Council Approves Raising Wastewater Rates

The Scotts Valley Water District plans to raise residents' wastewater fees five percent per year for four years beginning July 1. The Scotts Valley City Council did a first reading of the proposal at its meeting Wednesday, and held a public hearing that drew zero residents.

The Water District's rates have not changed since 1995 and are being raised to make up a $149,721 projected deficit in the 2012-13 wastewater operations budget, according to Scotts Valley City Manager Steve Ando.

“With the decreases in [water usage] and downturn in the economy, revenues are down,” he said. “But with Bay Photo moving in and some new developments being built we expect those to pick up.”

Ando expects revenues to pick up in the coming year without the increase based on these signs of a recovering local economy, but not enough to patch projected deficits.

Staff costs are expected to rise 3 percent per year over the same four-year period. Ando predicts the wastewater operations budget to have a surplus of $11,000 by the 2015-16 fiscal year if the proposal passes.

Here are the other key moments from Wednesday's council meeting: 

• Several residents from the 81 home Monte Fiore development spoke out against Ryland Building Company who they say cut corners during construction. Because public bonds assisted funding of the development residents asked that the council hold public hearings and consider legal action against the national company. 
• Some of the deficit to the Recreation, Senior Center, and Community Center budgets were one-time costs such as repairs to buildings following storms and don't make up any permanent deficit, said city manager Steve Ando. 
• The city's Senior Center will eliminate the Recreation Specialist position in the 2012-13 budget. The person currently in that role is being promoted to fill a retirement vacancy and the savings cuts the center's deficit from $96,000 to $12,000. 
• Ando said that all of his presentations were purely informational and that nothing is final until the council approves the 2012-13 budget at its June 20 session.