Tuesday, November 28, G. Bruce Ward, Executive Director. Kelley Williams, Board Administrator

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1 ATLANTIC CITY MUNICIPAL UTILITIES AUTHORITY PUBLIC HEARING ON THE AUTHORITY'S PROPOSED 0 BUDGET AND PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE RULES, RATES AND REGULATIONS Tuesday, November, 0 0 G. Bruce Ward, Executive Director Claude Smith, Engineer Kelley Williams, Board Administrator B E F O R E: William K. Cheatham, Alternate TAKEN BEFORE: JACQUELINE M. ZARRILLO, Certified Court Reporter of the State of New Jersey, License No. XI0, at the ATLANTIC CITY MUNICIPAL UTILITIES AUTHORITY, 0 North Virginia Avenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey 00, commencing at 0 a.m CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER TILTON ROAD NORTHFIELD, NEW JERSEY 0 (0) -

2 I N D E X PUBLIC (No Public Present.) PAGE 0 0

3 0 0 MR. WARD: Good morning. It is 0 a.m. Today is November the th of 0. My name is Bruce Ward. I'm the Executive Director of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority. Today and at this hour we have the first of our Public Hearings on the Authority Budget for 0. Both of these hearings begin at 0 a.m. and the Budget is scheduled for adoption at the regularly scheduled Board meeting on December 0, 0. Present with me today is Mr. Cheatham, a member of our Board of Directors, and Ms. Kelley Williams, our Executive Assistant of Administration. Please note that the MUA will also accept written comments. Comments received before the hearings will be read into the hearing record. Written comments not received will be presented at the Board meeting. The Board meeting is open to the public. It appears that there are no members from the public present, and I did not receive any written comments prior to the hearing. The 0 Proposed Budget is a fully funded budget, providing for the continuation of all of the Authority's major programs. The proposed appropriations for 0 are anticipated to be approximately $, higher than the budgeted

4 0 0 appropriations for 0. The increase is due primarily to an increase in the 0 Renewal and Replacement Reserve that approximated $,. This additional reserve will be utilized to help fund the 0 Capital Budget. The Authority will recognize a 0 percent increase in the amount of $0,000 for Administration's Repairs and Maintenance account due to higher anticipated repairs for the Authority's administration building. The. percent increase for Operation's Outside Service Professional Services are higher due to the anticipated laboratory expenses as more sampling protocols (UCRM ) are required by the State starting in 0. Offsetting this increase is a decline in the 0 debt service principals and interest. The Authority's debt service principals and interest will be decreased in 0 by percent in the amount of $, and by percent in the amount of $, respectively. The 0 rate increase was structured to ensure that the projected revenues would be sufficient to cover the anticipated appropriations for the year. The rate increase will also assist in the funding of scheduled projects as specified in the Authority's Capital Improvement Program. The Authority is anticipating an increase of two percent

5 0 0 in the flat and four percent in excess rates for all customers. The residential rates for residential customers will be increasing from the flat rate charge of $0 a quarter to $ a quarter. Residential customers that will exceed the allowed allotment will be subject to a four percent increase in the excess rate. The Authority anticipates that the average annual bill for a residential customer will be $0. in 0 as compared to $0. in 0, a net annual increase of $.0. The Authority is anticipating a 00 percent decline in other service charges as New Jersey American Water did not renew the contract that ended on November, 0 or pursue an emergency interconnection agreement with the Authority. This reduction was taken into consideration in developing the 0 rate structure. The connection fee rate will not increase. The City of Atlantic City has experienced a steady decline in annual new construction and development. As a result, the Authority has recognized a significant decline in connection fee income. In the past, the connection fee income has been utilized for capital projects recommended by the way of the Authority's Capital Improvement Program. This anticipated decline in income was considered

6 0 0 when developing the 0 rate structure, thus allowing for additional income to be generated for the use of capital projects. State law sets a formula mandating the specific calculation of Connection Fees. State law further requires that Connection Fees be recalculated at the end of every calendar year, and that all Debt Service and Capital Expenditures be included in the new calculation. The proposed Connection Fee for 0 is $. per gallon of average daily flow. This applies to new construction. The MUA is also making changes to the Rules, Rates and Regulations. The full text of the changes is available by contacting the MUA's offices. It is also available on the MUA's website. I might add that 0 provides the prospect for additional growth and additional flow. We are working towards a spring final construction on Richard Stockton University on the Albany Avenue complex, which will house both classrooms, residential students and residential staff. Also there will be commercial additions to that facility, one of which already is a Starbucks. So there will be additional water demand arising from that project.

7 0 0 And also in addition, there will be a commercial office structure of which South Jersey Industries will be moving from its current site in Hammonton into Atlantic City, bringing its administrative team into the City. Also we are aware of the ongoing progress of the Boraie Project, which is located on the former Pauline's Prairie site around Delaware to New Jersey Avenue on the south side of Atlantic Avenue. Construction is moving forward on what will be a number of market rate homes in that location. There are also additional smaller installations ongoing. There is a beer brewery coming into Atlantic City, hopefully by the spring of this year. And again, it's the general feeling in the City that things are turning around. And I don't want to fail to mention that the former Taj Mahal Casino Hotel is currently under repurposing to become Hard Rock Casino. And from everything that's been talked about in the news, the Hard Rock brand has a pretty strong customer base that follows it and Hard Rock brings a lot of its music connections with its product. So that would bring another of Atlantic City's larger hospitality installations back online and we're very very hopeful that 0 becomes a favorable year, not only for the Authority but for

8 the City. 0 0 Today's hearing, as usual, is scheduled for two hours. There are no members of the public here. However, we do keep the hearing open until p.m. in case any member of the public comes and has questions. I have a situation, which I will have to leave the Authority and leave Atlantic City at 0:0 a.m. this morning. I have a meeting with the newly elected Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, who will also be the Director of the Department of Community Affairs for the State of New Jersey. It's a very important meeting. She has called together a meeting of a number of Atlantic City stakeholders and, you know, the Mayor and other people are in the morning, and I requested to be in the afternoon so I'd have a chance to drive up and get there, so I do have to leave at 0:0. I have designated our Staff Engineer, Claude Smith, who will come down at a later time after I leave and close the meeting formally. So if at this time there are no questions, we're going to put the meeting on pause. I will be upstairs and if anyone from the public or the press comes to hear anything about our Budget, I will simply be able to come downstairs and enter into

9 0 any questions that are given to us, so thank you. (Whereupon the hearing paused from 0:0 a.m. to p.m.) MR. CLAUDE SMITH: Today is Tuesday, November, 0, and the time is noon. This is the Public Hearings meeting for the Authority Proposed 0 Budget and Proposed Changes to the Rules, Rates and Regulations. Like I said, the time is o'clock and we determine this meeting to be closed. Representing the Authority is Claude Smith and also in attendance is Kelley Williams. (The hearing adjourned at p.m.) 0

10 0 C E R T I F I C A T E 0 I, JACQUELINE M. ZARRILLO, a Certified Court Reporter of the State of New Jersey, do hereby certify that I am neither a relative nor employee nor attorney nor counsel of any of the parties to this action, and that I am neither a relative nor employee of such attorney or counsel, and that I am not financially interested in the action. JACQUELINE M. ZARRILLO Certified Court Reporter License No. XIO DATED: December, 0 0

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12 flow [] - :, : follows [] - :0 formally [] - :0 former [] - :, : formula [] - : forward [] - : four [] - :, : full [] - : fully [] - : fund [] - : funded [] - : funding [] - : G gallon [] - : general [] - : generated [] - : given [] - : Governor [] - :0 growth [] - : H Hammonton [] - : Hard [] - :, :, :0 hear [] - : hearing [] - :, :0, :, :, :, : HEARING [] - : Hearings [] - :, : hearings [] - :, : help [] - : hereby [] - 0: higher [] - :, :, : homes [] - :0 hopeful [] - : hopefully [] - : hospitality [] - : Hotel [] - : hour [] - : hours [] - : house [] - : important [] - : Improvement [] - :, : included [] - : income [] - :, :, : increase [] - :, :, :, :, :, :, :, :, :, I :0, : increasing [] - : Industries [] - : installations [] - :, : interconnection [] - : interest [] - :, : interested [] - 0:0 J JACQUELINE [] - :, :, 0:, 0: JERSEY [] - : Jersey [] - :, :, :, :, :, :0, :, 0: K keep [] - : Kelley [] - :0, :, : L laboratory [] - : larger [] - : law [] - :, : leave [] - :, :, :0 License [] - :, 0: Lieutenant [] - :0 located [] - : location [] - :0 M Mahal [] - : Maintenance [] - : major [] - : mandating [] - : market [] - :0 Mayor [] - : meeting [0] - :, :, :, :, :, :0, :, :, : member [] - :0, : members [] - :, : mention [] - : might [] - : morning [] - :, :, : moving [] - :, : MR [] - :, : MUA [] - :, : MUA's [] - :, : Municipal [] - : MUNICIPAL [] - :, : music [] - : N name [] - : net [] - :0 NEW [] - : new [] - :, :, : New [] - :, :, :, :, :0, :, 0: newly [] - :0 news [] - : noon [] - : North [] - : NORTHFIELD [] - : note [] - : November [] - :, :, :, : number [] - :0, : O o'clock [] - : office [] - : offices [] - : offsetting [] - : ON [] - : one [] - : ongoing [] - :, : online [] - : open [] - :, : Operation's [] - :0 Outside [] - :0 P p.m [] - :, :, : PAGE [] - : parties [] - 0: past [] - : Pauline's [] - : pause [] - : paused [] - : people [] - : per [] - : percent [] - :, :, :, :, :, :, :, : Prairie [] - : Present [] - : present [] - :, : presented [] - : press [] - : pretty [] - :0 primarily [] - : principals [] - :, : product [] - : Professional [] - :0 Program [] - :, : programs [] - : progress [] - : project [] - : Project [] - : projected [] - :0 projects [] - :, :, : PROPOSED [] - :, : Proposed [] - :, : proposed [] - :, :0 prospect [] - : protocols [] - : provides [] - : providing [] - : PUBLIC [] - :, : Public [] - :, :, : public [] - :, :, :, :, : pursue [] - : put [] - : Q quarter [] - : questions [] - :, :, : R rate [] - :, :, :, :, :, :, :, :0 Rates [] - :, : RATES [] - : rates [] - :, : read [] - : recalculated [] - : receive [] - : received [] - :, : recognize [] - : recognized [] - : recommended [] - : record [] - : reduction [] - : regularly [] - : REGULATIONS [] - : Regulations [] - :, : relative [] - 0:, 0: renew [] - : Renewal [] - : Repairs [] - : repairs [] - : Replacement [] - : Reporter [] - :, 0:, 0: REPORTER [] - : representing [] - :0 repurposing [] - : requested [] - : required [] - : requires [] - : Reserve [] - : reserve [] - : residential [] - :, :, :, : respectively [] - : result [] - :0 revenues [] - :0 Richard [] - :0 ROAD [] - : Rock [] - :, :, : RULES [] - : Rules [] - :, : S sampling [] - : scheduled [] - :, :, :, : Service [] - :0, : service [] - :, :, : Services [] - :0 sets [] - : side [] - : significant [] - : simply [] - : site [] - :, : situation [] - : smaller [] - : SMITH [] - : Smith [] - :, :, :0 South [] - : south [] - :

13 specific [] - : specified [] - : spring [] - :, : Staff [] - : staff [] - : stakeholders [] - : Starbucks [] - : starting [] - : State [] - :, :, :, 0: state [] - :, : steady [] - : Stockton [] - :0 strong [] - :0 structure [] - :, :, : structured [] - : students [] - : subject [] - : sufficient [] - : T Taj [] - : TAKEN [] - : team [] - : text [] - : THE [] - :, : TILTON [] - : TO [] - : Today [] - : today [] - :, :, : today's [] - : together [] - : towards [] - : Tuesday [] - :, : turning [] - : two [] - :, : W WARD [] - : Ward [] - :, : water [] - : Water [] - : website [] - : William [] - : Williams [] - :0, :, : written [] - :, :, : X XI0 [] - : XIO [] - 0: Y year [] - :, :, :, : Z ZARRILLO [] - :, :, 0:, 0: U UCRM [] - : under [] - : University [] - :0 up [] - : upstairs [] - : usual [] - : Utilities [] - : UTILITIES [] - :, : utilized [] - :, : V Virginia [] - :