On May 2, the Maine Public Utilities Commission ruled that water rates proposed by the Brewer Water Department in 2004 were “just and reasonable,” noting that it was difficult to be critical of the department’s “conservative fiscal approach.”

Unfortunately, getting to this decision was anything but easy. Last summer, the Water Department filed proposed rates with the PUC and held a public hearing. Based on demonstrated cost increases, the department could have proposed a rate increase of between 20 and 25 percent, but out of concern for Brewer residents, capped the request at 15 percent.

The rate increase was essential to return the water system to sound financial footing. When the city took over the former Water District in 2003, the district did not have an annual budget process. Accounting was haphazard and inaccurate. The former superintendent had just disposed of years’ worth of public records in the city landfill. Furthermore, the city’s financial adviser – Moors & Cabot Inc. of Boston – determined that the district was “mortgaged to the hilt,” a problem that needed to be corrected.

Why so much debt? For several years prior to the city’s takeover, the district had been replacing water mains at a rate many times faster than the average replacement program for water systems in Maine. To pay for this excessive activity and meet certain requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the district moved to raise rates on five occasions between 1995 and 2002, each time between 9 and 30 percent. Even the current rate increase was “in the works” when the city took over in 2003.

Under the rate structure recently approved by the PUC, the department will be able to replace aging water mains at a modest rate using current revenues rather than future debt. This approach – which PUC Commissioner Stephen Diamond called a “more cautious approach” – may not be politically popular with Larry and Theresa Ayotte (who instigated the recent failed challenge to the rate request), but it is the right thing to do. We need to get our fiscal house in order and not leverage our children’s future with more debt.

The Ayottes have a different point of view (BDN, May 19), claiming that the department’s proposed rate increase was “optional” and that the city will have “extra money” once new rates go into effect. These statements may make good sound bites, but they are wrong.

The simple truth is that the PUC approved the department’s proposed rates because the commissioners believed the rates were just and reasonable. Even the Office of Public Advocate – the state bureau charged with representing the interests of utility rate-payers – agreed that there was a solid legal and financial basis for the rate adjustment, and formally withdrew their opposition. The fact is, the new rates will help avoid the need to borrow money at great cost in the future, which is good for all of our customers. Not just in the future, but now.

The Ayottes nonetheless want readers to believe that they provided a valuable public service by collecting signatures and forcing the department to litigate the proposed rates for nine months before the PUC. Don’t be fooled. This case was costly – the department was forced to spend more than $50,000 of your money processing this case, yet in the end, the rates were left exactly as they had been proposed nine months earlier. The conclusion: This case was a waste of our time, and your money.

Now the Ayottes are wasting our time again by repeating in this newspaper the same failed arguments they raised before the Maine PUC.

The Ayottes claim that the Water Department’s operating expenses went up $103,258. But they don’t tell you that this was largely caused by changes in accounting systems and a return to “normal” operations following two years transitioning from a district to a department. If one compares the department’s operating expenses to 2001, the last year of “normal” operations by the system, the difference is only $30,000 – a small increase given cost increases in the economy.

The Ayottes also sidestep the fact that, despite a relatively small increase in expenses, water customers are now seeing more value. For little new money, the department now has a budget process and accounting practices that will help restore the system to sound financial footing. The department is now able to leverage the resources of other city departments, helping the department obtain a $500,000 grant that had eluded the prior district. The new city resources also helped to coordinate the transmission line project with construction of Dirigo Drive, saving rate-payers more than $642,000. This is real money in the pockets of Brewer residents.

But the Ayottes don’t want to acknowledge this progress. Instead, they prefer cheap tactics like misrepresenting the results of PUC settlement negotiations, a topic which is confidential under Maine law. Since they knowingly violated their duty of confidentiality, the department now must set the record straight. The real story is this: The public advocate’s “offer” was unreasonable, and had little chance of being accepted. The department rejected the “offer,” and one month later, this decision was vindicated when the public advocate conceded that the proposed rates were legitimate. The PUC followed by finding the proposed rates just and reasonable, approving 100 percent of the request.

So, as much as the Ayottes may want to run from these facts, they can’t hide. No amount of revisionist history can change that. And while no one likes a rate increase, particularly your City Council, these are the facts. It is time for all of us to move on.

This commentary was written by Brewer Mayor Joseph L Ferris, on behalf of all five members of the Brewer City Council.