Belleville Residents Blast Water Rate Hike At Council Meeting

BELLEVILLE, NJ — There are some muddy waters developing around a water rate hike in Belleville, and it's leaving some local homeowners steamed about their latest bill.

Dozens of residents turned out for last week’s town council meeting at Belleville High School, which featured a discussion about the rate increase. Carrying protest signs, several fed-up homeowners said they saw their October water bills jump by two or three times since July.

Watch a video of the Oct. 27 meeting here.

Towanda Underdue-Thomas, a Belleville homeowner, said that when her family first moved into their home 20 years ago, the water bill ran about $40 every three months. Then it jumped into the "$100-somethings." And this year, it’s been $200 or more.

But when she got her latest bill on Oct. 14, she gasped: it ran a whopping $573.

"I was shocked," Underdue-Thomas told Patch.

What’s the reason for the hike? According to Belleville Mayor Michael Melham, the answer to that question starts simple but gets complicated.

Melham released a statement about the rate hike earlier this month:

“Recently the township council voted to increase water fees. Why? Because as you may or may not know, Belleville has a contract to purchase water from the City of Newark. That contract, which has been expired since 2015 gradually ticks up the rate the City of Newark charges Belleville. The problem was, Belleville, had not changed our water fees since 2012, which left our Water Utility running a deficit year after year. Clearly a private business buying a product for X and reselling would never be sustainable if and when the cost to purchase the product far surpasses the fee you resell it for. Well, this is exactly what has happened over the past six years. Furthermore, while the township has run a loss, for six years, meaning we pay the City of Newark more than what we collect in water bills, we have also been out of contract for many years. This means, that we currently owe and have already begun to pay back the City of Newark $1.6 million in back water payments. In 2.5 years, we have accomplished a lot. However, we are still tackling several issues from the past. Thankfully, I am confident in the team we have in place. I believe collectively my council colleagues and I are righting the ship and providing a good, solid foundation for Belleville to move forward.”

But a few days later, Melham released an update on the situation that had some good news – and bad news – for local residents. The mayor wrote:

“By now, many Belleville water customers have received their most recent water bill. Whether you are a residential or commercial customer, that bill reflects a recent increase to our water rates. Several council meetings ago, after consideration and at the urging of our financial professionals, the mayor/council voted unanimously to increase water rates. As the first round of commercial water bills were issued, I wrote a letter of explanation … That letter explains and justifies exactly why we were forced to make this difficult decision.”

Melham continued:

“By way of background ... Most know at this point that Belleville has a contract to purchase our water from the City of Newark. While Newark’s sale rate to Belleville often ticks up gradually, for some reason Belleville had not raised rates since 2012. In my opinion, this inaction was a major disservice to the public. This lack of oversight and management left Belleville’s Water Utility running a deficit for years. Next, we have been out of contract with the City of Newark since 2016. I have no idea why the prior administration let it lapse, but the end result is a huge outstanding balance. Why? Basically, the township has been paying the 2016 rate for the past four years. While my administration has been working on the renewal, in order to bring the contract current, we must pay the City of Newark $1.6 million, representing the four-year difference from the 2016 rate to the 2020 rate.”

Head spinning? It gets trickier, Melham said:

“Back to the here and now. I stand 100 percent behind the facts and figures contained in my rate increase letter, however, after several meetings in Town Hall last week, I now question the data our professionals used to calculate the new increase and the estimated projected revenue it would generate. I do not believe our financial team had all the data needed, or for that matter, the correct data needed to make the recommendation on the amount of rate increase for council consideration. In addition, we increased commercial rates by 300 percent, but at no point, did we even know how many commercial properties we have. Therefore, how can we in good conscious anticipate the revenue?”

Melham continued:

“Again, while I understand why we need to raise the rates, I have lost faith that the analysis performed to strike the new, higher rates, was performed correctly. In my opinion, the new rates, correctly separate residential and commercial. After all, must utilities, including PSE&G charge different rates for residential and commercial customers. The problem as I see it is that our new rates were merely backed into in an attempt to meet both our outstanding $1.6 million obligation to Newark and to, at a minimum, cover the cost of the current rate the City of Newark charges the township.”

Here’s the good news, Melham said:

“I believe the township’s financial professionals drastically underestimated the number of commercial properties within the township. And since commercial properties pay more for water, as they often use our water to generate a profit unlike residential users, if you have 6, 8 or 10x’s more commercial users than originally expected, you will generate that multiple in extra, additional projected revenue. This means, the new rate recently struck by the council, can and should now be reconsidered and reduced. To that end, I plan on putting for a resolution on the next council meeting directing the manager to revisit how the increases were calculated to determine if they needed to be raised as high as they were raised. I for one, have seen enough data to concluded they can be lowered. As water bills come out, I plan on paying mine, with the hopes of eventually seeing a credit on a future bill.”

The water bill hike has left many Belleville homeowners seething in the meanwhile, however.

“Residents are rightfully angry about this debacle and the Melham administration’s response to it,” the Belleville Watch website wrote in its recap of last week’s meeting.

Other residents blasted the rate hike online:

• “A 15%-20% rate increase may be justified, but NOT 200-300% increases.”
• “My bill from July to October more than doubled, from July to now! So I'll have to dig into why MY bill, in particular, is so high. And if our mayor's form letter is true, why are WE responsible now for six years of Belleville's ‘inept’ leadership? And why is everything so quickly, and enormously, dumped on us?”
• “Time to get outta this town. Do you really expect seniors to be able to eat, live?”

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