toledoblade.com --

Toledo City Council voted yesterday to boost the price of sewer and water services during the next four years to continue paying for multimillion-dollar upgrades to the city's utility systems.

Sewer rates will increase 9.9 per cent and water rates 4.5 percent a year through 2010. Council's vote was 10-0, with members Mark Sobczak and Phillip Copeland absent.

A customer who was paying a quarterly bill of $109 for water and sewer service last year would see that charge rise to $119 a quarter this year, $129 next year, $140 in 2009, and $152 in 2010.

The sewer increases are needed to pay off the debt on a $450 million modernization of the city wastewater treatment system, Robert Williams, city Public Utilities director, has said.

City residents were warned five years ago that sewer rates would have to double over 15 years to pay for the system upgrade that was required under the settlement of a lawsuit filed against the city by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Williams said the sewer rates will double by 2010.

The boost in water rates was necessary to pay for the debt on a new water main in East Toledo that will deliver higher water pressure to southwest Toledo, Mr. Williams said, as well as the rising costs of the water treatment and distribution system.

Also last night, council members were informed that the budget task force - a group made up of council members, council staff, and the administration's budget staff - will meet again Friday, after three canceled meetings, to learn the details of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's plans for erasing an $11.9 million deficit in the 2007 budget.

Councilman Frank Szollosi has complained that he was surprised to learn Friday that, while the task force meetings were canceled, the mayor quietly met with four members of the council's finance committee in each of the last two weeks. Mr. Szollosi claimed those actions violated the state's open meetings law.

That drew a rebuke from council President Rob Ludeman, who said the weekly meetings with Mayor Finkbeiner were to discuss legislation, not just the budget. Mr. Ludeman said the administration canceled the task force meetings because it is putting together a concrete plan to present to council.

"You're greatly mistaken Mr. Szollosi," Mr. Ludeman said. "Your attendance has always been welcome, and it has been somewhat deficient," he added.

Mr. Szollosi has asked Law Director John Madigan for a ruling on whether the meetings were legal.

In other action yesterday, council approved measures to:

•Extend the six-month moratorium on new convenience store permits for another two months to complete research on the effect of new convenience stores on neighborhood crime.

•Have the city continue paying a 1 percent share of executive employees' pension payment obligation. The ordinance ratifies a benefit that already had been paid since 2003, at a cost of $200,000, but without council approval.

•Urge the mayor to fill the vacant post of development director.

•Pay $86,000 to settle a suit by the estate of the late John M. Strain that claims his handling by police in a 2004 arrest outside Fifth Third Field caused injuries that led to his death. The city did not acknowledge fault in the settlement.

•Allocate $578,000 for improvements to Delaware Creek from Bowsher High School to Daleford Road and $300,000 for improvements to Peterson Ditch from I-475 to Middlesex Drive.

•Allow city inspectors to issue $75 tickets for poorly maintained courtesy benches at bus stops.

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