Covina City Council Approves Water Rate Cuts

The City Council approved a resolution Tuesday that cuts prices for customers of the city’s water division and shifts control of future rate increases from the city manager to the council.

The resolution, which eliminates the practice of charging higher rates for consumers at higher elevations, incorporates changes recommended by a citizens committee and approved by the council Jan. 22.

The new rates, approved by a 3-0 vote, apply to billing periods beginning on or after Jan. 1. Mayor Pro Tem Tom O’Leary and Councilman Henry Morgan were absent.

The rates were raised in September, but the council-appointed Ad Hoc Water Rate Committee charged in a report last month that officials were artificially inflating water rates. Officials denied it but said they would go along with reductions urged by the citizens’ panel.

The old rates, set in September, charged customers from 75 cents to $1.20 per 100 cubic feet of water used, depending on where they lived. The new flat rate is 68 cents per 100 cubic feet. One hundred cubic feet equals 750 gallons of water.

According to the committee, the change will save the average consumer from $1.31 to $31.98 per two-month billing cycle. It will also slice nearly $200,000 off the expected profits of the city’s water division this fiscal year.

The division’s profits for 1988-89 were $510,090.