FINALLY! A WATER REPORT

Earlier this week at the Monday City Commission meeting, sometime between 3:30 and 4:00pm (before the public arrived for public comment) the Mayor headed over to the far corner of the room and made a phone call on her cell. This took place while the commission was discussing agenda city business.
I would not have bothered to note this, except shortly after those calls, Ken Reardon appeared at the dais and handed the Mayor a few documents. Again, no notice was taken by anyone, except me.

It wasn’t until after the business of the city was done that the Mayor went on to say there would be a presentation to the City Commission from US Water Supply's owner, Mr. Dermer. This is the company which was hired under the recommendation of the Palm Beach County Health Department to find the contamination issues which resulted in our first boiled water order.

It is now almost 6 months later and they are now fulfilling the role of active operational managers for our water plant. Is it unusual for a consultant to give a report and then stay on to fix the problem… maybe not, but it seems odd to me that the report repairs are being addresses by the reporting entity?

Anyway, it was Mr. Dermer’s opening statement that triggered an “AH HA” moment for me, when he asked that they excuse his appearance, but he had just been called half an hour ago to make to presentation. (minute marker 71:40)

THE IMAGE OF THE MAYOR IN THE CORNER ON HER CELL PHONE COMES TO MIND!

Let me say I was pleased to hear from US Water.
It’s the first time the public has had any presentation regarding our plant’s status from the folks hired to tell us what the problems are.
However, I say this not to nitpick, but to illuminate what I see as one of our problems;
I would have expected that a matter of this importance should have been noticed on the agenda (it was nowhere to be found on the printed agenda) and prepared ahead of time by the presenter. More importantly, I believe it should have been done at a time when the chambers might have had an audience; like after 5:00pm?

The information was both illuminating and educational.
It highlighted not only how we got here, but also what the current actions being taken are. If you are interested in hearing the whole presentation go to the Commission meeting (Monday, February 11) and start at minute marker 49:40

First witness the history lesson that the Mayor shared (obviously from the notes Reardon delivered). The dates seemed to be confusing, even to the Mayor, as she kept referring to the notes and reading from the documents. (I am sorry Mayor, seems that at this point you shouldn’t need Cliff Notes on our most pressing issue.)

I won’t go through the details of this presentation, but I strongly urge the public to witness the dialogue for themselves. Not only was the water plant discussed, there was also discussion regarding the surplus revenues which we have now learned were moved over to general fund. Listen closely as the Mayor blames the past administrations for putting this “finance tool” in place. The Mayor wanted to make this clear!

I do not agree that simply because it has been in place that this administration had to continue this activity, knowing that we had repair and maintenance issues with our water plant.

Anyway, listen to Mr. Dermer as he states in his statement that he is glad to finally glad to be before the City Commission to give them an update.

Mr. Dermer, I’m glad you are finally here to speak to us as well.
Do we know when we will hear back from you?
Hopefully, you’ll be given more then half an hour to prepare.