By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Utility bills are about to get higher. Los Alamos County Council approved 6-1, with Councilor David Reagor opposed, to increase the electric rates as well as the service charges.

The rate hike was approved during Tuesday night’s regular meeting.

According to agenda documents, the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) contracted GDS to do an electric rate study and a cost of service study. The approved rates are based on the rate study portion of GDS’s work. The cost of service study is underway but due to deficiencies in revenue, DPU went ahead to propose the rates hike.

A GDS representative explained during Tuesday’s meeting that DPU receives $14.51 million in revenue per year, but in the upcoming budget, the revenue needed is $17 million, leaving DPU with a $2 million deficiency. This will grow in the upcoming fiscal year to $2.6 million and $1.5 million in the future. Therefore, DPU requested two, 9 percent increases – one in October and a second in July 2024. This will increase revenue by $1.25 million for the first nine months, starting in October, and $1.37 million starting in Fiscal Year 2025, beginning in July 2024. So, the total revenue would be $15.77 million for the first nine months and $17 million for the following 12 months. There will still be a deficiency, but the GDS representative said it is expected that there will be a positive cash flow in July 2024.

There will be a service charge increase, too. The residential service charge of $12 will remain the same in October but there will be a volume metric increase of 12.82 cents per kwh. In July 2024, the service charge will increase to $12.60 and the volume metric charge will rise to 14.13 cents per kwh. The GDS representative said this means a $40 electric bill will raise to $44 in October and then to $47 in July 2024. A $69 bill will raise to $76.10 in October and $83.26 in July 2024. For commercial properties that have a current $133.10 electric bill, their bill will be $144.90 in October and $158.20 in July 2024.

Reagor opposed the rate increase; explaining he felt a long-term plan was needed to address electric rates rather than relying on the spot market.

Council Chair Denise Derkacs did note in her comments on the rate increase that the DPU does have a long-term Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), adopted in 2022, for electric production.

In an unrelated matter, Granicus OpenCities and Los Alamos County Public Information Officer Julie Williams-Hill unveiled the County’s new website, which will go live Oct. 27.

It was explained during the presentation to council that the project team’s primary objective was to ensure the new website is user-friendly in finding its information and navigation.

A few key things were highlighted:

• Subsequent to a survey, a navigation test with citizen volunteers was conducted to understand how web users expect to find information. Content on the new site is being organized and labeled according to this feedback.
• One of the changes in the information architecture is organizing information by services rather than by county departments.
• Looking at Google Analytics data, the project team ascertained the content individuals searched most frequently so that the new layout could highlight this information up front on the home page.
• The project team is implementing improved search functionality.
• In addition to providing training to the county’s web administrators, the project team also wanted to ensure that the web administrators had additional training in web writing best practices and page design principles to improve navigation through visual cues. These training sessions were conducted and recorded for future web administrators.

Regarding the overall look of the new website, “We’re adhering to branding standards, but we also wanted to have a lot of visual pictures to engage web users.” Williams-Hill said.
In response to complaints about the search functionality of the existing website, she said, “We wanted to focus on optimizing the search bar so that searches were more dynamic … we’re trying to focus these pages to be more service oriented.”

Williams-Hill further noted that a “hamburger” style navigation tool is featured on the website because citizens said it is the easiest for them to navigate a website.

The website won praise from several on County Council.

“I think it looks very user friendly,” Hand said.

“I’m super excited about this …” Havemann said.

She wondered, however, if there was still time to resolve any issues with the website before it went live. Williams-Hill assured that there was time.

Finally, the council received an update on the Los Alamos County Animal Shelter.

Police Chief Dino Sgambellone reported that additional funds were used to increase the shelter’s training budget and that all vacant positions at the shelter were filled. He noted that a policy, which includes enrichment for the animals, was written and is being abided by the department. Work continues on revising Chapter 6, which addresses, among other things, unwanted animals.

Improvements were also done to the shelter including constructing a cat patio and improving kennels for cats and dogs, he said. A dog run is in development, too.

Sgambellone concluded saying the animal shelter enjoys a positive response from the community.

“From 2004 to present the shelter has maintained a positive view from the community … and I will continue to self-assess, continue these improvement initiatives,” he said.

During public comment, Los Alamos resident and former animal shelter ad-hoc committee member Wendee Burnish spoke on the recommendation to not form a shelter advisory board. She encouraged reversing that recommendation because there are still issues to be addressed such as holding animals as evidence and the procedure for euthanasia.