By Linda Taaffe

An anticipated $4.4 million overhaul of the city’s sewer system means Los Altos sewer rates will increase for the second consecutive year.

The increase, which the Los Altos City Council approved last month, will add $2 a month to existing single-family residential rates. The increase means households will pay $19 a month, or $24 more a year, for sewer service. The new rate comes on the heels of a $4-a-month increase approved last year following nine years of no rate adjustments.

City officials had warned residents that last year’s increase would not be the end of the fee hikes. Public Works Director Jim Porter had predicted it would be necessary to raise rates further, based upon findings in the city’s Master Plan as well as steadily increasing labor and treatment costs.

The city’s strategy was to avoid making one large increase last year and instead approach the imbalance of sewer revenues and expenditures in a more incremental manner, he said in a staff report.

The new fees place the city’s sewer rates just below Palo Alto’s $19.25 fees and below the county average, $21.65. Los Altos Hills residents pay $47.53 a month. Mountain View charges residents $15.55 a month.

“It’s been our strategy to keep the rates low. As a result, citizens became unglued when we increased fees for the first time in years,” City Manager Phil Rose said. “We don’t want to get too far behind.”

The additional revenue will add about $400,000 to the city’s Sewer Fund Reserve.

Last year’s increase covered an anticipated $850,000 deficit between revenues and expenditures.