Ellisville Utility Project
boondoggle
The saga continues
Columbia County, FL (posted
December 17,
2009)
By Stew Lilker
The homeless County Commission Utility Subcommittee met
once again, freeloading at the hospital authority. The
committee members and guests listen to Attorney Brian
Armstrong (far right) of Neighbors, Nickerson & Giblin
explain that the county utility may compete with the
city utility in certain areas.
The saga of the Columbia County – Ellisville Utility
Project continued at the December 10th Utility
Sub-Committee meeting, in what continues to be the
greatest "good ole boy" boondoggle and waste of public
funds in the history of Columbia County.
This month's meeting was attended by a full house of
those on the clock and conversation that defied both the
imagination and common sense. By the conclusion of the
meeting, the pockets of the working families of Columbia
County were noticeably lighter.
Notable for their attendance were three hourly
attorneys and three hourly engineers. A conservative
estimate for their cumulative hour and a half of work
and travel is approximately $1,500 -- a nice Holiday
gift, courtesy of the taxpayers.
County Attorney, Marlin Feagle (left) and conflict
counsel Bill Whitley were on the clock.
Having noticed conflict counsel Bill Whitley at the
table, your reporter asked if County Attorney Marlin
Feagle had a conflict.
Mr. Feagle explained that he declared a conflict "on
issues directly involving Ellisville," because of the
property ownership he has "down there.”
Your reporter asked, "What property is that? Does
anybody know and where is this conflict filed?"
Subcommittee Chairman/Jack Berry protégé, Jody DuPree
shot back, "Deal with that somewhere else. Move to the
next question ... Not here -- not now. We’ve already
dealt with this at a board meetin."
An examination of the published County Commission
Board minutes reveals no such conversation, which may be
the reason why Mr. Feagle has been attending and billing
the county for all the Ellisville utility meetings he
attends.
Utility consulting engineer, Mark Neihaus and
outside/inside county engineer John Colson (right) were
on the clock.
Long time "good ole boy" and county outside/inside
engineer, John Colson, was another benefactor of the
taxpayers' largess. Mr. Colson, who has steadfastly and
repeatedly refused to document his time, insulting
those who asked about it, hit pay dirt when he sat
through a meeting that was primarily spent discussing
ordinances and staffing and spoke for a minute and a
half about different kinds of hay. Cost to the taxpayer
-- $172.50.
Since 2006, the County has subverted every
opportunity it had to either join with the Lake City
Regional Utility or allow Lake City to take care of the
utility issues in Ellisville.
Columbia County's total inexperience, stubbornness,
mismanagement and complete inability to ever admit a
mistake will cost all tax payers dearly for years to
come.
In March of 2007, the County approved a drinking
water plan that stated that the cost of labor to operate
a water system in Ellisville would be $15,600 a year. At
that time the County also estimated usage at 40,000
gallons per day. Their most recent estimate is 30,000
GPD.
In April of 2007, when your reporter asked the Board
if the labor rate was realistic, County Manager, Dale
Williams, said the rate was a contractual rate and the
plan was to offer the contract to Lake City for the
operation of the Ellisville Utility and "there is not
enough work for a full time employee."
Recently, Lake City has repeatedly refused to get
involved in the Ellisville Utility Project Boondoggle.
At last week's December 10th meeting, Com DuPree
suddenly determined the County needed a Utility Director
and to make sure he wasn't misunderstood he said, "Let
me make sure that I’m clear about what it is I’m
expectin. I’m not talkin about a sewer plant operator
and I’m not talkin about a water plant operator. I’m
talkin about a Utilities Director.
No one on the County Utility Sub Committee had a clue
about what a Utility Director would cost.
County Manager Dale Williams, who has overseen the
Ellisville Utility Project for seven years, told the
Committee:
In my conversations with Com DuPree, we of course
originally were going to privatize all aspects of this
utility, including the meter reading... all nine yards.
The Commissioner is of the opinion that this utility is
going to be more involved than what maybe we realized.
He believes that it will justify having a full time
person ...
We’ve already programmed in a certain amount of dollars
to cover potentially all of these needs. Now, would that
be the same dollar value that a person who might hire
would need? I don’t know, because I have no idea what
kind of salary this type of position would demand.
The point is you’ve already got money built into your
cost Performa that you are going to use -- gonna want to
use to pay if you’ve contracted somebody.
My comment was -- well -- if we hire a person and we
find out it’s really not a full time commitment to the
utility, that we somehow use this person in another area
of work. But, you know, there is a school of thought out
there -- that most people think that this is going to
command more time than what maybe we realized. I really
don’t know.
Initially, there is no doubt ... once you get it up and
running, you know the initial connections are made, etc.
-- Hopefully it will grow and hopefully there will be
some demand for that. You’ve already got a good chunk of
it. It’s not enough -- budgeted.
Com Bailey asked the County Manager, "Would it be too
much to ask to get some figures together and to present
to the board Thursday night? [December 17th.]
County Manager Williams answered, "It’s not too much
for me."
Com Bailey: I mean -- forty thousand -- sixty
thousand -- I don’t have a clue.
County Manager Williams: I don’t either.
Chairman DuPree: Well, I don’t
either...
The Observer asked: My question is for the
County Manager and you [Com DuPree]. Just a few minutes
ago, you said that you realized that this was a little
more than you thought it was initially. And I just heard
Mr. DuPree say that you have been working on this for
the past seven years. When did you realize that it was a
little more?
Com
DuPree's remarks concluded the meeting:
I don’t think that is what he said. What he said was
that some of us think that it’s a little more than what
-- I think it might be more than him. I don’t think he
said it was a little more than he thought it was -- What
he said was -- Was I think it’s a little bit more that
what he may think it is.
With millions spent and millions more to go, the saga
of the Ellisville Utility Project boondogle continues,
now under the leadership of Jody DuPree.
