November 26, 2014 · 0 Comments
A decision by Mono Council to set a fixed rate for sewage treatment in the new Brookfield Homes decision behind the Highway 9 dealerships has left future residents of the new subdivision upset and demanding answers.
Several future residents of the subdivision appeared at Tuesday morning’s council meeting, asking council and town staff to provide justification for the decision.
“Residents and future residents have now learned about a bylaw that was passed for fees on water waste, and struggle to see the justification on the costs for it,” said Angie Luis, who spoke at Council.
“I would like to see Council revisit this decision based on the interested parties here. I could not find any reason or methodology why a flat rate was chosen in the research.”
According to Councillor Fred Nix, the decision was not made easily.
“We had an incredibly lengthy discussion regarding the options when our consultant appeared before us with the report,” explained Councillor Nix. “It may not be the ideal way to set the rates, but when we looked at some of the more complicated systems and the administrative costs, it was a tipping point from the need to hire more staff, and facing higher costs. I’m not in a position to defend, except to say that at this time it seemed reasonable.”
However, Ms. Luis did not feel that the answer provided was a justifiable reason, adding that on the flat-rate system, the cost of water waste to homeowners is excessive, and pointing out how most municipalities have moved to metered systems.
“Cost discrepancies, when comparing flat rate to metered rate are substantial, even with a ‘high’ level of occupancy in a home,” said Ms. Luis. “With the flat rate, there is no accounting for the number of occupants per household and their water conservation practices, or lack thereof, which seems extremely unfair.”
The decision made was a temporary one, explained Mono CAO Keith McNenly, in order to allow the town to properly assess whether a flat or metered rate will be the best, most efficient option for the subdivision.
Mr. McNenly told the Citizen that the new subdivision is the first in Mono that will have a communal sewage treatment system. Although the Watermark subdivision north of Monora Park has a communal treatment plant and disposal field, the maintenance costs are part of a condominium fee.
In all previous subdivisions, each home has its own septic system.
Mr. McNenly said that the initial fee for treatment was based on the Town’s best guess as to long-term capital and maintenance costs, with electricity for the treatment plant being a major portion of the overall maintenance cost.
“At this point in time, we cannot compare this subdivision to another municipality’s system,” he said. “They’ve been operating for years and decades, they know what the usage and operating costs are for their community.”
He added that during the initial ‘launch’ of the subdivision, setting it at a flat rate will allow the Town to review the costs, flows, and usage, and reassess the rate structure at the end of the period to ensure that revenue from the charges covers all costs.
“Whether you use half as much or twice as much as the flat rate covers, the metered numbers are still going to come in,” said Mr. McNenly. “We will be able to know the operating costs, know the future costs, and know the potential revenue, so at that point we will be able to do a proper study rather than doing one right now based completely on guesswork.”
The residents who were at the meeting however, found themselves facing a potential trial period for much longer than they would care to be paying that rate.
The reassessment would occur within a few years, once the subdivision reaches approximately 90 percent occupancy, allowing the Town to better gage the usage of the community at that point. However, according to the numbers set out by Brookfield Homes, as well as the standard amount of time to fill a new subdivision, that might not occur until 2017.
“Realistically though, that is anywhere from three to five years out, paying for this fee over that time, and I personally struggle with this,” said Ms. Luis. “I understand it’s a necessity, but none of us had an opportunity to vote in this last election or share our opinions on this. I have heard nothing here that, to me, makes any of this justifiable.”
With the proposed flat rate, residents of the new subdivision would be paying $95 a month, or $1,140 a year. Of that rate, $25 is contributed to the capital expenditure budget, meaning that out of the flat rate, less than 75 percent of the cost is for the actual water waste.
The issue with the flat rate, said Ms. Luis, is that it doesn’t account for the number of people in the household. Under the current flat rate, each household is billed as one user. She argued that even at a high level of occupancy and water consumption, the costs at a metered rate would still work out to close to $300 less a year than the flat rate.
Another future resident also voiced his concerns, adding that his family had moved from Brampton to Orangeville to help accommodate the costs, but not being told about the flat-rate prior to their purchase made it impossible to budget the appropriate costs of the water – almost $300 more per year than they were paying in the city.
The biggest complaint was less that the Town had moved on the flat-rate system, and more that future residents had not been notified of the discussions, nor provided the opportunity to comment during the process.
Council stood by their decision, which at this point, could not be reversed, as Tuesday’s meeting was the last one for the current term of council.
“We chose that we should not get onto something too complicated when we don’t know what it is,” said Mr. McNenly. “When you do something like that, when you make a complicated billing system based on no operating system that is currently in existence, you get into a difficult position several years later when you go to the users and tell them you’ve done it wrong. The flat rate was really the only choice we could make as part of the interim.”
Ms. Luis and the Brookfield residents completed their delegation with a request to bring the item back to council for discussion in the New Year. Their request was recorded in the meeting notes, and Ms. Luis sought direction on how to present a proper petition that would receive consideration by council.
Mayor Laura Ryan assured her that any petition brought before council would be considered.
Any future residents of the Brookfield Homes subdivision will be offered the opportunity to sign the petition and add their voice to the concerns about the flat rate fee for water waste as set out by the Town of Mono.