Finance director outlines utility fee changes; residential bills rise modestly
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Summary
City finance staff presented a multi-fund utility-fee package that includes small water increases, a stormwater increase that was later reduced by the committee, and separate police and parks charges added to utility bills. Staff and committee members discussed outreach, billing mechanics and impacts on multifamily and commercial customers.
Finance Director Tim Wood presented a multi-page analysis of proposed utility fee changes and their impacts on customers during the May 13 Keizer Budget Committee meeting. The materials compared single-family, multifamily and commercial sample bills and explained how revenue would be used for capital projects and ongoing operations.
Key figures from the presentation: - Water: manager-recommended increase of 1% (net revenue ~ $15,000), estimated at $0.19 per month for a residential account, to support water-main replacements. - Stormwater: staff originally proposed a larger increase to address several unplanned capital projects and a long interval without a fee increase (no increase since Jan. 2020); the manager’s materials described a larger request but the committee ultimately amended the increase to a 3% fee and indexed future increases to CPI. - Police and parks service fees: staff presented monthly-per-account amounts; the final committee action raised the parks fee $0.50 per month and the police service fee was increased by ~10% (effective Jan. 1, 2026) coupled with a committee direction to form a task force to evaluate fee distribution across account types.
Wood explained the billing comparators and noted a formula error in the draft residential water example he corrected during the meeting. He highlighted that multifamily samples can read differently because parks and police fees are assessed per unit in multifamily cases; commercial customers typically receive one service charge per utility account.
Committee members questioned whether the city had done sufficient direct outreach and whether rolling fee changes through utility bills was the preferred method for community revenue. Staff explained they used newspaper notices, social media and radio, and that more outreach was planned for any large future changes.
The committee approved the water increase (1%) and, after discussion, adopted a smaller stormwater increase (3%, CPI-indexed) than initially proposed. The police fee increase was adopted as part of the police services fund action; committee members requested a short-term task force to study commercial/residential equity and alternate charge methods.
Quotes: - Tim Wood, finance director: “So when we look at a residential customer ... they'd be looking at a monthly increase of $3.97” (water + sewer examples shown; corrected during presentation when a formula error was found). - Wood on stormwater: “We haven't increased the fee since January 2020, so it has been many years.” - Committee discussion repeatedly returned to outreach and whether additional listening sessions were needed; staff said they used the Keizer Times, radio and social media and would expand efforts for larger proposals.
Next steps: staff will update utility billing schedules and public notices, implement the adopted fee changes, and provide the stormwater follow-up plan the committee requested.
