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<br /> <br /> 5 <br /> <br />Background <br />The Sanitation Services Users Charge (Charge or Fee) of $5.35 per month, is <br />paid by approximately 89,000 customers on a bimonthly basis. The Environmental <br />Sanitation Program enforces municipal codes for right-of-way obstructions, illegal <br />advertising, weed/rubbish abatement, and refuse violations. Among the services <br />provided are street sweeping, abandoned item collection, sidewalk cleaning and <br />power washing, cleaning services for illegal dumping areas, sidewalk and alley <br />cleaning, right-of-way inspection and enforcement, and weed abatement. The <br />program also coordinates with neighborhood associations to assist in beautifying <br />their properties and neighborhoods. <br />Let’s Consider the Issues the City is Facing <br />Increased Cost <br />The City has operated without a Fee increase since 1996, allowing your businesses and residents to be the <br />beneficiary of low-cost services for nearly 30 years. However, salaries, contractual costs, and other operational costs <br />increase over time, despite receiving a tremendous amount of scrutiny by public officials and community stakeholders. <br />For FY 2023, the Fee is budgeted to generate about $6.3 million in annual revenues, but incur about $7.3 million in <br />expenses, a significant increase over prior years. The increased cost of Street Sweeping due to prevailing wage <br />regulation is partly responsible for this increased cost. As a result, the City is considering changing its level of service <br />in terms of linear miles or frequency to accommodate these cost increases. Additionally, inflation due to economic <br />pressures and supply chain issues has dramatically increased costs of everything from technology to fuel, further <br />putting pressure on the City’s revenue sufficiency. <br />Increased Service Level Demand <br />As the City of Santa Ana has grown to be the center of Orange County for many events and services, so has the need <br />to handle the increased influx of both daytime and night time populations. Streets sweeping, sidewalk and alley <br />cleaning, and illegal deposits/rubbish removal, have all seen a rise in service demands. <br />How do these issues affect financial sustainability? <br />Your financial health as a utility is dependent on how many paying customers the City has, as well as how much <br />waste is disposed. Regardless of the number of customers or containers tipped in a year, your costs continue to <br />increase, and most of those costs are fixed. Disposal costs, although variable based upon the amount of waste <br />disposed, can be subject to tipping fee increases. Likewise, increasing costs of supplies, salaries, and routine capital <br />cause your expenses to increase annually. And operational inefficiencies can further add to ongoing expense. <br />Recognizing that current revenues are insufficient to fund ongoing costs of operations and capital, the City has <br />chosen to engage a qualified firm to provide an analysis and to develop a financial management plan and rate <br />structure to generate the required revenue while minimizing the impact on the City’s residents. <br />Now that we understand your problems, we want you to understand our solutions… <br /> <br />Our approach and experience on similar projects, performed by experts we <br />have identified as key personnel, demonstrate that SCS is the right choice. <br />UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED <br />While our financial models support decision-making, our added value is our client focus, industry <br />experience, and technical ability that we leverage to identify innovative solutions to your problems.