Village of Oswego Committee of the Whole met March 1.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
CALL TO ORDER
President Troy Parlier called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Board Members Physically Present: President Troy Parlier; Trustees Tom Guist, Kit Kuhrt, James Marter II, Terry Olson, Jennifer Jones Sinnott and Brian Thomas.
Staff Physically Present: Dan Di Santo, Village Administrator; Christina Burns, Deputy Administrator/HR Director; Tina Touchette, Village Clerk; Jeff Burgner, Police Chief; Mark Horton, Finance Director; Jennifer Hughes, Public Works Director; Rod Zenner, Development Services Director; Joe Renzetti, IG/GIS Director; Corey Incandela, Administrative Intern; Susan Quasney, Engineer; and Karl Ottosen, Village Attorney.
PUBLIC FORUM
Public Forum was opened at 6:02 p.m. There was no one who requested to speak. The public forum was closed at 6:02 p.m.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
G.1 Alternative Water Revenue Discussion
Director Horton addressed the Board regarding alternative revenue sources for the costs of connecting to the DuPage Water Commission for Lake Michigan water. Staff reviewed Statutory Sources of Municipal Revenue of which there are 78 different revenue sources, reviewed current water revenue sources, and conducted a brainstorming session to identify potential revenues. The Water/Sewer Rate Study, to be presented in the fall, was not considered as part of this project. Finding revenue sources primarily paid by non-residents are very limited. The following is what staff identified:
• Increase development water connection fees
⮚ Currently, averaging $300,000 the past three years; new residential connections pay $2,200 per dwelling unit; commercial connections pay $3,750 per unit (a ratio of 1.7::1 commercial::residential)
⮚ 991 average new residents in a year; some may be renters
⮚ Commercial users do not pay proportional to the demand on the system
o A new restaurant pays the same as a warehouse even though the demand for the warehouse will be significantly less
o Consider adjusting connection fees based upon meter size (1” for residential, 1-1/2” through 6” for commercial)
• Home Rule Real Estate Transfer Fee- requires referendum to implement, per State statute, even if the community is Home Rule
⮚ Possibility of $950,000 annually based on 2021 data (assuming rate of $3 per $1,000 sale price)
o This fee is only available to home rule units of government
o List of nearby communities that charge this fee:
▪ Aurora: $3.00 per $1,000
▪ Naperville: $1.50 per $500
▪ Bolingbrook: $7.50 per $1,000; staff to look into why or how they determined this rate
▪ Joliet: $3.00 per $1,000
▪ Downers Grove: $3.00 per $1,000
▪ Woodridge: $2.50 per $1,000
▪ Wheaton: $2.50 per $1,000; also has a rebate program
▪ Romeoville: $3.50 per $1,000
▪ Glen Ellyn: $3.00 per $1,000
o Fee paid by buyer or seller; buyer would fit the non-resident criteria
▪ If paid by buyer, the Village could rebate fees paid by Oswego residents moving from one Oswego location to another. In this case the estimate above would need to be adjusted.
❖ Can exclude whatever the Village wants in the ordinance
❖ Wouldn’t apply to renters
❖ Would need to decide if the rebate would apply to renter who becomes a buyer
❖ Buyer has one year to collect the rebate
o Yearly revenue swings based on housing market
o Would need to start the referendum process March 15 to get on June ballot
• Increase the Hotel/Motel Tax to the maximum rate of 5% from the existing 3%
o Currently generating $65,000 to $70,000 at 3% rate
o Increasing to maximum rate of 5% would generate approximately $108,000
o Would not recommend this option as the main revenue source
Board and staff discussion focused on Village has been talking about a new water source for a few years; opportunity to grow depending on home sales and growth; rebate program; don’t want to exempt too much; whether exemptions would apply if leaving the Village; paying the share of the water costs and not putting tax on current resident; how long it will take to pay off the water source project; payments start once the Village is connected to DuPage; tens of millions in loans for the project; zero interest loans; improvements would be low interest loans; low interest loans from the federal government; wanting the current resident rebate program; staff suggested it be a buyers fee; new purchasers should share the burden; fair playing field for property owners; transfer fee will be included in the closing costs; whether to extend to anyone who is looking to invest in Oswego; only owner occupied resident, not someone who owns the property for rental purposes; renters are paying a portion of the taxes in their rent; there’s no way to determine how much tax is being paid in the rent; waived versus exempt versus rebate; rental to owner not exempt; whether there will be a downturn in housing sales; it will be an ebb and flow with the housing market; adjusting the tap on fee for commercial; referendum option is the urgent one; Water Fund surplus; need $3 million to transfer to the Capital Fund; already transferred $1.5 million; would like to keep surplus aside for the water source; how each community decided the transfer fee rate; need to state the purpose in the referendum; need to have the ordinance/resolution passed by the end of March 2022; prefer exemption versus rebate; Village will need to get an exempt form and stamp; no increase on the hotel/motel tax. Staff will look into the estimate of a rebate cost. Staff will bring back information on the water rate study. Board asked for examples of rebates for discussion at the next Board meeting. There was no further discussion.
G.2 Parking Permit Solution Presentation
Director Horton addressed the Board regarding a parking permit solution. The Village owns a parking garage at the Reserve at Hudson Crossing building. The agreement with the developer provided the Village would reserve 185 parking permits for residents of the development for overnight parking. The parking garage opened in May 2021 with parking permits sold in July 2021. Staff decided to delay purchasing a full-scale permit management solution the first year of parking garage ownership and process everything in-house to save some money and gain experience with the process to determine what would be the best options for the Village. This allowed for permit revenues to be received and have funding on-hand to purchase a permit management solution when needed.
Staff created an on-line parking permit application to allow the residents to purchase parking permits. The objective was to offer residents an easy way to purchase their permits, and to minimize the burden on staff. A few months into the selling of parking permits, staff realized the process had its limitations and staff was spending a lot of time with customers. Enforcement was also taking too much time using the manual lookup process in place.
Finance, IT and Police began researching parking permit companies to determine what was available. As discussions progressed with various vendors, staff decided an all-in-one solution for permitting, enforcement using LPR cameras, and pay stations for ease of purchasing a permit, would work the best. Staff also wanted to make the current parking exemption process much easier and efficient and added this to the overall desired solution. The current exemption software is increasing $10,000 for FY23. After further conversations and demonstrations from vendors, staff was able to further define the scope of the project. The parking permit/enforcement solution should have all the following components:
• Electronic based permit system for applications, approvals, and payments including renewals and automatic notifications of permit expirations.
• LPR cameras at the entrances /exits for capturing license plates integrated with the permit processing application to easily identify non-permitted vehicles and notify the police.
• Potential to have on-site pay stations.
• Scalable solution to deploy at other parking lots and downtown for on-street spaces.
• Automate the exemption process and integrate it with the same permit parking solution so residents have one portal to go to for all things parking related.
• Options for charging a daily rate for overnight parking if implemented in the future.
Estimated costs for an all-inclusive solution is approximately $60,000 with recurring annual vendor costs of $12,000- $15,000.
Board and staff discussion focused on permits are $50.00 each or two for $83.33; in-house system too cumbersome; permit revenue will cover the cost of a new system; parking exemptions are for guests; systems are all scalable and can be added-on as the Village grows; 190 permits issued currently; allowing more permits until May 1st; agreed to reserve at least 185; Reserve at Hudson Crossing building is fully occupied; Tyler Technologies offers a parking module that would need to be purchased, but it doesn’t have an exemption module; seeing how much the parking garage is used by the community; the vendors have expertise with parking permits; staff to look into creating an app; LPR systems require certificates; won’t reduce staff, but will get staff time back; should be more efficient with enforcement; received $105,000 in parking permit revenue so far; maintenance is under $5,000 and will go up; now is the time to get into a new system; whether the pool is still leaking; Shodeen thinks they have fixed the leak, but will know more once the pool is filled; any damage to the parking garage will be paid by Shodeen per the agreement; current exemption software rates are increasing by $10,000; adjudication software hosts the exemption module; entire software program going up; staff will shop around for a different adjudication software; Parking Fund will pay for the new parking system; exemption costs paid through IT; whether parking has caused issues; it takes two hours for an officer to go through the garages and check plates; new solution will only list the violators; should drop the time spent to 10-15 minutes by the officer; low violation rate in the garage; violations are $55.00; pay station machine is $60,000 inclusive of everything; will have a QR code and mobile app; pay station does not make sense; option to pay a daily overnight fee; concerns with fees and costs in not being able to payoff the money due for the development. There was no further discussion.
CLOSED SESSION
There was no closed session held.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 7:07 p.m.
https://www.oswegoil.org/home/showpublisheddocument/4822/637844106398500000
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