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More than 30 people attended a protest hearing hosted by the San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission on Wednesday to voice their disapproval of a city of East Palo Alto decision to take over running the sewage district, saying the change will increase sewer rates and diminish the personal and prompt service they currently receive.
In November 2023, LAFCo voted unanimously to move management of the East Palo Alto Sanitary District, an independent sewer service established in 1939 under the purview of the city as a district, subjecting it to new rules and regulations.
The city says the proposal will have no effect on sewer services. Community members claim that if the city takes over, yearly sewer rates may double, rising from about $600 to over $1,300 per year.
“I’m a widow with two kids in college struggling to pay my mortgage on one income,” said former Menlo Park Mayor Kelly Fergusson. “If the sewer rates double, I’m that much closer to losing my house. And so many live closer to the edge than I.”
Wednesday’s meeting ended a monthlong protest period for local residents to voice their concerns.
Attendants wore bright blue T-shirts reading, “Residents for an independent sanitary district.”
“We’re just concerned residents that don’t want our rates to rise unfairly,” Fergusson said. “They want us to pay for the expansion of city pipes. That’s just not fair.”
If the city takes over the sewer district, existing customers will pay for repairs and replacement costs of their current systems, as well as expansion costs, according to East Palo Alto’s department of public works.
LAFCo says that the sewer district has deferred maintenance that needs updating, but it claims rates would not double immediately as residents suggest, but rather increase incrementally in the coming years.
“As part of the City’s application, the City’s engineering support consultant (Freyer & Laureta, Inc.) proposed in the report that the Annual Sewer Charge be set at $690 per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) for Fiscal Year 2022/23,” according to East Palo Alto’s department of public works.
After that, the city said rates would increase by 5% per year based on current economic conditions.
The commission also claims that the proposal would increase transparency and facilitate growth of the new sewage district, particularly with regard to land use rights. The city currently must get approval from the independent district for land use changes, including new construction, but that “barrier” would be removed after the reorganization, according to the city’s post on its website.
Residents say the city failed to properly notify them of the decision.
Local homeowners only banded together in recent weeks to discuss the proposal, Fergusson said, and many had not heard about the decision.
“The protest period opened in February, so it was open for 100 days,” said Rob Bartoli, LAFCo executive director. “We have worked diligently to send out newspaper notices, and have a whole webpage on our LAFCo site dedicated to this. There’s been articles in the paper.”
Within 30 days of the hearing, the commission will decide whether or not to approve the proposal.
The city would only terminate the proposal if at least 50% of landowners and voters submit written objections. If at least 25% of voters submit objections, the city would call an election on the matter. And if it receives less than a quarter of resident votes, the city takeover proposal would move ahead, according to Bartoli.
If the proposal were to head to an election, only East Palo Alto residents within the sanitary district’s boundaries would be able to vote, spurring concerns from protesting residents like Fergusson.
“The sewer district covers both Menlo Park and East Palo Alto,” Fergusson said. “If the City of East Palo Alto takes over the district, Menlo Park residents will not have a vote at all. We are completely cut out of the vote.”