Completely irresponsible

I know Mayor Todd Webster is an attorney and a lobbyist. Because they were just involved in an election campaign I am also aware that Damon Fogley is an EMS paramedic and that Daphne Tenorio is a homemaker. Other than that, I must admit I do not know the professions of the other Kyle City Council members. One thing I do know, however: I hope they aren’t managing anyone’s retirement funds because when it comes to managing someone else’s money, these folks don’t have a clue.

The bad news here is they are in charge of managing someone else’s money, the money entrusted in their care by the people who pay taxes in Kyle.

Last night, the Kyle City Council approved a contract to purchase from Aqua Operations, Inc., a Wastewater Treatment plant for $3 million even though City Manager Scott Sellers stood before them and admitted he had absolutely no idea where the money would be coming from to pay for the purchase.

Sad to say, I’m not making this up. Sellers stood before the council last night and said the agreement’s closing date of Oct. 1 "allows the city council through this budget season to plan for the acquisition and budget for coming out of that FY 2016 budget. So as of Oct. 1, when we roll the budget into the next fiscal year, we will go to closing at that point with a financing mechanism in place, whether that’s straight out of the utility fund, as part of a cash flow, whether that’s through some sort of a cash advance through development, or whether that’s through some sort of certificate of occupancy (EDITOR’S NOTE: I really think he meant "certificate of obligation" because a "certificate of occupancy" is something a tenant must obtain from a city’s building department in order to take over the occupancy of an existing building or any part of that building) or other kind of bond mechanism, that is to be determined through this bond process."

But wait. That’s not all.

"This is our first attempt at operating our own wastewater treatment plant," Sellers told the council. "Fortunately we have some great models to follow after as we craft the budget which also includes our personnel. There are a lot of unknowns at this point (emphasis mine) but we’re figuring them out. But in the next few days you will see some activity for hiring personnel and trying to get some things in place in anticipation of the city becoming the full operator Oct. 1."

But wait. I know it’s hard to believe but there are even more unanswered questions.

"In speaking to our third party engineer who will be inspecting the facility we feel like if we have full access to the facility between now and closing we will have a much better idea of how to budget for operations and maintenance of the plant moving forward as well as we will have a better understanding of the capacity of the plant and operations as we look toward expansion," Sellers said.

The key word in that sentence is "if." Think about that. The city will be able to budget for the first year’s O&M costs and how to run the dang thing only if they gain full access to the facility sometime between now and Oct 1., the day the budget in which those O&M costs must be included goes into effect.

But wait yet again. There’s even more unknowns.

"Our permits right now allow us to operate up to 4.5 million gallons per day and so through our sewer model, which we are currently undergoing, and through forecasting population growth, development in the area, we just don’t know right now (again emphasis mine) what to anticipate as this point," Sellers said. "We really don’t have a good idea of the existing assets within the facility."

And finally, this. Sellers asked the council to alter the part of the agreement calling for two separate inspections period and instead "have from this point forward until closing an inspection period. I spoke with legal counsel. We feel that’s a concession Aqua should be fine making."

But no one knows for sure if that’s a concession Aqua should be fine making.

Look, I have no problems with the city purchasing the Wastewater Treatment Plant. It certainly makes far more sense than paying Aqua $200,000 a month to operate it.

But I find it totally irresponsible that the council could vote – unanimously — to approve this contract when there are so many outstanding questions, concerns, doubts. I find it even more irresponsible that not one single council member – not one – asked Sellers when he might be able to come back with answers to some of these unknowns. Not all of them, mind you, although that might be nice, but at least one or two of them.

But then, what the hell do they care? They probably feel it’s not their money at risk here.