Surprise approves 10-year water-credit transfer to remove El Miragerecharge fee for Original Town Site residents

Surprise city leaders voted unanimously May 6 to convey a block of extinguishment (water) credits to the City of El Mirage so that residents in Surpriseoriginal town site (OTS) will no longer be charged El Mirage's water "recharge" fee.

The council approved Resolution No. 2025-43 after staff described a decade-long timeline in which El Mirage began charging a water recharge fee in 2011, Surprise temporarily paid the fee for OTS customers under a 2017 amendment, and Surprise purchased extinguishment credits in 2021 using federal funding tied to Lake Mead conservation. City staff said El Mirage currently serves about 1,400 Surprise customers in the OTS; Surprise provides sewer service for those same addresses.

The credits that Surprise will convey are unpledged extinguishment credits purchased in 2021; staff said the block of credits would be used to satisfy the recharge fees owed by OTS customers and that the conveyed credits would have an expiration in 2035. According to presentation slides shown to the council, the water recharge fee represented roughly 23% of an OTS residential customer's bill in the example used and ranged from about $16 to $30 per month; staff also presented an example in which, after a 3% citywide rate increase proposed by El Mirage and removal of the recharge fee, the illustrated bill would be $63.41 per month.

Staff said the arrangement would remove the standalone recharge fee from OTS customers' El Mirage bills while El Mirage would still implement the 3% rate change it recommended in its utility study. The council discussion emphasized the intergovernmental work required to reach the agreement and the goal of stopping the fee burden on OTS residents.

Council members and residents spoke in favor of the change. One councilmember told staff, "This is what good governance looks like," and thanked the city manager and staff for negotiating the intergovernmental solution. Former councilwoman Inouye Bo, representing OTS stakeholders in the audience, urged approval and described families burdened by the prior fee.

The council moved and seconded the resolution and a roll-call vote recorded a unanimous yes vote.

What this does and does not do: the vote authorized Surprise to convey the extinguishment credits to El Mirage under the terms presented; it does not itself change El Mirage's internal rate schedule or the effective date of El Mirage's separate rate adjustment. Council members asked staff to pursue longer-term protections so OTS residents would not again face a similar fee in future years.