DID YOU KNOW?

Victor Sewer Rates

DID YOU KNOW...   that for the past two years, the City of Victor has been significantly overcharging residents who pay monthly sewer fees?

The monthly sewer fees charged by the City of Victor to residents connected to its sewer system far exceeds the cost of the service being provided. The fees charged are not tied to a Cost-of-Service Study or Capital Improvement Plan.

City Council voted to increase the residential sewer rate from $61.04/month to $98.50/month starting on October 1, 2024 (beginning of Fiscal Year 2025).

The city justified this 60% increase in an email to residents sent on 9/16/24 (see FIGURE #1 below). It references Driggs as the reason for the increase, yet that increase never came to fruition. While Victor budgeted $1,187,219 to be paid to the City of Driggs, only $157,492.80 was actually paid. Despite this reality, the city did not refund the overcharge or reduce the fees charged to residents in FY 2026.

According to Victor's own annual financial audits, the sewer fund balance grew from $4.8 million at the end of FY 2023, to $7.1 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2025, an increase of nearly 50% driven largely by overcharging its ratepayers.

To View the City’s financial audits, CLICK HERE.

Legal Expenses

DID YOU KNOW...   the City of Victor spent over $350,000 in outside legal fees for the push to get land, proper zoning, and funding for a wastewater treatment plant in Victor?

Legal costs associated with trying to build a separate wastewater treatment plant in Victor include payments to several different law firms over more than a year. Because the invoices are billed and paid over time, it makes the total easy to lose track of in any single council packet. Laid out together, the figures below show (as of August 2026) what residents have actually paid for. These costs were obtained from the city’s sewer fund ledger provided by the City of Victor through a public records request. VVC is happy to provide that by email upon request.

  • $223,470 paid to Smith Currie Oles law firm in Georgia, a personal contact of the City Administrator, to threaten and then file a lawsuit against Driggs;

  • $69,440 paid to Beard St. Clair Gaffney law firm to assist with litigation, a failed land acquisition, and related legal issues (on top of the $4,720/month the City already pays this firm for a contract city attorney);

  • $24,727 paid to MBST law firm to seek a judge's approval to incur $35 million in debt instead of putting the question to a public vote as required by the Idaho Constitution;

  • $53,410 paid to Givens Pursley law firm defending a flawed process to annex, rezone, and acquire land for a new treatment plant.

In addition, over $150,000 was spent on site-specific planning and analysis by Sunrise Engineering on the property that the city tried to buy but was unable to meet the terms of the purchase and sales agreement.

In total, more than $500,000 in fees collected from ratepayers went toward legal and consulting costs associated with the City’s attempt to build a separate wastewater treatment plant in Victor.