[Music] Down. Down. [Music] Down. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Number [Music] Hey, hey hey. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Oh. Hey I'm Heat. Heat. Ah ah. [Music] Oh. Oh. [Music] Ooh. [Music] Ooh. Oh. Oh. [Music] Hey [Music] hey down. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down. Hey [Music] a new [Music] Hey everybody. [Music] Okay. [Music] [Music] Hello. Hello. [Music] Daddy. Oh. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] And the first item is the agency grant recommendations. And I have a bunch of folks I think presenting. Katie Conjurs from budget, Nick Doula from housing, Tony Gatson from the arts commission, and Robert Courts from human relations. Hello. Oh, and I should say I always uh that we have two excused absences today, Jonathan Lambert Melton and uh Christina Jones. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Katie Conurs and I am the grants program manager in budget and management services. The focus of this presentation will be our FY26 agency grant recommendations. Here is today's agenda. First, I will provide a quick overview of the City of Raleigh Grants Program. Following the overview, I will invite representatives from the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, the Human Relations Commission, and our Housing and Neighborhoods Department to present their respective programs, agency grant recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year. As we have a full agenda this afternoon, I will keep this overview very brief. The city of Raleigh offers competitive grant programs in three areas that we will discuss today. Arts, community enhancement, and human services. Per council policy, the maximum funding request for any agency is 25% of that agency's prior year actual operating expenditures. Agencies may only receive awards in two grant categories. So, for example, an organization may receive funding through both the Raleigh Arts and Human Services grant programs. Finally, all agencies that make funding requests of $25,000 or more must submit an audit to be reviewed by our finance department. Before we share the specific recommendations for each area, I wanted to show a breakdown of the funding recommendations for our human services grants, arts grants, and direct allocations for human services and arts residence companies. These awards are made from the city's general fund, and the recommendations total $4.37 million for FY26. This does not include community enhancement grants or CEG which are funded by the community development block grant or CDBG. This is an additional $200,000. Our next presenters will provide further details on their recommendations. With that, I would like to invite Tony Gadston, the vice chair and grants committee chair of the city city of Raleigh Arts Commission to the podium to present recommendations for grant funding. Good afternoon, Mayor Cowell and members of city council. On behalf of the Raleigh Arts Commission, I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support of the arts in Raleigh. Your commitment to public investment in the arts ensures that creativity, inclusion, and cultural vibrance remain central to our city's identity and future. My name is Tony Gadston, chair of the Raleigh Arts Partner Program Committee and vice chair of the arts commission. As you know, the arts grant program is one of the city's most impactful tools in supporting a wide range of arts organizations and projects. These investments help us realize the Raleigh Arts Plan Creative Life vision, one that sees the arts as essential to community well-being, education, and cultural equity. Did I go in the wrong direction? There we go. This past year, we've seen meaningful results. Nearly 7,000 children were served through arts education programs supported by grant funding. Notable examples include Community Music School, which offers $1 music lessons and instruments to families facing economic hardships. Raleigh Music Collective, which provides instruction to local refugee families. the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute, which presents free popup Changer perform chamber performances in parks, libraries, and senior centers. We are also excited to highlight this year's Raleigh Parks Children's Day and youth music taking place this Saturday, April 26. Taking place Saturday, April 26 from 1 to 5:00 at Moore Square. This collaborative event in partnership with the consulate of Mexico will feature free performances by the Triangle Youth Music Consortium and engaging arts activities throughout the afternoon. We warmly warmly invite the mayor and city council members to join us and witness the power of arts grant funding in action. This year, 35 organizations submitted grant application requesting over 2.3 million in funding after a thorough review process led by a committee of four arts commissioners and 11 community panelists with expertise in nonprofit management, finance, community engagement and the arts. We are recommending funding for 34 organizations totaling 1.86 million in support. A new applicant recommended for funding this year is Little Raleigh Radio, an online platform dedicated to amplifying local voices through radio, podcasts, and workshops. Their grant will support a jazz festival featuring local musicians and youth jazz ensembles. The application process remains focused on fairness and equity with each proposal evaluated against consistent criteria, artistic merit, organizational management financial accountability, and community engagement. These grants are not just investments in individual organizations. They are investments in our neighborhoods, our youth, and the creative life that makes Raleigh such a vibrant, inclusive city. Finally, we respectfully request that city council approve the FY 20 2526 arts grant funding recommendations as presented. Thank you again for supporting the arts in our community. Great. Thank you for all the work uh and the presentation questions for Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again to Tony Gadston for sharing those recommendations with council. Next, I will invite Robert Courtz, secretary for the city of Raleigh Human Relations Commission to present recommendations for grant funding. Did our slide make it? How do we advance? There's a cover slide. I don't Is there a presentation? There you go. Okay. Uh, mayor, steam council. My name is Robert Courtz and I have the pleasure to serve as the secretary of the human relations commission. And this year I was co-chair of the human relations grant committee. The human relations commission works to promote human dignity, equal opportunity, and harmony among Raleigh's residents. We have the task to promote activities and programs for residents without regard to race, color creed gender age sexual orientation, or national origin. Uh today, I'm here to request that y'all approve uh our grant recommendations. uh HRC uh has the challenge to present grants to nonprofits that deliver needed services to lowincome residents including older adults, youth, housing insecure and persons with disabilities. Um this year we had uh two sets of nonprofits applying. We had 31 competitive nonprofits. These are small or large uh nonprofits where the commission gets to review. Uh and then there are seven legacy nonprofits that uh provide applications uh and then the Humans Relation Commission's reviews but have no input on their approval. of the 31 competitive nonprofits, uh we were able to review and award $810,500 to these nonprofits. Um our process is fairly simple. Uh we have first provided by the city a matrix which does a fine job of helping individual human relations commissioners to vet each and every one of the 31 nonprofits. It provides a scoring system. After that uh we meet as a committee and uh have the hard task of deciding how to actually appropriate the monies because there's always more requested than provided. Um however our process uh did result uh in the awarding of 810,500 to 31 legacy grants and we ask that you approve our recommendations. Okay. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Courts? Okay. Thank you. Thank you to Robert Courtz for that presentation. Finally, I will invite Nick Doula, compliance and planning manager with our housing and neighborhoods department to the podium to present recommendations for community enhancement grants. Hey, good afternoon mayor and council and city manager. I'm Nick Doula with the housing neighbors department and I'll be talking about our community enhancement grant recommendations. So the community enhancement grant um program is uh designed to provide funding awards to nonprofits that serve low and moderate income uh households and communities. Uh each year the grant is funded with $200,000 in federal dollars $200,000 in federal funds from the community development block grant. uh staff uses a competitive request for proposal u process to make the funding awards. This year uh 14 funding proposals were submitted and a panel of city staff reviewed and scored the proposals. Staff is recommending funding awards for the four proposals that received the highest um scores. The four agencies that are being recommended for funding are uh Consumer Education Services, StepUp Ministries, the Green Chair Project, and Oak City Cares. And with that, we are just asking that city council approve the recommendations. I can answer any questions. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Doula? Okay. Thank you. So that is the last of the presentations. Um if there are any questions okay is there if there's no questions is there a motion? Okay. No what I believe historically happens if we don't have any question objections they take it and it'll be implemented within the budget and then it'll be approved when the budget is approved. Okay. So, we don't need a formal approval today. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have the Raleigh Water Enterprise with Whit Wheeler. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Whit Wheeler with Raleigh Water, and thank you for having me here today to present our fiscal year 26 budget. Our agenda for today, uh, we're going to talk about Raleigh Water by the numbers. I want to highlight some of the work that our operating divisions are doing each year. We'll talk about our operating budget. Uh, we'll talk about our capital improvement program, go over our rate model, our rate recommendation, and we'll also give you an update on our customer assistance program. So last year, our water distribution division inspected and performed preventative maintenance on over 26,000 fire hydrants in the service area. And of course, we do that to make sure that it's available for public safety. And that's we we've added over 3,000 hydrants in the last 5 years. our our um utility locating group performed over 244,000 811 tickets last year to make sure our infrastructure is safe. And we also responded to 223 water main breaks last year. I just want to point out that most of that happens outside of normal hours. So that's managed mostly through on call staff. And to date we have over 2500 miles of water man and we've added about 177 miles in the last five years. Our water treatment division um last year our state certified laboratory staff executed over 23,000 laboratory samples to make sure that we have safe drinking water that meets all state and federal requirements. and our operations staff produced over 21 and a half billion gallons to meet federal and state requirements 100%. Our development review group uh processed over 5800 plan reviews last year and you can see the 5-year trend. Uh we we've stabilized. We we saw a peak in fiscal year 22, but there's a lot happening. our meters division. Last year they set over 7,000 new meters to support new construction. They also replaced over 9,000 aged meters. Um they were responsible for managing the testing of almost 23,000 backflow preventers to keep our water system safe. And to date, we have over 217,000 total metered services in the service area. And again, that's that's up 31,000 in the last five years. our customer care and billing group. Last year they took over 217,000 calls and managed almost 27,000 customer engagements which are online requests and email requests. Uh but one thing you can see here is our customers uh like to talk with our representatives. Our sewer maintenance division cleaned over 488 miles of sewer mane, performed over 24,000 high priority inspections, which are sewers that are located mostly near surface water bodies, inspected over 6,000 manholes, and to date we have over 2600 miles of sewer man. Added about 217 miles in the last 5 years. Resource recovery. Last year we treated almost 20 billion gallons of waste water. Our nutrient removal process we were able to remove over 7 million pounds of nitrogen. And I'm excited to report that our new bio energy um process that we completed is up and running. We're seeing 66% reduction in solids, which if you look at truckloads, we've gone from 75 truckloads down to 25 truckloads a week. So just a recap of system growth. So we now have over thou 5,000 miles of water and sewer main in the system. That's enough water man to go from Raleigh to Los Angeles and enough sewer to come back to Raleigh. Um again over 26,000 hydrants, over 82,000 manholes, 126,000 sewer pump stations, over 103,000 water valves. Um again almost 32,000 that we've added in the last five years. So our fiscal year 26 operating budget is just over $372 million this year. 48% of that is for our operating costs which is for our personnel, our chemicals energy materials supplies software, everything it takes to provide water and sewer service. And 52% of this budget is for cap our capital budget. Um 32% of that is where we use cash to finance projects and the remaining 20% is for debt service. Our 10-year capital improvement plan is just over $2.2 billion. Um, pipe replacement still remains the largest category for that budget at 32% 11% for water, 21% for sewer. At a very close second this time, our water treatment plant improvements. Um, most of that is going to be spent at the EM Johnson water treatment plant. We're expanding that plant significantly. Um, wastewater treatment plant improvements have reduced a little since we've had some larger projects, but still at 13%. Maintaining our upgrades to our wastewater pump stations about 13% and then all others which are facilities, software upgrades, resiliency projects, and so forth make up 11%. Uh, just a few highlights here. Um, some of our our larger projects, the Durant Road water transmission main is a resiliency project and and necessary to support the backbone of our water system, $27 million. Um, we will be upgrading the Smith Creek Resource Recovery Facility in Wake Forest in the next few years at 62 million. And again, I already mentioned the EM Johnson Water Treatment Plant expansion. We're looking at about $375 million there. and we'll increase the capacity of that plant from about 82 million gallons per day to 120 million gallons per day. So, at our um council retreat, council member Branch asked for an update on the Little River Reservoir project and so I put this slide in to give a quick update. So, um, some of the recent work we've been doing indicates that we could need a new water source by 2045 if we see growth rates like we've seen in the last three or four years. Uh, but some other work we've been doing through the Triangle Water Supply Partnership, which is looking at more long-term trends and future outlooks, suggests we could possibly get to 2062. Um this basically tells us we we still need to move forward and identify and secure our next water supply source. And so we're currently working on that. Um we've studied Little River Reservoir for quite some time. We think that we could get between 70 17 and 22 million gallons per day of yield from that reservoir. That would that would give us about 20 years of capacity. Uh the next leading alternative would be a withdrawal from the Noose River just upstream of the Noose River resource recovery facility. And so we're currently studying that to see how much water that the uh the river might possibly yield and and a lot of that comes down to regulatory decisions. Okay. So our rate model review, so our assumptions this year um are as follows. We we use the first seven months of the fiscal year 25 actuals to program in. And then for fiscal year 26 forward, we are assuming a 2% growth in consumption. Uh we're prioritizing the spending of cash over um over debt financing. And of course, we're meeting all of our financial covenants and debt policies through fiscal year 30. And so our current rate recommendation looking at a 5/8 inch base water meter. We're looking at a 30 cent increase or proposing a 30 cent increase. Uh no change to the infrastructure fee or waterershed protection fee. The tier one consumption, we're looking at a 12cent increase, 20 cent for tier 2, 26 cent for tier three and irrigation, and nonresidential 15 cent. And then looking at our wastewaterbased charge, we're looking at a 33 cent increase and then no change on infrastructure renewal and a 20 cent increase on usage. And so if we look how that affects the median single family home customer in our system which uses four ccfs of water that brings the the total water and sewer bill to $55.36 $1.91 addition which is about a 3 and a.5% increase. And again this is these are the rates necessary to meet our rate model recommendations and requirements. So, this is how we compare to our other neighbors in the triangle. So, you'll see that uh Raleigh is well to the left. We're very close in line with Durham, Apex, and Kerry. Um some of our other neighbors have seen sharp increases in the last several years, primarily due to capital projects that they're having to finance. Um the proposed increase would not shift our position in this lineup. Of course, this does not include any rate increases from our neighbors. Um I don't expect much much change from Durham, Apex or Carrie, but I think some of the others could see double digit increases next year. Um I wanted to give an update on our customer assistance program. So last year we helped almost 2700 customers uh with $535,000 from that program. I'm happy to report that we still have funding available to get us through the end of this year and it looks like our funding has is very stable moving forward. You may recall last year we increased the the allocation from $240 per per customer up to $275 c. So holding strong and funding is catching is um in sync with that. So our recommendation for you today is to authorize Raleigh Water to use a proposed rate increase to begin programming and testing our billing system and to notify our largest customers for their budgeting purposes. And as we said before, the final approval will occur with the approval of the fiscal year 26 budget for the city. So with that, if you have any questions, I'll be happy. Okay. Um I'll start with councelor Harrison and then Silver and then Mayor Prom for Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks way. This is very uh useful and um love seeing that our rates are low compared to our neighbors. I wonder if you could just talk about any expectations for potential sharp increases in the future like they've had to deal with in terms of capital projects. Yeah. So, a lot of that has to do with water and sewer capacity, uh, building new green field structures. And so, one of the luxuries that we have with our existing treatment plant is, you know, we've been retrofitting the EM Johnson um plant with existing within existing basins with new technology. So, we're able to use a lot of the existing infrastructure. And so we're we're not seeing the same dollar impact that our neighbors are. Thankfully, we're we're in a good we're in a good situation there. It's still expensive, but but it's favorable. Um we're keeping a close watch, you know, on inflation. Clearly, it seems to be more so on the plant side than on the buried infrastructure side. Um but back to your point, you know, the the last several years were really sharp increases. We saw almost a doubling in pipe replacement cost in the last 3 or four years. Gotcha. Um, one more question. For folks that are wanting to enroll in some kind of a assistance program, who is eligible? How do they get into that? And are there any water conservation strategies as well that you might recommend? Yeah, so the um we we refer folks to the Wake County Health and Human Services Group because they provide all the means testing for that. And so that that is the first first stop for referring them back into the program. And you know, man managing leaks, keeping a watch on your toilets, replacing the toilet flaps is a probably the simplest thing anybody could do on a routine basis to reduce water usage. Um, personally, I saw a a significant reduction with a new washing machine, but you know, so thanks. Thank you. Okay. Well, again, thank you for the very informative presentation. Two questions. One, you mentioned that pipe replacement is an ongoing and you know, a big issue. What is the average life cycle? I know it varies from years. What's the average life cycle of a pipe? So, we have an understanding about as we build out right the city in generations. What is that timeline? What is the expectation? Thank you. Great question. So, the new ductal iron pipe that we're replacing for water manes has a predicted um lifespan of around 100 years. Wow. Okay. Now, that that's not inconsistent with what we've seen with some of the older cast iron pipe in the system. But now, when I say older, I'm talking about preWorld War II because they made things a lot differently then than afterwards. And so, a lot of the main breaks and failing infrastructure is stuff that was put in since the 40s. Okay. Thank you. Um, on the sewer side, um, you know, we use PVC and no one knows yet because it hasn't been in the ground long enough, but the testing and water research foundation indicates that they think that could last 100 years as well. Okay, that's good to know. The newer technology is lasting longer than the 40 to 50 years. Absolutely. Uh, my second question is about the Little River uh, reservoir. Years ago, there was a lot of conversation looking at that 2040. A lot of planning was going on about the primary and secondary watershed. A lot of towns were concerned about what they can build within those locations. 2045 to 2062. 2045 is still not that far off, 20 years away. Planning, environment review. Uh so when could we anticipate a decision to be made? Cuz it seemed like that was paused and a lot of development has occurred within the secondary watershed which can compromise water quality. How is that proceeding? Who's taken the lead? You I know when I was here before it was the county. It seems like there's now a different partnership. So, is that ongoing effort to look at the primary and secondary watershed so that those overlays are mapped or that's still a decision that's being deferred looking closer to 2062? So, Wake County has been looking at the planning in that area. We we um had a recent project that was starting to look at potential development, but it it got stalled for um other reasons, but it but anyway um you know, our agreements with the merger communities is that we will not extend water and sewer service into the wershed for Little River. So all that development has to take place on well and septic unless there's a you know another like third party private you know utility provider. So that is that is what we've been depending on to preserve that watershed. Now as far as having a decision I am I'm hoping to in the next two or three years we will have been able to vet out the alternatives analysis and um push something forward but that is we definitely need to secure our next water supply because it just gets more and more challenging. Thank you. So how many other municipalities do we service outside of the city of Raleigh? six. Okay. So, I don't think Okay, that does not count contract sales. So, we currently sell some water to Franklin County, um Johnson County, and uh and Fugquway Verina. And now, now those are terminal contracts. So, we we made we made the decision to put a cap on that to say we we understand you're having growth issues. We'll help you while we can, but this is a a terminal contract. So, we're planning to get that water supply back and we're planning to have that for our future growth. Does that answer your question? Kind of sort of like any idea when the contracts would terminate? Yeah, some of them would uh terminate at 2030 uh some 2032. Um, we, you know, we again with the with the planning, I think we're we're safe up to 2040, honestly. And it's if we can help our neighbors out, it's it's good for us and good for them. All right. Thank you. Branch, this is kind of a followup. Thank you, um, Mayor Promp for for the teeing this up for me. In your presentation, you showed the growth pipes and water and sewer. Can at some point maybe in a manager's update level like pull that out like how much growth is in this area or that area and in different municipalities. Yeah, we can because I think that'll also help us as council as we're making decisions and doing things. you put in, you know, million miles of pipe, but that may only be 10% in Raleigh because of the growth of our neighbors that we're supplying water to. Yeah. Yeah. We we can certainly do that. And and you're right, there's been a lot of growth in the eastern part of the county, especially last year. Councelor Patton, to round it out. Hi, Whit. Thanks for this. Yeah. Um, so you showed it that we are comparatively a budget friendly water billing system and so we're glad to see that. Um, but we do still like I am mindful in what feels like very inflationary and com you know it's a compressed time for our our residents as well who are like trying to stretch their budgets as far as possible and we are one small one small part of their larger monthly budget and they're seeing insurance rate hikes and um all sorts of things. If we were to not raise these rates, what are the sacrifices that would that what are the traits of not raising? Yeah, we we would have to go back and um look at capital project deferment. I mean, that's that's really the biggest driver of this budget. So, just capital projects broad strokes. So, that would mean we're not expanding EM Johnson. Um yeah, I don't want to forego that. it would I'd probably um take a risk on something else, but but yes, that's what we we would have to make, you know, tough decisions about what we're going to defer. If I can ask a followup to that, would that also mean that probably years later you would come back with a higher number? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So that Yeah. No, it has to it has it has to happen. So I will say, you know, honestly, since I've been here, since I've been here, we've tried to stay on a steady glide path so we we don't have to do what some of our neighbors are doing with doubled digit increases back to back. And it is. Yeah. Well, and I was going to say when I came in 01, we had to make 300 million plus in the wastewater treatment facility because there would have had been deferred or underinvestment for years, which is not a fun message and it costs more. Yeah. In the future, right? Inflation. So, I just think it's really good for us to make that clear to our residents because in the moment when they get a higher bill, it doesn't doesn't feel that way to them, right? Um and then is EM EM Johnson expansion is still on track and on budget? My communications. Yeah. So we're we're currently expanding the um sedimentation basins. The next and our chemical facilities. The next phase will be to start adding filters in Ozenation. Thank you. Well, the rate differential between us and other municipalities is pretty stark. Yeah. So, we're we're we're fortunate. City manager was going to jump in and say something a minute ago, I thought. So, I wanted to make sure. So, I think Mr. Willer kind of hit it on the the head, but in addition to what he's already offered, our um financing when we go out to the market and when we do bonds and all of that, looks at our rate models and that is taken into consideration. So, as we develop a a plan of action of how we're going to spread our debt and be able to cover um deferred maintenance long term, that is something that the rating agencies look at. And ultimately, if we were to have a significant break without having the necessary money on hand, we would have to figure out how we're going to pay for that. So, we try to have a plan every year of how much we're going to proactively address before it gets to the breakin point. All right. Um, so you're you're asking for us to make a motion in this case. I think it's go back, right? Go back a slide. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, just permission to pro program the system and notify our largest customers. Move. I move that we give Raleigh Warner permission to notify those that need to be notified about rate increases. Second. Okay. All in favor of the motion, I I. All opposed. Thank you all. Thank you so much. And basically what that will do is just as a way of notification and community um community engagement with our partners that they'll know that once the budget if when the budget is approved that it includes these particular rates. If there are some adjustments made during the approval process, then there will be different correspondents telling um everyone what the rates would be, but this allows them to make adjustments on their end as part of their budget process as well. Right. I see Mr. Miles standing there. So, next we have Storm Water Management Enterprise. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of city council. Thanks very much for the opportunity to come talk to you about storm water's fiscal year 26 budget. Always good to have a rainy day to talk about the storm water budget. I am Wayne Miles. I'm the stormwater manager for engineering services and uh this is a big year for storm water. We foreshadowed this before, but FY26 is going to be the year that stormwater uses debt service for the very first time to help fund our capital improvements project. And we're excited about that because this is really going to help us increase the level of service that we provide to our customers and deliver more of those capital improvement projects that really help make a difference for our community. It will better help us meet our mission statement to manage storm water to preserve and protect life, support healthy natural resources, and complement sustainable growth. In short, be stormwater smart and help us be the the smartest storm water program possible to economically and equitably achieve our mission. Requires a lot of collaboration internally amongst all of the elements that the stormwater program delivers, but also a lot of collaboration across other city departments as as well to to deliver projects together wherever possible to minimize impacts to the community and maximize benefits to the community. I'll talk a little bit about our year-end review and then get into our capital improvements plan um and our proposed fee change. Um I'm proud of our stormwater programs. We do a lot of great work for the community. Our rainwater rewards program helps uh fund green stormwater infrastructure on on on private properties. Our watershed studies really engage the community to help develop and understand the community's needs and prioritize our capital improvements projects. Our drainage assistance and stream stabilization programs fund um flooding, erosion, uh aging infrastructure improvements on on on private property. And then where a stream program might not be big enough to qualify for a very large stabilization project, we help teach the community through buffer builder and and and stream restoration workshops how to manage the streams on their property as well. And really all of these programs, outreach, community partnerships are essential to help understand the needs of the community and deliver the level of service that they expect. at our February 18th council um work session. Barbara Moranta, our division manager, did a really nice job giving an overview of our capital improvements plan and program. So, I I won't repeat that, but we're doing work throughout the community, green stormwater infrastructure projects, large um dam rehabilitation projects, flood neighborhood flood improvement projects um a across the the community. I'm very proud of our stormwater maintenance uh group as as well. uh in the last five years they have really gone through a major transformation from a primarily reactive program where they'd get a complaint and they'd go fix it. Now 90% of their work is planned with inspection, condition assessment, and then they make the decisions of where and how to prioritize their maintenance. And it really helps them provide a higher level of service at a at a lower cost. And it's really reflected in the numbers here in terms of the the increases in maintenance. We still have challenges though. We're a growing community. We are seeing the real effects of of climate change in our rainfall statistics. We're getting bigger storms, higher intensity storms more frequently. Um results in flooding. We have some of those 100-year-old plus pipes in the system that are that are um failing in some in some cases. And then water quality issues continue to be a challenge with a with a growing community. In addition to our capital improvements plans though, we we have very good programs. We have a a a flood plane management program that in has increased the restrictions of development in the flood plane to make our community more resilient. We have a state-of-the-art flood early warning system that helps notify our community of pending flooding to give them advanced notice um and keep them safe. And we're very proud of our green stormwater infrastructure program. This is one of the programs where we collaborate with other um city departments in their capital improvements program and provide funding to add green stormwater infrastructure on top of their projects so that we as a developer are being more sustainable and helping the community be more resilient as well. You've seen this pie chart before. I won't go through it again. Uh but we update this annually based on our watershed studies, our condition assessment and asset management program. And we've identified about $920 million of stormwater capital improvements programs. And here's how debt is going to help us deliver on on those capital improvements much more effectively. For example, fiscal year 25, which is where we are in right now, our capital improvements uh program is is about $14 million. Next fiscal year, our proposal is for a capital improvements program that will be over $31 million. And that difference is the ability to issue debt to deliver the projects that we know about much more quickly and effectively for the community. It it's also a fairer way in my opinion to pay for projects when the service life of the that infrastructure is 75 to 100 years. um it spreads out the cost of paying for that infrastructure over a longer period of time, 30 years or so. So, it's really more fair to the community, a longer period of time to pay for that infrastructure that will be in the ground and and serve the community for a long period of time. The next two slide have nine projects. Again, we talked about these in the February 18th CIP presentation, so I won't I won't review them, but I want to point out the timeline here. We are in fiscal year 25. All of these projects that we're proposing for debt are already underway. They are in the study phase, the planning phase, or the design phase. And we've intentionally done this um leading up getting a running start so that when we get our debt in in fiscal year 26 and then 27 and 28, many of these projects will be ready to go into ground, ready to construct, that's where the big funding needs are. So that's what we will use the debt for is for the construction of of these projects and that will help us deliver these even even more quickly for the community. Here's the proposal um that we're putting forth for the fee change in uh fiscal year 25. Our single family equivalent rate is $7.65. We're proposing to increase that at 57 per month for a new rate of $8.22. So, that's the median rate that most homeowners will pay per per month on their storm water on their storm water bill, which um we thank Raleigh Water. It's on the water and sewer bill for those not familiar in the city of Raleigh. That will um using our rate model project total budget to increase from 39.2 million to $42.7 million. Here's what that looks like in terms of a breakdown of operational costs and finance using um in past history, the the lower bar, the green are our operational costs. Uh the top upper part of the bar is our capital improvements. And if you look at FY26 on the on the far right, you'll see it looks a little different, and that's because that 24.4 million at the top is what we're proposing to fund using using debt financing. The other part that you'll see is a little bit different is those two smaller bars in the middle. The yellow is our pay as you go. We will continue to have a pay as you go fund to pay for the watershed studies, the rainwater rewards, those drainage assistance projects and and so forth. And then the other $7 million is um a recommendation by our finance consultant um to build up our cash in our fund balance to make us more creditworthy and make us a better risk when we go onto the market to to buy bonds. So that that's what that recommendation is for for a little bit more cash into the fund balance. Compared to our peers, um we stay right about in the same range. And I'll note there's two different types of peers. There's North Carolina utilities with stormwater utilities and then there's um southeast capital cities with with utilities. Um we're right about in the middle of those and with a proposed rate increase would also stay right in right in the middle of those. And we we believe we provide a very high level of service for for the rate compared to our peers. How how do you measure the service provided? I mean, is there another chart that shows how much catchment you're getting or I mean like for example, Asheville is on here and we all know I mean unfortunately the tragedy that they just experienced. Was their storm water I mean clearly was inadequate for what they received but how robust was it to it's it's tough to measure. We have done some some benchmarking and I and I'll note no one could be prepared for what Asheville experienced and and Helen obviously um but we have done benchmarking studies against many of these peers um and there are several programs that we have that our peer communities don't have. For example, rainwater rewards is very unusual program um in North Carolina. We get calls from throughout the country of other communities that are interested in that program and and how to implement it. The drainage assistance program is another one that is very unusual to have a program where um private properties have erosion or flooding or aging infrastructure programs and we will come in if the property owner donates an easement to us, we will fund 100% those improvements and then take over maintenance for those improvements from that point forward. So there are some programs like that that really provide a higher level of service to to the community than many of our peers. Thanks. And just a quick review. So we do use aerial photography to measure the amount of imperous area or built upon area. That's the rooftops and the driveways on every parcel. And the bill is based on on on that measurement. So most single family units will get the pill of $822. All commercial properties, we actually measure the imperous area and then we divide it by our equivalent unit, which is 2,260 ft of imperous area. So in this example, 47,000 square ft of imperous surface um ended up being 21 equivalent units. And so their monthly bill would be 21 times that rate of $8.22 22 cents for about $172 would be in this situation the monthly bill that this commercial property would would receive. And I think it's of note that in the based on the impervious area throughout Raleigh, twothirds of our revenue comes from commercial properties and one-third of it comes from from residential. We've presented this budget to the stormwater management advisory commission. They unanimously endorsed um uh it with an 80 vote to to move this forward. Of course, final rate approval will occur with the adoption of the city's FY26 budget in the city manager's bud budget proposal. And similar to Raleigh Waters recommendation uh because we use their billing system and we thank them for for that. Um we request that uh council authorize us to use the propo raise rate increase to begin programming and testing the billing system and then notify our largest 250 customers of the pending um budget uh proposal for their budgeting purposes. With that, I'd be glad to take any questions or or comments. Right. I'll start down here first and then so council patent and we'll go to council here. Okay. Hi Wayne, thanks for this. Um same question I put to Whit. Um you know absent the Raleigh water proposal for an average family home is is about $2 is about 50 cents. So we're about um sorry we're about 250 and then we still have um solid wasteway services to come up but if not if not for this rate increase what are the sacrifices our residents would be or the trade-offs we'd be making the residents yeah um certainly decisions of level of service where it would be be reduced. Much of this is being driven by that capital improvements uh program and how quickly we want to move forward with some of these larger capital improvements. There's certainly other options but we would look at you know whether we want to cut maintenance frequency or look at other operations would be options too but it would be tough decisions to to make which we would certainly welcome input. Um but the most direct impact I think would be on that capital improvements program. Yes. Okay. Just a question on um it's uh that whole graph that shows debt financing versus uh PIGO and then the fund balanced restoration. Yes, that one. Yeah. I just wonder uh could you tell us a little bit about your expectation ongoing for that fund balance restoration? Is that just this year or is that something we're going to have to do year after year? And then are we going to have to reduce the number of projects that get funded through like the rainwater rewards program? Yeah, very very good question. So, um I'll start first. The fund balance the um financial consultant recommendation is to go from three we currently have 360 days of cash on hand. The recommendation was to go to 540 days of cash on hand by the time we we issued a revenue bond which would be two years from now. And the way we do that is we would use a temporary debt service vehicle called a bond anticipation note. is basically we would borrow for two years on a temporary debt and then go to the go to the revenue bond market in two years. So we have two years to build up that fund balance. This would get us approximately halfway there. So it' be $7 million this year and approximately $7 million next year according to our to our rate model. Um the your other question about the programs, we are not proposing to reduce any of the any of the other programs. They will all fit within that $7 million of of PIGO um the the gold bar capital improvements program even though it looks like it's half as much as the year prior. Correct. That's because in the year prior we were having to fund our our larger capital improvements projects from that from that payo as as well. Got it. Thank you. Thanks. I just wanted to follow up on councelor Harrison's and this may go right to the capital finance team but I was very curious why with with uh wit you talked about a bigger payo percentage and now we're coming to the storm water and you have a much higher debt financing percentage and what is driving that that balancing act? Yeah, I think there's a couple differences here. One is Raleigh Water has been using debt for for many years and we are just getting into debt now. So there's a little bit of a transition phase that it takes and as as we get started with debt. I think the other part of it and I I may be wrong. Whit can correct me. I think he was talking about the incremental increases in his payo not the total payo in Okay. And I think you got a phone of friend coming behind you if you wanna you want to tap in. I asked her to sneak in if I said anything wrong. Thank you. Allison Bradshshire Finance actually. He was spot on. Um this would be a new credit entity for the city. Um and so we're being um very judicious and and conservative as we think about what the outlook looks like over the next couple of years. We absolutely want to make sure we're balancing PIO and debt and that is something that all the credit rating agencies look at. So, this is really just going to set us on the trajectory. Um, nothing set in stone for the next couple years as we do that initial borrowing next year. Thanks. Any other questions? Okay. If not, then we have uh right a requested motion. Yeah, I'll go ahead and make the motion to uh approve the recommended uh budget for storm water. Thank you. All in favor of the motion? I All opposed. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay. Last but not least, we have uh Greg Jenkins with Solidway Services. All right. U maybe I should start off by thanking Whit for having solid waste on his bill, too. Um so, good afternoon, mayor, council, city manager. My name is Gregory Jenkins. I am the M room director of solid waste services and I'm here to deliver our FY26 budget presentation for you. I want to start off by saying thank you for the years of support uh prior to this. Here's a our agenda for today. We're going to do a quick de uh departmental overview. We're going to have uh our key accomplishments accomplishments for FY25. Then we're going to talk about our proposed budget for FY26 and then the proposed fees for FY26, some benchmarking data, and then some recommendations. So, quick departmental overview. Solid Waste provides weekly garbage service and bi-weekly recycling yard waste services to over 127,000 households. Uh we average 60,000 collections per day. We also offer recycling dumpsters to 178 multifamily uh locations and a robust yard waste facility. Here are a few of our key accomplishments for FY25. I would like to point out too uh we um we completed our second recycling audit uh which involves dividing the city up into four quadrants and collecting over 189 tons of recycling. Uh we use the information from the audit to create outreach and education to improve the quality of our recycling collections. Lastly, I'm proud to mention our efforts as far as attracting and retaining talent. Uh, in July 2024, we had a vacancy rate of 24%. As of this month, we're down to 6%. Solidway services worked uh with the budget and finance office to develop a budget aligned with the city and departmental goals and initiatives. During this fiscal year, we also contracted with Ralph Telus to develop a dynamic rate model to use in FY27 in future years. We also for the second year uh incorporated our CIP into our FY26 budget with the annual transfer. This graph displays all the service points added since 2017. This totals over 8,000 service points. As you can see the dark line on the left with uh with 40 coming into Raleigh. You have the short line going to the north heading toward Falls of N. That's Six Forks Road. And then we have Newurn Avenue heading off to the right uh into Nightdale. The thing that you will notice is is that those points are spread throughout the city. And why is this important? Because as we have added those service points, uh we have not increased our fleet. uh we just did our normal replacement schedule or nor have we increased our staff during that period of time. Um we have averaged over 1,000 uh additional homes per year and this does not include multifamily or the central business district. As we examine our revenue and expenses before any rate or fee changes, I want to point out three things to you. One, it appears that we're proposing or expecting our revenue to go down in FY26. And actually FY25, we had a 3.3 million fund balance appropriation which made that number higher. In FY26, we're projecting a 2% growth rate in the budget. Secondly, our fun our fund balance subsidy goes from 5.8 million to 500,000. We'll discuss this later. Uh third, it appears that we're expecting our expenses to decline by point4%. So let's explore that a little bit further. Personnel costs as you know is going up with merit increases, continuous service initiative, the comp study and other benefits. Typically when it comes to landfill postclosure, year-over-year you will see a decrease but we did change um our vendor and we do due diligence. We are seeing a slight increase in our landfill postclosure at least for the next year. And then we have customer care and billing are going through a system upgrade and we have to pay in our portion of that upgrade. And then we also decreased our CIP transfer going into this year. And here are the numbers behind some of the things I talked about. uh the decrease of 1.3 million is made up of 1.1 $1 million in the CIP transfer going down from the prior year. And as some of you may remember, uh the CIP last year was the first year that solid waste had a CIP program. So here's our proposed uh monthly rate increases. You will see here where we are we are suggesting that we have an increase of u a$185 which is consistent with our 5-year plan that was presented to council last year and that for 7.7%. We also are proposing that we increase our yard waist tip fee. Uh when we benchmark against other municipalities in our region our fees are $5 to $10 cheaper than they are right now. and that includes Durham and Meckllinburgg and others. We're also going to be simplifying our yard waste sales uh to better meet the needs of our customers and we you will find more details about that in our fee schedule that comes out within the budget. And lastly, as we transition to a full enterprise, it was important to review all the services that we provide to the community. This led us to recommend a change in our bulky pickup from a free service every 90 days to a $35 per pickup fee. And just to clarif that was coming out of the study that y'all did where you you benchmarked other communities. Yes. And that's also a c part of the cost recovery. Yeah. Here is a historical look at our fees going back to 2016. And as you can see these fees varied uh when you you know the further you go back but we are trying to stabilize that so it becomes more predictable which we we will know how it's going to impact our customers going forward. And you can see the $25.95 monthly fee. Here's a comparison of our peers. Uh you can see we're kind of in the middle. But one of the things I would like to point out is that not all jurisdictions deliver the same service or the same level of service. And so that also plays a part into this. And it's hard to capture on a slide all the variations when it comes to um solid waste collection. When you look at just our region, you can see we're mostly on the higher end. Some of this is goes back to what I just said about the varying, you know, collection methods and things like that, but if you use it Hollik Springs, for example, they completely use a third party for their collection, but and then you have the yard way center, which is definitely a unique draw for us. So um if the rate increases and fees are approved along with a fund balance appropriation, I am happy to say we have a balanced budget and more importantly we will start FY26 as a full enterprise. Uh this is four year earlier than our original plan and the $500,000 subsidy will cover services provided to the general public. So, as I conclude, just like Raleigh water, just like storm water, I'm asking uh to for approval so we can notify our largest customers and start the programming of the system. And with that, I take questions. I somehow I knew questions were going to come. I see some eager Yeah, eager. Very eager. Okay. Council Harrison. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for this. And I want to say I'm really looking forward to the work session tomorrow um about the yard waste center and we're thinking about organic composting as well as our loose leaf collection. So I won't bug you about that right now. Um but I just wanted to ask and I I think I brought this up before and maybe you can just remind me. Have we talked or considered what it would be like to have recycling every week and trash every other week? you know, has that ever been a consideration by the city? Um, in my time, I can say we haven't had that conversation. I think we have been focused on maintaining the services that we're providing and delivering it with at the level of expectation that's in front of us. Um, tomorrow when we talking about the loose leaf, we did explore that as far as a part of that adjustment, but we have not um at least since July. Okay. Thank you. And I'm also curious about our comparison cities. I noticed they're a little different I think from solid waste to storm water to water. I don't know if you can speak to that. Do we have one group of cities that we always look to or does it really depend on the department? It depends on the It depends on the department and also the service delivery because not everybody is an appletoapple comparison. Some communities don't do recycling at all. And to kind of go back to add to what Mr. Jenkins said about the recycling. One of the main service delivery questions, complaints, concerns we get is solid waste services. If we were to suggest that we were going to do solid waste pickup every other week, they were going to run every single one of us at this table out of town. Um, our residents would all sign up. We'd have a thousand people signed up on the list to speak to us because not everybody recycles. And what we've done in years past is kind of enhanced and elevated our recycling program from the educational perspective to encourage that. But I I don't think we would recommend swapping those two off because we might have a mutiny on us if that were were the case. Yes. So I'm trying to keep us all up here at the table. Definitely. Thank you for the information and presentation. One of the things that you mentioned one of your slides is that equipment and staffing your numbers has not increased in a number of years and I know staffing falls within the city manager and what's appropriate to each department but have you do you have a study or do you have data on what how much is needed based on our growth and projected growth to an additional staffing? So understanding that um we have not necessarily grown our workforce to meet the growing demands of this community as part of the staffing study that we have talked about about public safety. It's not only public safety that we're looking at. We're also looking at our operational departments because the demand on solid wasteway services as I say to you from a planning and development perspective is just as great um sometimes greater than in public safety when it comes to making sure we're able to meet those routes. So that too is part of the staffing study that's going to come back to us later on this year. Okay. Thank you and congratulations on becoming full enterprise early. Yes. So that should mean there's no $4 million needed in the next year's budget, right? Yes. Yes. So if you all if you all approve these Yeah. Like with this I don't want to get ahead of myself and make sure get enough votes, but yes. Yes. Yeah. And again, that will allow us in the general fund to take that general fund revenue to spend on general fund activities and not um supplement activities that really should be self-sufficient. Right. Um I'll mayor promp first and then councelor silver. So Mr. Jenkins, I don't have a question for you, but I actually wanted to congratulate you on being able to reduce the vacancies within the department. I know that's been an ongoing challenge for quite some time. So sort of surprised and my ears perked up when you said that. So congratulations on being able to um you know accomplish that milestone for the department. Thank you. Well, first Mr. Jenkins, congratulations and I'll get to a question in a second cuz I read a big operations and I just Well, let me ask that question first. You said you added all these new points that you had to deliver service without increasing staff and vehicles. How did you do that? I mean, I'm just trying to think of the math, which you're adding more points on a route. You're not adding days. Did the days get longer? Did they drive faster? I'm just trying to figure out not faster. They don't drive faster. No, no, no. No, sir. That's impressive. I mean, it it goes out to the people that are serving this city cuz we all know new subdivisions open up, new new points on a route, and certain areas. I'm sure you have the city broken up into district or sectors just so that we understand with not getting you know the staff you need and I'm glad a study's underway to keep up with that growth how we able to do it right so I think one I will point out that um our ASLs are we call them the one armed bandit right I think that allows us to become more efficient in certain areas right and I think one another aspect of we have been rebalancing routes to try to get those things in line. Um, but ultimately, I mean, it come down to staff. Um, our staff are working hard to get those things done. Um, on a day-to-day basis, uh, we have explored different options, right? Moving things around as far as moving days of the week and things like that, which we try not to do because then another mutiny will happen. Um, but I think at the end of the day, uh, I think we're at a point now where we're lean and, uh, like staffing and trucks are just going to be needed to kind of maintain. We've been able to absorb so far, but ultimately, you know, we have to look forward and I think the employee the employee staffing study. I have a question for city manager cuz again I was involved in another huge operation but out of service vehicles when is it at a point going forward when it'll be very difficult with existing staff and equipment and we all know that there were out of service vehicles. When is it a point we're saying, you know something, this is the time when we're going to have to start getting serious about adding more vehicles and it takes some time, I'm sure, to order trucks and start to training staff. Are we 18 months out, a year out, or that's part of the study you're going to bring to us? We're there now to be honest. Um, and basically what we're trying to maximize is rate optimization um, and route I'm sorry, route optimization to make sure that we're getting the best out of the routes as we currently know them. Secondly, we're getting on a cycle of replacement for vehicles and the addition to vehicles all throughout the organization. um we were really on a really good flow until COVID hit and it kind of slowed us up a little bit partially because of the ability to get a lot of these um heavier pieces of equipment and heavy apparatus. But we're at the point now where we're looking at that so that we'll bring forward a plan and a model through our capital budgets in the near future to be able to accommodate that growth that every time these resonings and annexations are approved at the table. I always remind you that it's not just public safety, it's also our operational departments and making sure that we've got the necessary equipment and staff in place to address the needs and growing demands of the city. In addition to to what Mr. Jenkins said, we too have looked at kind of expanding the day and the schedules of our employees. Historically, whenever you finished your route, you had the ability to go home and you were paid for whatever your daily hours of operation were. We've had to stretch that a little bit. So, employees are working a little bit longer, still getting paid the same way they've always gotten paid, but they're having to work a little bit. So, we're having to do some massaging um on that side. But again, the city has been really gracious that if you really went out and worked really hard when times were really good, you ran your route, you could go home. Now your routes are a little bit longer. You work your day, your workday ends up being a little bit longer, but we're still taking care of them in the way of pay. So there some flexibility and compromise that's come along, but we are really going to have to up our staffing numbers to meet the growing demands of the city. Last question, I'll pass to my colleague. that I see that the bulk pickup is no longer free, right? There'll now be a charge. So, everyone should be aware that once or twice a year free bulk pickup will now be cost recovery. Was it $35? $35. Yes. And I guess mine was piggybacking on that to just say how many folks currently are taking advantage of bulk pickup? Like how big is the outcry going to be here? So, uh, typically we have about 5,000 people per year who request, uh, a bulky pickup. And that's everything from one lamp to a mattress, right? And so, um, and and then we have about maybe I think it's around 30 40% that are like repeat. And you know, when you have a repeat, you typically in that 90 days, you will pay uh, $70 for that. So, what we're trying to do here is just basically say charge everybody $35. Um, one of the things that also happened was Wake County when it comes to mattresses at the landfill, they start charging $10 to dump that. So, that's an additional fee that we've been absorbing over the years that again I think it's making it a little cost inefficient to kind of keep absorbing. Councilor Patton. Yeah. Thank I'll stay on bulky load for a sec because I am one of I'm one of the people who uses bulky load almost every 90 days. So, um this feels painful for me individually, but it is cheaper than doing a private sector um haul, which are usually like $100. Um so, just for for people who haven't had to have their bulky load hauled away recently, just for reference. Um but my my questions are it's kind of a two-parter. um around like inefficient parts of the service delivery. So I did a ride along in the central business district and I know we're using those like rolloff bins same as a single family home but it's a certainly different environment and condition when like transfer food hall is using the same bin that I use at my house. Um and so and then also at the transit stops, those are they're not all the same and the person you can't use the one arm bandit, right? The person has to get out, right? Flip it in. It's pretty labor intensive. Has there been talk of revamping either of those so that they're a little more efficient? Yes. So, we're constantly in conversation with uh DRRA uh as part of their meeting to look at downtown um and how we collect down here because right now it's just inefficient. U we have a lot of cans on, you know, on the sidewalks and um and then we have the areas where, you know, they just need a larger can. Um and so I think we're in stud in the conversations at least long term about what that looks like going forward. uh we don't have a bunch of alleys that could be utilized for that. And so um we we're exploring some things to try to see what we can do to kind of make that a little bit more efficient. Um and what was the second part of the question? The transit stops. Yes. Because it's a very labor intensive. Yeah. And I don't know if there's going to be a a better way of doing it. I think that I think what we're trying to do is make it as as uh appealing site appealing as possible and making sure that we're going around um on a frequent enough basis to keep the trash from overflowing and things from piling up along the side. Um and then I think education, right? I think we have to be able to communicate what that costs people, right? So the more we have to run a trash can, a trash truck to a location, the more services cost. So the, you know, if we become more efficient where we can space it out a little bit more, we're able to keep cost down and then we're able, you know, to spend that money elsewhere or maybe even look at rates. Yeah. I don't know if we have the types of relationships and maybe it's for transportation like when we design the transit stops if there was a way to put those bin the trash cans like at the curb in one that can be flipped over into the you know use the one I made or some other technology. Let me not pretend like I'm an expert, but it would be it seems like a great place to keep like working with the the providers who make the bus stops to see what efficiencies we could find. Yeah, I'll talk with Paul about that. Just one other, what are the hours of operation like the first, you know, uh moment that a trash truck can go out there and start making noise and and you know, doing the roots and then when do you have to shut it down? Um, so we have trucks leave the facility anywhere between 5:45 6 o'clock in the morning after they crew out. But, you know, it takes time to go to a particular location. So, it's going to be sometime after 6:00 when you might hear a trash truck go down the road. Uh, typically we work 10-hour days kind of like on the max end of things. Um, so you know, we try not to have a trash truck out in communities, you know, at six o'clock just because of traffic and then the transfer station is closed. So they have to bring it back to the yard and they have to go to the transfer station first thing in the morning and they don't always open. You know, their schedule is slightly different than ours. So um, so that's typical day from 5:45 to 4ish in the afternoon. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? And if not, I think we have a request again for a motion. Yeah, just move approval of making there needed notifications of the recommendations. Second. Okay. No other discussion then. All in favor of the motion I. All oppose, nay. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that concludes our work session. Thank you. That's