Washington amends water fee ordinance

The Washington City Council passed a motion amending its water utility rate ordinance at a regular meeting last week.

“Let it be clear, this ordinance does not raise water rates, this ordinance does not change water rates,” Mayor Jaron Rosien said. “What it does is correct code where, when the codification happened, some of the ordinances were not lined up with the actual ordinances, and this $15 administrative fee for shut-offs, which has always existed, it got bumped off.”

The motion required a first reading of the ordinance change and a rules suspension to pass the change without additional readings.

City Financial Director Kelsey Brown said the city had been collecting the fee in the interim despite the error, not realizing the omission from the code until a citizen brought it to their attention.

“The city was collecting the $15 fee, as it was part of our policy for over 10 years,” she said in an email. “It was an oversight when the recodification was completed Dec. 3, 2019.”