Is the Stimulus money for working-class and poor people? (Watching out for loopholes)
In this article recently published by the Cincinnati Beacon, Dan La Botz looks at the stimulus money coming to Cincinnati and whether or not it is a new deal or the same old deal we’ve seen in the past. We need to keep an eye on the city and county’s wish lists and keep track of where this money is going and who really is benefitting. This is our tax money and we need more Citizen Watchdogs to keep an eye on our public servants and pressure them to look out for the public interest for a change.
Protect Our Water!
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The City of Cincinnati may sell the Water Works to a not-yet-created Water District. We believe this plan would be bad for our city, bad for consumers and bad for all city employees. Prices may raise, policies may change, services and quality may decline. This could eventually lead to privatization which could also harm worker wages and benefits. You can find more information here at the Protect Our Water website.
Last week was World Water Week and the issue of privatizing water is global. Currently over a billion people lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion people lack water for proper sanitation. The Cincinnati Beacon’s Chris Johnson recently wrote this article about this local issue in the context of what’s happening around the globe. Below is an article written by Josh Krekeler and recently published in the Beacon.
In October 2007, Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney began exploring the feasibility of transforming the Cincinnati Water Works (CWW) into the Greater Cincinnati Water District. In a memo to the Mayor and City Council dated 10/1/07, Dohoney stated that “There is potential that the development of a Water District would have positive financial implications for the City of Cincinnati. Given our financial challenges looking at other alternatives is clearly warranted.” The working group that’s been conducting the feasibility study is expected to submit its report to City Council (through the City Manager) within the next six weeks. While the details have not been finalized, the plan apparently is to sell CWW to the new Water District for between $300 million and $500 million, which would be paid to the City over several years. This plan, and the relatively little publicity it’s received, raises some troubling questions.
- How would the Water District be accountable to the people of Cincinnati? The Water District would be a separate public agency governed by an appointed board. It would no longer be directly under the City administration. If sufficient accountability and transparency are not guaranteed, there will be greater opportunities for corruption and decisions that do not serve the public interest.
- How would the transformation to a Water District guarantee perpetual local control of the water system? A board that isn’t directly accountable to citizens would have much more latitude to pursue selling the water system to a private buyer some time in the future. If they do – and there is no shortage of private water companies eager to take control of municipal systems – a corporate board in a different city or country would be setting local water policies with little input from the residents affected by those policies.
- How would the Water District generate the revenue to buy CWW from the City? While the advocates of the Water District plan within CWW are anticipating that the new structure would allow them to buy infrastructure and water plants outside their current service area, it would almost certainly be necessary to raise water rates to generate the money needed for the purchase. This is absolutely unacceptable. The City Manager is, effectively, proposing to ask us to pay to buy something that we already own!
Rather than trusting, or simply hoping, that these questions will be resolved in the public’s favor, citizens should ask City Council to reject the proposal. Please call or e-mail all City Councilmembers, tell them you’re concerned about the implications of the plan, and politely ask them not to recommend the creation of the Water District. You may also wish to contact Mayor Mallory and City Manager Dohoney. Fortunately, a citizens’ group called Protect Our Water has formed to educate the public and organize opposition to the plan. Please visit their informative Web site at http://www.natiprotectourwater.org and spread the word about this questionable proposal to your friends and neighbors.
There is no good reason to sell Cincinnati Water Works. CWW provides high-quality water at reasonable rates. If a separate group is put in charge, service quality could decline, rates will almost definitely go up, and residents who have trouble paying their water bills could find themselves faced with indifferent bureaucratic obstacles to maintaining their access to water. CWW is an efficient public system that pays for itself. More importantly, water is a vital resource, and people should do what they can to make sure their water supplies stay in the control of their local governments.
Cincinnati City Council:
Jeff Berding – 352-3283, jeff.berding@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Bortz – 352-3255, chirs.bortz@cincinnati-oh.gov
Laketa Cole – 352-3466, laketa.cole@cincinnati-oh.gov
David Crowley – 352-2453, david.crowley@cincinnati-oh.gov
Leslie Ghiz – 352-3344, leslie.ghiz@cincinnati-oh.gov
Greg Harris – 352- 5304, greg.harris@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Monzel – 352-3653, chris.monzel@cincinnati-oh.gov
Roxanne Qualls – 352-3604, roxanne.qualls@cincinnati-oh.gov
Cecil Thomas – 352-3499, cecil.thomas@cincinnati-oh.gov
Mayor Mark Mallory
352-3250
mayor.mallory@cincinnati-oh.gov
City Manager Milton Dohoney
352-3243
citymanager@cincinnati-oh.gov
Last week was World Water Week and the issue of privatizing water is global. Currently over a billion people lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion people lack water for proper sanitation. The Cincinnati Beacon’s Chris Johnson recently wrote this article about this local issue in the context of what’s happening around the globe. Below is an article written by Josh Krekeler and recently published in the Beacon.
In October 2007, Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney began exploring the feasibility of transforming the Cincinnati Water Works (CWW) into the Greater Cincinnati Water District. In a memo to the Mayor and City Council dated 10/1/07, Dohoney stated that “There is potential that the development of a Water District would have positive financial implications for the City of Cincinnati. Given our financial challenges looking at other alternatives is clearly warranted.” The working group that’s been conducting the feasibility study is expected to submit its report to City Council (through the City Manager) within the next six weeks. While the details have not been finalized, the plan apparently is to sell CWW to the new Water District for between $300 million and $500 million, which would be paid to the City over several years. This plan, and the relatively little publicity it’s received, raises some troubling questions.
- How would the Water District be accountable to the people of Cincinnati? The Water District would be a separate public agency governed by an appointed board. It would no longer be directly under the City administration. If sufficient accountability and transparency are not guaranteed, there will be greater opportunities for corruption and decisions that do not serve the public interest.
- How would the transformation to a Water District guarantee perpetual local control of the water system? A board that isn’t directly accountable to citizens would have much more latitude to pursue selling the water system to a private buyer some time in the future. If they do – and there is no shortage of private water companies eager to take control of municipal systems – a corporate board in a different city or country would be setting local water policies with little input from the residents affected by those policies.
- How would the Water District generate the revenue to buy CWW from the City? While the advocates of the Water District plan within CWW are anticipating that the new structure would allow them to buy infrastructure and water plants outside their current service area, it would almost certainly be necessary to raise water rates to generate the money needed for the purchase. This is absolutely unacceptable. The City Manager is, effectively, proposing to ask us to pay to buy something that we already own!
Rather than trusting, or simply hoping, that these questions will be resolved in the public’s favor, citizens should ask City Council to reject the proposal. Please call or e-mail all City Councilmembers, tell them you’re concerned about the implications of the plan, and politely ask them not to recommend the creation of the Water District. You may also wish to contact Mayor Mallory and City Manager Dohoney. Fortunately, a citizens’ group called Protect Our Water has formed to educate the public and organize opposition to the plan. Please visit their informative Web site at http://www.natiprotectourwater.org and spread the word about this questionable proposal to your friends and neighbors.
There is no good reason to sell Cincinnati Water Works. CWW provides high-quality water at reasonable rates. If a separate group is put in charge, service quality could decline, rates will almost definitely go up, and residents who have trouble paying their water bills could find themselves faced with indifferent bureaucratic obstacles to maintaining their access to water. CWW is an efficient public system that pays for itself. More importantly, water is a vital resource, and people should do what they can to make sure their water supplies stay in the control of their local governments.
Cincinnati City Council:
Jeff Berding – 352-3283, jeff.berding@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Bortz – 352-3255, chirs.bortz@cincinnati-oh.gov
Laketa Cole – 352-3466, laketa.cole@cincinnati-oh.gov
David Crowley – 352-2453, david.crowley@cincinnati-oh.gov
Leslie Ghiz – 352-3344, leslie.ghiz@cincinnati-oh.gov
Greg Harris – 352- 5304, greg.harris@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Monzel – 352-3653, chris.monzel@cincinnati-oh.gov
Roxanne Qualls – 352-3604, roxanne.qualls@cincinnati-oh.gov
Cecil Thomas – 352-3499, cecil.thomas@cincinnati-oh.gov
Mayor Mark Mallory
352-3250
mayor.mallory@cincinnati-oh.gov
City Manager Milton Dohoney
352-3243
citymanager@cincinnati-oh.gov
Another Cincinnati is possible (and necessary!)
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Welcome! The mission of our new blog is to help progressives in Cincinnati create a new vision for our city’s future. We can use this tool to post information about different issues affecting our community and to keep each other informed about upcoming events. The advantage of using blogs instead of email lists for some of our discussions is that people can focus on the issues that they care about most without having their emails accounts overloaded with discussions they aren’t as interested in.
I will be posting separate blog post for each of the topics that were brought up at our initial meeting. You all can add information about each of these topics or you can post your own articles as well. Anyone can post comments at this blog. I will send you all an invitation and you can accept the invitation if you would like the ability to post your own articles. At that point I will approve you as an administrator and you will have the ability to post your own articles and edit them at any point.
You can forward the URL to any progressives and anybody can comment on these articles. Once you have a writing account you can easily create as many new blogs as you like. These blogs have the ability to moderate comments etc. If you would like to add someone else to our list please just have them send me their email address.
I will be posting separate blog post for each of the topics that were brought up at our initial meeting. You all can add information about each of these topics or you can post your own articles as well. Anyone can post comments at this blog. I will send you all an invitation and you can accept the invitation if you would like the ability to post your own articles. At that point I will approve you as an administrator and you will have the ability to post your own articles and edit them at any point.
You can forward the URL to any progressives and anybody can comment on these articles. Once you have a writing account you can easily create as many new blogs as you like. These blogs have the ability to moderate comments etc. If you would like to add someone else to our list please just have them send me their email address.
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