New Sewer Rates OKd; Fees Cut for Many in Valley

The last time the Los Angeles City Council considered a new set of sewer rates, seven council members stormed out of City Hall chambers during a ferocious debate that split them along geographic lines.

In stark contrast, the council was nearly unanimous Tuesday in formally adopting the new rates, which will cut fees for most San Fernando Valley and Westside residents while raising them in some inner-city communities.

Most critics of the rate formula were appeased by the addition of a bigger discount for low-income residents.

“This goes a long way to resolve the problems that I had raised,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who was among the members who walked out last August.

The 12-1 vote was a hard-fought victory for Councilwoman Laura Chick, who proposed the new sewer rates in response to complaints from Valley constituents who say the current system for calculating fees is inequitable.

“This was something that was really divisive and has evolved into something that makes sense for everyone,” she said.

The city cannot measure the exact amount of sewage generated by each home and instead relies on a formula that assumes about 60% of the water entering a home ends up in the sewers as waste water.

Valley residents have argued that the assumption is wrong because many area homeowners have large lots and use most of their water to irrigate landscapes and fill swimming pools.

The new formula addresses that complaint by calculating the fee based on the amount of water used during the wet winter months, when little if any water is used to irrigate. This formula assumes that 90% of the water used during the winter months goes into sewers.

Under this formula, average bills will drop in the Valley and Westside by about $25 per year while rates will rise about $12 a year or less in inner-city neighborhoods.

When the proposal first came before the council in August, Goldberg and six council members from Central, South and East Los Angeles marched out of the chambers in protest. A few days later, the council voted 8 to 6--split along geographic lines--to give the new fees preliminary approval.

On Tuesday, the council formally adopted the new rates to take effect this summer when sewer and water rates are highest.

The only dissenting vote came from Councilman Nate Holden, who complained that he did not have enough information about the rate change to vote on it.

“We are voting in the dark,” he said.

All the other opponents of the plan were appeased by a proposal by Councilman Richard Alarcon to increases the discount for low-income residents from 15% to 31%.

Goldberg and others had previously protested the new formula because it would raise the sewer rates for poor inner-city families that could least afford it.

About 73,000 residents would be eligible for the discount. The only unresolved problem is that low-income residents who live in apartments cannot get the discount because most apartment buildings have only one water meter, making it impossible to calculate a discount for only some of the tenants in the buildings.

Alarcon and Goldberg said they are working on an ordinance that would require apartment owners to pass the sewer rate discount on to low-income tenants.