Marion County UtilitiesPerformance Measurement

and Strategic Planning

April 23, 2015

Flip MellingerDirectorMarion County UtilitiesFlip.Mellinger@marioncountyfl.org352-307-4626

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Brief HistoryMarion County Utilities – born in 1995Purchased major private Utility service area -

2001Purchased Florida Water Services assets –

2003Agreed not to raise rates for 5 years

Seriously underfunded – lacked sufficient manpower Maintenance deferred – Assets failing

BCC forced to raise rates – Tiered Rate Structure

5 year plan:9% April 2009, 9% October 2009, 9% October

2010, 4.5% October 2011, 4.5% October 2012

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Old Stonecrest PlantFlorida Water allowed System to run into ground.

Consisted of a McNeil Plant,2 Rain for Rent tanks, and 2 US Water portable Plants

Very inefficient andineffective - compliance failure

No available capacity

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Loch Harbor WWTP

• Supports Loch Harbor Condominiums

• Badly deteriorated metal structure

• Metal has been patched several times

• Plant has exceeded its useful life

• Flows being sent to Stonecrest Water Reuse Facility

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ImpactsOverall 36% rate increase +

Implementation of water conservation tiered rate structure

Some customers saw water bills more than double

Major political issue

BenchmarkingUtilities track:

28 Performance data points Higher than normal labor expenditure to track

38 Performance Measures Calculated from the measures above

MCU uses 22 Key Benchmarks (Goals)

Some examples……

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Key Benchmarking ResultsO&M cost per million gallons wastewater:

Marion County UtilitiesFlorida

Benchmarking Consortium

2012/13 Average1

2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009

$2,521.27 $2,694.18 $2,930.73 $2,844.65 $2,904.36 $3,561.35

$1,737.29(County)

$3,211.84(City)

1Florida Benchmarking Consortium FY12/13 Annual Service Report (WW064f-City and WW064f-County)

Resulting Goals & ObjectivesReduce direct costs per MG wastewater:

Continue to regionalize

SCADA Implementation Greater control of plants – reduced electricity Less manpower

Upgrade / modernize facilities for efficiency

Reduced from 11 WWTPs to 6 – going to 5

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Stonecrest WRF

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Accomplishments:Significantly reduce operations and

maintenance costs $15.5M in 2008 to $11.7M in 2013

Improve Bond ratings Moodys from A1 to Aa3 Standard and Poors to AA-

Refinance old Debt – net savings of nearly $5M

Reduce Rates – 9% reduction on October 1st

Questions?

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