This Wednesday at 3 p.m., the Philadelphia Water Rate Board will vote to raise water and sewer bills by 18%. The Board will increase the rates at the request of Community Legal Services (CLS) and the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD). This will be the sixth consecutive year of rising rates, all supported by Community Legal Services.
Technically, the Board could vote against the increase. It is unlikely. The Board hired CLS and controls its behavior. The Board doesn’t require CLS to represent the public, have a client group, or meet with any community group or elected officials before privately negotiating the rate increase. If the Board didn’t want CLS to advocate for continual rate increases, the Board would not repeatedly award CLS no-bid contracts. Contracts that neither CLS nor the Rate Board will disclose at public hearings. The Rate Board doesn’t even require CLS to state that it works for the Rate Board, and does not legally represent the public.
Every year for the past six years, the Water Department has requested rate increases. Sometimes PWD calls it a rate adjustment. Sometimes it’s referred to as a rate increase. For the ratepayers, it’s the same; PWD increases the bills.
The Mayor appoints the Water Commissioner, who sends a letter to City Council to begin the process. The Board, without seeking any input from the public, votes to award CLS the no-bid contract and hire the same hearing examiner. The terms of the contracts are not released, and none of the lawyers are required to file financial disclosure forms.
PWD hires attorneys, consultants, and experts who argue for the rate increase. Not a single consultant is hired to find ways to reduce costs, explore management efficiencies, or utilize the Water Department as an economic development tool.
CLS, after receiving its contract for tens of thousands of dollars, hires consultants to argue that PWD doesn’t need the amount for which it requested.
Not a single member of the public who testified at the hearings was informed that CLS and PWD agreed to raise rates. Nor are any elected officials told. The only way to know if CLS is advocating for PWD’s 18% rate increase is to either be a participant in the proceedings or review the Philadelphia Water Rate Board’s webpage daily and know where to look.
CLS participates in the charade that the Water Department is not getting all that it wants. While the lawyers who represent the Water Department may be amoral and cold-hearted, not caring about how hard it is for working families to keep up with the ever-rising bills, they are not stupid. They know to ask for more than what they want, expect, or need. So when they get what they want, it appears as if some money was saved.
The way to know that PWD asked for more than what they needed is simple. After the backdoor settlement is announced, PWD does not make any changes to its operations. They are getting the rate increase they wanted, planned for, and expected.
This is from the hearing examiner’s report: “As proposed, the overall increase in service would increase the total monthly bill for a residential by 11.7% (from approximately $81.77 to $91.31) on September 1, 2025 and an additional 5.9% (from approximately $91.31 to $96.68) on September 1, 2026.
It is an 18.23% increase. More than five times the amount DC 33 members were given in this last contract.
This is in addition to double-digit rate increases in each of the previous three rate cases.
The amount is shocking. Shockingly, CLS, which claims to care about low-income families, is advocating for a rate increase of millions more than what CLS’s testimony stated is needed.
Here is the fake amount PWD first asked for:
The reason for this proposal is to make what they get seem not as bad as it could have been.
Here is what Community Legal Services’ testimony says is needed:
Here is what Community Legal Services is advocating for:
The total rate increase needed, according to Community Legal Services consultants, was $167.633 million. The total amount CLS is advocating for is $21.7 million more.
There will be no improvements in service. No management audit to find ways to save money. No attempt to use PWD as an economic development tool to bring living wage jobs into the City. And sadly, no elected official has objected to the constant rate increases.
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