The Davis Water Advisory Committee did not make a decision on a rate structure Thursday, as members could not agree on the fairest way for the city to bill its residents for water.

With a $116 million surface water project coming down the pipeline, the rate structure becomes increasingly important because water ratepayers in Davis will be the ones asked to fund the majority of the project’s costs.

The structure will determine what portion of those costs each water customer will be on the hook for.

The City Council had hoped that the WAC would recommend a structure by its meeting Tuesday, so that it would have more information about rates before finalizing ballot language for a March public vote on the project.

But with several ways to bill residents floating around the minds of committee members, no one appeared ready Thursday to make their final recommendation to the council.

The council still plans to place either an advisory or binding measure on the ballot in March and it must finalize the wording of that measure Tuesday to send it to Yolo County for approval and preparation.

Meanwhile, the water committee will reconvene Thursday to make its final recommendation on the rate structure.

The structure the committee picks, and the resultant rates, could then go on the Prop 218 notices that are sent out to ratepayers when the City Council raises water rates.

Each option that the committee was considering Thursday included a fixed rate side and a volumetric or variable rate side.

The group had several types of structures within both categories from which to choose.

Bartle Wells Associates, the city’s rate consultant, recommended going with the rate structure most commonly used throughout California, an inclining tier structure with fixed rates based on water meter size and three tiers for single-family residences for the variable rates.

Any other class of water user in Davis would fall into one block tier, including commercial properties, businesses, multi-family residences — like apartment complexes — schools, etc., where each would pay the same for each gallon of water they used.

The three tiers for single families would be based on usage; the more water used, the more paid.

Tier 1 would include single-family residences who draw less than 10 hundred cubic feet (ccf) of water per month. That essentially includes customers that need water only for indoor use; no irrigating, pools or watering gardens, yards, etc.

Tier 2 would include any single-family home that uses between 11 and 29 ccf per month. This generally includes basic outdoor use.

Anyone who needs more than 29 ccf per month would fall into Tier 3 and would pay the most for their water.

The average customer in the city consumes about 15 ccf per month.

In the estimated numbers that Bartle Wells presented to the committee Thursday, fixed fees for most single-family homes would more than double starting next summer when the rates would be implemented. The fixed fees then would increase by $3 or $4 per month every year after that for five years to pay off the surface water project.

The city has decided to pursue the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency project, which would pump water from the Sacramento River, treat it and pipe it to Davis and Woodland.

Single-family homes currently pay $11.50 per month in fixed charges. Next year that would bump up to about $23.25 and by 2017, Bartle Wells projects they would pay $47.24.

For variable rates, the average customer who consumes 15 ccf of water pays $28.50 per month now and would pay $50.70 in 2017. So, by 2017, the average single-family home would pay $97.94 total for water per month, compared to $40 now.

According to Bartle Wells consultants, the advantage of this type of structure is that it promotes conservation, as those who succeed at consuming less water are rewarded with cheaper rates.

The rate consultants also believe it’s a more equitable way to charge for water because the customers who demand more on the new system will have to pay more.

But there were some on the committee Thursday who saw other structures as better options for the city, including the plan invented by committee members Matt Williams and Frank Loge.

The pair have devised a system where residents would pay their variable rates in tiers, just as Bartle Wells suggests, but then also pay their fixed rates based on how much water they have historically used, rather than based on the size of their water meter.

To Loge and Williams, this makes a water bill as fair as possible because each water customer would be paying for their proportional cost of the entire water system. It also would greatly incentivize conservation.

Before the meeting adjourned, committee member Bill Kopper made a motion recommending an iteration of the Loge-Williams structure, but keeping the base fixed rates for water meters where they are now.

So, single-family homes, for example, would continue to pay $11.50 per month for the base rate, but the rest of the cost of the project would be divided among rate payers based on their historical water usage.

“That just seems the fairest way to do this,” Kopper said.

Bartle Wells did not have exact rates priced out for the structure Kopper suggested.

The last structure that committee members were weighing Thursday was a uniform block structure, where rate payers would all pay the same amount for each gallon of water they consume, regardless of class or how much they used.

Bartle Wells projected that this type of structure would drive up costs for those customers in the lower tiers of water usage, and drive down the costs for those who consume more water.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or (530) 747-8057. Follow him on Twitter @TomSakash

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Davis Water Advisory Committee member Petrea Marchand, foreground left, asks a question of Herb Niederberger, right, the city’s general manager of utilities, development and operations, at the Nov. 8 WAC meeting. The key focus of discussion was how to fairly set a rate structure that would raise enough money to pay for a new surface water project. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

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Matt Williams, right, an alternate on the Davis Water Advisory Committee, shows committee member Mark Siegler how rates would work under a plan he and fellow WAC member Frank Loge devised. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

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Doug Dove of Bartle Wells Associates, the city of Davis’ water rate consultant, speaks Nov. 8 to members of the Davis Water Advisory Committee and city staffers. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

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