HomeMy WebLinkAbout4/21/2026 Item 7b, Delmartini (2)
Steve Delmartini <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Item 7.b Sewer lateral replacement for April 21,2025
Honorable Mayor and Council Members
I am opposed to the mandatory "point of sale" replacement of existing sewer lines.
My comments are directed to Table 4. Stakeholder Outreach Summary - Realtor
1. Hardship funding source - this would be great if you can find a funding source especially for first time
home buyers and/or buyers with a limited down payment.
2. Limited contractor availability - I disagree with the staff response. A Realtor member did make calls to
some plumbing contractors, and found that out of about five contractors that were involved with lateral
replacement that were being used consistently, one was no longer doing the replacements two were not
looking to increase their involvement and one was looking to increase the lateral replacement side as he
has invested in advanced technology equipment and has three crews available. I'm not sure if the
fifth was contacted and obviously there could be others. My question is in the staff response, why would
you wait to see if there are additional contractors out there after you have an ordinance in place
instead of before? Seems like that would be good information ahead of time. Not sure how many
contractors want to invest in equipment and/or change their business model to start to do replacements.
3.Confusion between plumber and the city - The online portal sounds like a big help.
4.May not complete in 180 days - There were good discussions about this and I think we are on the same
page,
5. Education is needed - if this paasses, education will be huge to both the Realtors and residents. I
believe the current system sort of left the education on the shoulders of the Realtors. Not many, if any
sellers actually said they were aware of this mandatory inspection on sale as they had heard about it
through the city.
6. Consider mandated replacement of all existing poor/failed laters vs. point of sale - Not sure what the
staff response means, allowing easier access to a funding source i.e. included in the home purchase
financing ??
7. Potential delay to escrow closing - this is not similar to "other contingency items". Items in a home
inspection and/or pest inspection in most cases, don't need to be corrected unless negotiations address
those items specifically. A poor/failed sewer lateral has to be corrected so the negotiation is "who is
paying" and how long will it take ? I believe it can take up to 4-5 days to complete a replacement plus
scheduling the dates in a contractor's schedule to get on the calendar to get the work done. A thirty days
escrow is fairly normal. A standard buyer contingency removal time is 17 days from acceptance which
can be negotiated for more/less time.. These are calendar days so take out four days for the weekends.
8. Can staff limit mandatory replacement to only capacity constrained areas - just a thought.
You may want to consider moving this decision to a future date, There are many moving targets to deal
with. We haven't even discussed the potential lender issues.
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Thank you for your time and consideration. If anyone would like to meet and have a discussion please let
me know.
Steve Delmartini
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