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When launched 15 months ago in the immediate aftermath of substantial rate increases for some water customers, the Trumbull County Water Advisory Board had great potential to rise as a vigilant, forward-thinking consumer watchdog. Sadly, that promising watchdog has lost any semblance of bite.
Its members -- mostly township trustees -- were charged by the Board of Trumbull County Commissioners with overseeing from local governments' and users' perspectives the operations of the county's Sanitary Engineer's Department, the lead agency overseeing water distribution in the county. Specifically, its range of potential tasks included reviewing infrastructure projects, operating budgets, rate structures and potential regionalization of water distribution systems in the county and throughout the Mahoning Valley.
Unfortunately, the board's record thus far shows little to even justify its existence. Its meetings have been stymied to the point of uselessness because of their consistent inability to have sufficient attendance to achieve a quorum by which its recommendations could legally be forwarded to county commissioners for consideration and action.
Many meaningful topics for review -- ranging from pass-through water rates to regionalizing water service to costly maintenance of water towers -- have been torpedoed due to the inability or apathy of many of its members to show up and actively participate in scheduled quarterly or special meetings.
Such chronic truancy reached a boiling point recently when water board Chairman Rex Fee, former Champion Township trustee and former executive director of the Sanitary Engineer's Department, resigned in understandable frustration.
"Without a quorum present, meeting after meeting, anything that is brought to us is pushed back, and whenever you push back issues involving what the sanitary engineer is presenting as needed funds, it just slows (things down)," Fee told commissioners.
The former chairman also vented understandable frustration over the apparent lack of interest in what he termed "a civilized discussion on regionalization." That suggestion sadly went over like a lead balloon.
The hesitancy to even study the possibility of establishing a more cost-efficient regional water distribution system in the county and the Valley is particularly troubling.
Regional water districts, after all, have been known to achieve considerable savings on chemicals, equipment, maintenance and personnel by sharing services on a large scale.
What's more, a single regional authority could at last level the playing field for rate payers. The current system in the Valley, in which several communities purchase water from Mahoning Valley Sanitary District member cities Youngstown and Niles and then pass those costs onto their residents, has resulted in large disparities in rates.
As longtime MVSD director Matthew Blair pointed out not too long ago, "You've got the same water -- there's nothing different about it -- but it's twice as expensive in Liberty as it is to a Niles resident."
Such inequities not only unfairly treat water consumers but also stand as a roadblock to economic development efforts.
As for the future, we hope the water advisory panel can be meaningfully resuscitated. For starters, we'd urge Fee to reconsider his departure as he brings to it an invaluable 30-plus years of expertise in the inner workings of the county's Sanitary Engineer's Office as well as many years of committed public service to Champion residents as a township trustee.
For that to happen, however, we'd urge commissioners to work to encourage all 12 members of the board to take their duties seriously through regular attendance and active participation. If some find that impossible, they should resign and be replaced with those who will.
We also hope the Ohio Auditor of State will soon complete and release findings of a performance audit of the county's Sanitary Engineer's Department that county commissioners requested at the same time the advisory panel was formed last year. Its findings could serve as a fitting road map for the panel to move forward to enhance efficiencies and control costs of water delivery.
But with no end in sight to rising inflation on all aspects of American life -- and certainly on critical public services such as quality water distribution -- a vigilant and ferocious watchdog for consumers is needed now more than ever. We therefore remain hopeful The Trumbull County Water Advisory Board can regroup, meet that challenge and do so with a sharp but productive bite.