ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — In 1999, sewer fees in Orange Beach were $32. Times were good, the economy was strong, and income for the city was right where it needed to be. So Orange Beach citizens got a break when fees were dropped $12 to $20 per year.

Times have changed, and with those changes comes an increase in sewer fees. For several months, the city finance committee, along with elected officials, has been studying the situation to come up with an adequate increase that will allow the sewer system to break even yet be fair to customers, both business and residential.

When it came time to vote on the sewer rate schedule and usage guidelines resolution at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, which included raising the fees to $28, still $4 less than they were a decade ago, not everyone was in agreement.

City Councilwoman Pattisue Carranza, who said the increase would adversely affect some local restaurants, suggested the resolution be tabled for further discussion at a future finance committee meeting.

Carranza seemed to have issues with the administration costs related to the sewer plant, questioning some of the numbers. However, Mayor Tony Kennon said the council had been given months to look over the administrative cost breakdown and had been given plenty of time to ask questions.

“We have 250 employees who need to know if they are going to have a job,” Kennon said. “We can’t keep discussing this over and over and over. You can’t raise sewer rates and not look like the bad guy. But at the same time, the city cannot afford to continue subsidizing sewer for anyone.”

According to finance committee member Al Bradley, a handout of the breakdown of administrative costs was given to the council at a retreat on Aug. 13.

“There has been plenty of time for questions,” Kennon told Carranza. “Now is not the time to start nit-picking the administrative costs. The sewer plant is a business, it is a utility, and it has to break even. So either we are either going to run the city like a business, or we are not. Let’s make up our mind.”

Kennon said that $6 million of a $7 million reserve fund is going to be used, and without the increase, operating expenses could not be paid, and the $6 million could not be replenished.

Kennon said the $8 increase would put money back into the general fund to cover the administrative costs and put roughly $1 million a year back into the reserve fund to replenish it.

Kennon seemed to take issue with the fact that Carranza had opportunities to address her concerns, especially as it related to restaurants, over the past several weeks but had not taken advantage of the opportunity.

“I absolutely want to be sympathetic to the restaurateurs because some of them are my good friends,” Carranza said.

She said that many of them wouldn’t be here a year from now if the increase took place.

“If a restaurant goes broke because of a sewer fee, then they are going to go broke,” Kennon said. “Don’t try to make us look like a bad guy because we are trying to do things the way they should have been done for the last 10 years.”

Kennon continued to show his displeasure with Carranza’s lack of participation on the issue.

“You have known what the numbers were for months. These were the numbers that we came up with that we felt like would make the sewer system self-sufficient,” Kennon said. “We are here trying to raise fees to run the city like a business. Now, if you would like to participate more in the future with our discussions, it would be tremendously helpful to me and those of us who put in all of the time that we put into this. But to come up here tonight and try to characterize us as though we are trying to gouge people is very unfair, and I don’t appreciate it.”

Councilman Ed Carroll said that he felt like the $8 increase was very reasonable.

“I have spent time talking to several different sewer companies. Some of them are as much as $42 a month,” Carroll said. “I know a lot of people are on fixed income, and they may not be able to pay a $42 a month bill, but I don’t know of another sewer company that would have a $28 a month sewer fee.”

John Davis, a member of the finance committee, also made comments that seemed to be directed at Carranza.

“I’m frustrated with this because we have spent two and a half months studying it. So we come up with a resolution and we start rehashing the thing all over again,” Davis said. “I’m tired of coming down here spending three and four hours a day to come up with a plan, and then to have the people who are going to vote on it never appear in a meeting, never come and listen, never come and evaluate, but come on the night we are to vote on it and we have to start the process all over again. This is ridiculous. This city is going to table everything until it does nothing.”

The resolution passed with only Carranza and Councilman Brett Holk voting against it.