Town Council Work Session

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Leesburg Town Council 1h 4m 4 speakers 8 agenda items transcribed 4 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the annexation agreement update and out‑of‑town billing transition?

0:08

Thank you.

Unknown 1:24

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Kelly Burk 1:51

and our first item on the agenda tonight is the annexation agreement update on the out of town billing transition amy you're going to do this one i'm

Unknown 2:02

mayor members of council i'm amy weix director of utilities and tonight i'm here to give an update related to the settlement agreement with the annexation related to out of town billing As you all know, in January of this year, the voluntary settlement agreement was finalized between the town and Loudoun County, and Compass Creek accounts were transitioned to in-town status, and their billing was updated accordingly. Since January and through July of this year, town staff, we developed a plan in order to transition the out-of-town billing related to the settlement agreement terms and conditions. In effective July of this year, the out-of-town accounts will be charged in-town rates instead of out-of-town rates, and Loudoun County will be submitting the first economic development payment to the town.

Unknown 2:48

As you all know, part of the settlement agreement includes a $2 million economic development incentive payment from the Loudoun County, and subsequent years will be with a 3% escalator. The county is expected to submit that first payment on July 1st of this year, and then effective July 1st, the out of town customers will be charged in town water and sanitary sewer rates. And the intent is that the county payment will cover the differential between charging in town and out of town rates. This map here represents the parcels that came into the town as part of the annexation, including Walmart, At Home, and Microsoft. And again, as I stated, as of January 1 of this year, those customers received a welcome letter from the town, as well as their properties started to receive in-town rates effective January 1, and they just received their first bill, or it was recently sent, for their first quarter with in-town rates.

Unknown 3:45

We have approximately 3,300 accounts that are out of town. That represents 17% of the 17,000 accounts that we currently have. Here's a map that shows the out-of-town accounts that are impacted and will be receiving in-town rates effective July 1. So as part of the transition with billing operations, staff's been working with the other departments. It's been very much a interdepartmental coordination between finance, public information office, the town manager's office, as well as utilities. So the out-of-town customers will receive a bill for services through June 30 of 2025, and then at that point, we're gonna transition them into a new billing schedule starting July 1 through September 30. We're setting up those accounts in order to represent and track the reduction in the rates and then update the bill in order to show that.

Unknown 4:36

We're working with our vendors as well as the other departments I mentioned. So their new billing schedule will start July 1 through September 30, and then it will continue from that standpoint. From a customer communication standpoint, what we would look at is similar to the lead and copper. We have a campaign that we're going to be doing. So later this month, the letter will be sent to the out-of-town customers from the mayor, letting them know about the annexation agreement. Then utilities will follow up with a letter in mid-May that's going to explain the billing through June 30, and then their subsequent billing starting in July 1 with the out-of-town rates. The utility bill itself will be sent on June 30.

Unknown 5:16

We're updating and adding a webpage for the out-of-town customers that will include frequently asked questions. And then we have to update the front of the bill in order to show those charges for them, as well as updating the back of the bill related to the rates. So this is an example of the current bill. Typically, most customers show four services there. You have sewer consumption, a fixed charge, water consumption, and then a water fixed charge. And so what we're proposing is to add the credit lines or we're working with legal in the town manager's office to finalize the verbiage for it, may say sewer reduction, but they will have additional lines added to their bill to help them to understand what their total current charges are.