PANAMA CITY — Residents of Cherokee Heights and Cedar Grove neighborhoods lashed out at Bay County commissioners Tuesday about their skyrocketing utility bills.
Some said their rates have more than doubled compared to last year and that people are considering selling their homes and moving.
Commissioners responded that new development has not occurred as expected in those areas due to the recession, leading to a lower-than-expected number of customers hooking into the North Bay sewer treatment plant. The county is paying off $25 million in debt on that plant.
Commissioners agreed to hold a future workshop with the residents once they can schedule a time for a utility consultant to attend and discuss possible solutions to lower the rates.
“Why do we have a 50 percent increase in our water bill and no extra services?” asked Billy Mixon, who moved to the Cherokee Heights neighborhood in 2012 from Panama City. He said when he lived in Panama City his utility bill was about $70 a month and included trash pickup. He said his most recent utility bill in Cherokee Heights without trash pickup was $160.
Jerry Fidler, a resident of the former town of Cedar Grove, said his water bill has increased 65 percent from the bill in December 2013 compared to 2014. He said city residents pay much lower utility bills than residents in the unincorporated area.
“I don’t think it’s fair for the unincorporated citizens to have one rate and the rest of the county to have another rate,” he said.
Wendi Ringenberg questioned whether commissioners knew rates were going to double when they made decisions that led to the increases.
“We pay you a salary to make good decisions on our behalf,” she said. “Should people really have to take off work to come and tell you that it’s not a good idea to make their water bill more expensive than their electricity bill?”
Commissioner Mike Thomas said construction slowed during the recession and the number of people hooking into the system didn’t match projections.
“We had a debt service up there with that by law,” he said, noting that county staff had brought back proposed rates that would have to be charged to pay the debt. “We knew that these rates were going to be drastic if construction didn’t pick up and start, and that happened. Hopefully, with construction starting back up like it has for the last year, those rates will level out and lower.”
But Ringenberg pointed out the county is planning to increase the rates even more in the next few years. The county plans to increase its retail utility rates in the unincorporated area 2 percent a year for the next four years.
Thomas said another way to possibly get more people to hook into the sewer plant is to secure some BP oil spill compensation. The county recently was awarded a $1 million grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which will pay for lateral sewer lines that could eventually allow the 220 Southport residents into the system, but county officials have said that is not going to happen overnight.
Ringenberg said by state law the county has to charge rates that are fair and reasonable, and the current rates are nowhere near that.
Thomas responded that he understands why people are unhappy.
“I’m unhappy with it, but our hands are tied,” he said.
County Commissioner George Gainer said he would like the county to explore whether its debt on the utility system could be spread throughout the system and not just on the 5,800 people the county serves with retail service.
But County Attorney Terrell Arline said the debt on the sewer plant is for the Bay County retail system, which is separate from the county’s system for wholesale customers, such as cities that buy water from the county.
“So you can’t really blend funds from, say, Springfield, to pay for Bay County retail by law,” Arline said. “It has to support itself.”
County Commission Chairman Guy Tunnell said the answer to lowering rates is to increase the number of customers hooking into the retail utility system, but Ringenberg said that is not providing the much-needed relief the residents need now.
County Clerk Bill Kinsaul said the funds for the retail and wholesale water service are separate and legally need to stay that way. “The funds from one cannot be used for the other,” he said.
In other action Tuesday, the commission:
- Agreed to offer the job of county manager to Cocoa Beach City Manager Bob Majka. He will start March 16 at an annual salary of $145,000. Majka, who moved to Bay County as a teenager in 1986 when his father was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base, began working in local government as a firefighter in 1988. In 1993, he joined Bay County as the hazardous materials program manager, advanced to become the emergency management division manager and then chief of emergency services in 1998. In 2006, Majka was promoted to assistant county manager.
- Approved a major land-use plan amendment and zoning change that will allow a new community on property wedged between Tyndall Air Force Base and the city of Mexico Beach. Sugar Sands Partners is requesting the zoning change on more than 165 acres, from agriculture and agriculture timberland to mixed-land use zone district. The amendment allows a maximum number of 195 residential units in the conservation/habitation area and 50,000 square feet of non-residential uses in the mixed-use area. The maximum allowable building height would be 48 feet, and all structures would be required to comply with enhanced noise and vibration reduction standards. That the development is in the flight path of Tyndall Air Force Base also must be included in real estate disclosure notices.