St. Pete City Council approved on first reading an increase in utility fees. The city’s utility department is asking for a $2.85 overall increase spread across potable water, wastewater and reclaimed water fees. That would be a 2.71 percent hike from fees in fiscal year 2015.
Two council members, Darden Rice and Will Newton, voted against the increase. And their no votes could gain traction between now and the second reading.
Rice called in to question whether the department deserved more money, given the recent wastewater dump into Clam Bayou that has earned the city gobs of negative press. There were also past screw-ups, including the premature closing of the Albert Whitted water treatment facility and the so-called “KKK” scandal in which a wastewater employee spray-painted the offensive letters onto a co-worker’s shirt and was suspended without pay rather than being fired.
“I just can’t see rewarding bad outcomes with giving the department more money,” Rice said. “I want to see improvements before we go to taxpayers.”
In all council spent about an hour discussing St. Pete utility services. Steve Kornell suggested the department look at ways to answer detailed questions about the city’s sewage facilities. He scoffed when staff members pointed out that all three of the city’s water facilities would be underwater if a hurricane hit.
There was also discussion about the city’s new curbside recycling program. Though it suffered a rocky launch and there are still plenty of residents hoping for changes — including alley pickup service — the program seems to be successful so far.
Council member Amy Foster said she learned in a meeting Wednesday night that the city only brought in $7,500 from actually selling the recyclables, but that there has been an $80,000 savings in tipping fees for solid waste. That means more than 2,000 tons of trash have been recycled instead of dumped over the past two months.
Not everyone agreed with Rice’s assertion that the city’s utility departments should have to show some improvement. Jim Kennedy said other than the wastewater dump into Clam Bayou last month during a two-week rain event he hasn’t heard very many complaints at all.
Bill Dudley pointed out that the controversial KKK incident had been dealt with.
“We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if we hadn’t had that two weeks of weather,” Dudley said.
City staff defended the rate increase proposal, arguing the city would still have competitive utility rates with nearby cities. Both Clearwater and Tarpon Springs are expected to have increases of four to five percent, more than double what the city is asking council to approve.
And while St. Pete doesn’t have the lowest utility fees in the region, it offers some services not given residents in other localities, including graffiti removal.
Not included in the city’s utility increase proposal is the new fee assessed on all ratepayers for curbside recycling. That service, whether it’s used or not, costs each city utility user $2.95 per month.
