Candidates for the Athens Municipal Water Authority (AMWA) board and the Athens City Council came together Thursday night at the Cain Center for a forum sponsored by the Athens Daily Review and the Cain Center.
While these types of events are a great chance for voters to meet the candidates, it isn’t often that any new information is actually learned. Last night, however, AMWA incumbent Ed Gatlin dropped the bomb that the water authority voted yesterday afternoon to remove the $4 million demand from its lawsuit against the city.
That was pretty important news. Here are 11 other thoughts from the forum.
1. Give Athens Daily Review Publisher Lange Svehlak and Editor Chad Wilson credit for putting on the event. These things aren’t as easy as they seem.
2. The forum highlighted the fact that the Athens City Council seats are separated into places. That means particular individuals are running against each other rather than everyone running in one big group (like the AMWA board).
The City Council election breaks down like this: In Place 1, Joe Whatley against Carol Barton; in Place 2, Charles Elliott against Aubrey Jones; and in Place 3, Tres Winn against Elaine Jenkins.
The AMWA Board race includes Mike Peek, Herbert “Ed” Gatlin, Gregory Hisey, and William “Billy” Carter.
3. Carter was the only candidate who did not attend the forum.
4. There really hasn’t been much doubt that this election is almost exclusively about the future of AMWA and Wilson’s questions to the candidates showed that. Two of the four questions to City Council candidates were about AMWA and a third question started, “Other than water ….”
In December 2013, AMWA filed a lawsuit against the city alleging the city is in breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, is negligent and has committed fraud. The issue basically boils down to who should pay for the operation and maintenance of Lake Athens, the dam, and the water treatment and transportation facilities. A proposition on the May 10 ballot will give voters to chance to dissolve or keep AMWA.
For those who need a refresher on the water issue, check out this page of links to my stories.
5. While this election has generated plenty of candidates and controversy, that hasn’t been the rule in Athens. The City of Athens has not had an election since 2011 because no one has challenged the incumbents. As for AMWA, there hasn’t been a contested race for a board seat there since 2002. In fact, many city residents did not know AMWA and the city were separate entities until the lawsuit was filed.
6. The candidates split almost exclusively along water issue lines.
On the Pro-AMWA side are AMWA Board candidates Ed Gatlin and Gregory Hisey, and City Council candidates Joe Whatley and Charles Elliott.
On the Anti-AMWA side are AMWA Board candidate Mike Peek and City Council candidates Carol Barton, Aubrey Jones and Elaine Jenkins.
7. While it was easy to see the how the candidates lined up on the water issue, Peek was the most vocal about the issue. He said he was running because he didn’t like the idea of AMWA “using my (tax) money to sue to get my (tax) money.”
8. Another topic was about whether AMWA — if it continues to exist — would sell water outside of Athens. AMWA candidates Peek and Gatlin said they were against selling water outside the city (I do not remember if Hisey took a position on this last night). No one mentioned the city currently sells bulk water to those from outside the city.
In January, AMWA Executive Director Wylie Pirkle wrote a letter to local media which read, in part, “The members of AMWA’s board have discussed selling water to other local entities. However, Athens is our primary customer, and it will always get the water it needs before any alternative is considered.”
9. The only candidate in either the AMWA Board or City Council races to not take a position on the water issue was Winn. The former longtime Athens firefighter actually sidestepped the question about whether AMWA should be dissolved or not, saying it was up to the voters.
Winn was the only City Council challenger without a tie to AMWA and said he had planned for a longtime to run for the council but had to wait until after he was no longer a firefighter. He said he wants to use his experience of being on the “other side” of the budget to help the city and wanted to work toward growth.
10. The other issues talked about Thursday night included the city’s budget and the making the city friendlier to new businesses.
The opinions about the health of the city’s finances were split along the same lines as the water issue. The Pro-AMWA faction characterized the city as being in dire financial straits while the City Council incumbents said the annual audits prove the city is OK. I did a little research and put the city’s ad valorem tax rate in perspective yesterday.
All the candidates seemed to think the city could do a better job of being friendly to growth and new business.
11. The forum was videod by T. Gordon Mayhall and James Robertson of ‘Eye On The County’ for the Review. Hopefully the Review will post the video and those who didn’t get to attend will be able to watch online.