Council OKs Rate Hikes for Sewage Plan

THOUSAND OAKS — A seemingly endless wrestling match over a proposed $75-million expansion of the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant came one step closer to a conclusion Tuesday as council members approved rate increases.

But despite threats from city officials that voting against the complete waste-water plant upgrade could make them personally liable, council members Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski again voted against expanding the 35-year-old facility.

Because the expansion would require a $7.35 increase in monthly sewer fees for residents, the council needed a 4-1 vote under state law to approve the plan. The proposal also involved a steep hike in connection charges for developers.

Instead, council members reluctantly approved a bare-bones increase of $1.80 a month, along with the increase in developer fees. That will cover the cost of replacing some outdated equipment, but won’t pay for any expansion.

“We’re building half a car,” Mayor Andy Fox said. “And we’re going to have to come back and buy the wheels sooner or later.”

Zeanah and Zukowski contend the expansion is larger than necessary, and they disagree over how it should be funded, because existing residents would have paid a portion of the cost.

Moreover, the two council members say the City Council approved a plan to upgrade the facility in 1987, and they question where the money for those improvements actually went. City officials contend the 1987 proposal was simply a 10-year plan to identify what needed to be done.

Fox and council members Judy Lazar and Mike Markey, as well the city’s Public Works Department, believe the expansion is not only needed due to sewage demand, but is required by state law.

In a report to City Manager Grant Brimhall, Senior Civil Engineer Demosthenes L. Morales warned that if the City Council does not expand the sewage plant and replace its outdated facilities, Thousand Oaks could face civil lawsuits--and so could individual council members--by developers upset over the lack of sewage capacity.

City officials have also warned that unless Thousand Oaks expands the plant, the city’s waste-water utility will not be able to receive an operating permit from the government and would probably be unable to sell bonds in the future.

And they have said Thousand Oaks could face lawsuits if it tried to place the burden of the expansion costs solely on developers and new users. Under the proposal, new users would pay 70% of the expansion cost.

That’s all rubbish, according to Zeanah, who tried to make a lengthy speech, attacking the city’s opinion that council members were liable to civil lawsuits.

Fox, however, ruled her out of order.

“I have the right to speak,” Zeanah told Fox, a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department. “This is not your firetruck.”

Thousand Oaks’ current sewer rate of $10.50 is the lowest in Ventura County. If the total proposed rate had been approved, Thousand Oaks sewer fees would be on par with other Ventura County municipalities. The developers’ connection fee--which will increase from $3,900 to $5,310 per residential unit--is among the highest in the county.