Meeting doesn’t settle debate on sewer rates

When all is said and done, it comes down to trust. Do you trust the people who live in your town who have been elected or appointed to public bodies? They are your neighbors; they are somebody’s husband, wife, mother, father or child. Can they all be unscrupulous monsters?

These questions come to mind following a joint meeting of the Marlboro Township Council and the Manalapan Township Committee on Oct. 11 in Marlboro’s Town Hall. The elected officials from both governing bodies came together to ask questions of the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority’s appointed commissioners and the WMUA’s professional executive director.

The WMUA provides sewer service to customers in Marl-boro and Manalapan, and other municipalities. This year the authority raised rates 30 percent. For the average customer, that resulted in a quarterly rate hike from $81 to $105, according to information provided by the authority.

The WMUA commissioners said the increase was necessitated in large part by what they called significant increases in 2005 in certain operating expenses, such as employee health benefits, chemicals, fuel and plant repairs.

The commissioners said that after subsidizing customer rates for a number of years, a decision was made to cover operating expenses with current revenue. The commissioners said they believe that plan is working and will help to replenish a surplus that was drained by their decision to pay for a series of capital improvements with cash on hand, rather than through long-term bonding.

Part of the meeting was carried by questions from Ulrich Steinberg, Marlboro’s chief financial officer, to the WMUA officials.

While Steinberg did not debate the commissioners’ decision to cover operating expenses with current revenue, he did question their decision to pay for items that will have a long service life with cash instead of bonds spread out over a number of years.

Steinberg concluded that the WMUA commissioners did nothing illegal in spending the authority’s surplus and none of the elected officials from Marl-boro or Manalapan challenged him on that conclusion.

Under questioning from the elected municipal officials, the commissioners stated that in hindsight, they might have opted to raise rates incrementally over the past few years, instead of hitting customers with a 30 percent hike this year.

Residents are left at the end of the day with the reality that the WMUA is a business being operated by people who have been appointed by politicians. When politics is involved, there will always be at least two sides to a story and more than one way to accomplish something — whether that something is building a parking deck, zoning for affordable housing or operating sewer pipes.

These commissioners, at this point in time, took action they believed best served the authority and its ratepayers.

If elected officials in Manalapan and Marlboro who appoint the WMUA commissioners believe bad decisions were made relative to the operation of the authority, they should appoint new commissioners when the seats come open and tell those appointees exactly how they want the authority to be operated.

If everything gets screwed up with new appointees, don’t worry, other politicians will appoint different commissioners someday.

The WMUA has been around for a long time, and it does not seem likely that the authority will be dissolved. Residents and politicians have debated sewer rates and surpluses for years. They will continue that debate as long as there are Democrats and Republicans.

The only thing that really matters to residents in the end, so to speak, is when people need the service the WMUA provides, that service works.