The Bellevue City Council officially passed a motion to transfer water and sewer operations of two neighborhoods to the city of Issaquah on Monday night.

The neighborhoods, South Cove and Greenwood Point, were annexed by Issaquah from unincorporated King County in 2006, but the water and sewer utilities remained in Bellevue’s hands. The result of the transfer of utilities will show itself in a bill increase for ratepayers of Bellevue.

Bellevue’s Deputy Utilities Director Andrew Lee said the eight-year wait was just a matter of priorities.

“It didn’t happen for a long time,” he said. “It was just the government getting around to more important matters first. It wasn’t a priority for Bellevue.”

It wasn’t hard to see why. Bellevue annually earned more than $1.4 million in revenue from the neighborhoods’ water and sewer service, more than $500,000 of that was net gain for the city’s general fund.

More than 1,000 ratepayers live in the two neighborhoods, which comprise 380 acres.

The loss of revenue from South Cove and Greenwood Point will have ratepayers in Bellevue pay 72 cents more per month on average on their utility bills. Those 1,000 ratepayers represent about 2.5 percent of the number of payers and about 1.5 percent of the city’s revenue base.

Lee said Bellevue and Issaquah had worked together in good faith since the latter city had made taking over the utilities a priority in June 2014.

“This was not a competitive thing,” he said. “It could have been contentious, but both cities agreed to work cooperatively.”

Bellevue first assumed the water service to the areas from greater King County in 1973 and the sewer service from the Eastgate Sewer District in 1994.

After Issaquah annexed the neighborhoods in 2006, Bellevue continued to provide the services.

Although the Bellevue City Council passed the motion, Issaquah would not assume responsibility for the services until Jan. 1, 2017, assuming the motion passed muster with the Boundary Review Board.

“That delay would be because Issaquah needs to update its billing system,” Lee said. “Bellevue has automatic credit deduction and Issaquah doesn’t. We want to make the transition seamless for ratepayers.”

Bellevue will pay $256,944 from its utility renewal and replacement funds to Issaquah.

Issaquah will pay a yearly “wheeling” charge of a little over $7,300 to Bellevue for the cost of pumping water to those neighborhoods.

Ryan Murray: 425-453-4602; rmurray@bellevuereporter.com