Kingfisher city commissioners declined to take action Monday night on an ordinance adjusting city utility rates, citing concerns for residents still reeling from economic impacts of the pandemic.

The rate adjustments proposed by city staff included increases in monthly service fees for water and electric customers, elimination of summer and winter electric rate differentials and slight increases in per unit usage costs.

“I’m just concerned about timing on this more than anything,” Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg said. “I completely understand the need and the projects that need to be done.

“It’s just really hard for me in my mind to look at increasing costs right now and in three months getting ready to ask for a sales tax increase.”

Mecklenburg was referring to an as yet unscheduled election asking voters to approve a 10-year designated sales tax for capital improvements, starting with construction of a new fire station.

A proposal for a permanent tax failed by about a dozen votes in the November general election.

Commissioners reached a consensus last month to resubmit the question to voters in May, restricting the tax to 10 years in hopes that it will be more palatable to voters than a permanent tax.

An ordinance calling for the new sales tax election was on the agenda Monday night for review only, with a formal vote not expected until the February meeting.

“I have a real problem with (changing utility rates) right now,” Commissioner Bill Tucker said. “We’re in a pandemic. People are having problems making ends meet.

“I know we need the revenue, but can we wait until after the (sales tax) election?”

As presented, the utility rate adjustment ordinance also included increases in rates for commercial and residential garbage service, but City Manager Dave Slezickey told commissioners Monday night that he wanted to leave sanitation rates alone for now.

Those proposed increases were intended in part to help absorb the cost of extra curbside pickups and maintenance of the convenience center for customers who utilize it.

“I think we’d like to pull residential sanitation out of this ordinance and look at options to pay by use at the convenience center,” Slezickey said.

The city pays its sanitation contractor, Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority out of El Reno, for maintaining and hauling off roll-off containers at the convenience center.

Slezickey said the charge is based on the number of times a roll-off is picked up to be emptied.

“We didn’t have data for the number of roll-off pickups we would need when we first started,” he said. “They (OEMA) estimated 60-75 and we’ve had 130.”

Now that the system has been in operation for awhile, the city can come closer to estimating the actual cost and setting a rate on per-load usage at the convenience center, Slezickey said.

The recommended utility rate changes would result in an estimated 3.62 % increase per customer, a number which would be slightly less if the sanitation rate changes are not implemented.

Mecklenburg said that number was “not as bad as I thought it was going to be,” but he still expressed reluctance to impose the change on customers right now.

“We’ve had five years of the best growth the city has ever seen and I wish we had considered it back then,” he said. “There’s people struggling out there. It’s not easy for me to vote for this.”

Slezickey said the proposed rate adjustments were based on a comprehensive review by an independent engineering firm in a process started more than a year ago.

“We started this in October of 2019. COVID and everything slowed us down,” he said. “We had the data in late February, early March and said then that we’re just not going to look at this right now.

“It’s tough on everyone and I definitely empathize with where you’re at.”

Slezickey said periodic utility rate adjustments are necessary to not only keep pace with inflation but also to pay for the cost of infrastructure maintenance and improvements.

For example, Slezickey pointed to “significant improvements” in energy service, upcoming rehabilitation of the wastewater treatment plant and future water tower maintenance and a new communication system between the city’s

“We have no shortage of projects on our KPWA (Kingfisher Public Works Authority) capital improvement list that we can fund through this rate adjustment,” he said.

The purpose of the city’s rate study was to make sure the rates reflect the actual cost of operating and maintaining the city’s utility he said.

“For awhile, cities just implemented automatic increases based on increases in CPI (consumer price index),” he said. “But that doesn’t really reflect the true cost of operations.

“That’s why we look at doing increases in increments. You wait too long you have a hike. I refer to this as a rate adjustment.

“There’s a little increase, but it’s not a rate hike.”

Slezickey also noted that the sales tax and utility rate changes are “two different things.”

A sales tax funds city operations and is paid for by everyone who makes purchases in city limits, not residents.

Utility rates are paid by utility customers to cover the cost of those services.

“I recognize it’s not the same, but from a psychological standpoint, we’re asking them to pay twice,” Mecklenburg said.

When asked about the economic impact on the city to delay the utility rate said:

“We will find a way to survive.”

“It depends on what else happens in that time frame and what else is going on,” he said. “Deferring this indefinitely is not the best move for our future.”

“We’re trying to think like citizens and trying to think like city councilmen at the same time,” Commissioner Wendell Prim said.

“That’s the quandry, Mecklenburg said. “I know we need this revenue but what I really don’t want to do is create a situation where people are upset about this increase and then three months later their reaction is not to pass the sales tax.”

City Attorney Jared Harrison noted that the ordinance needed to be revised anyway before approval, since the sanitation increases will be taken out

A revised ordinance is expected for review at the February meeting.

If commissioners wait to approve it until June, after the anticipated sales tax election in May, the rate adjustments won’t go into effect until after the start of the new fiscal year in July.