HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Review Follow-Up
Alcala, Abigail
From:Mendoza, Steven
Sent:Saturday, March 30, 2024 5:11 PM
Cc:EMT - Directors; Nunez, Alvaro; Soto, Daniel
Subject:Agenda Review Follow-Up Email for April 2, 2024 City Council Meeting Agenda
Attachments:2023 Santa Ana Water Enterprise Financial Plan Summary 1.9.24 final.pdf
Dear Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Councilmembers, (BCC)
There were some questions on the agenda that we wanted to share. The staff responses are reflected in italics
and underlined.
Agenda Item No. 14 - Bond Counsel and Disclosure Counsel for Potential Water Enterprise Revenue
Bonds
1. What is the anticipated amount of a bond, should staff decide to consider recommending one in the
future as described in the staff report?
The bond issue could be $40 million or more. That’s based on the attached from the rate consultant
indicating a need for $30.2 million of financing (see page 3), plus another $10 million to refund the 2014
bonds. We’re limited by the revenue available for debt service and the ability to construct
improvements within 3 years.
2. Why did staff not seek competitive proposals for these services?
The City’s existing contract with BBK dated November 2, 2021 includes the ability to provide bond
counsel services (Exhibit C). Our Financial Advisor compared the proposed fee of $85,000 to recent
debt issues for other cities and found the fee to be competitive. We need to retain bond counsel to help
us structure a proposed financing.
3. How does staff plan to engage and educate the community on municipal bond issuances.
As the bonds are for an Enterprise (business) function and do not require voter approval, I had no
community education plans. These type of bonds were issued by the Water Enterprise in 2014 and in
2004. The 2019 Water Rate Study at https://www.santa-ana.org/documents/2019-water-recycled-
water-sewer-rate-study-report/ indicated a need to issue debt for the planned capital projects.
Additional information about agenda item no. 14 is attached.
Agenda Item No. 13 - CCTV Inspection Services for the Sanitary Sewer System
Since the City Council is not considering an adjustment to the Sanitation Services Users Charge at this time,
will the users charge not changing have implications relating to the City’s ability to pay for the proposed CCTV
services?
The Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) service and contract is related to the sewer system/pipelines inspection and
condition assessment. In a nutshell the service includes camera inspection of the inside of the sewer pipelines
and all the documentation relating to the inspection. The inspection service is funded by the Sewer Enterprise
and has no relation to the Sanitation Fee not being increased. The Sanitation Fee is for the cleaning of the
City Streets and sidewalks, not related to the Sanitary Sewer.
Agenda Item No. 19 - Early Direction for the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget
Does there exist any overlap with ambulance services provided by the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA)
and those provided by the City, as well as with the reimbursements provided to the City by Public Provider
Ground Emergency Medical Transportation Intergovernmental Transfer Program (PP-GEMT) and insurance
companies? Further, what are the implications, if any, with how reimbursements are paid to the City and OCFA
relating to this program?
1
Under the City’s current Emergency Medical Service (EMS) structure, OCFA firefighters/paramedics provide
Advanced Life Services (ALS) and fire suppression services, while Falck dba Care Ambulance provides Basic
Life Services (BLS) and ground emergency medical transportation. It’s not necessarily an overlap of EMS
services, but rather, each contracted party provides a different level of service depending on the nature of the
EMS call.
PP-GEMT reimbursements, which were established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and are
administered at the State level by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), are an add-on increase to
the Medi-Cal fee-for-service schedule of emergency medical transports billed under Procedure Codes such as,
ALS1-Emergency, BLS-Emergency, ALS2, etc. There is no overlap with private insurance and private payers
that pay for EMS transport services, as the PP-GEMT add-on is applicable to Medicare and Medicaid
transports performed within the City’s jurisdiction. Based on the City’s EMS payer mix, Medicaid (aka Medical
in California) is the most significant portion of patients transported in Santa Ana at 42% and 34.5% of
transported patients have some form of Medicare coverage.
We will see you on Tuesday
Sincerely,
Steven A. Mendoza
Assistant City Manager
20 Civic Center Plaza (M25)
Santa Ana, CA 92701
T: (714) 647-5246
F: (714) 647-6549
www.santa-ana.org/cda
smendoza@santa-ana.org
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2
PlanActual
FY 2023FY 2023
1Rate Revenue$75,981,000$63,203,000
2Other Revenue$1,952,000$4,015,000
3Total Revenues$77,933,000$67,218,000
4Total Operating Expenses$59,803,000$59,623,000
5Net Revenues$18,130,000$7,595,000
6Debt Service$2,503,000$1,645,000
7Total Capital Spending$18,890,000$28,934,000
8Transfers Out$1,381,000$1,150,000
9Revenues Over (Under) Expenses$3,946,000$6,445,000
10Operating Fund - Ending Balance$24,865,000$25,200,000
11Operating Fund - Target Reserves$19,315,000$19,206,000
12Debt Service Coverage (1.2 Req'd)7.24 4.62