The Apopka City Council voted Wednesday to reduce previously adopted increases to water, wastewater and reclaimed water rates after city staff and an outside consultant found higher revenues and operational savings. 

Per the adopted resolution, effective Feb. 3, the utility rate schedule for fiscal years 2026 through 2029 has been revised. Under the new plan, the FY 2026 increase will instead be 10%, followed by 6% increases in each of the next three years. 

This is different from September 2025, when the council approved a 15.5% rate increase for FY 2026, followed by planned increases of 9% in FY 2027 and 6% in FY 2028 and FY 2029.  

After the September vote, the council asked staff to find efficiencies in the budget, according to city finance director Blanche Sherman.  

“During that discussion pertaining to the rate increase, the administration instructed city staff to review the Fund 401 utility operating operations provided in the FY 26 budget in an effort to improve revenues and identify operating efficiencies aimed at reducing the rate increase planned for the years FY 26 to 2029,” she said.  

Through this effort, the staff identified savings in overtime, outside contracting for the meter replacement program, rentals and leases, and other operating expenses in the utility fund. The city is also trending above projected revenue and below projected expenditures for the current fiscal year, Sherman told the City Council.   

The utility system realized about $3.1 million per year in net benefit, according to Shawn Ocasio, senior consultant with Raftelis Financial Consultants.  

“It would be our recommendation to consider adopting the proposed revised rate program,” Ocasio said. “It’ll still maintain all your cash flow targets, it’ll maintain coverage requirements for on your loan agreements, and you’ll be building that sufficient operating reserves for liquidity for credit rating purposes.” 

Ocasio said revenues for fiscal year 2025 also came in higher than originally projected, allowing the city to revise its forecast. He said capital improvement costs increased by about $40 million, but nearly $37 million is expected to be offset by principal forgiveness through the State Revolving Fund loan program. 

Interim city administrator Radley Williams said city staff have been working since late summer to fix meter and billing problems, expand meter-reading coverage, tighten spending and improve collections.  

Williams reported that estimated bills are dropping toward industry norms, a new base station is online, fee changes are in place, and a new email notification system is already helping collect on delinquent accounts. 

“A lot of hard work and effort and dedication has been going on with our utility operations department and our utility billing department to continue working through those issues and getting those meters back up and running,” he said.  

Residents such as Rod Olsen urged caution and stressed the importance of basing rate decisions on verified numbers. 

“This is something that is controllable,” Olsen said. “It’s controllable by a factual, fact-based, historical-based budget. And you look at that budget every month.” 

Mayor Bryan Nelson said the adjusted plan will meet debt and operational needs while easing the impact on customers. 

“We can be confident that the rate we’ve got now is adequate to meet the needs of our public services department,” Nelson said. “We won’t have to come back next year and raise the rates.”