All right, welcome back.

We are here for our finance audit and budget committee chaired by myself, Commissioner Ted Terry, and joined by committee members, Commissioner Michelle Long Spears and Commissioner Shekaira Johnson.

All right.

Committee members, we have our agenda before us.

Um pretty short one today, so we might get out here a little early.

Um let's just go ahead and start with our meeting minutes 0804, and that is from the April 14th FAB meeting.

Motion to approve 0804.

Second.

All right, motion and a second.

All in favor is your hands say aye.

Aye.

All right, Chair Both I motion carries.

All right.

Um I see our county attorneys walking in or walking up right now.

So uh one of our discussion items, uh, just following up on the last agenda we didn't have time to discuss was the specific uh water billing debt related to the condominium complexes.

And um County Attorney Phillips, um, I know y'all are working on some um kind of proactive legal uh theories and sort of um you know, I guess um, I'll just say strategies, I guess.

Um can you give us a high level on what our approach is thus far to address the condo complexes from a legal perspective?

Maybe just start with what we've done, I guess, with the NRIM in the past probably several years, right?

Well, what I can share with you, Commissioner, there there has been in-rem activity at certain condominiums.

Um I couldn't I couldn't name them for you right now, but as is the case with all property, if the code compliance team identifies it as out of compliance and reaches a point where they think we should ask the court's permission to go in and address it, then they transfer that to the law department and we file a civil lawsuit, and when you reference NREM, that's what you're talking about.

We're asking the court's permission for the county to go in and clean property up.

And that has happened at condominiums.

In the larger context at a very high level, um, I will certainly speak with any commissioner offline about it.

We've begun investigating and researching strategies to address any real bad problems with a condominium that is beyond just a small individual isolated case.

Um just to get a feel for what the circumstances are and to investigate what the county's options may be in addressing it.

Um that that's what I'm comfortable saying right now.

And I think you and I, to be fair, um, you've had some ideas and you've expressed to me uh a long time desire to see work done in that area.

So I'll I'll continue to speak with you, and we're looking at some ideas that you've presented is what I'm comfortable acknowledging now publicly.

Okay, very good.

I know you are working on it, and um we definitely want to.

This is one of our goals this year for the committee is just um trying to work through the water billing debt, Zach.

So just trying to figure out like you know, of that large spreadsheet that Director McNabb went over last committee meeting.

You know, I know some were working out uh negotiations with like some of the universities, the apartment complexes, uh, but it looks like the condo complexes are a little bit intractable in terms of who owns them, you know, uh the the water bill kind of continuing to rise.

Um so uh knowing that the law department is still working on sort of all the the comprehensive strategy, um I think County Attorney Phillips, this it's sort of dual focus, it's related to uh blight, but also water bills is part of the issue that's wrapped into it, because I think what we've heard from some of the condo complexes is as we've done the in-rim demolitions of some properties over the years.

Um we've demolished uh you know a pad, and there might be a water meter at that pad, uh but now there's not no one's there anymore, right?

And so we have a water meter that's sort of an orphan meter with you know 100,000 in debt on it.

And so the question is, you know, what do we do about that?

Um and then some of them are master meters where the entire complex, you know, is the the owner of the water meter.

So just a you know a couple things that are a little intractable.

So um really the goal here is just to start that discussion, Zach.

And is that is there I know y'all have been maybe kind of looking at it from like the housing angle as well.

So what what can we how can we kind of move this discussion forward and what are y'all thinking from the administration side?

Well, one one of the things um it's important to note that we do recognize that any instance of uh unpaid water bills uh where you have residents who continue to reside um in in these condominiums, um as well as other multifamily um the circumstance the county finds itself facing is how do we address the issue to stop the incurring of debt?

The easiest way, of course, is to simply turn off the water, which is very complicated because then you find yourself in a position or we find ourselves in a position where you have uh potentially hundreds of families living in on uh places that are no longer habitable and they need to find housing.

So uh for that reason uh we have not simply turned off the water because it creates a bigger challenge for the county uh because of the fire hazard that would be created and and or the need to relocate families.

So where we have the ability to sit and talk with uh represent representatives of condo uh associations, we have those conversations.

Um there have been instances where we've been able to come to settlement uh type agreements historically, and we will continue to pursue that.

Um but as we stand here today, it's just continuing to identify uh where the problems exist, and we're trying to be as creative as possible and coming up with what can we do to assist in um stopping the the in many instances leaks, yeah, uh, and then addressing the back bill and most importantly getting folks to start paying regularly as they move forward.

Okay.

Um I think this um that's great.

Thanks, thank you, CO Williams, for that.

And I think um, you know, the the virtue of working on this issue um has sort of kind of two overlaps.

One is on like the infrastructure side, um uh Mr.

Chair uh PWI Commissioner Patrick, um, because what we have observed in some of the complexes is the the water bill is really high and we find that it keeps getting higher and higher.

Yep.

And so we had one that was like three million uh maybe two years ago and now it's five million, and there's leaks happening behind the meter, but because there's been some um you know uh uh attrition in terms of the owners at those condo complexes, there's less people paying the HOA fee, and so the remaining residents are left with an even higher proportion of the bill.

They can't fix the leaks, and so therefore the water just keeps pouring out through the leak pipes, and then now you go from three million to five million.

Right.

Um but Commissioner Patrick, do you have any um thoughts on that?

I'll open up for the committee members as well.