Evesham Township Council’s discussion of potentially dissolving the Evesham Municipal Utilities Authority and having the municipality assume water and sewer duties for the town moved further down the pipeline at council’s Oct. 20 meeting.
Evesham Township Manager Tom Czerniecki gave council more data to highlight benefits of the idea — №1 being that authorities without taxing powers, such as the MUA, are required to carry significant reserves, in the MUA’s case, about $9 million.
If the MUA were to be absorbed by the township and its $31 million worth of debt service was refinanced as municipal debt, Czerniecki said ratepayers could possibly save $4.3 million over the next 10 years and the $9 million would be freed.
Currently the MUA operates as public entity apart from the municipality and is funded by revenues from performing water and wastewater operations for properties throughout Evesham.
Compared to more than 30 other municipalities in Burlington County, Czerniecki said towns operating water and sewer services as a department under the municipality is not unique in any respect.
In Evesham there are currently 15,367 residential customer accounts for water service, 14,832 residential customer accounts for sewer service, 1,046 commercial customer accounts for water service and 999 commercial customer accounts for sewer service.
The MUA currently has 55 employees and $171 million in capital assets.
However, for any dissolution to happen, first the local finance board under the state Department of Community Affairs must first give its approval.
If council wished to move forward, it would have to prepare and approve an application to the DCA outlining its plan.
Should the township be approved for dissolving and absorbing the MUA, Czerniecki said the integration would take place in several phases.
During the first phase in year one, Czerniecki said the township would put “big things” in place, such as debt refinancing, transitioning council to becoming the body making decisions on water and sewer issues, as well as integrating payroll, health benefits and purchasing systems along with management.
The second phase in year one and two would integrate staff and buildings and grounds.
“There are a number of vacancies both at the township and at the MUA where we can consolidate some immediate services saving close to $250,000 a year recurring,” Czerniecki said.
In regard to a transition of staff, Czerniecki said the executive director would effectively become like a department head under the municipality and nothing more would change.
“My intention, and I’ve said it along and it’s what I’d encourage council to do, was to make sure those employees and that management team experience this as a name change,” Czerniecki said.
The third phase in year two and beyond would simply be more discussion of other strategic synergies.
Czerniecki also highlighted benefits such as the township being able to better coordinate paving projects with underground water and sewer work.
Councilmember Ken D’Andrea once again stated his belief that money saved by transforming the MUA into a department of the township should either be given back to ratepayers or left for water and sewer related projects, as opposed to funding other aspects of the township’s budget.
“In my effort in striving to be as transparent as possible, I welcome to look at the data, but we really need to be mindful and the controls need to be put in there to prevent robbing Peter to pay Paul,” D’Andrea said.
Councilmember Deb Hackman echoed D’Andrea, and said she was elected to be a steward of the township’s resources and the taxpayers’ money, so she would have to take a hard look at the data before making any decision.
“I’m just looking at these numbers tonight, and it’s a lot of stuff to digest and to fully understand and to sit here and say yes or no either way, I think this is a great start to analyze the situation that we have,” Hackman said.
Mayor Randy Brown said he is for the idea, as he had previously stated publically, but did agree there needed to be controls and a multiyear plan of what the MUA would be doing and spending its resources on.
“I think it would be a failure if we didn’t create some sort of plan to be a guideline for future councils as we move forward,” Brown said.
Brown also floated the idea of possibly looking into bringing water service to southern end of town and giving residents there the option to join.
“This provides amazing final flexibility for not just the ratepayers but for the taxpayers, for both, amazing financial flexibility, financial flexibility that this township has never seen before,” Brown said.
