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Alpine delays water-rate decisions pending audits and new city manager review
Summary
At an Alpine City Council workshop, staff presented an updated 2025 water rate study showing growth in connections and pressure on operating revenues; council members agreed to delay rate changes until enterprise fund actuals, audit results and input from the incoming city manager are available.
Alpine council members at a workshop reviewed an updated 2025 water rate study prepared by Communities Unlimited and agreed to postpone any rate changes until staff can provide more complete enterprise fund actuals and audit results.
City Manager said the study "shows significant customer growth since 2022 with more than 600 new water connections and corresponding increases in base rate revenue," but noted that projected operating expenses — driven by inflation, maintenance needs and administrative costs — could outpace revenues. The manager told the council the update was completed at no cost to the city with support from USDA Rural Development.
Why it matters: Staff and council members emphasized that adopting new rates without current, audited data could impose burdens on customers or fail to address underlying financial shortfalls. Councilmember Stevens urged caution, noting, "We don't know the numbers," and said the council should avoid presenting a rate increase to constituents until the picture is clearer.
Finance staff told the council audits of city funds are ongoing and that smaller funds are being closed out first. Staff proposed narrowing the near-term focus to the water enterprise fund so staff can report water-specific actuals sooner. The finance staff said the audit target is June but that follow-up reporting and a council discussion in March would give staff time to gather water-enterprise actuals and consult the incoming city manager, who begins work in late January.
The workshop also covered utility deposits and fee-setting processes. Finance staff said the city has combined deposits for all utilities and that earlier practice raised deposits from about $100 per utility to $200 each because of collection problems. Staff estimated cumulative unpaid balances in closed accounts at roughly $400,000 and said the city needs to review collection practices; council members discussed reengaging outside collection vendors used for delinquent tax items.
A resident raised a separate customer-service problem in which a gas-account deposit reimbursement appeared to have been applied to another account; staff agreed to investigate the incident.
On operational capacity, staff said engineers are reviewing pressure and supply in growth areas and reiterated that adding a future well has been recommended as part of longer-term planning.
Next steps: Council and staff agreed to return to the water-rate discussion after staff compiles the water-enterprise actuals and meets with the new city manager, with a tentative follow-up scheduled for March. The workshop then was adjourned.
