City discusses budget, setting water rate hearing in special Wednesday gathering

By Ed Martin, Editor

In a rare Wednesday night Lemoore City Council meeting, council members will be asked to review the city’s recommended budget for 2016-17 and set in motion the events needed to raise the city’s water rates – thanks to Proposition 218, which requires the public’s input before raising fees.

The meeting was changed from its normal Tuesday night date due to Tuesday’s California Primary.

Councilmembers, on Wednesday, will discuss the annual budget, which appears to be balanced, in anticipation of its adoption at the council’s next meeting on June 21. The General Fund “net operating budget” is balanced at $9,600,200 in revenues and expenditures of $9,594,700.

However, the city is looking at some big capital costs in the coming years that could total upwards of $33 million. City leaders are looking at rebuilding the North Well transmission line at a cost of $5.9 million and an $18.3 million cost for TTHM compliance as well as new city wells at about $8.5 million.

To help pay for these additional costs, city officials are urging councilmembers and the public to sign on to water rate increases, designed to raise the bulk of the new charges.

Council members will consider passing a resolution setting in motion Proposition 218 guidelines that would levy proposed rate increases. Prop. 218 requires the city to provide notice of any property-related proposed fee changes at least 45 days before a public hearing, in this case to be scheduled August 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Postcards were sent again in late May inviting residents and business owners to attend an informal public meeting on Monday, June 6 in advance of this Proposition 218 hearing item.

If more than 50 percent of all water users in Lemoore submit written statements to the city objecting to the proposed increases, then the increases can’t legally be implemented.

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