Item #11B STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FACTS
FACTS AND HISTORY
I have lived in Naples since 1977. We had several events that caused flooding,
including the No Name Storm, hurricanes Andrew, Wilma, Irma and most recently
tropical storm Gordon.
The County has an obligation to manage stormwater. The financial component of
stormwater is in the transportation budget. This is because stormwater management
primarily affects road flooding. Stormwater management is based on swales, ditches,
canals, and drainage areas adjacent to roadways.
The County now wants to raise 18 million dollars and tell you that stormwater
management is a utility service to your individual developed properties. This is
deceptive. The issue with flooding primarily affects our roads and streets.
The Stantec Report (p.18) explains how we arrived in this situation:
In 2004, the Board of County Commissioner's approved a Stormwater
Management Funding Policy which dedicated 0.15 mils of ad valorem
solely to the funding of stormwater capital improvement projects.
However, during the economic downturn following 2008, the funding levels
were redefined by a resolution that would allow the County to fund "up to
0.15 mils per year." As a result of this change in the funding policy, the
level of funding for stormwater management in the County in subsequent
years ended up being significantly reduced.
The County recognized that it needed $13 million/year for Stormwater
Management. Instead of fully funding this important component of our community, they
cut $7 million from the allocation for the last 7 years:
Figure 3.1 - Historical Ad Valorem Funding for Stormwater Management
$14
$12
$10
$8
0
V $6
$4
$0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
FISCAL YEAR
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1
ji J )34i
In fact the County reduced funding from 2017 — 2018 for stormwater
management by over $1,700,000.00 as shown at page 60 of the 2018 Adopted Budget
Summary:
Collier County Government
Fiscal Year 2018 Adopted Budget
Summary of Budget by Fund
FY 16/17 FY 17118
Fund Adopted Adopted Budget
Fund Title No. Budget Budget Change
Stcr %-ater Operations I (324) 26 800 42 000 -95 47%
Stc iter Capital I c'.ernent Projects (325) 2 800 _. :75 300 -12 62%
These two line items total $6,117,400. This figure should be increased by adding
funding allocated by the County found on table 3.10 at the Stantec Report page 22:
Table 3.10 - Revenue Pro'ections
Expenditure Type by Fund FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023
General Fund(001)Incorporated 1,627,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000
General Fund(111)Unincorporated 4,268,000 { 4,268,000 4.268,000 4,268,000 4,268,000
Big Cypress Basin 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000
.
Interest/Miscellaneous 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000
Gas Taxes(Road Maintenance) 870,000 870,000 870,000 870,000 870,000
BP/RestoreAct 500,000 1,000.000 1,000,000 1,000,000
Total Annual Revenues $7,815,000 $8,688,000 $9,188,000 $9,188,000 $9,188,000
Table 3.10 uses only annual revenue from the general fund under items 111 and
001 to come up with the $7.8 million dollars. The 2018 Adopted Budget amounts on
lines 324 and 325 should be added to that figure resulting in $13,932,300.00 that should
be available for stormwater management.
You should note in the summary of the Adopted Budget 2018, the County
reduced the Stormwater Operations budget by 95%. The County paid $926,800 for
Stormwater Operations in 2016-2017 and reduced it to $42,000.00. The County's
allocation of$42,000,00 will not even pay for two employees with shovels and a pickup
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truck to maintain swales and ditches. The County also took almost a million dollars out
of Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects. The County needs to return to the funding
levels of 2008 and 2009 to fulfill its obligation to the citizens and taxpayers of Collier
County.
UTILITY SCHEME
The County proposes this scheme to raise over $18 million as new money
instead of applying the present funding to meet an $18 million target. By raising $18
million with this fee, the County releases $13,832,300.00 to itself. The County takes this
money and spends it elsewhere.
So what does the County intend to use the money for? The Stantec Report at
page 25 says the County needs 8 vacuum trucks, 15 dump trucks, 5 excavators, and
some additional equipment. The capital cost of this equipment is 8 million dollars:
Table 4.2 -Stormwater Maintenance Enhanced Level of Service
Additional Categories of Annual Capital Cost of
Maintenance
Staffing Additional Burdened Equipment Capital
Activity
(FTE's) FTE's Staffing Costs Requirements Equipment
Storm Sewer
Vacuuming
8 Maintenance,
Curb Inlet Cleaning 16 8 Equipment $664,000 8 Vac Trucks $4,160,000
Operators
Catch Basin Cleaning `
5 Heavy
Equipment
Operators, 5
Roadside Swale Crew Leaders, 15 Dump
Cleanin 40 15 $1,765,000 Trucks, 5 $3,125,000
9
Maintenance, Excavators
10 Equipment
Operators
1 Equipment
Street Sweeping 1 $45.000
Operator
Alternative
Outfall Ditches 1 3 Heavy Excavator,Long
Secondary System 3 Equipment $168,000 Reach $1,020,000
Operators Excavator. Bull
Dozer
Total 60 $2,642,000 (( $8,305,000
*The County has a street sweeper that is currently not utilized and therefore just additional staffing is
required to enhance level of service.
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This is a non-recurring charge. We buy this equipment. We don't have to buy it
every year. There is no annual component for the purchase of this equipment. Naturally,
we are going to have to pay people to operate the equipment. The staffing estimate is
$2.6 million. If the County replaced the $1.7 million that they took out of the Stormwater
Operation and Stormwater Projects Capital and Improvements in 2018, there would be
a shortfall of less than $1 million.
If they returned to funding levels in place 10 years ago, the County would have
unrestricted use of over $14 million to apply to Stormwater Management. This is more
than enough money to cover the salaries of the people to operate the equipment, and
buy the equipment outright.
The County wants to create a new funding source for$18 million every year not
linked to your taxes. This results in a new bureaucratic organization to assess collect,
supervise and generate reports that are clearly not needed at this point.
The Stantec report on page 48 has table 7.1 Stormwater Cost of Service:
Table 7.1 -Stormwater Cost of Service
Function Annual Cost* % of Total Type of Expenditure
Customer Service/Admin 500,000 2.21% System-Wide
Regulatory/Water Quality 300,000 1.20% System-Wide
Engineering/ System Planning 1,200,000 5.72% System-Wide
Pipes / Inlets/Catch Basins - O&M 1,900,000 8.59% Local
Swales-O&M 3,100,000 14.32% Local
Streets-O&M 200,000 0.76% Local
Canals-O&M 1,200,000 5.53% Backbone
Outfall Ditches/Secondary- O&M 900,000 3.93% Backbone
Capital 12,500,000 57.74% Backbone
Total $21,800,000 100.00%
*Full annual costs, not including annual$1 million from Big Cypress Basin
This table is inappropriately labeled "Stormwater Cost of Service" because it
contains a Capital Projects component. The Capital Project charge is $12,500,000.00.
Without that component, the annual cost of service for the stormwater is $9,300,000.00.
Which does not include an additional $1 million being paid by the Big Cypress Basin.
As you can see on table 3.6, the budgeted revenues are $8,299,200:
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.
Table 3.6 -Total Historical and Bud eted Revenue Stormwater Revenues
Expenditure Type Actual Actual Actual Budget Budget
FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018
General Fund(001)Incorporated 4,939,343 4,843,790 1,776,764 2,752,000 1,865,800
General Fund(111)Unincorporated 1,300,000 1,050,000 4,011,800 4,172,000 4,267,900
Big Cypress Basin 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000
' Interest/Miscellaneous 4 70,512 148,966 127,389 121,700 153,100
Gas Taxes(Road Maintenance) 858,600 870,300 I 871,100 871,500 870,000*
Carry Forward 100,600 122,800 64,900 267,400 143,500
Total Annual Revenues $8,269,055 $8,035,856 $7,851,953 $9,184,600 $8299,200
`Table assumes backfill from road maintenance in FY 2018 budget
This shows that the amount needed to meet the projected cost of service is just over$1
million. There is no reason for the County to be charging improved property owners $18
million every year for stormwater management.
Finally, the report deals with levels of service and claims some arbitrary industry
standard level of service that is greatly increased from what we currently have:
Table 4.1 -Stormwater Infrastructure Maintenance Current Level of Service
Maintenance Activity Current.Staffing Current Level of Typical Industry
(FTE's) Service Standard
Storm Sewer Vacuuming 26.7 Year Cycle 5 to 10 Year Cycle
Curb Inlet Cleaning 24.7 Year Cycle 4 to 5 Year Cycle
4
Catch Basin Cleaning 37.2 Year Cycle 4 to 5 Year Cycle
Hydro Dynamic Units Cleaning 1 Year Cycle Current Level Appropriate
Roadside Swale Cleaning 14 56.5 Year Cycle 10 to 15 Year Cycle
30 Day cycle for all
Street Sweeping 3 streets.2 week cycle for 2 Week cycle for all
high volume primary streets
Contract Spraying Inspected Monthly,Spray Current Level Apprapdate
as Required
Contract Mowing 2 Week cycyclele and 20 day Current Level Appropriate
Tree/Vegetation Removal As Required Current Level Appropriate
Outfall Ditches I Secondary3 Defined 1.5 and 10 year
System digging cycle
PuStrumpture, Equipment and Programmed
cMaintenance 4 Maintenance Current Level Appropriate
The services are stormwater vacuuming, curb inlets cleaning, catch basin
cleaning and roadside swale cleaning. If this is read in conjunction with table 4.2, it
would seem that once the County gets its 8 vacuum trucks, 15 dump trucks, 5
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excavators and additional equipment for $8 million and has funding to pay the operators
for 2.6 million dollars, those levels of service may be easily achieved.
For the last 7 years the County has underfunded Stormwater Management by
over $7 million each year. This means that $49 million has been taken from Stormwater
Management. Now the Commissioners want you to pay for a stormwater management
system that they failed to fund for 7 years. Stormwater management should be a priority
with the County. Funds allocated to stormwater management should not be siphoned
off to other pet projects like affordable housing initiatives, beautification, business
development and other programs. In addition to not taking responsibly for the entire
situation, the County and the Commission are planning to charge you an annual fee of
$18 million to extend into the foreseeable future.
NOT FAIR AND NOT REALITY BASED
How does the County intend to sell this to you? They claim it is a utility. No one
believes it's a utility. We all understand that we pay our water, sewer, electric and cable
on a monthly basis because these are services delivered directly to our homes and
businesses. For the County to claim that they are providing a service to homes and
businesses based on stormwater runoff generated by impervious surfaces is false and
deceptive. This is an excuse to make us feel like we should pay more money to the
County.
Resolution No. 2018-71 is the County's definition of Stormwater:
(0) If rainfall were applied at a constant rate to an Impervious Area, the
Stormwater runoff from such Impervious Area would eventually reach a rate equal to the
rate of the rainfall. It is thus fair and reasonable to include 100% of the Impervious Area
in determining such property's Stormwater contribution to the Stormwater Management
Services.
We all live in Collier County. We have hurricanes. Stormwater only happens
when Collier County is hit by a significant rain event. The runoff is not generated by
normal summer afternoon storms. We know at some point if continuous rain falls on our
property, the amount of water falling on the property will equal the amount of water
running off the property. This occurs when the underlying property becomes saturated.
It doesn't matter if it's impervious or not. All property in Collier County generates this
runoff.
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The scheme to generate money exempts some properties from this calculation.
All Collier County Public School property is exempt. All County owned property, vacant
land and agricultural land is exempt. We know that all of these properties generate
storm water runoff, yet none contribute to pay the "utility fee".
The Stantec Report states that your property will be "Benefited Property". Your
property will not be benefited by anything other than having passable roads after
unusual and significant rainstorm events.
The Notice to Property Owner implies that the US Environmental Protection
Agency Natural Pollution Discharge Elimination System Stormwater Permitting Program
as implemented by the FDEP mandates a dedicated funding source. That is not true.
Only the County mandates a dedicated funding source.
The Environmental Protection Agency does not want contaminated water
discharged into the Gulf of Mexico. The largest contributor to contaminated discharge is
agricultural property with pesticide, fungicide and fertilizer in stormwater runoff. Yet
agricultural properties bear none of the expense in the scheme to create a separate fee.
This is fundamentally unfair to everyone for the following reasons:
a. Your property is not individually benefited as a result of the fee.
b. The County is not charging anything to agricultural property, governmental
property or vacant land.
c. Agricultural land constitutes a significant portion of Collier County.
d. Many properties have virtually no stormwater runoff, yet the County intends to
charge them the fee with only a minor reduction.
Many communities were required to form Community Development Districts to
address issues of capital infrastructure and maintenance for stormwater management.
The residents in these CDD's have already been taxed for both infrastructure and
stormwater maintenance within their communities. Those communities retain
stormwater in preserve areas and retention lakes. Absent a major hurricane, there will
never be stormwater runoff. These communities have less impact on stormwater
management system than vacant land. The County still wants to charge most of the fee
to every member of the community and commercial property within that community.
This substantiates the fact that this is an imaginary rationale for charging fees to
property owners.
The County does have some capital projects. These capital projects benefit
certain areas of the County. The residents in areas benefited by capital projects need
to have a special assessment. This will put them in the same situation as homeowners
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in CommunityDevelopment Districts.e p ment str cts. The assessments will be directly related to the
impact their properties have on the stormwater management system.
THE FUTURE
The County agreed to postpone this until next year. The County reduced the
Stormwater Utility Operations budget from $926,000 last year to $42,000 this year.
They further reduced this amount to only $10,200 in the 2019 proposed budget because
"Major funding source is User Fees":
SUMMARY OF CHANGES FROM JUNE WORKSHOP
TO THE FY 2019 TENTATIVE BUDGET
SUMMARY OF CHANGES
FROM JUNE WORKSHOP
NET CHANGE TO
FUND TITLE/(NUMBER) FUND TOTAL EXPLANATION
Stormwater Utility Operations $ (1.630,000)On the revenue side,the transfer Gunn the Stormwater Capital Fund 325
(103) decreased by$1,630,000. On the expense side,Capital Outlay decreased by
Major funding source is User Fees $1,630,000 as the expanded(new)vehicles planned for FY19 were relocated to
the Motor Pool Capital Fund 523.
The same thing occurred regarding Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects:
SUMMARY OF CHANGES FROM JUNE WORKSHOP
TO THE FY 2019 TENTATIVE BUDGET
SUMMARY OF CHANGES
FROM JUNE WORKSHOP
NET CHANGE TO
FUND TITLE/(NUMBER) FUND TOTAL EXPLANATION
Stormwater Capital(325) $ - On the expense side,the transfer to the Stormwater Operations Fund(103)was
Major funding source is User Fees. decreased by$1,630,000 and the transfer to Motor Pool Capital Recovery Fund
(523)increased by the like amount. This adjustment was needed when the
vehicles were relocated from the Stormwater Ops Fund(103)to the Motor Pool
Fund(5231.
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Collier County Government
Fiscal Year 2019 Tentative Budget
Collier County, Florida
Fiscal Year 2018/2019
Summary of Budget by Fund
FY 17!18 FY 18/19
Fund Adopted Tentative Budget
Fund Title No. Budget Budget Change
Capital Projects Funds
Stormwater Operations (324) 42,000 10200 -75,71%
Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects (325) 6,075,300 20,126,500 23128%
To summarize:
Stormwater Operations
2016-2017 Budget $ 926,000.
2017-2018 Budget $ 42,000.
Proposed 2018-2019 Budget $ 10,200.
Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects
2016-2017 Budget $ 6,952,800.
2017-2018 Budget $ 6,075,300.
Proposed 2018-2019 Budget $ 20,126,500.
The increase from $6 million to $20 million is based on charging the utility fee of
$18 million. Since this was not passed by the County Commission, the Capital Projects
Component will remain unfunded.
The trend is clearly to take money from stormwater management both in
maintenance and capital projects. Assuming that the County minimally funds
stormwater in 2019, they will present us with a crisis situation next year that they
created. They will again ask us to charge ourselves user fees to make up for the
problem county staff caused by failing to maintain the system.
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CONCLUSION
The only viable and fair way to address stormwater issues is to return to the 2008
and 2009 funding levels as shown in Figure 3.1 of the Stantec Report:
Figure 3.1 - Historical Ad Valorem Funding for Stormwater Management
$14
$12
$10 g
O $8
a .
$2 .44
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 201
1SCAL YEAR
There is no reason why the County cannot return to the level of stormwater
funding it maintained in 2008 and 2009. This is a problem with a clear and historic
solution.
Please contact your commissioners and explain that stormwater management is
important. It needs to be funded out of general revenues because it affects and benfits
all residents of Collier County by having stormwater draining quickly and efficiently from
the roads and highways. Please explain to them that this is not some benefit that is
conferred only to the owners of improved property. This is a primary responsibly of
county government and not a utility to be paid for by owners of improved property.
John �:3looley,J.D. C.S.
The Law Offices of John F.Hooley,P.A.
851 Fifth Avenue North,Suite 303
Naples,Florida 34102
Tel:(239)234.2520 Fax:(239)234-2521
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