Septic Maintenance Status Staff Report

9-3-09

Rebuilding Dunes City ’s data one record at a time…  

Having become employed by Dunes City in April of this year, I completed what I would call basic training on my Administrative Assistant job duties sometime in late May, after being gone on a one week vacation. The responsibilities of the Administrative Assistant were very well defined upon my starting, making the learning curve very short.  

In addition to the obvious - answering phones, directing calls, taking messages, processing mail, processing lien requests, assisting the City Council, Recorder and Staff, filing, maintaining the copier, printers, fax and office supplies, I have 2 major responsibilities, administration of both the Water Rights Compliance files and the Septic Maintenance files.  

Since Water Rights invoices needed to be mailed on July 1, 2009 I focused most of my available time during June on reading the pertinent Ordinances and Resolutions, learning the processes that had been established for Water Rights Compliance and updating the City’s database to reflect all the changes that had taken place, some as old as one year. I believe the City’s Water Rights Compliance database is about 98% accurate at this time. Since this is a relatively small database, it only takes three records (of 138 total) to be in incorrect to cause a 2% error rate. Water meter cards were also generated and mailed with invoices on July 1^st as scheduled.  

Also during June, I began familiarizing myself with the Septic Maintenance files and process. This is a much more complex issue, as the City used a Lane County (LCOG) developed system for the first thee years to administer our septic ordinances. The City discontinued use of that system when it was found to contain flaws that we could not get corrected. When records were extracted to establish a local database at Dunes City Hall , it appears that most of the data entered was either lost or inadvertently left behind.  

Needless to say, this has resulted in our Septic Maintenance files being incomplete. Hence, my April 11^th letter to Councilor Koehler on this subject was largely incomplete. In April, when I began using the Septic Maintenance database, it contained 812 records and there were only 82 records that had a “Notified Date.” During July and August, a total of 42 packets were mailed out. Today, there are 196 records that have a notified date. The additional 72 records were created in the database as a result of researching property files and extracting information used to update the computer records. Of the 72 records updated, 69 had complied with our septic ordinance, or 97.8%. The three (3) who had not complied have not been sent citation warning letters.  

Until the process of researching every property file is completed, reporting the total number of owners “notified” and indicating how many have “complied” is obviously going to be a moving target. At this time, I am unable to make a good estimate of when this process will be completed. In May, I had originally hoped to complete the update of the Septic database by the end of August, but at this time it appears I’m at least 4 to 6 months from completion.  

Meanwhile, relevant data can be provided about how many owners are being notified and of those, how many are complying. It’s important to remember that our current ordinance allows 60 days for compliance.  

Also, beginning in September, we will again begin sending out citation warning letters. This information will also be included in future monthly reports.  

          * These numbers will change as property files are researched and the database updated.  

September 3, 2009 ~ Prepared by Fred Hilden