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Council reviews ordinance to update water and sewer fees, codify high-usage surcharge
Summary
Council reviewed a proposed ordinance to amend Northlake's water and sanitary sewer fee schedules and to formalize a high-water-usage surcharge; staff said the utilities are user-funded and outlined a structure meant to incentivize conservation. The transcript records motions to approve but does not include an explicit roll-call result.
Councilors discussed a proposed ordinance to amend the town code and fee schedules for water and sanitary sewer service and to codify a high-water-usage surcharge tied to declared water-management stages.
Staff explained the utilities are funded by users rather than property taxes and reviewed the proposed rate structure and the rationale for making a high-usage surcharge permanent in the code. As staff put it, the proposed structure "incentivizes water savings" and the surcharge would charge a premium for overwatering or exceeding thresholds. Council members praised staff for the prior policy decision to avoid charging surcharges when wholesalers forced stage declarations, and a motion to approve the fee schedules was made and seconded in the meeting record.
The record includes presentation-level detail: staff described the timing of stage triggers, noted recent wholesale-induced stage 1 experiences and reiterated that the proposed rates aim to smooth adjustments and limit spikes for users. The transcript records a motion to approve the ordinance and a second, but an explicit vote tally for final passage is not present in the transcript excerpts. Because the transcript does not clearly show the final roll call, this report does not assert whether the ordinance was adopted and instead summarizes the council's action and the rationale presented.
Next procedural steps identified by staff were standard ordinance adoption procedures and implementation of the updated rates to be reflected in the town's billing and informational materials if adopted.
