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Council reviews phased water-rate rollout as staff defends steep upper-tier increases
Summary
City staff proposed a phased water-rate change — quarterly billing initially with a planned move to monthly in Q3 — that would push some upper tiers as much as 69% higher; staff said the design protects the water plant and bond payments while council asked for clearer bill-impact examples and public communication.
City staff outlined a proposed update to Minnetrista City water rates that the council is expected to adopt in December, describing a two-step rollout that would keep quarterly billing for the early part of the year and switch to monthly billing in the busiest irrigation quarter.
"What we're trying to do today is kinda fine tune our water rates for adoption on December 8," said Jasper (staff), who framed the change as a phased approach intended to both balance revenue in dry years and encourage conservation. The packet presented quarterly rates and included the monthly structure for discussion and later amendment.
Council members pressed staff on the size of increases in upper tiers. One example in the packet showed a 69% increase for Tier 3; councilors said that headline percentage felt stark even though the underlying dollar-per-gallon numbers follow a 1.5× per-tier guideline staff used.
Jasper said the tier design follows common utility rate practice and was modeled with David Drown & Associates to ensure the rates generate adequate revenue in a dry year and to protect a planned water-plant bond payment. He also noted that roughly 90% of customers fall well below the volumes that would hit the largest tier increases.
Staff provided an example to show household impact: a customer using about 8,800 gallons per month (the city-average figure used in modeling) would see a quarterly bill of just under $200 under the current structure and an estimated monthly bill of about $65; under the new rate framework that monthly average could rise to roughly $90, about a 25% change in typical monthly cost.
Councilors and staff discussed commercial and school accounts separately; staff said there are only about 20 combined commercial and school accounts, so changes on that tier have limited revenue impact but must be sized to fit larger seasonal users such as schools or an apartment complex.
As a next step, council directed staff to include the quarterly rates in the Dec. 8 fee schedule and to bring forward the monthly structure for amendment closer to implementation. Staff will refine the packet language and effective dates to reduce public confusion.
The council did not adopt rates at the meeting; the item will return for formal action in December.
