Lake Worth Sub-Regional Sewer

Past incompetence is clearly the cause of our current situation with the Regional Sewer System billing problem. There is no question mark (?) about it. It was discovered in 2005 that 7 entities owed us money for our failure to bill for Renewal and Replacement charges. Until city manager Susan Stanton was hired, this serious situation and a multi-million dollar shortfall was swept under the rug. Blame can also be placed on these entities for not asking why they were not billed. They had a contract. They too, swept it under the rug.

The cities are Atlantis, Lantana, Palm Springs, Manalapan, South Palm Beach, Palm Beach as well as Palm Beach State College. Only two are paying besides Lake Worth: Palm Beach and PB State College. The cities that owe us have called for an audit and I don't blame them as the outstanding balance is $10,418,237. Payments are being held up by a majority of them until the Audit is conducted by the State. However, until these issues are resolved, the Sub-Regional fund does not have sufficient revenues to maintain operations--this fund's unrestricted reserves will be totally depleted in less than 2 years.

According to the city manager, the impact will be two fold--
1. On the Sub-Regional customers who are paying ( Palm Beach, Palm Beach State
College, City of Lake Worth local sewer) – the rate will be increased.
2. On the City of Lake Worth – the residents will experience a rate increase on their Sewer
bills, in order for the City to pay the increased Sub-Regional costs.

Past incompetence has cost the tax payers of Lake Worth untold millions from the PB County water deal, the Sheriff Contract, the Fire merger, the Unions, and much more. We have a city manager (along with our present city commission) who is attempting to end the cycle of costly mistakes. We just have to suffer a little bit longer.

Our City Attorney, Elaine Humphreys says, "The Auditor General, or more likely the Deputy Auditor General, will be contacting us in the next few weeks to schedule interviews with City staff about the sub-regional issue. We have not been given a date certain - just that as soon as his office completes its statutory duties they will be contacting us, which is anticipated to be in the next few weeks based on conversations Carol Desmond and I had with the staff for the Joint Legislative Auditor Committee."

The sooner the better.