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Council Forms Utility Committee

(Created: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 8:50 AM EDT)

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The town's newest committee has a full agenda, even before members have been named or a meeting date set. The Utility Rate Advisory Committee is charged with studying the town's water and sewer rates, empowered with recommending rules and regulations regarding the utility system.

The committee is the idea of Council members Kelly Burk and Kevin Wright, an attempt for a third-party to review the town's rate structure that has attracted so much criticism from the county supervisors and prompted a lawsuit from out-of-town customers who pay double the rates in-town customers pay.

The council will appoint nine members to the committee, one to represent each of the seven council members and two out-of-town customers. Of the out-of-town representatives, neither of the two can be actively engaged in litigation against the town.

The committee has three defined roles: conduct an initial review of the town's utility rates, with a goal for completion of Oct. 31, annually review information staff provides regarding establishing utility rates, and make recommendations to council each year in time for the budget process, no later than Jan. 31.

The committee creation passed on a 6-1 vote with Mayor Kristen Umstattd reiterating her desire to leave the two-tier rate structure in place.

"I don't think our current system is broken, so I don't see a need to fix it," she said Tuesday.

Councilman Ken Reid, who voted in favor of forming the committee, did so after expressing some frustration.

"I will support the creation of yet another advisory commission in the town, although I think we have too many already," he said. Reid has vocally supported the 100 percent surcharge for out-of-town customers, saying again Tuesday he believes the town can enact the surcharge.



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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of Leesburg Today.
Total Comments: 5 comment(s)

grayghost wrote on Jul 2, 2007 9:08 AM:

" 47585 makes some good points and I agree with his stand in regards to the council. But please do not take my offer of credit to Ms. Burk as any kind of endorsement. For the most part Ms. Burk is a rubber stamp for the Mayor on most all issues. Except for the vote of water to outside residents the only other things that she has semed to accomplish for her years on the coucil have been extrememely limited and narrow in scope. I can count two, the annual trash clean-up (that town roads and maintenance staff should be doing anyway), and the arts commission. Both items are new since she came up to the council but they are very limited in scope and could have been done many years before anyway without so much fanfare. I do agree though that Wright is a breath of fresh air and it is my hope that he continjuyes to flourish because none of the other newer members have done so, so far. And, you can add at least one older member to that group as well, the town's resident clown on the council and did he bother again to come to the council meeting this month, Fernando Martinez. Can we really be sure that Fernando is not Melinda Kramer in disguise? "

47585 wrote on Jun 29, 2007 6:08 PM:

" Except for Kelly Burk and Kevin Wright, I have no respect for the town council simply because the rest of them have demonstrated they will do whatever they feel they can get away with. Leesburg has demonstrated that they do not belong in the water utility business. Water is a precious resource and our neighbors under LCSA are paying much less than even the in town residents. For all practical purposes, it makes sense to adopt a regional approach in addressing water issues. LCSA customers are encouraged to use more of the water supply because of the low rates. Leesburg Water Utility customers automatically have less access to the water supply given the higher rates. The result is Leesburg Water Utility customers are denied equal access to the same water supply. This inequality will exist until we develop a utility that serves the entire region. Likewise a regional utility will do a better job of addressing conservation and environmental issues. I don't trust the town council (with the exception of Ms. Burk and Mr. Wright) to do the right thing. Obviously the mayor endorses the rate inequality. "

davebutler wrote on Jun 28, 2007 4:29 PM:

" Moral questions aside, the Council really needs to re-address this issue. While it might seem to make short-term sense to sock it to out-of-town customers, it brings with it a long-term risk of losing much of the rest of the customer base within the JLMA. This would cause rates to be higher than they are now. No one outside of Leesburg will choose to have the town provide water at much higher rates than the LCSA will. Morally, the decision is even less justifiable. The Council was entrusted with the care of the citizens within the water district. To turn around and put almost the entire fee increase on the backs of a few because "they don't vote for me" is simply not right, and not worthy of the trust. Finally, the argument that "they don't pay town taxes" is very weak as it does not take into account the other services that the town pays for, e.g. garbage pick up. When those are taken into account you'll find that the folks outside of Leesburg are paying much more for the same service. While I respect the Council a great deal, and all of the indivduals on the Council, this is one decision where they blew it, but backing out of it will be very painful. Let's hope that future decisions like this one are more well-thought out before they're made. "

grayghost wrote on Jun 27, 2007 1:57 PM:

" I have to give Ms. Burk credit because she voted against the 100% surcharge on out of town users of Leesburg water who were forced to take Leesburg service. At best this will be just another town committee or board that will give the coucil justification for whatever they want to do anyway. But, I can ony assume that Councilmember Reid's comments indicate that he has no problem ripping people off if as long as he thinks that it is legal! Evidently the moral issue have nothing to do with it for Mr. Reid it would seem. Just what we need in a wanna be supervisor who does not know how to lead and does not even know how to be a council member yet. "

KJ wrote on Jun 27, 2007 11:12 AM:

" This is "smoking mirrors". It's a good attempt at getting a handle on the inequities of the system, but for the out of town customers it's still only a 7-2 vote against. What in town customer will vote to raise their own rate? Not to say that they wish to be unfair to their neighbor, but I'd be hard pressed myself to agree to pay more if I know I can get away with making someone else pay for it. "



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