SAN DIEGO -- Southern California residents may see their water bills increase even more if a pension change and 25-percent increase in benefits for Metropolitan Water District employees is approved, 10News' Mitch Blacher reported.

The MWD of Southern California sells water to water providers in 26 cities including San Diego. The MWD's decision to give their employees a better benefits package could see costs trickling down to customers.

"It will cost San Diegans. It is unnecessary, we will pay for that," said San Diego City Councilman Kevin Faulconer.

Faulconer and other city leaders said they hate the idea of increasing water employees' pensions by 25 percent.

MWD Chairman Tim Brick said the benefit hike is good for rate payers.

"If you want to see actually some reduction in your water bill, then you should support this pension increase," said Brick.

Ultimately, the decision to increase water employees' pensions comes down to four MWD board members. 10News contacted them to see which way they would vote, but no one returned any calls.

"It's very important to maintain good relations with our workforce and to have good benefit programs for our workforce," said Brick.

The argument for a better pension, Brick said, comes down to keeping employees happy. He said the pension increase would save the district $26 million over the next five years.

10News learned that more than half of the district's $2 billion budget is generated from water sales, and the district would have to come up with more than $200 million a year to pay employees and pensions.

10News also found a letter from the MWD's general manager who wrote: "Staff will have to be extremely vigilant in managing costs and the budget to mitigate necessary rate hikes."

Faulconer said, "We are trying to put as much pressure on them as possible to not move forward with this proposal."

The MWD's board will vote on the benefits plan on October 13.