3.1 INTRODUCTION

With the implementation of a stormwater utility fee or special assessment, the municipality is imposing a new financial burden on the public: individual customers have to pay a new monthly fee or annual assessment for stormwater services. Furthermore, elected officials have to vote to impose the new fee or assessment on customers, a decision that is difficult to make. As a result, the key to successful stormwater utility implementation is community acceptance. The subject of this chapter is how to best approach public education and approval.

The 1997 FASU Stormwater Utility Survey considered public awareness programs for 52 existing stormwater utility respondents: 56 % of the respondents believed that a public awareness program is essential and 44 % believed such an effort to be helpful. Two-thirds of the respondents used brochures for their public awareness program, 58 % used bill inserts and/or neighborhood meetings, 44 % used public meetings, and 37 % used press releases. Only 25 % or less of the respondents used public schools, advisory groups, public service announcements, speakers bureaus, telephone hot lines, the Internet or other methods.

While individual methods for public acceptance will be discussed, the overall theme of this chapter and the experience of municipalities that have adopted utilities is that the public must want the stormwater service to be provided by the new revenues before they will agree to pay for it. The focus of the community acceptance process is not the stormwater fees or assessments but rather the stormwater service needs. Of course, elected officials and the public at large need to know that the rate structure is fair and equitable; however, education in these areas alone will not be sufficient to obtain community acceptance. The public and their elected representatives must be convinced that the stormwater services provided by stormwater utility revenues are essential to improve their quality of life, health, or safety. The general message of the community acceptance program and the majority of the program should therefore revolve around stormwater services rather than stormwater fees.

This chapter discusses various methods of engendering public support for the stormwater utility program. The first section considers a public awareness plan, with various approaches to develop a program. The second section addresses methods used to understand the needs of the community and to make sure the municipality focuses the funding program on the correct stormwater needs. Finally, the remainder of the chapter provides a discussion of methods to achieve public education, awareness, and ultimately, acceptance of the new funding program.

It must be emphasized that each municipality is unique. Within Florida, there are cities and counties that are wealthy or poor, proactive or reactionary, commercial centers or bedroom communities, urban or rural, and dominated by single-family homes or dominated by mobile homes. Furthermore, there is every combination of these characteristics. Since each community is unique, the community acceptance program for one municipality will be different than another. To some communities, flooding due to stormwater runoff is the primary and only issue to be addressed. Other communities are concerned with stormwater quality and the water quality problems caused by runoff. Each of these concerns are resolved by different types of stormwater services including proper planning, operation and maintenance activities, source controls, ordinances and enforcement, and capital improvements. Different stormwater service needs require different public education and acceptance methods. Therefore, the community acceptance program for all stormwater utilities should not contain all of the elements discussed in this chapter. Rather, in the planning process, methods should be implemented which are most appropriate for the type of public issues and the makeup of the community itself. Some of the public acceptance plans will be limited in scope because the community is already clamoring for the stormwater service. Some of the acceptance programs will be difficult and drawn out because the public is not aware of the needs or there are special issues within the municipality. Failure to be prepared for difficult issues may cause more difficulties than the issues themselves. It is therefore important that, of all the items discussed in this chapter, at a minimum, each community should develop a realistic public awareness plan and a stormwater needs assessment wherein the need for the service is associated with the appropriate costs.