City Sends Message to Helix Water District: Tighten Your Belt

Fighting back against the Helix Water District’s plan to raise rates, the city’s message to the agency is crystal clear: Tighten your belt.

Councilman Howard Cook will deliver a letter of formal opposition stating Lemon Grove’s stance at the water district’s board meeting this afternoon in La Mesa, where the agency will conduct a public hearing on the proposal.

The letter, signed by Mayor Mary Sessom, outlines three reasons the city is opposed to a rate increase and calls for the water district to make the same kind of cuts other government agencies have had to make in the wake of the nation’s economic downturn.

In part, the letter reads:

The City Council considers that Helix Water District has not yet taken the appropriate amount of fiscal reform to justify a rate increase. Many local governments, including Lemon Grove, have made structural changes to the way in which they operate. To this point, the City Council believes that the Helix Water District has not followed the significant cost reduction strategies set by other government agencies.  

The letter also suggests the water district delay several big-ticket capital improvement projects for one year, and says now is not the time to increase the expenses of people who are struggling to get by in a recession.

(Read the entire letter in the attached media box.)

The City Council voted at its Aug. 2 meeting to formally oppose the water rate increase being considered.

According to Mark Weston, the district’s general manager, the main cause of the increase is that the cost of wholesale water, which the district purchases from the Metropolitan Water Authority, is going up. Weston said the wholesale cost has increased by 76 percent over the last four years. The 16.5 percent cost increase this year represents about $3.8 million.

Wholesale water purchases account for about 39 percent of the district's yearly budget.

The rate increase stands at about 5.9 percent for an “average” domestic class customer who uses 24 units (1 unit = 748 gallons) in a two-month period, or about $6.46. Depending on where a customer falls in the rate structure tier, the increase ranges from 3 percent to 6.6 percent.