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e MEMORANDUM February 23, 1988 TO: Bob Hammitt FROM: J. R. Medlin 41� SUBJECT: VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM RATES CHARGED TO PROPERTY OWNERS Since the Vegetation MAnagement Program was transferred into Maintenance Planning last month I have been researching through old documents for infor- mation to establish the programs past practices. Understanding these past practices are mandatory to establish a beginning point for the Vegetation Management Policies and Procedures document now being written. Attached is a 1985 report from Mona Mellott of the Finance Dept. which outlines the recommendation for the hourly charge to the property owner to be $75 per hour. Also attached is a memo from Warren Wong to Chris Andersen seconding this recommendation and referencing Dave Whitlow's support. To date, I have been unable to find any documents from Chris on this matter. While I am sure they must exist since the $75 charge was implemented, instead of performing further research on the matter I believe time can be spent in a little more fruitfull manner by taking a different approach. Last year the charges to the property owner was $75 for the first hour and $40 for each additional hour thereafter with a $75 minimum billing. Jim tells me that the reduction to $40 for additional hours worked is not in writing nor was it published for the general public. The reason for this reduction was that our overhead is mostly covered in the charges for the first hour and leaving the cost at $75 thereafter was hard to justify other than to provide financing for the overall program. An example of this would be the property taking one hour to mow compared to the property taking ten hours. 1. The mowing contractor would charge us $25 and $250 respectively for these cuts. 2. Using $75 per hour for all hours would be $75 and $750 respectively. 3. Using last years procedure this would be $75 and $435 respectively. Past staff did not feel $500 for overhead was justified on a 10 hour project whereas the overhead amount of $185 was within reason. I think I agree with this thinking, especially since Finance Dept. is now placing liens on pro- perties for unpaid bills which in effect will eventually eliminate the need to otherwise support most of the uncollectables.