Sewer rate hikes take effect

In a 58-minute meeting that was open to the public for 28 minutes, Ramona Municipal Water District directors approved sewer rate increases of 6 percent for Santa Maria plant customers and 7.5 percent for San Vicente plant customers.

The approved rates, effective July 1, are $716.32 per year per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) for Santa Maria customers and $670.54 per year for San Vicente customers.

Barbara Piper, saying she represented the seniors of Ramona Terrace Estates mobile home park on H Street, questioned the way the district charges for sewer service.

“Why isn’t our sewer bill based on usage or a percent of the water we use?” she asked, noting that is how the district charges for water. “Why do you use one EDU for everyone, when our homes have a one- or two-person occupancy?”

Since a pending lawsuit against the district alleges “high sewer rates and unfair rates,” she said, she thinks “the ethical thing to do would be to have a stay, so to speak, on sewer rates and not even consider raising them at this time.”

After hearing from Piper, the board called a closed session to confer with attorney Jennifer Lyons about the Plantier versus Ramona Municipal Water District litigation that questions how the district sets its sewer rates.

The closed session, called five minutes after the open-to-the-public meeting started, resulted in the 20 people in the audience leaving the room. Most stayed in the lobby during the 30-minute closed session, but several left the building.

“Ninety-six years old,” Donna Azzolina said as she helped her mother, June Pratt, out of the room. “She drug herself out here. Oh, well, that’s how it goes.”

“She made an effort to get out here to have her voice heard,” Azzolina said as she and Pratt left the building.

“You come to a meeting and they already know what they’re doing,” said Pratt.

The public hearing on the proposed rate changes started after board president Darrell Beck reconvened the public meeting. No one commented during the public hearing, but board clerk Tiffany Friend said that, of the estimated 7,000 affected parcels, the district received 15 written protests of the proposed sewer rate increases.

In a PowerPoint presentation, Alex Handlers of Bartle Wells Associates reviewed the history of the district’s two sewer service areas, an overview of rate studies his firm conducted, financial challenges necessitating rate increases, and rate recommendations.

The district serves two sewer service areas:

•Santa Maria in and around downtown Ramona and the Mt. Woodson development, and

•San Vicente for San Diego Country Estates and Rancho San Vicente/Ryland Homes.

“Each area has its own independent collection system and wastewater treatment plan, and each sewer service area is financially self-supporting, so the rates for each must support the financial needs of each,” said Handlers.

He said the district has shown good financial stewardship the past 10 years, charging “small gradual increases to keep your revenues in line with your costs of service.”

Both plants face significant but manageable financial challenges, he said.

The Santa Maria plant will need about $16.5 million in improvements in the next 10 years “to address existing deficiencies and support safety and reliability,” he said.

“You don’t have that kind of money sitting around in fund reserves, so it’s possible you might need to do some debt financing,” he said.

Based on the Bartle Wells study, the San Vicente plant will need about $4.5 million in improvements in the next 10 years, said Handlers.

“We’re proposing you can do that all on a pay-as-you-go basis,” he said.

The district also has aging sewer pipelines that will “need some reinvestment to keep them in good operational condition going forward,” he said.

“We built in $300,000 per year for annual pipeline replacements after the next five years,” he said.

Cost inflation is another factor, he said.

“So when we put everything together and look long term, it looks like your Santa Maria side needs about 6 percent increase going forward for a number of years, and the San Vicente Sewer Service Area needs 7.5 percent increases going forward for a number of years,” he said.

Handlers presentation included a comparative look at what other districts charge for sewer service. Beck noted that some at the lower end of the rate scale are “ocean outfall, that’s where they dump it in the ocean. We have to treat it and spray it.”

Director Joe Zenovic commented that the rate increase will cost the ratepayer about 11 cents a day, “probably not a significant amount when you compare it to my proverbial Dunkin’ Donut at 99 cents.”

In a 4-0 vote, directors approved the rate increases. Director Jim Hickle was absent.

In other business at the June 23 meeting:

•Directors voted to continue the annual sewer availability charge of $10 in the San Vicente Sewer Service area.

•Directors learned that staff had ordered an emergency stand-by generator with a transfer switch for the district’s Poway Pump Station. Cost is $31,500.

•Directors learned the district had sent a letter to Transitional Special Agricultural Water Rate customers informing them of a 15 percent cutback in supply required by the Metropolitan Water District.