City to enact new utility rates by Jan. 1, 2019

By Robert Whale • September 27, 2018 7:30 am
From left, Angie Sanchez of the FCS Group, a consulting firm, explains proposed utility rate increases to the Auburn City Council on Monday at City Hall. She is flanked on her left by Bob Brooks, the city’s financial planning manager, and Kevin Fuhrer, the city’s systems finance director. ROBERT WHALE, Auburn Reporter

One takeaway of the FCS Group’s 2019-2022 utility report is that most of the overall rate increases and adjustments the City of Auburn expects to put into effect by Jan. 1, 2019 reflect the capital needs of each utility, and the city’s goal of getting its customer classes closer to paying 100 percent of the cost of their service by 2022.

On Monday, Angie Sanchez, vice president and principal of the consulting group that compiled the report, explained it to a study session of the City Council at City Hall.

According to the report, the retail water rate in the 2019-2022 time frame will increase by about 3.4 percent each year, sewer by about 2.4 percent and stormwater by about 1.7 percent each year across the existing customer classes.

“The council-directed philosophy is they want everyone paying their cost of service. That is the appropriate take on recommendations proposed over the four-year period: that we get to fixing those particular cost of service inequities by 2022,” Sanchez said.

“Our analysis did show the need for some re-calibration between single family and non-single family rates, as single-family was paying a little bit higher than cost-of-service, and non-single family was paying a little bit lower,” Sanchez said.

The report contains news for Auburn’s two wholesale water customers, the City of Algona but especially for Water District 111.

“We did base the charges on meter size, same as the retail rate,” Sanchez said of Algona. “If they have a 6-inch and an 8-inch (pipe), whatever that rate schedule is for the retail customers, that is what Algona would pay for the particular charges.”

The rates established will likewise cover the same 2019-2022 time frame as retail, and the rates will continue to recover the cost of service.

Water District 111 will realize a new, interruptible wholesale, water-rate structure, reflecting a change in water service from “continuous,” to “ready-to-serve” upon request,” Sanchez said.

The proposed standby charge per month for Water District 111 will be $1,139 in 2019, the usage charge per 100 cubic feet will be $1.95 and the water surcharge per 100-cubic-feet-of-water purchased from the City of Tacoma will be $3.31. According to the report, the rate structure will recover the whole cost of service.