Santa Rosa staff recommend multi-year water and wastewater rate increases; council directs Prop 218 notice

Santa Rosa city staff presented a comprehensive water and wastewater rate study on Jan. 7, 2025, recommending staged rate increases over the next five years and asking the City Council to authorize staff to start the Prop 218 notice and protest process.

The study was presented by Jennifer Burke, director of Santa Rosa Water, and Mark Hildebrand of Hildebrand Consulting, who said the plan balances a 10-year capital program against operating and reserve needs and includes reinstating an automatic pass-through of Sonoma Water wholesale rate changes. Mark Hildebrand summarized the law underpinning the work, saying, "The basic premise is that you can't charge customers more than the cost of providing service." Director Burke said the Board of Public Utilities reviewed the work and "unanimously recommended the report and the rate schedule that is before you today."

Why it matters: Santa Rosa faces a long-running capital shortfall for water and sewer systems. The study proposes multi-year increases so the utilities can raise annual capital appropriations to levels recommended by recent infrastructure assessments while maintaining reserve policies. A separate but related change — a proposed pass-through of Sonoma Water wholesale increases — would shift some wholesale-cost volatility directly to retail customers when Sonoma Water…