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Water department requires major upgrades
By YAEL T. ABOUHALKAHThe Kansas City Star
Customer service has been notoriously abysmal.
The agency has failed to make timely repairs to water line breaks.
The department hasn’t inspected or cleaned enough miles of sewer lines every year.
Its credit rating has been downgraded in recent years.
Yet mayors, City Council members and city managers for years have pretty much ignored the department, content to let it meander along.
That inexcusable attitude has to end with Mayor Mark Funkhouser, the current council and City Manager Wayne Cauthen.
These officials ought to make the Water Services Department — which has the second biggest city budget at about $183 million, behind the Police Department — a top priority for massive improvements.
That change in attitude would benefit not only Kansas Citians but also thousands of residents in Johnson County, Lee’s Summit, Liberty and other cities, all of which get water and/or wastewater service from Kansas City.
Take a look at the main concerns now facing the agency:
•Develop a solid plan to reduce the city’s wastewater pollution problem — and fairly finance the $3 billion tab.
•Prove it needs sky-high 12 percent rate increases in both water and sewer rates for 2008.
•Issue up to $150 million in water and sewer bonds, most from the $500 million package that voters approved in 2005.
•Get a permanent director, someone with the zeal and capabilities to reorganize and re-energize the department.
Now, how will the badly needed upgrades to this agency become reality?
Sewer system: The department and City Council must make sure all of the hundreds of millions in new revenue will be used efficiently to make wastewater repairs that keep the most sewage out of local waterways, especially during heavy rains.
It’s encouraging that the department is trying to systematically handle this urgent priority, especially with public hearings on how to fairly finance the sewer repairs.
Rate increases: Funkhouser and the council must more aggressively challenge the water department’s requests.
Sure, it takes more money to pay off bonds about to be issued.
And the agency — again thanks to poor leadership at the top in the past — has failed to maintain adequate cash reserves.
But the elected officials must make sure the department has well-designed plans for all of the extra $16 million a year it wants from customers in the upcoming budget.
New bonds: It’s especially frustrating that the department has failed to aggressively use the $500 million in bonds that voters approved in August 2005.
After that victory, former water Director Frank Pogge said the first bonds likely would be issued in 2006.
They weren’t, which was a disappointing mistake by Pogge’s administration.
In fact, none of the $250 million in water bonds has been used yet, and only $40 million has been issued for sewers.
New director: Pogge retired Dec. 31. Since then, acting Director James Buckler has served capably. He appears to have a real passion for improving the agency.
Buckler says he realizes the department faces big challenges: the near-20 percent vacancy rate in repair crews, the need for innovative engineering to solve many of the city’s water- and sewer-related problems, the need to enhance customer service.
Of course, if Buckler gets the top job, he’ll have to shake up the status quo, to get the department headed in a more positive direction, where innovation and change are rewarded.
Cauthen is in charge of hiring the director.
And this is a powerful appointment for the city manager, on par with the aviation director. (A state-created board chooses the police chief.)
Whether he selects Buckler or not, Cauthen soon must put in place permanent leadership for the Water Services Department at such a critical time.