I assumed that the special called meeting of the commissioners would last no more than fifteen minutes since the two topics had already been settled in committee meetings. Twenty minutes into the meeting I realized my assumption was grossly incorrect. Sadly, there is no public recording of the meeting because of my assumption. The agreement to sell the house was swiftly approved. The Water Board was one commissioner against the politically connected power base and silent commissioners.
Neighborhood Stabilization House sale
The special called meeting opened with the customary gaveling to order by the chairperson followed with a clearing of the room for the closed door session. Maybe five minutes later the doors reopened and the public meeting resumed. The County Attorney Jonathan Care informed the Board, probably for the second time this time publically, that an offer was on the table to buy the house at 203 College Street for the asking price with a Neighborhood Stabilization grant. The Board swiftly approved Commissioner Garrison’s motion to accept the offer once the buyer’s signature sealed their offer. Before the Board of Commissioners could morph into the Water Board Mr. Care tossed the first of two spike strip onto the road to a short meeting. Mr. Care suggested the full Board vest the Planning and Environmental committee with authority to accept future offers without the full Board’s approval. His rational, convening the committee to approve the flood of offers is simpler than waiting the two days for the full Board to meet. Commissioner Brummitt cautioned the need for some parameters set around the committees’ authority. Commissioner Garrison suggested something except so softly those in the peanut gallery could not here his suggestion. Chairwoman Brown said she wants the staff involved in approving the sell of the other five houses. A complete lack of consensuses ended the discussion.
Water Board
The Board morphed into the Water Board and the meeting slowed down. At the Water Board Committee meeting last Tuesday, three commissioners and the Deputy County Manager Jordan McMillan dissected and revised the marketing brochure to sell water to the unwilling and uninterested. Mr. McMillan presented a single sheet of white paper with maybe four printed lines at the top of a paper as the mockup of the new marketing brochure. Commissioner Garrison commented that it was his understanding a complete mockup of the revised brochure would be presented to the full Board for their review and approval. In the real world of business four lines atop a single sheet of paper is not a complete mockup of a double sided tri-fold brochure.
All Mr. McMillan was providing the full Board pertains to a single sentence regarding post construction capacity fee. Commissioner Brummitt’s stated in both the committee and the full Board meetings the county needs to get more customers connected to the water lines to make the project self-sustaining. In Commissioner Brummitt’s view lowering the post construction cost might induce some of the uninterested into tapping the line in the future. During the committee meeting Commissioner Brummitt successfully argued for a $500 post construction capacity fee; a $1,500 reduction for from the initial and arbitrary $2,000 fee. During the full Board meeting, Envirolink (the out of county for profit business operating and maintaining the water system) confirmed that the capacity fee of $2,000, or $500 or zero dollars does not improve the cash flow of the water system. Commissioner Brummitt made a motion to lower the capacity fee to zero dollars from $2,000. The five other commissioners sat in total silence for almost minute until Commissioner Hester said the motion dies without a second. Chairwoman Brown repeated that the motion dies for the lack of a second. Commissioner Hester quickly moved to lower the post construction capacity fee to $500. His motion was seconded and readied for the approval vote when Commissioner Brummitt said that commercial customers should pay a higher post construction capacity fee than the residential customers pay. Mr. Care second spike stick was an objection to using the terms residential and commercial to differentiate types of customers. He suggested using tap size as the differentiator. Adding that a ¾ inch tap is customary for residential usage and anything larger is non-residential. Commissioner Brummitt pointed out that a private residential home more than 500 feet from the road requires a 1 inch tap to achieve the same water pressure in a home with a ¾ inch tap 50 feet from the road. Commissioner Taylor added to this discussion saying that a private residence located more than 500 feet from the road should pay more for water because they had to paid more to run the line from the road to their private home. After 45 minutes of this comedy the full Board approved the new marketing brochure sight unseen and without knowing how many asterisks are required to define the post construction capacity fee.