The Los Angeles City Council is one step closer to sending an ordinance to Mayor Karen Bass to sign to increase how much the city charges for sewer services – the first such increase since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The council on Friday, Aug. 30, took the first of two votes to increase the rates. As proposed, Angelenos would pay 22% more – about $16.64 extra bi-monthly for the typical household – for sewer services starting in October. That amount would increase several more times through July 2028 when the typical sewer bill would be slightly more than double what Angelenos are paying today.
Friday’s council vote was 11-3, with Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Kevin de León and Heather Hutt casting the dissenting votes while Councilmember Traci Park was absent.
Because the vote wasn’t unanimous, the council must vote again before the ordinance can be sent to the mayor for her signature. That second vote by the council is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The last time L.A. ratepayers saw an increase to their sewer bills was in 2020. The city stopped raising rates after that to provide relief to Angelenos during the COVID-19 pandemic. But supporters of the proposed rate schedule say it’s time to resume rate hikes because the city needs money to upgrade L.A.’s aging infrastructure and to repay bond obligations.
Just before the vote, Council President Paul Krekorian spoke of a sink hole opening up near his house a few years back because a sewer line had broken, causing the street to cave in. Two drivers fell into that sink hole, and one person was hospitalized for severe injuries, said Krekorian, who added that some of L.A.’s sewer lines are over a century old.
“There is never a good time to vote for an increase on any fees. There’s never a time when that’s comfortable to do,” he said.
But, he continued, “think as we cast this vote about the impact over the long term of our infrastructure when we’re not properly maintaining it, not properly investing in it, and not building the kind of public infrastructure that a world-class city should have.”
Currently, a typical single-family household pays $75.40 on average per bill, but that would rise to roughly $92.04 in October if the rate increases are approved. By July 2028, that same household would pay about $155.48 bi-monthly.
Eligible low-income households who qualify for discounts would see their bills rise from about $55.20 to $67.48 this October and to $113.85 by July 2028, based on the typical household.
Rodriguez, who cast one of the three dissenting votes on Friday, said she understood the need to upgrade the sewer systems but that she remains deeply concerned about the impacts the rate increases would have on residents and business owners, particularly on seniors and the poor.
Both Rodriguez and de León criticized the process used to approve the proposed rate increases. Rodriguez said the process was “rushed” with the anticipated rate increases “baked into the budget.” De León called it a “jam job.”
The two councilmembers aren’t alone in their criticism of the process.
On Tuesday, during a public hearing about the proposed rate increases, critics said the city did not do enough outreach to make sure people knew about the proposed changes to their sewer bills – or how people could effectively vote down the rate increases.
Although the city’s sanitation bureau scheduled two informational webinars over the summer, they were held in July and August when a lot of folks were out of town, say critics who believe many people remain unaware about the possible changes to their sewer bills.
California’s Proposition 218 also required the city to notify every property owner in L.A. about the proposed rate increases to give them a chance to file written “protests” if they objected to the rate hikes. Had over half the property owners filed protests, the proposal would not have been allowed to move forward.
But the city received just 7,864 valid protests out of the 786,311 notices that went out – a mere 1% and far below the 393,157 protests needed for the proposal to be killed, according to the city clerk.
Tess Taylor, president of the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council, slammed the process during Tuesday’s public hearing.
“How coincidental is it that the advancement of this proposal occurs … (in) August when most families are on summer vacations?” she asked. “It certainly thins the ranks of potential protesters, doesn’t it?”
Additionally, Taylor said more independent analysis was needed. The Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council submitted a statement opposing the proposed rate increases.
Another speaker called a 22% rate hike “excessive.”
But others who spoke during Tuesday’s public comment supported the rate hikes.
Simboa Wright, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents the city’s sanitation workers, said the proposed rate schedule “is about protecting Angelenos.”
“It’s about making sure that we don’t have sewage backing into people’s properties, we don’t have overflowing sewers going into the ocean,” Wright said. “If we don’t take care of this 80-year old infrastructure, that’s what will happen.”
Barbara Romero, general manager of L.A. Sanitation & Environment, noted in a report to city councilmembers earlier this year that nearly a third of the city’s pipes are more than 90 years old and that treatment plants have an expected life cycle of 30 to 50 years.
Romero told the City Council in May that the sanitation bureau has been using reserve funds and anticipates spending more than $3 billion on capital projects over the next five years.
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