Ready to fight back? Oppose Oxnard's sewer rate increase in just two easy steps.
The City of Oxnard is proposing to INCREASE your sewer rates by $279.24 per year – even though we voted down their latest rate increase this last November, when we adopted Measure M with 72% of the vote.
In your mailbox recently you should have received the City's Official Notice of Public Hearing for Proposed Wastewater Rate Increases. You can see what the notice looks like here.
That mail piece includes a protest form on the second page. It’s important that you sign that protest form and mail it in immediately.
The form asks for the "Assessor's Parcel Number (APN)". The form you received in the mail appears to have your parcel number pre-printed above your address on the mail piece...but the APN is a 10-digit number, and the city only printed 9 digits for you. Isn't that special? You can find your full 10-digit APN on your property tax notices (not on your utility bills), or use your street address to look it up here on the website of the Ventura County Treasurer-Tax Collector.
The form that arrived in your mailbox has your address pre-printed on it. If you need to use the blank form from the link above, just for good measure, print your utility service address on it as well, even though they did not give you a blank to include that. We don't want to give the city any excuses for not counting your protest.
It's also important that you attend the May 16 public hearing at City Hall (Oxnard City Hall Council Chambers, 305 West Third Street, Oxnard, CA 93030), where this important decision will be made by the Oxnard City Council.
Before the City’s most recent 35% sewer rate increase (March of 2016), the monthly sewer bill of a “typical” Oxnard household was $30.94. If the City Council approves these rate increases at its scheduled public hearing on May 16 that bill will increase to $54.20.
That means a typical household will pay an additional $279.24 per year just for sewer service. The city plans to also raise your water rates this fall.
Note how the City is doing everything it can to downplay the rate increase. They talk about an increase from the "current" monthly rate of $41.77 (ignoring the increase from $30.93 to $41.77 we rejected at the polls in November) and how it is "only" going up a couple of bucks per month each year.
Don't be fooled by the spin! They are doing all of this to hide from you that they are increasing typical monthly bills 75.23% from $30.93 to $54.20 per month ... an extra $279.24 per year.
And if your current bill is higher than typical, you should expect it to go up even more!
It's time to fight back, and you can help:
- Mail in your protest form right away!
- Attend the public hearing at City Hall on May 16 starting at 6:00 pm to demand that the City Council adopt more reasonable sewer rates!