Water Utilities Community Facilities District - Regular Meeting

And I'll call to order the Apache Junction Water District meeting for 06/17/2025 to order and request that all cell phones continue on silent. Roll call.

My apologies. Chairperson Wilson.

Here.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder.

Present.

Board member Cross.

Here.

Board member Heck.

Here.

Board member Johnson.

Here.

Board member Nesser.

Present.

Board member Suller.

Here. You have a

quorum, your honor.

Thank you. Approval of minutes for 05/06/2025, and 05/20/2025 special meeting. Do I have a motion for approval of these minutes?

Your honor.

Yes.

I move that the minutes of the special meeting of 05/06/2025 and 05/20/2025 be approved. Second.

Okay, May 6 was the mistake.

May 6 was a special meeting and May 20.

Okay, well, as long as you got it correct, right?

Yes.

Yeah, because it's wrong here. Okay. All right. Do I have a second?

I do.

Okay. Roll call.

Board Member Solar?

Yes.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder.

Yes.

Board Member Nesser.

Yes.

Board Member Cross.

Yes.

Board Member Heck.

Yes.

Board Member Johnson. Yes. Chairperson Wilson.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimous.

Presentation, discussion, public hearings, consideration of resolution number twenty twenty five-four. Mike.

Chairman Wilson and members of board, good evening. Just, again, a quick recap. We've been through this a few times here. It's a budgeting process. We did our tentative budget. Moving on to our final budget here, again, it's proposed for you guys for approval, possibly tonight. Just giving you an update here. As you can see, charges for service in 2023 was roughly $7,200,000 We're estimating roughly about $7,500,000 in 2024, 'twenty five. And then in 'twenty five, 'twenty six, we're looking roughly at $8,900,000 This is because all the new development to the South, as we get new customers in, those services are slightly going up over the next few years and will continually arise as we go forward. And those are just on new customers.

It's not additional water use per customer. That's just new customers coming online. Still looking at getting some grants next year, and our investments are doing well. So we're looking at a total revenue source of roughly about $15,700,000 next year. We are using some of our reserves to fund some of our projects. So you will see roughly a $4,800,000 here. But this is replacing water mains, replacing booster pumps, different things that we had to do maintenance on out there that we capitalize on. So those are our sources, our uses next year. Roughly, again, for operating revenues, dollars 5,800,000.0. We're going to do some capital project outlays that we have.

We'll discuss those here in a little bit. But the budget's roughly 15,700,000.0 so balancing our budget between revenue and our expenditures. Also are going to be utilizing some of our system connection fees and our water resource acquisition fees. Our system connection fees due to development, we're looking at roughly $1,150,000 next year. That's a combination of infill projects and development to the south. They're building a lot of their infrastructure, so it's not as high as what you think it would be. But we do have some development to the north. And then our water resource acquisition fee. This is all for additional water resources for the future and pay for the sources they are using currently. We're roughly estimating about $7,000,000 in collections next year.

Currently, if you look down here, we're roughly at about $11,000,000 So hopefully, we'd have about $18,000,000 at the end of next year. And again, this is for our savings to go out and purchase those additional water supplies or secure water supplies for the next one hundred years. So we're making sure that we take care of those things. So working through that. And then we also have our system connection fees.

We're estimating 1.15 coming in next year. We're going have to use some of those that we've collected in the past of 4.6. As you can see here to the bottom, the system connection fees were roughly about $5,500,000 With our additional one here, we're looking at roughly about 6.6. So we're going to use about 4.6 of that in next year's budget. Any questions on the summary of our budget so far?

I don't see any.

Okay. Some of the big ticket items we have for next year is purchase two new vehicles, three quarter ton service trucks, roughly at 130,000, purchase two new mid sized trucks at about 95,000, and then a track row and trailer at 215,000. We going to start our design and construction of a new office. We've been working with public works on a master plan for the public works yard. We'll be continuing working through that process and hopefully finishing up design and starting construction at the end of this next fiscal year as we move forward through that process.

Also looking at installing a 12 inches waterline under US Sixty at Goldfield. We've had some new development in Goldview Estates is coming in. We have Goldview Subdivision that's out there. So we're looking to loop those water resources get better water quality or to enhance our water quality out in that area. We also are looking at replacing existing 12 inches and install a new 12 inches under Highway 60 at Idaho.

So we have a transmission line at Idaho that delivers water to our Water Campus 1 that is produced at our treatment plant. So replacing that water line, it's roughly 30 years old, and that's in its useful life, and then adding an additional water line in there for distribution. So again, we're looping our system for better water quality out there and better fire flows. We are also looking at purchasing a 2,000,000 gallon a day treatment train. This will be train five. We currently, at our plant, we had a 2,000,000 gallon a day plant. We went to 4,000,000 gallons a day here in the last year. We're going to be using that capacity. The development, we're paying for an additional 4,000,000 gallons, so it'll go to eight. And then we'd pay for the final 2,000,000 gallons to build out that site.

We're also upsizing and replacing Booster State our Water Campus 2 at roughly $2,250,000 getting a new booster in there for fire flows and some additional developments with Baby Superstition Vistas or the Superstition Vistas on Cortez next to the dump that you guys are familiar with, and then some of those subdivisions that are on Goldfield Road. Looking at drilling a new well in Superstition Vistas for redundancy for our surface water treatment and so that we can store water in the ground and pump it out later. And then working to finish our advanced water purification trailer for future and training our residents of Apache Junction. Some other operational things that we're working through we have another $180,000 payment to Salt River project for our Verde River sedimentation mitigation study that we've been working on for additional supplies possible from the Salt River project. We're also still paying on our fifth year and final year of our Central Arizona project, our non Indian agricultural water, which is $334,000 which will be our final payment.

And then for deliver all of our Central Arizona project water to us, our fees are going be roughly $1,400,000 And then our project capital costs that we pay are roughly $400,000 a year. Any questions on large expenditures we have so far?

MR. Yes. MR. Mike, on the non Indian agricultural or non agricultural water. So it's financed over five years. That mean, at five years, it's paid off, or that means we access don't any longer?

No, it gets paid off. This will be the final payment of paying it off. We do have access to it. This year, it's a high I guess a lower priority water, so we did get reduced by 20% of that eight seventeen acre feet, but we do receive that water. It depends upon the water level in Lake Mead if they'll reduce it at all. But that's one of the first waters that will go. But currently, they reduced it 20%. Hopefully, we get some more rain, and we can continue receiving our eight seventeen acre feet for years to

come. Got it. Okay. Thanks.

So

we're just trying to balance our revenues expenditures. So we have some additional requests proposed requests for our rates, but I guess we need to move forward with our final budget here and adoption here in our public hearing.

Okay. Any discussion from the council? All right. We'll now open to public hearing. There's a five minute time limit with a one minute warning light that you'll see in here. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone like to speak on this? And I don't see any movement again. I will close the public hearing and ask for a motion for resolution number twenty twenty five-four.

Mayor? Yes. I move that resolution number twenty twenty five-four, a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Water Utilities Company Facilities District, City Of Apache Junction, Arizona, adopting estimates of expenditures by the Water Utilities Community Facilities District, City Of Apache Junction, for fiscal year beginning 07/01/2025, ending on 06/30/2026, declaring that such action shall establish a budget for the Water Utilities Community facility district, city of Apache Junction, Arizona, for fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board Member Nesser? Yes. Board Member Johnson?

Yes.

Board Member Cross?

Yes.

Board Member Heck?

Yes.

Board Member Saller?

Yes.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder? Yes. Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay. We have presentation, discussion of public hearing consideration resolution number 2020Five-five. Mike.

CHRISTIAN Chairman Wilson. So consideration for readopting all existing and adopting our new potable and non potable rates, user fees, charges for fiscal year 'twenty four-'twenty five, including potable and non potable rates, system connection fees, and establishing an effective date of sevenonetwenty twenty five. Just to give you a comparison of where our base rate is today, currently we're at $31.53 If you're a fiveeight by threefour meter, we're looking at raising that rate by 5% to $33.11 As you can see, we do have some the City Of Mesa, which is pretty close to the same price that are in between our current price and our proposed price. Gilbert's a little higher. Arizona Water Company's roughly a little lower.

But we're in the ballpark of other facilities with our base rate that we currently charge for those meter sizes. So proposed currently tonight is a base rate increase of 5%, a consumption rate at no charge no change sorry, not no charge, no change and consumption tiers had no change also this year. If you live on a county island, we're recommending a 5% increase in your base rate, a 5% increase to your consumption rate, and no change to the tiers. So what does that actually mean to individual customers? An average customer, household uses about 7,500 gallons per month.

At that current rates, their bill would roughly be $73.25 New proposed rates would get them to $75 a change of roughly $1.75 if you use 7,500 gallons per month, so a 2.3% increase. If you lived in the County Island, your existing rates at 7,500 gallons per month was about $86 The proposed new rates would get you to $90 an increase of $4.3 a month, or 4.8% overall increase to your bill. How does that compare to city and county? If you lived in the city with the proposed new rates, your water bill is $75 and in the county, it would be $90.49 Does anybody have any questions on the proposed rates and how they would affect each customer?

I don't see any.

We also do have our residential system connection fee, and this is only for new development. This does not affect our existing customers. Currently, it's $7,760 for a single family resident. We're looking to increase it by the CPI, or Consumer Price Index, of an increase of 1.8% for building materials and construction costs this past year. That would bring your proposed rate up to $7,900 for a new build or development.

To the south, in our Radiance and Blossom Rock development, in our agreement, we allow them to only pay for the ancillary items that include office space, equipment, vehicles, different things like that. Since they are installing the infrastructure and paying for that themselves, they're not included in those the $7,600 that we had previously. So they pay a lesser rate because they're paying for the infrastructure to service their development. And again, we're proposing a 1.8% increase for those costs. We also have a water resource acquisition fee for single family residents.

Currently, it's $3,660 We're proposing to increase it to $3,840 And this is to go out and purchase those additional water supplies to secure, make sure that we have supplies for the future so we have this growing up 1.8%, just like the other things as we move forward here. We had a question come up in the past. If you're a new developer, single family resident out there looking to develop an acre and a quarter, if we had to go install a meter and radio and service line and do all the work out there with our system connection fees and water resource acquisition fees, roughly would be about $12,760 for you to get water service at your property. Okay. We are going be looking into these for our next fiscal year.

We'll get back to some board members who had some questions on that. We're not going to change these proposed rates, but in the next fiscal year, we'll take a look at that and get back to you guys and go through that process for next fiscal budget. Any other questions?

Don't see any. Okay. Any of the since there's no discussion among council, I would like to open this to a public hearing. There's a five minute time limit with a one minute warning that you will see and hear. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone like to speak on this? I don't see any movement. I'll close the public hearing and ask for a motion for resolution number 2025Dash003.

Mister chair? Yes.

I move the resolution number 2025Dash005, a resolution of the board of directors of the water utilities community facilities District, City Of Apache Junction, Arizona, readopting all existing and adopting new potable and non potable rates, user fees and charges, surface connection fees, and water acquisition fees for fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six and establishing an effective date be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board Member Cross?

Yes.

Board Member Nesser? Yes. Board Member Suller?

Yes.

Board Member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder? Yes. Board Member Heck?

Yes.

Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimous.

Thank you. District manager's report. I have no report, your honor. No. District director's report. Mike.

I'm gonna try something here tonight, if I can. But this past week, I guess yesterday, we just went live with resident access. We had a way for citizens to get into our portal. I'm not going to be able to get on it here. Can you get on our website, Matt, from here?

But what this did is we listened to our customers. About two months ago, we came out with a new bill, a format that enlarged some of the lettering on our bill and our account numbers. We changed those so that it was easier to read and get through the process. And then we went through and changed our IVR and made it easier to get through that. With that, this is our new online bill payment, I guess, front end page that you can sign up for.

It's supposed to make it easier and more up to date than it was in the past. I'll see if I can log on to this and show you once you get in here. You can look at additional information on your account itself. Oh. It's gonna make you verify an email.

Yep. That's fine. But it was again, it was something to make the user more user friendly for our customers. They didn't like the new web page that we came out with when we went to our new utility billing software about two years ago. When we were developing that, the programmers were not ready for us to go live with this.

So we just brought it live here this week. And, again, it's supposed to be able to create a better experience for all of our customers out there. Let's see if we can get on here now. So as a new customer, this is our once you log on, this is what you you can see. As you can go in here and look at your account, here's some of our we do a three year, so you can see what water usage you've had each month similar to what SRP has or other water companies in the valley.

So you can see if you compare if there's a high read or low read, what you've you know, your average has been in the past. You can manage your accounts in here. You can see where you have service. You can have multiple accounts if you're a landlord or different things. You can go in and get your account details.

Again, it's a little more user friendly than the more of just laid out of just a lot of information for you. So I know some of you guys are customers of ours in the district, but again, this is just some new things, functions we have out there. You can go and actually see where your data is. And as we move forward, I guess it's just more user friendly for our customers out there. The biggest thing is you can go in here and set up your accounts, but you're enrolling an auto pay.

You can just pay a one time payment. You can actually, if you lose your password in the past, you had to call up the district and ask for a new password, and we'd have to reset that for you. You can do it all online now. There'll be some additional functions coming later where you can start new service or stop service online. We're not there yet. We're slowly just implementing this. But it's taken roughly about a year to get to this process where we're at right now, just to get everything lined back up with just transitioning the accounts over and not causing our customers any harm by having to set up a new password or username or put in their credit card again. All their information came over from what we had before, so it was a clean transfer. And we're working through some of those problems. Some people save these as favorites, the old system, so we have to remind them as they call in.

It's a different web page, a different browser you go to, and point them in that direction. But it seems to be a good response. Staff did a great job of getting everything set up and making this happen smoothly. So I just want to keep you guys informed of what's happened throughout the district. Any questions on this?

Yes. 152000 gallons?

This is actually A swimming pool? This is a one meter that we do not bill. It's for the non potable water stand. So I know it's an account we don't bill, so I can mess with it without changing anybody's bill that we'd send out to him. So this one I just signed up for. Mr. Chair?

Like, I had

a question for you.

So let's just say your bill was first to the first, and you check out your usage, let's just say the tenth or the fifteenth. Would it show what your bill is at that point in time?

JAMES Not currently. This just gives you your read at the end of the month when we get them. With the new radio reads that we're doing, by the end of the year, we should have that available so you can see your daily use, your weekly use, and you could actually see. And then we'll have to see how the program that we actually get may give you an estimate MILLER: of what it should be at the end of the month. So let's say that was implemented. Could I go in there middle of the

month and say, oh, my bill's at $27 and then pay it?

Not in the middle of a month. You would have to wait till the end? Yeah. With this function, we do allow you to make partial payments. So if you're late on a bill or something like that, you don't have to pay it in full. You can go big partial payments. You can overpay. In the past, if you used that credit card, couldn't overpay. It wouldn't allow you to pay more than what your bill was. Now, these new features allow you to do some of those things.

Okay. Thanks.

We have some winter visitors that like paying five months ahead so that when they leave, they don't have to worry about their water bills while they're gone.

Anyone else?

That's it. Thank you.

Just done. All right. District treasurer's report. Okay. Thank you. Since there's no further discussion, I will adjourn this meeting also. Thank you.