Girard forgoes creating water oversight panel

Photo

Girard Mayor James Melfi

By John w. Goodwin jr.

Mayor Melfi had threatened to veto legislation creating the committee.

GIRARD — For now, there will be no committee put in place to oversee the city’s water department operations.

A proposal by Councilman Mike Costarella that would have created a committee to investigate “all matters pertaining to the Girard Water Department” failed by a council vote of 3-4.

Costarella and Councilmen Larry Williams and Tom Seidler voted for the measure.

Costarella said the committee could have taken over the department’s operations if areas of gross neglect or mismanagement are found.

“I personally think that the severity of the words associated with doing this created a sense of attack, like council would have been attacking the administration,” Costarella said. “In reality, all I wanted to do was get responsible accounting reports that would show problems before they became big.”

Costarella said council still intends to hold the administration’s “feet to the fire” in producing documentation verifying the fund status and meter-reading history in the water department. He said future legislation suggesting a committee is possible.

The councilman has said the city estimates a high percentage of bills for water customers. The problem with so many estimated bills, he said, is that the city either overestimates or underestimates, meaning huge makeup bills for residents or refunds when the meter is actually read.

Costarella said a recent request for delinquent bills showed $657,000 in delinquent bill payments in the water district. The city water district is projected to be in the red by about $500,000 by year’s end.

Mayor James Melfi, who was not in favor of the formation of a committee and said he likely would veto any legislation creating such a body, said the water fund is in the red for a number of reasons, but will be made solvent in 2009.

The mayor said one reason for a water-fund deficit is the $234,000 annual payment for the Girard Lakes that must come out of that fund. He also said the city’s expenses for water have increased by 65 percent, but only 35 percent of those increases have been passed on to water customers.

Among reasons for the deficit, Melfi said, are failing internal mechanisms that caused leaks and increased the city’s repair costs this year. Another reason offered by the mayor is the overall economy and many people simply not paying their water bills.

Melfi said the closing of Indalex, at one time the city’s largest water purchaser, also had a negative effect on the water fund.

The mayor said he has asked council to create legislation that will “put more teeth” in laws that allow the administration to collect past-due water bills and ensure that everyone is paying their fair share for utilities.

“I, as mayor, am personally overseeing that these delinquent [water] bills are caught up or shut off. People will pay these bills or be shut off,” he said.

The city plans to install automated water meters that allow accurate monthly reading of meters, something Melfi said should bolster collections and money going into the water fund.

Costarella said he supports the idea of the new water meters but will not vote to spend the money to buy the meters until there is accurate oversight of the water department.

jgoodwin@vindy.com