Water bills in Port Hueneme may increase 13 percent by next year, a move designed to keep the city's utilities department solvent.

The City Council is expected to address the matter tonight. Under state law, the city must inform property owners of the proposal — which calls for raising water fees $5.41 to $46.99 a month — before it is adopted.

Property owners may use an enclosed mail-in ballot to protest the change. Ballots are expected to reach property owners by Sept. 17. They must be returned to the council by Nov. 7, the date of a proposed public hearing on the issue.

A majority of property owners opposing the increase would kill the proposal, City Manager David Norman said Tuesday. If that does not happen, the City Council could approve the rate increase, which would be effective Jan. 1.

Norman's staff is recommending the plan because the city's water fund — now about $800,000 — is running low. Water costs rose 7 percent in the last fiscal year, while maintenance and operating costs spiked an additional 4 percent, Norman said.

Without a fee increase, the water fund could be depleted by 2009, Norman said. That would force the city to borrow money from the general fund, which already has chronic deficit problems.

"It costs money to run a water department," Norman said. "We're following up to ensure the water fund is solvent."

Norman's staff is recommending the one-time increase over another proposal that called for two staggered increases, totaling 15 percent. One increase is more effective and less onerous to consumers, Norman said.

Council members raised water fees 9 percent in November, acting on a consultant's recommendation.

Councilman Murray Rosenbluth said Tuesday that he's troubled by the proposal because he thought last year's increase would keep the water department solvent until the city completed installing meters on all hookups for service.

Port Hueneme is among a handful of cities that operates without meters. A recent state law requires installing them by 2010. City officials are aiming to complete the installation of 5,200 meters by Dec. 31, 2008, said Carrie Mattingly, the city's utilities services director.

Once that's done, the city will charge water by actual use instead of estimates.

An additional charge would likely be levied to help pay a $4.7 million loan from the city's general fund to help finance the installation, Norman said.

A 13 percent fee increase could hurt low-income residents, Rosenbluth said, noting that another consultant's report in February recommended a 6 percent increase. "I'm still thinking about my decision," he said.

Council members Toni Young and Jon Sharkey, however, say the city has no choice but to raise rates now.

"What do we do?" Young said. "Cut off the water when we run out of money in a month and wait until we have enough money?"