By Randy Kugler
The September 11 Council Workshop on proposed Quarterly Water Rates provides further evidence as to why residents should have a healthy level of skepticism in what our City officials are telling us.
Page 4 of the presented Study claimed that Resolution 23-19 enacted monthly water billings. A review of the July 5th meeting minutes confirms that just prior to the vote to approve this Resolution, citizens were told that “Billing will remain quarterly”.
Minutes from a later February 14, 2024 Workshop showed a different explanation of what we had been told 7 months earlier stating that when the July Resolution was passed, “the City also switched to monthly water billing”. This directly contradicts the July 5th statement.
The Council refuses to acknowledge and take responsibility that it violated its own Ordinance regarding when water bills are to be submitted to customers for payment. The City collected monthly water fees with the new tier charges for 7 months before finally passing the Ordinance that authorized both reading meters monthly and billing customers monthly rather than quarterly as the City promised when they passed Resolution 23-19.
In a March 2023 Workshop, the City Manager produced a document on City Hall financing that stated in part “Overnight visitors who pay TLT (Transient Lodging Tax) pay for pretty much all of the City’s Services … AND infrastructure.” The City Manager even emphasized her statement to convince citizens that TLT revenues are used to fund water Infrastructure.
When asked at the September Workshop if TLT revenue in the General Fund had been considered as a funding option in the quarterly rate analysis, the City Manager responded “we didn’t even consider that”. She then confused the issue even further by suggesting that using TLT revenue would not be responsible budgeting, could raise red flags with the Auditors or even jeopardize the Water Operating Fund’s status as an Enterprise Fund.
Confirmation that the City Manager’s comments were misleading is confirmed by the following: “There are no restrictions on moving money between the General Fund and an Enterprise Fund under local Budget Law” Scott Smith, Operations and Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Revenue.
A year ago the City told us that visitors through TLT revenue pay for water infrastructure. When given the opportunity to make good on that claim and transfer a small portion of those funds from the General Fund to help pay for the costs to continue to provide residents with 4,000 gallons of water each month and keep rates affordable for families and seniors of modest means in our community, we are told that such use is now beyond consideration.
The tens of thousands of visitors that come to Manzanita each year are a substantial class of water customers that far exceeds our resident water customer population. The main difference is that residents get a monthly water bill to pay for water system operation, maintenance and infrastructure improvements. The City collects TLT revenue from visitor water customers and despite being told it is used to fund water Infrastructure, not a single dollar gets transferred out of the General Fund for this purpose.
Residents under the new monthly billing schedule are told that we must conserve water so visitors do not have to be bothered with such matters. If you are a resident using 4,000 gallons of water a month in the summer and the STR next door uses 7,000 gallons, the City wants you to be satisfied that the extra $30 water bill paid by the STR owner for each of those 4 summer months is a fair contribution by those visitors.
The City Budget confirms that Annual Water Utility Billing costs for the City two years ago under quarterly billing were $14,762. This year under proposed monthly billing those same costs are now $50,000. These costs do not include the additional staff time to now process monthly billings. The City admits that it takes more staff time to process monthly billings but will not tell us just how much this costs. Was the consultant given the opportunity to consider these increased billing and staff costs required by monthly billing in his quarterly rate analysis?
I am confident that both part time and full time residents would support the use of TLT revenue to assist the Water Utility Fund as a simple solution to secure meaningful financial support from visitors for their usage, provide residents with the means to obtain 4,000 gallons of water per month as a base allotment and deliver needed funding for water infrastructure projects.
Now that the reasons not to use TLT revenue to benefit residents in this matter have been eliminated, what new explanations will the City come up with? Why is our Council and City Manager so opposed to this solution that they will not even allow their consultant to provide us with this as an option for community discussion?
This process has been marked by mistakes, misleading statements, ignoring requirements in a City Ordinance and lack of interest in crafting a solution that works best for residents. The Council will resume their discussion on this matter this Wednesday at 2 pm in a workshop session.
Manzanita voters are being solicited by Mayor Stock and Councilors Spegman and Campbell to return them to Council for another term. I would encourage voters to carefully evaluate the positions of each of these individuals on this decision and ask yourself if they are representing your best interests and have earned your vote on November 5th.