Council can amend rate hike

The Washington City Council debated Wednesday whether to lock in a 3.5 percent increase in the water and sewer rates. The council voted 5-0 to approve the third reading of an ordinance which included the increases but which stipulated that the council could amend the increase with a resolution. The annual increase will take effect July 1, 2013. Councilor Merlin Hagie was absent from the meeting.

Councilor Bob Shepherd said he didn?t like the idea of automatically increasing the entire utility bill 3.5 percent, which includes water, sewer and sanitation. In particular, he did not want the base fee for water and sewer to rise 3.5 percent because he thought it would hit low-income people the hardest.

City Administrator Brent Hinson said the proposed 3.5 percent annual increase was not a number chosen at random but was determined based on the revenue the city must generate to pay its loan for the sewer plant. He told the council that if it wanted to decrease the base fee, it would have to increase the usage rate.  

Shepherd believed that if the council passed the 3.5 utility increase Wednesday, the increase would remain ?in perpetuity.? Mayor Sandra Johnson said the ordinance calls for the council to review the rate increase once every two years.

Councilor Bob Shellmyer said he agreed with Shepherd and that he?d like the revenue to be generated more from water and sewage usage rather than from the base fees. Shellmyer said the people who put more stress on the system should be the ones to pay more.

Hinson said that much of the cost of supplying water to a household comes from capital expenses such as building and maintaining the water mains to that house, which the city must pay for whether the resident uses any water or not.

?A justification for the base rate is that it costs a fixed amount for each additional household,? Hinson said. ?If I use 100 cubic feet per month, and you use 1,000 cubic feet per month, it really doesn?t cost the city that much more to serve you than it does me.?

Hinson said he was surprised at the level of discussion Wednesday considering there was no debate on the first and second readings, which were approved unanimously. Shepherd said he voted for the earlier readings with the proviso that the council would eventually take up the matter before the ordinance passed. He said he was well aware the city needed to raise the water and sewer revenue 3.5 percent each year, he was merely questioning how the city raised that revenue.

The Council talked about plans to resurface South Avenue E, which is the road that runs north and south by the baseball field. Hinson told the council that the road will be resurfaced this summer. Initially, the council hoped it would be done by the start of school, but that?s no longer possible. Hinson informed the school district the project would probably be done in September. He didn?t think it would seriously inconvenience the school since there are alternative routes to the school.

The council approved the police department?s request to apply for a grant for a speed trailer, which would record the speed of a vehicle as it passes by. The trailer would not cost the city any money. The police are applying for a $4,800 grant through the state of Iowa and the rest it hopes to get from the Riverboat Foundation.

Paul Towner, president of the Washington Municipal Band, asked the council for its support for a grant request to defray the travel expenses of soloists who will perform with the band this year. He said the band is applying for a Riverboat Foundation grant of about $2,000. The council supported the request on a 4-0 vote. Councilor Fred Stark abstained from voting.