Was it 691 or 701 written protests, 17.5 or 13.4 percent, 8.5 or 7.6 percent?

After looking at the numbers long enough, the Jackson City Council decided it was all too confusing and called for a do-over.

Their unanimous vote Monday tossed out the current proposals for rate hikes to water and sewer customers in the city, the public notices that caused confusion, and the long list of protest votes that added up differently every time they were counted.

The city will start again. A letter will be sent for the third time to customers to notify them of the proposed increases and their right to protest. The price hikes will be smaller, customers will have another 45 days to protest, and this time, the city will have different guidelines for whose vote counts.

What those guidelines will be is still uncertain, but more are needed, council members and residents said. The scrapped list of protests, collected over a 45-day period from October to November, contained initials, altered last names, property owners and tenants, wives and husbands. Depending on which ones were counted, one of the increases, the 17.5 percent hike in sewer price, stood or fell.

"As many times as I've looked at it, it's changed," said Gisele Cangelosi, the city clerk.

Last week, the city counted 691 protest votes to sewer rates, 13 votes short of a veto by residents. At the meeting, Daly said the number was 701. But Jackson-resident Judy Jebian said there were still more - 114 more.

Bill Vukovich complained that his wife's vote was rejected, allegedly because his name, and not hers, appeared on sewer bills.

"You accept her money for the water bill, why won't you accept her petition?" he asked.

Laura Mattley voiced similar trouble with her five properties. She cast five votes against the rate hike, one for each property, but was later told that her tenants had to sign, she said.

Daly interpreted Proposition 218, the guiding law for such petitions, to include only those whose names appeared on the water bills, but Cangelosi said it was not so simple. Some bills were in the names of family trusts, she said. Others were listed under incorrect names or names that have been changed.

Cangelosi proposed a recount, but council members wanted even more. Daly proposed a fresh start.

"There are more disconcerted customers on this than in any similar rate increase in the past," Daly said. "We could be more specific on who, what, when ... We may have underestimated the amount of information that our customers require."

Marilyn Lewis, one of four Jackson residents who helped gather protest signatures, looked forward to the new vote, saying, "We'll just go back to the same houses."

Councilwoman Connie Gonsalves approved the move to square one but said she feared what it would mean for the city's $350,000 sewer and water debt.

"(The rate increases are) what we have to do," she said. "We're running a business here."

Councilman Al Nunes echoed her words and called the protests "irresponsible." He moved to go forward with the proposed increases to water bills, which Jebian conceded having lost, and to redo only the sewer bills, but council disagreed. Councilwoman Rosalee Pryor-Escamilla called for a new vote with more information and better rules, even if that meant getting "a letter from the Terminator himself."

Tom Gibson, the city attorney, agreed to look into the matter further.

The new rate increases are proposed to be 13.4 percent for sewer bills and 7.6 percent for water. In response to earlier requests for more fiscal analysis, Daly reanalyzed the budgets, he said, and found that the city is not paying its water and sewer employees as much as was previously projected. That leaves the debt closer to $310,000, he said, $38,600 less than earlier estimates.

Daly also discussed the possibility of an assistance program for fixed-income seniors and others. At the last council meeting, he said Prop. 218 made such subsidies illegal. A few cities in California, however, have found a way around that, he said, by using the interest on such funds, or rounding off customer bills, or requesting voluntary contributions. More information on that program will be included in the notice, he said.