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City council weighs small-business relief after two boil-water notices, declines further action
Summary
Staff presented models used by other cities and three options — expand residential credit, switch to percentage credits or create a small-business relief grant — but council members expressed little appetite to pursue a new program and no formal relief program was adopted.
City staff presented examples from other Texas and U.S. cities and three possible responses after Victoria issued two boil-water notices totaling eight days in August, but council members signaled they do not want to pursue a new small-business relief program. Staff described options used elsewhere — a flat credit to bills, percentage-based credits, and small-business grant programs administered with a partner such as LiftFund — and explained the costs and administrative tradeoffs of each.
Staff member Mister Garza said Victoria already issued a $10 flat credit for single-family residential accounts after the recent notices and summarized how other cities responded. “We applied it to basically all the residential accounts … roughly 21,000 accounts. The financial impact of that was $213,000,” Garza said, explaining the $10 credit represented roughly 24% of the base residential rate.
Garza described how Laredo and Richmond used targeted small-business relief and disaster declarations; Baltimore applied percentage-based credits after an E. coli detection; and some California cities applied a $20 across-the-board credit. He told council the three policy options he brought back were: expand the existing residential credit to all accounts, switch from a flat credit to a percentage-based credit, or establish a small-business relief grant program administered by staff or a partner such as LiftFund.
Council discussion focused on equity, precedent and administration. Mayor Crocker said public funds should prioritize infrastructure upgrades rather than reimbursing businesses, arguing many businesses can purchase business interruption insurance and that using public dollars to cover business losses is inappropriate. “I would rather see that money go into things to improve our water system than go into reimbursing businesses,” Crocker said. Councilmember Butler asked whether partnering with LiftFund would shift administrative burden; Garza confirmed the city allocation in the Laredo example had come from city funds and that a private partner would charge an administrative fee.
Several council members also noted differences in severity among cases: jurisdictions that issued credits after positive E. coli tests or extended outages also deployed large water distribution operations and disaster declarations. Councilmember Delagarza (discussion) and others observed that E. coli-positive events and prolonged outages are materially different from short notices driven by pressure or chlorine residuals.
No formal motion to create a new city-administered small-business relief grant was introduced. Multiple council members said they saw little appetite to pursue the more complex options; one council member said the flat $10 credit previously issued was largely symbolic and preferred to invest in water-system improvements going forward. The item remained discussion-only with no new program authorized.
