In addition to the OHNA meeting, The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities is hosting a community meeting on the Cost of Service study for the water, wastewater, natural gas and stormwater utilities.

Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012 at 6-7 p.m.
DPU Operations Center Atrium
400 Jefferson Davis Highway (at Maury Street intersection)

All interested parties are invited.

Of course, the citizen’s petitioners who have protested the high minimum monthly service charge are watching this carefully. Here’s the an update from their perspective:

(One potential problem is if) The City trots out some sort of new lower tier or charity level for residents who are unable to pay the high minimum monthly service charge. While this may help the poorest of the poor, it sidesteps the rate reform that we have asked for. It would add additional complication and bureaucracy to OUR utility’s billing.

Another potential problem is if questions about water contracts with the counties are ignored. There is already a lot of concern about why the City is selling water to the surrounding counties so cheaply. There are also doubts about the City’s ability to collect payment for the existing contracts that were supposedly examined by the outgoing Councilperson Jewell.

While it’s good to attend meetings like this one tomorrow night, the utility officials may not reveal important information until they submit the budget. The public should be given all the information that has been given to the consultants. It is also important that a time line be established for the budget process. Otherwise, it’s possible that neither the Council or the public will get to comment until the time the Council get the Mayor’s budget, which I believe is in March sometime- Only then will Council and public meetings be held to discuss the entire budget and the rate structure will get short shift because the time left for the Council to approve it is limited. What are the various budget process dates? It would be good to bring this up at this meeting.

We must keep these matters in mind at the same time we stay on our message–the high minimum monthly service charge is ridiculous and unacceptable. We are asking for a revenue neutral approach that raises volume charges while lowering the service charges in a way that encourages conservation. Based on some of the data that we have received, our suspicion is that the high minimum residential rate is still being used to offset lower commercial rates, in effect subsidizing big businesses while gouging residents.

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