There Is something wrong with Monroe’s “Forever” water and sewer rate increases, which increase annually without any city council action. Simple mathematics suggests that increasing water and sewer prices, even if there is no proportionate increase in production costs, will be a burden that every citizen of the city will find unbearable in just a few years.
In 2018, the Jamie Mayo administration passed an ordinance that calls for automatic increases in water rates each year beginning in 2019 without a review from the council to determine if increased production cost necessitated the increase.
A slight change in wording made a difference in the fees. The city council authorized the water and sewer rates to be tied to the “consumer price” index rather than the “producer price” index.
What’s the difference? The Consumer Price Index measures the cost of consumer items such as bread, meat, and gasoline; it usually increases every year. Guaranteed. The “Producer Price” index measures the actual cost of producing water; sometimes it decreases. The council’s 2018 vote fixed into law “increases” but did not provide for decreases if the cost of producing water decreases.
Making matters worse, city residents are charged increases in sewerage rates without any way to measure actual consumption. It ties sewer rates to water rates on the assumption that all water goes down the sewer.
Does all water consumption go down the sewer? If a pipe bursts or leaks, the water releases into the ground, not the sewer system. Water used to wash a car, fill a backyard swimming pool, or water grass does not go down the sewer; it goes into the ground.
Without Sewerage meters, the city’s present method charges all utility customers for sewerage on a “Guess” and then increases the “guess” every year with the “forever” water rate ordinance.
It amounts to a “stealth” tax on the public, buried in fancy language in plain sight, that will continue to increase “forever.”
Two members of the present city council voted for the 2018 “forever tax.” They were Gretchen Ezernak and Juanita Woods who reluctantly voted for the tax after being browbeaten and publically tongue lashed by Mayo.
Mayor Oliver Ellis and Councilwoman Kema Dawson, as candidates in 2020, said the increases were wrong, and both pledged to undo the automatic increases. Once in office, they conveniently ignored their campaign pledge.
Once, the City of Monroe owned all of its utilities: electric, water, and gas. Fees were not regulated by the politics of the city council but by a special Utilities Commission that set the rates. The city sold off the electric and gas operations and kept the water.
The state Public Service Commission was established to stop price gouging. It exists to prevent the creation of monopolies that cheat the public at unfair rates. Supposedly, Monroe is not a monopoly and avoids Public Service Commission scrutiny. In theory, there are 20 water companies in Northeast Louisiana, with the closest to Monroe being Greater Ouachita Water Company. However, Greater Ouachita gets most or all of its water from the City of Monroe.
City residents do not have any choice but to use city water and sewerage; it should be regulated by some agency, somewhere, to stop Monroe’s “forever” tax.
Since the city is enjoying the benefits of the “forever” tax, we don’t expect anyone to do anything about it. The city has collected millions of dollars from the public without the ability or political will to substantiate a need for the increases or the actual usage of sewerage.
It seems like the makings of the perfect multi-million dollar class action suit that would challenge Monroe’s monopoly operation and practice of charging for sewer services without proper metering or vote of its elected representatives.
The city’s price gouging practice hurts the public, especially the poor, but it seems that the city has no plans to self-correct.
It won’t stop until the city council changes the law.
Even then, it may take a lawsuit to return the millions stolen from the public.
