Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 9432~~ `'Y ORDINANCE NO. AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 37-25(c), SECTION 37-25(d) "" AND SECTION 37-26(a), OF CHAPTER 37 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH (1964), AS AMENDED, BY REVISING CERTAIN WASTEWATER RATES AND CHARGES; MAKING THIS ORDINANCE CUMULATIVE OF PRIOR ORDINANCES; REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES AND PROVISIONS OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH IN CONFLICT HEREWITH; PROVIDING A SAVINGS CLAUSE; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS SECTION 1. That Section 37-25 (c) of Chapter 37 of the Code of the City of Fort Worth ( 1 964) , as amended, be and is hereby amended and , after having been so amended, shall hereafter read and be as follows: "(c) The following schedule of rates per month or fraction thereof shall be the basis for determining charges to all customers for rendering sanitary sewerage service, where the sewage produced by such customer is a normal strength wastewater (two hundred ten (210) mg/1 B.O.D. and two hundred forty (240} mg/1 suspended solids) and where such customer is located within the city: "RATES FOR SEWERAGE SERVICE ONLY " (1 ) A monthl y service to all customers in the and ten cents ($4.10). charg e steal 1 be charg ed amount of four dollars "(2 ) A monthly volume charge shall also be charged to all customers in the amount of six hundred nine thousandths of a dollar ($0.609) per one hundred (100) cubic feet of water used, or wastewater produced, as more specifically set forth hereinafter. "The monthly volume charges for residential class customers will be based on the ind iv id ual customer' s average monthly water use during the preceding winter quarter months of December, January and February. The volumes used to compute these charges are based on the amount of water used by the residential class customer as measured by a meter. Where no preceding winter quarter average is available from records, the Director shall estimate a volume to be used for this monthly volume charge. "The monthly charges to commercial and ind ustrial class customers will be based on total water use as meas- ured by appropriate meters, with the provision that if a customer can show, to the satisfaction of the director of the waterworks department, that a significant portion of the metered water usage does not enter the sanitary sewers, the customer will be charged for only that volume entering the sewers, as determined by a method approved by the director." j ,~`'~' j SECTION 2. That Section 37-25 (d) of Chapter 37 of the Code of the City of Fort Worth (1 964) , as amended , be and is hereby amended and , after having been so amended, shall hereafter read and be as follows: "(d) The Director of the Waterworks Department shall establish a monitored group class, consisting of those customers whose wastewater strength is, in his judgment, abnormally high or whose wastewater contains limited sub- stances or materials, and charges to customers in this class shall be computed in accord with the following five- part rate sched ul e MONITORED GROUP Customer monthly service charge $4.10 Volume charge, per 100 cubic feet $0.444 B.O.D. strength charge, per pound $0.0790 of B.O.D. Suspended sol ids strength charge, per $0.0420 pound of suspended solids Monitoring and pretreatment charge Total actual Cost "The monitoring charge shall consist of all cost for personnel, material, and equipment used. to collect and analyze samples from the customer wastewater to determine the streng th of the wastewater prod uced , and when appro- priate, to inspect pretreatment facilities, to administer pretreatment permit systems and to enforce ordinance requirements. Pretreatment requirements primarily affect industries which discharge toxic substances into the sewerage system. "This schedule shall replace all other charges previ- ously made for industrial waste strength." SECTION 3. That "Schedule B" of Section 37-26 (a) , Connection Charge, of Chapter 37 of the Fort Worth City Code (19.64), as amended, be and the same is hereby amended and, after having been so amended, "Schedule B" shall hereafter read and be as follows: "The minimum monthly charge shall be equal to and be the same as the monthly service charge." SECTION 4. This ordinance shall be cumulative of all provisions and ordinances and of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1 964) , -2- <, ,n. as amended, except where the provisions of this ordinance are in direct conflict with the provisions of such ordinances and such Code, in which event conflicting provisions of such ordinances and such Code are hereby repealed. SECTION 5. It is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Ordinance are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Ordinance shall be declared unconstitu- tional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Ordinance, since the same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation in this Ordinance of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section. SECTION 6. That all rights or remedies of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, are expressly saved as to any and all violations of Chapter 37 or of any amendments thereto, of the Fort Worth City Code (1964), as amended, which have accrued at the time of the effective date of this ordinance; and as to such accrued violations, the Court shall have all of the powers that existed prior to the effective date of this ordinance . SECTION 7. The City Secretary of the City of Fort Worth is hereby directed to engross and enroll this ordinance by copying the caption in the minutes of the City Council and by filing the ordinance in the ordinance records of the City. SECTION 8. That this Ordinance shall become effective and be in full force and effect from and after its passage, provided, however, that the increased rates specified herein shall apply to customer utility -3- cr 3';, c statements sent by the City of Fort Worth on or after October 1, 1985, and it is so ordained. APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY: City Attorney Date : ~ ` ~" ~ ~ ~ ~ ADOPTED: ~~o~ 3~OS _ EFFECTIVE : Job ~J~/ ~~' ~~ ~5 -4 - y_,, ., .- ~ City of ;Fort ~~orth, texas 1~Itsyor cc~ad ~o~,sa~..~il ~o~a,~,un~~atio~; DATE ~ REFERENCE SUBJECT Propo$e d er do d$ ewd er I PRGE NUMBER Rate Adjustments ~ 5 7/23/85 G-6389 ~ 1 of ~ RECOM~ENDAT ION It is recommended the City Council approve the attached Ordinances, adopting new water and wastewater rate schedules as outlined below, to be charged all retail customers of the Fort Worth Water Department with an effective date of billing on and after October 1, 1985. BACKGROUND For the past several months, staff members of the Water Department and the Office of Management Services have worked closely with the City Council Water and Sewer Rate Advisory Committee. Three major issues have been examined (1) the 1986 budgetary requirements of the Water Department, (2) the adequacy of existing 1985 water and sewer rates to satisfy the increased budgetary require- ment, and (3) the redesign of the existing five-block water rate schedule to establish a more equitable rate structure. Recommendations concerning each of these issues are outlined below. BUDGETARY ISSUES The fiscal year 1986 budget establishes the revenue requirement which must be met through water and sewer service revenue, in conjunction with other sources of utility income. The budget request for FY 1986, along with the adopted 1985 budget and reestimate, is shown below ADOPTED 1984-1985 REESTIMATE 1984-1985 PROPOSED 1985-1986 WATER 540,320,054 $41,387,099 550,384,107 SEWER $31,644,428 $31,268,935 $35,625,854 Totals $71,964,482 $12,656,034 $86,009,961 The proposed .budget reflects a 19.5 increase over the 1984-85 adopted budget. The major funding changes are a $5,400,352 increase in debt service, a $6,126,911 increase in raw water costs, and an additional $900,000 for the water and sewer capital improvement program. The proposed budget recommends a net increase of 9.5 positions in Water and 6.5 positions in Sewer. ADEQUACY OF EXISTING RATES The existing rate schedule for water and wastewater service will not adequately satisfy the 1986 budgetary requirement, as shown below: ., DATE REiERENCE SUBJECT: Proposed Water and Wastewater PAGE NUMBER Rate Adjustments 2 ct 5 7/23/85 G-6389 FOR FY1986: WATER SEWER Total Funds Requ ired $50,384,107 $35,625,854 Estimated Retail Service Revenue 535,164,472 $17,017,295 (under existing 1985 rates) Other income $9,600,261 $13,398,031 Total projected income $44,764,733 $30,415,326 Additional funds needed $5,619,374 $5,210,528 (as % of retail revenue) 15.98% 30.62% TOTAL $86,009,961 $52,181,767 $22,998,292 $75,180,059 $10,829,902 20.75% As indicated a revenue deficit for water and sewer services of approximately 16% and 31%, respectively is anticipated. However, rather than eliminating this deficit solely through increased rates, a total of $5.5 million from prior years' earnings can be carried forward to reduce the additional funds required, as shown below WATER SEWER TOTAL Prior years' revenue $3,267,499 52,232,501 $5,500,000 (as % of retail revenue) 9.3% 13.1% 10.5% Additional revenue from rate adjustments $2,351,875 $2,978,027 $5,329,902 (as ~ of retail revenue) 6.7% 17.5% 10.2% Additional funds provided $5,619,314 $5,210,528 $10,829,902 These figures indicate that a total retail revenue requirement of $37,516,347 for water and $19,995,322 for sewer must be captured through the respective rate structures. This reflects the need for a blended overall retail rate increase of 10.2% RATE DESIGN -- WASTEWATER SERVICE A 17.5% increase for retail normal strength wastewater service and volume charges is recommended in order to obtain the requisite $19.99 million revenue requirement. The resulting rate schedule follows: •C'. DATE REFERENCE suBJECT Proposed Water and Wastewater PAGE NUMBER Rate Adjustments 3 5 7/23/85 G-6389 oe I. Normal Strength Customers EXISTING PROPOSED Monthly service charge• $3.50 $4.10 Monthly volume rate: per hundred cubic $0.518 $0.609 feet (CCF) II. Monitored Customers PROPOSED Monthly Service Charge Volume Charge BOD Strength Charge Suspended Solids Strength Charge Monitoring Charge $4.10 $0.444 per 100 Cu. Ft. $0 0790 per pound of BOD $0.0420 per pound of SS Total Actual Cost It is recommended that the existing method of levying a minimum monthly charge for sewer service be eliminated. In addition, it is recommended that the 1500 cubic feet ceiling currently placed on the calculation of winter quarter resi- dential sewer consumption be lifted. As a result, the monthly average of actual water consumption measured for a residential unit during the winter quarter (January, February, March) will be used as the basis for billing monthly sewer volume. RATE DESIGN -- WATER SERVICE The current water rate schedule is composed of five blocks (four in the summer months), with a different rate applied incrementally to consumption in each block. With a five block rate structure, there is a disparity among rates paid by customers whose consumption falls into different volume categories. Fewer rate blocks would mean a more equitable rate comparison between customers with widely differing consumption patterns. Thus, to generate the required $37.5 million in retail water revenue, a new three-block rate schedule has been designed to substitute for the existing five-block, in order to establish a more equitable rate structure for different customer classes. The three-block rate structure eliminates the minimum monthly charge for water service and is shown below ,~ y ~ ~a ~; DATE REFERENCE suBJECT: Proposed Water and Wastewater PAGE NUMBER Rate Adjustments 4 5 7./23/85 G-6389 or PROPOSED INSIDE CITY RATES FOR RETAIL WATER SERVICE I. Treated Water Service METER SIZE (in inc es .625 .750 1.00 1.50 2.00 3.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 VOLUME CHARGES MONTHLY CHARGE WINTER (October-May) cubic feet per CCF First 4000 $1.07 Next 246,000 $0.73 Over 250,000 $0.57 II. Fire Line Service Connection Size inches 4 6 8 10 III. Raw Water Service All use per month. 52.30 $2.30 $3.75 $6.00 58.40 $18.40 $29.95 $58.80 $87.15 $115.50 $131.25 SUMMER (June-September) cubic feet per CCF First 50,000 $1.07 Next 200,000 $0.73 Over 250,000 $0.57 Monthly Se civr e a~~- $6.50 $9.75 $13.00 $21.65 $0. 28 per 1000 gallons Attachment I provides a comparison of existing 1985 retail water and sewer rates versus proposed rates for fiscal year 1986. Attachment II details the individual impact of the new rate schedules an a representative sample of retail water and wastewater customers. .. ,, _ DATE REFERENCE SUBJECT proposed Water and Wastewater PAGE NUMBER Rate Adjustments 5 5 ' 7/23/85 G-6389 -- -° - ----- The rate adjustments recommended herein represent a blended increase of 10.2 overall for water and sewer service combined. As Attachment II demonstrates, customers within different consumption blocks will incur increases both above and below the 10.2 adjustment due in large part to the restructuring of the five-block into athree-block rate schedule. SUBMITTED FOR THE CITY MANAGER'S DISPOSITION BY COUNCIL: PROCESSED BY OFFICE BY: ^ APPROVED ORIGINATING Ri Chard SdWe ^ OTHER (DESCRIBE) TARY ITY S CR y DEPARTMENT HEAD: E E C FOR AODiTIONAL INFOR ATION CONTACT Sam Nunn Ext 2 DATE