By Ana Celerier Salcedo

On May 23, Demetrios Vidalis, the Director of the Water and Sewer Department, and Stephen Haynes, the Director of Finance for the Water and Sewer Department, presented the finance committee with a rate proposal increase plan for fiscal year 2024.

The presentation cited the rate increases to be due to increases in the Massachusetts Water and Resource Authority fees, infrastructure improvements, inflation rates, and regulatory requirements. According to the presentation, water and sewer bill payments go towards infrastructure improvements, MWRA fees, maintenance, and operational costs.

The presentation showed the current financial assistance program and an upcoming city assistance program to help the residents of Somerville pay these rate increases. Furthermore, the continued policy of no-water shut-offs for non-payment is still in place.

The proposed increase to the rates that were presented to the committee would be the following. A no change in rate for base charges, an 11% water rate increase, and a 15% sewer rate increase.

Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott was the first to pose questions after the presentation. He asked what the expected fiscal year revenue for 2024 would be due to these hikes in cost. Haynes commented that the expected revenue would be almost $19 million in water and $34 million in sewer revenue.

According to Scott, the revenue for water would be $2.75 million more than in fiscal year 2023. Scott brought up the extraordinary number of job vacancies in the water and sewer departments.

Reportedly the finance committee has had a request for the last three months from a contractor the city works with and outsources work to for those very services that relate to the staffing vacancies.

Scott commented that the increase that is being asked for will land on folks in the community and that he was concerned that the administration for the water and sewer department was just “treading water due to the fact that the positions couldn’t be filled and that this entire rate increase is just flowing straight out the door to the excavation contractor the city is working with.”

Vidalis commented that the personnel vacancies are something the Human Resources department and personnel department are currently working on, and there are some negotiations with the union right now, so they were unable to speak on details regarding that.

Vidalis later added that the work they hired these outside contractors to perform would not go away. It would only lessen even if they were fully staffed.

Councilor At-Large Charlotte Kelly asked if the budget would include additional money to help people enrolled in the assistance program pay their bills even with the rate increase. The Director answered that an additional 1 million dollars would be budgeted to help people in the assistance program afford to pay.

With respect to a matter brought up regarding future changes to a separate meter for garden hose usage, the directors of water and sewers for Somerville responded that in the future, they are looking into the feasibility but that, as of now, the city is not currently situated to implement a separate meter for garden hose usage.

The main concern many councilors voiced was the need for more predictable forecasting on if rates would continue to rise and put a strain on residents. With one yes and four no, the measure failed and was not approved by the finance committee.