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� o o ��, � Discussion followed and Mr Fales, Mr Schricker, and Mr Mitchell commented and replied to questions concerning the duration of the emergency and whether reference to it should be made in the pro- posed ordinance, the need to understand that it is expected the emergency would continue for some time after the drought ends, since two or three seasons of normal rainfall would be required to � replenish dams, the fact that the SFPUC will determine when the 25% cutback in amount of water available for purchase by the users ends, the fact that SFPUC has decided on a 25% cutback to its cus- tomers and left details to the users, the role of the SFBAWUA as ! "watchdog" over the SFPUC, and the need for the Council and water a customers to understand that the proposals are evolutionary since no experience with water conservation measures yet exists In response to questions, Director of Public Works Pusich advised that the basic residential allocation of 10 units is equivalent to about 500 cubic feet per month or 7500 gallons per month per house- hold, that no average household statistics exist, that approxi- mately 12% of Redwood City residential customers now use ten um ts or less per two-month billing cycle, that if it is necessary to penalize a customer by installation of flow restrictors, the re- strictor could be removed, depending upon payment of the penalty, shortly after it is installed, but after a second offense, the restrictor cannot be removed, and that any customer not satisfied may ultimately appeal to the City Council In further response to questions, Mr Pusich advised that while it might be easier for customers to monitor water use if they were billed monthly, such billing would greatly increase custs of staff, postage, etc and would have to be paid by the customer, that the , swimming pool industry will be greatly affected by the drought as will other industries and that some sort of restriction may have to be placed on permits for construction of pools in order not to mislead the public, and that some pool construction companies may be able to make arrangements to supply pool water from other sources, althcugh such action would not be encouraged because of the likeli- hood of "water rustling " City Attorney Schricker advised that the proposed ordinance would � not apply to water from sources other than the City and called attention to Section 3 Definitions (k� "Water - Water furnished by, through, or from the water system of the City " In response to request for further explanation of the recormnenda- tion that a percentage rationing program be used rather than what might appear to be the more equitable per capita gallonage program, Mr Pusich advised that staff does not wish to aggravate the emer- gency situation with more penalties, more staff and more expense for a program which would have the same overall result as the per- centage reduction program, noting that inequities would exist in any system Mr Pusich explained that the other agencies which use Sar Francisco water are expected to be on a percentage basis, so if a per capita gal��nage program were used, about 60% of Redwood City customers would suffer more than those in other cities and a costly communitywide census of all households would � be_necessary, then that informat�on would have to be put into the computer•and new programming requ�red and additional staff would be-needed to monitor use The considerable cost of a per capita -4- Reg Mtg 4/4/77 _�' I ..3 .