Despite this, some officials said they have concerns, as the vote was 4-2.
The ordinance will go up for a second and final vote at City Council's first November meeting, Mayor Dan Davis said. If approved there, the change will go into effect on residents' December bills.
What residents need to know
The average resident would see an uptick on their bill of around $9.99 per month if the proposed rate increase goes through, Manvel Finance Director Rosa Donaire said at the meeting.
According to city documents, the rate increases include:
- Residential water base up from $32.59 to $34.65
- Residential wastewater base from $39.11 to $41.58
- Commercial water base from $39.11 to $41.48
- Commercial wastewater from $45.63 to $48.51
- Additional volume for each type of water from $3.34 to $3.79
These changes are expected to bring in around $136,000 in additional funding to the city, Donaire said.
City documents state the raise is “necessary to keep up with the increase in population and businesses coming to Manvel.” Furthermore, the raise will provide more funding for infrastructure, water and sewer line connections, as well as additional employees.
While council gave the go-ahead at the meeting, both Davis and council member Crystal Sarmiento voted against it. Davis said there are some concerns and aspects of the increase still being worked on that will likely come up ahead of the second vote in November. The vote on Oct. 21 was to move the item to the next stage of approval, he said.
How we got here
The rates stem from a 2022 study the city carried out, Donaire said at the city's Oct. 7 meeting. City Manager Dan Johnson said Oct. 7 the city was "very far behind" in its utility rates to the point the city was having to subsidize its utility fund.
That issue caused the city to increase utility rates by 13.4% and 14.9% in each of the past two years, Johnson said. With the city catching up, Johnson said next year's rate increase could be around 2%.
"We're leveling off a little bit," Johnson said Oct. 7.
However, council had questions at the Oct. 7 meeting about how much revenue it would bring in to the city, prompting officials to postpone it for Oct. 21 until that information could be had.
Remember this?
Back in March, Manvel transitioned the way it bills for wastewater to an averaging model. This model takes the average amount of wastewater a resident uses during November, December and January and uses that as the average for the remainder of the year, Community Impact previously reported.
Officials said the new model could save residents an average of $330 per year as water usage during winter months is typically lower, which makes wastewater easier to track during that time, officials said.
