City proposes modest water fee tweaks and higher tapping fees to cover AMI and meter rollout costs

Water staff presented operating and capital items and proposed fee changes tied to a recent AMI (Neptune 360) rollout. The proposal included raising the tapping fee to align with market contractor costs (staff suggested roughly $650 for a 1-inch tap and $1,150 for a 2-inch tap, up from the current $90 bookkeeping fee) and increasing the base monthly water-user fee by about $0.30 to recover the Neptune subscription expense. Staff said the Neptune subscription is an ongoing expense and that the modest base-fee adjustment would cover it.

Council members cautioned that the council will face larger rate and bond decisions soon (for major capital and system upgrades) and urged the administration to avoid repeated small increases; staff acknowledged the point and recommended coordinating AMI-related fee changes with broader rate-setting or bonding conversations so customers are not surprised by multiple adjustments.

Council direction: staff to incorporate the AMI cost and tapping-fee alignment into the broader rate and capital-financing plan and return with timeline/communication materials for public notice.

Ending: The council accepted the need to align the city’s internal tapping fee with market costs and asked staff to time user-fee changes to avoid stacking increases.