WESTMINSTER : New Budget to Raise Water Rates, Fees

The city has a new $25.5-million budget for fiscal 1994-95 that raises water rates, eliminates vacant positions and increases fees for a variety of city services.

There are no new taxes, but city officials said the combination of cuts and fee hikes was necessary to balance the budget as city income continues to decline and the cost of providing services keep rising.

“It’s as low and tight as it can go to maintain the level of services that you’ve got,” Finance Director Brian Mayhew told the City Council, which approved the spending plan last week.

Water rates will go up 7 cents to $1.24 for every 748 gallons of water used. The 5.9% increase was the second this year and the sixth since 1991. City officials said the rate hike was necessary because of the higher cost of buying water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies about 20% of the city’s water.

In addition, the city pays for a state required water treatment program and makes payments for funds borrowed to improve the water system, officials said.

Acting City Manager Robert Huntley said that the increase will take effect in July but that residents will start to see the change in their water bills by September and October.

For the average Westminster household, the increase would boost its water bill to about $24 a month, officials said.

Last March, water rates increased from $1.14 to $1.17 for a unit of water, or about 748 gallons. Last year, water rates went up twice, first from 98 cents to 99 cents, and then to $1.14 for every 748 gallons of water used.

Three years ago, rates doubled from 63 cents to $1.26. But a public outcry over the increase forced the council to roll back the fees to 73 cents. The rates have steadily risen since.

City officials said that an $8.5-million bond sale this year used to finance improvements to the water system will help stabilize the rates in the years ahead.

The water rate adjustment, however, will not affect those 62 or older whose household incomes are $18,000 or lower.

The council tentatively approved an ordinance last week that will exempt seniors under the income limit from paying a 5% utility tax imposed in 1985. For the past nine years, only those with incomes of $12,000 or less were exempt.

Mayhew also said that the city would save about $400,000 from 11 positions eliminated this year that include six from the Police Department and three from the Fire Department.

He said, however, that the positions have been vacant for some time and no one was laid off.

Over the past two years, the city has cut 20 positions, a 6% reduction of the city’s work force that could hurt its ability to provide services in the future, Mayhew said.

The city has 348 employees serving a population of 81,000 people, one of the lowest ratios in Orange County, officials said.