Utility details water fee request (Citrus Springs)
A hearing will resume Monday on the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's proposal.By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET Published November 12, 2005
LECANTO - As the marathon meeting that lasted nearly 10 hours Thursday began to wind down, a rumpled Robert Sheets approached the lectern in Room 166 of the Lecanto Government Building.
"We've been here a day and a half and I'm not sure we've told you what we want you to do," the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's systems manager told members of the county's Water and Wastewater Authority.
When the hearing continues Monday, he said, FGUA officials will sum up their proposal on a single sheet of paper.
County and FGUA officials had hoped to wrap up the review of proposed water line fees in Citrus Springs and Pine Ridge before the building closed at 9 p.m. Thursday. But after 13 meeting hours, seven witnesses and more than two dozen exhibits containing hundreds of pages of data, they decided to call it a night.
The group, which began meeting Wednesday, will reconvene at 1 p.m. Monday, when the board will open up the meeting to public comment.
FGUA officials say the request behind the lengthy hours of expert testimony and cross-examination is simple: The utility wants to levy a $2,330 water line extension assessment on about 5,700 vacant lots in Citrus Springs. It says that assessment, in addition to an annual $17 fee in Citrus Springs and a $37 fee in Pine Ridge for line maintenance, will make the region's rapid growth pay for itself.
The Water and Wastewater Authority must decide whether those fees are fair and whether the FGUA's proposed construction is appropriate.
To justify their request to the county board that reviews water and sewer rates, FGUA officials assembled a team of engineers, accountants and administrators to testify.
They said that without the proposed assessments, the FGUA would have no way to fund growth other than raising rates.
In addition to extensive questions from FGUA attorney Brian Armstrong, the witnesses fielded questions from two attorneys who criticized the utility's fee plan.
Emily Peacock, a Tampa attorney representing the Citrus Springs Landowners Association, argued in cross-examinations throughout the hearing that the FGUA's proposed approach of levying fees infringes on some property owners' rights.
Utility service was guaranteed in the contracts of Citrus Springs property owners who bought land before 1989 from the Deltona Corp., she said. And some property owners who purchased land after 1989 prepaid $500 for water service and $1,000 for wastewater service.
The FGUA should determine who those property owners are before levying fees, Peacock argued, and those who have already paid should not be asked to pay again.
Peacock and Mike Twomey, a Tallahassee attorney representing the Pine Ridge Property Owners Association, also argued that the annual line maintenance fees are not justified.
Those fees would apply to vacant lots that are not connected to FGUA lines in areas that receive FGUA service. FGUA officials said during Thursday's meeting that the presence of water lines benefits the owners of vacant property by increasing property values and allowing for easy hookup upon request.
"It's our belief that the whole thing is the effort from the utility to capture additional dollars from a select group of people, and that it's discriminatory," Twomey said Friday. "It's unwarranted."
In a staff opinion distributed to Water and Wastewater Authority members before the hearing, utilities regulation director Robert Knight wrote that the proposal to charge line maintenance fees "smacks of double recovery," because existing customers already pay for line maintenance costs.
At Thursday's meeting, Knight also said the FGUA's proposed assessment area is too large and asked officials to put together a plan that would cut the assessment district in half.
Sheets said the FGUA would consider Knight's request over the weekend.
"I would say we're not going to reach a final order on this until our December agenda hearing," Knight said.
In July, the FGUA proposed a fee of $2,082 for residents of Citrus Springs and a $6,571 fee for residents of Pine Ridge who requested water line extensions after Dec. 1, 2003. FGUA officials eventually scaled back that proposal, eliminating the line extension fees for Pine Ridge residents and changing the proposed starting date several times.
In September, the Water and Wastewater Authority approved an interim fee of $2,068 for Citrus Springs residents requesting water line extensions.
The FGUA's original fee proposal presented in July drew intense criticism from residents and county commissioners.
Since then, Sheets has become a familiar figure at Citrus County government meetings, attempting to assuage the fears of skeptical county officials who have said the utility lacks accountability.
Last month, the County Commission voted unanimously to hire a Tallahassee law firm to help the county evaluate whether to purchase the FGUA's 11 Citrus County systems.
Thursday evening, Sheets stressed once again that the FGUA was not the county's adversary, but a partner.
"If you build it, they will come," Water and Wastewater Authority Chairman Mike Smallridge said in response to Sheets' explanation of the need to levy assessments to fund growth.
"They're going to come, and we're going to have to build it," Sheets replied.
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.
LECANTO - As the marathon meeting that lasted nearly 10 hours Thursday began to wind down, a rumpled Robert Sheets approached the lectern in Room 166 of the Lecanto Government Building.
"We've been here a day and a half and I'm not sure we've told you what we want you to do," the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's systems manager told members of the county's Water and Wastewater Authority.
When the hearing continues Monday, he said, FGUA officials will sum up their proposal on a single sheet of paper.
County and FGUA officials had hoped to wrap up the review of proposed water line fees in Citrus Springs and Pine Ridge before the building closed at 9 p.m. Thursday. But after 13 meeting hours, seven witnesses and more than two dozen exhibits containing hundreds of pages of data, they decided to call it a night.
The group, which began meeting Wednesday, will reconvene at 1 p.m. Monday, when the board will open up the meeting to public comment.
FGUA officials say the request behind the lengthy hours of expert testimony and cross-examination is simple: The utility wants to levy a $2,330 water line extension assessment on about 5,700 vacant lots in Citrus Springs. It says that assessment, in addition to an annual $17 fee in Citrus Springs and a $37 fee in Pine Ridge for line maintenance, will make the region's rapid growth pay for itself.
The Water and Wastewater Authority must decide whether those fees are fair and whether the FGUA's proposed construction is appropriate.
To justify their request to the county board that reviews water and sewer rates, FGUA officials assembled a team of engineers, accountants and administrators to testify.
They said that without the proposed assessments, the FGUA would have no way to fund growth other than raising rates.
In addition to extensive questions from FGUA attorney Brian Armstrong, the witnesses fielded questions from two attorneys who criticized the utility's fee plan.
Emily Peacock, a Tampa attorney representing the Citrus Springs Landowners Association, argued in cross-examinations throughout the hearing that the FGUA's proposed approach of levying fees infringes on some property owners' rights.
Utility service was guaranteed in the contracts of Citrus Springs property owners who bought land before 1989 from the Deltona Corp., she said. And some property owners who purchased land after 1989 prepaid $500 for water service and $1,000 for wastewater service.
The FGUA should determine who those property owners are before levying fees, Peacock argued, and those who have already paid should not be asked to pay again.
Peacock and Mike Twomey, a Tallahassee attorney representing the Pine Ridge Property Owners Association, also argued that the annual line maintenance fees are not justified.
Those fees would apply to vacant lots that are not connected to FGUA lines in areas that receive FGUA service. FGUA officials said during Thursday's meeting that the presence of water lines benefits the owners of vacant property by increasing property values and allowing for easy hookup upon request.
"It's our belief that the whole thing is the effort from the utility to capture additional dollars from a select group of people, and that it's discriminatory," Twomey said Friday. "It's unwarranted."
In a staff opinion distributed to Water and Wastewater Authority members before the hearing, utilities regulation director Robert Knight wrote that the proposal to charge line maintenance fees "smacks of double recovery," because existing customers already pay for line maintenance costs.
At Thursday's meeting, Knight also said the FGUA's proposed assessment area is too large and asked officials to put together a plan that would cut the assessment district in half.
Sheets said the FGUA would consider Knight's request over the weekend.
"I would say we're not going to reach a final order on this until our December agenda hearing," Knight said.
In July, the FGUA proposed a fee of $2,082 for residents of Citrus Springs and a $6,571 fee for residents of Pine Ridge who requested water line extensions after Dec. 1, 2003. FGUA officials eventually scaled back that proposal, eliminating the line extension fees for Pine Ridge residents and changing the proposed starting date several times.
In September, the Water and Wastewater Authority approved an interim fee of $2,068 for Citrus Springs residents requesting water line extensions.
The FGUA's original fee proposal presented in July drew intense criticism from residents and county commissioners.
Since then, Sheets has become a familiar figure at Citrus County government meetings, attempting to assuage the fears of skeptical county officials who have said the utility lacks accountability.
Last month, the County Commission voted unanimously to hire a Tallahassee law firm to help the county evaluate whether to purchase the FGUA's 11 Citrus County systems.
Thursday evening, Sheets stressed once again that the FGUA was not the county's adversary, but a partner.
"If you build it, they will come," Water and Wastewater Authority Chairman Mike Smallridge said in response to Sheets' explanation of the need to levy assessments to fund growth.
"They're going to come, and we're going to have to build it," Sheets replied.
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.
posted by Editor Facts & Myths @ 10:35 PM
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