Eureka council work session focuses on budget priorities, utility rates and meter accuracy

EUREKA, Utah — At a May 12 work session, the Eureka City Council reviewed draft budget priorities for the coming year, heard recommendations on taxes and utility rates from a consultant, and directed staff and council members to investigate accuracy problems with the city’s water meters before proposing a rate increase.

The session opened with Mayor Tony Deaver and council members discussing line items to include in next year’s budget, including water meters, fire hydrants, sidewalks, development standards and a flood pump project. A consultant identified as Shay delivered a longer presentation on revenue options and recommended annual reviews of property tax (truth in taxation) and utility rates.

Shay told the council, “Go through the truth in taxation process every single year,” and added that small, incremental adjustments to utility rates are preferable to sporadic large increases: “If you want to maintain the same level of service, your rates have to increase with that.” The consultant also recommended the city consider a recreation, arts and parks (RAP or “wrap”) tax and undertake a roads master plan to guide Class B and C road spending.

Council members and staff discussed potential revenue tools the city could adjust, including business-license fees, building permits, utility rates and other local fees. Councilman Scott Pugh and others said the city could double certain business-license fees to cover a planned online licensing software that was identified as costing $2,500 a year; council discussion noted the increase must reasonably relate to the cost of regulation.

Several speakers urged the council to fix data gaps before asking residents to pay more. One council member said water and sewer rates were last adjusted in February 2017 and argued that the city should first resolve problems with delinquent accounts, malfunctioning meters and estimated readings before raising rates. That speaker said manual readings could be used where electronic reads are failing and urged the council to produce an accurate inventory of meter issues.

Council members also reviewed fee-schedule items such as engineering and attorney review costs for subdivisions, permit coordinator reimbursement tied to an EPA contract (which one speaker said had been raised historically from $5,000 to $15,000), and a $50,000 administrative line item that members asked be clarified. Staff were asked to report total projected income and total expenditures for the draft budget at a future meeting.

Onroads and capital projects, the consultant recommended using the forthcoming road-maintenance plan to forecast 5- and 10-year spending and to perform maintenance before pavement reaches the point of accelerated deterioration. Council discussion also referenced a CID-related street project and a flood-water pump project as coming capital priorities.

The council agreed to two near-term follow-ups: 1) a staff-and-council review of water-meter accuracy and an inventory of problem meters, and 2) a review and update of fee schedules (including passing on engineering and attorney review costs to applicants where appropriate). Council members asked Trish, a staff member, to provide the total projected income and expenditures for the next meeting.

Votes at a glance: At the end of the work session the council unanimously approved a motion to adjourn the work session; no other formal votes on ordinances, resolutions or budget adoption were recorded during the meeting.

The city scheduled further budget discussions and directed staff to return with the requested financial summaries and a report on meter accuracy and outstanding contractual reimbursements.