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Council votes down water rates control
GIRARD
The city council has voted down an ordinance that would have given it rather than city administrators the right to raise water rates.
Council defeated the ordinance 4-2 at its Monday meeting.
In favor of it were 1st Ward councilman Stephen Brooks and councilman-at-large Joseph Shelby. Shelby sponsored the legislation.
Third-Ward councilman George Eicher was not at the meeting.
If it had passed, the ordinance would have based water rates on the cost of living as gauged by the Consumer Price Index.
The ordinance called for the city’s public-service director to submit a proposed water-rate schedule every year to council before March 1, including the CPI annual cost-of-living adjustment.
The council could change the proposal if it decided it was inconsistent with the needs for operating and maintaining the water system.
Shelby said his aim was to keep control of the rates out of the hands of administrators so they didn’t consider political ramifications.
He said the city has increased water rates only “in retrospect,” and there has not been enough money for maintenance.
The ordinance was tabled at a meeting in November and sent back to the utilities committee so the committee and the law director could reconsider it.
Mayor Jim Melfi said Friday that he believes the decision to raise water rates should rest with the administration.
“I believe it should always be in our hands,” he said. “We try our very best to keep costs down.
“We are at the mercy of outside influences such as the [Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, from which the city gets water],” he said.
“[The water rates are] nothing the legislative body should have in their hands,” he continued. “That has been the case for decades. Why change it now?”