Gelding the Guardians
10/10/2015 -Article by Renee Wilkins

After months of city staff and Governing Body power plays to gain complete control over the city’s cash cow utilities fund, Councilor Lonnie Clayton has sponsored an ordinance change that would spell the death blow to the Utilities Commission, or at the very least will remove all its authority.
In recent months we’ve seen city officials struggle to validate their desire to continue raising water rates to feed the monster utilities fund.  They also want more debt to realize city staff’s dream of a state-of-the-art waste treatment system. And they want to continue to find creative ways to raid the utilities fund when they overspend in the general fund.

What they don’t want is a Utilities Commission that has any authority to stop any of this from happening, nor do they want one that contradicts them in their recommendations.  Councilor Clayton has proposed ordinance changes that should fix this neatly.

If passed, this ordinance will:

• Stop the Utilities Commission from making any recommendations for changes to a budget completed by the City Manager and approved by the Governing Body.
• Stop the Utilities Commission from developing any recommendations on anything, unless it is requested by the Governing Body.
• Allow the removal of any Utilities Commissioner for any reason with a simple majority Governing Body vote. (Currently, you have to at least have good cause for removal.)
• Provide a loophole so that not all districts have to be represented on the Commission.
• Eliminate the $50/month pay for each Utilities Commissioner.

It sounds punitive, doesn’t it? These changes come on the heels of the Mayor’s decree in June that he is exercising his right to appoint all Utilities Commissioners, pronouncing that only those with water experience need apply. This power grab came just a month after Utilities Chairman Ron Hensley spoke out about some questionable practices that were siphoning money from the Utilities Fund into the General Fund. Chairman Hensley lost his position on the Commission in July. Remember Councilor Shelby Smith’s comment in March after the Utilities Commission supported the water rate freeze? He said he didn’t even know why we have a Utilities Commission. Can he spell OVERSIGHT?

In one year this Governing Body encouraged by city staff have made more power grabs through ordinance changes and altering rules of procedure than the predecessors they used to criticize. We keep waiting for them to wake from this rabid power feeding frenzy to stand dazed and confused and say “Oh my gosh! What have we done?” 

In 2012 the voters unknowingly gave the Governing Body the power to eliminate the Utilities Commission under city ordinance. This Governing Body would never do that, of course - It would be too straight forward.  To render the Utilities Commission impotent in this way is cowardly.
The Governing Body will vote on this Wednesday, October 14th. Let’s hope they come to their senses and stop abusing their power.


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