Dec. 5 Water Ad Hoc

Matthew Leslie

Fullerton has a Water Ad-Hoc Committee for the purpose of reviewing “… anticipated cost increases for maintenance and operations, as well as robust funding for the water system infrastructure.” The Water Ad-Hoc Committee reviewed the last approved water rate increase in 2013, which saw a “phased five-year rate increase ending in Fiscal Year 2017-18,” with the last increase occurring just six months ago on July 1, 2018.

Ratepayers (aka Fullerton residents–you) are invited to attend the meeting tonight and provide input on the Ad-Hoc’s next recommended set of increases over the next five years. The plan calls for a 13% increase beginning in 2019, followed by additional increases over successive years, ending in 2019. The committee has been meeting since August of this year to “vet water rate increase scenarios proposed by the Stantec Consultants for recommendation to the City Council,” according to an article by Water Ad-Hoc Committee member Jane Rands in the Early December, 2018 edition of the Fullerton Observer.

The city’s cited reasons for a planned increase in water rates includes our crumbling water infrastructure, the “final expansion of the Orange County Water District’s Ground Water Replenishment System and “other costs,” but the Fullerton Observer notes that an increase in 2014 “intended for the city to be able to step up water mainline replacement from one mile to six miles per year. Over the last five years of increases, however, the City has not replaced more than two miles in any single year for several reasons.”