Task force: Increase water charge, hire consultant to revamp rate structure
It’s time to reexamine how Geneva charges customers for water and sanitary sewage service, according to a city task force. Doing so could resolve perceived inequities between high- and low-volume customers and stabilize charges while ensuring the city has enough money to run and repair the systems, it says.
The task force recommends hiring a consultant to do the study. It submitted the recommendation to the Geneva city council this week.
Mayor Kevin Burns decided to appoint the task force after some aldermen questioned rate increases proposed earlier this year.
The last rate structure study was done in 1985. The city has raised some of its rates from time to time.
The task force recommends that, no matter what, the base rate be increased. That monthly charge is supposed to pay for the costs of reading meters and meter replacement. The monthly base rate for water is $1.33 for a five-eighths-inch meter to $12.73 for a 6-inch meter; a house would typically have a five-eighths- or a three-quarter-inch meter. The monthly base rate for sewer is $1.32.
The task force reported Geneva’s monthly base rate is lower than that of neighboring towns. Batavia charges a minimum monthly base rate, for residential service, of $5.68, and St. Charles charges $4.96.
The task force couldn’t agree, however, on how much of water and sewer costs should be paid for with a fixed charge, such as the base rate, and how much should be paid for by consumption charges. Some costs of providing water and sewer service are incurred — even if the customer doesn’t use a single drop of water — for digging wells, building and staffing treatment plants and repairing pipes.
The problem with relying on consumption charges is that consumption has been declining for several years.
The city does charge 67 cents per 100 cubic feet of water to help pay for the money it borrowed to build a new water treatment plant a few years ago, and for improvements to its sewage treatment plant. Approximately 60 percent of the water fund’s revenue goes to pay back debt.
Alderman Chuck Brown said Geneva has rates which are favorable to small businesses, the elderly and single-person households, which typically don’t use much water, because it has historically put the burden for needed funds on the consumption, or rate-per-gallon, charge.
“But it is also true the worth of smaller users’ houses have gone up due to value of connecting to a good water system,” Brown said, so maybe it is fair to ask them to bear more of the burden.
“We can’t count on growth, we can’t count on impact fees” to pick up those costs, said task force member Steve Andersson, a Geneva library trustee.
Members of the task force disagreed over whether the base charge should also include some minimum water use or not. “Should the base be only for the right to have water to your home?” asked task force member Joe Stanton, a businessman.
The city could also consider raising the base charge, but lowering the consumption charges.
The next step would be for the council to accept the recommendation and direct the city administrator to develop a request for proposal for hiring a consultant.