PORT ANGELES — Rate increases.
That’s one thing Port Angeles residents can count on as City Council members begin discussing 2015 and 2016 budget priorities for the mammoth utilities department at a 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. work session Tuesday.
The meeting will be in City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The approximately $100 million 2015 utilities budget is dominated by the city-owned electric department but also includes the solid waste, water, wastewater and stormwater utilities.
“Insurance is going up, medical expenses are going up — those are things that we really don’t control that have to be factored into the cost of the utility,” said Public Works and Utilities director Craig Fulton, who will lead Tuesday’s discussion.
“After we’ve gone through a discussion of what the utilities are, how we do them, the cost-cutting we’ve gone through in the past, then we’ll go into a discussion of the rate-setting process for the next two years.”
Fulton said a Bonneville Power Administration increase for the electricity the agency supplies the city is expected to be 8 percent for 2016 and be carried through 2017, he said.
Fulton said increases already have been planned in rates for electric, stormwater and wastewater utilities.
But there may be a silver lining.
The utilities department is looking at keeping those rates at the planned level of increase or possibly reducing them slightly based on cost savings, Fulton said.
“We will have a discussion about solid waste collection and the solid waste utility,” he added.
“Those rates are already set for five years.”
While public comment will not be taken at the meeting, as is the case with all City Council work sessions, Fulton said he hopes citizens who attend the work session will leave with an appreciation of the public works and utilities department.
“I hope they would come away with a much better understanding [of] the scope of work of the utilities, what they do, how they do it, and how they do it with such a small staff,” he said, adding he will present those numbers Tuesday, too.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
