NEW ALBANY TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD
TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD
New Albany Mayor Doug England announced last week he wants to layout the history of the sewer utility ahead of a public hearing scheduled by the City Council.
It’s about time.
No doubt the sewer system — rates, infrastructure demands and debt obligations — is complicated. But as City Engineer Tim Marinaro told the Sewer Board Thursday, it’s about transparency.
It would have been a wise move for England to have scheduled this public meeting before, or at least in conjunction with, the report from Crowe Horwath received by the city in January that initially called for a 70 percent rate hike.
This isn’t to say the rate increase is necessarily England’s fault. Sewer overflows have plagued New Albany for decades and we didn’t get into this debt situation overnight.
Also, what mayor or council member would honestly want a rate hike on their watch? It doesn’t seem likely that England will tout being the mayor that passed a sizable increase onto New Albany sewer customers if he runs for re-election.
Still, leaders should step up and take the reigns when controversy arises. The council has already voted on a rate increase once and the sewer board has taken two separate votes on rate packages since the news first broke.
Those are both bodies consisting of part-time officials.
To his credit, England was on vacation during part of this debate. But it would have been comforting for many residents to hear the voice of New Albany’s elected full-time leader before the council took up the issue.
A press conference, a town hall meeting, a column in The Tribune — any kind of communication beyond a few quotes from England or his deputies to address the residents of this city would have been appreciated.
Not everybody would have believed his explanation. But not addressing the inevitable sooner only made suspicions grow.
There must be constant communication coming from the executive branch during debate over a controversial subject like rate increases. When you start hitting residents’ pocketbooks, and you are not around to soothe the backlash, conspiracy theories begin to run wild, like they are currently doing.
While this may not seem like a huge increase to some when you look at the actual dollar amount, those in our community living on a fixed income or who are out of work are sweating over every dollar now, and rightfully so.
We applaud the public meeting and explanation of the history of sewers in this city. We just wish it had happened sooner.
Our Opinion editorials are consensus viewpoints of the editorial board of The (New Albany) Tribune
