Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post
When the City reduced our base water allotment last year from 4,000 gallons to 2,000 gallons per month we were told that this was necessary to bring into alignment water production costs with revenue and to encourage conservation. In order to accomplish these goals, households that exceeded their monthly base allotment would pay a surcharge each and every month because you were now considered a “heavy user”.
City staff claimed that they analyzed residential household water usage to get winter and summer averages. They took out those homes that were Short Term Rentals because of the high water usage associated with visitors using those homes and came up with the remaining residential usage averages for the “general homeowner” of 3,900 gallons of water per month in the summer and 1,600 gallons in the winter months.
Almost as an aside, City staff in explaining who these remaining “general homeowners” were and how they arrived at these averages stated ” I will clarify that it is people that live here full time and second homeowners, I don’t have a way in our water system to distinguish between the two”.
There are approximately three second homeowners for every one full time household in Manzanita. If you take the water usage of a full time resident household and combine it with the household water usage of three part time homeowners whose homes are largely empty for weeks or months at a time during the year, you will undoubtedly get the skewed residential averages that the City has presented. The result is large numbers of full time resident households now paying monthly surcharges for exceeding 2,000 gallons per month.
Numerous public organizations track community domestic water usage including the US Environmental Protection Agency and estimate full time household usage at 60 -100 gallons per person per day. In order to avoid paying a water surcharge every month, each member of a two person household in Manzanita would have to use less than 35 gallons of water each day or about half of the low end of the EPA estimate. Instead of considering this readily available information to establish a realistic base allotment, the City conducts a flawed analysis that includes the admission that it lacks the ability to evaluate the actual water usage of full time Manzanita water customers.
If water revenue needs to be increased to cover production costs especially in the summer when visitors create the need for more water production, have those visitors pay for their usage. We are constantly reminded of the benefits of turning our community into a visitor destination and that residents should be grateful for the financial largesse that comes from this transformation. The City claims that visitors, through their Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) contributions fund the majority of City services including infrastructure funding. Our water system is our most important community infrastructure yet the City has never allowed a single dollar of visitor generated TLT revenue to be transferred from the General Fund to the Water Operating Fund to assist in the operation and maintenance of the system. An additional benefit of visitors contributing to the operation of our water system is that we would receive a reasonable base allotment of water and a stream of revenue that would keep downward pressure on future water rate increases for full time homeowners.
Be prepared to hear that the Water Utility Fund as an Enterprise Fund, should establish rates from its users to cover all of its costs of operation and maintenance. Manzanita has a large class of water users in the form of visitors who are creating these service demands. The City has the ability to use revenue collected from these visitors for the water demand that they create but it chooses not to and once again visitors are at the root of a community livability issue. In light of this fact, creation of an equitable allotment of water and rates for full time residents requires a more creative policy solution by our Council.
There is nothing prohibiting the Council from transferring a portion of the estimated $1.3 million in Transient Lodging Tax in their FY 24-25 Budget back to the Water Utility Fund as recognition of the increasing water demand of these visitors and paying their share of that increased production cost. After many years of Council neglect to keep water rates at adequate levels and failing to keep System Development Charges updated so developers paid for their share of water infrastructure improvements for their new developments, the Council seems to have found a way for full time residents to now bear the cost burden of this past neglect.
Fortunately for residents, a consequence of the November referendum is that the City has the opportunity to answer questions raised in its initial study and adopt new funding policies that require visitors to contribute to the operation and maintenance of our water system.
The Council is currently developing new water rates including appropriate base allotments and tier surcharges per quarter should citizens vote to retain quarterly billing at the November election. They have asked citizens to contact them with questions and concerns at citycouncil@ci.manzanita.or.us
Consider sharing what you would have them do as a full time resident.
1. Restore a reasonable residential household base water allotment of 12,000 gallons per quarter consistent with recognized national studies.
2. Do not increase the base residential water charge to more than $142.68 per quarter.
3. Require visitors to pay their share of any additional needed Water Utility Fund revenue for costs for the operation and production of our water through transfers of TLT revenue to the Water Utility Fund.
How the Council responds in this matter will go a long way to confirm just whose interests they are prioritizing.
To receive these updates directly, send your email address to rkinor@gmail.com.
Randy Kugler
City staff claimed that they analyzed residential household water usage to get winter and summer averages. They took out those homes that were Short Term Rentals because of the high water usage associated with visitors using those homes and came up with the remaining residential usage averages for the “general homeowner” of 3,900 gallons of water per month in the summer and 1,600 gallons in the winter months.
Almost as an aside, City staff in explaining who these remaining “general homeowners” were and how they arrived at these averages stated ” I will clarify that it is people that live here full time and second homeowners, I don’t have a way in our water system to distinguish between the two”.
There are approximately three second homeowners for every one full time household in Manzanita. If you take the water usage of a full time resident household and combine it with the household water usage of three part time homeowners whose homes are largely empty for weeks or months at a time during the year, you will undoubtedly get the skewed residential averages that the City has presented. The result is large numbers of full time resident households now paying monthly surcharges for exceeding 2,000 gallons per month.
Numerous public organizations track community domestic water usage including the US Environmental Protection Agency and estimate full time household usage at 60 -100 gallons per person per day. In order to avoid paying a water surcharge every month, each member of a two person household in Manzanita would have to use less than 35 gallons of water each day or about half of the low end of the EPA estimate. Instead of considering this readily available information to establish a realistic base allotment, the City conducts a flawed analysis that includes the admission that it lacks the ability to evaluate the actual water usage of full time Manzanita water customers.
If water revenue needs to be increased to cover production costs especially in the summer when visitors create the need for more water production, have those visitors pay for their usage. We are constantly reminded of the benefits of turning our community into a visitor destination and that residents should be grateful for the financial largesse that comes from this transformation. The City claims that visitors, through their Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) contributions fund the majority of City services including infrastructure funding. Our water system is our most important community infrastructure yet the City has never allowed a single dollar of visitor generated TLT revenue to be transferred from the General Fund to the Water Operating Fund to assist in the operation and maintenance of the system. An additional benefit of visitors contributing to the operation of our water system is that we would receive a reasonable base allotment of water and a stream of revenue that would keep downward pressure on future water rate increases for full time homeowners.
Be prepared to hear that the Water Utility Fund as an Enterprise Fund, should establish rates from its users to cover all of its costs of operation and maintenance. Manzanita has a large class of water users in the form of visitors who are creating these service demands. The City has the ability to use revenue collected from these visitors for the water demand that they create but it chooses not to and once again visitors are at the root of a community livability issue. In light of this fact, creation of an equitable allotment of water and rates for full time residents requires a more creative policy solution by our Council.
There is nothing prohibiting the Council from transferring a portion of the estimated $1.3 million in Transient Lodging Tax in their FY 24-25 Budget back to the Water Utility Fund as recognition of the increasing water demand of these visitors and paying their share of that increased production cost. After many years of Council neglect to keep water rates at adequate levels and failing to keep System Development Charges updated so developers paid for their share of water infrastructure improvements for their new developments, the Council seems to have found a way for full time residents to now bear the cost burden of this past neglect.
Fortunately for residents, a consequence of the November referendum is that the City has the opportunity to answer questions raised in its initial study and adopt new funding policies that require visitors to contribute to the operation and maintenance of our water system.
The Council is currently developing new water rates including appropriate base allotments and tier surcharges per quarter should citizens vote to retain quarterly billing at the November election. They have asked citizens to contact them with questions and concerns at citycouncil@ci.manzanita.or.us
Consider sharing what you would have them do as a full time resident.
1. Restore a reasonable residential household base water allotment of 12,000 gallons per quarter consistent with recognized national studies.
2. Do not increase the base residential water charge to more than $142.68 per quarter.
3. Require visitors to pay their share of any additional needed Water Utility Fund revenue for costs for the operation and production of our water through transfers of TLT revenue to the Water Utility Fund.
How the Council responds in this matter will go a long way to confirm just whose interests they are prioritizing.
To receive these updates directly, send your email address to rkinor@gmail.com.
Randy Kugler