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Department of Utilities
Reference: Presentation of the Proposed 2017 Municipal Water Rates
To: Mayor Richard N. McLean and Members of City Council
Through: Clint Blackhurst, Acting City Manager
Chontel Trujillo, Assistant City Manager
Prepared By: Curtis Bauers, Director of Utilities
Date Prepared: March 6, 2017
PURPOSE
To provide additional information to Council to implement directives from the 2013 Utility Business Plan, including the intent to have City Utility accounts making payments to the Water Utility Enterprise for their respective water usages within the next five years. Most specifically to accomplish this goal, the Water Enterprise is proposing to establish a Municipal Water Rate and to bill all accounts at this rate for usage in 2017 and beyond.
BACKGROUND
The city has approximately 128 active metered accounts that are currently mostly un-billed. It is unclear whether the City was historically billed for water sue, or, if so, when that practice ceased. But, in 2013, the City Council approved and recommended in the Utility Business Plan that all 'new' City accounts after that time would pay the appropriate fees and charges - this has occurred. Further, the 2013 Plan called for efforts to pay the remainder of the annual usage for existing meters within the next five years. Additionally, when a surcharge was necessitated in 2015 to account for significant increases in the cost of the Westminster/Thornton supply, Council insisted this charge be applied to all City meters as well.
Thus, in order to keep on-track with the Council goals outlined in 2013, Utilities is proposing the adoption of a Municipal Rate in 2017. We propose this rate be adopted prior to the heart of the irrigation season. This rate is proposed without the benefit of a full Cost-of-Service analysis to all customer classes. This effort is anticipated to be undertaken late in 2018, and is a significant undertaking. However, the proposed rate of $3.50/1,000 gallon...
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