Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
City Council members will decide July 11 what direction they want to take on the proposal to turn over the operation, maintenance and management of the city’s water and wastewater treatment facilities to a private firm.
During a three-hour special council meeting Thursday, June 22, a representative of OMI, Inc. presented the company’s proposal to assume responsibility for the facilities, followed by comments by city staff members and the public.
Public Works Department staffers, who would not necessarily be assured a job with OMI if the company were to take over, were particularly critical of the criteria used by the company’s representative to make his pitch.
Gary Young, OMI’s northwest regional business manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation of the company’s proposal.
He noted that OMI has run Lebanon’s water and waste facilities for 20 years, and manages those in half a dozen other cities in Oregon and many more across the United States.
Young emphasized that OMI is not proposing privatization of the facilities.
“We’re not buying your assets,” he said.
Young said the OMI can cut costs with its ability to buy chemicals in bulk and to share personnel and resources, such as between Lebanon and Sweet Home. He also said that the company could use computers to automate some of the maintenance and management functions that are being accomplished by staff members. He emphasized OMI’s expertise in the area of water treatment and its ability to bring in help from other OMI operations when necessary and its ability to train employees.
He also emphasized how OMI encourages its employees to become involved in their communities, citing examples throughout Oregon of how workers have volunteered time and gotten involved in community organizations.
“We encourage our employees to get involved,” he said. “We don’t tell them what to do. We are not here just to show up and work and leave at the end of the day. We are here to be part of the community.”
He suggested that a five-year agreement with OMI could save the city $149,363 and a 10-year deal could save $1,266,479 over that period of time.
City staffers said those numbers were based on the 2005-06 budget, which is what OMI was given when it began working on its proposal in February. Public Works Director Mike Adams said more recent budget numbers indicate the savings over a 10-year period would be just over $500,000.
Young said that if the city contracts for 10 years with OMI, the company would install a sodium hypochlorite process to replace the current process that uses gaseous chorine, which is much more dangerous, due to the toxicity of the gas. He said the offer would represent $25,000 savings to the city.
Later in the meeting, Water Treatment Plan Superintendent Lloyd Emigh said he’d suggested switching to hypochlorite three years ago, when, he said, prices to install the system ranged from $10,000 to $15,000.
The hypochlorite topic was revisited several times as clearly frustrated staff members insisted they’d voiced concerns to Adams and other city officials about the dangers of the gaseous chorine and the advisability of a switch.
Craig Still, an operator at the plant, said he brought the issue up three years ago but it didn’t appear to go anywhere. He also suggested that city officials have not adequately researched OMI, particularly the problems the company has had in such cities as Santa Paula and Stockton, Calif. and in Atlanta, Ga.
“I take umbrage at that,” Martin said, noting that he’s been familiar with OMI since becoming city manager nine years ago. “We’ve looked at the good and the bad.”
Young was questioned about OMI-run unmanned facilities whre there have been problems, such as the pump failure that led to the killing off of bacteria used to treat solid waste in Lebanon.
He acknowledged that those types of problems are possible, but said that computers can be programmed to alert staff members when a problem is developing, giving staff time to get in and fix a problem before it grows.
Pat Wood, city maintenance supervisor and treatment plant supervisor, said that Lebanon’s bacteria died because the pumps weren’t fixed for three days. He noted that Sweet Home has never lost its bacteria.
“That didn’t happen in Sweet Home because of staffing,” he said.
Wood complained that city staff were at a disadvantage in the discussion of contracting out the water and treatment functions because the criteria OMI was given in last February’s Request for Proposals were not the same that staff have been operating under.
“I can tell you it’s never been the direction of the city to run these plants as cheap as possible,” he said. “Do you really believe they can bring in four people to replace seven people and hope to get the same level of service? ”
Council member Jim Gourley suggested consulting with staff on how, specifically, costs could be cut in the plant operations, but City Manager Craig Martin cautioned that staff members were not among those who officially responded to the RFP in February and that allowing them to weigh in with specific proposals now could be a legal problem.
Council members directed Martin to look into that and to determine how much input employees could have before the council makes a decision on OMI’s proposal.
“It’s hard to make a decision without hearing from staff,” Council member Dick Hill said.
Young suggested that his company has provided a “road map” of how to correct problems in the plants, putting the company in the position of giving something for nothing.
Another question, voiced by Councilman Tim McQueary and others, was how the new water treatment plant the city plans to build in the next three years will impact the cost of providing water and waste treatment.
“The big unknown is getting that new water treatment plant,” McQueary said. “There may be savings.”
Jerry Matthews, a plant operator, said that staff members could make changes to improve the plant operations. He said there is a “world of knowledge, of know-how” among current staff.
“No contract-operation company can do the job better than a well-run city,” he said. “I’m not saying we’re not a well-run city, but maybe we can do better. We need to operate as a team where everybody really listens to each other.”
Still accused officials of threatening employees’ jobs but showing little interest in “the truth.”
“You guys have never come down to talk to us about how we can make it better,” he said, adding that current employees have knowledge of the facility that a newcomer would take 10 years to acquire.
Steve Marrs of the American Federation of State and Municipal Workers, the union that represents city employees, said that the city would lose the benefit of committed workers if it opted for a contractor.
“You’d have less flexibility of employees being able to assist in an emergency,” he said. “OMI employees are contracted to do a service. City employees work for the city.”
Mayor Craig Fentiman reminded the audience that the City Council is answerable to the citizens.
“We get our marching orders from the rate-payers,” he said. “That’s our number one priority — how to deliver water and sewer service in the most efficient way.”