The San Diego City Council approved what they call a pass-through rate increase for their water that would go into effect at the start of the new year.
The city says we purchase roughly 90 percent of our water from the water authority. Every year the authority increases rates due to maintenance, operations, and water costs from metropolitan water districts.
The city says they need to up rates for everyone in order to buy water but there are many who believe the claim isn’t true.Tuesday, the council voted to increase rates again saying the three percent increase for all customers would go directly to the San Diego County Water Authority. “Whether you deliver 10 units or 11 units, the 11th unit doesn’t cost San Diego any more money,” said Steven Tindall, who is a partner at Gibbs Law Group. Tindall represents single-family residents who are customers of San Diego in a class action lawsuit against the city. During a trial last year, the court found the city had an unconstitutional rate system, charging customers more for water than it takes for the city to deliver the water. “The judge issued a ruling, a judgement saying that the damages were over 79 million dollars that San Diego was liable to the class for. And in addition, it is not just the 79 million dollars…Each month they do not change the rates and they have not done so to make them constitutional, the judgment amount goes up by 643,000 dollars.” During public hearing, the city addressed the case, saying they were filing an appeal saying they will protect their method of charging higher rates to the high-end users. Tuesday’s decision to increase the rate does not pertain to the rate structure. But the city says it will help them pay off their cost increases, estimated at $14,000,000. “We don’t take this lately raising rates we are trying to keep things down the best we can but it is clear to me that this adjustment is necessary because the people who are buying the water from are raising their rates,” said Marni Von Wilpert. However, customers like Maria Lopez, who have four generations living under her roof, weren’t happy with the decision. “I already have four jobs, to pay the bills, so if they increase the water, it’s just going to be more hard for the families.” The city says they will be giving all of their customers a 30-day notice before the rate increase takes effect. Steven says as far as the appeal, it could take a year or two just to fight it and the longer the city denies their mistakes, the more cost in damages they will accrue.
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