Brewer mayor to file complaint with PUC Water district employee distributed fliers that opposed city takeover of the utility

BREWER – The city’s mayor said he intends to file a complaint Monday with the Public Utilities Commission over the distribution of political literature Friday by an employee of the Brewer Water District. The employee was on the job at the time.

The fliers urge voters to oppose the city’s attempt to acquire the district’s assets and assume responsibility for the community’s water supply when the issue comes before voters in a citywide referendum on June 11.

A legal opinion the city obtained Friday suggests that the distribution of political fliers by a meter reader represents a violation of the PUC’s rules.

Mayor Michael Celli said Friday that he learned about the fliers and who was distributing them from a concerned resident. After obtaining a copy of the flier, he visited the water district’s offices on Parker Street to find out who authorized the distribution and to demand that the district stop employees from distributing them while on ratepayers’ payroll. A uniformed Brewer police officer who accompanied the mayor on his visit witnessed the discussion.

Water District Superintendent Jerry Carstensen acknowledged Friday that he authorized the distribution of the fliers but declined to reveal the names of the concerned citizens he said paid to print them.

Carstensen further said that he saw nothing in the rules preventing employees from distributing political literature while on the job and said he would not call for an end to the distribution until someone proved otherwise.

In a written opinion the city obtained Friday, James Cohen, an attorney from the city’s utility legal counsel Verrill & Dana, wrote that the Public Utilities Commission’s rules contain “clear limits on the ability of public utilities to engage in political activities.”

If the distribution was meant to be a political activity on the district’s part, “clearly it is an activity that should not be paid for in rates.” The only instances in which utilities can pay for political activity are those the PUC decides are proper expenditures, “for example, if it could be argued that the expenditure properly benefited all of the ratepayers,” Cohen wrote.

Utilities that engage in political activities are subject to a host of reporting requirements, according to the PUC.

Reports must include the number and titles of each employee involved in the political activity, as well as the time spent on it each quarter, as well as the expenditures, salary and associated overhead.

No one could be reached at the PUC Friday evening.

If the materials do not purport to speak on behalf of the district, “it would be hard to argue that such activities are proper ratepayer expenditures,” Cohen wrote. “This would be the case if the employees are delivering the brochures on the job.”

A copy of the flier obtained by the Bangor Daily News shows that the fliers do not purport to speak for the district, but rather, were “produced by concerned citizens and without any of your tax dollars.”

While a citizens group might have paid to publish the fliers, Celli said, the meter reader was on the job at the time they were delivered and as such distributed them at ratepayers’ expense.

Cohen said that if the employees delivered the brochures on their own time, “that is probably OK.”

The fliers apparently are the latest salvo in a dispute between city officials and district trustees over the control of the community’s water supply. The dispute, which has simmered quietly for the past several weeks, is heating up again as the referendum date draws near.

The water district, established in 1946, now is governed by a five-member board of trustees appointed by the City Council. However, a bill seeking to dissolve the district, repeal its charter and turn its assets over to the city government was submitted to the Legislature in late January at the city’s request.

City officials said they want to take over the district because of the district’s growing debt load, increasing water rates and relatively high fire hydrant rental fees. District trustees resisted the move, touching off a battle between the city and the district that became increasingly divisive, with the city and the trustees each retaining legal counsel.

The fliers suggest that water district’s trustees would do a better job running the water system than the city would, noting that it won a recent statewide taste test while the Brewer Water Pollution Control Facility, run by the city, recently was the subject of a lawsuit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over an outdated oil spill response plan. The plan has since been updated and sent to the EPA.

The fliers also compare water rates to city-run sewer rates for the years 1996 and 2002. According to the fliers, the water district’s charge for 1,700 cubic feet of water was $59.80 a quarter in 1996, while the sewer fees based on the same amount of water usage were $57.80 a quarter. In 2002, however, the water district rates were $75.10 a quarter, while the sewer district’s charge was $87.21.

In contrast, a financial analysis by Joseph Cuetara, senior vice president of the city’s bond counsel, Moors & Cabot of Boston, supports the city’s decision to move forward with the water district acquisition. In two analyses prepared for the city, Cuetara noted that the district was “mortgaged to the hilt” and predicted it would be in need of a city bailout within a few years if its financial patterns continued.

City Finance Director Karen McVey said earlier that the district has outstanding debt of more than $12 million, $8.5 million of which occurred in the past five years. That total does not reflect the $1.2 million in debt from last summer’s system improvements or the up to $3 million proposed for this year to meet the needs of development occurring on outer Wilson Street.

In the year 2000, the last year reflected in figures in a Moors & Cabot study, the district took in nearly $1.9 million in operating revenue.

Cuetara expressed concerns that the district might not have the wherewithal to deal with new needs or emergencies.