City explains sewer revenue

TIFFIN – The A-T met with Tiffin City Administrator Nick Dutro to discuss the annual sewer rate increase, the sewer revenue fund and the long-term control plan. Back in September, Tiffin City Council unanimously approved returning the annual sewer tax rate increase to 5%, that increase came into effect Jan. 1. In July 2023, Joe Crea, of Raftelis presented the findings of the 2025 sewer study, which ended with the recommendation that the city return the annual increase to 5%. The suggestion for the increase came from inflation and capital costs for projects funded by Tiffin's sewer revenue fund increasing and the need to increase revenue to the fund. To adjust revenue, city staff discussed the following options: *One-time increase of 9% to annual rates, effective in 2024. Then, resume 4% increases beyond 2024. *Temporary Long-Term Control Plan fee. A fee of $12 a month, effective from the beginning of 2024 to the end of 2032. *Resume a 5% increase would be effective in 2024. The lowest near-term burden on taxpayers. "These are the funds that come in through what people pay the city every other month for the use of the city's sewers," Dutro said of the sewer revenue fund. "We based that rate on what the amount is that Aqua tells you that you used as far as water usage per month." The city then gets the water usage report from Aqua then sends citizens a bill based on its current rate. "What the main usage (of the sewer revenue fund) is the maintenance of our (the city's) sewers," Dutro said. "The city of Tiffin has miles of sewers that we have had for many, many years and they are in various states of repair and various states of required maintenance." Besides the funds being used for sewer maintenance, there are some members of the administration and workers who have a percentage of their salary that comes from the sewer revenue fund. The percentage is based on how often an employee interacts with the sewers. For example, the head of Public Works, has a large percentage of his salary come from the sewer revenue fund because he deals specifically with the maintenance of the sewers. The city engineer also receives a percentage of the sewer revenue fund as part of his salary since he also deals extensively with the sewers. There are others in the city government who have a third of their salary come out of the fund as well. "The ruling on that at the state level is that it is a best practice," Dutro explained. One of the reasons the annual increase returned to 5% from 4% is because the city is looking at the long-term viability of the sewer revenue fund. "We have loans. We have projects that are going to come with price tags due in the next 20 – 30 years. So, this (the 5% annual increase) will keep us solvent for those." He said the biggest project that comes into play is the long-term control plan. "The long-term control plan is in place to reduce the number of sewer overflows that happen. The way that you really control that is removing the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers. Getting those separated has been a task that has been required and it has been a task that the city has been doing for many years. It has been at least 40 years, maybe longer." Dutro said that the long-term control plan does not have anything that says what the cost is or how long it is going to take. "We have been working together with the EPA for many years to put us on a path where we can keep problems from happening," he said. "At the end of the day, our goal is to not pollute the Sandusky River. We don't want to be putting bad things into the river." As for the costs associated with the long-term control plan, Dutro said the city is exploring new technology to decrease the cost of some aspects of the projects. "I have to commend the Engineer's Office, the Public Works Department and the Water Pollution Control Center," Dutro said. "The department heads there are having regular meetings where they go over what the plans are and how to come up with solutions to this that are fiscally responsible and are also attainable." The annual sewer rate increase has been a practice by city council for many years. "Unfortunately, that's the case with most utilities, you have an annual increase in what you're spending on your monthly utility rates," Dutro said. "We don't come to these decisions without doing research. We brought on Raftelis who gave us the recommendation. Raftelis is the same company who told us we could go down to 4% without too much immediate concern. At the time that made sense, our revenues were standing still, we were in a good place financially where the previous administration felt that was the right call to make." Dutro said the decrease to a 4% increase also provided some relief to those who were struggling during the (COVID-19 )pandemic. "As more data came in especially as we have continued to work on different projects, we felt it was best to bring that rate back to where it had been previously based on the data we were getting from them (Raftelis). "We want to do what's best for the environment, but we also want to make decisions that are best for the citizens," Dutro concluded. "That means continuously going back to those rates and making sure that people are being charged equitably and fairly for their usage.