Committee approves revisions to one-time adjustment policy — allows adjustments every 10 years, charges excess at tier 1

The Sweetwater Authority Finance and Administration Committee on Jan. 6 approved revisions to the Authority's onetime-adjustment policy for customer water bills. The board-directed changes and staff recommendations were approved unanimously.

Under the changes recommended to the policy, excess water usage that qualifies for a one-time adjustment will be charged at the tier 1 single-family residential rate rather than the wholesale rate used previously. The policy will also allow a qualifying account one adjustment every 10 years, replacing the prior “one time in a lifetime” limit.

Staff proposed and the committee approved two staff-level authority adjustments: raising the general manager’s onetime-adjustment approval limit from $1,500 to $2,000 and increasing the customer service manager’s limit from $400 to $900. Staff also proposed a minor wording change to the policy title and purpose statements and to add a sentence requesting information from customers about the reason for high usage.

The mayor asked whether commercial customers ever qualify for residential tier 1 rates; staff replied they do not receive tier 1 as a matter of course, but noted that applying tier 1 for an adjustment still represents a discount compared with the previous wholesale-credit approach in many cases. Director Martinez moved to approve the changes and staff recommendations; the mayor seconded and the motion passed on a unanimous roll call.