[Dan Stoneking]: I'll talk to you soon, Rick. Okay, bye. Well, now we're just waiting for Tim. Is that it? Or did he say it was coming, Tim?
[Ron Baker]: I don't think Tim was going to be here this evening.
[Dan Stoneking]: Oh, OK. All right. Let's get going. And you didn't hear anything, Carmela. He didn't respond to you in any way that he was or wasn't. OK. All right. Well, Dan must know. So you don't think he's coming in, so we might as well start the meeting. So Carmela, Secretary, record the fact that the meeting is now starting at 430 on March 29, 2023. Got it. That said, I'm going to ask, well, I know usually we don't we don't do God bless America will say we shouldn't start saying, Oh, God bless America. I don't know my country. So do something. Alright, so Ronnie, then why don't you want to go through whatever. Excuse me, excuse me. Let's approve the minutes from the last meeting on February 22, whatever day it was. So I make a motion that we approve. Does anybody have any questions or anything to say about the minutes of the last meeting?
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[Dan Stoneking]: Okay, that said, then- I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Aye, aye, aye. Okay, great. So we call that the minutes were approved. So now with that said, let's move on to the abatements or commitments or anything else that Ronnie, you want to press forward. Um, I didn't do the commitments and stuff because we're doing it zoom, we can just do it the next time. Yeah. So let's just move the commitments to the next meeting, so we can get signatures. So, I mean, as far as signatures go, you can do the, uh, the technical seat like you've done in the past. You don't have to physically sign for anything. You can just sign for me and Rick and Mark. We don't care. I will do that from now on. Yeah. No, you know what I mean? That's what we're doing anyways, but it doesn't really matter when we're there, you bring them, of course, but any other time like this, by all means, am I okay, guys?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, on the panel, you know, it's yeah, we don't, as long as, as long as the commitment is an outrageously, uh, amount. I don't think there's anything that's crazy, right?
[Dan Stoneking]: Mark, once it's discussed, we say yes, we approve whatever it is. Then he said, feel free to, you know, sign our face. That's it. He's not going to do without our permission. Oh, go ahead. Ronnie, so let's move on to the abatements or whatever you got. We just have that one appeal, 1725, which is 5A Ashland Street. Right. Are they on the line? Are we what?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Are they on the line? I got someone here. MCM government access. I have no idea who that is.
[Dan Stoneking]: That you said it was the recording of the.
[Ron Baker]: Yeah, that's the recording for.
[Dan Stoneking]: So did you invite did you invite them to come? Huh? Camilla, did you invite the people from Ashland to come? I talked to you about it. I see an iPhone would have their. Listen guys, I see something on the list of participants. I see Dominic, me, I see Carmela, Dan Stone King, then I see iPhone, Dan Baker, Rick Orlando, and MC Governor. So the iPhone must be this person.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's me.
[Dan Stoneking]: Oh, that's you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm on my cell phone. I'm in front of the hospital.
[Dan Stoneking]: Exactly. I'm sorry. I just remembered that. Yeah. So I guess we don't have the fellow.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, I had no idea.
[Dan Stoneking]: That's what this whole meeting was about.
[SPEAKER_02]: The right wasn't talking to the left. That's okay. It happens. No big deal.
[Dan Stoneking]: Now what? So now what?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I mean, we got- You have the email, Ron.
[Dan Stoneking]: I don't invite people to the meetings, Camilla.
[Ron Baker]: The reason that they wanted to reschedule was because they weren't invited last time. They were invited like maybe a few hours before the meeting.
[Dan Stoneking]: Right.
[Ron Baker]: So they were going to come to this one because they wanted to speak about their abatement.
[Dan Stoneking]: Yeah.
[Ron Baker]: But they weren't invited.
[Dan Stoneking]: Were they aware that today's meeting was today's meeting or not? I mean, were they notified?
[Ron Baker]: I have no idea. I don't invite them.
[Dan Stoneking]: Carmela, were they notified in any way? Oh, boy.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I had no information on them.
[SPEAKER_02]: What can I can I ask a question? Mr. Chairman? Yes. What? Listen, we've never had a problem with anyone. Well, I guess someone just said that we didn't invite him to ask when that was the first for me to hear. But what is the procedure? Who does do the inviting when there's an abatement involved? Okay. But you needed to have the information to send it out like their email and everything? Yeah. Oh, OK. Well, was it provided by Ron or not?
[Ron Baker]: Carmela, I don't mean to speak out of turn here, but Carmela, you should have their information because you did reach out to them last time. Only last time they were reached out to was with short notice.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I don't know. I'm going to have to call them tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's just follow the procedure that we've been doing for the last four years. We've had Zoom for almost two. We've never had a problem. That's strange. Not a big deal. We'll get them in.
[Dan Stoneking]: You know what we can do? What we can do is schedule something. Normally, we do either the middle of the month or the third week of the month for our meetings. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe for the April one, we'll push it up. Let me take a look over here and see what Maybe we'll talk about this right now rather than wasting time later on. We can't do the 12th because there's a library commission meeting, but the 5th could be available. The 19th could be available. So I don't know. I mean, I get back Friday, so I'll be available for the 5th. But that's kind of close, huh?
[Ron Baker]: I think that I don't schedule these meetings, but I think it probably wise to reach out to these people and ask them their availability just because.
[Dan Stoneking]: Well. The meetings are scheduled and then you let them know in the space of what I'm saying is in fairness, if we do the let's say the 19th. You know, that's closer. Instead of the 27th, 26th, the end of the month, which you normally would do, that would be sufficient time for them to plan to, you know, to come to the yard on the 19th, I suppose. I don't know. What do you think, guys?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to look at my calendar, but I'll make room to accommodate.
[Dan Stoneking]: I'm saying either the 5th or the 19th, but the 5th is a little bit close. I mean, you know, it's only a week away. Yeah, that's next Wednesday. Do you have time to recall this stuff? maybe it's a little bit too close to call, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe- Let's see if they're available on the 19th, but send an email out to the commissioners and everyone else and see how that looks for everyone. And then you can go and ask the party.
[Dan Stoneking]: Well, okay. I don't want to sound like that, but that's not how things work. The commission is the one that schedules the meeting and then whoever wants to come and speak, that's up to them to make the time to come and speak.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right. But what I'm saying is I'm not home to tell you the 19th. I'm available right this moment. You got to start talking about the, you know, once, once we've established that we got commissioners available and all the people that are going to be there. Okay.
[Dan Stoneking]: The next couple of days, we can figure that out. You chime in tomorrow, maybe when you get home and, uh, Rick Orlando, you know what I mean? And that's my birthday, by the way. So I won't go out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Happy birthday.
[Dan Stoneking]: How's that? So we'll shoot for the 19th if we can. I'm assuming that your commissioners can make it. And then we'll take it from there. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: What did you say? April 19th?
[Dan Stoneking]: April 19th.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I mean, I won't make it.
[Dan Stoneking]: You can't make it? I'm sorry.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Unless I come in at 430. We have it at 430. I have an appointment with my father, but I'll make it. I'll make it. April 19th?
[Dan Stoneking]: Yeah, the rain is at 430, right, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope Dave Fox can make it. I'd like to hear some preliminary stuff.
[Richard Orlando]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[Richard Orlando]: I'm good for the 19th.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Are we doing a Zoom or in person?
[Dan Stoneking]: No, we're going to be at the yard. Well, I mean, Zoom can be available for whoever, you know, let's face it. know, but but we commissioned so on so forth will be at the yard. So in the zoom, whatever it is that we set up at the end with the TV like we set up a zoom at the yard, or you don't know how to do it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I can't. Well, Jimmy, but we don't have the equipment like we did before.
[Dan Stoneking]: Ronnie, do you know, zoom at the yard? Um, yeah, sure. It out. Yeah. So Ronnie can set it up. Don't worry about it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Come out as long as I can tell these people, they either show up personally or they can zoom in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
[Dan Stoneking]: Yeah. Right. Yeah, of course. I mean, I wish I wish I had known this before that they weren't coming in. Now we could say, Hey, if you want to zoom, we can just click on a zoom, which we can, you know, can I try calling them now? I don't know. You want to try commissioners.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't I don't mind if they're willing to jump in great number for them.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that's all I got a phone number.
[Dan Stoneking]: Hold on. Gmail. Right, I just sent you the email that they sent to the mayor. No, but you have a phone number for the guy. I just sent you an email with their email on it. Okay, he said something to the mayor about how disappointed they were with everything. No, what I mean is you have a phone number, not an email. Yeah, I have both.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I don't have, but I can ask them for the email and then.
[Richard Orlando]: Ron just sent it to you, Carmela. So if they want to jump on now, just email them using the email that Ron sent you with the Zoom link, and we can go.
[Adam Hurtubise]: All right. How do I make this smaller so I can go into my, I can't. Hold on. Over to Christina. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Put it on, put it, our stuff, the, the, and that was on there. Um, and it,
[Frances Mitchell]: Pause. Recording stopped. Recording in progress.
[Dan Stoneking]: OK, awesome, awesome. I'm going to Zoom with her. Listen, Michael, Michael, I'm sorry. I'm chairing the 102 Commission on Zoom right now. So I'll talk to you a little bit later, OK?
[Adam Hurtubise]: OK, ciao.
[Dan Stoneking]: OK, bye. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I feel so bad about this. I really, really do. I don't know what to do about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's the first time. You always have to have a first, right?
[Dan Stoneking]: No, but this is the second time now. It's not just the first time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, with them, yeah. But this is the first time that we've had this sort of discombobulation.
[Adam Hurtubise]: You know what? Yeah, because I need to call these people, get an email, and invite them on Zoom.
[Dan Stoneking]: Just to discuss something else while we're waiting. Do you want to talk about something else, Tomlin?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, for a minute. I want to go back in. Guys, I want to see you in a minute.
[Dan Stoneking]: What just happened?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hold on, I'll be back.
[SPEAKER_02]: She said she needs a minute.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. What do you have, Ron?
[Dan Stoneking]: Well, the water, I mean, the Medford Housing sent me 28 abatements. I haven't even opened them yet. I'm trying to get through with a billing cycle. I talked to Judy Johnson about this, They're trying to get abatements for their checks being late. What they do is they take all their checks, all their bills and lump them together and pay all of their accounts with one check. And the math didn't work out. So Judy Johnson, the treasurer said, when the math doesn't work out, she can't choose which accounts to apply the money to, she sends the check back. And because the check gets sent back, they got charged late charges. Plus not to mention that they're actually asking for past due balances to be, abated. So hold on. They're asking for what has to balances past few balances and, and interest because the check was returned to them. So they didn't pay in time. They tried to pay in time, but because the city sent the check back because the math didn't work out. They can't cash a check that doesn't match. Right. What Ronnie, when you say when you say we need to consider possibly abating any kind of interest associated because the mix up of this whole thing but not the actual money we're not abating the money of the check. One thing is we could abate the interest interest issue but not, not what they all decide. Right. But the other thing is is we're not going to abate the past due balance because that's, they probably just pay enough I don't I don't know. Right, right, right. When you sort them out, we'll do it at the next meeting, I guess. I don't know what else to say. I don't have a problem as chair to advise that. Yes, of course, we've done, we've abated interest in the past for various reasons. But I just think that maybe, I mean, Judy said not to abate the interest. Well, if the city has something to do with it and they messed up, why not? I mean, that's something that we have to consider. Yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: All right, Dominic.
[Dan Stoneking]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I just got off the phone with him. Oh boy, tonight wasn't good for me that well I mean, April 19 is not good for. Well, you know what we have to work on some dates and I told them I'll call them tomorrow.
[Dan Stoneking]: Carmela, listen, it doesn't work like that. You know, the dates have to work for the city, not for the petition. I know, I said we usually have- You said a meeting, you said a meeting. You know, if you can't make it, good luck. I mean, I don't know what that could do. I mean, this is not, we can't schedule our meetings around who can make it, who can't make it, you know, in the city.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well, I apologized to him. He says I couldn't make it tonight anyways, because I'm working. So then, you know- I asked him about April 19th. He said, no, it's not good. We'll see you in May.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you in May. Yeah, exactly.
[Dan Stoneking]: We got to give him dates. In May. In May. Hold on. Let me just look at May. May probably could be the 17th perhaps. Just so to look ahead.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, Dominic, I would be the only one that would have to get home at some point tonight and give you a calendar, but you guys.
[Dan Stoneking]: Let's at least look at looking at May the 10th as early in the month. That's not good. So the 21st, possibly as early as the 17th, you know, and that's another day Fox one.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to definitely need them at May, June, July.
[Dan Stoneking]: Exactly. So the 19th, we're going to go ahead with the 19th for ourselves. Okay. And then let's look at the 17th for me, a little bit earlier in the month rather than the third week, you know, let's say, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Dominic, can we go out even into June and put a date out there for June just so everyone has time to rearrange schedules? Why don't we just pick a date in June too right now too? Throw them out there.
[Dan Stoneking]: That's a little bit too far fetched.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be the one, you know, the last meeting before the Oh, I don't know how much time Ron needs to get the new water rates in place. Ron, how much time do you need after, before July 1st?
[Dan Stoneking]: I don't do that. Dave does that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, no, I mean implement them into the public.
[Dan Stoneking]: Oh, it usually goes on the August 1st bill.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we got time.
[Dan Stoneking]: yeah so look like either the 14th or the 21st I mean you know doesn't matter, but that's. On the road, so as may. So let's, let's, let's go.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no. Dominic, repeat that. What month were those two dates?
[Dan Stoneking]: Oh, June. June can be the 14th or the 21st, I guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, OK. Well, throw them out there.
[Dan Stoneking]: What the heck. So either June. Kamela, are you recording this? Yeah, I'm hearing you. I'm writing it down. OK, so June can be either the 14th or the 21st. We'll figure it out later. May, we're looking at 17. And March, we already said is going to be 19. I'm sorry, April 19. So let's kick those three around. And when you get home, make sure that you can make those mark and then we'll all set. Yeah, I'll tell you which ones. Okay, okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: These are the ones I'm going to give Mr. Bernier.
[Dan Stoneking]: Yeah, well the only only man June, those the other April 19 until May and June. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And hopefully you can make it if you listen, what happens if you work till Wednesday, say again, Wednesday nights.
[Dan Stoneking]: I don't know if he's working Wednesday night, who's working Wednesday night. He's what? I don't understand what you're saying.
[Adam Hurtubise]: The gentleman that wants to come in to the meeting on Wednesday nights.
[Dan Stoneking]: Well, hey, listen, that's his problem. What do you want? Send somebody else from his family. I don't know. This is not something we have to be preoccupied about. I'm so sorry. I don't mean to be judgmental here, but hey, it is what it is. That's when we have monthly meetings. So we're not going to have it at noontime because somebody works nights. I'm sorry. So that is it. So he can send somebody else in the family or somebody else that knows whatever they need to say or object to whatever they want to object. That's what most people do. They can't make it. They send somebody else. It's up to him to figure out who he wants to send. Commissioners, what do you think?
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you. I agree with you, Doc. I agree.
[Dan Stoneking]: I'm fine. No, I mean, I don't know. I don't want to create problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's fine. Let's just move on.
[Dan Stoneking]: I mean, you're not in a commission, but the fact remains that this is what we do. We have monthly meetings. We can go around a Wednesday here and there, but that's about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Dan Stoneking]: OK. All right. Those are the dates. And hopefully, if he can't make it, he's got to send somebody else to speak on his behalf. All right. So Ronnie, what else we got now that we don't have that? I don't have anything else. Okay. So, Dan, did you, you know, did you want to bring something to our attention as far as, you know, whatever.
[Ron Baker]: No, I mean, Tim and I have brought to your attention what we thought was pretty pressing and I don't know where you guys stand with you know your or your thoughts on what the rates should be or obviously we don't know yet because we don't have any information i'm just saying uh you know the i just know for certain without seeing anything in front of me that the rates do need to go up there's no doubt about it so there's no doubt in my mind are you gonna dominic are you gonna address this or do can i speak uh you you can you can right now go ahead okay i i
[SPEAKER_02]: was going to say something when those rates were given about the surrounding towns and cities. I mean, there's so much unknown there. We don't know what their commercial base is. We don't know what their budget for their water and sewer department is. We certainly could look up the MWRA because it's public record. But one thing, a couple of things, you've got two administrations that have gone to the well, to the enterprise fund, so that we didn't have to take price increases. So we're behind the eight ball quite quite a bit. Um, the thing about this whole discussion is, and I thought the chairman was pretty clear. If you're looking for X millions of dollars to start getting the streets program with changing the water lines, that's something that needs to be brought to the mayor's attention. She has to put it into the budget. It has to be, you know, go into the overall water and sewer budget. If you hand us a budget that says $6, $7 million than it was the year before, we go with it. It's not like something, we're a zero balanced, a zero sum autonomy. That's what we have to do. That's our job. It's not to make money or lose money. So we have no problem adding $10 million to the overall budget if that's what comes to us from the Water and Sewer Department. So really, that's where it has to start. And really, it's the approval of the city council for the overall budget, because they can only cut it. They can't add to it. So if they don't think that the overall big budget with the water and soil going up $10 million, I mean, if it's justification, they might approve it. They might not. But it has to come to us. from them.
[Ron Baker]: Yeah, so just as we spoke in the last meeting, that's exactly the path we're going to take. The only reason we brought it to your attention is to keep you aware of what our thoughts are. We wanted to have a nice communication among it so that if somebody did come to you and say, if the council did come to you and say, look how much they need to go up. You guys are aware of this situation. You guys understand why we're proposing a budget of that nature. We are sitting down with the mayor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just say this. We never can dispute what's handed to us. We can't say we don't accept that. We budget the water rates off what we're given by the MWRA and what the Water and Sewer Department gives us. If last year was a total of, and I'm throwing, I don't know what it was, 32 million and this, whatever, and it comes down to 50 million, we're gonna set the rates for 50 million.
[Ron Baker]: Okay, but let me ask you this, okay? So if they say the rates are this, so whatever it is, and you say- No, it's not rates.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's not rates. It's dollar amount. Mark, Mark- Whatever the case, okay?
[Ron Baker]: I don't know the ins and outs, right? I don't know the ins and outs. I'm just saying, if they say here, And what my argument was, don't say, OK, well, we don't want the rates to go up that much. Let's take from retained earnings. That was my main argument for the last meeting. And that was also something that Dave Fox had spoke about. Dave Fox has said he would never, ever advise using retained earnings because you cannot sustain if you do that. That was my argument in the last meeting. So you do have say in the rates, for sure. Because somebody in this meeting approved to use retained earnings. Am I wrong? Hold on, hold on.
[SPEAKER_02]: The mayor that goes before the city council asking to tap into the enterprise, and then we're given the reduction. I'm sorry, Dominic.
[Dan Stoneking]: Hold on, hold on, hold on. Nobody needs to get upset here. We're just having a discussion.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, I'm not upset at all. I'm just saying.
[Dan Stoneking]: Dan, as we pointed out the last time, and as Commissioner Tonella pointed out, we are an autonomous body. Unfortunately, we don't have control over the budget. The only thing we've done, not every single year, but sometimes, is to recommend to the mayors, the various mayors that we had in the past, that they switch over $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 from the retained earnings to the budget so that maybe it doesn't go up by 15%. It just goes up by maybe 6% or 7% on any given year. The rates are always going to go up. I mean, let's face it. Yeah, we know that. I but we do I do understand your, your, your perspective and your argument. In other words, that that there's money in the return is about 8 million Ronnie, what's the last time we had about a roughly your muted Ronnie, you're muted. I don't know that I don't know the figure. It constantly is changing. Yeah, it's somewhere around seven and a half to eight but the point is and, and even at the minute we have asked the mayor's and former mayor's to switch over a few dollars you know consider the budget, we nobody's willing to read that that that that that money, Dan. And that's why we've never asked, oh, listen, put $2 million in there. No, no, no. So that we don't raise the rates. We have never done that. We don't want to raise the rates. So we've always asked for a little bit. And mind you, we can't tell them to give it to us. It's the mayor that has to recommend it to the council, and the council approves it. Once they do, hey, listen, that's the city. That's their job.
[Ron Baker]: So we do utilize that for the rates. So then Tim and I coming to you was requesting that you don't do that, that you don't recommend. Do you understand? I'm not saying... Yes, I do. All we're trying to do is get you guys on board to understand where we stand with the utilities in Medford. Yes. If we continue, this is a fact, this isn't some arbitrary bullshit that I just came up with. If we continue along our path right now at the rate that we're replacing water lines and the rate we're replacing water mains, there won't be a water system in 50 years. You will not be supplying water in Medford. It's a fact. In Jackson, Mississippi is a prime example. Jackson, Mississippi has not supplied water in the last five years because they had a catastrophic situation one winter, 82 water main break, and they have not recovered. They've been supplying bottled water to every one of their residents. So this is what I'm so passionate about, because I don't want us to be in this situation.
[Dan Stoneking]: And I appreciate that. Dan, let me just say this. Let's say you have the seven and a half or $8 million. And usually that's pretty much it, you know, whatever comes out of there on any given year, three, four, 500,000, I guess, replaced by Ronnie's collection of past dual amounts and so on and so forth. What are you going to do with that seven or $8 million?
[Ron Baker]: I'm not going to do anything with that seven or $8 million, because it tells me nothing. Seven or $8 million will get me three miles of pipe. What I want to do is have a plan for the future. So we would take probably 3 million to increase our ability to increase our staff, increase our equipment, we would leave a very large amount in retained earnings, four or 5 million, because that's what should be in there. Right. And then we would also, in my belief, increase the rates so that we can pay for this increase in staff. See what happens going forward. And I feel like Dave Fox had mentioned, we should have a 10-year plan. We should have a 10-year set what the rate should be for 10 years. That way we know where we're going.
[Dan Stoneking]: Like I said, it's not just a rate issue. It's a tax issue on the other side, because just like roads and everything else, you got to pay. There's no rates for fixing roads. It goes on the tax side. So there's only so much you can charge for it, whether it's electricity. I have no idea why I have no voice.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had it. No idea.
[Dan Stoneking]: will increase if they want to be reelected. That's just a reality that's out there, Dan. And it's not up to us to tell them what to do. It's up to them what they decide to do on this issue. We can only set the pace based upon what the city provides to us. They have to take whatever follow-up there is, you know, whatever follow-up they get from it. It's not up to us. Thank you so much. We understand your passion and you're right about it. The city should have been doing a lot more all these years and it didn't.
[Ron Baker]: That's exactly correct.
[Dan Stoneking]: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Listen, I know, I know, I know, I know.
[Ron Baker]: On average, on average, on average, Medford's replaced half a mile of pipe a year. You can't sustain it that way.
[Dan Stoneking]: We have to start working a little bit harder for water usage, etc, etc, etc. And, and while you are talking to them about, you know, what you, you know, budgeting and putting people up the city, the city itself. should be paying for what it's usage, just like anything else that they use as a utility. And that $500,000, if Ronnie knows, in the budget, we wouldn't have to ask for the money that they're not paying, because it's the money that belongs to that budget to begin with. Because they are not paying, they're creating a deficit. And you know what? It's illegal to create deficit. We, as a commission, don't have the right to create a deficit. The budget you propose to us, we can't say as a legal authority, say, Yeah, you're proposing $28 million. You know what? Screw this. We're going to set the rates based on $26 million. That's illegal for us to do. As it is for us to put more money on into whatever budget you propose. That's all we can do is set the rates from what you give us.
[Ron Baker]: And we are looking into many different areas, as well as city accounts that don't pay. Right. Another thing that we're attacking aggressively is unaccounted for water. Right now, I found a list of 173 of flushers that are in these sewer lines. If one of them is on all the way, that's 10% of your unaccountable water right there.
[Dan Stoneking]: I know, I know.
[Ron Baker]: So we're gonna do that. And you need map out. I get it. We all get it. And we're visually going to inspect every single one of those. I mean, we're going to be very aggressive about this.
[Dan Stoneking]: So just as a matter of history, about eight years ago, I think it was, seven or eight years ago, way up in, Ronnie remembers, I know, way up in the Fulton Street up there, there was one of the lines that was leaking a million gallons a day, a million gallons, I forget what it was. And it went on for nine months and so on and so forth. And that's what sponsored us as a commission to recommend to the city that we establish the water leakage that Ronnie knows all about. They approved an $850,000, $900,000 budget and never went through with it. They never established the leak detection system in the city of Metro to save money in the city. And this is crazy. It's enough to make us go crazy.
[Ron Baker]: I mean, right now, as it stands, there's 560 million gallons of water. We have no idea where it's coming from. Exactly.
[Dan Stoneking]: I rest my case.
[Ron Baker]: I rest my case. And it's not water leaks. I mean, we've started calculating water leaks. Water leaks are like 0.5. Water leaks are about 500,000 gallons a year. That's nothing. That's a drop in the bucket. The fire department probably uses $17 million a year. That's nothing. That's a drop in the bucket. We need to find out.
[Dan Stoneking]: If you guys can identify those unaccounted for, that would be great. Budget-wise, city-wise, for everything.
[Ron Baker]: So good luck. I have high hopes that one of these flushers is on. And we're going to inspect every single one of them. If any of them are on, we're shutting them off with a plan to disconnect them.
[Dan Stoneking]: All right. So Ron, do we have anything else on your side? Dan, anything else you'd like to make us aware of?
[Ron Baker]: No, I don't have anything.
[Dan Stoneking]: Okay, where is, where is, oh, Carmela, we can only see the top of your head. There you go, sweetie. So look, that being said, we approved the minutes from the last meeting. We had a good discussion on the upcoming rates and how to handle that process. Ron, you know, hopefully we'll, and Carmela, make sure that you give that gentleman, whatever his name is.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I've talked to him. He wouldn't have made it tonight.
[Dan Stoneking]: Okay, forget tonight, obviously, we know that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: April 19th, he's not gonna make it, so I'm gonna give him May or June.
[Dan Stoneking]: Yeah, and it's always gonna be on a Wednesday, so it's up to him or anybody to represent him. I've got a couple of months. To send somebody else with notes or whatever the heck they wanna contest. Okay? All right. And then make sure that you invite them plenty of time, like weeks ahead, once they're invited.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I told them I'd call them tomorrow.
[Dan Stoneking]: Okay. All right, Dan, thank you, Commissioner. I don't know what happened.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm going to send you a copy of the recording, and Tim, do you want one?
[Dan Stoneking]: Say that? Say what?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Dan.
[Ron Baker]: Yeah, please, if you could.
[Dan Stoneking]: Okay, so Madam Secretary, as of, I guess, call it 5.20 p.m., meeting was adjourned, and with the following discussion and so on will be in the minutes. You took the minutes, right, about discussion? Okay, great. Well, gentlemen, ladies, we'll talk to you soon. Take care. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Rick. Thanks, everybody. Okay, thank you, Rick.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Dan, could you copy the meeting?
[Dan Stoneking]: Thank you. Whenever you make the minutes, sure. Okay, thank you. I'm leaving. Bye-bye.