Steep water hike averted for Cal Am customers in Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Camarillo

Ventura

Under a state Public Utilities Commission ruling, California American Water's Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo customers are getting far lower rate increases than what the company proposed.

About 22,000 California American Water customers in Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo are getting far lower rate increases than the company proposed in 2016, saving several million dollars a year combined.

Thousand Oaks officials said this week that instead of being hit with a 32.1% hike over three years that the company wanted to impose and the city actively opposed, customers only face a fraction of that.

That is according to the officials’ review of California American Water rate documents filed with the California Public Utilities Commission by March.

The review showed that customers got about a 2.2% hike for 2018, about a 1% raise for 2019 that will be imposed retroactively to Jan. 1 and a similar small increase for 2020, the officials said.

The Coronado-based company says its rate increase numbers are somewhat different than what the city is saying.

“We expect the typical residential customer to see a 2.7% bill increase beginning around May 13th,” company spokesman Brian Barreto said Tuesday. “The 2020 rate change will be calculated in November of this year. I would expect there to be a minimal impact.”

What if the large rate increase went into effect?

California American Water drastically lowered the 32.1% rate hike it proposed in 2016 after the commission in December adopted a proposed decision by two of its administrative law judges that denied that steep increase.

The commission also adopted the judges’ denial of the company’s proposed consolidation of its Southern Division – five districts in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Diego counties – which included consolidating its rates throughout the division.

That would have resulted in rate increases of more than 10% per year, Thousand Oaks Public Works Director Jay Spurgin wrote in a memo last week.

The commission, however, granted California American Water a modest revenue increase and ordered the company to submit a schedule of its new, lower rate hikes within 90 days.

The company has now done so in so-called “advice letters,” which Spurgin has reviewed.

The 2018 2.2% increase was approved by the commission in early 2018 on an interim basis, he said. The company had requested it because of how long the rate case was taking, he said.

“This is very good news for city Cal Am customers as these water rate increases are significantly lower than the original request and only slightly higher than recent increases by the city and California Water Service Company,” both of which serve other water customers in Thousand Oaks, Spurgin wrote in his memo to City Manager Andrew Powers.

Had the 32.1% rate hike gone through, California American Water’s approximately 18,000 residential customers in Thousand Oaks would have potentially paid an additional $4 million a year for water, Spurgin said Tuesday.

Barreto, meanwhile, said California American Water “is pleased to have concluded its proceeding after two and a half years. It provides us with the budget needed to continue to provide safe and reliable water service to our customers.”

Who does Cal Am Water serve?

California American Water serves about 46% of Thousand Oaks’ water customers, many living in Newbury Park. It also serves a limited number of users in Camarillo for a total of about 22,000 customers in its Ventura County District.

The customers include residences, commercial customers and others such as the city of Thousand Oaks, the Conejo Recreation and Park District and the Conejo Valley Unified School District, Spurgin said.

The Thousand Oaks water division serves about 38% of the city’s water customers, all of whom are in central Thousand Oaks. The California Water Service Co. serves the remaining approximately 16%; they are in the North Ranch/Westlake Village areas.

At a public hearing held by the commission in January 2017 in Newbury Park, Barreto said several factors were fueling the proposed 32.1% rate hike, including increased costs the company had incurred and California’s drought. The drought was declared over in the vast majority of the state in April 2017.

The city actively opposed the proposed 32.1% hike, becoming a party to the commission’s proceeding in the case and retaining a Sacramento law firm to assist it.

“That’s a level of involvement we’ve never had before,” Spurgin said.

“And I think that all the effort, time and expense that the city put forward was well worth it, considering that what was at stake was all these residents potentially paying over $4 million more per year,” he said. “It was worth the fight.”

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