ORDER-2018-177 : Proposed FY19 Sewer Rates

Transcript (~11 min @ 3:35:30)

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▶ 3:35:24 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: we have a motion to recommend for passage for the combined orders made by alderman Board seconded by president Search all in favor aye aye any opposed move forward to the full board thank you thank you we return to the top of our agenda this evening uh for the last two orders before us order beginning with order 2018-178 proposed fy19 water rates would you like to

▶ 3:36:00 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: address this before we take questions from the committee we can go straight to questions

▶ 3:36:04 Speaker 3: in our um our opening statements the um the water rate base fees are remaining the same there's an increase to six dollars and forty four cents on the first step and um there's an increase to eight dollars and seventy five cents that's a twelve cent increase ten cent increase on the first step and a twelve cent increase on the second step

▶ 3:36:36 Speaker 3: on water and then on sewer there is no change on the volumetric rate there are changes on the base

▶ 3:36:48 Speaker 3: fee i included a rate increase impact spreadsheet which shows that the majority of melrose about 80 will see up to a seven dollar per quarter increase with the package that's before you and just to remind everyone the data still shows that roughly 81 of melrose accounts consumed between 0 and 2500 cubic feet per quarter there is another 11 11 and a half percent that consumed between 2500 and 3000 cubic feet so when you when you put that together about 92 of of our accounts are at 3 000 cubic feet per quarter or less i think people are very familiar with our rate structure they're they're trying they now try to they know where that cut off is for them and they try to stay within that first that first here um that's why the stability and the familiarity of of what we put on our bill in terms of the structure is a huge benefit to to to our consumers thank you

▶ 3:38:02 Scott M. Forbes: um not really a question but more or less just a comment i know you know last year we had no increase in water no increase in sewer in the volumetric rate this year there's a one and a half percent increase in water and a zero percent increase in sewer you know i i'm hopeful that we've you know been able to either say turn the corner or stop the bleeding per se um you know emphasize before we still are amongst one of the highest as far as annual bills are concerned so that is something that we need to address and hopefully as we move forward like we talk about if there's never in you know increasing the base charges or you know taking a harder look at costs that in these ini programs as they continue to work that we'll see see some cost benefit for that so that's all I have thank you thank you thank you

▶ 3:38:50 Monica C. Medeiros: and it could you tell us what the average bill is it's on the spreadsheet

▶ 3:39:02 Speaker 3: that's that highlighted part in green I believe but if you a customer who uses fifteen hundred cubic feet is was paying 282 dollars a quarter and will now be paying 290 dollars a quarter um and then it continues up and down that spreadsheet but um like i said 80 81.4 of melrose used 2 000 cubic feet or less and at 2 000 cubic feet you're seeing a 7.70 increase

▶ 3:39:40 Monica C. Medeiros: and that's on a 374.51 bill okay and uh you know i i too uh you know i wanted i want to thank you i was happy that i got to attend the nighttime meeting that we had and i think that helped

▶ 3:39:57 Monica C. Medeiros: a lot i'm glad that that water passed and and that you were able to hold that meeting in the evening part of you know still the largest part of our cost is the MWRA assessment in both budgets

▶ 3:40:14 Monica C. Medeiros: and we've seen a lesser increase this year than we've seen in some past years and I know it I missed the catchy phrase there that I know the MWRA advisory board which our city engineer sits

▶ 3:40:27 Monica C. Medeiros: on uh elena proax ellis and they've got a catchy catchphrase to try and decrease you know

▶ 3:40:40 Monica C. Medeiros: 2.4 by 24. um and i think they've really taken you know i'm i'm really pleased to see that they've taken an active role in trying to get that number down for the communities because you know as i I think President Search mentioned earlier, this is a utility, this is something that people, homeowners, whether you make loads of money or you make a little bit of money, you need water to drink and you need it to be able to bathe and flush your toilet and all those things.

▶ 3:41:11 Speaker 5: And that's kind of at the forefront.

▶ 3:41:16 Monica C. Medeiros: So I want to publicly thank you and thank the MWRA Advisory Board for working, you know,

▶ 3:41:21 Speaker 5: to try to get that down, and —

▶ 3:41:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, the Advisory Board is doing a lot of good things. The Advisory Board is made up of member communities, and our city engineer, Elena Pereira-Casales, represents Melrose on that board, and the initial slogan was for no more, meaning no more four percent increases and now they've moved on to 2.4 by 24 meaning in 2024 their goal is to not have increases exceed 2.4 percent we all hope they get there but they are also doing things with the ini program that we will hopefully see in the next three or four months increasing it and also taking money away from communities that don't use it and give it to communities that do use it So there are a lot of things that they do, and I'm glad we have a voice at the table bringing that information back to us so we can plan accordingly.

▶ 3:42:20 Monica C. Medeiros: And likewise, as President Search mentioned, I feel the same way about

▶ 3:42:27 Monica C. Medeiros: no longer having a commercial rate, and so if there's an opportunity to look at, we still have the list of the highest the highest using accounts, and many of those are condominiums and apartments, those are still as a whole, they're big users, but as individual units and they're not necessarily as big of, they're not necessarily individually using that much water. So if we could look at something that was for a separate rate for non-residential use

▶ 3:43:09 Monica C. Medeiros: And, you know, it may not, you know, the technology advances that we have through GIS and things

▶ 3:43:17 Monica C. Medeiros: that we've looked at, you know, in the past, I know I had put forward an order to look at the people per meter, you know, certainly I think we have a lot more options available to us by all the departments working together, the assessor's office and everything like that that we didn't have a few years ago. So, you know, if we could look at perhaps, you know, something like that or perhaps, again, you know, some kind of non-differential for non-residential use in the future, I would greatly appreciate it.

▶ 3:43:43 Speaker 3: And we do allow condos to individually meter with a master meter. So there are, I think, a handful of larger condo buildings that now have invested in individual meters, and we build the individual meter. but there's a there's a master meter where the water goes into the building itself and any differential between the sum of the individuals is born to the condo association and um we've had a lot of positive feedback on that from residents because individually they don't consume a lot they consume a lot as a whole but now they're getting the benefit of being the individual condo owner many of whom have downsized from larger houses so i'm glad we were able to do that and again i have to thank our staff for being creative and finding ways to not only implement

▶ 3:44:34 Monica C. Medeiros: it but bill it and monitor it moving forward and i imagine that creates some additional uh indirect costs which which we know have to be borne by the rate so thank you

▶ 3:44:47 Robert A. Boisselle: thank you alderman boisseau i just hopefully this is the last question for the evening the chart that you've been using for the rate water bill rate and so forth seven dollars seven about eight dollars average the proposed 2019 rates above that you have two areas that are colored and you also have a line above that no increase to water-based fees but there seems to be an increase from 2018 to 2019. And the sewer rates go up about $3 to $4. You see the color

▶ 3:45:31 Speaker 3: areas in that box above the? The sewer base fees that are increasing. What is that? The color-coded areas are the part of the rates that are increasing. So on water, the base fees stay the same the changes in volumetric that's the shaded area the six dollars and forty four cents and the eight dollars and seventy five cents when you go over to the right side of the chart the top part is the base fees that are changing on sewer okay so that's so that's

▶ 3:45:59 Robert A. Boisselle: the volume metric so that's increasing about uh from 2018 about um five dollars on the base yes

▶ 3:46:06 Speaker 3: Yes, on the base fee.

▶ 3:46:08 Robert A. Boisselle: On the base fee. That's the first quarter. Okay. Very good. Thank you.

▶ 3:46:14 Speaker 8: Thank you, Medicare. Thank you.

▶ 3:46:16 Speaker 6: The order is before you. Motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 3:46:18 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Sure. Motion to recommend for passage made by Alderman Forbes on 2018-178. Second. Seconded by President Zwirko. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That will be recommended for passage. Final order before us this evening is order 21. Second. Seconded by President Zwirko. All in favor? Aye.