Water authority to repeat rate hearing

Remember that water rate hike that was supposed to take effect Tuesday?

April Fools.

Las Vegas Valley Water District officials have decided to put the increase on hold for at least a month while they repeat the public hearing process and the vote on the rate hike.

The "do-over" is scheduled for 9 a.m., April 15 in the commission chambers at the Clark County Government Center.

The Clark County Commission held the original hearing and approved the new rates on Feb. 19, but the action drew an open meeting law complaint from a Las Vegas resident.

In a letter sent to the Nevada Attorney General's Office late last month, Chris Mero argued that the agenda for the meeting violated the law because it made no specific mention of a vote on the rate increase.

The agenda referred instead to a public hearing "regarding revisions to the district service rules."

Fewer than a dozen people showed up to comment on the new rates, and many of them argued for an even higher increase to curb consumption by the valley's most wasteful water users.

The Attorney General's Office is reviewing Mero's complaint, but the water district decided not to wait for a ruling.

On Thursday, district officials announced they would delay the start of the new rates until the hearing and the vote are conducted a second time.

"It's better for us just to redo it," said district spokesman Scott Huntley.

Barring a change of heart by the commissioners, the rate hike should start showing up on bills issued after May 1.

Water district General Manager Pat Mulroy said the one-month delay is expected to cost the utility $4.2 million in revenue.

In addition to a flat, 50 percent increase in the monthly service fee, the district is raising the rates in all four of its consumption-based tiers.

Tier 1, which applies to the first 5,000 gallons used at most single-family homes, will go up 5 percent to $1.16 per 1,000 gallons. The rates will increase 10 percent in Tier 2, 18 percent in Tier 3, and 32 percent in Tier 4.

In general, minimal water users will see their bills go up about 17 percent and high-volume users will see their bills jump more than 30 percent.

"What's frustrating to me is the level of outreach we did on this," Mulroy said.

A bulletin about the Feb. 19 public hearing was included on water bills sent out in January and early February, and the rate hike was widely reported by the media and discussed at length at previous board meetings, Mulroy said.

The district even added a new calculator feature to its Web site so customers could figure out exactly how much the rate hike would cost them. The calculator logged about 10,000 "hits," Mulroy said.

As for the agenda item that drew the complaint, Mulroy said it was meant as "an umbrella statement to include all the changes" to the district's service rules, including new rates, higher fines for those caught wasting water, and other adjustments.

"We have done it that way before," she said. "I guarantee you we won't be doing it that way anymore."

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0350.