The Hermiston City Council approved a rate increase for Hermiston Energy Services during their Monday, Nov. 9, meeting by a 4-2 vote.

Overall, rates will go up by 6.98% in January 2021 and another 6.9% in October 2021, but the effect to each customer’s bill will depend on the class they fall under and how much energy they use.

Residential rates will go up by 6.1% in January, small commercial by 7.92%, large commercial by 8.67% and irrigation by 7.57%. The average residential user would climb from $111 a month now to $117 in January and $124 in October, according to Hermiston Energy Services General Manager Nate Rivera.

City councilors said raising costs on things is the least favorite part of their job, but it’s their job to keep the city running as its own costs rise.

“Sometimes we need to realize we have to make these hard decisions, and sometimes it’s no fun because we’re going to raise the electricity, but if we want to survive, we have to do that,” Councilor Manuel Gutierrez said before making the motion to accept HES’s recommendation.

Before the vote, Rivera told the council that HES has been pulling $85,000 a month from its reserves and has delayed maintenance in order to put off the rate increase for as long as possible during the pandemic, but even with that strategy, HES projected to have a more than $1 million deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year, mostly driven by increases in the cost of the power that HES purchases from Bonneville Power Administration.

The proposed increases would cover that deficit, he said, and allow for an expected 1% increase from BPA next year. But it would not cover the capital projects that have already been delayed, increases in labor or equipment costs, or replacing any of the money drawn from the reserves. HES is a not-for-profit entity, Rivera said, so all money raised from rates goes straight back into running the utility.

Three Hermiston residents — Renata Morgan, Jackie Linton and councilor-elect Maria Duron — testified at the meeting, asking the council to consider ways to reduce the burden on residents. Morgan said she would rather see more frequent 1.5% increases than a 7% increase all at once when her paycheck isn’t going up 7%.

“I understand what you’re saying here about this, but what I don’t understand why you let it get so far,” she said.

Linton said she understood that people could apply for help with their bill, but many seniors on a fixed income who were used to working to support themselves for 50 or more years will not always be willing to ask for charity.

Rivera had previously highlighted ways that residents struggling to pay their bills can get help. Those include HES’s online “smart hub” where customers can track their usage, rebates on energy-efficient appliances, free energy audits and the HEAT fund available to help pay low-income customers’ bills.

“The main key is really to start that conversation with them and let them know there is help available; they just need to work with us, and as long as a customer is willing to work with us, we’re not in a situation where we’ve ever tried to shut them off. As long as they’re making the best effort they can, we’ll work with them,” he said.

Hermiston Energy Services supplies about 5,200 customers in Hermiston with electricity. The rest of the city is mostly covered by Umatilla Electric Cooperative, which HES contracts with for labor but which is a separate utility that sets its own rates.