Fire Line Fee Corrections
The Council adopted corrections to the City’s Consolidated Fee Schedule (CFS). During the Fiscal Year 2025-26 (FY26) budget process, the Council approved several updates to the CFS. After the Council’s adoption, the Department of Public Utilities noticed corrections that needed to be made.
The corrections include adding the title “Fire Lines” and the description “Per Inch” to one of Public Utilities’ rate tables in the CFS.
Impacted Customers
The fee is only charged to customers with fire service lines, totaling 3,453 customer accounts. If your account is affected, the charge will be listed on your monthly utility bill. Public Utilities estimates the total fee represents about 1% or less of an applicable customer’s bill.
What is a Fire Service Line?
A fire service line is a dedicated water line that supplies water to private fire sprinklers or privately-owned fire hydrants, separate from regular water service. Fire service lines are common in multi-family residential properties or townhomes with shared infrastructure.
Fire Lines Fee & FY26 Changes
As part of the Public Utilities’ FY26 budget, the fire lines fee increased to match the actual cost of service based on an analysis conducted during its 2024 Comprehensive Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Rate Study. Since the Council adopted the rates as part of the FY26 budget, the department has been charging the increased fee since July 1, 2025.
According to Public Utilities, fire line fees have not increased since it began charging them in 1961. However, the fee hasn’t been included in the published CFS until FY26. While this doesn’t affect the City’s authority to charge the fee, it does impact the transparency of the fees charged on accounts.
If the update is not approved, Public Utilities would have to revert to the former fire line rates. This would result in a loss of about $1.7 million in annual revenue for the department.
Council Request
During the Dec. 2 briefing, the Council requested that Public Utilities credit customers for the “per inch” multiplier portion of the fire line fee paid since July 1, 2025, until the Council adopts the corrected CFS language. The monthly base fee will remain, so customers will be credited for any amount paid above the base. The amount credited will be applied to future utility bills.
Council Discussions
To catch up on the Council’s discussions, watch the meeting videos below or read the Council staff report.
- Jan. 20, 2026: Watch the meeting video.
- Jan. 13, 2026: Watch the meeting video.
- Oct. 14, 2025: Watch the meeting video.
- Nov. 25, 2025: Watch the meeting video.
- Dec. 2, 2025: Watch the meeting video.