Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council reviews stormwater commercial‑rate billing error; staff to audit and return with options
Summary
City staff told council a tiered commercial stormwater rate adopted in 2023 was not correctly implemented in the billing system, producing higher bills for some businesses; staff credited the one cycle affected and will audit, propose fixes and present recommendations before budget adoption.
City staff told the Lancaster City Council on Monday that a recently adopted change to commercial stormwater rates was not implemented correctly in the billing system, causing one billing cycle to post increased charges to some commercial customers before the city completed required notifications.
City Manager explained the background: Lancaster’s stormwater utility uses a single‑family living unit equivalent (SFLUE) method (the city’s SFLUE is based on 3,100 square feet of impervious area per unit) and a tiered commercial structure that was intended to bill commercial parcels by tiers. Staff said the master fee schedule was adopted in September 2023 and should have taken effect in October, but the billing change did not apply until April and only ran for one cycle.
The billing error produced unexpectedly large stormwater charges for some commercial customers, prompting calls to council and staff. Staff said that the accounts billed in April were credited and that the city is not currently collecting the new commercial rates city‑wide pending further review.
Trey Shanks, a consultant on the stormwater master plan who attended the meeting, explained how SFLUEs are calculated (impervious area divided by the 3,100‑square‑foot unit) and how the tiered/declining block rate is intended to operate. Several council members said the current tiering is complex and asked staff and the consultant to present simpler, industry‑standard alternatives (for example, a straightforward per‑SFLUE flat multiplier) and to verify whether billing system setup or formula errors caused the unusually high invoices that some businesses reported.
Council members emphasized that small businesses have reported bills they said could threaten operations. Staff committed to an immediate audit of billing calculations, to correct any remaining errors, to present options for simpler, legally compliant rate structures and to return before the budget process with recommendations. Council did not take final action at the meeting.
The city manager cited state statutory guidance for municipal drainage utilities during the discussion and said staff will coordinate with the consultant to ensure future bills are accurate and properly noticed.
