Lodi facing a flood of water costs

It wasn't so much that Lodi's City Council members wanted the bad news first; they just wanted all the bad news.

During a morning meeting Tuesday, the council received a report on the status of the city's sewer, or wastewater fund. The sewer fund is expected to post a deficit of more than $1 million for the current fiscal year and the city's water fund is facing a similar situation.

That grim news is compounded by the looming costs of building a new $25 to $30 million water treatment plant and installing water meters throughout the city at a cost of around $16 million.

Those would be expensive projects during even the most rosy of financial times. Lodi, however, has to grapple with these costs during an economic slump that has sent the city's revenues into a precipitous decline. A situation Councilwoman Susan Hitchcock described as "a perfect storm."

While Tuesday's meeting was just to focus on the wastewater infrastructure replacement program, the council asked city staff to come back with a comprehensive recommendation for all of the coming decisions rather than deal with each issue one-by-one.

"Give us all the bad news," said Councilman Bob Johnson.

Solutions to the water and wastewater fund imbalances could include raising rates or using infrastructure replacement funds.

The wastewater infrastructure replacement program, or the pool of funds designated to replace city pipes, has a balance of $15.06 million, said Public Works Director Wally Sandelin. He said that replacement money could be used to stabilize the wastewater fund.

Council members, especially Mayor JoAnne Mounce, appeared reluctant to spend the replacement money on anything other than replacing pipes, especially if the city would be facing additional costs such as the treatment plant and water meters.

Mounce said residents have been paying for infrastructure replacement for years and expect to see the program funded.

"To take that money and then spread it out won't make them happy," she said.

The city needs to meet a state mandate to install water meters and it needs to build a treatment plant so it can use the water it buys from the Woodbridge Irrigation District.

Faced with all those costs, council members asked for a more comprehensive set of recommendations that included any possiPleae see Water Costs, Page 10 ble changes to the rate structure.

"Are we sort of tiptoeing through this transition?" Johnson asked. "Why not take a big bite out of the apple and get it done with."

Sandelin said he is working on how the various issues could change the city's rate structure. He said that information will be presented to the council at a later meeting.

Hansen said he recalled when the Lodi Electric Utility was hemorrhaging cash a few years ago, the council needed to act quick to raise rates and stabilize the situation.

He said the city needed to act with the same decisiveness to handle the current situation.

"I don't like the deficit spending at all," Hansen said. "I'm really sick and tired of hearing this. … I want a plan that balances it, evens it out and brings it forward."

Contact City Editor Andrew Adams at andrewa@lodinews.com.