PORT ANGELES — City customers will see a 5.4 percent increase in their residential water bills and no change in their home electric bills next year if the City Council adopts a recommended change of utility rates.
The average residential customer using 1,300 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 450 cubic feet of water every month would see a $2.75 increase — or 0.97 percent — in their monthly bills under a one-year proposal that the City Council will consider after a second public hearing Nov. 6.
Commercial customers using 5,000 kwh and 2,000 cubic feet of water would pay 98 cents — or 0.12 percent — more than they pay now under the 2019 proposal, Senior Accountant Glen Goodworth told the council Tuesday.
“I appreciate the chance to talk about rates and provide what I feel is mostly good news, if not totally good news,” Goodworth said.
A second reading and public hearing on the proposed utility rates for 2019 is planned at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The only rate increases being proposed are in the water and wastewater utilities. Wastewater charges will rise by 0.5 percent if the current proposal is approved.
No change is being recommended for the electric, solid waste collections, solid waste transfer station and stormwater utilities.
Medic 1 rates, which were set in 2017 for three years, will automatically rise by 1.8 percent in 2019.
“I’m very happy to report that we only have the need to raise rates in two specific utilities,” City Manager Nathan West said of the water and wastewater rates.
“It’s very important that council know that we went through, in great detail, all of the utility budgets for 2019 and did our very best to ensure that no increases or limited increases were provided where necessary moving forward with the community.
“I think we did that with great respect for the fact that it is very challenging for our community members to be able to often times make ends meet and pay for utilities,” West added, “and I think it’s extremely important that we be aware that every expense that we have has an impact on those future rates.”
Next spring, the City Council is expected to review the cost of service analysis (COSA) on which utility rates are based and may consider reducing or eliminating base charges.
“We’ve talked in the past as to getting rid of that base rate,” Mayor Sissi Bruch said in a four-hour meeting Tuesday.
“That was the idea of trying to stabilize, or equalize, the rate so that one glass of water should cost the same thing for a residential customer as it should cost for a commercial one.”
In his presentation, Goodworth said commercial, municipal and irrigation water customers have borne a greater share of the cost of providing water than residential customers have paid over the last five years.
To help bring the water utility into balance, no change is being proposed for commercial, municipal and irrigation customers in 2019.
“In order to move forward with using a COSA-generated rate structure, we needed to first of all narrow the gap,” Goodworth said of the disparity between residential and other water users.
“So we said ‘Let’s change the residential rates and increase it 5.4 percent.’”
When all customers are included, the total water rate increase would be 3.8 percent, Goodworth said.
The city’s Utility Advisory Committee recommended that the council adopt the proposed rates.
West suggested that the council discuss changing base charges next spring. Shifting the base rates in any way would have “substantial impacts across the board,” he added.
“We really need to think through those impacts carefully,” West said.
“And so we will get to that conversation, but I think the goal is to get some ‘19 rates in place first.”
Council member Jim Moran said he was open to discussing changes to base rates but cautioned his colleagues against eliminating flat fees altogether.
“From an accounting standpoint, to have no base rate would make the revenue so unpredictable that we would be all over the place when it came to year-by-year rate increases,” Moran said.
“Not only the philosophy that we have conveyances that we have to pay for — everybody pays for at a certain rate — the fact of the matter is from an accounting standpoint, a base rate stabilizes a revenue source and makes this type of work more predictable.”
Council member Mike French said he would favor a rate structure that creates incentives for conservation.
“What I want to see in that conversation that we have in the spring is how do we create rates that will give the most value to the citizens that take those conservation methods into hand,” French said.
During the public hearing, Steve Hopkins of Port Angeles said the base rate accounts for 90 to 95 percent of his monthly water bill.
Hopkins said he tries to conserve water, using only 120 cubic feet per month, but sees little savings for his efforts.
“If I cut my usage by 20 percent, I only save about 50 cents over a $40 bill,” Hopkins said.
“So I’m pleased to hear that there is going to be some discussion about the base rate, because for those of us that live alone — not just young people living along but of course our seniors who might be living alone — that base rate does play a big role in their water bill.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
