Let them eat cake: City officials celebrate deal

After a battle spanning nearly a decade, Marco Island residents have some say over their water services: They officially own it.

Marco officials took a break from a six-hour meeting Nov.

10 to have some double-fudge cake and celebrate last week's hectic schedule of legal closings surrounding the $85.3 million purchase.

Money transfers cleared seamlessly on Nov. 6, and city officials merged staff with pre- existing Florida Water Services staff working out of the Cypress Gardens building on North Collier Boulevard.

"Everything's completed and finalized," City Manager Bill Moss said Nov. 9. "Susie (Schultz) was working out of (the Florida Building) on Thursday and Friday."

Last month, in preparation for the city's acquisition of Florida Water's Marco, Marco Shores and Isles of Capri assets, Moss appointed Schultz office manager for the operation. She is the former Public Works Department executive secretary.

Jacob Rohrich, manager of Florida Water's local assets for six years, will run the utility for the city.

Moss and Marco City Council Chairman Mike Minozzi were in Orlando on Nov. 4 and 5 to clear up paperwork, and the money transfers were completed Nov. 6.

At their Nov. 10 meeting, City Council members approved a series of measures to get city- run operations under way, including a budget amendment.

Here's what they did:

established regulations and procedures for operation of the water and wastewater utility;

adopted a new 150-page Marco Utilities Department Manual of Standards and Specifications; and

awarded a $766,758 contract to MWH Americas Inc. to design a utility master plan.

The contract outlines MWH Americas' commitment to perform 30 separate tasks for the city, Moss wrote in a memo to council members. The tasks include establishing a business plan for the city's new utility.

With an aggressive timetable, and completion set for June 15, MWH will integrate ideas from staff, council and residents about how to design an effective business plan, Moss wrote.

According to Moss, the final plan will result in some of the following specific objectives:

determining customer expectations and needs by use of scientific surveys;

setting measurable quality- of-service guidelines, such as quality compliance, water pres sure, interruption rates, sewer stoppages, line breaks, response time to problems, and overall customer satisfaction;

identifying work necessary to bring existing water systems up to customer expectations and needs as well as assuring compliance with all regulatory and environmental requirements;

identifying solutions to meet shortfall in existing water supply by April 2004;

comparing alternative wastewater collection systems, their advantages, disadvantages, and cost and select alternatives by April 2004 with completion of islandwide construction in 2006;

expanding the existing reclaimed water system to maximize available effluent for irrigation by 2006;

identifying an end date and plan for the use of reclaimed water for all of the island's irrigation needs; and

evaluating alternatives for water sources, such as surface lakes, wells and bulk purchase from other utility systems.

City Council members also approved a $118,927,547 budget amendment to incorporate utility operation into the city's 2004 fiscal budget.

Finance Director Bill Harrison broke down the $118,927,547 figure as follows:

the sources and uses of the $102,791,300 general revenue bond issue and

an 11-month operating budget of $16,136,247.

"The operating budget for the utility has been developed by using a combination of resources from Public Resources Management Group, our financial consultants, budget and expenditure data received from Florida Water, and the work of our staff," Harrison wrote in a memo to council. "Due to the major uncertainties in taking over this major operation, we have budgeted both revenues and expenditures conservatively and provided substantial contingency funds for this year."

Before completing the sale last week, Marco spent the better part of a decade trying to work out some kind of deal over its water supply.

After resuming talks with Marco officials in April, Florida Water agreed to terms on July 23, and, on July 24, announced the deal to sell its utility on Marco, Capri and Marco Shores for $85.3 million.