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CONFLICT RESOLUTION MINUTES Thursday, July 22, 2021-10:00 a.m. CityHall, Council Chambers, Vero Beach, Florida PRESENT: City of Vero Beach: Monte Falls, City Manager; John Turner, City Attorney and Rob Bolton, Water and Sewer Director Indian River County: Jason Brown, County Administrator and Dylan Reingold, County Attorney The meeting opened at 10:03 a.m. Mr. John Turner, City Attorney, reported that today's meeting is a continuation of the Indian. River County and the City of Vero Beach meeting regarding Chapter 164 of the Florida Statutes regarding dispute of the "1989 Territorial Agreement between the parties. He said we continued the matter of the previous meeting to today's date to allow the City the opportunity to review the proposal offered by the County at their previous meeting. Today they have the same participants. Staff members are present. We also have the addition of Ms. Cindy Lawson, who is the Finance Director and she will be available to answer questions regarding financial matters if the parties. don't have any objection. Ms. Lawson wasn't listed in the notice of the individuals who were going to be present; but we think she might be very helpful if financial issues come that we need to address. He thinks what he would like to have is the City .Manager do a kind of review of their discussions onthis, the County's offer that they were discussing last time and outline their position. Mr. Monte Falls, City Manager, thanked Mr. Brown and Mr. Reingold for the .framework they set out at the June 24"' meeting that outlined a possibility for settling the dispute. He said to go over that and correct me ... I think that I have the points, but if I miss them help me fill those in, but the first one, the County would agree that the Territorial Agreement was still in effect and the County would remain neutral on any litigation involving the Territorial Agreement, the County would not contest the validity of the Territorial Agreement, and the County would propose a new franchise for South Beach that was silent on the Territorial Agreement. The County wanted to have the same rates for South Beach as Indian River Shores (the Town of Indian River Shores) has, which are County rates currently through 2027 or the point where the 15 -year out in the City's Franchise with the Town comes about. He asked Mr. Brown if that was correct. Mr. Jason Brown; County Administrator, answered yes generally and then I think thereafter for a five (5) -year period there would be a Iimitation that after 2027 our proposal is that those residents would go to City rates with outside surcharges or no additional surcharges with a five (5) -year rate protection period where those rates couldn't be raised on those customers more than 5% a year for five (5) years. Mr. Falls said I'm sorry I did omit that, but I do recall that. He said so we have discussed it and we are all of the mindset that we will no longer offer rates that do not reflect the cost associated with operating our utility and we will agree to offer the same rates to all customers within our 107/22/21. Conflict Resolution