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July 2009 |
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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City Scoop Continued |
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VICTORIA OUTSOURCES UTILITY BILLING BUT IT WILL REMAIN QUARTERLY FOR NOW After much discussion on June 8th, the vote was unanimous. Utility billing for municipal sewer and water will not be done by in-house city staff. It will be outsourced to a company called Opus 21 Management Solutions. Because of a higher cost for monthly billing, the City of Victoria will retain a quarterly billing schedule, at least for the time being. Victoria Finance Director Jylan Johnson reviewed past discussion. “The issue came up about a year ago,” she said. “There was a large staff turnover at the city. We were able to come up with Opus 21 to do tactical activities.” Jylan said that some city staff time would still be needed. She informed councilmembers that Opus 21 is working in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, and Colorado. It would cost the City of Victoria approximately $25,000 a year plus postage and in-house time, bringing the total estimate to $37,000. She reported that city cost doing everything in-house today is $42,000. “Outsourcing is a more sophisticated billing system,” she said, “and it would be a relatively easy move from quarterly to monthly billing if Council decided to make that change. Current staff time doing the billing would be allocated to other departments. The Finance Committee has reviewed outsourcing and they recommend moving forward.” Mike and Lynn Shuba, principals of Opus 21, were introduced to councilmembers on June 8th. Stated Mr. Shuba, “We are a metro-based company. We are the principals and founders of the company.” Asked Councilmember Jim Paulsen, “Are we comfortable that we have control of the cost?” “Yes,” replied Jylan Johnson. Mr. Shuba said that turnaround would be 48 hours with same day deposits most likely. He said that 92% to 93% of customers are paying on time. Councilmember Kim Roden asked if the company has experienced bad conversions to their outsourcing program. “Yes,” replied Mr. Shuba, “due to bad data coming over. The last seven to eight conversions over the last 14 months have gone extremely well.” Said Councilmember Roden, “One of the hopes I had was monthly billing so people know on a monthly basis how much water they’re using. We have a tradition of good customer service, or at least I hope we do.” City Administrator Don Uram pointed out that outsourcing provides historical information to customers as to what they spent last year. “There are a lot of opportunities here,” he said. Jylan added that the historical information is available going forward, once Opus 21 would record and maintain the data. “We are an extension of your office,” said Mr. Shuba. “We work with small pods of people. It is our job to train them and learn from you what the parameters are. We are a small organization. We are not a 3M. We have 97.2% live, person-to-person contact. We place a high emphasis on customer service.” Stated Mayor Mary Thun, “I’m really in favor of monthly billing. I don’t think we’re giving our customers much by staying quarterly. The difference is $15,000.” Replied Mr. Shuba, “We will start wherever you are most comfortable.” “May I make a suggestion to stay quarterly until 2010 to accommodate the utility budget?” asked the city’s finance director. Council agreed with Jylan Johnson. Billing will be outsourced and remain quarterly for now. The decision was unanimous.
THREE RIVERS PARK WANTS TRAIL EXTENDED THROUGH VICTORIA’S UNDEVELOPED 13.5 ACRES City Attorney Mike Norton reported June 22nd that the Three Rivers Park District still wants Victoria to build a trail through the 13.5 acres of city-owned land just west of downtown Victoria, which was formerly park property that was traded for city property on Lake Auburn. The city had agreed to build that trail by 2012. However, the city was counting on a developer picking up some or all of the trail construction cost as the 13.5 acres was being developed. Although there have been development proposals, the property is not developed. Reported Attorney Norton, “They understand but want Victoria to pursue the trail. And they want some kind of security to extend the trail. They want something like a letter of credit or a bond to guarantee our payment of construction cost.” Three Rivers Park is asking the City of Victoria to provide security for the entire amount of the cost of trail construction: about $550,000. Said Councilmember Tim Amundsen, “That’s a healthy chunk of change. I’d hate to obligate money or security and then turn around and lose it. The future doesn’t look that bright right now.”
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