Council Rejects Plan for $1-a-Month Fee

A City Council majority this week rejected a proposal for a sewer maintenance fee that would raise $1 million to help cover a $4-million budget shortfall.

The fee would have cost residents an extra $1 a month.

Without council support for the fee, City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga must now come up with an alternative plan.

Uberuaga told council members he has identified about $250,000 in potential revenue from new or increased Police Department fees as well as from increasing the charge for building inspections.

Uberuaga on Monday offered his recommendations for a $98-million operating budget. His plan included raising $2 million in new revenue--$1 million from the proposed sewer fee--and $2 million in spending cuts, primarily by reducing personnel costs.

The sewer fee would have covered the costs of maintaining, replacing and repairing the city’s sewer lines, sewer lift stations and manholes.

Council members opposed the fee since water rates were recently increased and a new fee to pay for water system capital improvements was imposed.

Mayor Dave Sullivan said “any further increase this year is too much.”

Councilman Tom Harman also said “I can’t support it. It’s a million-dollar charge to taxpayers.”

Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff, who supported the sewer fee, called the new charge justified and fair.

Dettloff said the sewer system is in such disrepair that “our citizens are faced with some health dangers.”

“It’s a small amount to pay for a system that is deteriorating every day,” she said.

The council is expected to adopt a new city budgetSept. 16.