Pinellas Park — The City Council on Thursday adopted Ordinance No. 2025-26, amending Chapter 10 of the city code to rename utility "connection charges" as "capital recovery fees," change how interest on deposits is calculated and add new provisions authorizing the city to install and inspect sanitary sewer meters on selected properties.

The ordinance, which was read by title at the meeting and approved on second and final reading, makes several technical and substantive changes to the city's utility-billing ordinance. Joy Yates, assistant finance administrator, told the council the name change better reflects the purpose of the fee and that the city will move deposit-interest calculations to a federal-funds index. "Our biggest change here is adding in a new section...we are going to ask that we can have the ability to install sewer meters on some properties out there that we think that maybe might be having excessive sewer usage," Yates said during the hearing.

Why it matters: The new meter authority lets the city install, inspect and maintain sewer meters on properties where staff have reason to suspect wastewater use is not matching billed water use. Yates said the change will allow the city to measure actual wastewater flows rather than assume wastewater based on potable-water consumption in selected cases. The ordinance also establishes responsibilities and access rights for those meters, and renumbers related code sections to accommodate the additions.

Public comment at the hearing focused largely on recent and ongoing changes to how customers are billed and on the impact of minimum usage and related charges. Business owner Tin Lam described higher bills at his shopping center and said some units are vacant much of the year: "We don't pay water that much... the time you guys raise water, we pay triple price," he said. Other commenters including John Bosco, a townhouse complex board secretary, said an existing approach that applies a minimum 3,000-gallon usage charge per parcel has sharply increased bills for multi-unit properties; Bosco urged the council to reconsider the earlier ordinance that he said created the minimum-charge rule.

Council discussion included clarification that the city purchases wholesale water from the county and that county rate increases must be passed through to customers when applicable. Councilman Butler emphasized the pass-through dynamic, saying not passing on county increases would create budget problems for the city. After public comment and staff responses, Butler moved approval; the motion carried unanimously.

What the ordinance does: The enacted text (Ordinance No. 2025-26) (a) renames utility service connection charges as capital recovery fees; (b) indexes interest on customer deposits to a federal-funds rate; (c) creates sections on sanitary sewer meter installation, inspection and access; and (d) renumbers several subsections of Chapter 10 to accommodate the changes. The council approved the ordinance on second and final reading without recorded dissent.

Looking ahead: City staff said the new sewer-meter authority will be used selectively to investigate potential discrepancies between billed water usage and estimated wastewater, and that meter installations will be the city's responsibility. Members of the public who raised billing concerns were urged to work with the utilities department on account-specific issues.