The Ceres City Council voted at its Feb. 10 meeting to hire Willdan Financial Services to perform a water and wastewater rate study update.

Willdan will be paid $29,084 from the water enterprise account and the same amount from the sewer enterprise fund.

City Engineer Michael Beltran said that generally rate studies should be done every three to five years to stay current with operational costs and capital project needs in the future. The last water rate study was done in 2017 and sewer rate study in 2012.

Councilwoman Cerina Otero questioned if the city had updated water and sewer connection fees paid by developers. Beltran said the city has not been consistent doing that, noting the last nexus study was done in 2013 and raised rates in 2014. Connection fees were supposed to be increased annually which not has been done.

Currently the city charges $6,800 for water connections and $6,000 for sewer.

“When you look at how much things have increased over the years,” said Beltran, “according to the water study we were supposed to raise them at that point in time to about $7,600. And the current rate – if you go by the water study – should’ve been around $8,600. So we’ve really not raised our rates at all and these connection charges … to help finance some of our infrastructure also. So not raising those rates since 2014 really puts us behind the eight ball.”

The consultant will also be guiding the city through the Prop 218 process, required by state law since the city is proposing to increase rates.

“There’s going to be a lot of public outreach on this,” said Beltran, adding that at least two public hearings will need to be held.

Ceres resident John Warren expressed concern that residents are already complaining that their utility bills that cover water, sewer and garbage are already $200 per month. He noted that the city enacted a series of water rate increases from 2018 to 2022 to help fund the regional surface water project.

“Probably when we get done building this new wastewater treatment plant our total utility bill is going to be over $500,” Warren told the council. “There’s just not going to be one increase; it’s going to have to be a step increase – like they did with water – with the wastewater treatment plant.

He noted how sewer costs residents $59 per month with the antiquated wastewater treatment plant.

The council voted 4-1 to proceed with the Willdan contract with Councilman James Casey voting no.