In a turnabout he attributed to that same
audience and the other audiences around he encountered
earlier in the year, the mayor announced that he had
forsaken his belief that the Toledo Area Water Authority (TAWA)
concept, cobbled together by a consultant hired by the
Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce and representatives of the
area’s cities, towns and Lucas County, was in the best
interests of Toledoans. That plan called for the sale of the
water plant to TAWA and a governing board that would only
have two Toledo representatives on a board of seven.
The TAWA plan immediately faced opposition
from Toledoans, much of it organized by former Mayor Carty
Finkbeiner and the Protect Our Water Coalition headed by
Sean Nestor. The Kapszukiewicz’ early attempt to sell the
TAWA plan to Toledo City Council members was met with stiff
resistance.
On Thursday, Kapszukiewicz explained his
reasons for abandoning the TAWA concept: "TAWA did not enjoy
support among Toledoans and Toledo [elected] officials; the
alternative is something that is possible and is a better
plan than TAWA."
The new plan that the mayor is trying to
sell to the neighboring cities retains for Toledo the
ownership of the plant and assembles a board of technical
experts from Toledo and participating communities that will
have the authority to set rates. Toledo City Council will
have the ability to veto the rate recommendations with a
two-thirds super majority.
Over the course of the next month,
Kapszukiewicz will be selling his plan to City Council and
to the neighboring towns. So far, as he expressed last week
to the Sanger Branch audience, he is encouraged by the
reception of most of the entities. Only Maumee and Sylvania
have expressed deep concerns about the new plan, with Mayor
Richard Carr of Maumee leading the opposition.
"If we can continue to create a system in
which Toledo residents pay less than our suburban customers,
our suburban customers will have a better deal than they
would get elsewhere," said the mayor.
The major problem with the TAWA proposal,
said Kapszukiewicz, was the fact that the City would have
had to raise rates and taxes on both Toledoans and suburban
residents "to pay for something we already own … it just
seems foolish."
As he later expanded on that matter under
questioning from the audience, he explained that the City,
by charter, would not have been able to spend money from
proceeds of a TAWA sale on City projects until the debt was
paid off completely.
The appeal of the new proposal for the
governing board, he said, is that it will be comprised of
technical experts and therefore, "free of politics."
Finkbeiner and the Protect Our Water
coalition have expressed their support for the new plan.
