I was pugnacious in the last post. Now, I feel like a jerk on a chain with my leaders feeding me high and holy purposes to capture my heart.
Representatives Nathan Ramsey and Tim Moffitt published over the weekend information sheets about why the state should put Asheville’s water system in the hands of a regional authority. I’ve only been to a few dozen meetings on the subject and read only about six inches of reports (8.5” x 11” x 6”) through the years. Maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but one thing is certain: The public is being yanked around like fools devoid of understanding. We are devoid of understanding, because those who would be in the know aren’t telling us the full story.
Ramsey and Moffitt reminded us that Asheville’s water system is unique and that it has a history. Could somebody please explain what that means to those clueless as to where to begin due diligence on the relevance of those terms?
Asheville has the one of the leakiest water systems in the state. Yes, but it has four seasons and mountains with huge pressure differentials. Asheville does not have the privilege of laying PVC pipe once and for all in straight, warm fields.
The leaks are not due to Asheville’s negligence. They are due to the former regional authority’s ungainliness and diversity that led to an inability to get a majority to approve funding for necessary repairs. (I welcome correction, as I am relying on trusted second-hand information.) Standard & Poor’s called the board “dysfunctional,” when it noted getting rid of the board would help the city’s bond rating.
Asheville is faulted for transferring water revenues to its general fund. Asheville is the only city that cannot do this, thanks to the Sullivan acts. Thanks to amended legislation, 5% of water revenues can go toward laying sidewalk and streets over waterworks construction. Thanks to a creative workaround, the city put its billing department in the water department so it could divert water revenues to the general fund without exactly disobeying the Sullivan acts. To repeat, other municipal water systems have no legal restraints on the amount of revenue they divert into their general funds.
We’re told rates will increase. The city contracted with Brown & Caldwell for a study of their water rates. If memory serves, the city has been conservative about implementing the recommended rate hikes. The city even went so far as to create a new class of water user to be more merciful to industries that need a lot of water. Sadly for me, but happily for everybody else, one of these industries is brewing. If we start smelling like Milwaukee, I’m outta here. But that’s beside the point.
Back when the water controversy was repercolated with Asheville’s threats to dissolve the regional water authority, arguments were really strange. The schools were panicked that they would have to pay twice as much for water when the city had never, ever, in any way proposed raising rates that high for people outside the city. The city argued that it took more money to send water out-county, when water had to be piped from Black Mountain past several county residents to get it into the city.
County experts gave me a lot of internally-inconsistent information that didn’t check out, so I started favoring the city’s position overall. The best argument for charging differential rates was tax equity. The city has plowed into the heads of its citizenry a white paper that whines that the city’s daytime population is twice its nighttime, and emergency calls for service are out the roof. Asheville’s ratio of day to night users was compared to that of other cities, but I read recently where one town down east (Was it Cary?) had a daytime population thrice its nighttime.
To address the tax equity issue, the legislature is proposing again the creation of a regional recreational authority. Cost savings would likely be realized with the merger, but the concept sounds silly.
Other concerns include a fear that the regional authority might interfere with land use planning. I don’t know why Republican representatives would try to use strong land use planning as a selling point. Another problem is that privatization is demonized. Somehow, the left wing became concerned that Moffitt wanted the water system to be taken from Asheville so he could sell it to the Koch brothers, who, in turn, would use the water for fracking, which would destabilize the region’s geology.
Simple privatization without the conspiratorial strings would be just fine, provided the private party paid a fair price to the city and provided water at competitive rates. Pending legislation would not compensate the city for its assets. It is said that the city doesn’t own the water system. The last I heard, deeds had to be researched. Is it true that private ownership of lines has been retained by developers, and that a significant number did not dedicate them to the city? I dunno.
Lastly, Susan Fisher became famous for flip-flopping on the water issue. Then, the Buncombe County Commissioners flip-flopped. I, too, can flip-flop, but the wee little brain needs more information and less antagonism when I ask for it. I fantasize about somebody in government courageously standing up and telling us what we’re missing, even if all we’re missing is that this is nothing more than a power struggle.