Charles Sweat admits mistakes were made

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Utility official: Fences being mended
By Terry Witt


Charles Sweat admits mistakes were made. He calls them blunders. He wants to win back the confidence of the Citrus County Commission.

But how much fence mending will it take before commissioners are satisfied with the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's explanations about why it planned to impose property assessments for water line extensions in Pine Ridge and Citrus Springs without county oversight?

Sweat, director of operations for FGUA, told the Chronicle Editorial Board on Wednesday that FGUA will do whatever it takes to make things right. And he acknowledged plenty of things went wrong.

"This was a blunder. I've said it repeatedly. It was a mistake," Sweat said. "It was not the intention of FGUA to not provide information to the county commission."

The FGUA board began developing plans in January to assess Pine Ridge vacant lot owners for water line extensions to their properties. Pine Ridge lot owners were to pay $6,571 and Citrus Springs residents were to pay $2,082.

At the time, FGUA was facing record growth, especially in Citrus Springs, and needed millions more in revenue to pay for water line extensions, Sweat said. He said growth was 10 times the historical rate, and FGUA officials knew they were facing a shortage of revenue in August 2004.

Later that year, the government-owned utility came up with idea of imposing property assessments on the people who were causing the growth — lot owners who were not yet connected to the system.

However, FGUA failed to tell the county commission of its specific plans. And when commissioners learned of the size of the assessments, and insisted on a review by the county's Water and Wastewater Authority, FGUA resisted, saying the county had no power to review the assessments.

Since that time, FGUA has backtracked and removed Pine Ridge residents from the program. Also, residents who hooked to the FGUA system after Dec. 1, 2003, were removed from the assessment.

In hindsight, Sweat said, FGUA should have kept commissioners better informed, and he said FGUA now realizes how serious the county was about having the assessments reviewed locally. He said FGUA will allow a local review of the assessments.

"If that is their intention, we will honor the intent, even though I may not have agreed a week ago," Sweat said.

When the FGUA board meets at 10 a.m. Friday in the Citrus County Courthouse to consider approving the concept of an assessment in Citrus Springs, Sweat said his staff will recommend that FGUA agree to have the assessments reviewed by the water and wastewater authority.

But he was less certain about what would happen if the authority rules that the assessment is too high or shouldn't be imposed at all. He said the assessment numbers are based on actual construction costs.

"I won't say they are all wrong. They may disagree," he said.

The county commission adopted a motion on Tuesday saying the water and wastewater authority has the power to regulate the assessments.

Commissioners knew as early as last November that property assessments were being considered by FGUA. The utility had met individually with commissioners. Sweat said they also met individually with four of the commissioners in January to talk about the possibility of assessments. But no numbers were mentioned and commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips was not briefed.

The public was not told about the assessments until June.

Phillips said the first time she heard that assessments were actually going to be levied was when angry Pine Ridge residents approached the board two weeks ago carrying a letter from FGUA that noted residents had no choice but to pay the fees. She said she was caught by surprise. The letter was sent to more than 6,000 residents.

At a July 6 public workshop, which Phillips said FGUA failed to tell her about, the utility took its first public lashing for the assessments. After the meeting, FGUA decided to drop the retroactive assessments it had planned to levy on homeowners who connected to the water system after Dec. 1, 2003, or who had requested service after that date.

Still under heavy public pressure, FGUA's board decided last weekend to eliminate Pine Ridge from the assessment program altogether. Sweat said that was because many of the vacant lots in Pine Ridge belonged to Gulf to Lakes Associates, a development company, and those lots were withdrawn from the program last Friday. The developer has volunteered to pay for the line extensions when the time comes to build on the properties.

Sweat said the offer to withdraw came late. He said FGUA had sent three notices of the pending assessments before the offer was made to withdraw from the program.

Sweat said the remaining vacant lots in Pine Ridge can be connected to the system using existing customer revenues. But, he said, the assessment program remains in place for Citrus Springs.

However, commissioners are wary of FGUA's intentions. The board voted Tuesday to remove County Administrator Richard Wesch as the boss of county Utilities Regulatory Director Robert Knight. Wesch sits as one of three members of the FGUA governing board.

Commissioners said they believed Wesch had a conflict of interest in supervising Knight, who was in charge of advising the water and wastewater board about FGUA's rates. Knight is now works in the county attorney's office.

The board has also asked its staff to research the possibility of the county buying FGUA's 11 utilities in Citrus County.