The picturesque town of Sausalito on San Francisco Bay has a diverse community of long-time residents, newcomers, and a wide range of local and tourist-serving businesses. The City has also had sewer and storm drain challenges for a number of years.
The most pressing problems involved evaluating a more defensible and equitable rate structure to fund current operations and capital needs to address deferred maintenance.
Our project team’s cost-of-service rate study for the City’s sewer and storm drainage utilities accomplished four primary things: (1) Conversion of sewer rates from equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) to a similar rate structure that relies on average winter consumption to determine EDUs, (2) Financial planning that provided solid long-range funding for capital improvement plans and CIP projects, (3) Equity and fairness of rates, particular as they relate to Proposition 218 and (4) Storm drainage fees that address longer-term capital funding requirements.
City staff appreciated the approach and proactive solutions made during the study, which resulted in unanimous approval by the City Council. The Marin Grand Jury reviewed the study report, and recommended that all other sewer agencies in the County consider the approaches taken by the NBS Team.*
* This testimonial is not related to any municipal advisory services performed by NBS.
For more information, please contact: Greg Clumpner, Financial Consulting Group – Utilities Director, gclumpner@nbsgov.com.