Regionalization is a two-way street, say Toledoans who, justifiably or not, have gotten their backs up against the proposed Toledo Area Water Authority.
The Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce and Toledo’s suburban neighbors have made Toledo into an enemy of regionalization in this campaign to make water a regional service.
In that view, Toledo is the barrier to true regional cooperation because it won’t sign over its Collins Park water treatment plant to a new regional commission.
When Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz recently joined the majority sentiment on city council and withdrew his support for the TAWA plan, the suburban mayors reacted with disappointment.
Richard Carr, the mayor of Maumee, said his constituents are so fed up with Toledo’s obstructionism here that they would willingly pay more for their water than they do to Toledo right now just to get out of having to interact with Toledo politics.
Remember that Maumee residents already pay less for Toledo water than Toledo citizens do. At least as of 2015, the price Toledo charged to Maumee for water was $46.74 for 3,000 cubic feet of water per quarter. A Toledo customer paid $55.86 for that same water.
This is not so say that Maumee customers are getting 3,000 cubic feet of water for only $46.74. The city of Maumee tacks on its own costs of $76.39 for a total of $123.13 per 3,000 cubic feet, while a Toledoan is still paying only $55.86.
Toledo has different contracts with all the suburban communities — most of them at twice the rate that Maumee pays because Maumee has an old contract that was struck back in 1985. Unless Maumee can bring into existence a new regional water agreement, Maumee is going to lose its favorable rate structure when the existing contract expires in 2026.
You see why Toledo councilmen hesitate to give up control of the asset? Except for Maumee — and also Perrysburg, which also has an old contract with a low rate — most of Toledo’s water customers are paying as much as two times the rate that is charged to Toledoans, which means that Toledo’s suburban customers now contribute more than 50 percent of the revenue to run the water system.
The argument made by the chamber, and by other smart people such as Toledo’s mayor, is that this gravy train must soon end. The suburban customers can and will find other sources of water (even if they have to pay more), such as Detroit, which draws cold, clean, fresh, nonalgae-clogged water from Lake Huron.
According to Mr. Kapszukiewicz and others, as soon as that happens, Toledoans will be stuck paying for the full cost of the $500 million (or more) in water system improvements, as well as the full annual operating costs.
Those are good arguments, intellectually, though they are probably severely exaggerated.
Toledoans are having a hard time with a suburban approach that sounds a little bit like “how dare you not give us your water system!”
Sean Nestor, co-chairman of the Lucas County Green Party, a network engineer for a local healthcare provider, who has run for city council, while participating in local political causes such as legalizing marijuana and enabling urban farming, has written an essay that points the finger of blame at the suburbs.
He says the suburbs lecture Toledo about regionalization, yet most of the west side of Lucas County refuses to participate in TARTA, the “regional” public transportation system.
Toledo has been doing the heavy lifting in trying to solve the root problem of clean water, which is pollution flowing here from crop and livestock farms up the Maumee River. What have the suburbs done to bring resolution to this problem? Do they, for example, elect representatives who will call the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the governor to task to make farmers and livestock operators bring their manure and fertilizer application under control? No.
The mayors of Sylvania, Perrysburg, and Maumee, turn up their noses at Mayor Kapszukiewicz’s latest proposal, which gives them one seat each on a nine-member board while Toledo gets two seats.
This while Toledoans are currently paying 48 percent of the revenue that supports the regional water system, and Sylvania, Perrysburg, and Maumee, pay 4 percent, 3 percent, and 2 percent, respectively. A single board seat is 11 percent of the vote.
Remember that when rates get equalized (as will happen under regionalization), Toledoans’ share of the revenue pot will increase well above 48 percent.
Over the decades, Toledo has lost population and wealth to the suburbs, leaving deteriorating infrastructure, higher rates of crime, lower-rated school districts, and lower-priced real estate.
From that perspective, the suburbs are takers and Toledo is the giver. Now Toledo is supposed to give up the best asset it has.
“It’s not far-fetched to suggest that suburban communities have been able to develop and thrive in no small part because of the role Toledo played in ensuring that their communities have a safe, reliable, and affordable source of water,” Mr. Nestor observed.
“There is plenty to criticize about Toledo politicians; but the myopic and selfish attitudes of suburban politicians tells me that they are not fit to run a water system that half a million people depend on,” Mr. Nestor said.
Chamber President Wendy Gramza fears Toledo’s position will cause area communities to fracture rather than work together.
It’s the suburban communities that are threatening to break with Toledo, so who’s the threat to regionalization?
The suburbs should take the mayor’s offer. Even that deal might have trouble getting through Toledo City Council.
Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com, 419-724-6058, or on Twitter @TomFTroy.
First Published June 14, 2018, 10:00 p.m.
