Hillsborough County To Acquire Pebble Creek Water Service For $14M

By Matt Wiley

Pebble Creek residents should see some relief on their future utility bills, as Hillsborough County has approved a deal to purchase the community’s private water utility service, Pluris, which proposed enormous rate hikes in 2013.

After months of negotiations, a deal has been reached between the county and Pluris to convert Pebble Creek residents to county water customers. The deal was approved 7-0 at the November 13 Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting.

“The deal has been approved and we are moving forward in a positive direction,” says recently re-elected (see our election recap on page 4) Dist. 2 Comm. Victor Crist, who was re-elected on Nov. 4 to represent the New Tampa area on the BOCC. “Pebble Creek residents can look forward to seeing some relief. Help is on the way.”

Back in June, the BOCC moved to enter into “good faith” negotiations with the Dallas-based private water and waste water service to acquire the service in Pebble Creek, as well as the East Lake neighborhood (located near the Tampa Hard Rock Casino). 

During the Nov. 13 meeting, Hank Ennis from the county attorney’s office told the BOCC that the combined appraised value of the two services was $13.2 million and offers from both parties arrived at a negotiated price of $14.1 million. Originally, Pluris had countered with a selling price of more than $22 million.

Hillsborough County Public Utilities director George Cassady told commissioners that, depending upon how quickly the agreement is signed by both parties (which had not yet been completed at our press time), Pebble Creek residents could become Hillsborough County water utility customers by as early as January 2015. 

“We tried to make every effort to make this transaction happen quickly,” Cassady said, adding that his department also is looking into providing a credit to customers for the difference of what they could’ve been paying as Hillsborough customers for the past several months. If not for the legal process, he said, Pebble Creek residents could have become Hillsborough customers much sooner.

“If we had been able to effectuate this transaction sooner, they would have been our customers sooner, and that provides justification for providing some relief on their utility bill,” Cassady explains.

The rate-increase drama began back in January 2013, when the residents of Pebble Creek’s more than 1,500 homes were notified that they would be experiencing a significant water rate increase, the first of its kind since Pluris bought out Pebble Creek Utilities in 2009.

Pluris’ proposed hike would have raised the base charge per household for water per month from $16.54 to $19.80 and the cost per 1,000 gallons from $2.55 to $5.16 (up to the first 9,000 gallons, with an additional charge for every additional 1,000 gallons). The base charge for wastewater also would’ve climbed from $27.55 to $37.10 per residence.

However, that substantial increase had to first be approved by the county, which decided against that initial hike last year. But, since residents were first alerted of that drastic increase, Pluris has been charging an “interim rate” for water and wastewater service, which is cheaper than the proposed hike, but still raised the base charge per household per month to $18.98 and the cost per 1,000 gallons to $4.51. Wastewater was raised to $34.71.

Before the county would approve such a substantial rate jump, Pluris had to prove that it was justified and county staff had to have a chance to “crunch the numbers.” County staff felt the proposed increase was unjustified and the county countered with recommended rates of its own, which are a slight increase from the interim rates. The current rates still are substantially lower than Pluris’ initial proposed rate hike.

Now, residents could see some money coming back in their direction, after more than a year of the interim rates.

“We’re definitely glad to hear it,” says Pebble Creek Homeowners Association president Dan Logan. “We’re very thankful.” He adds that when he notified homeowners that the purchase negotiations were in the final stages, they stood and cheered. “I don’t think anybody’s going to cry about not having Pluris service anymore,” he says. 

Logan also says that he hopes the customer service and responsiveness to issues will improve when he and Pebble Creek become Hillsborough water customers.

“I remember when we first started this conversation,” said Dist. 6 Comm. Kevin Beckner at the Nov. 13 meeting. “I think we looked at (purchasing Pluris) from a financial perspective, but then when we got into the heart of the issue, and heard the issues that came from the residents, (we) realized that this is much more than about finances; this is about making sure that all of our residents have access to clean, affordable, potable drinking water. And, I think we came to the right conclusion that this (purchase) is indeed a responsibility of government.”