Casper council adopts consent agenda, including water and sewer rate resolutions
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Summary
The Casper City Council approved its consent agenda Dec. 16, 2025 — including resolutions adopting wholesale/retail water and sewer rates — after public comment opposing steep increases and council discussion about deferred maintenance and the city's 1¢ allocation. Votes were unanimous.
Casper's City Council voted unanimously Dec. 16 to adopt a consent agenda that included resolutions setting new wholesale and retail water and sewer rates and multiple contracts and purchases.
The council approved the consent agenda by voice vote after the clerk read titles for dozens of items, among them resolution 888 (adopting water service rates) and resolution 889 (adopting sewer service rates). The motion to adopt the consent agenda passed with all councilors voting aye.
The approvals came after a public comment period in which several residents and at least one state representative urged the council to reconsider the scale and timing of proposed utility increases. Ross Shriffman said records show late payments by the ice-arena tenant and warned that taxpayer subsidies support the facility; Tony Locke and Representative Jamie Lien urged the council to pursue alternatives to steep rate hikes and questioned budget increases. Locke cited audit figures he said show a $43 million change in the city budget between 2021 and 2025; Lien read projected sewer-rate escalation figures she attributed to the resolution's schedule (including a 34% increase in 2026 and an 18% increase in 2027, and further scheduled increases she said total roughly 113% over 10 years).
Councilors responded at length. Councilor (as named in the transcript) and other members asked the public to review a recent work session that presented pro-forma charts and modeling. Council members said enterprise funds that run water and sewer have long been subsidized by the city's 1¢ allocation and argued the city must make those funds self-sustaining. Councilors described an oversized sewer system built in the late 1980s (planned for a population the city never reached), which they said has caused corrosion and deferred maintenance that now requires greater investment. Councilors said staff proposed moving from a 300-year replacement schedule to a 100-year schedule for sewer infrastructure and defended the rate adjustments as an attempt to catch up on past underfunding.
City staff previously presented the council with a water-resource management plan and a loan request: the board approved a $20,000,000 loan through the state Land Investment Board for the primary disinfection improvement project, scheduled to begin next year. Council discussion also referenced several capital projects and grants, including a roughly $6,000,000 North Platte pedestrian bridge project funded with about $2.2 million in utility infrastructure funding and a $3.7 million Wyoming Outdoor Recreation grant.
The council also approved, by consent, numerous contracts and purchases, including engineering studies for river restoration, procurement of submersible pumps for a sewage lift station, and equipment purchases for public services and police departments. The meeting record shows each consent item was included in the motion that passed unanimously.
What happens next: the rate resolutions and consent items approved Dec. 16 are effective according to the implementation language in each resolution; the council directed staff to continue public-facing outreach (including the work-session materials) and to follow up with constituents who asked questions during public comment.
Votes and formal actions at a glance: all listed consent minutes and consent resolutions read into the record (including resolutions 888 and 889 adopting water and sewer rates) were adopted by the council with unanimous aye votes.
