Alliance contract on council agenda tonight

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

By Ralph Pokorny/Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada City Council has a number of items on its agenda for tonight's meeting; however, the most contentious item to face the council in recent years will be the first reading of a proposed contract to have Alliance Water Resources, Columbia, take over the management of the city's water and sewer operation.

Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman, who along with city attorney William McCaffree negotiated the contract, told the council during a budget work session Friday night that this contract with Alliance is what every other town that uses their services wishes they had.

Under the terms of the contract, Alliance will come to Nevada with their expertise in operating water and sewer systems, use that expertise to run Nevada's systems for the five years of the contract for a flat fee, provide all needed training for the personnel running the systems -- most of whom will likely be the people who are currently doing that for the city -- and if the contract is not renewed, Alliance will leave Nevada with the same expertise they had when they came, the fee they are paid, and nothing else.

Alliance will not have ownership of any part of the system and at the end of the contract the city will have the first right to hire any of their Nevada employees.

The base fee for the contract is $1,354,194 per year, or $112,849.50 per month. For the first year the contract fee will be prorated based on when the contract starts. There also will be a fee of $147,850, or $12,320.83 per month for chemical and repair reimbursement for the first year. The contract calls for these two fees to be kept separate.

The proposed contract requires Alliance to meet minimum staffing requirements for the water and wastewater treatment plants, requires Alliance to purchase owner's protection insurance for the city, and allows the city access to state law for contract disputes, as well as, contractual remedies.

Alliance already operates 24 water and sewer systems in the Midwest and the expertise they have in-house, including people who are experts in the operation of reverse osmosis water systems, will allow them to improve the quality of the water produced by the city's water treatment plant.

"We don't have to accept the scale, the taste and the odor from this water treatment plant," Kehrman said during an interview Monday afternoon.

He said that he receives complaints from restaurants regularly about the scale in the water affecting the operation of equipment.

An RO plant is one of the most advanced water systems there is and we do not have the expertise in-house to operate it properly, he said.

That is one of the things that Alliance will be required to do, bring the level of training of the people operating the facilities to the required level.

"We haven't invested over the years in the training and development of the people who staff these positions," he said.

Alliance has the resources to provide that training.

They will also be required to develop an inspection and maintenance program

"The EPA wants us to show we have cleaned all the sewer lines every seven years. Alliance will have to meet or exceed those requirements," Kehrman said.

Unlike the contract that Bowling Green had with Alliance, any increases in the fee will be negotiated with the city. There is no provision for the fee to be adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index, if the city and Alliance cannot reach an agreement on the fee.

Kehrman told the council Friday that the city's public works department currently has 30 positions, plus a couple of unfilled positions. Of those, 17 positions will go to Alliance and 15 will stay with the city.

The people working in the 15 positions that remain with the city will be working on the streets and other construction projects.

Operating the water and wastewater treatment plants, reading meters, making repairs will be the responsibility of Alliance. Any capital improvements or construction will be the responsibility of the city.

One of the outcomes of separating the water and sewer operations from the streets, and the rest of the city operations is that the city will be able to know exactly what it costs to provide water and sewer services for Nevada residents.

Kehrman said that because of the way the city is currently structured, it is impossible to be able to determine exactly what it costs to provide water and sewer.

This will be important, he said, when it is time to increase the water or sewer rates, because it will allow the city to show why it is necessary to cover the costs of the production.

Comments

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What about the fact that Alliance doesn't do, night or weekend repairs? Why doesn't the council wait until the new council is elected before sticking us with a 5 year contract that it seems most citizens are against?

-- Posted by TerryB on Tue, Dec 21, 2010, at 9:05 AM
There have been times during emergencies, when the street dept needed extra help and they used water dept people. That will no longer be possible because they won't be city employees.

-- Posted by TerryB on Tue, Dec 21, 2010, at 9:08 AM
Terry, read the contract. It states that Alliance must provide emergency service 24/7.

-- Posted by Nevada Citizen on Tue, Dec 21, 2010, at 9:30 AM
Well they voted yes for it tonight. JD has lied to you. The poor guys that work at the water plant and waste water plant were told they could interview with alliance. They were also told this was not a sure job. only an interview. JD would have you believe that alliance is going to be hiring all of them. This is not the case. Most likely alliance will hire none of them. I believe it is low down and rotten thing to do. The board is no better. My grand pa never had any use for nevada and I see he was right. All I can say is I can't wait to watch nevada go so broke that even dc can bail them out.

-- Posted by truthseeker67 on Tue, Dec 21, 2010, at 9:35 PM
We haven't invested over the years in the training and development of the people who staff these positions," he said.

So the managemnt has not done their job in years and the workers get to pay. Bad managemnet bad goverment and look at the cost, this money will diappear from nevada, at least when the individuals who now work at the plant spend their money in the town. watch what happens, all maintence/upgrade cost are to be carried by the city. they bring in 5 to 6 people to run the plant charge the city on all maintence cost and walk away with about half of the monthly check to pocket hey I'll do it for that amount and I will bring an expert and keep the same peopel who are working there now, what do you say. 1.3 mil just to manage the plant come on they are playing the city council like a bunch of rubes.

-- Posted by endersgame on Wed, Dec 22, 2010, at 7:58 AM
My question is -- if it's currently impossible to determine the cost of water and sewer, how have our rates been determined? We're paying three times the amount for water/sewer that we've paid anywhere else we've lived. Are the figures just pulled out of thin air?

-- Posted by justawife on Wed, Dec 22, 2010, at 7:58 AM
Enders, Alliance could only play the city if the city allowed it. Apparently all we can do is remember this at election time.

-- Posted by justawife on Wed, Dec 22, 2010, at 8:00 AM
Yes, but the city council, elected by us, made the final decision. The sad thing is that too many residents will not educate themselves on the issues, the voting record of current council members and likely, too few residents will even vote. I would like to be more optimistic but my guess is that if you ask any citizen in this town today how the council members voted on the Alliance issue, most will not even know what you"re talking about and worse, too many don't care. That's how this town, most states and our country has gotten to the state we're in. Apathy! And elected officials know it and hope it continues.

-- Posted by justawife on Wed, Dec 22, 2010, at 1:40 PM
SO the story is you got what you voted for, hope you all have better luck with the tea baggers.

-- Posted by endersgame on Sun, Dec 26, 2010, at 2:30 AM

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