5.4 DATABASE MAINTENANCE

Once created, the stormwater utility billing database needs to be updated at a frequency consistent with the billing frequency. For a special assessment billed on the annual tax bill, the database needs to be updated and rectified with the Property Appraiser's information once a year. For a monthly stormwater utility user fee, data must be updated monthly. Reasons for frequent database maintenance include:

• Reference areas change often enough to warrant modifications of the utility billing database. If such areas are not updated, revenues can be lost because of unreported construction.
• The bills better reflect actual conditions, so customers believe that the database is reliable.

The 1997 FASU Stormwater Utility Survey provided some insight into the maintenance practices of existing stormwater utilities. Of the 52 respondents, only 13% obtain maintenance data from the Property Appraiser's Office, 13% obtain the data from onsite measurements, 13% use permit records, 6% use aerial photos, and 8% obtain data from other sources. This indicates either there is no consensus on methods of database maintenance, or the respondents are not maintaining the database (i.e., the respondent has not used any source of information).

This section provides a discussion of maintenance activities for the stormwater utility database including maintenance responsibilities, changeable data, and sources of changes.

5.4.1 Database Caretakers

Whether the stormwater utility database is modified monthly or annually, the biggest question is who is responsible. Should the stormwater department maintain the database since they generally benefit from the revenues? Should the utility billing department be responsible because they have billing data already? Municipal governments answer these questions differently. A possible answer is offered in this section based on the type of billing process.

First, maintenance of the utility billing database should be considered from two sides: utility billing information and fee/assessment calculation data. If the stormwater utility is based upon a special assessment, the key to the utility billing information is the Property Appraiser and Tax Collector's common database. The city or county stormwater staff is not responsible for modification to these data. At the proper time (see schedule below), owner information along with parcel identification numbers need to be obtained from the Property Appraiser, and the municipal staff is responsible for adding data related to the assessment calculation (e.g., reference areas and credit information). Similarly, if the stormwater utility is based upon a user fee, existing utility billing staff is responsible for maintenance of the customer database. Other municipal staff members are responsible for assigning the fee calculation data to the utility customer data. Thus, many municipalities have two caretakers: the existing billing information caretakers (i.e., Property Appraiser's Office in the case of an assessment, and utility billing department for a user fee) and a fee/assessment calculation caretaker.

For adopted stormwater utilities in Florida, the fee/assessment database is usually maintained by one of two departments. The department responsible for stormwater management (e.g., engineering, public works, stormwater, etc.) is often the caretaker of the database because:

• This department was usually responsible for the development of the data in the first place so the staff is most familiar with the data.
• This department can benefit from the data for other purposes.
• Staff members within this department are most familiar with the concepts of a stormwater utility and the justifications for the revenue.

The other commonly used method is to maintain the database within the building department since the data required for database modification is easily accessible to the building department (see below).

5.4.2 Maintenance of Special Assessment Databases

Stormwater special assessments are administered once a year on the annual tax bill sent by the County Tax Collector's Office. It is important to note in this discussion of database maintenance that the tax bill is related to taxes in arrears, and that the updating of the Property Appraiser's records has an annual cycle that affects the ability of the assessment caretaker to update the assessment database. First, updating the Property Appraiser's records begins generally in December and continues until about June or July of the next year. While most of the modifications in the Property Appraiser's record include changes to owner names and addresses, some of the modifications are important to the special assessment such as splitting of parcels and new construction. The June/July Property Appraiser's database is close to the final tax roll but some modifications can still be made. Therefore, the final maintenance of the stormwater utility assessment database must be made after July of the year in which the assessment is placed on the tax bill.

The Property Appraiser's Office can generally provide a list of parcels for which a modification of the MAF dataset has been completed. From this list, the assessment caretakers can determine which modifications affect the assessment calculations and make appropriate modifications of the assessment database. It is important to remember that every parcel number must have associated assessment information: either identification of an exemption or data necessary to calculate the assessment itself. Once the assessment database has been rectified to the Property Appraiser's information, only the property identification number and the assessment is needed by the Tax Collector for inclusion on the tax bill. All other information is obtained from the Property Appraiser's records. The tax bill is usually mailed in November; however, the database must be complete by September.

5.4.3 Maintenance of a User Fee Database

Because the utility bills associated with a user fee are issued monthly or quarterly, the user fee database must be more dynamic and changes to the information are more frequent. Bills are normally sent by a utility billing department with existing billing protocol and a billing database management system. Assuming the user fee calculation database is maintained separately from the utility billing database, there must be a standard maintenance protocol to make adjustments to the fees for each customer as changes occur. As noted previously, the major changes generally relate to changes in reference area, number of dwelling units, and credits/exemptions. These changes originate from the fee calculation database caretakers. On the other hand, as new construction is completed, new utility customers come online and the need for database information originates from the utility billing system.

Many utilities in Florida handle modifications to the fee assessment and billing databases through the transfer of forms that denote modifications requested by the fee assessment caretakers or modification information needed by the billing department. Such forms can be relatively simple, providing customer information and reference number and a list of information to be changed (e.g., reference area data, number of dwelling units, or credit/exemption percentage). Most utility billing systems allow limited fee calculations using simple equations such as those discussed in Section 5.2.

5.4.4 Sources of Maintenance Data

For development of the initial stormwater utility database, this chapter has discussed the use of aerial photography and Property Appraiser's data. However, once the database has been developed, other sources of modifications become available so new aerials are not needed for every modification. Two of these sources have been discussed already. The Property Appraiser can identify modified MAF records to help isolate the records needing new or modified assessment calculation data. Also, the utility billing department can periodically provide list of new customers that require fee calculation data. There is a third source, however, which can provide timely information to the fee/assessment database that without requiring the measurement of reference areas from aerials: the building department. Most municipalities have development review programs that require new construction to receive a permit prior to occupation. To obtain the permit, a building permit application is completed and pertinent information attached (e.g., building plans, copies of state permits, etc.). With limited additional effort, the building permit application can require the applicants to provide the reference area, number of dwelling units, credit/exemption information, and parcel identification number for the completed project. Once the project has been completed (confirmed, for example, by a certificate of occupancy), the building department can supply the reference area information from the application to the fee calculation database caretakers. In this manner, the data required for most modifications to the fee calculation database will automatically be provided as construction is completed. Furthermore, the fee/assessment database is supplied the modification information about the same time as the new construction will be requesting other utility initiation, so modifications to the fee/assessment database and the billing database will be coordinated.