Regarding the February 20th, 2012 City Council meeting.
Henderson City Council held a Special Called Meeting to correct an ordinance and policy governing certain water fees. I attended this meeting specifically to observe the city’s council in action. I live in the county so I have don’t have a dog in this fight.
After some formalities and setting of ground rules for public comments the Mayor opened the floor to those who registered to speak. We heard from eleven speakers. Many of the speakers vehemently objected to paying a fine for missing the due date of their water bill by a single day having been long term customer of city water. One speaker even asked the council, “are you going to address this issue or just hear public comments.” I think Ms. Elisa Yount’s presentation summarized what the other speakers were saying; that the city’s administration is blaming the customer for a flawed policy approved by the city council.
Before the meeting started, I overheard one man explaining that the city threatened to cut off water to his business because he refused to pay a $400 re-connect fee after twenty years of continuous service without a missed payment. I also overheard a story about a dentist’s servicing a patient when the water was cutoff without warning. Both the non-public complaints and the public complaints carried the same tone, anger at a flawed policy and an inerrant unsympathetic administration of that flawed policy. I digress.
After the last speaker the Mayor closed the public comment agenda item and moved to new business agenda. The Mayor turned first to the City Manager. Mr. Griffin started his remarks saying that after conversations with customers and council his administration has worked up some amendments. He immediately delved into the nuances and details of the amendments his administration had worked up. He should have stood up turned to the audience of 70 citizens an offered apology for crafting such a flawed policy and his staffs unsympathetic administration of that flawed policy.
Following Mr. Griffin the Mayor called on each Councilperson individually for their comments. This is a very structured formal process unlike the almost raucous County Commissioners process. Unlike the County Commissioners all Councilpersons spoke either directly or indirectly to the concerns expressed about this flawed policy. I heard six of the Councilperson express their apology for the impact to the citizens of this flawed policy.
In the end the Council voted to amend the flawed policy by correcting the most egregious flaws.
(1) Reduced the deposit to $75 for new a customer and a customer with a second late payment.
(2) No fee for disconnecting for not payment and keeping re-connect fee after disconnecting.
(3) Added a ten business day grace period for late payments before disconnecting.
(4) Agreed to refund fees paid by customer’s who missed were late only once.
As this year’s election draws near, voters should use this flawed policy as an indicator of their elected representatives awareness of ordinances and policies they approve. Also, I hope the County Commissioners take note of the City’s fiasco before they approve their as yet undrafted water ordinance for county wide water. I did speak with one commissioner after this meeting. That commissioner had taken note of the city’s fiasco.
Mr. Bobbitt,
Did you hear when the City Manager was beginning to speak and nobody in the back of the room could hear him and a guy from the front row yelled out that “you have $65K that was collected from re-connections,etc.” implying that the room should have a microphone system in place so that those in the gallery can hear. If I’m not mistaken it was either Anthony Butler or someone sitting near him that made the comment. It made Mr. Griffin “red in the face” as he said “I beg your pardon” when the comment was thrown towards him. Too funny!!!!!
If anything was proven it was the fact that the city council lives by a code and that code couldn’t give a rat’s backside about the average joe/jane!! I would have liked to hear an answer to one of the questions as to where did the city of Henderson get the manpower to cut off so many places or was an outside group brought in to assist!! That question was very “interesting” to say the least and I’m sure you’ll never get an honest answer from those around the ‘shoe’! City council members just remember this: Each of you are ELECTED and people will remember this fiasco come ELECTION TIME!!!! You better start your hand shaking, smiling, and kissing babies early this election cycle if you are up for election. I say a group of monkeys could do just a good a job as the representation that the city of Henderson currently has as its council members.
Mayor O’Geary got a lil’ red in the face a couple of times as well. I also heard the guy who refused to pay the $400 fee/fine b/c the water was cut off at one of his car washes. He said that he had been in the business for 15+ years and never had a problem. He also said that over the past 4-5 years he had paid the city of Henderson between 40-50 THOUSAND dollars for water at his businesses. When he refused to pay at this particular location on Ruin Creek Rd. he said that Sam Watkins went down and paid it for him. I’m guessing that this carwash is the one located beside the Shell Station over by Cracker Barrel. Way to go City Council!! You proved to be as ignorant as some of you sound when speaking!!!
Lastly, It was long ago said that “It is better to be thought a FOOL, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”!!! With that in mind council members, please be quiet and for some of you; enjoy your last little bit of time on the council b/c I’m sure you will be outed come next ELECTION!!!
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.
Mingo, very well said.
What I’d like to know is how many people it took to turn off all the water in one day and how much money it cost.I’m sure it wasn’t inexpensive.The next question is: how long did it take turn the water back on to all those homes and businesses and how much did that cost? When you first go into the Water Department to sign up for water/sewer you are told it will be 2-3 days before they can “get to it”.But it takes only a few hours to shut off 385 customers.That’s just not right! So much for saving 1 million dollars! Don’t the “Power’s that be” THINK before signing something into law.
On Town Talk yesterday, the City Mgr. said no extra help or overtime was needed to cut off or reconnect.