The council came close to hiring ClearWater Solutions of Opelika last month to manage the city’s water department, but Councilman Donnie Todd withdrew his motion to hire the company when three council members voiced opposition.
Two days later, Pell City Mayor Bill Hereford said the city would bid out the management work, if the council wished to move forward with hiring a private company to manage the city’s water department.
Discussion of the “Request or Proposal” and “Scope of Service” was on Thursday’s work session agenda, but the council agreed to postpone the discussion until Monday night.
Councilman Greg Gossett said he called city hall three times Thursday to see if the matter was on the council work session agenda for discussion. Gossett said he was told that it was not. He said it wasn’t on the work session agenda posted on the city’s website either.
It wasn’t until Gossett arrived at city hall that he found out the agenda was amended to include discussions about hiring a private firm to manage the city’s water department.
“I had this problem the first four years,” Gossett said. “This is becoming a regular thing now. I don’t have my proper paper work, but I will discuss this anyway.”
Hereford said the matter was inadvertently left off the work session agenda.
“It wasn’t done intentionally,” he said.
“I’ll sit hear and listen to what you have to say,” Gossett said.
Hereford then proceeded to say work sessions are designed for the council to discuss city matters in public, so issues facing the city are aired out and resolved publicly.
At Thursday’s work session, Councilman James McGowan voiced opposition to the city hiring an outside company to manage the city’s water department.
“The more I study this, the more I don’t see a good start or a good end,” he said. “There are other avenues that I would like to look at. I have reservations. I don’t feel good about it. I don’t like it.”
Councilman Donnie Todd, who is the councilman overseeing the water department, said a private company could manage the water department more efficiently than the city, and is more cost effective for the city.
“I do want to discuss it,” Todd said at the council work session. “I still feel like it’s something to consider.”
Council members Dot Wood and Donnie Guinn both said they would like to wait until Monday night’s council meeting to discuss the matter.
Gossett said even though the issue was on the council work session agenda, the council and media were not provided copies of the proposals, along with a landlord agreement the council may consider Monday night.
Todd said the water management proposals were e-mailed to the council three days prior to Thursday’s work session.
“If we’re going to discuss it, it needs to be discussed,” Gossett said. “Every time we have a problem, we start sourcing it out, because we don’t want to take responsibility for it. We just give it to someone else. The same thing is happening at the civic center.”
In recent weeks, the city has shifted the responsibility of youth sports programs to parent organizations.
City officials say the city is only responsible for providing public facilities, while parent organizations are now responsible for keeping youth sports programs afloat.
The council meeting is set for 6 p.m., Monday, in the council chambers at City Hall.
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