Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the Finance Audit and Budget Committee.

Uh chaired by myself, Commissioner Ted Terry.

We are joined by committee members Commissioner Shekira Johnson.

Uh Commissioner Commissioner Michelle Long Spears will be joining us in just a minute.

And then also Commissioner Patrick.

Welcome.

All right, Commissioner Johnson, we have our meeting minutes from March 24th.

So if those are all in order, I'll take a motion.

Motion I move to approve agenda item ending in 0672.

All right, I will second.

Seeing no further discussion, all in favor say I'm aye.

Chair votes aye.

Motion carries.

All right.

What you got for me?

Oh, great.

Okay.

All right.

So Diane, are you doing the water billing update?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Well, sorry, they just handed this to me first.

Uh TJ, CIP.

Come on down.

This is right.

Which makes sense for that.

Come on now.

All right.

Is there a handout for this?

Yeah, good afternoon.

That might have been my fault because here is the handout.

Okay.

I'll pass them around.

Pass that down.

All right.

Budget Director Siegler.

Yes.

So this is just a brief update on our CIP planning process.

So the first slide here just talks about what how we define what a capital investment or capital improvement project is, which is a project or activity that improves, replaces, repairs, maintains, or creates a fixed asset with a total value of $25,000 or greater, and an estimated useful life of five years or greater.

So in FY26, the operating budget, the annual budget, appropriated $1.5 million in capital from the tax funds.

And we are currently working to develop a recommendation or agenda item to have some additional funding from the annual budget for capital projects.

And aside from the annual budget, funding for CIP projects come from SPLOS bond issuances as well as other sources.

So hotel botel tax is one of the other sources.

So the goal really when we're reviewing the CIP request is to identify the funding sources that are available for the various projects and to come up with how we want to sequence those projects.

So uh the next slide just uh lists the different criteria we've used in the CIP committee to help um rank the various project requests.

Uh so the first is the legal or regulatory mandate, followed by a critical need, which is uh defined as urgency and impact on community health, public safety, infrastructure, general welfare, slash hazard threat to the county.

Um third is their alignment with the county strategic priorities, and fourth is community impact.

Okay, and the next slide shows the tax funds capital contributions.

So this is what's comes from the annual budget to each of the each year to CIP.

And you'll see from 2019 through 2022 is a relatively small amount, uh, between 5.5 to 8.3 million dollars annually.

And then 2023, we actually had quite a large uh contribution from the tax funds to CIP of 51.3 million.

And then for the last two years, it's been right around 23, 24 million dollars from the tax funds.

And so you'll see this year because we kind of delayed the consideration of any of the capital projects.

That's a much smaller amount that was in the approved budget for the start of this year.

Okay.

And then the next few slides just uh summarize the request that we've received from uh departments for capital improvement projects.

And so it has the uh requests from 2025 as well as from 2026 because we're still working our way through all of those requests.

Um for the general fund, you can see the total uh number of projects was 117, and the total dollar amount requested was 141 million point six, 141.6 million.

So rather large list and big number there for us to that's five years.

Well, we would be looking to to spread that out over five years if possible.

Okay.

Um, you know, again, it's gonna be uh probably a challenge to actually find enough funding to cover all the requests.

So there might be some things that don't make it into the five-year plan.

Okay, you know, I understand.

But the goal was to come up with a five-year plan.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, and then the next uh slide just continues that for some of the other funds.

Um so total for all the tax funds, it's 173 requests for 244, almost 245 million dollars.

And so even if we were contributing at the level we did in 2023 of 50 million dollars over five years, I guess that would get us about to that number.

Um but for that year, the reason we were able to contribute so much is that we had excess fund balance at the end of the year, and that was the decision was to put that towards the capital improvement projects for 2023.

Well, some of the ARP?

No, this would not include any of the ARP funding.

Oh, that's not from the 2023.

No, this was all strictly from the the operating budget.

Okay.

Can I ask a question on that, Chair?

Yeah, I think uh TJ, is that it?

Uh well, there's just one more slide that just shows uh the non-tax fund request.

All right, don't show that in the wheel for questions.

And so for those, it was um well, we have our special revenue funds, which is E911.

There were two projects requested there.

Uh fleet management had a request for a project, and then uh the enterprise funds we have airport and sanitation listed here.

For the most part, we didn't look at the the enterprise funds as part of the CIP committee process just because most of them, you know, uh stormwater and watershed have their own CIP already established through that.

Okay.

So the total request was 191 projects for uh 269 million dollars.

Okay, all right.

Sounds like progress.

Commissioner Johnson.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So on the point um you were making about the 51 million from 2023, and that's coming from general fund, but I'm just trying to understand how we have so much to contribute.

So did I know we had CARES Act money, AARP money kind of in the mix during that time frame, so that kind of helped offset and to help us have more reserve money?

Maybe yes and no.

Okay.

So there were uh for the most part we tried to use any of the ARP funds for sort of non-recurring costs.

So we weren't trying to uh offset or to um uh I'm forgetting the word for it, but basically we were supplant that's the word I was looking for.

We weren't trying to supplant any of our uh operating funds with ARP funds, uh, but that might have helped us to avoid some costs that would have been part of the tax funds at the time.

And this was under the previous administration, so the fund balance target was different at that point.

It was two months, and so we were trying to stay at the two months, and that's why the additional funding was used for CIP that year.

Okay, thank you.

And then you may have said this at the beginning, but who makes up the CIP committee?

So last year it was um, I mean it's it's appointed by the CEO.

Um, so it's all staff members.

Um so the uh current committee hasn't been constituted yet, um, but it was usually uh either directors or deputy directors of the various departments that had you know requests or uh hand in CIP projects.

Understood.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay.

Thank you, Commissioner Johnson.

Uh Commissioner Long Spears.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I appreciate it.

Nice to see you, TJ every Tuesday.

All righty.

Um a few questions for you.

The first is on or slide three.

And uh Commissioner Johnson, I believe was had already kind of questioned around this, but you stated that in 2026 it was delayed consideration, it went from 23.5 in 2025 to 1.5 in 2026.

Can you just tell me again?

And I I came in when you had just began, so perhaps I missed it.

Exactly what you mean by that.

So when we put together the the budget recommendation for 2026, we didn't really recommend any CIP contributions from that, just because we wanted to bring the committee back and to take another look at the request and try to come up with a more holistic recommendation.

Uh part of the the issue we run into all the time with um reviewing these and trying to deal with this as part of the annual budget process is just time and trying to find the money for you know any sort of you know um meaningful funding for CIP.

So that's why we want to have that more proactive five-year process to look at what are our real priorities and how are we gonna find the funding over the course of that time to fulfill those priorities.

Okay, all right.

So I think you answered my question, but let me summarize so that I'm clear.

Is that out of the general fund this year there was only one point five uh delayed consideration for other projects that the CIP group will review?

And then what you have in here under general fund for 2026 is 23 million, almost 24 million potential, I guess, and then 55 million under other tax funds.

Uh no, if uh if I can go ahead, please stop.

So these are the requests.

This is not the the actual recommendation.

Is it what that's what the CIP group will review though, right?

Correct.

Okay, that's what I was making sure I was clear on.

So we started with 1.5.

And again, that's delayed consideration.

The CIP group will get together appointed by the CEO, and they will discuss these proposed um CIP requests, and you've got the sources, general fund, then you have other tax funds and non-tax funds, and the ultimate goal is to come up with a five-year plan.

That's correct.

Okay, all right.

That's I just want to make sure I was on the same page with our budget director.

Thank you so much.

You'll back, sir.

All right, great, thank you.

Um and TJ, uh what is y'all's deal study and the facility conditions?

What is um your next steps for narrowing down your recommendations?

So um, as I mentioned, we are going to bring forward a recommendation for funding in this year.

Um we I think we're planning to do that, you know, before the end of this month.

Um and then uh Mr.

Williams just reminded me that we're funding the study at the jail to um determine what's you know the the assessment of the facility there and what's needed.

Um we also got the results of the facilities master plan um back, so we'll be reviewing that, and that'll be part of the what informs the the CIP process.

So I I think initially the the plan was for us to have a five-year recommendation um this summer.

Um I think tentatively we'll still shoot for that, but we're gonna have the recommendation for what to be funded out of this year's budget, like I said before the end of this month.

Okay.

Gotcha.

All right.

And then is the plan to um bring the different um departmental or fund level CIP proposals to each committee, and do we want to just kind of run each of those requests through each committee and then so I I I think what we'll be doing through the committee process is really making recommendation to the CEO for her then to bring forward her.

I meant like the individual BOC committees.

So wouldn't you all see your recommendations?

So I I think once we make a recommendation, then that's really uh at the will of the board how you want to receive that and review it.

Okay.

Um but I mean, does it and you know Commissioner's way in here?

Um, but would it would would it make sense for you know for animal services if that makes the list for I guess ops to discuss that one?

So and the jail repad and et cetera, et cetera.

Is that no I yeah, I think that makes sense.

Okay.

Okay, good.

So we can sort of plan maybe you could just kind of give us um your preferred timeline of I guess when you have the recommendations and then when you hopefully want the committees here to go through them and then when you would like uh approval, I guess, really.

Well, we're looking to have the recommendation ready in the summer, in the summer.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes, Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So um confirming what you're suggesting.

Um it sounds like you're suggesting that each committee of jurisdiction review what the CIP proposal is from the administration, obviously with buy-in from the CIP group, but we'll also discuss them in FAB, right?

So ultimately they would get a review in the committee of jurisdiction, which you said animal services, which is now ERPS and FAB.

Okay.

Okay.

As long as it's we discuss it in Fab two, is my point.

Oh, um Yeah.

I mean, I guess we could get you.

I'm just making that request.

Okay.

Is that we can discuss just the CIP request in Fab.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, let's um let's talk offline about how to structure that.

But very good.

That's I think we can work that out.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Any oh, we lost Commissioner Patrick.

Uh any other questions, thoughts?

Okay.

All right.

Um so TJ, let's um just keep us posted on when you're ready to, I guess, provide your first five years of recommendations.

We'll do.

Um, and I guess will y'all so I presume you like you kind of went through a scoring process or some sort of kind of ranking.

So will you be able to give us sort of a ranking and a rationale of why you proposed them?

So will you be able to give us sort of a ranking and a rationale of why you proposed them, or how you give us some insight on how you might say this is why we have to do this one first as opposed to another one.

Right.

So the the way we did it, again, this was when we had the committee last year was we had those criteria that are listed here, and then we had a matrix of you know, sort of weighted scores for those and had everyone score them, and then brought them back, and then from there, uh, we didn't get to the point where we were actually able to look at the five-year plan, but we did look at okay, these are the highest priority ones and what we need to fund, you know, as soon as possible, and that's what we brought back, I think at the end of last year for funding.

So that included the jail and some of the other projects.

Right.

Um just having gone through that process last year.

I think we might look to restructure it a little bit and streamline it just because it was kind of got bogged down at certain points.

I think because we had a large committee, and you know, a lot of them just had a lot of demands on their schedule, so it was hard to get everything pushed through.

So we we might switch that up a little bit.

Okay, understood.

Um, would you mind just in the next few days?

Um just uh just for the commissioners um uh purview to um share what the uh the board of commissioner requests are um just to make sure we haven't missed anyone or missed any other priorities.

Um there was one we have been district three and six have been working with community development on an update for the Atlanta DeCAB Senior Center, and there were some um uh increased cost estimates for that.

So I want to make sure you had that updated number in um this chart.

We'll do okay, great.

All right.

Um appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, uh Diane, Director McNabb.

Come on down.

This is a very large spreadsheet.

I don't need a magnifying glass glass yet.

Boy, I do.

Yeah.

Um we've got Dorna Wort Word Law.

Yes.

Wordlin.

Wordland, I'm sorry, Urban from Urban League, who's gonna present first the results of their report of about what the last uh period has been.

Okay, okay, great.

Well, all right, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

You do have the printed report in front of you.

Okay.

Yep, here it is coming.

Well, you will in a few minutes.

So the Urban League, I'm sorry.

Did they do they have the uh okay just print it out?

Okay, thank you.

So as you know, the Urban League is currently administering the DeCab County Office of Water and Sewer Customer Advocacy, and we are administering their water rate assistance program, which is focused on low to moderate income residents.

And the report in front of you actually shows our numbers from August through February.

We just finished March today, was meeting with Diane C maxley before this meeting to go over some of our March questions.

So that report will be ready tomorrow.

But I did want to talk to you about February's numbers and what we've been doing so far.

So if you would turn to page two on your report.

Okay.

Through February 28, we have had 909 applications with 85 approvals.

We also have when you look at across the board, 21 that were income ineligible, and as well as we have 514 that were income eligible but not approved for credit, right?

Okay.

So we have a further breakdown of those on the next page where mid-page is an ineligibility breakdown, and we do it um in three ways.

There are two groups whose ineligibility is based on their water bills already being lower than what we call the affordability index.

So the way that we use that is we take the residents' total growth income and we multiply it by four and a half percent to get their total years affordability index, which means that's what they should be able to afford to pay, and we divide that by twelve, then we look at what they should be able to afford to pay per month, and so we compare that with their 12-month average for their bills, right?

And so if you can see that the majority of the applicants have bills that are already lower than what they can afford, so the assumption is that they should be able to afford their water bills, right?

And then um out of that, there are about 126 of the 514 who have higher bills, but it is because they are overconsuming water based on their household size, right?

So we take special um care with that group of people.

We reach out to them and we taught them to determine maybe you have a leak.

Maybe you know, do you have more people in your household that you initially reported?

So we're really following up with those folks to ensure that their information is correct, and then we also forward them to the CAB CARES plumbing repair if they do need that as well.

And how many referrals do you have for we have 126 through February?

Okay, to decap cares.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, well, that's a mixture of those.

Yeah, I could get that specific number if you need it.

Okay.

Because all of these people aren't homeowners, some of them are tenants.

Okay.

Um, and yeah, Commissioner, if you have a question, just um speak up.

Um just as a quick follow-up, so Zach, in terms of the decabbed cares, that's that is going to another vendor, right, to handle those requests.

The plumbing repairs that's managed by community development.

Community development.

Okay, so maybe we could um just to kind of track the request for decab cares with our you know capacity to respond to the requests.

Presumably we're able to handle them now, but at some point we do we need to refresh the fund.

Right.

I don't know where it's at now.

So matter of fact, I think there may be an item on the next agenda to add more uh firms and funds, but okay.

All right, so we can we'll talk about that the cap here is next opportunity.

All right, quick question for you, thank you very much.

Page two, you stated that um you received a total of nine hundred and nine applications, and then you gave a data point after that of those that were approved.

Was that 89?

Did you say 85?

Okay, so of the 909 that you received, only 80 less than 10 percent were approved.

Yes.

Okay, and then it looks like a good bit of the remainder of this presentation's explaining why.

Yes, well, well, on the next page, it talks about the ineligibility, and so there are a little bit under 400, so there's three eighty-eight that are ineligible because their water bills are already lower than what we're calling the affordability index.

So the assumption is that they should be able to afford their water bill.

I'm sorry, where how what number page three the next page in the middle of the next page?

It reads ineligibility breakdown.

It's the yeah, it's the red, blue, and purple bar in the middle.

Okay, so five hundred and fourteen.

Okay.

Wait a minute.

Yes, it's 514 are ineligible, and of those three hundred and eighty-eight already have bills that they should be able to afford based on that affordability calculation.

Okay, so five hundred and fourteen blue, red plus purple are ineligible.

So that is what sixty percent of the nine hundred and nine applications.

What about the rest of them?

Because it's less than ten percent that were approved.

So they have also pending.

One of the major things that we have found, and we've also spoken with our assistant municipalities as well, is that we have 172 pending applications.

Okay, so what that means is that the applicants have not submitted some documentation that's needed to process their application, which most times is their proof of income.

And so we do follow-up calls with them, we send them emails, we send them text messages to you know to see if they will be able to send um you know their information in.

So we do have what we call an updated pending process that we are reaching out to the customers that have not submitted all their documentation.

Okay, so five hundred and fourteen were ineligible, one hundred and seventy-two are pending.

That takes us to six hundred and eighty-six, but only eighty-five are approved.

So there's still yes.

So on the look to the table on page two, it has the total breakdown of all of the statuses.

We have eighty-three hardship cases.

Okay.

There's twenty-one that are income ineligible, which means that their income was too high, or was over the HUD median family income limits.

There are 31 applicants that were either inactive accounts in the cab or did not live in the cab at all.

And then we had three, which is really surprising that reapplied too early.

We thought it would have been higher than that, but it's just three that reapplied too early, and so that will total the 909.

Okay, so 514 income ineligible.

172 are pending.

The remainder relate to hardship or inactive, so 83 plus 31.

I'm just still not tracking with your math.

Did you go all the way across to the bottom?

I am.

So if we took 83 plus 31, I'm doing this on the fly, so there'd be 114.

So yeah, at the bottom is 172.

Gotcha.

Pending.

83.

85.

Mm-hmm.

514.

21.

Uh-huh.

31 and 3.

Okay.

So that equals 909.

Yes.

So that I've got.

All right.

So 909.

I I'll just go back.

If I have more questions, I don't want to um railroad this presentation.

Oh, that's okay.

Because I just need to digest these numbers.

But I guess my point was this is that you've answered, I believe, my question at why less than 10%.

Actually, were approved.

So, you know, I I followed along with this chart.

And you know, this if you've emailed this previously, I didn't have a chance to review it.

Okay.

Okay, so I and I will also send you the updated report for March that includes March.

I'll send that to you all tomorrow.

Excellent.

So that would just simply be this document with updated numbers.

Yes, ma'am.

So I'll hold to ask any questions till I look at March numbers since it's only goes to February.

Thank you very much.

You'll back them.

Okay, great.

I think the main the main um thing I want to focus in on is the 514.

Okay.

So um because you broke those out, and I think it does make sense actually.

So number one, they're ineligible because the water bill is actually low compared to their so that they're actually not using as much water, so therefore that 4.5% threshold has not been met.

Um so they are they should be able to afford the water bill based on our policy.

Um but then the other two are interesting because their water bill is lower, but the consumption is too high for the household size.

So can you just speak to that so that someone's applying and saying I'm the only person here?

But it's probably there's more people here, so maybe they just need to redo their application.

No, so for the we call those are the folks that are in red, right?

So their water bill is lower than their affordability calculations.

So we're assuming they should be able to pay their bill, but they're still using more water than it calls for their household size.

So we reach out to them about water conservation education.

Okay.

So someone's taking a really long shower.

Yes, or a bass, also.

Or has a leaky toilet.

Yes, as well.

Um so okay.

Um, and then I guess for okay, and then the third one is it seems like these this is where your this is the the CAB CARES referral.

Like the consumption is very high and it shouldn't be that high.

And I guess the policies we don't want to give people credit if the water is leaking through the pipes.

Um, and so the the number one goal there is to get them the repairs.

Yes, sir.

And then hopefully once they get the repairs done, they could come back and reapply.

Yes.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um, and then the other thing I think that I think might be important for us to hone in on a little bit as we move forward are the number of phone calls you've received.

Yes, sir.

So 1332 phone calls, and it does look like there's some ebb and flows.

Um is do you think that we do you think that not enough people know about the program and we just need to just basically make sure more people know about it?

Yeah, so you're right on time, Commissioner.

Yes, so what we've been doing is an expanded outreach.

As a matter of fact, today we went to South DeCab Senior Center and had an outreach specifically for seniors, and they were able to apply on site.

So we have been expanding those.

We've been to um Commissioner Johnson's community town halls as well as Commissioner Bolton's, and we're reaching out to like the DeCab County School System with the family engagement liaisons.

We're also going out to different recreation centers.

So we've expanded that outreach so that we're able to notify the residents that this program is available for them.

Okay, wonderful.

So we should be encouraging all the commissioners that have community events to invite y'all to very good.

And I assume you have some kind of um uh just verbiage and materials that you can see.

We do.

So what I'll do is when I send you the report tomorrow, I'll also include our one page that has a QR code that goes directly to our website so that the uh residents are able to apply.

Gotcha.

Okay, perfect.

Okay.

Um, did you want to talk a little bit about um any sort of next steps?

I have a section here about um I think things that we I guess we want to do in the future, so yes, we're really excited.

We we're partnering with UCO to get the um our one pager into the water bills so that we're able to reach directly out to the residents.

So we're gonna be doing that in the next couple of weeks.

Okay.

We're also engaging in a social media campaign, and we're doing that using geotargeting.

So we're using putting in specific zip codes so that those ads will go directly to those households.

So we're on a really on a major communications and outreach push so that we're able to notify the public about the program.

Perfect.

Okay.

Okay, great.

Um commissioners, any other questions, comments for Dorna and other.

Just a quick question on that outreach.

So the one pager that you'll send us, is that enough?

Is it something that we can add to a newsletter?

Absolutely, yes.

So we can you can.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And is it it's in PDF format, so you can add it in there, or you can use it as a JPEG and put it in the newsletter.

Yes, you can.

Okay, great.

All right, so we have our marching orders.

We need to make sure we're helping y'all market and provide more opportunities to do that.

Yes, and as a matter of fact, our director, um, Andre Thomas, he just started in February, but he has been in contact with your offices to see that you know, as you're planning your events to make sure that you add us onto the agendas.

Okay.

Wonderful.

I will add, I think it was his first week on the job and he was at our event.

He still did a great job though.

Yes.

Okay.

But he was very good.

So he was ready.

So he comes from Rockdale Water.

So he was he's doing a really good job.

Just throw them into the deep end.

Yes, straight into the deep water joke there.

Um, very good.

All right, we'll um we'll just um you know, Dornaf is okay, we'll just kind of have you come back a couple times a year, you know, each year and this year and give us more updates.

You're my pleasure.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All righty.

All right.

Um, DC TV can pull up the water billing update presentation.

And director McNabb, welcome.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Okay, the first schedule, which is again hard to read, I'm sure, um, shows all of our active accounts.

So we've got uh, and then it's by category by customer type.

Some of them are set out separately, for example, Emri, uh City of Decatur, Gables.

Some of these are set out separately because at one point in time or another, they were set up as one of our top ten customers.

And we have to report those out every year for our bonds.

And so this is the way they were kept up with back in the day.

They really belong just um in commercial accounts.

Okay.

Uh the gables belongs back down into the apartments, did the cab schools.

We'll probably always keep that separate because they're so significant.

Um, but we just uh have not gotten to the point where we're combined burying those back in the category that they belong.

Then we have the aging categories across the top, so it shows exactly how much is due currently in that category.

For example, the current is almost 20 million, 19 and a half million dollars is due currently on people's bills.

Um 31 to 60 days is five million dollars.

That most of that'll come in.

Um this, you know, somebody could be they could be in 31 because their bill arrived a day late.

I mean their payment arrived a day late, and so it went over into that category.

Okay.

Um because since you see how much it drops after that, and then it begins to rise, and this is those really old, those are the old debts.

People are paying their obligations better now.

Okay, from years previous.

From yeah, from years previous.

So they're they're we're uh making better headway on that.

Um and then we have the older amounts that for owners' accounts, we just we've got an automatic lien on their property, so we just wait until they sell the property and we get the money out of the sales proceeds.

Have we gotten any pardon me?

We gotten any lately?

Have there been any sales?

Oh, yeah.

We in fact we got several million dollars off off of an apartment sale recently.

Oh, good.

All right.

So we definitely collect um every month on liens.

Do we find that that's happening with residential properties as well, like like single family homes?

Yes, uh, we we have rarely ever had problems with single family homes paying their liens out.

And you know, the owners seem grateful that you wait until they sell the property.

Yeah, they just reduce the sale amount probably.

They work basically the buyer works out.

Um for active accounts, we've got a total outstanding of 137 and a half million.

Now we won't collect all of that.

Okay.

And uh what we do is we establish a reserve.

Every it that uh we update every year based on what we think may or may not be collectible.

So if we go to the next one, and just real quick on the tenant.

So I understand the owners, there is a way for the lien, but for the for the 20 million from tenant.

And I guess we'll just delete the current and 3161 60 days right.

That those are probably gonna be paid.

But basically anything that's like 61 days past, those might those are those could be accumulating.

So those we can't we can't do liens necessarily.

No, we can't do liens, and what we've been doing is reaching out and asking them to enter into payment plans that based on what they can afford to pay those balances off.

Okay.

All right.

All right, so those are the actives.

Mm-hmm.

So if it's active, we believe that we will more will more likely get paid for these past due to the.

Oh, yes, these are people who are currently customers.

Okay.

All right.

And when when we start talking about increasing the amount of disconnections, we've had some issues with our print vendor on uh getting the notices out, and so our disconnections have still been extremely low.

Okay.

And we'll get to that in just a minute as to how low they have been.

Okay.

Um but we've been needless to say, very disappointed in the amount of time it has taken our print vendor to try to get it straightened out so that people are getting disconnection notices, and we can't disconnect.

What we've been doing for disconnections is manually sending out a letter before we disconnect.

Okay.

So there is a system in place of vendor that's supposed to communicate with customers.

So they're not.

Yes, it should it should be coming out on their bill.

And they just have not we we wanted to do that instead of incurring a whole nother mailing every month for people that are subject to disconnection.

And so it we're we want it to be printed on their bill to do that, but we're gonna get to the point soon where we're just gonna have to start mailing separate notices.

Okay.

Okay, but it does make sense if they're already receiving a bill, they're an active customer.

They should have one document that's here's what you owe, here's the payment plan that the line items on the bill usually for a payment plan it says yes.

Okay.

All that's separate, a lay charge, uh readiness to serve charge, what their sewer fee is, what their water consumption is, all present separately on a bill.

Okay.

Um and I will note that and we'll if we don't have time today, we'll talk about at the next opportunity.

But the um the condos uh line item.

There are a few here at the four to five year period that are 20 almost 15 million that are more than three years old.

So we're gonna have to, Zach, we're gonna need to drill down a little deeper into that line item since they are active and presumably people are living there.

Yeah, or at least in some capacity in some cases.

Absolutely, Commissioner, Mr.

Chair.

Um and so yeah, maybe um next time and in between now and then we can talk more because we recognize there are you know a number of condominiums that are affected.

Um that have not been able to maintain their infrastructure that put us in a challenging position because you have hundreds of families living in these in these facilities, uh, but they're not paying for water.

So I mean we we can talk about creative solutions to that.

Um but you know, unlike the single family residential where it's a little less complicated to go turn off the water, it's much more complicated than these, but we'll have that conversation uh maybe between now and the next time we meet, and we'll be prepared to uh kind of discuss your thoughts and such further.

Okay.

Yeah, and commissioners, this is um definitely want to make this a group project since I think some of these condos, I think we have condos in every single congressional commissioner district that are in these situations.

Um we're looking for creative ideas and solutions to address which is kind of which is a pretty systemic issue as you can see we're up to 27 million total for condos um and a lot of it is uh past years old.

But they're still active and you know, so maybe they're paying some, but then they're maybe they still have leaks and et cetera.

So more work to be done there.

Okay.

You want to go to the inactive okay.

situations um so we're looking for creative ideas um and solutions to uh address which is kind of which is a pretty systemic issue as you can see we're up to 27 million total for condos um and a lot of it is uh past years old but they're still active and you know so maybe they're paying some but then they're maybe they still have leaks and etc so more work to be done there okay you want to go to the inactive okay so the inactive customers you can see that that's a much that's a bigger balance that remains outstanding now these are not outstanding on our books okay these are they I've I have uh got an allowance or reserve on the books for these accounts okay for the total for the total yes okay for what's uh actually I have made sure I've got a reserve for everything that's one year old or older okay um and you can see that 29 million of the total is earner owners 93 million of the total are tenants we'll probably never get that but we keep a record because we need to know if somebody because they've left if they come back and reapply for a water account we need to know that they have an outstanding balance.

Okay.

Understood okay and then you can see the apartments are there's seven million dollars in the apartments.

Okay.

And so um absent the tenant category are all the other ones um lien liens okay okay so for the if they are inactive how do they have a current balance?

They will have left the their property in the current month.

In the current month uh-huh thank you okay great uh good question um all right and then I see that we have um I think we talked about this in a previous fab meeting but um there's an there's I guess there's inactive Emery university accounts yes I see that they have an active but then they also have an inactive and so and this is going this is two to three four to this is basically two to six years mostly it looks like and um so how does this relates to their hub the water hub right the water hub and that's currently in negotiations to settle that okay and but it's an inactive account because did they just like close that did they close an account and then start a new one?

No I think we set that off separate so that okay okay because at the time maybe we didn't think we're gonna get it but if we can get some of these liens paid then you're keeping on the balance sheet but we're not factoring it into any of the revenue projections.

So it's like a it's right we don't want them to for uh it to look as if all of their accounts are passed due we want to make sure that that's set out separately because it was originally disputed I think I don't think we're here um Reggie's working on that right now with with them I think they're going to be paying the majority of that and yeah the the other emree you can see if we go back to the previous you can see the MRI um is 485000.

It's the first account on the previous page too but you can see that it's all basically current.

Gotcha.

Oh I see okay so they've 101 meters active they have nine inactive meters that's they are categorizing.

Okay.

All right is there any other category on here that is of special note or is it I mean it seems like the tenant is the big the big chunk.

It is but the rest might be owner um leaned accounts and of course there's the commercial that that um we're working on okay commercial tenant okay okay and then the next page is just some miscellaneous categories that we keep up with the vacant are vacant properties that actually end up with a little usage on them it can be for any number of reasons somebody can come in and use the water we try to make sure that we get them all locked when they're vacant I see okay and then we've got um the bankruptcy liens never activated just some miscellaneous accounts okay and then the overall summary on um okay so the last line is every single spreadsheet before that totaled.

Yeah.

Totaled.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Exactly.

Gotcha.

And then you asked about the number of lien active liens we have where we've got actually recorded liens.

Uh now liens are automatic, and we generally don't record them until they get to be close to seven years old, which is when we have to record them in order to maintain them.

And then uh we record them when they start to get big.

Just so we make sure that nobody forgets to check with us on what the outstanding lien is.

Okay.

Record them with the clerks.

At the tax commissioners, tax commissioners, okay.

Correct.

Okay.

And so the number of lanes, we've got 47 apartments, apartment properties with liens, 63 commercial, 11 commercial owners, three commercial tenants, condos 58.

That's and those are either we've uh liened the HOA, which is really not worth anything, um, or they may be there were some liens placed on individual properties many years ago that are carried over.

Um then the owner properties, this is the bulk of them.

749 of the liens are on owner properties, and six are on tenant properties.

Now that would have been properties that we put on when it was an owner's account.

But now there's a tenant on the that because that was my question.

I was like, how?

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Now they're now that it's yeah, now there's a tenant in the property now.

Uh but previously it was an owned property that we put um liens on.

And before we get off that, Mr.

Chair.

Yes.

But uh if the owner if the owner generated the lien, because the owner of the property wasn't paying, now they have a tenant in there, but the tenant is paying the tenants not pinula.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, we don't disconnect them.

Okay.

Because it's a tenant.

If we've got a tenant in there that's paying the account, yeah, we don't.

Okay.

And this might be a follow-up question for you, Zach, as well as Dorna.

And I think Commissioner Johnson, you brought this up in terms of like legislation for tenant protections, but the if a tenant has renting a home and the landlord is not making repairs to like leaky pipes, they're they're kind of they there's nothing we we can do about it directly because it's the tenant water bill account.

Um, but is there does it make sense to work with like the CAP pro bono or other volunteer lawyers groups to help the with like right to cure because my general understanding is that a tenant could make the repairs and deduct it from the rent if the landlord is refusing to make the repairs.

I have heard that that we can't do that in Georgia.

Or more or maybe the maybe the parameters are so restrictive that it makes it very difficult.

I don't think generally we have right of offset.

I think that there was a legislative change a year or two ago that reduced that.

Reduced the ability for the tenant to be made whole you know, if they make the repair, which is when we were researching the potential legislation we I put forward.

That's one of the reasons why we were trying to put that forward because they no longer had access to that as an option as much as they may have used to.

Gotcha.

And I I think that the tenant landlord laws are very skewed toward the landlords.

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, it seems like we um, and this may be just for us less next legislative session, is we have some hard data on, you know, um, well, maybe between Urban League and DeCab Care, we can begin to get actual dollar figures of that we can share.

Because if if we if the tenant could just make the repairs and deduct it from the rent.

You know, but but we don't want to be in a position, I guess, if the landlord won't make the repairs and then we have to disconnect them because and what are other options do we have?

I guess we're not disconnected.

That's true.

But eventually it gets to be so high that they wouldn't be able to pay their water bill.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And uh what we find it's not uncommon that the reason the landlord refuses to repair it is because they're trying to evict somebody.

Okay.

I mean that's just it depends on the situation.

Okay.

And you know, they would love for us to turn the water off so that then the tenant has to move out.

Gotcha.

I feel like that was another law they passed about giving more power to evict squatters.

I think there was one.

I think that was something that passed this.

To do what?

To uh evict squatters.

Oh, okay.

That I feel like I read something about that.

I think so.

So I don't know.

Um different lobby.

Yeah.

All right.

Um anything else you want to just one more slide.

Okay.

Is that you had asked questions about uh not two more.

You'd ask questions about our payment plan agreements.

Mm-hmm.

And the this is uh these are our payment plan agreements, uh and the length of the agreement at the top, how many accounts have that length of agreement, and what the average payment is for each one of those for that each category.

Okay.

So only 2700 payment plans?

Seems kind of low, doesn't it?

Shouldn't there be more?

If we have so many.

Okay.

Well, the majority of them default.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Because they don't get disconnected.

Oh, so they start a payment plan, but then they just they don't keep up with it.

They just don't keep up with it, yeah.

Okay.

Understood.

Um is there and this is this will have to talk about this more in the next committee meeting.

Um, but you know, so uh Dorna presented on individuals that um you know qualify, don't qualify for the assistance, um, but that's based on their actual bill.

Um how should we treat individuals that are have their bill and then they have their payment plan and the payment plan might end up pushing them beyond that four and a half percent.

So what what how can we work with customers to um really figure out like get them on a payment plan that is doable so they don't default?

We we ask them what payment they want to make and we let them pick their payment.

Oh, okay.

But only we only have 2700 though.

So are a lot of people just saying I'll think about it and and we just haven't worked we just haven't worked it out yet.

And like I said, the many of them simply they can sign up for a payment plan and then they just don't ever make any payments.

Okay.

Uh now I don't think the majority of those would be income eligible anyway, probably, but we have we do not have income stats on that.

We just figure they would they would mirror our population.

Um but these are the folks that are keeping up with their payment plans.

Okay.

Okay.

And then the last thing you asked how many disconnections we've had.

And we show the months and how many disconnections.

Okay.

So it's possible the m those disconnections might tick up later this year as the system kind of gets.

Absolutely.

As soon as we can get the notice the uh vendor to start printing the notices, uh I think the county before the moratorium was disconnecting probably three, four hundred people a day.

Right.

Okay.

And yes, we would expect to get back to that.

Okay.

And as a result, we expect our collections to tick up.

Okay.

Is it all possible that as we begin to send the disconnection notices and maybe this is sort of in line with what Dorna was talking about of getting inserts or you know, anyone who's getting disconnected probably has some other issues going on financial or whatever.

Um is that a potential referral to Urban League to you know, one advocate for them to like try to help them figure out the situation.

Or in Zach, this is something you talked about before is just like if someone can't pay their bill, they might need other referral services.

That's why we chose urban like that.

Yeah, and so is that is that something that as we move forward in the urban league that we can kind of extra promote our bill we have and on the website, d are you are you having trouble paying your bill with a link?

Right.

And then when somebody comes in, calls in, if they call in and say I'm having trouble paying my bill, we send them to Urban League.

Okay.

And then as we said, Urban League is gonna have an insert in the next bill.

Exactly.

Okay.

But then when we start doing the disconnection notices, I mean, presumably they haven't worked it out, right?

They haven't figured out and how to pay that bill, so they're getting disconnected.

Is that another opportunity to say hey, don't for you know, don't forget we have Urban League here to um help if you know advise potentially?

I I believe that's already on our bill, but I'll make sure that it is.

Okay.

Yeah, if you have an example of like that's where the disconnection notice is too.

It's on the okay.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, just get really good.

Yeah, come on real quick and we'll gotta wrap up here in a minute.

So we've also started what we're calling support services for customers on our application.

We ask them if they have a pass through balance and if they're at risk for shutoff.

And so we do send them out to different community organizations that provide utility assistance.

We don't do it ourselves, but we do um refer them out if they need particular assistance for like financial assistance, utility assistance, rental assistance.

So we provide what's called wraparound services.

We don't use the term because we are wrapped, right?

So but we are providing support services for those customers that need additional support.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, great.

All right.

Well, um, thanks for the update.

Um I ask one more question.

Oh, yes, go ahead.

For the inactive accounts, what f efforts are we making to um collect those?

Is that a collection agency or what does that look like?

That's what we're going to um get on.

We're gonna get a collection agency under contract to move forward with that.

So that once they go inactive, then we automatically send over the unpaid balance to have a third-party credit uh collection agency.

Understood.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay, great.

All right, thanks, Director McNabb, appreciate it.

Um committee members, let's go and um adjourn the meeting.

Uh we'll pick up, we'll hold these other two items um in committee for now.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All right, meeting adjourned.