WESTMINSTER : Smaller Water Rate Increase Approved

After months of bitter debate and intense pressure from residents groups, the City Council has rescinded a controversial 100% water rate increase and replaced it with a 15% hike.

At its regular meeting Tuesday, the council voted 3 to 2 in favor of the change, with council members Joy L. Neugebauer, Lyn Gillespie and Frank Fry Jr. supporting it and Mayor Charles V. Smith and Councilman Craig Schweisinger voting against it.

“It’s going to be something that hopefully people will be able to afford,” Fry said after the vote. “A lot of people were worried about their ability to pay” the higher rate.

A boisterous crowd of more than 250 people attended the meeting, often cheering and jeering speakers who addressed the council during the 3 1/2-hour public hearing.

The council’s resolution set the new rate at 73 cents per 748 gallons, rescinding the $1.26 rate the council approved unanimously in March. The decision to double the rate from 63 cents then, and subsequent efforts to block reconsideration of the increase, spawned current recall drives against Smith, Fry and Schweisinger.

Although Neugebauer and Gillespie originally voted to approve the rate hike eight months ago, the councilwomen said they believed it called for a doubling of the rate only for heavy water users. Fry reversed his opposition to reconsidering the increase after the recall drive against him was announced.

Smith and Schweisinger maintained Tuesday that to keep water rates among the lowest in the county, the city would have to continue subsidizing them heavily, resulting in potential bankruptcy and cutbacks in police and fire protection.

After the vote, Smith warned that the decision “puts the city back on the road to bankruptcy. We’re going to be faced with an extensive deficit but no one’s told me what magic pot this money is going to come from” to balance the budget.