Yelm City Council passes three ordinances related to water, stormwater, sewer rates

It was a busy evening for Yelm City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as councilors passed three separate ordinances to make amendments in the Yelm Municipal Code relating to monthly water, sewer and stormwater rates.

Cody Colt, Yelm Public Services director, led the segment during the meeting last week and first discussed Ordinance No. 1158, which amended Yelm Municipal Code section 13.04.250 — which relates to monthly water rates and declares an effective date of Jan. 1, 2027.
According to Colt, the three ordinances presented to council on monthly water, sewer and stormwater rates are all separate but share a similar and applicable history.

“We’ve talked about it multiple times but just a history of how we’ve got here,” Colt said. “In 2017, council passed water, sewer and stormwater rate increases across the board. About a 30% increase over three years. Those increases took place, along with a CPI adjustor in all of the funds, minus storm water.”

Colt added that those rates continued to increase over the years, and noted in 2021, Yelm City Council adopted a new water rate system to lower rates down to a “manageable number.”

“Fast forward, we’re now here in 2026. Sewer has kept up because of that rate adjustment.

That’s why we’re proposing the lowering of sewer rates,” Colt said. “Stormwater has not kept up with our expenditures. The fund balance is slowly decreasing every year. Water is at a point now where it’s starting to not keep up with it, so just adding that language back into the water fund so that it can continue to keep up with it.”

He noted these rates are evaluated during budget cycles to see if there’s any ability to lower rates, or to find out if an increase is needed with rates.

Colt believes one of the benefits of Yelm’s growth is that sewer rates are lowered nearly 6% and water rates don’t need to rise. While water rates don’t need to rise, Colt said they need to start to inflate “like everything else.”

“We don’t want to get into another situation where we have to do another 30% increase or a 45% increase like some cities around us are doing,” Colt said. “We’re actually able to decrease, and just put this auto inflator and be good to go.”

The director added that there are several larger-scale projects in store, including the construction of an additional water reservoir and well on the 640-acre property at the management of Blue Fern Development, and pipe system upgrades throughout the city.
Colt noted the first pipe system upgrade will take place on Creek Street.

Councilor Joseph Richardson asked Colt for the key differences between stormwater, water and sewer — and asked what happens next if all three ordinances are approved?

“If all three pass, there’d be a notice sent out. Normally, in September we send out the auto-inflate notice. We’ve held off on that,” Colt said. “The finance department has held off on that because the ordinance was coming. We’ll send out a notice going, ‘your monthly bill will be lowered by this percentage’ and people will see that in their monthly bill. Starting January, you will see your monthly base bill go down.”

Yelm City Council passed the ordinance relating to water rates with a vote of 5-2. Councilors Tracey Wood and David Johnstone were the only votes against the measure.

The next item up for a vote was Ordinance No. 1159, which amends Yelm Municipal Code section 13.04.095, which according to Colt, proposed the lowering of sewer rates. He noted there was no change in language in the ordinance, but rather rates lowered by roughly 6%.
Yelm City Council voted 6-1 to approve the measure, with Wood serving as the lone “nay” vote.

Lastly, Colt presented Ordinance No. 1160, which amended Yelm Municipal Code section 13.10.050, relating to monthly stormwater rates.
According to the director, current stormwater rates are set at $10.25 each month. He noted the fund is losing money due to requirements by ecology, including different stormwater and drainage projects.

The new rate, according to Colt, would be an $.85 cent increase to $11.10 monthly. This ordinance was passed by Yelm City Council, 5-2, with Wood and Johnstone each voting against the measure.