PORTAGE | The city will consolidate two of its boards and put their duties under one roof beginning Jan. 1.
The move, Mayor Olga Velazquez said, is about pursuing efficiency and removing redundancy from the city.
The City Council last week approved an ordinance creating the Utility Service Board. The new board will replace the Water Reclamation and Stormwater Management boards, melding their duties under a single authority. Each of the two divisions of the new board -- stormwater and sanitary sewer -- will be managed by a different person who will report to the Utility Service Board.
Creation of a stormwater management fee earlier this year prompted the move.
While the Stormwater Management Board existed, officials decided to give authority to collect the stormwater fees to the Water Reclamation Department because it could use its system to bill property owners. The department provides billing for sanitary sewer, trash and stormwater services.
Also, alongside the stormwater fee, a stormwater maintenance division was formed, to tackle smaller projects throughout the city. That division -- with a budget of about $825,000 annually -- was placed under the auspices of the Water Reclamation Department because the two could share equipment and personnel.
The Stormwater Management Board, which had a small budget of about $50,000 each year to complete small projects, became obsolete in the new structure.
The new Utility Service Board will be charged with creating budgets for both the Water Reclamation and Stormwater Management departments. It will meet sometime before the first of the year to create those budgets for 2010.
The current Stormwater Management Board members are Vern Cunningham, William Fekete and Richard Piazza. Members of the Water Reclamation Board are Velazquez, Victor Rodriquez and Leonard Ciesielski.
The new Utility Service Board will consist of five members. Selections have not been made yet. Velazquez will appoint three, and the City Council will appoint two. Each will serve a four-year term. Initial appointments will be staggered so that terms of the entire board will not expire at the same time. Members will receive annual stipends of $2,000, and the chairman, whom the board will elect, will receive a salary of $656 biweekly.
