PRECA 12-02-1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 6, 1992 To: Dave Childs, City Manager From: Maurice H. Arid ~~ for of Parks and Recreation Re: Round-Up Program The City of Roseville has recently adopted a program whereby residents are encouraged to voluntarily increase their water bill payment as a means of providing the City with non-tax dollars for beautification and conservation programs. (see attached). The program. has never been tried before in a city, however, DNR and other agencies have experienced success with similar programs. Roseville's program is so new that no money has been generated yet but they are expecting revenues in the $50,000 range annually. I think the city of New Brighton should consider implementing a similar program sometime during the 1993 billing season. This appears to be a relatively painless way of generating additional dollars for park/environmental or other programs. There are a vast array of strategies that could be used in implementing this program. Funds from a program such as this could be used for crime or drug prevention, recreation program development, scholarship or seniors programming or ombudsman as well as environmental programs. Roseville's program is essentially a "spend as you go" with only a slight delay built in as projects are developed and approved. The primary advantage to this approach is that people who participate are able to quickly see the results of their donations. An alternative would be to attempt to develop an endowment fund which would ultimately provide interest income to provide funding for projects or services. The fact that donated money is being placed in a permanent trust for a specific purpose might encourage givers. Conversely, the "delayed action" feature might prove to be a disadvantage. Whatever approach we take, I think the idea has lots of merit and should be discussed with the Council, packaged and presented for final approval within the next couple of months.