HE SAID? SHE SAID? HIM? HER? HE? SHEEEEE ITTT!!!!!

From: Rodney Wiltshire <[email protected]>
Date: December 23, 2014 at 9:04:46 AM EST
To: Ken Zalewski <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>,  "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, Carmella Mantello <[email protected]>,  city council <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: January 2015 Troy CC Agenda

Thank you Ken.
Its hard for me to respond to her statements without getting agitated.  I'm glad that you can answer her straight.

Rod

On Dec 23, 2014 8:48 AM, "Ken Zalewski" <[email protected]> wrote:
Carmella,

I'll write a brief reply to your latest (will it be daily?) letter, since no one else seems motivated to address you.

The sewer rate increase is necessary in order to cover the City's cost in implementing the CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) LTCP (Long Term Control Plan).

At last Thursday's Finance Committee, Chris Wheland provided the Council with a tremendous amount of detail regarding this project and his plan to make sure that we stay on top of it, fiscally.  Several Council members remarked that we should really move the sewer rate up to 100% of the water rate.  Chris agreed that we will need to do that in the coming years.  Many municipalities have sewer rates that match the water rate.  Chris noted that some municipalities have sewer rates that are greater than the water rate.  This probably reflects the increased cost in moving and treating waste.

If you had attended the Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, you would have come away with all of this knowledge, and could have saved yourself the time of typing this letter, asking the same questions that were answered by Mr. Wheland.  On a side note, I find Chris to be one of the most knowledgeable, capable, and professional managers in City government.

You then note that our costs for E911 are increasing substantially.  This is unfortunate.  I publicly stated that I find it to be a money grab by the County, with no relief to the taxpayers of Troy.  Troy's population makes up 33% of the County population, so it is expected that we would consume more of the E911 services.  I noted that the County is not planning on lowering taxes to reflect the increased revenues that they will realize from this maneuver.

The $500,000 cost has already been allocated in the 2015 budget.  The Police budget contains $250K (line item A3120-409-0015) and the Fire budget contains the other $250K (line item A3410-409-0015).

So Troy is stuck, for now, paying these increased costs, but we retain the ability to get out of the contract if we find a better solution.

On that note, I would suggest that you invest some time and effort into finding a more cost-effective E911 solution for Troy.  The increase of $215K from 2014 to 2015 represents approximately a 1% tax increase.  If you could find a way to return our cost to the 2014 level, you would be helping the city and our taxpayers.  I know that you have some connections to the County, so maybe you can help them realize that Troy is broke, and we simply can't afford to pay 75% more for E911 service.


--
Ken Zalewski
Troy City Council - President Pro Tempore
Councilman, District 5