H2 OH OH: San Benito to review water ordinance

SAN BENITO — State laws that could prevent the city from charging higher water fees for RV park residents have their roots in a similar dispute about 10 years ago in Baytown.

Keith Magill owns the 68-site CASA RV Park in Baytown.

On Wednesday he recalled the battle he waged against Baytown, which led to a state law that bars cities from assessing water charges for individual lots in RV parks.

“Luckily, all the RV parks in the area can reap the benefits,” Magill said.

He said it sounds to him that San Benito’s water fee ordinance is violating Senate Bill 569 and House Bill 841, the laws passed after he won his battle against Baytown.

The laws prohibit cities from charging water fees for unmetered RV park sites, whether they’re occupied or not, Magill said.

“Common sense says that’s just not right,” Magill said. “I’m hard-headed when I’m right.”

In 2002, Baytown began charging RV parks a monthly $15 water and sewer fee for every site in the city’s four RV parks, according to an article in the Baytown Sun.

“I said, ‘No, that’s not right,’” Magill said. “I’m not paying for empty spaces.”

Magill said he argued the city wasn’t charging water fees for vacant hotel rooms, so it couldn’t charge him for empty park sites.

Then he took his argument before the Baytown City Council, he said.

“I did my homework,” he said. “I called every city councilman and I knew how they stood.”

In July 2002, the council voted unanimously to stop charging individual sites for water service, the newspaper article states.

“It literally saved me thousands of dollars,” Magill said.

Brian Schaeffer, executive director of the Texas Association of Campground Owners, said the Baytown case led his organization to push for legislation to stop other cities from charging water fees to individual RV park sites.

“There’s a basic fairness issue where we felt members shouldn’t pay for services they weren’t receiving,” Schaeffer said.

As a result of the campground owners efforts, state Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, and state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, in 2005 authored Senate Bill 569 and House Bill 841, respectively.

House Bill 841 states, “A municipality-owned utility that provides nonsubmetered master metered utility service to a recreational vehicle park shall determine the rates for that service on the same basis the utility uses to determine the rates for other commercial businesses, including hotels and motels, that serve transient customers and receive nonsubmetered master metered utility service from the utility.”

State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, authored revised legislation in the 2011 legislative session, known as House Bill 1210, which prohibits water suppliers such as water supply corporations from charging fees to individual unmetered RV park sites, said Schaeffer, whose agency sponsored the bills.

In the past, San Benito charged RV parks based on water usage measured on their master water meters.

In other words, each park has one meter and is billed based on the park’s water usage measured by that meter. As such, the park pays only for the amount of water that is actually used.

San Benito officials in October passed an ordinance that charges a monthly $10 base water fee for individual RV park sites and apartment units, whether occupied or not.

Local RV park owners and residents have protested the change in San Benito’s water fees.

One park has refused to pay the fee; others have said they will hire an attorney to challenge the new water fees, basing their opposition on the state laws. Some RV park residents said they would relocate to parks in other Rio Grande Valley cities.

Schaeffer said he believes San Benito’s ordinance violates the state law, which prohibits cities from charging water fees for any RV park lots — occupied or unoccupied.

Now city commissioners have agreed to review the ordinance.

Pete Claudio, chairman of the city’s utility board, said the board will review the ordinance.

When officials in October decided to change the city’s water fee structure, imposing the monthly $10 base water fee, it was intended to relieve the burden of higher water rates from single-family homes that pay average monthly base water and sewer fees of $49.68.

That monthly water fee has increased since 2004 when the city increased the monthly base water and sewer rate from $42.22. Those increases were the result of efforts to pay a $28.4 million debt for water and sewer improvements that included a $17.7 million water plant, a $13 million sewer plant and a $1.6 million water tower.

The city’s new ordinance that applies to about 2,900 park sites and apartment units in the city has been estimated to generate about $348,000 a year that would offset the city’s lower sales tax receipts, Claudio has said.