O-06-24 - Adopting Rate Increases to City of Colton Water Service Fees and Taking Other Actions Related Thereto

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1 ORDINANCE NO. O- 06 -24 2 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLTON, 3 CALIFORNIA ADOPTING RATE INCREASES TO CITY OF COLTON WATER SERVICE FEES AND TAKING OTHER ACTIONS RELATED 4 THERETO 5 WHEREAS, the City of Colton (the "City") operates a municipal water system located 6 within the City and certain unincorporated areas of the County; and 7 WHEREAS, the City undertook an evaluation of the capital infrastructure needs, water conservation program needs, and operations and maintenance costs of its water system; and 8 WHEREAS, based on this evaluation, the City Council has determined to increase the 9 rates for its water service charges effective January 1, 2025; and 10 WHEREAS, future rate increases, beginning each July 1 thereafter, through and 11 including July 1, 2028, will be necessary for all of the City's water customers to enable the City to recover projected costs of providing water services and to ensure that it can safely treat and 12 deliver water, maintain the operational and financial stability of the utility, and avoid operational 'deficits and depletion of reserves; and 13 14 WHEREAS, the rates for the water service fees are comprised of two components — a fixed service charge (the "Service Charge") and a variable commodity charge based upon actual 15 water usage (the "Commodity Charge"); and 16 WHEREAS, the Service Charge is a fixed charge established on the basis of the size of the meter serving the property and is calculated to recover a portion of the City's fixed costs of 17 operating, maintaining, and delivering water. The Commodity Charge is a consumption charge 18 calculated on the basis of recovering the costs of providing water to property owners and customers. The Commodity Charge for all customer classes is based on a uniform rate per 19 hundred cubic feet of water ("HCF"), or 748 gallons of water; and 20 WHEREAS, the City also imposes a fixed monthly fore meter service charge on certain commercial properties as a condition of extending or initiating water service by (1) the 21 installation of a private fire suppression system, and (2) upon the request of the property owner or 22 utility customer for the delivery of water to the property for the purpose of private fire service protection. The rates for the monthly commercial fire meter charge are established on the basis of 23 the size of the meter serving the property and are calculated to recover the costs of providing water to such properties for private fire service protection; and 24 WHEREAS, the rates are calculated to proportionately allocate the costs of providing 25 water service among the customer classes and to customers within each class on a parcel basis, 26 including the costs to recover the capital replacement, operations, maintenance, treatment, transmission, and delivery to each customer class; and 27 WHEREAS, in accordance with the provisions of Article XIII D, section 6 of the 28 California Constitution, the City mailed out notices of the proposed water rate increases and such