HomeMy WebLinkAbout13 POLICY ON VOLUNTARY DONATIONS 03-04-08AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: March 4, 2008
TO: William A. Huston, City Manager
FROM: Ronald A. Nault, Finance Director
SUBJECT: VOLUNTARY DONATIONS ON WATER BILLS
SUMMARY:
Per the City Council's request, we have investigated the possibility of allowing for voluntary
donations on our Water Bills along the lines of a similar program in Chandler, Arizona. There
does not appear to be any legal issue and we can request a modification to our existing billing
software to provide a donation option.
RECOMMENDATION:
Pleasure of the Council.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approximately $1,000 of programming cost, an additional $250 in annual maintenance fees, and
about $1,000 to print new Water Bills prior to run out of existing stock. We can absorb these
costs within our current Customer Service budget.
DISCUSSION:
Because our Utility Billing system is so highly automated, we asked our software vendor to look
into the addition of this option while minimizing manual inputs. They have developed two
alternatives for us that can be implemented at an estimated cost of $1,000 and a yearly
maintenance fee of around $250.00. Both will require pre-enrollment but will minimize additional
staff time to receive and record the donations.
For there to be any expectation that a program of this nature will be successful it will take a
significant amount of work and publicity on the front end. Of our total utility accounts of 14,000,
only about half are within the Tustin city limits, the balance are within the unincorporated County
area. While we may target all customers we should be realistic and expect our highest rate of
involvement to come from our citizens/customers. The Chandler program has about a seven
percent participation rate. A similar rate in Tustin would generate as much as $5,800 if we had
across the board participation. They will probably want to know where their donation dollars will
go and why. They may ask to direct their donation to a specific charity or City program -how will
we respond? Since we are suggesting apre-enrollment program we should send out information
with enrollment forms prior to sending out new Water Bills.
Based on the information we now have, we know that we are not legally prohibited from a voluntary
program of this nature and we can cost effectively modify our billing system to accept donations.
We should think of what we can do to generate public interest in this program. What will the City's
policy be regarding the recipients of the donations? Will we open it up to any and all non profits? If
we limit to one or maybe two, how will they be selected? Once we have identified the potential
stake holders we should discuss how they can participate with information letters, flyers, etc. to
encourage participation in the program.
We can proceed at the pleasure of the Council.
Ronald A. Nault
Finance Director
VoluntaryDonationsOnWaterBillsStaffReport. doc