On June 4 our Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC) split 3-3 on a vote to update some water contracts. … The issue at hand was a pretty straight-forward one. The 26 wholesale customers of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), including Palo Alto, negotiated new terms for minimum purchase requirements, water allocation during drought, and a few other things. The 26 customers all use the same contracts, so it took a while (three years) to come to an agreement on changes. SFPUC helped the process along by making some concessions. For example, SFPUC agreed to collect no overuse fees from customers if aggregate usage was within limits. … Fixing this for these four customers will slightly increase water rates for the others. (2) Drought allocations similarly have some give and take, with Palo Alto needing to save somewhat more since much of the city’s water is for outdoor (irrigation) use and not for indoor (less flexible) use.