The Pasadena City Council on Monday tabled a decision regarding a proposed sewer fee structure and rate adjustment that would raise residents’ monthly use fee by 150% next year with additional incremental increases planned over the next four years.
The panel will continue the public hearing on both sewer and the waste collection adjustment on Monday, May 6 at 5:30 p.m. Additionally, staff has been instructed to provide clarification on how funds were allocated in the budget, especially for capital improvement programs, and how the hikes could impact the residents.
Monday’s decision came after a lengthy discussion punctuated by passionate pleas from residents who argued the rates are excessive, with a few city council members expressing reservations about imposing such high fees on residents as immediate as next year.
“To hit our residents with increases as significantly as this in multiple ways, and as I just mentioned, it does seem very punitive,” Councilmember Tyron Hampton said. “I think the increases are needed and they have to happen, but I don’t think the first year should look like this and I think we should smooth the increases out throughout the years. The first year should not jump up to basically 100%, I think the first year should be maybe 20%.”
Vice Mayor Steve Madison said that information provided by staff is incomplete in regards to budget appropriation.
“I may be confused, but it sounds to me like it’s not true that we have expenditures in this amount and expenses in this amount,” he said.
Another point of contention for the residents is having separate discussions on utility fees.
The panel was originally scheduled to discuss a proposed waste collection fee increase during the Monday, April 8 meeting. However, this item was pushed back to next Monday, April 15 after notices had been sent out to residents notifying them of the public hearing.
The City Council also separately approved a public hearing date of June 3 to discuss proposed adjustments to water rate.
This led many attendees to protest this change.
“Although these increases are presented as separate proposals, the effect on ratepayers will be the sum of all three increases,” said Genette Foster, a resident of District 2. “Rates for all three departments (Water, Sewer and Solid Waste) would increase annually for five years.”
The city’s sewer wastewater collection system supports around 140,000 residents and commercial users. The city requires approximately $7.6 million annually to adequately fund the system. However, it currently collects an average of $3.9 million per year, which is insufficient to cover both current and future operating and capital costs, officials said.
But for residents, this translates to a rise in the monthly sewer use fee for a single-family household from the current $4.55 to $11.37 by 2025. This figure would further increase to $13.19 in 2026 and continue to increase by 4% annually over the next three years, culminating in a rate of $14.83 in 2029.
For commercial consumers, the rate would jump from the current monthly rate of $35.51 to $65.40 next year, followed by a 16% increase to $75.86 in 2026. Subsequently, it will increase by 4% annually until it reaches $85.34 in 2029.
Under the proposed new fee calculation method, single-family residences would incur a fixed rate of $6.16 per month plus a volumetric rate of $0.65/hundred cubic feet (HCF) used. Water usage for single-family households is capped at 26 HCF per month, with any usage beyond that assumed to be for irrigation. For commercial users, the fixed rate would be $6.16 plus volumetric rate of $1.24 per HCF.
If approved, the fiscal year 2025-2029 rate adjustments could go into effect as early as on July 1.
This was the first time Pasadena has adjusted the sewage rate beyond the consumer price index since 2007, city staffers said. They attributed the increases to rising operational costs, aging infrastructure and the shortfall in revenue collection resulting from water conservation efforts in recent years.
“What was built into the rates back in 2007 was a consumer price index increase, and that was adequate for a number of years,” Public Works Director Tony Olmos said. “And just within the last five years, with the inflation just increasing at a very, very high rate, and the cost of materials and labors, that’s been what has really made the cost go beyond the CPI, and that’s why we need this proposed increase.”
But many residents said the proposed rates would have a significant impact on their budgets.
“Total fixed fees for an average household’s bi-monthly municipal services bill (electricity, water and sewer) would be $116.48 after proposed increases,” Foster said. “Fixed fees are regressive and have a disproportionate impact on lower income and small households.”
Elizabeth Hammond, a retired teacher, said the proposed waste collection change would increase her bills by 30%.
“I’m a single homeowner, and I’m a retired teacher. The cost of living is going up across the board,” Hammond said. “I can afford my bills, but I think 30% is an unreasonable high rate increase, 30 to 50% by 2028. So they need to rethink what they are doing.”
City staff, for their part, said the fee hikes are needed to maintain the sewer system in a proper way. Furthermore, the city is already falling behind on capital improvement projects and deferring them may lead to increased costs down the road.
“What happens with these pipelines if you don’t line them and continue to maintain them,” Olmos said. “There’s a lot of sections that are broken, that we go out and we fix portions of them that are damaged. And if you don’t repair those, they end up getting clogged, and then you end up having sewage backing up, and that could back up into homes, that could back up into the streets.”
Some of the residents were also not happy by the extended time they had to wait for the public hearing, which was scheduled to start at 5:30pm, but it was close to 6:30 pm when the panel finally came out from a closed session, leading a few attendees to chant, “time for work.”
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