By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The city’s water and wastewater rates are returning what they were before Oct. 1 – at
least until the end of the year.
City water and wastewater rates saw major increases Oct. 1, increases city council
members approved earlier this year.
During their regular meeting Monday, city council members learned the process for
setting the new rates was “not lawfully done,” so the city must revert to its previous rates
and restart the process of enacting rate increases.
Many citizens are complaining about the new rates, with more than 100 persons attending
a special meeting the council held Friday. Of that number, more than a dozen addressed
council directly in the “Citizen Comments” portion of the meeting.
About 25 citizens attended Monday’s meeting, and five of them spoke about the new
water and sewer rates during “Citizen Comments.”
There were two measures on the council’s agenda Monday dealing with wastewater rates.
Both of those ordinances had been on the council’s agenda Friday, and when they came
up in Tuesday’s meeting, City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith told council members
they didn’t have to worry about the substance of the ordinances because “what’s
happened is we are going to revert to the original (water and wastewater) rates.”
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus asked Smith to clarify.
Smith replied, “A lot of questions came up during the meeting on Friday, and one of the
most frequent questions was the lack of notice to the public (about the new rates),
regarding having a public hearing.”
She added, “(I) couldn’t find any record that a public hearing was advertised and held,
giving the public 30 days’ notice that the rates were going to be adopted.”
Smith said to rectify the situation, the water and wastewater rates will return to what they
were before Oct. 1, and the city will set a public hearing for Dec. 12 to formally notify
the public it plans to enact a rate increase.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart said the city’s utility billing department staff will “go
back and recalculate and do adjustments on the billings” for October, November and
December.
Burkhart said said the city is now aiming for Jan. 1 as the date for starting the new, higher
rates.
When Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez asked exactly when the rates would revert,
Burkhart said they would revert immediately.
Smith added, “The new rates took effect Oct. 1. Because they were not implemented
correctly, that order was void, and so it’s as if they never existed, the higher rates, and
bills will be adjusted to reflect that the new rates are now the old rates.”
When Gutierrez asked a further question, Smith replied, “The council voted to approve
(the new) rates, so they were in place, but that was not lawfully done, so that is null and void. It’s as if it never existed. So if somebody got a bill based on the new rates, there’s
going to be an adjustment made on the bill by the utility billing department. . .”
When Mayor Al Arreola expressed frustration that it seemed “we’re going backwards
again” and asked Burkhart to explain “where we go from here,” Smith said, “Mayor, with
all due respect, if we did it wrong, we are fixing it, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
Burkhart said the city council will have a public hearing on the proposed rate increase on
Dec. 12. She added October, November and December would be billed at the old rates,
and that the utility billing department is working on making those adjustments.
Burkhart also said late fees would be waived for those months and that there would be no
cutoffs.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. asked further questions about bills and adjustments, and
Vivianna Rosalez, the city’s utility billing supervisor, stepped to the podium to answer
them.
Lopez also asked if pamphlets informing customers about the situation could be sent out
in the next round of bills.
Rosalez said the pamphlets would be included with the December bills, which will be
sent out at the end of November, and Burkhart added the city also plans a publicity
campaign involving ads in local newspapers, news websites and radio stations.
Gutierrez asked some questions about late fees, saying she wanted to make sure
customers waiting pay a disputed bill would not be penalized.
Arreola asked for an explanation “of where we’re going to go from here.” He said he
would also like to hear the explanation in Spanish for customers that might not
understand English.
Rosalez said every customer’s October bill would be adjusted. She said October would,
in essence, be re-billed, and the utility billing staff would then ready November bills to
go out.
When Arreola noted citizens were shocked by their high water and wastewater bills,
Gutierrez added it is “imperative that the information we get is accurate.”
“Not only is it frustrating for our citizens, confusing for our citizens, it is frustrating for
me, who is trying to provide responses to all those people who are calling me,” Gutierrez
said, adding she takes responsibility for any mistakes made.
Smith said the error “wasn’t really a lack of information.”
She added, “. . . the bigger problem was that we had the first meeting, back in June, and
there were no hearings, as required by our city charter. It’s not required by law, PUC (the
Public Utilities Commission) doesn’t require it, it’s in our charter that any change in rate
in any utility has to be heard by giving the public 30 days’ notice.”
Smith also pointed out, “. . . the city needs money to pay certain debt obligations that
were incurred for capital improvements, and the rates that were proposed to city council
are the rates that the consultants said is what you need to pay that debt obligation, so
come January, there will be a rate increase.”
“We can’t say how much, but the same numbers will be presented to council,” she added.
“Let’s don’t put the wagon in front of the horses,” Arreola said.
The mayor then recognized Councilman Randy Quiñones.
Quiñones turned to Rozales, still standing at the podium, and said he understood the
problem facing the council was not of her making and thanked her and her team for
meeting one-on-one with customers.
“For us, it’s embarrassing. Like, how did we get here? I’m not going to go through this
again. You all need to figure it out,” Quiñones said.
The councilman also suggested moving the public hearing to a bigger venue.
DeReus commented, “Not to beat the dead horse too bad, but, as Councilman Quiñones
said, this is embarrassing, and that’s to say the least, that months after we passed this
ordinance, we’re now finding out that we did everything wrong, and I don’t know how
that happened, what the screw-ups were, but they need to be fixed.”
Smith said technically everything has been corrected, and that city staff has a plan for
moving forward.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
