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Monthly utility reports: lower water sales, large reservoir dredging, workforce planning; resident raises transparency questions
Summary
BLW received monthly operations, finance and workforce reports Oct. 6 showing lower summer water sales, ongoing capital work including a major reservoir dredging project, and a human-resources plan focused on retention and succession. A resident questioned transparency around an unspecified contract and access to digital documents.
At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Board of Lights and Water received several regular reports on operations, finance and workforce planning and heard a public comment urging more transparency around a contract and related digital document access.
Miss Chalfant (Cobb County Merit Water Authority representative) presented the water authority report. She said average water sales were about 81,000,000 gallons per day compared with a budgeted 90 million gallons per day for the month and that year-to-date water sales revenue reported was $9,600,000. The report said year-to-date net income exceeded budget; the presentation included figures of $2,500,000 and $2,700,000 in different places. Capital spending year to date was reported at approximately $40,000,000 with a remaining capital improvement program commitment of about $51,000,000 and cash reserved for CIP spending of $66,700,000 as of August.
Chalfant highlighted the Corals Reservoir cleaning project: staff reported crews have removed about 32,000 cubic yards of silt, using roughly 200 truck trips per day, and estimated the work will take about 16 months to complete.
Bettina Brown (finance director) presented a supplemental finance briefing. She reported that for the municipal energy authority (MIEA) total power was under budget year to date by about $1.5 million because of market pricing; separately, she said BLW’s total power costs were about $1.26 million over the BLW budget year to date, driven in part by milder summer weather and other operational outages earlier in September. Brown said off-system wholesale credits were up year over year by about $772,000 at the time of the report. She also noted forecast market pricing and potential effects on the 2026 budget.
The chairperson reported that MEAG (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia) had grown to about $1.4 billion including certain adjustments and said the preliminary budget is under staff review ahead of the board’s November meeting.
The general manager updated the board on a human-resources strategic plan that focuses on retention, recruitment and internal promotion. The manager said the utility has about 17 current vacancies (including about eight in customer service and four each in water and electric) and reported about 45 employees are eligible to retire within the next one to five years; roughly 21 of those positions are in management. The manager said steps such as promotional programs and targeted recruiting have improved lineman retention, and the utility has been using outreach to trade schools.
During unscheduled public comment, Larry Wells of 60 Oakmont Drive addressed the board. Wells, who identified himself as a Marietta resident, said he was concerned about transparency when documents are handled electronically and asked how the public would access digital records. He also said he believed a separate Georgia Tech pilot project to harden a substation had not produced a publicly available report and urged clearer deliverables and transparency for the contract he was referencing. “This digital transfer of documents and information, I'm not sure how you're going to guarantee transparency and public scrutiny if everything's hidden in the cloud,” Wells said.
No executive session was requested following public comment, and the meeting adjourned after completing the agenda items.
