Forsyth County Pays City Water Bill ‘Under Protest’
--By Stella Lohmann on --
August 31, 2012—CUMMING, GA/Forsyth County Attorney Ken Jarrard recommended commissioners vote to pay current city water usage invoices “under protest” even though there is no completed Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA). The 25 year old water usage contract between the city of Cumming and Forsyth County expired in May and commissioners held a special called meeting to decide what to do next.
Forsyth Board of Commissioner Todd Levent opened the ‘special called meeting’ clearly frustrated over Cumming’s Mayor Ford Gravitt’s ‘scare tactics’ last week threatening to shut off raw water to the county. The back and forth finger pointing between county commissioners and city officials has strained negotiations within the BOC as well.
“Anyone dealing in good faith doesn’t threaten to turn off the water,” said Levent as Commissioner Patrick Bell defended the city’s right to negotiate. “We’ve never gone without water.”
“They’ve never gone without money,” Levent answered.
And so it went for much of the hour meeting. At the basis of the city-county standoff are existing raw and finished water agreements that the county presumed were completed following multiple attempts to resolve a now expired 25 year water usage agreement between the city and the county. Levent presented documents showing that the city violated a letter signed by the Mayor agreeing to terms presented in a ‘binding’ proposal yet the mayor returned another with additional pages and conditions. The special meeting stagnated over whether the county should comply with the city’s new demands.
“Things are different now,” explained Levent. “The EPD (Environmental Protection Division of Georgia Natural Resources) is considering our request for our own permit but is waiting to see what happens in our negotiations with the city.”
“The authority has to make a profit,” countered Bell as discussion continued between primarily himself and Levent.
That ‘authority’ Bell referred to, “Enterprise Water System”, Is an entity Dr. Joe S, Moses, believes is at the center of the water tug-of-war. In an exclusive interview with Cumming Home.com, Dr. Moses, who currently serves on the Forsyth Planning Commission, says he is filing for a second Open Records Request to find out why.
“The city had an engineer probably a month ago make a presentation. His recommendations, after doing that study, were to double water rates. He gave no back up information,” continued Moses. “I think he just pulled them out of the air or was given a directive.”
On July 26th Moses says he filed his first Open Records Request and was not satisfied when he received only 26 pages. “That ‘was a bunch of garbage and we let them know we would go to the attorney general with the ORR’. Since then Moses says he has received 300 pages of information.
“As soon as they got information that we were serious and wanted to know the relationship between the engineer and the city, then magically 300 (pages) appeared. I’m in the process of filing another ORR to determine what ‘Enterprise Water System’ is (and what authority it has over the water issue.)
Near the conclusion of the meeting, the commissioners voted 4 to 0 w to approve the payment of the July 31, 2012 raw water invoice and the August 6, 2012 finished water invoice from the city of Cumming. The motion to approve to pay the invoices specifically stated that the payment is made under protest. The BOC will meet next Thursday in the Administration Building hoping someone will have solutions that will bring the water contract to completion.
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- Forsyth County Commissioner Todd Levent, photo by Stella Lohmann
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- Forsyth County BOC Special Called Meeting August 30, 2012, photo by Stella Lohmann
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- Commissioner Todd Levent and Commissioner Patrick Bell debate the Water Contract issue; photo by Stella Lohmann
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- Forsyth County BOC Special Called Meeting August 30, 2012, photo by Stella Lohmann
OTHER ARTICLES ON WATER NEGOTIATIONS:
http://cumminghome.com/levent-calls-mayors-latest-threat-irrational-and-unreasonable/
http://cumminghome.com/forsyth-county-tea-party-chair-hal-schneider-speaks-out-on-water-issue/
Hal Schneider
September 1, 2012 at 2:36 pm
What I think is that this is headed to court because we have two county commissioners, Tam and Bell, who are representing the Mayor in these negotiations, instead of the citizens of the county. For some reason, they believe that it is thei
r responsibility to protect the Mayor from a loss of water revenues because the county no longer (or soon will no longer) needs to purchase finished water from the City. This will mean a loss of about $4M annually going to the City’s Public Utilities Department. Bell and Tam apparently feel that it is perfectly legitimate for the Mayor to FORCE the county to buy water they don’t need. or to make up the $4M difference by increasing the rate the City charges for RAW water.
It is interesting to note that the Mayor actually stated in a City Council Public Meeting that he was LOSING money on the treated water that he sells to the County! If true, would it be fiscally responsible of the Mayor to halt the sale of TREATED water to the County as soon as possible, instead of INCREASING the amount according to his latest counter-proposal.
The Mayor also whines that the County has not paid the $11.4M he says they owe for intake upgrades made in 2009. My first question is, “Why did you wait over two years, until January 5, 2012, to send the county an invoice for this work (hand carried to the BoC by Brian Tam, BTW)?” My second question is, “Why did you not abide by the terms of the water contract in effect at that time (2009), and obtain written consent of the Board of Commissioners stating that the county would share in those costs?” My third question is, “How is it that you had every penny of the $17M needed to complete the upgrade in CASH and did not have to borrow one red cent? Where did that money come from?” Hint, hint! The water customers, including the County, who had been overcharged for years built up that reserve for you. My fourth question is, “Didn’t the County include payment of that invoice as one of the terms of the agreement that both the City and the County signed on May 24th of this year? The same “agreement in principle” that you, the Mayor of Cumming, later reneged on?”
Eddie Knight
September 2, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Mr. Hal , We will be moving/closing out of cumming on 9/27/2012. I am not understanding how you no so much about these agreements with the city or county about water issues. At the plant where I worked itwas called stupid. Idiots don’t know nuthin about nuthin. Eddie happy too Knight fishin
Bill Evelyn
September 3, 2012 at 6:49 am
Yet the citizens of the Socialist Republic of South Forsyth returned this mastermind and crookster Brian Tam to office.
All of you that voted for Tam deserve to get what you voted for and get it hard.
Hal Schneider
September 3, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Eddie, these agreements and the current negotiations are all on the public record and available to anyone who takes the time to look for them. I have also attended almost all of the BoC meetings where the water contract was discussed. I also got appointments to see key players like Tim Perkins and some of the Commissioners who are more than knowledgeable about the intimate details of the proceedings and very willing to share that inofrmation. It’s called getting involved and educating yourself!