Gilbert Town Council voted unanimously Feb. 21 to raise customers’ utility bills $10.53 to shore up lagging fund balances and prepare for critical wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects.
Nonresidential reclaimed water users also will see rate increases based on their services and volume of usage. The increases are split as $8.02 on wastewater and $2.51 on the “environmental compliance fee” that covers stormwater infrastructure and air pollution.
Staff, at council direction, prepared a rate study last year on the two enterprise funds. Council signaled its intention to raise rates at a meeting in December, and the town has since conducted an educational effort on the increases, including holding town halls.
At Vice Mayor Kathy Tilque’s request, staff once again presented at the council meeting the case for needing a rate request so the public had an additional chance to see why the request was made.
During that presentation, Assistant Public Works Director Eric Braun said the funds have been under stress for three reasons:
The operational cost increases for things like chemicals have increased, as many things have during an inflationary period;
The construction market has been volatile, causing project cost increases;
And the integrated water master plan has been completed, and it identified more infrastructure projects that are needed urgently.
Furthermore, Braun said that those pressures have only increased in the past year since the rate study was conducted, meaning the rate increases aren't sufficient to cover the cost increases.
However, Braun said the increase is still a needed step, and pledged the staff will make do with what they get until more revenue comes.
The town plans to study rates on a cycle of water and environmental services (trash and recycling) rates one year, and wastewater and environmental compliance the next.
Chuck Bongiovanni was among the council members who praised staff’s work on the rates.
“I'm going to congratulate both of you (Braun and Assistant Town Manager Leah Rhineheimer) and your team for really depicting Gilbert's mission statement: anticipate, creating, help,” he said. “You anticipated a problem. You created a solution for it, although it may not be a positive solution for everybody, and you did it to help citizens.”
Even with the increase, Gilbert will have the third lowest utility rates in the region among peer cities, a fact Mayor Brigette Peterson noted.
“We might not be the lowest number on that board, but we are providing more services to our residents than the other cities and towns around us,” she said. “I hope everybody realizes what we do with bulk trash and the other options that you have here. As a Gilbert resident, that's what you are paying — the lowest amount for more services.”
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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