Come November, Grover Beach voters will get the chance to lower their wastewater rates with Measure G-24.
The citizens ballot initiative from Grover H2O proposes repealing water and wastewater rate increases from December 2023 that aimed to help the city fund its portion of the Central Coast Blue project. While the Grover Beach City Council voted to opt out of Central Coast Blue in April and revert water rates to what they were before the increase, it didn’t do the same for wastewater rates.
“So, what’s confusing is when people talk about their water bill, they actually mean their water and their sewer bill because they’re both on the same bill,” Grover H2O member and former city Mayor Debbie Peterson told New Times. “I think what the city did was because they had to, because they pulled out of the Central Coast Blue project. However, they did not reduce the sewer increases, they only reduced the water increases.”
The October 2023 study that recommended increasing wastewater rates by almost 20 percent to help meet future obligations, revenue requirements, debt coverage requirements, and other financial planning criteria, also recommended the city do the same with wastewater rates. In December 2023, when the Grover Beach City Council decided to increase water rates by 19.5 percent, it also voted to add $5 or a 6.5 percent increase to each bimonthly wastewater bill starting on Jan. 1, 2024.
Grover Beach City Manager Matthew Bronson told New Times that a yes on Measure G-24 would lower sewer rates back to the 2021 levels, which would reduce the funding available for maintenance, operation, capital improvements, and reserves for the city’s sewer system.
“Cities rely on rates for funding major improvement and repair projects, and thus the reduction of both water and sewer rates could affect the city’s ability to obtain such funding,” he said.
An argument against Measure G-24 that’s posted on the city’s website states that the city has aging water and sewer systems that are up to 60 years old, and this measure risks the community’s public health, safety, and forward progress.
“For many years Grover Beach has maintained the lowest water and sewer rates in the county. This reckless measure reverts rates to levels that cannot possibly fund the necessary repairs to fix current system deficiencies, ensure safe water and sewer systems for the future, and completion of planned street repairs,” the argument reads. “Our city has evolved into a vibrant, action-oriented community with a clear sense of purpose and pride. Thriving neighborhoods and businesses are a testament to our recent investments in street and infrastructure improvements. Let’s continue to go forward, not backward to a time of underfunded utilities, horrible roads, and other unmet community needs.”
The argument in favor of Measure G-24, also posted on the city’s website, claims that the city has failed to notify customers of price hikes, implemented early increases without authority, has often issued excessive bills, misinformed the public, and violated election law.
“A yes vote on this initiative returns water and sewer rates to where they were before the Dec. 11, 2023, vote by the City Council to double the rates over five years,” the argument states. Δ
This article appears in Education Today 2024.
Confused! Recommend the city specifies how much from the 218 increase was for the defunct Central Coast Blue (CCB) project, as separated from the stated maintenance and sewer needs. The purpose of the overall rate increase was primarily for CCB. If it’s necessary to have other fees, which is totally realistic, logic tells you to unwind the inflated fees first with a repeal, or the like, for the portion attributed to the defunct project, and then get new fees for ONLY the actual or new needs. This article makes it sound like the city is perhaps “fighting the entire repeal” and still asking for ALL the funds? Maybe that’s not correct and it’s worth looking into the city statements cited to clarify if water rates will be adjusted for the CCB impact and how much that is. It was the magnitude of the increase for the CCB water project that started all this angst in Grover Beach in the first place, not the maintenance and sewer fees! So if no repeal, how will water rates be restored to pre-CCB levels? What am I missing here? If the city gets “no repeal”, as proposed, where would those excess additional CCB water funds collected go? Is CCB still an objective quietly lurking? Or, is there an intent to start a new regional approach to long-term water needs with community input, as promised? It is unclear how the “water” portion on the fee hike will be reduced without a repeal of 218 first as it was bundled – water and sewer. Residents, with the city and council, should reconcile these statements and amounts by fee type, clearly state how water rates willl be reduced, and then help create transparency with fiscal accountability. Transparency in fees could create better community unity with an understanding on water strategy, without CCB, as determined by the council.