At last week's Budget Planning Group meeting the Water Commission submitted a statement of revenue, expenditures and changes in the fund balance, FY 2011, August 31, 2010.
Mostly due to the dry summer, the numbers look good but more importantly our new commissioners, Chris Seebeck and Peter DeCaprio, have been using their financial experience and acumen to establish a consistent methodology and reporting format along with a normal management process and reporting from the Commission consistent with the Town's financial office.
The Commissioners plan to establish a more corporate reporting format and to produce financial reports to Town Hall on at least a monthly basis with a goal of weekly reporting.
In the past there's been a lot of bleeding between capital and operating expenditures but no longer. While the revenue side is easy, sorting though the expenses has been challenging.
Previously up to 50% of the processed water was not billed. Through increased efforts the Commission has identified 5 illegal connections. Imagine citizens in our community deliberately bypassing their water meters. Shame, shame. Efforts to detect and fix leaks have also made a difference. Now almost 85% of the processed water is billed!
They're aggressively examining the contract with American Water and visiting neighboring water plants talking with their counterparts. Expect recommendations soon as to the future operations of the water plant.
Once Chris and Peter are done with water, I want to shift them over to sewer!
On a related note, the audit is progressing nicely with both the water and sewer commissions as well as the finance department cooperating fully with the auditors. Everything looks to be on track for a report to the November Town Meeting.
5 comments:
How the water commission handle theft? Do people pay a fine, or do they just start paying from the time they are "caught."
Are the identities of the persons who are responsible for these five illegal connections going to be published? That would seem like a reasonable deterrent. Massachusetts General Law Chap. 165, Section 11 sates that whoever uses are causes to be used the water supplied by a town unless it passes through a meter set by such town shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. Furthermore, the Water Department’s Rules and Regulations specify a fine of $5,000 for unauthorized connection to the water system (and further prosecution according to the law), and a fine of $100 per day for meter tampering. Cohasset has the highest water rates south of Boston, if not in all of Massachusetts, and it’s people like this that are ripping-off all of us, not just the Water Dept. We need to know who the violators are, how they were discovered, and how long they were doing it.
I agree with Sono Buoni - publication should be part of the punishment. Years ago, when Fred Koed was chairman of the water commission, violators' names were given to the press. It would certainly be interesting to know if these people were filling their swimming pools and watering their trees or were truly desperate.
I am not a big fan of public shame, but if we did this in the past then maybe it is important to start it again.
The $5,000 fine is a good one. There has to be some cost to the person/firm that went around the meter.
As it was explained to me by one of the Commissioners, they assessed the offenders an $8,100 fee for new service and a theoretic assessment of water usage to recoup billings plus another minor fee for repositioning the water gate. How this relates to the $5,000 fine plus $100 per day is unclear. In one example this added up to $18,000. Is the financial burden sufficient to prevent further abuse? I'm not sure it is. I'm all in favor of publishing the names of the offenders. Actions have consequences. If you stole from a store, and were of age, the newspaper would publish your name. How is this theft different?
The Town is aware of the increasing burden on some of our residents and has long had a deferment program in place: if you qualify, you can get a reduction in your quarterly fee. At the November town meeting, we will be asked to approve a deferment program for water (& sewer) usage.
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