BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Bakersfield’s City Council hit the pause button Wednesday on a proposed sewer rate hike, in the face of strong opposition from rate payers.
Council members directed the city manager to find a more acceptable funding solution to fix long-delayed repairs to the city’s sewer system.
RELATED: City sewer tour hopes to clear the air on sewer rate increase
“The people who are on fixed income, elderly, because of decisions that our city council, our city manager, we have not been prudent with the money that we’ve been getting,” said Debbie Busby.
“We cannot afford to pay this huge increase. We can’t. Seniors are having problems and a lot of people are losing their jobs,” said Tami McClellan.
The City Manager Christian Clegg faced questions.
“Why didn’t we know and why didn’t we know immediately that we were not going to meet our obligations, we’re gonna need more funding,” said Councilmember Ken Weir.
A two-year battle to fix Bakersfield’s failing sewer system has been postponed yet again. The city plans to raise rates to $950 dollars a year. The current rate is $257 dollars a year — a 92% increase.
The new revenues are intended to fix what city engineers say is our failing infrastructure. Two wastewater plants are in dire need of repair.
But City Manager Clegg says there are bigger problems if the rates are not raised.
“We have pipes that are starting to fail, we have waste stations that are starting to fail, that we could not pay for those next year.”
At the city council meeting Wednesday, a county attorney even made her own proposal, which involves a $750 million dollar bond but only raise rates by 20%.
“We would ask that you consider rescinding the notice, reconsider bonding, your counsel has historically shied away from bonding, but if there was a time to do it this is the time,” said Claire Collins, an attorney with the County.
“I’m very disturbed that the county has come to us in the 11th hour of this proposal,” said Councilmember Larry Koman. “We have some concerns with them investing their resources in hiring attorneys and rate calculator people or whatever to do the work that we’ve already done.”
Koman says that no matter what, rates have to increase, and the city might have to get a bond, or else our infrastructure will fail. “Doing nothing is not one of our options at this point,” he said.
The matter was postponed to the next city council meeting on May 27.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.