 19 required those two taps potentially? And obviously, with system modifications, you may not see 20 those performance issues with higher efficiency heads. 21 MR. WALSH: Actually, it’s kind of opposite of that. It may have performed better with 22 one tap because we would have been at lower pressure, and a lot of what the issue is with non-23 efficient water usage is too high of pressure. So, you know, the City is always trying to get 24 everybody to regulate their water pressure at the heads themselves, which is 30 p.s.i., which is a 25 lot lower than we’re probably getting out of those two taps. But, we are using those pressure-26 regulated heads on that system as well. So, they were probably functioning…you know, they 27 regulate right at the head, so you really don’t know the difference between one tap or two taps. 28 MR. CASSALIA: Okay, thanks. 29 MR. WALSH: Yeah. 30 MR. SMITH: Okay, and so, let’s see…does staff, I guess, does staff have any questions 31 they want to ask? That would be Mark now, Wendy is gone. Alright, do the appellants have any 32 other questions they want to ask? Okay… 33 MR. BALL: I don’t think so. 34 MR. SMITH: Okay. 35 11 MS. LOUDERBACK: I’d just like to mention that this is financial hardship on this 1 association. For someone that’s worked so hard in terms of water conservation…it just seems 2 like they’re being penalized for trying to do all the right stuff. 3 MR. SMITH: Okay, yeah, I do appreciate that. It does sound like this HOA is doing a 4 good job with conserving the water. I don’t think I have any more questions, so if nobody else 5 has any questions, then we would close this hearing and then I will have ten days to respond, and 6 then…can we just quickly go over what the last part of the appeal process…so, you’ve made an 7 appeal of the initial decision. If you’re not happy with my decision, then you have one more 8 opportunity to appeal, and I think Eric talked about that initially, but I just wanted to make sure 9 Kathy is clear on the timelines…she was asking about fourteen days. So, can we just make sure 10 that’s communicated there? Eric, kind of what is the next step and what are the timelines? 11 MR. POTYONDY: Yeah, so the immediate next step is that Lance has ten working days 12 to act on the appeal, and because of the July 4th holiday, that means Lance has until up to and 13 including July 9th, which is a Friday, to issue his ruling, or his decision here. And then, I believe 14 that in the past…it has been put into like a letter of some sort, and then if the appellants want to 15 appeal that further, they can appeal it to City Council, and that would need to be within fourteen 16 calendar days, which is basically two weeks from that. And I can, as a follow-up to this hearing, 17 I can go ahead and email Kathy, Brian, and Kris that portion of City Code, just so you have the 18 important language there. 19 MR. SMITH: Okay. So, any other questions here before we close? Okay. Alright, so I 20 want to thank you for your participation there. I’ll take what we’ve talked about here into 21 consideration and render a decision by July 9th, communicate that in writing, and that will be the 22 next step. So, thank you everyone. 23 MR. BALL: Thank you. 24 MR. WALSH: Thank you. 25 MR. CASSALIA: Thank you guys…really appreciate it…good seeing everybody again. 26 MR. WALSH: You too. 27 MR. CASSALIA: Alright, thanks guys. Have a great night. 28 MR. BALL: You too. 29 ATTACHMENT 10 Staff Presentation to Council October 5, 2021 Mountain Ridge Farms HOA, City Council Appeal 10-5-2021 Wendy Serour Utilities Strategic Accounts Specialist 2Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal Water Allotment: Volume of water a non-residential tap can use annually without receiving Excess Water Use surcharges, based on the Water Supply Requirement satisfied during development or redevelopment. Excess Water Use (EWU) Surcharge: Charge for additional water used over the tap’s annual allotment. Definitions 2018 2019 2020 Annual Water Use 1103 Wabash Street Annual Water Allotment 3Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal Overview: Utilities Customer Hearing and Council Request Original Request: Mountain Ridge Farms HOA requested Fort Collins Utilities to waive their Excess Water Use (EWU) surcharges incurred in 2020. Outcome with the Utilities Hearing Officer: •Hearing held: June 23, 2021 •Waiver request, denied: July 13, 2021 Why Utilities Denied Waiver Request: •Code does not allow waivers for customers who exceed their water allotments and are billed Excess Water Use surcharges. Appeal Request for City Council: Did the Utilities Hearing Officer fail to properly interpret and apply the provisions of City Code Section 26-721, (4) entitled Meter Failure? 4Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal Customer: Mountain Ridge Farms HOA Appellant: Touchstone Property Management (property manager) Location: 1103 Wabash Street Utilities Service Type:Non-residential sprinkler account Appellant Background 5Customer Account Summary Looped irrigation system: irrigation systems run off two connected taps to mitigate pressure issues. Meter 1: 1103 Wabash St Allotment: 1,955,112 gal 2020 Water Use: 2,722,800 gal 2020 EWU Surcharges: $7,745.97 Meter 2: 4014 Wabash St Allotment: 1,955,112 gal 2020 Water Use: 160,066 gal 2020 EWU Surcharges: $0 Customer Account Summary Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal 6 •May 1: Letter sent to customers with allotments •Sept. 17: Reminder sent to apply for Water Conservation Program •Oct 13: Utilities identified billing delay •Oct. 29:Water report emailed to appellant •Nov. 4: Memo sent to Mayor and City Council regarding billing delay •Dec. 1: Communication to customers regarding billing delay •Dec. 8: Received Utilities billing delay letter and call •March 23:Requested a six-month payment arrangement and started payments •May 24: Requested waiver of EWU surcharges to Customer Accounts Manager, waiver denied •June 10: Met with Customer Connections Interim Deputy Director, waiver denied •June 23: Formal appeal held with Utilities Hearing Officer, waiver denied •July 23:Appeal to City Council filed to City Clerk’s office Appellant/Customer Action Staff Action2020 2021 7Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal “Failure to properly interpret and apply relevant provisions of City Code Section 26-721.” “There was an undercharge due to City of Fort Collins billing error. The total of two taps was under the allocated amount. Section (4) entitled Meter Failure states as follows in (b): Customers who have been under billed for services received, will be re-billed, at no interest, for the actual or estimated services based on utility service records or other information acceptable to the utility that verify previous billing statements do not appropriately reflect action (actual) consumption”. Total use for the looped meters was under allocated amount: “Mountain Ridge had two taps and one of the backflows was turned off due to vandalism that we were not aware of at the time. If you add together the total for the two taps, the water consumption is lower than the regularly allotted total amount.” Grounds for Appeal to City Council Filed 8Mountain Ridge Farms HOA City Council Appeal Why Request Was Denied •EWU surcharges are a condition of receiving City water service, as adopted by City Council ordinance and codified at Municipal code sections 26-129 and 26-149 •Fort Collins Municipal Code section 26- 721(a)(3)requires Fort Collins Utilities to bill the customer for undercharges, without interest. •Final decision to deny waiving the customer’s EWU surcharge was based on these sections in municipal code. -There is no provision in code to provide a waiver and customers who exceed their allotment are responsible for paying this charge. 9Council Request Request for City Council The question before City Council is whether the Utilities Hearing Officer failed to properly interpret and apply the provisions of City Code Section 26-721