City staff on Thursday presented findings from a Strand study and began a council discussion about whether to create a stormwater utility to fund long-term maintenance and capital repairs.

Chief Administrative Officer Devin Golden summarized the study’s high-level results: Strand identified more than $25 million in stormwater infrastructure needs and proposed an annual program budget of about $2.6 million. "That yielded an annual program budget of 2,600,000.0, which provided just under $6 monthly fee per ERU," Golden said, describing the estimating methodology and the use of equivalent residential units (ERUs) for billing.

Staff noted the ERU figure is illustrative and would be adjusted for a credit program: nonresidential accounts could pay a multiplier and property owners who have invested in stormwater mitigation could receive credits. Council members raised concerns that a robust commercial credit program could push the residential rate higher; one councilor said that in some neighboring cities property owners rarely apply for credits and the impact is limited.

Several councilors and staff urged that the city demonstrate proactive maintenance before imposing a fee. Council member comments called for a small, dedicated public-works stormwater crew to perform routine cleaning and maintenance to reduce the incidence of larger failures. "Put the team together ... start showing action before we even remotely begin to discuss putting a fee on anybody," one council member said.

Stacy Clark (Financial Director) framed the discussion in budget terms: a dedicated fee would provide recurring revenue and free general-fund dollars for other priorities — such as staffing a new fire station — but would require policy decisions on credits, billing structure and the pace of projects. "What this council and this fiscal court have allocated is just design phase funding both in the amount of $250,000," she said about interlocal projects; on the stormwater number she said the study’s program budget was about $2.6 million.

Council did not take a vote. Members asked staff to return with more detail on the credit policy, a high-level schedule of tasks and an implementation plan that could include initial maintenance hiring and pilot projects before any fee ordinance is proposed.

Next steps: staff to provide a detailed breakdown of the strand scope and credit alternatives, a schedule of near-term maintenance actions that public works can take, and updated revenue-impact modeling for council review.