Overview: Vote delayed until Sept. 5
The delay on the vote came due to the absence of 1st Ward Councilmember Laura Burns, who sponsored the proposal as chair of the public utilities committee.
MANSFIELD — Water, water everywhere, nor any vote to take.
That paraphrase of English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge from his The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798 could be used to describe the result of the primary topic for Mansfield City Council on Tuesday night.
Four years into a citywide water meter replacement program — and a month after local lawmakers first formally discussed adding a $75 monthly fee to customers who haven’t gotten new meters –– City Council delayed a scheduled vote on the topic.
The delay on the vote until Sept. 5 came due to the absence of 1st Ward Councilmember Laura Burns, who sponsored the proposal as chair of the public utilities committee.
Lawmakers spent nearly half of a 48-minute meeting on the topic, voting 5-2 to approve amending legislation offered by Public Works Director Dave Remy that would require a $75 “old meter manual billing charge,” beginning Nov. 1.
“I believe we should wait for the chair. (Burns) is the author of this piece of legislation. I believe it should be her decision or whether we should vote on it.”
4th Ward councilman alomar davenport
But even as 5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz — filling in for Burns in representing the utilities committee — made a motion to put the amended legislation up for a final vote, lawmakers suddenly hesitated.
“I believe we should wait for the chair. (Burns) is the author of this piece of legislation. I believe it should be her decision or whether we should vote on it,” 4th Ward Councilman Alomar Davenport said.
Council President David Falquette pointed out Burns was the sponsor of the legislation, but added others participated in writing it.
“It’s not unlike when anybody else is absent, but it’s up to you guys, what you want to do,” Falquette said.
Diaz withdrew his motion, prompting At-large Councilmember Stephanie Zader to propose moving the vote to council’s next meeting Sept. 5.
That motion was unanimously approved.
Council’s decision to delay came after a discussion on the merits of the proposal, which at that time called for an implementation date of Oct. 1.
When council discussed it in July, Remy said there were about 600 old meters of out 19,000 citywide that had not been replaced. On Tuesday, he said that had been reduced to 350, a decline of about 42 percent.
He also told council the city was currently out of new meters and was waiting on the arrival of new ones that had been ordered 30 to 45 days ago.
The meter shortage raised a red flag for 2nd Ward Councilmember Cheryl Meier.
“If we’re implementing this $75 charge for October 1st for people that don’t have the new meters and we don’t have new meters in stock to install, I see an issue with that. I see an issue with charging clients, and granted, they’ve had plenty of time to have the meters installed by now, but I just want to throw that out there,” Meier said.
6th Ward Councilmember Kimberly Motion questioned the need for any additional fee at this point, coming on the heels of the annual water rate increase that took place in January and a readiness-to-serve charge council approved in February.
“We’re already taxing our citizens with the (readiness to serve charge) as the water bill has increased. I understand that it’s their responsibility as well to make the call to get the appointment set up, to be there to get the water meter switched out.
“But the way things are now, $75 monthly (for those with old meters) is kind of steep. I don’t think we really thought about that process,” Moton said.
She suggested the city continue the efforts that had reduced the holdouts sharply in the last month or so.
“Is it something we can continue to do while we’re waiting (for the new meters) to come in?” Moton asked.
Zader replied it was time to move forward.
“We’re three years into this project. We have talked about this over and over and over again. We’re doing a disservice to everyone who did follow the rules by not enforcing the fact that they need to install their water meters.
“We’re supposed to have this ability to track our water usage to make sure if we have a leak, we can go in and look at that. We just have all of these things that we’re supposed to offer to our citizens, but we can’t because we have 300 and something people who didn’t follow the rules,” Zader said.
The $17 million city-wide meter replacement program, approved by City Council in May 2019, was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has continued to drag on.
At the time it was approved, city engineer Bob Bianchi, who said the project was necessary to replace aging water meters with a new and more accurate system, told council the new system would pay for itself through increased revenue.
In 2019, Bianchi told council the old meters were inaccurate and that the city only receives revenue on 40 percent of the water it produces. Bianchi said then the city produces 9.5 million gallons of water per day, yet only collects revenue on 3.8 millions per day, a 60 percent difference.
In other action Tuesday night, City Council:
— approved a resolution honoring Mansfield police Officer James Mark Perry, who retired Aug. 9. Perry, who joined the department in 2007, served in the community services bureau patrol section; the detective bureau’s major crimes unit as a family violence liaison officer; defensive tactics team; bike unit; CNT member; military liaison officer; and school resource officer.
— — Vote to demolish deteriorating structures at 36 W. Blanche St., 176 Blymyer Ave., 240 Cliffbrook St., 285 Reed St., 334 Louis St., 347 Louis St., 474 Bowman St., 558 Garfield Place and 596 Springmill St.
— approved a new lease agreement for Hangar 521 at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport to Christopher C. Thomas. The new lease replaces a lease scheduled to end Dec. 31. Thomas will pay $900 annually.