ITEM TITLE:
Waiver of 3rd and 4th quarter Utility Bills and Harbor Fees in 2020.
SUBMITTED BY: Mark Detter, City Manager
FISCAL NOTES:
Expenditure Required: Click here to enter text.
Unencumbered Balance: Click here to enter text.
Funding Source: Click here to enter text.
RECOMMENDATION:
Receive and File.
SUMMARY STATEMENT:
The Finance Director and Ports & Harbor Director have put together estimates for the costs of waiving 3rd and 4th Quarter utility bills and waiving harbor fees for 2020.
The Utility bills would costs the City approximately $350K. Utility bills already paid in 2020 would not be waived. Utility bills still due could be considered for hardship at a future date (although a high percentage of businesses and residents have paid their 2nd quarter bill).
Harbor Fees are more complicated because many of those bills have already been paid for 2020. Approximately $1,000,000 in fee rebates would need to be rebated to account for fees that have been paid. The rebates would takes an estimated 100 hours of staff time and probably could be completed within a week to 10 days. Overtime costs to rebate fees in that time frame are potential 40K.
A waiver of Harbor fees could provide stimulus and incentive for recreational boaters to come to Valdez in engage in COVID-19 safe activity.
The City Attorney believes there are some complications to only waive Harbor fees for Valdez residents as previously discussed. Although, the fee waiver and rebate could be structured to only include Valdez residents it does require the City Attorney “back stop” such fee waiver. A resolution with language that clearly justifies such waiver for Valdez residents based on the local property tax subsidy of the Ports and Harbor Funds and language that will clearly delineate a resident user of the Harbor from a non-resident user.