Cave Creek council adopts revised water service adjustment policy

The Cave Creek Town Council unanimously approved revisions to the town's water service adjustment policy on March 17, adopting Resolution No. 2026-06. The council voted to make adjustments based on a customer's prior-year bills for the same billing period for up to two consecutive months, applying current tiered usage rates while ensuring an adjustment will not reduce a bill below the customer's typical monthly amount. The change takes effect with the May 2026 service period.

A staff member presenting the item said the revised method uses the customer's historical usage as a baseline while applying current approved rates, including tiered levels that may yield smaller credits in some cases. To illustrate, staff showed an example account with current usage of 98,051 gallons and prior-year usage of 35,405 gallons; recalculating the prior-year volume at today's rates produced a difference of $1,244.22 in the example. The staff presentation also said the change will standardize calculations and reduce staff time required to perform and verify adjustments.

The staff presentation reported that over the past 12 months the town processed 48 water-usage adjustments totaling $62,950.81, with individual adjustments ranging from $228.13 to $10,509.15. Staff said customers who received adjustments represented about 1% of roughly 4,500 water accounts and that those adjustments accounted for about 0.6% of the town's $7,700,000 in water-usage revenues.

"The revised policy would take effect beginning with the May 2026 service period," the staff member said during the presentation.

Council member Cynthia moved approval of the resolution, saying the revision "is a reasonable adjustment that we probably should have done when we adjusted the rates in the first place, but a good catch to keep it consistent across the water usage levels." Mayor Robert Morris seconded the motion. The council approved the resolution by voice vote; the chair announced the motion carried 7-0.

The revised policy allows one adjustment within a 60-month period, and the town manager retains authority to approve additional adjustments in unusual circumstances. The action is intended to align billing-adjustment processes with the town's updated tiered rate structure and support the town's stated strategic priorities for fiscal sustainability and water conservation.

The resolution text and the staff example were provided to council during the meeting; councilors asked for and received clarification on how quickly an adjustment can be processed (staff estimated about 10'15 minutes using an automated spreadsheet) and confirmed that signup and conservation programs referenced by staff would remain unchanged.