Webster City Council on Tuesday voted 4-3, with Mayor Floyd Myers, Diana Newland and Alexandra Dietrich opposed, to approve, on first reading, adjustments to the city’s utility rates and fees, including the implementation of a new capital reserve fee on all of the city’s utility customers.
“This new fee will be used for the sole purpose of building a reserve for bond issues related to major infrastructure,” Finance Director Michael Rodgers said.
The proposed fee will impose a monthly rate of $0.18 per thousand gallons of water usage above 2,000 gallons for residents, apartment complexes and commercial customers, including usage through irrigation meters.
“All money received from this new fee will be deposited into the Utility Debt Service Reserve Fund as a reserve for any future issuance,” Rodgers said. “This fee represents an increase of 54¢ per month, or $6.48 per year, for the average residential customer.”
Other changes include a reduction of the drainage fees by $0.11 per month for residential customers, who will pay a $1.01 flat rate, and an increase by $0.10 per thousand gallons to the volumetric wastewater rate charge for all customers. The increase will bring the volumetric charge to $4.14 per thousand gallons.
“With the new rates, the monthly utility bill, including drainage, for an average residential customer who consumes 5,000 gallons through a three-fourth inch meter would be $34.90,” Rodgers said. “This equates to an increase of 2.1 percent over the $34.17 that would have been billed for comparable usage in this previous year.”
The city council voted 4-3, with Myers, Newland and Dietrich opposed, to approve an evaluation rating and five percent salary increase for City Manager Wayne Sabo.
The evaluation of Sabo’s performance was conducted during an executive session.
The city council voted unanimously, following an executive session, to rate City Secretary Pauline Small as “a very good performer” on her annual performance review.
The city council voted 4-3, with Myers, Newland and Dietrich opposed, to approve, on first and only reading, an amendment to the city’s FY2012 Budget.
The city council voted 6-1, with Myers opposed, to approve the final reading of an ordinance to adopt the 2012 Edition of the International Fire Code as the city’s Fire Code.
The city council voted unanimously to approve a declaration of trust to create and transfer assets to the City of Webster Employee Benefits Trust for employee and retiree health plans.
The item was approved with added language that the trust may be abolished by action of the city council.
The city council voted unanimously to appoint a subcommittee consisting of Myers, and council members Natalie Dolan and Bill Jones to research candidates’ qualifications and to cast a ballot in the election for Place 11, Place 12, Place 13 and Place 14 on the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool Board of Trustees.
All other items were approved by unanimous vote. All members were present. Agenda