Ventura votes to forgive water charges for some households

Jan. 31--Ventura Water customers who received unusually high bills after the Thomas Fire can apply for relief under a new program.

The Ventura City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to cut bills for customers who live in areas of the city that were under mandatory evacuation during the December wildfire. The city will charge those households equivalent to their average bill during a two-year period.

Mayor Neal Andrews was absent from the special meeting, which was quickly called following resident complaints after they began receiving bills last week.

Read more: Ventura County, city to help residents prepare for potential floods after Thomas Fire

The city staff had recommended charging for any water used beyond their average at a lower rate, an approach adopted in the city of Santa Rosa. Ventura's elected officials chose to go further, forgiving all water use beyond their average.

The city uses a tiered system for charging water, with Tier 1 being the cheapest and reflecting the lowest water usage. Because high water usage bumped people into the more expensive higher tiers, the recent bills climbed in some cases by hundreds of dollars.

The council felt households shouldn't be penalized for helping save their home or the home of their neighbor.

"This water was used for the fire. It is a fire cost," council member Christy Weir said. If the federal government won't reimburse the city for that cost, it still doesn't make sense ratepayers should be on the hook for it, she said.

It's difficult to say how much the move will cost the city. Ventura Water General Manager Kevin Brown said there wasn't time to do a statistical analysis of impacted areas. Based on his initial recommendation of simply charging less for the excess water used, he was estimating a cost of between $600,000 and $1.7 million. But the city isn't charging for it at all.

Read more: Ventura officials set path for year ahead; Thomas Fire recovery tops priorities

The money to refund customers can't come from the water fund, which is paid for by rates. A rate must under state law reflect the cost of service, so another customer can't subsidize other people's bills.

"The enterprise fund will have to be reimbursed with something that's TBD," Brown said. "We'll have to come back and figure that out."

It could come from the city's general fund -- which is primarily funded through sales and property taxes and fees for permits and such -- or someplace else. The city may also try to get it reimbursed as part of the federal government's disaster relief programs or could seek it as part of any fire-related lawsuit it files related to its origin, officials said.

Read more: New lawsuit filed against Edison claims negligence caused Thomas Fire

Customers who qualify for the rate forgiveness will see the difference reflected in a future bill. Brown said that could take several weeks or even months, depending on how many people apply.

The city is also not charging the $52 water connection fee on people who lost their homes if they moved someplace else within Ventura's service area. The staff will down the road look into forgiving water connection or other fees once homeowners rebuild. That will come back to the council at a later date, per policymakers' direction.

If a home was lost altogether, Ventura stopped billing the day of the loss, providing the customer alerted the city's water department.

The policy won't help people who received water bills at or below their average, even if some felt they should have gone down because they were out of the residence for several weeks or still haven't returned. The program only applies to the bill covering the November to January time period. The city bills on a two-month cycle.

Council member Erik Nasarenko asked for information on how bills were determined. He spent three weeks outside his house -- two of those were because of the city's mandatory evacuation -- yet his bill was $250.41 this cycle and the one before that.

"Why would it be the same identical amount?" he asked as several in the crowd applauded.

Read more: Southern California wildfire insurance claims reach nearly $1.8 billion

Resident Rick Ray said his bill was about double what it normally was, but the cost isn't what drew him to the meeting. What has him most concerned is the failure of the city's water system during the fire, he said.

The system is ancient and vulnerable, he said. During the fire, Ray and several other neighbors battled the blaze, in the process saving several homes. That is until the water went out completely at 2:20 a.m. on Dec. 5, he said.

"Fix our broken emergency water system and open up about the problem," Ray said. "The consequences are too dire to do this any other way."

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