Fresh Loaf

Sally Bethea

In addition to crime, finances and transportation, Atlanta’s next mayor has a sizable task on his or her to-do list: continue fixing the city’s antiquated sewer system. Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattachoochee Riverkeeper, reminds the candidates not to lose sight of the estimated $4.1 billion project.

Eight short years ago, Atlanta’s aging sewer system was a disgrace to its citizens and to the state of Georgia. It was also illegal.

When the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper sued the city of Atlanta in 1995 for violations of the Clean Water Act, hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage were routinely dumped into our streams and the river.

Although a federal judge ruled that the city had to clean up its act, then Mayor Bill Campbell did little but stall, leaving it to the next mayor to solve the problem, even while the judge threatened a moratorium on new development because Atlanta did not have the sewage infrastructure to support such development.

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Nothing kicks off a Monday morning like a 170-page audit of Atlanta’s $4 billion sewer system overhaul. We’re still combing through the beast, but Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls has already found some tidbits.

Walls:

Atlanta’s water department has illegally kept $4 million that should have been refunded to 29,000 customers who closed their accounts, a city audit shows.

Apparently, part of the problem is that no one ever told customer-service reps in the water department about changes last year in the city code. Auditors said employees who handle refunds were unaware of consumer-friendly changes in refund procedures.

On Friday, the AJC’s D.L Bennett wrote a good overview on some, uhm, financial hurdles facing the city and the project:

Atlanta officials fear the city’s $4 billion water and sewer system overhaul could collapse because the city’s crushing debt and already low credit rating threaten the city’s ability to borrow money in ever-tightening credit markets.

The city hopes Monday to issue $500 million to $700 million in new bonds for the program, with much of the money to refund old debt that must be repaid before interest rates or other factors send payments skyrocketing.

“We’ve got some considerable issues facing us,” city CFO Jim Glass said Friday.

No joke. And we’ve got some considerable reading to do. The audit is available here. (Warning: large PDF)

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Current amount, in dollars, of President Obama’s stimulus plan aimed to create jobs and spur the economy: 827 billion

Amount, in dollars, Mayor Shirley Franklin recently requested for Atlanta projects: 1.88 billion

Estimated number of city jobs Franklin says the federal stimulus plan could create: 40,000

Number of police officers Franklin wants to add with stimulus money: 200

Dollar value of sewer projects the city wants to build using stimulus funds: 801 million

Amount, in dollars, the city requested to build the International Terminal at Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport: 500 million

Number of federal dollars Franklin says would go to offset the city’s budget deficit: 0

Amount, in dollars, the Georgia Department of Transportation has requested for state projects: 3.4 billion

Estimated number of jobs Georgia could gain because of the stimulus package: 143,000

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, U.S. Conference of Mayors

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The Atlanta City Council may consider overriding Mayor Shirley Franklin’s recent veto of last week’s unanimous resolution that requests the city auditor conduct a review of the Department of Watershed Management, the municipal agency in charge of Atlanta’s multi-billion dollar court-ordered sewer project.

Councilmember Mary Norwood, who introduced the resolution, says the council must understand how money is being spent on the multi-billion sewer and water project before it votes on the first of five rate increases to help pay for the project. Officials have suggested a 27.5 percent rate increase, followed by other increases that would raise the rates 81 percent over the next four years.

“Before we impose on our citizens a fee increase we ought to know whether the controls are adequate,” Norwood says . “I believe we need oversight for a fund that’s almost ten times as large as the general budget.”

The mayor said she vetoed the resolution because she says the council did not confer with appropriate departments. Franklin categorized the resolution as “hastily drafted and adopted legislation,” adding it was “technically flawed” and “unacceptable.”

“There are some technical errors in the document, so we want to give the author the opportunity to work with law and others to correct those issues first,” Franklin said in a statement.

“The mayor has put into place this very large and very important water and sewer project for our city,” Norwood says. “She’s been the first mayor to tackle that. But I believe we need outside consultation before we raise fees. At the end of the day, whether it’s a fee or a tax, it’s money that’s coming out of our constituents’ pockets.”

Monday’s council meeting takes places at 1:30 p.m. at City Hall. Norwood expects a close vote. The City Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers to discuss the proposed rate increases.

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