08/05/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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C Council Minutes of 8/5/2008 five-year term, we will even be farther below the Regional Sewer District. So we are providing a very good value for our citizens with these rates. 4) Donald Pangrac, 23470 Sharon Drive, asked if the city was part of any group purchase for national gas. He had opted out for MX Energy and was paying $9.75 mcf but was recently informed the price was increasing to $17.60 mcf which he feels is ridiculous. Mayor O'Grady said the city is part of NOPEC, an aggregation entity that aggregates both electric and gas. Citizens of North Olmsted who are part of NOPEC are part of a group for the purchase of natural gas. The rate increases are ridiculous, and there is no reasonable explanation for the increased cost of natural gas. We have the liquid fuel that comes in. OPEC plays their games in the Middle East, and we have the result here. As far as natural gas, both production in United States-97% of our usage is produced here-and with the storage capacity, we're exactly where we should be. It is outrageous that the cost of natural gas went up as it has. There has been a recent correction where it has come down to about $10, a little bit less in some cases. Our experience with corrections is they'll go back the other way again soon. He suggested Mr. Pangrac visit the NOPEC website to find out when the next opportunity would be for him to come into NOPEC. The pricing of gas is a system of buying futures. The price varies basal upon how far out you're purchasing-six months, one month. The farther out you go, the higher the price. It is all based upon the production of natural gas and what the reserves are. They are high, and there is no justification for these high rates. He is the Cuyahoga County representative for NOPEC, and NOPEC has saved millions of dollars for our customers over the long run. Other companies will come out and give you ashort-term low rate. There's no cost to leave NOPEC, but often a cast to leave the others. You need to be cautious. NOPEC is working to became a certified electric retail supplier with the idea that we could buy directly from the source and cut out another middleman. That would further reduce costs to our customers. NOPEC is one of the largest aggregation groups in the United States and is doing good things for our citizens. 5) Jerome Barrett, 24125 LeBern Drive, spoke about RTA and noted that it hadn't been mentioned that the majority of money RTA receives comes from suburbanites. Is that not correct? Mayor O'Grady said, based on taxation formulas, that is correct. Mr. Barrett said perhaps the suburbs ought to get together try to end the county-wide sales tax. This is a case of regionalism where we could use it to our advantage. Councilman Gareau said that Council should pass a resolution in opposition to the RTA service cuts. He suggested a special Council meeting for 6:55 p.m. on Monday, August 11, to consider and pass such a resolution. Law Director Dubelko commented that in 2004/2005, when RTA was disassociating itself with NOMBL, people did look at the issue of what it would take to get the tax issue back on the ballot and it is something like 67,000 signatures. It didn't seem very 13