The Water Pollution Control Authority voted Thursday to endorse a plan submitted by Mayor Sebastian Giuliano and city Finance Director Carl Erlacher to pump money into Middletown's sewer fund.
The sewer fund is currently operating at a deficit.
"It's crucial that we do something, extremely urgent," Erlacher said at the meeting. "We haven't been paying our operating bills, just our payroll."
In the past, the Sewer and Water Department, under the financially independent WPCA, has budgeted on a consumption basis, but that budgeting process has been problematic.
"That trend seems to be a little aggressive, at the least" Erlacher explained, noting that the optimistic billing figures have left the department in the hole for three years straight.
The plan to infuse cash, as detailed in a press release earlier Thursday from Giuliano, includes borrowing money from the $2.5 million General Sewer Improvement Fund, aggressively pursuing delinquent accounts through an outside collections agency, and cutting spending in the department.
Erlacher contended that rate increases may be likely, though his plan, if pursued aggressively may push off those hikes. They mayor feels that any rate hikes are unfair to residents.
"I don't think its fair to hit people who have been paying their bills with a rate increase because other people haven't been paying their bils," the mayor said.
WPCA member and Common Council member David Bauer also suggested that partial payments on water and sewer bills should apply first to the sewer deficit. Currently partial payments apply first to water bills.
The group also discussed tactics to convince delinquent accounts to pay bills. Those tactics included placing a lien on property, and shutting off service, something the mayor said the city has avoided doing in the past.
The group voted to endorse the plan unanimously, but WPCA member and Common Council member James Streeto attempted to convince the members of the Authority to make the language of their resolution stronger. Instead of endorsing the plan, he suggested that the group vote to implement the plan, but other members felt that the endorsement was strong enough.
Water and Sewer commissioner Guy Russo vowed to take immediate action but warned that his department could not avoid repairs or replacements that they are obligated to make to "protect the waters of the state of Connecticut."
6 comments:
Nobody noticed funds were low until there weren't any left? What am I missing?
how about selling the Taj Mahal they are located in. They went from a department in city hall with offices the same size as Public Works to their own building on close to 10 acres and a building almost as big as city hall. Why does Water and Sewer have the newest and best trucks if they are broke ?? They are top heavy and have way to many administrators doing NOTHING !! Find them get rid of them and save $80-100,000 each.
This meeting was one of many, many, many times over the last two years that I found myself missing Fran Patnaude. For those of you new to the community, Fran was a republican councilman--he and I served on the commission together before his retirement. Between his service on WPCA and his employment with the department his knowledge of the WS Department dated back to the Grover Cleveland administration; he knew everyone in it and everything about it. Fran was also a strong force on the commission; he was not at all afraid to go head to head with the chairman, the director, the council, or anyone else who wasn't doing the right thing. I don't think its an accident that this situation started developing the minute his careful oversight was removed by his retirement.
I think the mayor did the right thing by bringing back Jim Reynolds--from a fiscal perspective, Jim is
one of the best people I've ever met. But I'm not clear why he didn't bring back Fran and give him some authoritative role in resolving this situation so it gets fixed as rapidly as possible and doesn't happen again. As it stands, as Ed noted here, the commission declined, against my lone dissent, to take any action constituting a "mandate" and instead limited itself to making suggestions. This is, obviously, needed, but stronger action really is required in a situation this serious....and some stronger leadership would I believe be both welcome and useful in resolving it.
So Streeto, didnt you just vote to reorganize that department to acheive more efficency, or was it just to increase salaries ???
Actually, Anonymous, if I got my dates right, the answer is no--I believe the last reorg was in early 2007, and I was not on the council at that time (I took an involuntary hiatus, remember that mess?). I could easily be wrong on my dates though--what's your recollection?
Something of a moot point. I think we can all agree that the Department should be more efficient, and that, if Middletown is going to have quality, professional people, we have to pay them what they are worth. This isn't about salaries and expenses--its about a consistent pattern of overestimating revenue.
The WPCA needs to stand up and be accountable! It's not the City of Middletown"s Mess but it is going to end up that way!
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