Redwood City offers utility assistance

“In designing our pandemic utility relief program, we wanted to fill the gap between various state programs, recognizing many of our customers may not qualify or be prepared to apply with ease,” City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz said in a press release announcing the rollout.

The program will cover five initiatives. The largest sum of money, $1 million, will be used to cover water, solid waste and sewage utility charges for customers whose bills were delinquent by 90 days as of June 15.

The funds will be automatically applied to accounts instead of requiring residents to apply to reduce barriers for relief, staff said. Most of the funds, about 88%, will go toward residential customers while the remaining dollars will cover unpaid bills from commercial customers.

Another $200,000 will benefit those who have kept up with their bills through the pandemic. A one-time utility bill credit of no more than $1,000 — about the average rate of two billing cycles — will be applied to accounts of customers enrolled in the city’s Water and Sewer Rate Assistance Program.

The program was started before the pandemic as a way to provide relief to residents who earn at or below 50% of the county’s median income level, about $93,000 for a family of four. As of today, about 191 customers are enrolled.

Of the remaining funds, $100,000 will reseed the WSRAP program, which typically applies $80 credits to accounts using funds collected from late payment penalties waived during the pandemic. As of this month, the city began applying those penalties again.

“It is very innovative and I’m very proud of that work,” Mayor Giselle Hale said during a June 13 meeting. “I know how stressful this is for families and I’m just so grateful that we have come up with such thoughtful and creative solutions and I really do hope it brings relief to a number of our residents.”

Councilmembers approved the program a month ago and have seeded it with two $750,000 allotments set aside for COVID-19 support at the end of the last two budget cycles. During the same meeting, the council also voted to transition the way the city bills water charges from a bimonthly process in which customers pay the city directly to a biannual process that places water charges on property tax roll.

The five-year pilot program will be implemented in phases starting with single-family residences on single lots.

Public Works Director Terence Kyaw said the department is starting with the group because they’re the simplest to process, allowing staff time to adjust any issues before beginning processing of more complicated customer bills for multifamily buildings and commercial and industrial spaces.

Some residents have shared concerns about the move, arguing that single-family homeowners are being picked on and that twice-annual county billing will be burdensome given that they will be charged two large lump sums a year rather than six more easily budgeted smaller fees.

Recognizing the concerns, staff and the council agreed to allocate $100,000 of the $1.5 million toward funding a new sewer assistance program during the transition. Another $100,000 was set aside in the Solid Waste Rate Stabilization Fund to offset any potential future increases and unspent funds from the other four initiatives would also roll into this fund.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to prevent those increases and I believe supporting these recommendations is one of the ways to do it,” Vice Mayor Diana Reddy said, who noted the city’s rates fall somewhere in the middle compared to neighboring jurisdictions despite having “100-year-old infrastructure.”

Kyaw said the switch is meant to help the city’s 28,000 customers in the long run. Staff time would be reduced by putting much of the work on the county, though, city staff will still field considers and questions, and payments would likely become more regular, limiting pressures the city would have to increase utility rates to cover much needed infrastructure improvements.

Redwood City was also one of a small handful of Peninsula cities not billing sewer service charges through the tax roll. Part of the city’s Friendly Acres neighborhood is already billed through the county along with 15 other cities, Kyaw said.

“This is another way we are reimagining how to provide city services, seeking to improve cost effectiveness. This transition creates a reliable revenue stream, which benefits ratepayers, and increases efficiencies in staff workload,” Stevenson Diaz said in the press release. “This transition does not change the service level or delivery of sewer services provided by Redwood City. Residents may continue to call us for service requests or with questions.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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