DeKalb committee reviews 10%-per-year water and sewer rate proposal, consent-decree costs and customer protections

Commissioner Robert Patrick, chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, reconvened the meeting Feb. 13 to address water and sewer rates and the capital-improvement program for the county's watershed system.

The administration distributed an “uncoupled” rate resolution that separates a proposed 10% annual increase for water and sewer from a proposed bond authorization. Maria Hauser, Director of Watershed Management, walked commissioners through the CIP 2024 update, the county’s online CIP materials and a new Power BI dashboard intended to make project details and progress more transparent to commissioners and the public.

Why it matters: the county is under a modified consent decree requiring major sewer and wastewater work. Staff and consultants told the committee the 10-by-10 rate option — a 10% annual increase for 10 years — supports a ten-year CIP that includes hundreds of projects and helps fund the consent-decree work. Commissioners raised questions about the revenue sufficiency analysis, the use of 2023 audited numbers, the constructability and timing of the largest trunk-line projects and the scale and timing of potential federal or state penalties for missed deadlines.

Rate resolution and process options

Staff presented two principal pathways: adopt a rate resolution that includes a set of seven customer-protection measures now (the “full BOC draft”), or adopt the rates alone and require the administration to return with the protection measures finalized within a short timeline (a draft with a 30-day timeline was presented). The protections the committee discussed include an Office of (Water and Sewer) Customer Advocacy, an…