Letter from the Mayor. Dear City Employees: As major events develop in the City, I want to make sure you hear from me directly what we’re doing and why. At 10:30 this morning, we will be announcing a new partnership with Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties that I believe is necessary to fund the badly needed improvements to the Detroit water and sewer systems and to create an affordability fund to help with the bills for those who are truly in need. For years, Detroit has done nothing as our water and sewer pipes fall apart. The result? 2,000 water main breaks a year are now flooding neighborhoods, with dangerous sinkholes appearing regularly. Rain storms overwhelm the drainage system, backing up sewage into our basements. And many in need have had been without help in paying water bills they just couldn’t afford. So here’s the problem I’ve been trying to deal with the last 8 months: How do you find the hundreds of millions of dollars needed in new money to rebuild our crumbling water and sewer system, when our residents can’t even afford to pay for the system we have now? There have been two proposals floated in this bankruptcy process. The first would have regionalized DWSD and provided absolutely no money for fixing Detroit’s local water and sewer pipes and no money for the truly needy. The second would have privatized DWSD, allowing a for-profit company to be fully in charge of running DWSD for the next 10-20 years. I felt both options would be terrible for the city. I have spent the last three months in negotiations with the Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb County Executives to try to find a better solution, one that works for all of us. It wasn’t easy, but we have a plan that I think is good for Detroit and for the suburbs. That plan has 5 key provisions: 1) Detroit keeps our local water and sewer system under DWSD. The 6,000 miles of local water mains and sewer pipes serving the City of Detroit will remain under DWSD along with approximately 500 employees currently maintaining those lines. The billing/collection staff will also stay with DWSD. 2) Detroit leases the regional pipes and facilities, including the treatment plant and filtration plants, to a new regional authority called the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). The GLWA will be made up of 6 members: 2 from Detroit, 1 Wayne, 1 Oakland, 1 Macomb, 1 State. 5 votes out of 6 will be required for major decisions. 3) Approximately 900 DWSD employees will become employees of the GLWA. The GLWA will recognize the existing DWSD unions and honor all collective bargaining agreements. 4) The GLWA will pay $50 million per year for 40 years to DWSD as a lease payment. These funds will be used to fix the Detroit water lines and sewer system. We’ll be able to sell bonds and have $500-800 million to repair our crumbling water and sewer system. We’ll put 1,000 people to work in our city fixing our infrastructure. 5) A water affordability fund of $4.5 million per year will be created to help people in need who truly can’t pay their water bills. That’s 20x greater than the amount we’ve had in the past and is desperately needed by many families. We don’t have to continue to live in a city where rain storms always threaten to overwhelm the storm drains and back up into basements. 2,000 water main breaks don’t have to flood our neighborhoods every year. We don’t have to watch our truly needy residents facing water shutoffs. We’re not helpless. We can solve these problems. But it requires changing the way we do things. It requires embracing our neighboring communities as our partners. Starting today, I will be holding several meetings at DWSD work sites to talk to our employees directly. I’ll go through the details of the plan and answer every question you have. Whether you agree or disagree with this decision, you deserve the respect of a face to face meeting. For any city employee from any department who wants to hear the details first hand, I’ll be holding an open employee forum Wednesday at 5:00 in the 13th floor auditorium of CAYMAC. I believe a plan that allows Detroit to keep full control of the 6,000 miles of local water and sewer pipes serving our neighborhoods, provides a $500-800 million investment to fix those water and sewer lines, and provides permanent funding to help our neediest citizens pay their bills is a plan that finally solves one of Detroit’s most urgent problems. I hope you’ll come out, listen, ask questions, and let me know what you think. Mike Duggan
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:45:15 +0000
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