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The same night the Menlo Park City Council voted to raise rates for solid waste services, council members approved a new six-month pilot program to provide relief to low-income families struggling to pay rising utility rates.
On Dec. 8, the council voted 4-1, with councilwoman Betsy Nash opposed, to create a pilot program to offer a 20% discount to solid waste customers and a $14 per month discount to water customers who are low-income and participate in PG&E’s CARE program, which provides discounted gas and electricity.
PG&E’s program sets income thresholds based on household size. To be eligible, a one or two-person household can earn no more than $34,480 and a four-person household can earn no more than $52,400. These amounts are lower thresholds than even the “extremely low income” standards set in San Mateo County, which represents the 30th percentile of area median income at $36,540 to $41,760 for a one- or two-person household or $52,200 for a four-person household. (The current area median income is $143,100 for a household of four.)
City staff estimated that around 975 households throughout the city would participate in the solid waste rate discounts and fewer would participate in the reduced water rate program. In all, the program is set to cost about $164,000 for six months, including about $32,000 in administrative costs.
Offering utility discounts to low-income households isn’t unique, explained Joanna Chen, sustainability specialist with Menlo Park. Communities and agencies like San Carlos, Emeryville and Recology San Francisco offer discounts that range from 10% to 25%, and the City of Santa Clara offers a fixed $3 per month discount for solid waste customers.
Customers who use the 20-gallon trash bins will see their monthly rates lowered from $28.31 to $22.65 and those who use the 32-gallon bins will see rates lowered from $36.54 to $29.23. Adding in 20% discounts for anticipated 64- and 96-gallon bin users, the waste subsidy was set to cost the city about $49,000 over six months.
The council also approved a fixed water rate subsidy of about $14 per month for qualifying households, halving the typical monthly service charge of $28. This program, however, only applies to households who receive their water from the Menlo Park Municipal Water system – not Cal Water, which serves a large portion of the city’s water customers in central Menlo Park, or other water systems serving Menlo Park residents, such as the O’Connor Water District and Palo Alto Park Mutual Water Company. Cal Water has its own low-income rate assistance program, which customers subsidize, explained Rebecca Lucky, sustainability manager.
Councilwoman Betsy Nash raised objections with the proposal, noting that the water subsidy would only benefit municipal water customers, expressing concerns about the administrative costs and saying she wanted to provide more direct financial support to residents. She added that the city may want to continue to fund the program after six months and expressed reservations about longer-term budget impacts. Nash also favored asking Samaritan House, the San Mateo-based nonprofit that is administering the city’s rent relief fund for Menlo Park residents, if they could also administer this program, but Chen said the nonprofit didn’t currently have the capacity to do so.
“I share your concern with all of these little programs that come with their own costs,” Vice Mayor Drew Combs said, adding that the actual dollar amount of relief that the program will provide to households is limited.
“I’m supportive of helping residents in Menlo Park, now more than ever,” said Mayor Cecilia Taylor. “With providing services for people who are in need, there’s always administrative costs that go along with it.”
Councilman Ray Mueller said he favored keeping the program separate from Samaritan House’s renter assistance program because homeowner households on fixed incomes may need the support too, he said.
“I am concerned about getting discounts out to people in a timely way,” said councilwoman Catherine Carlton. “I think the economy is not going to get better any time soon.”
Waste pickup rates to rise substantially
The council also held a public hearing and adopted proposed rate increases for trash, recycling and organic waste pickups. The rates will hit customers with 20-gallon and 32-gallon trash bins hardest. Between now and 2025, the monthly rate for customers with those sizes of trash bins will see a $5.50 per month increase in costs each year. Households with 20-gallon trash bins will see monthly costs rise from current rates of $22.81 to $50.31 in 2025, and for customers with 32-gallon trash bins, the rate will rise from the current $31.14 to $58.64 in 2025.
These increases have been somewhat mitigated with $1.5 million in funding from the city to help smooth the cost increases. The council also committed $500,000 to help smooth the rate increases in 2021 and $1 million to smooth the rate increases in the years following.
The new 2021 rates are well within the range of what residents in other Peninsula communities pay, according to staff. For instance, residents in unincorporated county areas currently pay $35 for 20-gallon pickups and $42 for 32-gallon pickups.
Can we get a smaller than 20 gallon trash bin at a lower cost if we don’t produce that much trash? If not, why not?