March 15--The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave final approval to rate increases proposed by the Department of Water and Power.
Officials signed off on the hikes about two weeks after they first considered the utility's proposals to increase to water and power base rates for the first time in years.
Water rates will increase 4.7% each year for five years, while power rates will go up 3.86% in the same fashion.
The DWP estimates that customers who use "typical" amounts of water and electricity will see a more modest 3% average annual increase on their monthly bills. At the end of five years, those customers would pay about $21 more per month than they do now, the utility says.
Utility officials now hope to implement the increase by April 15, DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said. They had previously aimed for April 1.
"This rate case ... gets the department what it needs until we make a decision about what it is that we want," said Councilman Felipe Fuentes at a council meeting earlier in March. "We have to make sure that the department has the ability to function."
DWP officials have been campaigning for the $330-million water rate hike and a $720-million power rate increase for the last several months, even as they have been in discussions about governance reform after a series of scandals. They say the revenue is necessary to repair aging infrastructure and meet energy-related mandates.
There have not been any increases to base rates since a power hike in 2012, DWP said. There have been no base rate increases to water since 2009.
At previous meetings when the rates have been up for discussion, department General Manager Marcie Edwards has said that some people urged her to push for bigger hikes.
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But she and other officials have characterized the current rate increases as "modest," saying that DWP's plan takes into account how much work the utility can realistically accomplish and how much money it can spend.
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