AgdaPkt 2016-06-27 Closed and Joint SA PFA

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Water Utility Finances & Rates 7 Water & Sewer Financial Plans & Rate Studies 2.4 Current & Historical Water Rates Table W1 shows a history of Redwood City’s water rates. The City has gradually increased rates each year for more than 10 years to keep revenues in line with the cost of providing service. The City’s water rates include two components: Fixed Monthly Charges based on customer class and meter size. This charge is levied independent of water use. The City incurs a substantial amount of costs ensuring that water is available at all times to meet customer needs on demand. Fixed Monthly Charges for residential customers are applied per dwelling unit. Single family homes and accounts with up to 9 dwelling units are each assigned 1.0 Dwelling Unit Equivalent (DUEs) per residential unit and pay the standard charge multiplied by the number of units. Multi‐ family accounts with 10 – 59 dwelling units are each assigned 0.75 DUEs per residential unit and pay 75% of the basic service charge per dwelling unit, and accounts with 60 or more dwelling units are assigned 0.50 DUEs per dwelling unit and pay 50% of the standard charge per dwelling unit. Fixed Monthly Charges for non‐residential customers vary based on meter size with larger meters paying higher charges based on the increased capacity needs and demand placed on the water system. Quantity Charges billed based on metered water use. Quantity Charges are billed per hundred cubic feet (hcf), with 1 hcf equal to approximately 748 gallons of water. Residential customers are billed according to a 4‐tiered inclining rate structure with water first billed in Tier 1 and subsequent use billed in higher tiers as water use increases. The residential rate tiers apply to each bi‐monthly billing period. For multi‐family residential accounts, the volume of water billed in each rate tier is adjusted based on the number of DUEs assigned to each account. For example, an account with 5 dwelling units would be assigned 5 DUEs and get 5 times the amount of water shown for each rate tier. As noted above, residential dwelling units in accounts with 10 – 59 dwelling units are each assigned 0.75 DUEs, and residential units in accounts with 60 or more dwelling units are assigned 0.50 DUE’s per unit. Hence an apartment building with 100 apartments would be assigned 50 DUEs and would pay 50 times the fixed charge of a single family home and also receive 50 times the amount of water in each tier as a single family home. Commercial customers are billed according to a 2‐tiered inclining rate structure that applies per monthly billing period. Landscape irrigation customers are allotted a monthly water budget based on irrigation area and watering needs (see Appendix A), and billed according to a 3‐tiered rate structure with water use in excess of budgeted amounts billed at higher rates. 6.4.A. - Page 34