PORT ANGELES — Should residents be charged more for recycling?
The City Council grappled with the question, as well as how the city should pay for an electrical rate hike, during its first public hearing Tuesday on next year’s utility rates and fees.
The city is considering separating the recycling and garbage fees, meaning that residents who don’t recycle would pay less.
Currently, the city charges $27.20 per month for weekly garbage and recycling pickup and $19.75 for biweekly pickup.
If approved by the council, those who continue to recycle would pay the same amount, while those who do not would have their charges dropped to $23.35 and $15.90 per month.
City staff said separating the charges would provide a more equitable rate structure for residents.
But Councilmen Max Mania and Brad Collins questioned whether that would provide a disincentive for recycling.
“It’s rewarding people for not recycling is how I see it,” Mania said.
Port Angeles resident Marilyn Harbaugh also questioned the proposal.
“Don’t punish the people who are recycling,” she told the council.
Cost of recycling
Larry Dunbar, city deputy power systems manager, noted that the recycling program, while lowering the amount of garbage collected, still adds to the city’s expenses by about $245,000 a year.
“Recycling is not a service that can be performed at no charge,” he said.
Collins and Councilwoman Cherie Kidd at the meeting continued their opposition to raising the electrical base rate — rather than the consumption rate — as previously endorsed by the rest of the council.
The city is facing a 14 percent rate hike from the federal Bonneville Power Administration and has proposed raising the base rate from $13 per month to $18.50 to cover the cost.
That would amount to an overall electrical rate increase of 6 percent for residents.
Don’t discourage
Collins and Kidd said it would discourage conservation.
Councilwoman Brooke Nelson said residents can still lower their bills through conservation.
“On the total bill, consumers still have control over 80 percent of their charges,” she said, assuming an average bill of $100 per month.
The base charge is intended to cover the cost of the electric utility’s staff and infrastructure.
Staff have said the rate would still not be high enough to cover those expenses.
Discount program
The electric rate would not be increased for residents who participate in the city’s low-income senior/disabled discount program.
Rick Hostetler, city customer service manager, said there are 411 residents in the program.
The city is also considering charging Nippon Paper Industries USA a base charge for the first time in about seven years.
The mill’s base charge, which the council ended in July 2004, was $5,870.
Staff have proposed a new rate of $3,800 per month to cover the city’s cost of processing the mill’s utility bills and other associated costs.
Nippon has its own power lines and reimburses the city for maintenance of those lines, so the cost of that infrastructure was not factored into the proposal.
Pressure on customers
The absence of the charge has put more pressure on other utility customers to cover the city’s expenses, staff said.
“It is typically a charge that we charge all of our customers,” Dunbar told the council last month, “and if we don’t charge a specific customer for it, than there is a rate impact to everyone else.”
The city is also raising its combined sewer overflow charge from $14.95 per month to $17.45.
The city raises the fee by $2 plus inflation per month each year in order to cover the cost of its approximately $40 million project, mandated by the state Department of Ecology, to eliminate sewage overflows.
It will continue increasing at that rate until 2015, when it is expected to reach $26.40 per month. The rate will expire after another 20 years.
Overall, utility rates are expected to rise for the average customer by $8 per month.
The next public hearing on utility rates and fees will be held Oct. 18 in council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
