Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Colfax City Council meeting Tuesday night was the relatively low turnout of citizens anticipating the results of the highly contentious sewer rate hike protest.

Considering the angry and unruly crowd at last week’s public hearing, the few dozen people who showed up seemed subdued.

And there was only a scattering of applause when City Manager Joan Phillipe announced the rate protest had succeeded.

It was a narrow victory, however. Of the four categories of proposed monthly sewer rates, the $87 to $87.46 base user rate was rejected by 51.7 percent of property owners. And the $12.40 inflow & infiltration (I&I) rate was turned back by 51.9 percent of property owners.

Both the base user and I&I rates are for all property owners.

The proposed $41.89 rate for sewage system users with non-school lift stations was overwhelmingly defeated with 65.2 percent of property owners filing protests.

On the other hand, there were no protests of the proposed $78.02 rate by the three property owners served by a school lift station.

This does not mean the rate was approved, however.

The city council simply voted, 3-0, to accept the rate hike protest as valid, as required under Proposition 218.

Just because the rate hike was defeated does not mean the issue will go away. The city is still under unfunded state and federal mandates to build – and pay for – a new wastewater treatment plant, fix the broken sewer pipe system, and upgrade lift station pumps.

Failure to comply with these mandates could result in fines ranging from $3,000 to $25,000 per violation per day, Phillipe explained.

Therefore, the council directed city staff to come up with a new sewer rate proposal, which will be presented on Aug. 12. The council will hold another public budget workshop on July 29.

“Now, we need solutions,” Mayor Sherrie Blackmun told the audience, adding she wants to see those solutions on paper by Aug. 12.

“It’s your city, your toilet, and your wastewater treatment plant,” she declared.

Tuesday night’s meeting was a continued public hearing from last week, so the council opened the meeting to allow the public to suggest ways to deal with the sewage rate crisis.

Unlike last week’s rowdy hearing, speakers – with a few notable exceptions – conducted themselves in an orderly manner, avoiding personal attacks on the city council or staff.

Early comments from Robby Robinson and Donna Barkle set the agenda for the evening.

“We need to educate the population,” said Robinson.

Although there was still residual hostility toward the city council and/or city staff, some of the most vociferous rate protesters – Jeff Williams, Kathy West and Elan Vitkoff – agreed everybody needed more information.

West told the council she and her fellow protestors have “learned a lot” in the process of researching how to successfully defeat the rate hike. People are ready to work together, she added.

Vitkoff offered her business as a venue for a citizens committee to meet and confer on alternative solutions to the defeated rate hike.

Councilman Josh Alpine welcomed her suggestion, but he warned her, “There is a huge information curve.”

He said the average volunteer public committee can take “12 to 14 months” to get up to speed on an issue as complex as wastewater treatment, management and financing.

It would require extreme dedication by the volunteers and the committee would definitely need the support of professional staff to become fully educated, he explained.

Although Blackmun asked the citizens not to rehash old issues, Nicole Norris and others brought up the idea of disincorporation.

Phillipe pointed out the city council can’t vote to disincorporate. The only way the city could even begin the process would be if 25 percent of the citizens petitioned the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo).

Blackmun told Norris if the city were to disincorporate, Placer County would simply form a sewer assessment district and charge “a lot higher” sewer rate than the city had already proposed.

“You think long and hard before disincorporation,” warned Mike Walker, who has researched the issue. “We will be assessed.”