HERMISTON — Hermiston Energy Services is likely headed for a rate increase in 2021 after the Hermiston City Council discussed options for one during a Monday, Oct. 12, workshop.

Councilors asked HES General Manager Nate Rivera to bring back detailed proposals for a few different rate increase options, but most said they were leaning toward a two-step increase next spring and fall rather than raising rates the entire amount all at once at the beginning of 2021.

Rivera said HES is facing a $1 million budget shortfall next year, and would need to raise rates by 12.9% overall to fill that gap.

“This is a horrible time in our community to have this discussion, but at the same time you guys need to understand where we’re at financially,” he said.

He said right now now 20% of HES customers are behind on payments, compared with a three-year average of 15% before the pandemic started. Through CARES Act dollars and a large donation from Amazon Web Services, customers who are struggling financially can receive help paying their electric bills, however, and Rivera said the best thing customers who fall behind can do is to reach out and work with the utility on it rather than ducking their calls.

He said a general 12.9% increase would raise the average residential customer using 1,400 kilowatt hours from a bill of $111 to $121 a month. According to a rate comparison Rivera put together, that would move HES above Umatilla Electric Cooperative ($118 a month) but below Pacific Power ($159) and the state average ($176).

City Manager Byron Smith said the council should have been discussing a rate increase in March or April, but in light of the pandemic HES had been dipping into its reserves to put it off for as long as possible.

The council also reopened their discussion on rules for homeless shelters in the city, but ultimately decided not to amend the ordinance they passed on Sept. 14.

That ordinance allowed homeless shelters as a conditional use on industrial land. But regulations in the ordinance, including a rule that the shelters must be 1,000 feet from schools and parks and a rule they must be co-located on a site with an existing industrial use, ruled out the property behind the Agape House where a local nonprofit known as Stepping Stones had planned to build a shelter.

After the Stepping Stones board announced they didn’t see any viable locations for their project inside city limits, Councilor Roy Barron asked that city staff draw up new maps showing what land would be available if the 1,000-foot rule were changed to 750 feet or 500 feet.

“I just don’t feel like they had a fair shake,” Barron said of the Stepping Stones group.

Even though he voted along with the rest of the council to approve the ordinance originally, during the Oct. 12 meeting he said he understood the buffer zone around schools, but the buffer around parks didn’t make sense to him, because homeless residents are already sleeping and loitering in city parks now.

“People are still going to be in the parks because they have no other place,” he said.

When City Planner Clint Spencer showed the council the maps of what a 500-foot or 750-foot rule would look like, councilors felt a change wouldn’t make enough of a difference to make it worth going through the entire planning commission and public hearing process again.

“There would be very little benefit to it,” Councilor Jackie Myers said.

Both maps opened up some extra industrial land surrounding the intersection West Elm Avenue and North First Place, including the property where Marlette Homes and Umatilla Electric Cooperative are located. It did not open up the property behind the Agape House, which is closer than 500 feet to Theater Sports Park.

Spencer did point out that anyone who wishes to build a project that does not fit all of the city’s zoning regulations is allowed to apply for a variance from the planning commission, granting an exception to that rule for the specific project.