FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Public Hearing Planned Before Water Rate Hike

A proposal to allow the city to raise consumer water rates without a public hearing has been rejected by the City Council.

The council decided to stick with its current procedure to hold a public hearing on water rate increases. Citing rising costs that he said are beyond the city’s direct control, Mayor Guy Carrozzo proposed at Tuesday’s council meeting that the expense be passed on to consumers.

The outside agencies that sell water to the city and impose higher costs should take the responsibility--and the heat--for the increased rate, Carrozzo said. “Let the people get ticked off at them. I don’t like to vote on something I have no control over,” he said.

Other council members objecting, however, arguing that the public deserves to hear why water rates are increasing.

“There is so much skepticism about local government in the minds of the residents,” Councilwoman Laurann Cook said, that the city would be ill advised to take away “a forum where they have an opportunity to know what is going on.”

Public Works Director Wayne S. Osborne said the city’s water costs will exceed $300,000 this year and that he will ask the council in July to consider a rate increase effective Sept. 1.

The increase would cover the higher costs to pump ground water, buy imported water and offset other expenses for salaries, supplies and equipment, he said.

The city’s last water rate increase was Sept. 1, 1993.