Del Mar Resident Assails Planned Water-Rate Hike

An incensed Del Mar resident waved a 1971 water bill at the City Council Monday night and warned the council members that a citizen referendum was in the works if additional rate hikes were approved.

Ed Cook, a 37-year Del Mar resident, said his 1971 monthly water bill was $7.79 while his most recent billing for the same house and the same users amounted to about $140.

To be fair to the city, he explained, his recent bill was for a two-month period and included trash collection costs. Even so, Cook said, this escalation must cease or Del Mar residents would react.

“This is not Brazil,” Cook said, referring to the South American country’s runaway inflation rate, and demanding an explanation for the rate hikes.

Fairgrounds Had No Comment

Cook was one of only two residents who spoke up about proposed sewer and water rate increases amounting to about 30% for the average household. The city’s biggest water and sewer customer--the Del Mar Fairgrounds--had no comment on the city’s plans to restructure its utility-rate structure and boost fairgrounds charges by better than 500%.

Council members, sensing a lack of understanding among its citizens, postponed the issue until Oct. 2.

The city’s finance director, Anita Bingham, said that utility rate increases are a way of life for municipalities everywhere and especially in Southern California, where the cost of water is escalating and the cost of sewage treatment is following suit.

“We want everybody to pay their fair share,” Bingham said in explaining why the city had hired an engineering firm to study the city utility rate structure and to recommend changes.

‘Not Been Paying Fair Share’

The result of the two-year study was a recommended rate hike for everyone, but a much larger increase for commercial users and the fairgrounds, which she said “has not been paying its fair share.”

City Engineer Rusty Powell said the additional funds raised by the restructuring and rate increases are needed if the city is ever to catch up on modernizing its aging utility system.

The city’s concrete sewer lines, installed 40 to 60 years ago, are crumbling, causing an average of two line breaks a year, Powell said. It’s a $3-million to $4-million job to bring the city system up to par.

For the fairgrounds, the proposed rate changes mean that the 1988-89 utility bill of the state-owned facility--$283,997--would have been $636,175 under the new schedule.

Fairgrounds Manager Roger Vitaich concedes that the new Del Mar rates may be fair, but that doesn’t make him happy. The Fair Board has ordered a study of Del Mar’s rate study, he said, admitting he wouldn’t be surprised if the second study shows that Del Mar “is not treating us unjustly” in its proposed new rate schedules.

Could Build Sewage Plant

That doesn’t mean that the fairgrounds won’t try to find a more economical way to get sewer service--the biggest part of the utility bill increase, he said.

Del Mar Fairgrounds could build its own sewage treatment plant; could seek service from a sewer district to the north or east, or could connect directly with the metropolitan sewer system trunk line to the Pt. Loma treatment plant, bypassing Del Mar.

Vitaich said that, while some of the cost increases may be justified, Del Mar officials should be warned that they cannot count on “trying to rebuild their sewer system on the backs of the current users.”

He warned that if the city floats a bond issue to upgrade its utility system, fairgrounds’ utility revenues may not be available in future years to help repay the debt.

“We are investigating other systems and if we find one more to our advantage, we may change,” Vitaich said. The Fair Board, whose members are appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian, are expected to discuss the issue at the next meeting Oct. 10.