City slowly moving forward on water rates

There appears to be an opening in the impasse on water rates and the water system capital improvement budget that has been dogging the Sisters City Council and city staff in some form since the summer of 2010.

The council appears to be on their way to adopting a small (less than 10 percent) water rate increase, and using existing monies from another city fund to cover adjustments to the city's water fund to make it more robust and viable in the long term.

Further, the council will consider forming a "blue ribbon" committee to facilitate an agreement on the facts relating to the capital improvements needed to keep the city's water system viable. A strong disagreement on what is fact remains between the councilors themselves, between the city staff and council, and between the city and local activists.

Incoming budget committee member Cris Converse noted at a workshop last week, "It sounds like one of the challenges that you all are faced with is that you are operating off different facts; there are different assumptions, and it's really hard to make a decision when you don't agree on the facts."

City Manager Eileen Stein said, "What I heard from peer city managers at a conference I was at is that sometimes when there is disagreement over what the facts are, cities convene a blue ribbon panel... and they sift through every single assumption and determine the facts."

During the Thursday, April 14 water rate workshop the council and staff recognized a 2010 change in a state mandated city financing regulation that allows monies to be moved from one city fund to another city fund, including revenue fund such as the water enterprise fund. As late as Monday's budget committee training session, this change in regulation had not been recognized.

Up until this point, it was believed that monies could not be moved between funds unless the transaction was treated as a loan and the principal paid back with interest.

The revelation of this ability to move monies to cover the water fund's immediate needs muted - for now - the contentious debate about the needs driving the city's proposed capital improvement plan (CIP).

The council will discuss the water rates and CIP budget resolution at their April 21,

8 a.m. workshop.