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The "critical" issue of Stormwater in Peachtree City - is it all Brown?There have been several on these forums who have stated that the City didn't perform significant work on Stormwater until the Brown administration came into power, implying that the Lenox administration performed the bare minimum required. On August 2, 2001 (three months before Steve Brown was elected as Mayor), the City Council discussed the Stormwater Management Program. The minutes of this discussion are attached in their entirety for your consumption. I have emphasized several points to review the "process" that was introduced BY STAFF at the time. City Engineer Troy Besseche addressed Council and said staff had been working on a stormwater management plan since the last retreat. The program addressed Council’s concerns as well as environmental needs in the community. It also met some of the directives issued by EPD. He said staff had a clearer picture of what EPD expected in the way of Phase II program requirements and permanent requirements. He continued that EPD was looking for an action plan. The first component of the permanent requirement and action plan was to take a look at where the City and the current stormwater program was. Besseche recommended hiring a consultant to assist in developing an independent assessment of what the current stormwater needs were and what direction the City needed to go. The first step was the assessment incorporating an evaluation of the current stormwater ordinances, which were found in different places in the city’s ordinances, and developing a comprehensive stormwater ordinance. The consultant would also look at floodwater control issues in the community. He said that would be done at a basic level to get an idea of where the City’s needs were. He said they knew that Tinsley Mill had problems and that there were problems in Wynnmeade. It would identify where the problems were and help the City meet the needs of the community. The consultant would also look at the City’s infrastructure. The consultant would look at the needs of the community, where the City should plan for capital improvements, as well as look at older neighborhoods. Besseche said staff wanted the consultant to look at the current level of spending on stormwater, the level of service, the extent of service, and what the City was doing to meet the needs of the community in the areas of stormwater quality and quantity. The consultant would also look at the City’s status in regards to the EPD and Phase II of the National Pollutant Discharge System (the NPDES program) that EPA had proposed. It would address the new Metropolitan Water District that Besseche said was on the horizon. Staff would like the consultant to help in meeting the requirements that would be proposed. Besseche said the second step in the process was to look at water quality issues that needed to be dealt with. He said the City needed to know where it was as far as water quality issues, establish a standard, get an idea of what the current conditions were, and where the City needed to go. The third step would be to hold a series of stakeholder meetings where the community would be invited to participate in establishing what was expected from a stormwater management program and what the City was looking for in way of water quality and flooding issues, as well as get more support behind a floodwater program. Besseche had prepared a list of questions to be asked to the stakeholder group. The questions were: i. What are the flood control needs and how should they be solved? ii. What level of service should be provided in the areas of maintenance, repairs, capital improvements, and quality issues? iii. What entity should be responsible for the program/ iv. Can we afford to provide these changes? v. How do we pay for them? vi. How do we achieve compliance with NPDES Phase II and to what degree? vii. Do we need to consider a local storm water design manual or can we simply adopt the state’s manual? Besseche said the consultant would be expected to provide meeting minutes from all meetings, an interim report on the Program Assessment, an interim report on water quality baseline study, a Draft Action Plan – answering key questions regarding the program, a Final Action Plan – recommendations to City Council on the Storm Water Management Program; and NPDES Phase II Notice for Peachtree City. Besseche said the consultant should complete the work by February 2002 for presentation to the Council at the 2002 Retreat. The cost would be about $75,000. Besseche requested that Council allow staff to pursue this course of action and authorize staff to budget the appropriate amount in the PIP account. Besseche also asked Council to allow staff to seek the services of a consultant based on a qualifications-based selection process. Lenox asked if most of the money was spent on baseline testing. Besseche replied about $25,000 would be spent on the water quality aspect. Lenox then asked if the deadline for the NPDES approval or certification was recently extended. Not officially, Besseche said. He added that after talking with EPD, the degree to which municipalities achieve compliance kept getting pushed back. He explained that the city was still required to obtain a permit by March 2003, but the full program wasn’t expected to be implemented until 2008. Lenox commented that his only reservation was that the rules for federal programs kept changing. However, he added that what the City would get out of the program would be good for the City and that Council needed to look at those kinds of things. McMenamin said she was angry at first because it was another federal mandate pushed down on local governments without any financial assistance. When that was taken out of the picture, however, she said the program was very good for the City. Rapson said he felt it was a very good first step. Part of why the EPD was evaluating their position on when it should be done was because they made the big counties, like Fulton or Cobb, spend $600,000 to $700,000 on basin studies only to find out they needed to spend another $12 to $15 million to fix each basin. The problem was the big counties could not afford to do it and that’s why the deadlines were pushed out. It would bankrupt municipalities, Rapson explained. Lenox pointed out that while the cost was a major burden on larger counties, it would bankrupt the small counties even more. The only thing that saved Peachtree City was that the City was fairly new and didn’t have 100-year old problems, he added. Rapson also noted that GIS would play a big role in fixing this and put the City far ahead of the game. Besseche said one aspect they hoped to accomplish was to get the baseline data plugged into the GIS so it could be accessed through the data base and see visually where things were happening. Rapson moved to approve the approach as outlined and budget the additional $25,000 to complete the exercise and seek out competitive proposals. Fritz seconded. The motion carried unanimously. If the consultant wouldn't be complete with the work required in the first steps of the process until February 2002, what could the City have done between August 2001 and then? As Lenox's term expired (and he was unable to run for reelection, as term limits were put in place in 1993), what else could he have done? Was this the first time stormwater management was under the microscope of the Lenox administration? No. It was first introduced at the 2001 City Council Retreat on March 23, 2001. The minutes of that discussion are included for your review below. Besseche gave a presentation on the new federally mandated requirements on stormwater management (Presentation included in official meeting folder), and concluded with a recommendation to contract with the Water and Sewerage Authority to provide this service, with funding to be provided by billing property owners on the water bills. Basinger said Council would be meeting with WASA on Saturday, but he wanted Council to have some information prior to that meeting. Fritz noted that the City of Atlanta’s collection fee had been thrown out in court, but that Griffin’s was fine. Rapson said Atlanta had guessed to arrive at their fee, while Griffin went through a lengthy process. Larry Turner, WASA General Manager, said stormwater utilities started on the west coast, then Florida began to set them up, and that Griffin was the first in Georgia. He said a master plan would be necessary to assess the capital and operating costs, and calculate runoff from various types of properties to establish a fee. Besseche said the Environmental Protection Agency’s published expected costs ranged from $1.39 to $8.00 per month. Lenox said the program was an unfunded mandate that would cost $1 million per year for benefits he had a hard time discerning. Besseche said the water quality would improve. Rapson did not have a problem with WASA managing the program. Fritz had concerns about WASA’s independence from the city, and asked if there would be some accountability. Lenox said the ultimate responsibility fell on the city, and although we had latitude in how we would meet the requirements, we also bore the ultimate responsibility. He was not in favor of relinquishing control, but felt control could be maintained through an intergovernmental contract. Tennant asked if any private entities existed that could manage the program, but Lenox said none existed. Salvatore asked if the city’s population placed it in a category that had to adhere, and Turner said that Peachtree City would definitely fall under the Phase II requirements. Rapson said the city’s GIS system put Peachtree City ahead of the curve, and Lenox felt that the city’s youth would also help due to the availability of construction records. Turner said he could not speak for the WASA board members, but felt they should address the issue with Council on the following day. And it has been said that the City stopped doing anything after they approved the "minimum requirements". Well, there's a reason for that, as you can read for yourself in the August 4, 2001 Budget Workshop minutes, with the applicable portion listed here for you: And it also appears that there are those who imply that the entire stormwater replacement MUST be in place by 2008. The PLAN must be in place by then, as you can read from the City's own Stormwater website (again, I have placed emphasis on the points you may find important). Did I have "magic powers" to find this information? No, it was all available for anyone with a computer to review on the City's website. Please do yourselves a favor. Take an hour or two and review the issues you hold most dear. Go online and read the news accounts of the story, not just from the Citizen, but from the Neighbor, the AJC, the AP and other news sources (yes, Peachtree City gets covered in the AP - I found stories about us reported on Albany TV websites). Go to the City's website and read the council minutes, the retreat minutes. If you're truly educated to the issues, you may find you discover many of the "arguments" provided by others in this forum are scare tactics to confuse you on the true issues - leadership for the City. As you can see here, the STAFF is quite good at what they do (they have to be, else they don't continue working). It's the style of leadership that you may wish to judge your decision on come Tuesday. Reality Bytes's blog | login to post comments
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