South Ogden staff outline three water-rate scenarios, request council direction

Peter, a city finance staff member, opened the presentation on the water fund by summarizing the current structure: “We have the base water fee of $16.00” per connection and tiered charges that rise with usage. He framed three scenarios for council feedback: a 3% base-fee increase baseline; a 3% base plus 2% increase across all usage tiers; and a third option that would hold the lowest usage tier at the current per-thousand rate while applying increases elsewhere.

Janine, a city staff analyst, explained the modeling approach and the data window: staff re-ran August 2025 billing data through candidate rates and annualized the month-to-month differences to estimate revenue (with a caveat that seasonal variation affects annualization). Using that method, staff presented per-user illustrations — a 1,500-gallon residential user, a 5,000-gallon residential user, and a high-use commercial account (about 146,000 gallons) — to show how bills change under each scenario. Peter noted the base-fee increase is small for many residents (a roughly $0.48 per-connection baseline example) but larger in aggregate and more significant for commercial customers.

The council asked for further modeling that incorporates adjusted tier breakpoints (examples discussed included 0–2,999; 3,000–5,000; 5,000–8,000) and asked staff to compare two final scenarios at the next work session: one that changes tiers but protects the lowest tier’s usage rate (while still allowing a base-fee increase) and one that increases the base fee plus adjustments across tiers. Staff said they will return with both scenarios and the associated projected revenue and customer impacts, and will include the timing and requirements for public notice ahead of any hearing.