Does Cuyahoga County REALLY Want Reform?

Over the past 2 years we have seen several insincere attempts of reforming, restructuring and streamlining Cuyahoga County government. There have been committees formed, State Senators & Representatives assembled, proposals put forth and we are still at square one, barring a few minor proposed changes.

Overall, we are no further today than where we were when all these “know more than us” politicians and community group smarty-pants first put their empty minds together to save the region that they have pretty much let go to crap.

I have always said this reform movement is a joke and is being driven by Commissioner Hagan and the business community as a way to further consolidate their strangle hold that has been killing this region. Besides allowing one person, Louis Stokes, to over power the selected group – there were no meaningful discussions on how to improve this region.

Here is where I will prove my case…

Over the past year or so there has been several major breaks in water lines owned by the City of Cleveland and serviced by the City of Cleveland Water Dept (CWD). Now the PD is highlighting the billing problems many of the 1.5 million CWD customers are experiencing.

The City of Cleveland Water Dept. owns & services somewhere in the ballpark of over 6000 miles of water line. These waterlines service four counties - Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, & Summit. The footprint for the City of Cleveland proper sits over approximately 25% - 28% of the 6000 miles of waterline. The total daily consumption of water for the City of Cleveland alone is approximately 25%-28% of the overall total daily consumption and only 33% of the 1.5 million customers are City of Cleveland residents or businesses.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has blackmailed many area communities into signing onto his Joint Economic Development Agreement, better known as his “no-poaching” agreement. In this 20-year agreement, cities will agree to a limited payroll tax-sharing plan with the City of Cleveland should any business leave Cleveland and relocate in their city. In exchange for signing onto this agreement – Mayor Jackson proposed only a minimal increase in the water bills and pledged to invest $10 million a year for 5 years on repairing waterlines.

The devil is in the details with this plan… any waterline repair project the cities may have, now get lumped in with Cleveland’s. When the CWD goes to select how this $10 million would be spent, they review their existing problems and the waterline woes of the cities that signed the JED. This would also apply when making applications for grants.

The City of Cleveland is pushing hard that by signing on, they, CWD, will make any and all repairs to the waterlines. The problem is, even before the JED, as owners, CWD already makes any and all repairs all breaks on the water line. Any city choosing not to participate would have a higher rate increase and would not benefit from the $50 million in promised repairs. The only communities responsible for repairing waterline breaks are Master Meter cities. All other communities are responsible for water line rehab projects on distribution mains and CWD is responsible for maintaining transmission mains.

A fair estimate for installing 1 mile of waterline, depending on conditions and the exact scope of work, is approximately $400,000 - $500,000. Not even getting into where Mayor Jackson thinks he will finding this extra $10 million a year, we could see it will not go very far. If a city participating in the JED wishes to undertake a waterline project that is not selected, they will be responsible for any funding.

With this, it can easily be said that Cleveland Water Dept is operating as an unregulated public utility affecting users throughout four counties. Being the only provider of water, depending on location, many communities have no choice but to use CWD. The only power any community being served by CWD – is the power of suggestion. They are all subject to the whims of one man – Mayor Frank Jackson and the financial needs of Cleveland.

During a RPCC meeting in 2007 we were wrangling with our party platform in which the county reform came up. In these discussions I questioned the sincerity of the county reform and asked why the restructuring of CWD was not on the table. My questions went unanswered then and again in 2008. To be fair, I have also asked my local democrat elected officials the same and also recieved no response.

SO if any of the elected officials of this area are truly sincere in making change – why is the one single entity, CWD, having a monopoly over service, operating as an unregulated utility and affecting the most residents of Cuyahoga County not being the first thing discussed when they talk about county reform.

CWD should be disbanded and put under the authority of a Regional Water Commission broken down into Service Districts. This commission should be comprised equally of elected officials, City Service Directors, City Engineers and community stakeholders (residents) from areas that are being served.