Following a public hearing, the City Council on June 17 directed the city clerk to submit sewer, saltwater, and solid waste fees to the county property tax roll for 2025-26.
The vote was 4-0. Councilmember Mary Schickling was absent.
No one protested the fee changes.
Technically, the council had to adopt four resolutions to set the rates and submit the rates to the county.
“The rates published in the proposed rate schedule attached will increase the total Sewer revenue by approximately $96,000 next year; increase the total Saltwater revenue by approximately $22,000 next year, increase the Solid Waste revenue by $225,000 next year, and increase Grease revenue for Solid Waste by $27,000,” according to the staff report.
Finance Director Matt Baker told the council that night he did not have a presentation for the council meeting.
Baker said he wanted to remind the council that this was the fifth year of the five-year rate study. “So we will be going out to RFPs” he said. RFP stands for requests for proposals.
“I’ll probably be bringing that at the next council meeting to do another cost of service study,” Baker said.
“The rate increases proposed would be at least for this upcoming fiscal year,” Baker said.
According to the staff report sewer rates would increase 3.50%; saltwater 2.50%, solid waste 7.75%; and grease collection rates would increase 7.75%.
At the meeting, Baker acknowledged the work of Assistant City Manager Jocelyn Francis and code enforcement staff in increasing grease collection numbers.
“Grease collection numbers are nearly double what we had last year,” Baker said.
He explained is that there is a one-year lag where the city reports the gallons collected by the restaurants. The city needs the restaurants to identify which grease belongs to them. “So in the past we’ve had a lot of grease unclaimed,” Baker said.
He said code enforcement had been working hard on educating business owners and the results were showing in the collection figures.
Mayor Anni Marshall opened the public hearing.
“No major protest is being filed,” she said.
“I will close the public hearing,” she said.
According to the staff report, if the majority of parcel owners did not protest the rate increases, the council could approve the rate increases.
“Collecting the fees on the property tax rolls saves the City the costs of billing the fees itself. The County charges approximately $0.25 per fee per parcel,” Baker wrote in the staff report.
“The proposed increases to rates are necessary to adequately fund capital improvements to existing infrastructure and to develop and maintain adequate reserve levels. In particular, the Solid Waste fund proposed rate increases reflect additional revenues required to fund new state recycling mandates, permitting for potential landfill expansion, and contributions to landfill trust fund for future closure and post-closure costs,” Baker wrote.
“The rate increase for Sewer and Saltwater services are aligned with the rates included in the adopted study. The adopted study had included a 19.5% increase for Solid Waste and Grease Collection rates for Fiscal Year 2022- 23, a 9.5% increase for Fiscal Year 2023-24, 3.0% for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and 3.0% for Fiscal Year 2025-2026,” Baker wrote.
“However, due to delayed expenditures related to landfill expansion, the City has been able to more gradually phase the required increases of 11.5% for Fiscal Year 2022-2023, 7.5% for Fiscal Year 2023-2024, 7.5% increase for Fiscal Year 2024-2025, and 7.75% for Fiscal Year 2025-2026,” Baker wrote.
“Because these rates do not exceed the maximum authorized rates adopted by the City Council on June 1, 2025, the City may implement these increases automatically without any additional proceedings under Proposition 218,” Baker said.
