The approval of a new drainage fee for the City of Chickasha has really created a stir because it imposes a significant utility cost increase on businesses.  The rate was calculated by estimating the impervious surface in town (such as buildings, parking lots, gravel yards, etc) and dividing them into Equivalent Residential Units (ERUs) of 2,500 sq. ft.  Every residence receives a flat fee increase which I believe to be $7 per month.  However businesses receive a fee of $7 per month per ERU. The largest affected have an ERU number greater than 300.  A significant number have more than 100 and it is hard to find a business or church of any size that has less than 30.  The $7 was calculated based on the goal set by the City to execute every drainage improvement project on their list in 7 years and use the fees over the next 20 years to pay for these improvements.

Here is the conversation I would love to see take place regarding this fee: a breakdown of the financial needs for drainage into the spend areas of operations and maintenance, pay as you go improvements, and major projects combined with feedback from the business community on what may be affordable.  This way City Council and the businesses can work together in order to improve Chickasha while working through real priorities.

I attended the City Council work session on Monday and learned that the budget really is divided up into those three categories: operations and maintenance, pay as you go improvements and major projects.  One major project has an estimated price tag of $13 million.  This undertaking would require financing.  The financing mechanism has not yet been finalized, but the difference between the initially estimated interest rate and one that was discovered to be likely had a potential savings impact of approximately $130,000 per year.  Thus, the budget for these projects is not finalized, yet the rate has been selected and approved.

The City Manager has already proposed a tiered rate structure that lowers the $7 fee to $4 after the first 30 ERUs assigned to a church or business.  This sounds like a compromise, but was presented as an arbitrary number without informative discussion about how this income adjustment actually impacts project priority.  I would love to see the fee reduced as it affects my business, but as a former City Councilman I would not want to make such an important decision without truly understanding the impact.

In my opinion, the most logical solution is to institute the drainage fee at an initial rate that is lower than currently approved.  It must cover operations and maintenance at the very least.  Not knowing how the numbers actually calculate I cannot comment if it is feasible to include improvement projects, but suspect that to be possible.  Then year over year the fee can increase to include the big ticket projects.  This pushes the timeline out from the 7 year execution and 20 year payment schedule, yet allows the business and faith community to absorb the increase slowly over time.  In the long run, everyone wins.  Chickasha gets the improvements that are needed and business can continue to thrive.

I can accept a fee increase.  I understand that our City has many needs for improvement.  I also want the fee to be justifiable and fairly applied.  We need and deserve an environment where collaboration and dialog can take place in order to move forward together.   Remember, this is not the only challenge we face.  It is not even the only utility challenge we face.

City Manager & City Council, please allow us to have this productive conversation.