Posted: | March 2, 2018 10:24 AM |
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From: | Senator Kim L. Ward and Sen. Patrick J. Stefano |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Municipal Water and Sewer Authority Reform |
We are introducing legislation to require transparency and accountability in the operations of local municipal water and sewer authorities. While these local authorities have a public mission to fulfill, they are government entities that should be responsive to the public they serve and their operations should be transparent. Yet, constituents have told us over and over how they often have little recourse when trying to address service issues and rate increases with local water and sewer authorities. In fact, both the state Auditor General and Public Utility Commission staff have told us their offices receive a significant number of complaints from the public regarding local authorities yet neither have statutory jurisdiction over them except in very few cases. Our own personal experiences have shown us some water and sewer authorities use questionable practices in their operations that seemingly neglect the fact that these entities are actual government agencies and as such, should be more transparent and accountable in their practices. Our legislation will amend Chapter 56 of the Municipality Authorities Act (Title 53) to do the following for municipal water and sewer authorities:
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