Something stinks at the sewer plant

“Bond monies seem to have been spent on projects not within their scope, while items that were to have been included were ignored.”

Guest viewpoint

By Rod Schilling
City Council member of Lakeside

After three weeks of contemplation and much fact gathering, these are my thoughts regarding Lakeside’s sewer plant.

At January’s city council meeting, the new council members were sworn in and seated, ready to start work overseeing the running of the City of Lakeside in a manner supported by a vast majority of its voting residents. I was voted in as the President of the council and Clark Anderson and myself were appointed to co-chair the sewer plant and public works by Mayor Orville Nelson.

Several days after the meeting, a tour of the sewer facilities was arranged for councilman Anderson and myself. It was led by Mayor Nelson and plant superintendent Phil Heely. The facilities appeared to be in excellent mechanical condition and for the most part were clean and, with a couple of exceptions, compliant with local codes and laws.

Three hours later, we left the plant satisfied with the co-operation provided by both Mayor Nelson and Phil.

Some days later, however, a phone call to Mayor Nelson provided me with a very different level of co-operation. The Mayor informed me that he had “heard rumors” around town that I was somehow undermining his running of the facility and that I would no longer be involved in running his sewer plant.

I asked the mayor why he had not contacted me regarding the rumors, but he refused to respond.

The call was very bazaar. I wondered if I was even talking to the same person who had so cordially given the tour a few days earlier. I was looking forward to working with the mayor to solve some of Lakeside’s many problems and am not used to being lied to.

I was taken aback, as you might imagine. At any rate, we’ll see how this pans out. The next council meeting will be interesting.

Upside down running of sewer plant

In regard to the sewer plant, I do see some very troubling problems that sorely need to be addressed. First and foremost the overhead structure of the plant (the employees) is totally upside down.

The plant’s supervisor and highest paid employee is not certified to even the most basic level required to run the facility. The two employees under him who do have intermediate level certificates are directed, evaluated, and paid less than the person that they answer to.

I can only imagine that this also creates some morale issues. This also means that the unqualified supervisor who can not legally do even the simplest repairs to the step and steg systems must be attended by one of the certified employees, even if only one paid employee would suffice.

Having the city in this position also requires us to hire an outside source to sign off and keep the facility in compliance with D.E.Q. regulations. Also, it seems that the all-too-hands-on mayor takes an unqualified and overly exuberant role in the every day operations of the plant. This situation, in my opinion, would be better served with a proper supervisorial structure in place.

The facility supervisor has also amassed a huge amount of compensation time under the present circumstance. The plant lacks qualified oversight which invites this type of administrative problem as well as other issues.

Unaccountable spending found

Secondly, the finances of the plant are at issue. Bond monies seem to have been spent on projects not within their scope, while items that were to have been included were ignored.

A shop building costing $176.000.00 was built while test wells, airport fencing and tree clearing were left unfunded. It’s hard to get straight answers on how these decisions were made, but I will be endeavoring to do so.

Noise has been made by the mayor that the sewer fees would need to be increased to cover these costs already paid for by property taxes collected in the form of bond issues. This also smacks of mismanagement and gives credence to the need for qualified personnel to run the city’s departments.

Help me in fact finding

Lastly, I would like to thank the residents of Lakeside for their vote of confidence in a platform of open government that I will strive to live up to. I will be writing these articles as the need arises to keep the citizens informed of important items that affect their finances and city services.

Please contact me if you have any concerns or information pertaining to these issues. Also, don’t miss an opportunity to pray for those of us running your city. Get involved and consider attending the council meetings held the second Thursday of each month at the city building and our new workshop sessions on Monday prior to the meeting at 7:00 P.M.

See Ya There!

Editor’s note: Lakesideinfo.com is the publication of record for this city’s happenings. As such, we welcome guest columns from any and every elected official in town, and keep space reserved for a response by Mayor Nelson for the charges made in this piece, should he choose to do so (he has not taken up this offer to date).

And unlike those prehistoric newspapers, which help strip your countryside bare of trees, our printing press never closes!