On the City Council agenda for Jan. 7 is setting the date for a public hearing for the new rate structure and proposed rates for water and wastewater. It’s typically one of the first steps in a process to inform water and wastewater customers and provide a process for input, but this year it’s a culmination of work that started at the January 2019 water and sewer rates hearing. At that time, City Council expressed an interest in seeing a new “cost of service” study to ensure they city’s rate structure not only complied with the law and ensured financial stability, but that each class of rate payers was paying their proportionate share of the water and wastewater costs.
As part of the rate study, the City hosted two public workshops (Oct. 15 and Nov. 19) and presented multiple design rate options for Council consideration and public input. New rate structures were selected, and a two-year rate setting model was introduced. The two-year period is short enough to allow rate changes if future projections are different than anticipated while also reducing the administrative costs of adopting new rates.
City Council is expected to set the public hearing for Tuesday, March 3 as part of the regular council meeting. The notice of the public hearing will be mailed at least 45 days in advance and is also available as an attachment to the Jan. 7 agenda report.