rwills5040@gmail.com - RICHARD WILLS CITY COUNCIL POSITION SIX

This post is intended to help clarify the Ocean Shores utility bill. Many residents mistakenly believe their utility bill is a water bill. People keep saying “my water bill is…”. The utility bill includes fees for all four utilities: ambulance, sewer, stormwater and potable water.

A single combined utility bill is sent because it is significantly more cost effective to send one combined utility bill instead of four individual utility bills. Stated another way, each utility bill captures all four (ambulance, sewer, stormwater and potable water) utilities the city collects fees for. See the utility bill snippet below:

	Per 2 months	Per 1 month
Ambulance: Ambulance Residential	$56.32	28.16
Sewer Flat: C1/C2 Res Swr	$43.80	21.90
Storm: C1/C2 Storm Drain	$17.55	8.78
Water Consumption: Residential 5/8″ Consumption	$16.61	8.31
Water Flat: C1/C2 5/8″ MTR	$61.48	30.74
Bill Summary	$195.76	97.88

Ocean Shores bills for utilities every two months creating an illusion that we are paying extremely high utility rates. NOTE: The 1-month column in the snippet shown is not part of a normal utility bill. It was added to emphasize the actual monthly utility fees.

Ambulance utilities: Ocean Shores, Hoquiam
The bimonthly ambulance utility fee covers part of the cost of having an ambulance service. Additional transport fees are charged whenever transport is required.

and Aberdeen all charge an ambulance utility fee. The fee for Ocean Shores and Hoquiam are similar, both in amount charged and the structure of the fee charged. Every household pays the utility fee. However, transport by ambulance is invoiced separately from the base utility fee.

Aberdeen, with a significantly larger population, is able to provide residents with a “Resident Write Off”. Regardless of the resident patient’s insurance status, the transported patient’s insurance or Medicare is billed and collected. The resident write off covers transport regardless of whether the patient has insurance or Medicare.

Hoquiam and Ocean Shores, with significantly fewer residents can not afford to invoke a resident write off, resulting in the patient being billed for transport.

NOTES AND REFERENCES:

2006 Aberdeen FCS AMBULANCE UTILITY COST OF SERVICE AND RATE STUDY link: https://www.aberdeenwa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/108/Ambulance-Utility-Cost-of-Service-and-Rate-Study-PDF. This is the most current study I could find.
13 Dec 2021 Hoquiam Ambulance Utility fees ordinance. The ordinance stipulates the monthly utility fee ($19.23 close to the bottom of the document) The ordinance appears to be current as of: https://cityofhoquiam.com/code/Hoquiam01/Hoquiam0145.html
2017 Ocean Shores FCS Ambulance Utility Cost of Service and Rate Study: https://oceanshores.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/78380/?preview=78382
2022 Ocean Shores FCS Ambulance Utility Rate Study Update: https://oceanshores.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/3006/?preview=80112

Ocean Shores will start using new finance software in January 2024. The underlying structure will probably remain the same, meaning this information is still useful.

The city budget document is complex and initially difficult to fully understand. I made copious notes as I searched the internet attempting to better understand the details of the budget document. This tutorial was the result. Many, perhaps most readers already know this information. However, the tutorial may prove useful for others.

Click the “full screen view” icon (black square with diagonal arrow pointing right and up) at the top right corner of the document viewer to make it easier to read and navigate. Click the “download” button at the bottom of the view to download the file to your device.