L.A. budget officials seek 40% sewer fee increase

Los Angeles’ top budget officials are calling for a five-year package of sewer fee increases totaling nearly 40%, a proposal that at least one council member says is badly timed, given the financial pressures on households and businesses.

A key council committee is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposed package, which consists of 6.5% increases in each of the first three years, followed by 7.5% in the fourth and fifth years.

Under the proposal, the Bureau of Sanitation would collect $501 per year in sewer fees from an average single-family household in 2015, an increase of $142 annually.

Advocates of clean water favor the plan, saying it would generate hundreds of millions of dollars to replace aging pipes and prevent disastrous sewage spills in neighborhoods, waterways and the ocean. But Councilwoman Jan Perry, who heads the Energy and Environment Committee, voiced doubts that Angelenos can absorb so many city fee increases in an economic downturn.

Combined with other potential rate increases, “the cumulative effect is something I don’t think that residents can bear,” said Perry, who is running for mayor.

Earlier this year, the Department of Water and Power proposed a three-year package of rate increases, calling for electricity rates go up 16.8% and water rates to go up 15.3%. Those increases would go toward “basic” business needs, such as moving the DWP toward a greater reliance on renewable energy and helping it comply with state law.

The sewer fee increases, proposed two months ago by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, would boost the average single-family residential bill — one that covers a three-person household —- from $29.88 this year to $41.71 in 2015. Last week, the Bureau of Sanitation submitted an alternative plan that would increase the average single-family bill by 29% by 2015 and by 77% by 2021.

Sanitation officials have spent months shopping the sewer increases to neighborhood councils, business groups and environmental organizations, pointing out that nearly a third of the city’s 6,700 miles of sewers is more than 80 years old and in need of replacement. Enrique Zaldivar, director of the sanitation agency, said he wants the committee to back the alternative plan, in part because it would allow the city to pay for more of its storm water projects with cash, not debt.

The fee increase proposal is backed by environmental groups, such as Heal the Bay, as well as the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., a business group that challenged electricity rate increases last year.

Perry praised Zaldivar for publicizing the sewer fee proposal, but said industrial businesses in her downtown district remain worried.

Meanwhile, one critic said a single, limited fee increase should be approved, followed by a Bureau of Sanitation audit.

“They do need money. OK, fine,” said Jack Humphreville, a member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. “Grant them a year’s increase and then you go in and find out how efficient they are, how much money they need, and how can we create a level of citizen oversight.”

david.zahniser@latimes.com