FORT SMITH -- Fort Smith city directors Tuesday delayed action until April 7 on an ordinance that would nearly triple sewer rates by 2017.
The directors voted 5-1 at Tuesday's meeting to table a vote on the ordinance in a motion by Director Tracy Pennartz. She said she wanted to consider the public's input during a public hearing on the ordinance Tuesday before voting and because she wanted Director Andre Good, who was absent with the flu, to have an opportunity to vote on the ordinance.
Director Don Hutchings voted against tabling the vote.
The sewer-rate increases would raise the money needed through 2018 to pay for part of the improvements to the city's sewer system and to develop and implement a maintenance and operations program.
The improvements and maintenance and operations upgrades are mandated in a consent decree the city signed in late December with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to officials.
David Naumann, with city consultant Burns & McDonnell of Kansas City, Mo., told directors additional rate increases will be necessary before the city completes the 12-year term of the consent decree. Implementing the requirements of the decree is estimated to cost the city nearly $500 million.
The first rate increase, which would go into effect May 1, would raise the volume charge from the current $3.21 to $5.35 for every 100 cubic feet of sewage a residence, business or industry produces in a month. The monthly billing charge will go up from $1.43 to $2.50.
According to the ordinance, on Jan. 1, the volume charge would increase again to $7.15 per 100 cubic feet, and the billing charge would increase to $3.50 a month. On Jan. 1, 2017, the rate would rise to $8.50 per 100 cubic feet, and the monthly billing charge would increase to $4.50.
Data from Burns & McDonnell showed that the sewer bill for a typical household in Fort Smith, which produces 567 cubic feet of sewage a month, would increase from $19.63 to $32.83. After Jan. 1, 2017, that bill would rise to $52.70.
During the public hearing, resident Anthony DeKunffy said large families who create a lot of sewage will suffer the most because their sewer bills will increase by more than those of smaller households. He suggested that a sales tax be used to pay for some of the improvements to ease the burden on ratepayers.
Even with the steep rate increases proposed in the ordinance, Naumann said Fort Smith ratepayers would be paying less of a percentage of their income on sewer services than many other cities in the country. Using the average per capita income for Fort Smith residents, customers paying the 2017 rate, he said, would be paying 1.64 percent of their income on sewer service, which he said is below the rate accepted by the government of 2.5 percent.
DeKunffy also recommended to the directors that once the increased rates pay for the needed improvements, they should be reduced back to the current level.
"The contractor will not have a bottomless money pit to be used for decades for sewer repairs and the city's use of the fee increase is audited and stopped when the stated objective is reached," he said.
Noah Steffy, another resident, said many people have a hard time making ends meet now, drinking watered-down milk and eating dog food. He said city officials should look at alternatives to such steep rate increases, such as cutting city employee salaries.
Constance Durkin, a supporter of the recent campaign to change the city's form of government, said she believed the rate increase was unconstitutional and she would fight to repeal it by referendum if directors passed it.
She said many residents already are in financial straits trying to pay climbing gas and electric bills and paying rising food prices.
The consent decree sets out the improvements the city must make to its sewer system, the time frame in which it must make them and the daily penalties that could be leveled against the city for noncompliance.
The government charges that the city has been violating the federal Clean Water Act for decades by not controlling the sanitary sewer overflows that occur around the city and not preventing the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage into the Arkansas River.
Officials have said Fort Smith has spent $201 million over the last 14 years to finance construction work on the sewer system. The money for those improvements was raised from the sale of revenue bonds backed by city sales tax funds. They say the effort resulted in the elimination of 80 percent of the sanitary sewer overflows and using the sales tax has allowed city officials to keep sewer rates low.
Metro on 03/18/2015