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Memorandum To: Solid Waste Advisory Group W From: Solid Waste and Public Works Staff of Orange County and the Towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough Subject: Staff Follow -up from September 12 SWAG Meeting Date: September 22, 2014 At the September 12 SWAG meeting staff was requested to provide the following information /recommendations: • Provide suggestions regarding annual recycling fee and tipping fee notification timeline, and • Combine Staff Interlocal Agreement Outline and Draft Interlocal Agreement (ILA revised per SWAG edits) Annual Tip Fee Notification Dates There are two general categories of fees that have different budget preparation trajectories and timelines. Tipping fees paid directly by facility users such as the Construction & Demolition disposal, vegetative waste disposal and mattress recycling /disposal can be calculated more directly based on year -to -date and historical data, including any preliminary estimates provided by the Towns on anticipated future year usage. It is likely that reliable future budget year estimates for these fees could be provided to the Towns by March 1 if necessary. If the current 3 -R Fee recycling program funding mechanism is continued in the same fashion as currently (directly assessing property owners through inclusion of the fees with the annual tax bill) there are billing database management procedures and requirements that to a degree dictate the timing of firm fee recommendations. These include incorporating all the splits /merges, new construction or demolition, property ownership exchanges, updated commercial establishment and mobile home park unit count updates, etc. that occurred during the previous year into the billing database. Fee estimation calculations also include obtaining certificates of occupancy data from each of the three towns and obtaining PIN data from Durham County on the portion of Chapel Hill in Durham County in order to refine the calculation. These steps are necessary in order to determine accurate service cost estimates. The number of units must accurately represent the unit billing divisor to calculate a per -unit billing unit count. Field verifications are frequently required. For example, from a fee - setting perspective, it can matter whether the total cost of a service is divided by 18,000 or 18,450. It is also a useful baseline from which to calculate program performance metrics. These tasks are in addition to actually projecting the coming year's expenditures and revenues for the various recycling programs. There is considerable uncertainty presently on what type of recycling fees may ultimately be adopted by the towns and county so determining the fee recommendation schedule at this point is difficult and seems slightly out of sequence. The towns initially agreed to allow the county to charge recycling fees within the towns, however that preliminary understanding could change as the county continues to explore funding options. For instance, will the district tax concept or general fund financing of recycling services be further considered? Or will availability fees or other types of fees be chosen? Or could it be