BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A proposal to raise sewer rates for several hundred Kern County residents tied into the Bakersfield sewer system failed to pass Tuesday.
Supervisors Philip Peters and Leticia Perez voted against the rate increase while a lawsuit between the county and the city of Bakersfield plays out.
Residents of County Service Area 71 are not inside Bakersfield city limits, but the county does not have its own wastewater treatment plant for those residents and ties into the city of Bakersfield's sewer system.
Residents pay the county an annual wastewater fee, and the county then pays the city for the service. With the city increasing its rates, the county will now have to pay more to supply the service to residents.
County Public Works Director Joshua Champlin presented three options to the board: have residents cover the extra costs in full, cover only the extra costs the county is undertaking to manage sewer lines on county property, or do nothing.
To pass any of the increases, the board needed a 4-1 vote, but Peters and Perez voted against the increase, citing the ongoing lawsuit. According to Champlin, the extra costs associated with the first year of the rate increase total about $146,000, which will now have to come from the general fund.
"That's my determination is that — that's the only place that would qualify to subsidize those missed revenues that we're experiencing," Champlin said.
Peters said the reason he pushed back against the rate increase is because of the ongoing lawsuit, and he hopes the county and the city are able to come to an amicable resolution to limit the impacts to sewer ratepayers.
"As far as passing those cost increases on, it's a fraction of — a fraction of a percent for the county," said Peters. "For a very small group of ratepayers, you're talking real dollars out of people's budgets, and this just isn't the time to go to them while we're still trying to figure this out, in my opinion," Peters said.
County residents in the affected area will not see an increase to their sewer rates for the next fiscal year. Peters said the issue is one the board will continue to examine as the lawsuit plays out.
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