Liveblogging the Council Briefing During Which They're Discussing Hiking Your Water Bill

By Andrea Grimes Wed., Jun. 2 2010 at 10:34 AM

Categories: City Hall, Girl on Top

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If you've never met the director of Dallas Water Utilities, here she is: Jody Puckett

Walked into today's city council briefing a couple minutes late to catch Tennell Atkins talking about how Dallas needs "classy," and then they gave a long and lengthily introduced award to Wal-Mart wherein everybody was really enthusiastic and in no way embarrassed that they were giving an award to Wal-Mart. (Atkins was actually saying "classics," which I think has something to do with music. Tik tok.)

Following, an award was given to some girls from Hockaday who started a club called "Hang In There" for cancer patients, to whom they give sock puppets. You, like me, probably think there's a joke in there somewhere, but we are too classy to make fun of high schoolers and cancer, right? Right.

Then Dwaine Caraway talked about his Teen Summit and how awesome he-slash-it is, and everybody patted him on the back, and we all drew pictures of rainbows and picked some tasty berries and saved some kittens from trees.

And then it was time to let the public talk, giving many members of the council a chance to check Facebook, play some Angry Birds and pick out new tile. First up, a guy named Gonzalez who seems like he could give Avi Adelman a run for his rabble-rousing money.

His speech was about the "lyin' cheatin' sneakin' deceitful police department," and their presumably lyin', cheatin', sneakin', deceitin' activity in Northwest Dallas, specifically, "cops sneakin' around our neighborhood." Literally no one listened to him, which I thought was surprising, because Lakeview Terrace was a pretty interesting movie.

Then, dude named Randall White hopped up to the podium and everybody stopped playing Angry Birds and picking out tile and paid attention to him, because he's in charge of the Fort Worth Avenue TIF district in Oak Cliff. (He also was the mayor of City Hall on Foursquare until about 30 minutes ago, when I ousted his ass. Sorry, Randy.) He was politely pissed that the Dallas Housing Authority is moving some people from The Bridge into some low-income housing into his proverbial backyard.

Dave Neumann joined in the politely pissedoffness, asserting "sheer indifference, SHEER INDIFFERENCE!" on the part of the DHA for moving the poor/crazy folk into the rich/sane folk neighborhood, noting that they already have plenty of that in the Oak Cliff, TYVM. Much discussion ensued, with Leppert closing by saying we all need "good communication," which is sure to end class wars the world over.

Then, in a surprisingly effective and moving moment, community members and activists who run summer programs for kids brought a whole passel of them into the meeting and had them stand up to demonstrate the impact of closing libraries, public pools and parks and other rec facilities due to Dallas' giant budget fustercluck. Where will the kids go? What will they have to do? Atkins got his rhetorical question on, asking, "When you stop one thing, what do it affect down the road?" which is a pretty damned salient point.

Jody Puckett, the water utilities director was up next, talking about their proposed 4.2% rate increase for the next fiscal year, which will likely raise your water bill by one PBR ($2), so be sure to factor that into your budget. They've got a number of improvements and maintenance projects planned, and while they're short, budget-wise, right now, that's alright because, per Puckett, "Ideally we'd go fix it all at once, but then the whole city would be torn up." Dallas Water Utilities' gift to you, friends!

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But what did Adam Smith think of waffle trees? Because that would be. Freaking. Cool. [insert quote about imagination by Albert Einstein or someone else real smart]
Observist, paying minimum wage means we have an employed welfare case. I wish the commenters understood economics as well. Working full time for indigent wages doesn't help the economy. How's that 30 yrs of wage stagnation working out for this country Observist? The few rich don't spend like the many middle class. Adam Smith was opposed to the uber-rich who buy $100K golden trash cans--these purchases don't drive efficiency, don't help the general economy, and are appropriately taxed and restrained--Adam Smith. Your Goldman advisers might disagree, but they don't have much credibility--you should disdain the council of sophists. Our water supplies will come from OK. There is a river in SE OK that sends the daily water supply of Manhattan into the Red River. The Red River ruins any water due to it's sulfur, sand and salinity. Dallas purchased the rights to this water years ago. OK legislature has been fighting this, and the case may go to the Supreme Court, though currently the rulings favor Dallas. Dallas could boost conservation by using Brown water for irrigation, though that system is costly to install. Finally, Dallas' water rates are higher than they would be since we are forced to supply water to some lesser municipalities at our own wholesale rate.
ANNNNNdrea.
Is it ANN-drea or ahn-DRAY-ah?
Why can't there be a political party in the US that understands both economics and evolution? Paying an above-market "living wage" will just reduce the number of people we can hire to remove trash. If we pay 3 people $8/hour instead of 2 people $12/hour, we will distribute the same amount of money to poor people and get 50% more trash removal. Paying $12/hour is actually paying $8 for trash removal and $4 for welfare. If that's what we want to do, we should be transparent about it and reduce the trash removal budget and increase the welfare budget, not disguise welfare as trash removal. Of all the needy people in Dallas, should the trash removers be jumping to the head of the welfare line? You can't combine welfare means-testing with job hiring and not break all kinds of employment discrimination rules. "Um, sorry, for this position we can only hire someone with at least 3 dependents" If Angela Hunt thinks sanitation is the most important thing the city does, she should endeavor to provide the most sanitation possible for the taxpayers' money, not to arbitrarily allocate some of the sanitation budget to charity.
Do these guys get it that Andrea is 'live blogging' them? In real time, they can get an actual "take" on what one writer thinks of their fantasies.
This is MUCH more entertaining than Schultze's ol' city hall corruption postings. Thanks Andrea, for wasting my day!
That's all. Let's go get drunk.
The tables have turned! Now the council is really interested, because Davis is kind of a hoot, rattling off a Christmas list of desires that include "Y'all supporting the Jews and the Christians." Next, a woman named Tamara is speaking about Mark Cuban's South Dallas development, and wants more community input with regard to the rich dudes colonizing the place.
Ann Margolin: "My overall concern is that we not increase sanitation fees if possible. Let's leave it at that." Now it's time for speakers. First up, Lesley Davis, who is has yellow shorts and a yellow shirt and absolutely none of the attention of anyone on council. Thanks for waiting around for four hours to talk, Davis.
Lots of trash-talking going on. GET IT?
Biggest OHSNAP of the day, from Hunt, directed I think at Natinsky, who earlier said he was partially anti-wage increase for free market reasons: "If we're talking about a free market, I don't know why we even bother with minimum wage. I'm sure we could find people who would work for less than that." She went on: "We're talking about lifting people out of poverty, we're not talking about raises." I can has crush on Angela Hunt.
Angela Hunt time, commenting on the emergency storm fund: "In my mind, now is not the time to stash away money for a fund if we're going to have to raise the sanitation fee." She wants us to "hedge our bets" that we won't have another snowpocalypse. Thanks for guaranteeing us another snowpocalypse, Angela.
"If we're not having trouble getting workers, why would we raise fees?" asks Natinsky, who is apparently pretty satisfied with the fact that day laborers don't make a living wage. <I>Cold</i>.
Natinsky says he's going to keep his comments short because of lunch being a thing. Unfortunately, he's still talking.
Carolyn Davis is up again, having some kind of exchange with Mary Suhm that is basically like: "Mom, why can't we have the pony?" "Because I haven't figured out where we would put it." "Mom, why can't we have the pony?" "Because it's a big hassle and we have to think about it first." "But I really want a pony!" "Okay, honey." "Why can't we have the pony again?" "We might get a pony, okay." "CAN WE HAVE THE PONY NOW?" "No."
Vonciel: "I am going to struggle with singling out one group of workers and saying you deserve more." Even if those workers do the aforementioned crappy job.
Vonciel Jones Hill is passive-aggressively OHSNAPPING Angela Hunt and her nutty desire for hard facts and information more than a couple days before the day laborer wage/benefit vote: "Ms Suhm, please know that at least I appreciate your bringing this to us now, and I know you will bring us the details."
To which Caraway said: "AMEN!" I would say amen to a sandwich, if I had one. But I don't. Randy and Matt, do you deliver?
"It's not about the money, it's about the people," says Salazar, who said his father raised eight kids on very little money. "But I would have liked him to make more money."
"You cannot compare other positions in the City of Dallas to the positions that are paid in sanitation," says Steve Salazar, who notes that currently sanitation day labors are making "at or below poverty level to do a job that's necessary for all the citizens of Dallas to do business in the city, to live in the city." Crappy pay for a crappy job, I believe.
Let nothing hold you back, Randy.
Suhm v. Neumann showdown on post-winter storm escrow fund. "It has to come out of the money somewhere," says Suhm. But Neumann: "I'm not convinced we need that." I would describe his level of riled up as a 5 on a 1-10 scale rileage.
Wait--we are allowed to do as Matt did and profess our love for Andrea? If that's so, then let me just throw my love all over this here place.
"I disagree that $8.88 is a living wage in Dallas," says Hunt, who thinks it's probably more like $11 or $13 per hour if you've got a family. She wants details on whether most sanitation day laborers are single to determine if the increase in pay is adequate. "I want a lot more information on this."
Hunt says she thinks the increase in wages for day laborers is unrealistic because she wonders if the workers will be able to afford the health insurance the city could provide them. "I'm just not convinced that's a true benefit for them." The vote on this issue is scheduled for June 9, but Suhm doesn't have the hard numbers on hand right now, which greatly dismays Hunt, who presumably likes things like facts and information. Crazy.
YES! Angela Hunt is up now. She says Sanitation is "the most important service our city provides." She rode along with some SAN guys a couple years ago and saw firsthand how hard the work can be (and how hot, in summer). "None of us would want to live in a city where these guys don't do this service, day in and day out." She's unhappy that we're currently paying the day laborers minimum wage.
Dwaine Caraway is not saying that South Dallas gets the shaft when it comes to timely trash pick up, BUT SOUTH DALLAS GETS THE SHAFT WHEN IT COMES TO TIMELY TRASH PICKUP.
"I suggest to this council that we take a strong and sturdy look at things that will make a better quality of life for those guys riding out in the sun," says Caraway, who warns that "July is coming, and August is coming." I don't want to get ahead of him, but September may be next.
Dwaine Caraway is up now, talking about making sanitation field staff full-on city employees with city support, which apparently doesn't exist right now. So we treat our sanitation workers like ...
Tennell Atkins has feathers ruffled over the $1.7 million last winter's storm cost the city--it can't be recouped via sanitation fees because the cost came out of the general fund. To which Atkins says: so this is affecting parks, rec, library, etc., funding, because we weren't prepared for the storm? Touche, Atkins. He's on fire today. Speaking of recouping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahNfhUysehk
This "average" water bill, with the "average hike of $2.21", that includes everyone that uses their water for essentials like flushing potties and washing hair. The rest of you, that maybe water your lawn and have kids to do laundry for, you're not average, and your hike will be much much higher. They did this just a year ago. And,yea,don't tell me to xeriscape. The more water we save, the more they need a rate hike.
Aww, thanks Matt. And don't worry, I'm discreet.
I'd just like to say the words "solid waste" again. Solid waste. Mmmm wasty.
Andrea, I think I love you. Don't tell my wife.
Tennell Atkins time! He is also not supporting item six, bulky trash boogaloo, because he has a lot of bulky trash in his district that hasn't been picked up, and he is totally over it. He is also not supporting furlough days. Adamantly, but without elaboration.
"Can we find a way to put some type of large container and just let people dump all of their stuff there, and then we pick up their stuff there once a month?" asks Davis, to which Nix says, people can take their crap to land fills and stuff, to which Davis says yeah, but they don't do that. TRUTH.
"I will not be supporting item number six," the bulk service thing, says Carolyn Davis. "I want to talk about bulky trash." Don't we all, Ms Davis? Don't we all?
And yet there are place wherein we might be able to save some money. First, something could be done about the Emergency Storm Fund, which anyone who lived through last year's snowpocawhatever knows is kind of important. Then, the assessment of a franchise fee on sanitation contractors. (Attn: Tony Soprano.) She's talking about "solid waste," which gives me the skeevs. They're also thinking of adjusting wages for day laborers (the folks who ride the trucks and do the hard work) so that they can make a "living wage" at $8.88/hour, which would take a $.30 increase in residential fees. Nix also proposes modifying the pay of sanitation field staff, potentially a 2% rate, which would increase fees by $.10. Additionally, might we extend the city's five-day furlough to sanitation? That would save money and reduce the sanitation fee by $.14. Lastly, Nix proposes reducing and modifying the brush/bulk service, which would save $1.5 million. Comments/questions time.
Here's the plan for next year: a $.03 decrease in sanitation fees! The people rejoiced! This despite the fact that revenues are down because of decreases in single family occupancy leaving homes vacant and no-trash-paying.
Sanitation time! Water presentation is over, and here comes Sanitation Director Mary Nix. "I'm going to speed through this," she says, because she knows "you have things to get to." Thanks, Mary. There's a Lean Cuisine somewhere with my name on it that thanks you.
They're talking about math. Numbers and stuff. Division, subtraction, addition, percentages. Yadda blah.
It's Mayor Leppert's turn now, and he'd like to potentially see some electronic billing up in this piece. Puckett says, "We've only talked about that internally." And Leppert is like, WELL TALK ABOUT IT EXTERNALLY. But in a polite, "Maybe this is a thing" way.
Sheffie's up now, and he wants to know why water utilities has to do temporary and then permanent patches after tearing up the road for repairs and improvements. Why can't we just patch it up permanently straightaway? To which Puckett says: because it would screw up traffic, for real, because a proper patch takes time, finesse and a little bit' o love.
Davis wonders why we can't raise taxes instead of rates, and Suhm says that's because Dallas water utilities is set up as a self-supporting enterprise fund. Since Dallas' water infrastructure is "middle aged," it needs a fair bit of improvement, hence rate increases ahoy. Then, Carolyn Davis broke out the big, sad guns. What about the 87 year old senior on a fixed income whose water could be shut off if they can't pay? "Where will she get the money to pay for the water?" Way to bring the room down, Carolyn, with your legitimate concern for the poor and indigent. GAWD. "This is wrong!" Davis went on. "Some people cannot afford a $2.21 increase in their water bill." I am fairly certain Davis just teared up a little bit.
Anybody know Leppert's username on Words With Friends?
Davis just asked why "Rains" was labeled on a map of counties the City of Dallas provides water to, and Puckett did a supremely diplomatic job of telling her that it's because there's a county called Rains on the map.
Davis wonders why we can't raise taxes instead of rates, and Suhm says that's because Dallas water utilities is set up as a self-supporting <a target=blank href=http://www.answers.com/topic/enterprise-fund>enterprise fund</a>. Since Dallas' water infrastructure is "middle aged," it needs a fair bit of improvement, hence rate increases ahoy. Then, Carolyn Davis broke out the big, sad guns. What about the 87 year old senior on a fixed income whose water could be shut off if they can't pay? "Where will she get the money to pay for the water?" Way to bring the room down, Carolyn, with your legitimate concern for the poor and indigent. GAWD. "This is wrong!" Davis went on. "Some people cannot afford a $2.21 increase in their water bill." I am fairly certain Davis just teared up a little bit.
Oh, partypants, Carolyn Davis is grilling Puckett now and yes, if you were wondering, Davis' glasses do match her bright red and pink top. She wants to know why we have a rate increase, and Puckett is all, and I paraphrase, "Because shit costs money." "When would we be at a point when we would not have to raise these rates?" asks Davis. And Puckett is like, "Hahahahahahahahahah that is a super funny joke."
Mary Suhm just OHSNAPPED other utility/infrastructure providers, bragging that the city is really good about repairing streets they tear up, whereas "There are other utilities that do not operate under the city umbrella that frequently leave holes." Et tu, cable companies?
<a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-n-jZJhpT4>A lonely mother gazing out of the window ...</a>
... starin' at a son that she just can't touch. EVERYBODY! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-n-jZJhpT4
"I do think we've done a very good job with the conservation plan," says Linda Koop, who would also like the cool kids to know Dallas is tryin' real hard to do gooder with that.
Tennell Atkins basically just spent five or ten minutes trying to understand why the budget increase was 2%, despite the fact that the rate increase has repeatedly been said to be 4.2%. Put the Angry Birds down and pay attention, Atkins.
Tennell Atkins wants to know where we're at on the $800 million project to connect Lake Palestine to Dallas, which is newly figured into this year's rate increases. Puckett: "It's not baked bread yet, but it's getting there." Toasty.
Within the next five years, says Puckett, we need to figure out a new water source for the city. I don't want to scare you guys, but Puckett just said it could potentially be Oklahoma water. Vonciel just ragged on San Antonio a little bit, 'cause apparently Dallas has a reputation for watery excess (really! excess? and Dallas? you don't say.) "Dallas is doing a good job at conservation and we are using our water wisely." Consider it on the record.
Vonciel, on pipes: "If we don't plan 50 or 60 years in the future, we will not be ready in time." ARE YOU LISTENING DALLAS COUNTY RECORDS DEPARTMENT?
Vonciel Jones Hill is taking a moment to thank Ms Puckett for her "par excellence" in the area of water management. Then she asked Puckett about her pipes, to which Puckett said, My pipes are pretty awesome. But how big can pipes be? Pipes can be really big. But can pipes last? Oh yes, they can last. Again, our pipes: the bomb.
Er, that should be 2015 up there. No time machine in the works. At least, it's not on the agenda.
You can thank your lucky stars for the teeny-tiny 4.2% rate increase this year, because we're looking at close to 8% increases in 2014 and 1015, with the fluctuation due to varying plans for improvement/infrastructure modification. That is, if the aliens don't come and get us in 2012. My money's kind of on the aliens.
Ann Margolin has been grilling Puckett on the water budget for ten or so minutes now, and I am really feeling for Puckett. When Ann Margolin talks, I instinctively start coming up with excuses for why I missed curfew and promises to do better in calculus next semester. Conservation is the crux of the issue: it's good to conserve, but it means decreased revenue for the city and, potentially, a lack of supply if the infrastructure becomes unused to providing a certain amount.