Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home City Council decided July 11 to hold off making a decision whether to contract with OMI to operate the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants.
The council is inviting the public to comment on the proposal during a special meeting to begin at 6 p.m. on July 25, just prior to its regular meeting.
The council met and discussed the issue during its regular meeting on July 11.
City Manager Craig Martin outlined three options for the council, including negotiating a contract with OMI, abandoning the process entirely or seeking new information.
“Are you at the point that you have enough information to make a decision?” Martin asked the council. “I think it’s in your hands now.”
Councilor Bob McIntire said he wanted to seek additional information.
“I don’t think we really know enough of what we should do,” he said. “I think we need to get more information.”
Council member Rich Rowley agreed. The council has heard some derogatory information about OMI and learned that some jurisdictions have parted ways with OMI for different reasons. Rowley said he was interested in a conference call with other jurisdictions to hear what they might have to say about OMI.
The potential OMI offers is not enough to move forward at this point, Rowley said, but it is enough that the council should continue looking into it.
“I certainly think it deserves more consideration,” Councilor Tim McQueary said. “If the council doesn’t think we have enough (information), we ought to get that information.”
He asked what more information the council thought it needed to make a decision.
The council would like to hear information in a teleconference with OMI customers, Councilor Jim Bean said.
“I think we’ve gotten all of that,” Mayor Craig Fentiman said. “You’re going to continue to get slanted sides no matter what you do.”
He was referring to accusations that the council has heard biased information from those involved in the process and making comments to the council during previous meetings, including city employees who are opposing the proposal and OMI.
“The key to (dealing with potential problems), is in the contract,” Fentiman said. “At some point, we have to bring closure to this issue.”
If the council were to move on the issue now, Councilor Dick Hill said, he would have to vote no “because you haven’t proven to me it’s going to save any more than what we’re doing.”
“I’d like to have our own employees go back and do it and come back with suggestions on how to do it more efficiently,” Councilor Jim Gourley said.
He referred to comments by employees at a previous meeting that they were not given an opportunity to do the same as OMI and offer a proposal.
One employee, Craig Still, guaranteed the council during last week’s meeting that the employees could find ways to reduce costs in the treatment plants if they were given a chance.
Gourley said he would like to have a public meeting where people could speak on the issue.
Rowley moved to hold the meeting, and the council approved it 6-1 with Hill opposing.
The council has until the end of August to give a decision to OMI, the only company to respond to the city’s request for proposals.
Afterward, the council approved increases to the water and wastewater rates.
Marilyn Still, the wife of Craig Still, told the council she was concerned about the rates being increased at the same time the council is looking at a private company to operate the treatment plants.
“You read that in the newspaper, you put two and two together, you know what you’re going to think,” Still said.
Rowley told her he could see how they might be associated, and that “puts a great responsibility on us” to make sure the two decisions are not necessarily related.
The council, in recent years, has set water and sewer rates in July following the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.
Public Works Director Mike Adams said later that the rate increase would have been 4 cents per hundred cubic feet lower had OMI been operating the plants this year.
The water rate increase would have been higher while the sewer rate increase would have been smaller. The difference amounts to 4 cents.