Water rate hike on tap in T.O.

Rain is a prized commodity in Thousand Oaks.

The City Council voted 5-0 to offset additional wholesale water costs to the city from Calleguas Municipal Water District by increasing the cost of water for the 16,000 residents the city's water company serves.

Water quality rates will increase by 10 percent this year.

This rate hike is in addition to the increase council approved last year when the public works department thought Calleguas was increasing its wholesale water price to the city by about 5 percent. When the city learned the wholesale price was actually going up by 10 percent this year, they decided they needed another increase.

Public Works Director Mark Watkins said T.O. doesn't make a profit on water. Calleguas is the cheapest water purveyor among the three water suppliers in the city by being, even with the increase, about 11 percent less than the two private companies. The city is considering following the polices of private firms that are expected to go to a tiered rate in which those who use more pay more.

Of the 16,495 customers notified by mail of the proposed rate increase, 13 of them officially protested.

If more than half of the customers had officially protested, the city wouldn't have been allowed to raise the rates due to Proposition 218.

If that had happened, City Manager Scott Mitnick said the city would have been forced to subsidize water from general funds or negotiate further with Calleguas. Some of those who wrote protests were seniors on fixed incomes.

Another increase of 10 percent is expected in 2009, Watkins said.

Sixty percent of the city's water company's budget goes directly for paying for the water, Watkins said.

- - Nancy Needham