Another fine mess
To the editor:
Very often you must look into the past in order to peer into the future. It seems anytime the city staff wants something we have another crisis. In November of 2007 we had a crisis going on as well. At the first meeting when four new council members were installed there was a crisis. They had to pass an $80 million dollar budget amendment (increase) or they would be in violation of Florida State Statutes. That was the crisis of the day. We hear it quite often we must do something now. We had another crisis at the council meeting Monday night. If we did not pass a series of utility rate increases then we would have a problem with our bond covenants (the new gun).
This is three years in a row that staff needs more money to feed the U.E.P. Parasite. A rate hike we put into effect in 2007. This hike was a four-year increase and if I remember right that increase went into effect on Oct. 1, 2007. For sewer, the first and second year increased 10 percent each and the next two years were 9 percent each. This equated to a 43 percent increase in a four-year period. The water increase was a 7 percent increase each year for the same time frame and equated to a 31 percent increase over the four-year period. I call these hefty increases but they weren’t hefty enough. In March of 2008 we saw another study. We needed an even a greater increase than the one in 2007. In fact we weren’t even into the second year of 2007 increases and we heard the battle cry “We Need More.” Now in 2009, guess what, we need another rate increase.
Last night the staff hit the council right between the eyes and killed two birds with one stone. They are able to position the council for the restart of the U.E.P. and get a huge increase in utility rates all in one shot. The council was told that utilities projects must be restarted in order to keep the rates below a projected 92 percent increase. If history is a guide next year we may be seeing another increase that exceeds the 92 percent rate hike we are attempting to avoid. I believe restarting the U.E.P. will only exacerbate the credit situation more. People will not pay cash for their assessments and impact fees. That means that the city will be forced to sell more bonds. That means a larger revenue stream will be required to support additional bond sales and equates to higher utility rates not lower utility rates.
As usual the council fell for it hook line and sinker. Another crisis and another vote that winds up taking more out of the pockets of the residents. The council doesn’t want to hear that we bought a water plant that we didn’t even need. Another embarrassing page in Cape Coral history and now the residents on the utility system must pay for a $140 million dollar white elephant in hard economic times. There are two cherries on this cake for staff. No one is responsible and nothing wrong happened. If you cannot admit your mistakes and analyze them there is no way to keep it from happening again.
If staff used that same energy and ingenuity to help the residents we would be in much better shape right now. The problem is that their solution is always the same. Raise rates, fees and taxes. This is a good thing if you have an unlimited supply of money but the residents can’t keep on paying and paying and paying. In hard economic times we should be lowering the costs to help our hard pressed residents in bad economic times not hindering them.
We have a highly paid staff and city manager. They created this mess it should up to them to fix it. If they can’t clean up their own mess then it’s about time we get someone who can. The residents should not be bailing out the staff, it should be the other way around.
Council meetings are not unlike watching the old Laurel and Hardy Comedies. If you listen carefully you can almost hear, “That’s another fine mess you’ve got me into Stanley.” This would actually be funny if it wasn’t so egregious.
John Sullivan
Cape Coral Minutemen