02 City Council Min (6/14/04) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Meeting City Council June 14, 2004 Page 9 He said the would result in an average rate increase of $0.35 per cubic foot for most residential customers, which would impact most customers bill's by approximately $2.37. For commercial customers, there would be an average increase of $0.43 per cubic foot and would impact their bill's by approximately $3.78. Mr. Klein showed a graph of comparison of cities on water and wastewater monthly bills ofresidential customers assuming a consumption of 5,000 gallons compiled by the 2004 Texas Municipal League Water and Wastewater Survey. He related that the cities used for comparison were either in the 30,000 population range or in the area near Paris. For the monthly charge for water consumption, Paris was in the lower half of the cities. For the sewer charge, Paris was toward the top. For a combination of the two charges, Paris was at the midpoint. Mr. Klein opened the floor for questions. Councilman Wilson questioned that when money was taken from the General Fund and put in the Water and Wastewater funds, if that wasn't just a shell game, moving money around. The transfer equaled to $1,000,000, including the franchise charge. Councilman Wilson asked if the franchise fee wasn't to offset damages done to the streets and other costs incurred during the course of the water and sewer business. Mr. Anderson that was correct, that the franchise fee helped the water and sewer departments pay their own ways. Councilman Bell recalled that the City was upside down in the reserves and the money needed to be left in the account to offset that. Mr. Anderson explained that there was a decline in the revenues and the reserves because of the decline in the consumption. He also indicated that the situation had been discussed with the Council several times to correct that situation.