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Niles council reviews recovery plan

NILES — The mayor is required to submit a fiscal emergency recovery plan annually to the state and Wednesday night marked the eighth time — in four years, under three mayors — that the plan has been revised.

City council heard a first reading of the plan, which includes a number of new items. The city has to have a positive five-year forecast and must submit recovery plans annually before it can be released from fiscal emergency by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost. Niles was placed in fiscal emergency in 2014 with several funds operating at a deficit, the largest of which was a more than $2 million deficit in the water fund.

Water-related items are a big portion of the items outlined in this most recent plan.

The city intends to demolish the water building, which has been deemed unusable and unsafe, and buy an existing building on property on Summit Street. The property has acreage and is near the wastewater plant and will be used as a “multi-use facility” to house the water, sewer and street departments. Other water-related items included paying approximately $40,000 for a geographic information systems analysis to map all city water lines and adjusting water rates to generate an additional $700,000.

Additional revenue will be realized largely through adjustment of the rates customers pay based on their meter size. Monthly fixed costs currently are not based on meter size and the city is losing out on money as a result, Niles Mayor Steve Mientkiewicz said.

Councilman Ryan McNaughton, D-at large, said commercial costs are “grossly negligent.” Larger commercial customers with larger meters are paying the same fixed cost as homeowners and using larger infrastructure, McNaughton said.

For example, a commercial customer with a 10-inch meter should be paying a fixed rate of $835 per month based on a recent rate study. Right now, such customers pay $5 and the city is proposing that be pushed to $30, Mientkiewicz said, noting the reason the city is only proposing a $25 increase is “to prevent rate shock.”

However, in the future, the city needs to consider bringing that number closer to the national average of $835 per month for those with larger meters, Mientkiewicz said. Every single penny realized through the increase will be used on infrastructure projects, he said. The increase for residential customers will be $1 per month, Mientkiewicz said.

“Infrastructure needs to be addressed,” Mientkiewicz said. “This town is old and infrastructure is crumbling day by day.”

The city is also going to implement a policy specific to how utility shutoffs are handled. There are issues in the billing department and a clear practice on how payments are accepted is needed, Mientkiewicz said.

Councilwoman Linda Marchese, D-3rd Ward, disagreed with completely removing the ability of people to set up payment plans, especially those who are on fixed incomes raising grandchildren who might not be able to afford a large water bill at times.

For too long, the city has allowed “arrangements” in regard to utility payments and it isn’t going to happen anymore, said Service Director Tony Flarey. Arrangements and agreements are being made with customers by people operating the billing office and a city can’t operate that way if it wants to properly fund departments and maintain infrastructure, Flarey said.

“That practice has happened in the past which got us into a situation where we had huge bills with certain individuals and they never get caught up,” Flarey said.

Mientkiewicz said on his second day on the job, he was approached by someone asking him to dictate what they pay and when they pay it. That’s no way for city government to operate, he said.

“If you are delinquent, you need to pay it or your utilities are shut off,” Mientkiewicz said. “We are going to run this place like a business.”

City Auditor Giovanne Merlo said submission of the plan, which shows positive fund balances across the board and general fund cash balances of $2.6 to $3.3 million from 2018-2022, is one aspect of several things required in order to be released from fiscal emergency. The others are institution of a capital asset management program and finalizing reports on accounting methods, which Merlo said are diligently being worked on and in progress.

Merlo said he intends to request for release from fiscal emergency in December.

“The recovery plan is one piece to get us released from fiscal emergency and the other ones we are still working on,” Merlo said. “My goal is by year’s end to have all of those implemented and I will request release from the state auditor’s office.”

jwysochanski@tribtoday.com

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