GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — The city council in Georgetown late Monday night voted to offer an official invitation for a state auditor to examine the facts and circumstances behind a proposed water rate increase that will see rates hike 57% over the course of three years.
The increase is due in part to mistakes made by contractors working on a new city wastewater plant.
Originally, the council considered a plan to raise rates 61% over a two-year span. That increase was revised down. Instead of a 39% increase starting next year, there would be a 19% water fee increase. There would be another 19% increase for each of the following two years.
Water service officials told LEX18 the overall hike will be the same, just done more gradually and spread across more years. The increase would begin in March. It’s up to next year’s council to vote on the proposal.
Mayor Tom Prather said he had been in discussions with the state auditor officer, but they required an official invitation from the city council to come in.
“We believe for that public confidence the auditor should come in,” Prather said.
The meeting grew heated as councilmembers discussed the wording of the letter that would be delivered to the auditor.
Mayor Prather was in favor of a letter that focused on the wastewater plant.
Councilwoman Karen-Tingle Simes wrote in her letter that the council had lost trust in the decisions, direction, and future of the water service. She called for “true accountability.”
“Mine is more broad based, asking more of what you have been asking, how did we get here,” Simes said, referring to the crowd at the meeting, many of whom spoke. She said people have been asking for a proposal like hers.
Prather said the letter went too far.
“That resolution [letter] is a complete indictment of our own water company and water board before an examination is made,” Mayor Prather said.
After a lengthy executive session, council members emerged and announced they’d come to a compromise. The letter they decided on still mentions the possible larger scope of an auditor “special examination” while at the same time dropping lines Simes had included about losing trust in the water service. The auditor can still decline to take a look, Prather said.
