City Council to Conduct Second Reading of Water Rate Ordinance

The City Council is set to conduct the second reading of its water rate ordinance on Monday.

The City Council last Monday unanimously voted to raise water rates twice, first in April and then again in January.

The increases would be a 7.1% and 7.2% increase respectively.

PWP bills customers every two months. According to information released by the city over the past several months, PWP customers could see a 13 to 17% raise in their water bills over the next year as new rates go into effect next month.

The water system itself consists of 520 miles of water mains, seven active wells, 14 reservoirs and 19 booster stations. Many of the original water mains actually date back nearly 100 years, said PWP Engineer Chris Ojeda in a meeting last week.

The city operates the water system as a self-supporting enterprise. To ensure financial stability, PWP prepares a five-year financial plan that is updated annually and includes revenue requirements to meet all operation and maintenance expenses, debt service requirements, annual system improvements, replacements of capital infrastructure, and other costs. The five-year plan is a critical component of preparing the annual operating and capital budgets for the Water System. The five-year financial plan prepared for FY2022 through FY2026 determined that revenues from projected sales and existing rates are insufficient to recover projected expenses.

The Water Rate Ordinance sets forth the rates for water and water service to be charged and collected by the Water Division of the city, according to a city staff report.

The rate hikes are required because of increases in the cost of purchased water from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) as well as higher departmental operating and maintenance costs.

The increase in the city’s commodity charge will provide additional annual revenue of approximately $1.5 to $2 million while the increase in the Distribution and Customer Charge (D&C) will provide additional annual revenue of $1 million.