Although multiple media outlets covered the City Democratic Committee mayoral forum at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School this past Tuesday, the Times Dispatch newspaper captured this exchange:

Morrissey also chided Berry, a former assistant city manager in Richmond and county manager in Hanover County, on his response to a council candidate’s concerns about high city water rates that are inflated by an annual payment to the general budget in lieu of taxes.

Berry had warned that eliminating the payment from the public utility enterprise fund would hurt the city’s general budget. “The problem is if you take that away, it’s money that goes away from the general fund.”

Morrissey responded, “Just because you need the money doesn’t mean you can add a phony, faux tax to the water bill.”

Councilperson Baliles, who could not attend that forum, released this video:

On top of that, there was this announcement:

On today’s packed edition of Open Source RVA, we talk with city council candidate Charlie Diradour about his campaign to represent the second district. We discuss Richmond’s water rates, transparency in city government, what’s happening with Monroe Park and a host of other topics
…
We also welcome back to the program Farid Alan Schintzius, who talks about his legal efforts to appeal the decision by the city’s electoral board that disqualified him from the mayoral ballot. Too much show? You decide. Listen in at 2PM on WRIR 97.3 FM and http://wrir.org.

That’s today (Friday, Sept. 9 at 2pm).

So…The ongoing citizen campaign to reform City of Richmond’s water utility has become part of the local election landscape. Oregon Hill neighbors and others who have worked over time to bring water utility reform forward are excited to hear what the candidates have to say going forward.

It continues to be outrageous that small volume residential citizens can pay as much as 78% of their water/sewer bill for service charges, while some above average volume users can pay as little as 11%.
Will the candidate support removing the federal income tax surcharge on the water rates?
Will the candidate support lowering the base service charge that all customers must pay before receiving the first drop of water?
Will the candidates support discontinuing the use of the water utility as a cash cow for the city’s general fund?

Building on previous efforts, a new online petition asks local candidates to address water utility reform issues.

Of course, this issue has been brought up before here, and more recently in the Washington Post.

From the new petition language:

We need our local elections to be more than just popularity contests. To that end, citizens need to demand more substantive discussion of issues and platforms. In the last six years or so, issues have been consistently raised by grassroots citizens in regard to reforming the City of Richmond’s water utility.
We point to the previous Change.org petition, “Reform Richmond’s Water Rates”, with over 1700 signatures. We reference the Sierra Club Falls of the James’ statement on how there are also significant conservation concerns with the City utility’s relatively high base rate for residents. We call your attention to the recent Washington Post editorial, with the headline, Richmond Is Ripping Off It’s Residents”. It is outrageous that small volume residential citizens can pay as much as 78% of their water/sewer bill for service charges, while some above average volume users can pay as little as 11%. Furthermore, we note that the City administration has broken its promise to list all charges on their billing.

We the undersigned feel that the Richmond water rates are a vital but neglected issue that should be addressed in this election in November. The undersigned request that all candidates address this issue and request that all debates include these 3 questions:

Will the candidate support removing the federal income tax surcharge on the water rates?
Will the candidate support lowering the base service charge that all customers must pay before receiving the first drop of water?
Will the candidates support discontinuing the use of the water utility as a cash cow for the city’s general fund?