Agenda - 05-19-2009 - 6b - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

a (DSS) (Nancy Coston), ,Finance (Gary Humphreys), and the Manager's Office (Willie Best). This meeting resulted in the following conclusions: • It would be not be legal for the County to offer sewer bill assistance to low-income Efland Sewer customers exclusively. If sewer bill assistance were to be offered to low- income Efland Sewer customers, then every income-eligible resident of Orange County would be entitled to the same assistance. • It would not be legal for the Efland Sewer fund to offer a discount rate to low-income Efland Sewer customers. • There are currently programs in place to which low-income Efland Sewer customers could turn if they needed assistance on their sewer bills. These programs are the DSS Emergency Assistance (EA) program and the Samaritan Relief program administered by Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM). Based on these findings, it appears the BOCC has several choices. • Build Upon an Existing Program. Use existing County and community programs to take care of low-income customers of the Efland Sewer System. The EA program through DSS is already available to help low-income residents with utility bills when the utility is in danger of being shut-off. Resudents who qualify for this program would also qualify for the OCIM program mentioned above. Additionally, the Town of Hillsborough operates a Water Assistance Fund under which its utility customers make donations the Town accumulates and then makes available to OCIM to administer to Town customers having difficulties paying their bill. The Town has agreed, based on a recommendation from its Water Sewer Advisory Committee, to allow OCIM to make their Water Assistance Fund available to Efland Sewer customers for the first year (FY 2009-2010) (see Attachment 2 and 3). Town staff has projected sufficient funds in the Water Assistance Fund next year to cover participation by eligible Efland Sewer customers. The demand for this service and therefore the need for this type of assistance could be tracked and used to establish funding levels for future years if needed. • Establish a new County Wide Program -Set up a program designed to help any qualifying low-income residents of Orange County with their sewer bills. Since it is open to the whole County, this type of program would likely end up costing more than the General Fund subsidy to the Efland Sewer System that is being phased out by the increase in sewer rates. The DSS and OCIM programs work essentially the same way, including the OCIM program funded by the Town of Hillsborough. A resident comes in with a utility emergency which is defined as a notice from the utility that service will be shut-off unless the past due bills are paid. DSS assesses the income level of all participants in either program. In other words, even if a resident contacted OCIM first, the individual would be referred to DSS to determine qualification for the program before OCIM would offer monetary assistance. If the resident with the overdue/shut-off notice qualified for assistance (basic requirement is 200% of poverty level income or below), then a check would be written to the utility company for the past due amount, up to $150 every six months for DSS and up to $100 every six months for OCIM. DSS and OCIM communicate with one another to make sure the same emergency is not paid for by both agencies. The majority of customers of the Efland Sewer System will see their bill go up by less than $20 per month on July 1, 2009, so the current programs should be adequate to address the incremental sewer bill increase for the first fiscal year (2009-2010). All customers will