Stormwater fee vote likely for mid-November

Although there has been no official announcement from the city (the last time I checked), I have learned it is likely the city council will conduct its public hearing on a proposed monthly stormwater fee and vote on the second reading of an ordinance to impose the fee at its Nov. 15 meeting.

I am going to go out even further on this limb and predict the council will approve the fee in a 6-1 vote. After all, it has already passed a budget that calls for the creation of a Stormwater Utility and it would be idiotic to create the utility, but not fund it. The most likely scenario is the fee will be $5 a month for residential customers and a much higher monthly fee for commercial customers that will be based on the amount of impervious surface on their property. 

Don’t carve that Nov. 15 date in stone just yet, but the council’s second meeting in November looks like the most plausible time for the city to pass the ordinance that will set the fee. The first reading of the ordinance most likely will take place at the council’s first November meeting.

Right now, according to sources within the city, the schedule looks like this:

• Wednesday, September 28: First printing of Storm Drainage & Flood Risk Mitigation Utility (the official name of the utility) ordinance & schedule of charges with public hearing scheduled for Nov. 15.
• Wednesday, Oct. 12: Second printing of the ordinance & schedule of charges along with the public hearing date..
• Wednesday, Oct. 26: Third printing of the aforementioned information.
• Tuesday, Nov. 1: City council meeting with the first reading of the SD&FRMU ordinance and schedule of charges as part of the agenda.
• Tuesday, Nov.15: City council meeting that will include the statutorily required public hearing for the stormwater fee ordinance and schedule of charges as well as a vote on the second reading of the ordinance.

Even though during a July budget workshop council member Daphne Tenorio not only voiced support of a stormwater fee, she expressed concern the idea of a $3-a-month fee for homeowners was not high enough to adequately fund the utility, her statements expressed on why she could not support passage of the FY 2016-17 budget now reflects an opposition to the imposition of the fee. I have asked her to confirm this apparently reversal, but have not received a reply. Nevertheless, I am expecting her to be the one lone vote against setting the fee.

In a previous conversation, Stormwater Management Plan Administrator Kathy Roecker confirmed customers would not be billed for stormwater fees until sometime after the first of the year.