Contractors who operate Ione’s wastewater facilities told the City Council on April 1 that they have reduced costs, completed major repairs and are working toward compliance with regional water board requirements. At the same meeting, a resident who obtained financial records said accounting irregularities and delayed audits have left the city unable to determine available funds.

“During the course of this past year, we have reduced our price, thus saving the city a hundred and $20,000 a year,” said a contractor representative, who added the operator had inherited aged infrastructure and had completed projects to return facilities to compliance. The speaker said the regional board has “noted the proactive approach” and that without remediation the plant could be shut down.

The contractor said specific projects yielded substantial savings compared with initial vendor bids: a project originally bid at $283,000 was completed for $179,000; a 14-inch mag flow meter and readout panel installation cost $48,000; and sand-filter repairs that had been quoted at $1.1 million–$1.6 million were being completed for under $600,000. The contractor also said the city had paid about $1,018,000 to date for necessary upgrades and that the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) upgrade was 40% complete at a cost so far of $191,000.

The contractor representative also said the company had prepared a capital-improvement plan (CIP) that could save the city about $2,000,000 and identified potential grant funding of $15,000,000; those figures were presented as the operator’s estimates and were not audited or verified during the meeting.

Separately, Susan Priest, who said she lives in the Cash Lokue subdivision, said she obtained the city’s financial statements as of Dec. 31 and distributed copies to the council. Priest said the general-fund statements contained account balances in unexpected places and that about 38.5% of balance-sheet items appeared misclassified. “This is probably one of the reasons the audits are behind,” she told the council, and she listed missing documentation items auditors typically request, including bank reconciliations and contract copies.

City manager George Lee and other staff were present during the public comments. No formal council action on contracts, CIP adoption, or grant acceptance occurred during the special meeting; the contractor said they would return with supporting quotes and backup documentation if council members wanted to review them.

Why this matters: Ione’s wastewater plant is subject to regional water-board permits; failure to remedy violations can lead to enforcement, fines or shutdown. At the same time, accounting irregularities and missing audits can limit the city’s ability to budget or to demonstrate that contract savings have materialized.

Looking ahead: The contractor asked for item(s) related to the SCADA upgrade to be considered on a future agenda. Council members did not take a vote on funding or contracts related to the wastewater plant at the special meeting.