The Baltimore Banner, In stunning last-minute move, Baltimore task force forgoes vote on new water authority "The Baltimore Regional Water Governance Task Force ended its three-hour meeting by asking its consultant to go back to the drawing board and consider amending the city and county’s utility service agreement."
In the final minutes of the Baltimore Regional Water Governance Task Force’s penultimate meeting Thursday night — expected to end with a vote proposing study of a final option to reform Baltimore’s water and sewer system — task force members decided too many questions surrounding the financial impact of a quasi-public authority remain unanswered.
“Before I came to this meeting today, I must admit I thought I was hook, line and sinker set on” recommending a politically appointed water authority, said task force member Carla Reid, former general manager of Maryland’s largest water utility, WSSC.
But, with unresolved questions surrounding debt refinancing, the fate of city-owned water infrastructure assets and workers’ pensions, and whether low-income Baltimore-area residents would be plunged into high-rising water bills, Reid said, “it gives me pause.”
Reid’s comments came shortly after task force member Patrick Moran, president of an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union council, said the governance model the task force was prepared to vote on — a politically appointed authority composed of directors and a rate-setting board — seemed to be the privatized system that Baltimore comptroller and task force Chairman Bill Henry, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said they didn’t want.
Henry clarified that his position was “that we would not recommend leasing it out to a for-profit entity,” rather than a quasi-public authority.
“I’ll admit,” he added: “It’s the splitting of a hair. But it’s an important hair to split.”
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Face Time up at The Other McCain.
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