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Mexico Beach council advances water and sewer rate ordinances, removes clause allowing future adjustments by resolution
Summary
The Mexico Beach City Council advanced Ordinance 8-73 and voted to adopt Ordinance 8-74 with Section 7 struck, directing staff to renumber and correct formatting; the change preserves a two-meeting ordinance process to give the public extra comment time.
Mexico Beach — The City Council on Oct. 28 moved forward with changes to municipal utility rates, advancing Ordinance 8-73 and adopting Ordinance 8-74 with a modification that strikes Section 7, which would have allowed future rate adjustments by resolution.
Mayor Wolf and council members discussed whether routine rate changes should be handled by ordinance, which requires a two‑meeting process and gives residents extra time to comment, or by resolution, which is faster but provides less public notice. City attorney (speaker 8) told council that ordinances require multiple readings while a resolution can be adopted in a single meeting and offered sample language and an optional automatic inflation adjustment that was not included in the current draft.
Council member (speaker 5) moved to read Ordinance 8-73 by title only and to approve Ordinance 8-74 as amended — striking Section 7 and fixing misnumbered sections — a move seconded by another member. The clerk conducted the roll call; all members present voted in favor. The council therefore approved the ordinance changes and directed staff to correct numbering and finalize the draft.
The change means Mexico Beach will continue using an ordinance-based process for rate changes in these matters, preserving a roughly two‑week period between introduction and final vote for public comment. Staff said they will incorporate council-directed language and return the amended ordinance for the ministerial follow-up work.
The council did not adopt an automatic inflation adjustment in the ordinance language; staff said they had supplied suggested language for that mechanism but it was not included in the current version.
