The Real Story- A Column
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any “dirtier” at Clean Water Services (CWS), the agency has once again proven that the money leaving your wallet to pay your bills will flow faster than the Tualatin River ever will. Big rate hikes are on the table!
While the ink is barely dry on the six-figure settlement paid to get former CEO Diane Taniguchi-Dennis out the door, and while the “Acting CEO” Rick Shanley has already notified the Board he’s stepping down after just months in the seat, CWS is moving full steam ahead with a multi-year plan to hammer ratepayers with aggressive new hikes.
A Legacy of Excess
Let’s not forget why we are here. For the last 24 months, we’ve watched a public utility act more like a private club for the elite. Investigative reports previously uncovered:
The “Hawaii Connection”: A little-known captive insurance company registered in Hawaii used to shield records from Oregon public records law and fund 5-star resort trips for executives.
The $440,000 Dinner Bill: Lavish meals and “business trips” to Laos, Denmark, and Singapore that cost four times as much as other local utilities combined.
The Golden Parachute: After resigning under a cloud of ethics complaints and investigations, Taniguchi-Dennis walked away with a $130,000 taxpayer-funded settlement just to ensure she wouldnt sue the Board on her way out.
The Leadership Revolving Door
The agency is currently a ship without a captain—or rather, a ship where the captains keep jumping overboard. Rick Shanley, who was brought in to provide “stability” after the scandal, is already heading for the exit. This leaves a billion-dollar agency, managed by the Washington County Board of Commissioners, in a state of total administrative upheaval.
But don’t worry—while the leadership is in chaos, the billing department is working with surgical precision.
The “Hit” on Local Families
CWS presented this AM to the County Commissioners and is now proposing a 5-year rate escalation that targets our local service areas—specifically unincorporated Washington County and the smaller cities like Gaston, Banks, and North Plains—with the heaviest burden.
As our graphics show, if you live in these “Local Service Areas,” you aren’t just paying for water treatment; you are paying a massive premium to cover “deficits” that appeared under years of mismanagement. But these numbers do not tell the whole story- those of us in cities may get whacked even harder.
By 2031, your monthly sewer bill alone is projected to hit $80.06. That is a nearly 44% jump from today’s rates.
Things Can Be Confusing – By Design?
The “Regional” Charge (Paid to CWS via your City Bill)
If you live within the city limits of Hillsboro or Beaverton, you do not receive a bill directly from Clean Water Services. Instead, your city water/utility bill includes a line item for “Sewer” and “Surface Water.”
A large portion of that money is passed through to CWS to pay for Regional Services (the treatment plants).
Even though CWS doesn’t bill you directly, they are the ones driving the Regional Rate Hike (the 4% increase). When CWS raises its regional rates, the cities almost always pass that cost directly onto you.
The “Local” Charge (Paid to the City)
Hillsboro and Beaverton own and maintain their own local pipes (the small ones under your neighborhood streets). They set their own “local” rates to pay for their own crews and repairs.
The Catch: The CWS report notes that “outreach to cities” will continue through May. CWS sets the Regional price, but the Local price you see on a Hillsboro bill is determined by the Hillsboro City Council, not the CWS Board.
However, CWS provides the “benchmark.” When CWS tells the cities that the cost of service is going up across the board, it gives the cities the green light to raise their local rates as well.
The Local Looming Shadow: While CWS is hiking rates by 6.7% for the people they bill directly (unincorporated areas), it is setting a precedent. If CWS says it now costs 60% more to maintain a local pipe than it did last year, Hillsboro and Beaverton residents should expect their own City Councils to follow suit with their own “local” hikes shortly.
WHAT THIS MEANS-
- Unincorporated/Small Cities: You get the full 6.7% CWS hike directly on your bill.
- Hillsboro/Beaverton: You get the 4% CWS Regional hike passed through, plus whatever Local hike your specific City Council decides to add on top to match the “new cost of service.”
No matter who sends the envelope, the “CWS logic” is what’s draining your bank account.
The Bottom Line
When you add it all up, the “Total Bill” for a local family will soar from $66.95 to over $94.00 per month just using the math that CWS is providing.
Does the Board of Commissioners (who double as the CWS Board) want you to believe these increases are “necessary for infrastructure”? But how can we trust the math from an agency that couldn’t track its own first-class airfare? How can we trust a Board that pays out six-figure settlements to disgraced executives while telling working families they need to dig deeper?
The Herald has a number of whistleblowers who continue to send us information on massive consulting fees being paid to outsiders – friends of the staff, sort of things. And an uneeded water lab being built in Forest Grove, known as RIPL, continues to suck up tens of millions of the almost billion-dollar agency’s budget.
And there is the issue of Data Centers and big industry. How much of these increases are being caused by them and the other massive new projects? No breakdown on that.
CWS is at it again, and it’s time for the ratepayers to say: Enough is enough.
Is the water lab unneeded or is it “needed” to deal with the extra load being caused by data centers?
No- not at the scale they are building out. This was designed to be a large regional or even a worldwide lab. And all of the lan work can be outsourced at a fraction of the costs.
Ok then i have to play devil’s advocate for a quick second. Could it be a bid to get other places to send CWS tests to run to help offset cost increases or even help lower our current rates?
The likely hood of this is probably .000001% but a man can hope.
I will end up having my utilities shut off. I’ve spoken to the City several times and have even been out in a monthly routine, but it doesn’t help. I’m retire, elderly, on a strict budget. This is my highest bill. Data centers need to be accountable. What do residents do? What CAN we do? I was even told by a city representative that because I live across the street from a small city park, residents that are on park streets pay for park water/ sewer services. That’s hard to believe