BRINKERHOFF RILEY STANDS UP FOR TAXPAYERS AGAINST JOHNSON CONTROL WATER METER PROJECT

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    PUBLIC E-MAIL  LETTER FROM CITY COUNCILWOMAN BRINKERHOFF-RILEY TO MIKE LARSON
    Mr. Larson:
    Thank you for your email. I spoke with the Water Department and Mayor’s office today. I was told that 1000 letters went out last Friday telling homeowners that if repairs to the water meter pit were not made within 30 days that the water would be turned off. However, it sounds like yours was received sooner.
    The history of this is that Johnson Controls sold the city on a water meter replacement program that was supposed to be more accurate and therefore collect more money. The focus was commercial users of water. The concept is that once the new meters are installed, if the increased revenue is not realized then Johnson Control is liable to make up the promised revenue. However Johnson Controls has to agree that the meters have been installed correctly before they are liable and therein lies the rub.
    Johnson Controls contracted the work to Hydromax who is replacing the actual meters. We were recently told that the project was 40% complete. The water department employees had been making the necessary repairs cited by Hydromax in the water meter pits. However, this led to outlandish amounts of overtime. The contract was then amended for Johnson Control to pay the water department approximately 200k as reimbursement for some of the overtime. I’m told that the water department has no more money for overtime in this project.
    Now apparently the cost of repairs to water meter pits is being passed on to the homeowner. The water department representative cited Memorial Community Development Corporation and CAPE emergency home repair program as possible places to get assistance. They also stated that once an estimate is obtained it is not imperative that the repairs be made within 30 days. They claimed they were working with people and did not want to turn off anyone’s water. Some of the plumbers being used are scheduling repairs out in March, and I was told this was not a problem. However, it is hard to imagine that all 1000+ homes will be able to find the necessary funds or qualify for assistance. Your top estimate was $4300. I had another complaint by a homeowner who’s estimate was $1400. Either way, these are not funds that are easily found right before Christmas.
    I have asked the Mayor’s office to reach into contingency funds for the contract with Johnson Controls to pay these costs being pushed onto homeowners. I have also asked the president of council to request that the director of the water department (Allen Mounts) appear Monday at city council to answer questions about how this is happening. I have additionally started reaching out to other members of council regarding the idea of passing an ordinance that the water cannot be turned off to a home that is current on its bill.
    I am waiting on Allen Mounts and the Mayor’s office to call me back. I think the letters are inappropriate given that this program was not supposed to cost the ratepayer any money. I believe that city council and the Mayor’s office will find a solution to ease or eliminate this burden and make sure that no one’s water is turned off. I will give you more information as I get it. I stopped by the home in question and it didn’t look like anyone was home. I didn’t knock given your mother-in-law’s age, as I didn’t want to scare her.
    Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
    Stephanie Brinkerhoff Riley 
    3rd Ward City Council Member

    PUBLIC E-MAIL  LETTER TO COUNCILWOMAN BRINKERHOFF RILEY FROM MIKE LARSON
    Subject: Water Department Issue
    Dear Council Member Brinkerhoff-Riley,

    My name is Mike Larson and I am speaking for my 80 year old mother-in-law who owns the property on E. Virginia St.

    As scene in the news recently the Water Dept. has sent out notices of repairs needed all over the city. About a month ago my mother-in-law received such a notice and I have assisted her in getting an estimate to have said repairs completed. To my surprise the estimate came in at over $4,300!!
    Now there may be cheaper plumbers around town and let’s say another estimate came in at half as much. Who on a fixed income or even with a steady job has an extra $2,000 plus dollars laying around to do work on something that isn’t broken? She didn’t ask for these new meters to be installed and as of today her water pipes are just fine. So, I am asking you for some guidance on what she/we need to do. I am quite certain that several citizens around the city will be in this same situation and turning off the water to hundreds of taxpayers because they cannot afford the costly repairs is really not an option.

    Thank you for your time and I look forward to speaking with you about this matter. Feel free to call or reply to this e-mail if I can answer any questions you may have.

    Sincerely,

    Mike Larson

    POSTED BY CCO WITHOUT BIAS, OPINON OR EDITING

    RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

    52 COMMENTS

    1. Again, Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley is NOT giving a deaf ear to the PUBLIC. I am sure her time as an attorney is valuable ($300+ per hour?) yet she proficiently delves into a matter to take care of the concerns of an 80 year old property owner who cannot possibly reimburse her for time. I highly doubt that her position on the council has provided Mrs. Brinkerhoff Riley with the means to luxuriate, I just wish someone would take note that she ALWAYS has all of the information being discussed at council FULLY researched and considered. She takes her position as PUBLIC SERVANT very seriously.
      Well done Stephanie, I hope you can do us some good, You-know-who is scraping up change to cover the hole in the budget, and doesn’t care who he has to shake down to pay his buds.
      Shame on these people. An 80 year old probably doesnt generate more than $1300 mo income (and probably less) and after she pays for heat, water, and mandatory sewage? Probably not much left for medication, and food.
      Some people have no shame.

      • Bootsie,–Well said!
        No shame? -Evansville’s Puppeteers have proved over and over again to be amoral,– they don’t relate to their fellow man,
        — only their OWN well being.

      • You are absolutely right about SBR, Bootsie. She does more than any other Council member to respond to the needs of her constituents. She deals with real people with real issues, not a bunch of elitists who want pretty streetlights to illuminate their “superior” neighborhood. It is no wonder that some of the Civic Center vermin have tried so hard to destroy her. They just can’t identify with a real, live, caring, honest human being.

        • I associate myself with the above 3 comments. The Johnson Controls (great name, they should take it to heart) hustle is a bad idea gone worse. Leave it to the Tin Ear Mob ru(i)nning the city to dump the liability for their greed gone awry on those least able to pay.

      • A resident/water customer has no contract with the EWS that says that the Customer agrees to support the City’s smart meter program by paying–at the resident’s expense–any perceived plumbing/pipe upgrades the installer may recommend.

        People, you must resist this. If you get this letter, head down to the Civic Center and file a lawsuit against EWS. You can use Small Claims Court if your estimated repair cost on the letter is less than $ 6,000. EWS will try to move these cases to Superior Court, but if enough people file suit it may be enough to constitute a group that some lawyer will take on.

        These pipe costs are either EWS or JCI ‘s responsiblity–not the homeowner’s. Let’s tie these bastards up in court.

        • I think you have a good point, lawyer. There’s already a good lawyer whose well-versed in this mess and committed to clearing it up.

    2. Who can afford that on RTW wages? This blunder is truly shameful and should have the public calling for somebody’s head.

      • I think if someone said “shoehorn” you would go into an anti conservative rant. What’s sad is that is see an intelligent person behind your sad partisanship.

      • Who can afford it? The union plumbers who benefit from this sweetheart deal can afford it and folks like you and me are stuck with the bill. Not only that, they have been getting lots of overtime that was not budgeted fixing the pipes they break by being clumsy.

        • they are not using union plumbers to do the work, Hydromax is a bunch of 19 year old kids who don’t even know how to shut off the water. I expect one of those letters because they couldn’t get the city’s valve to work even though the City crews have never had a problem getting it to work when I was remodeling

      • Ghost this whole thing is a union project. It’s designed to pay the union for their support. We will lose a couple of union meter readers and end up with a couple of high paid non union computer folks. It’s not even a wash. This is lose lose for everyone in the long run.

      • From what I see and hear, present new start wages, attached to part time hours with no benefits, is directly related to the fear factor that large and small businesses have . This fear finding birth in the train wreck called Obamacare and profit killing federal regulations that are now dissuading new business starts.

        Even V’s analytics would support the contention that RTW has no bearing on base wage structures. When only 10% or less private sector jobs in the state are union, it is a non issue.

        Your constant mischaracterization of the impact of RTW on Indiana jobs is truly laughable.

    3. Someone enlighten me what this is about. Normally the utility company is responsible for the lines from the treatment plant to the outflow point of the meter/carrier. The owner has the responsibility from that point, to the building and beyond. If the current metering box/pit is in working order/not leaking then the home owner should be cleared of any billings! If the utility representative comes in and attempt to install the new meter and the piping is brittle on the customers side, surely they can cut off a small section and install a compression fitting/or whatever to make the connections. Please respond to what is going on in the defunct city!

      • These letters are demanding full replacement of the line part of the line the homeowner is responsible for, and if this doesn’t undo Winnie the Poop, nothing will.

        • Thanks! Being force to replace the customers side of the line would be like Vectren replacing your meter that is attached to the side of the house and forcing you to get your home electrical wiring up to the most recent code. This is never done unless the home owner is doing major renovation “inside” which would require a “electrical permit”. Are these owners required to get plumbing permits for these repairs? If so, then the utility department is recouping some of their money in a round about way through the building commissioner department

        • These people are like cockroaches, they’ll still be scurrying around after The Pulse. Still falling for scams and transferring the price to the people of Evansville.

          The Poop will try to short-transfer enough sand to come up with some campaign commericals that will fool enough of the rubes to return him to his high chair. His stooges will go right on thinking he’s real when in reality he’s just a hologram gone bad. This Johnson Controls thing is truly amazing. The city is in worse trouble than I thought.

          • It isn’t an amazing thing to us, we’ve studied the water and sewer infrastructure there. Part and parcel to creating a viable working solution.

      • Dear Armstongres….

        At the end of the Weinzapfel adm, actually November 17th, 2011, the Utility Department, by the way, one member is a head of one of the unions, executed a contract with Johnson Controls which was very expensive to the utility to terminate. So, here comes the Winnecke team, knowing that the City Council was prepared to vote down the original contract (and Johnson Controls knew this) which did not have provisions therein to address leaks caused by the meter replacement. Mr. David Johnson was the Winnecke team head on this deal (who, by the way is no longer with the Utility Dept, rumor has it he works for JCI) Now, THE TEAM has the opportunity to correct some of the egregious provisions in the original contract, but, for some reason, overlooked the damage issue. So, after thousands of dollars of overtime turned in by the utility employees, JCI agrees to pay the Utility 200k for the damage issues, but, this is a pimple on a buffalo’s ass…remember Umbaugh & Associates (the accounting firm out of Indy) indicated in its report that this project woulds pay for itself and then some…ah, ah…not with this overtime breakage issue…the utility did not ask for additional bonding moneys (originally 45 million) to handle the OT…so, the people who brings you WATER, will bring you a Christmas surprise, oh yes, your friendly, ready to serve union plumber handing you a repair bill for the damage to your water lines from the monkey’s who quickly installed the new meter….just like Gomer Pike, “surprise, surprise, surprise”

    4. I applaud Stephanie for taking the lead to get to the truth on this matter, and justice for the homeowners.

      So the City wants to install new meters –which don’t require human meter readers– all so that the perceived higher accuracy of the new meters will enable the EWS to charge the homeowners MORE money each month ? Well of COURSE those homeowners should pay $ 4,000 to repair rusty pipes so that they (the homeowner) can be charged more for their water each month ! This is theater of the absurd !

      I warned many on the City Council, including SBR, to turn and run from this project. At one juncture the vote was 7-2 against. After a caucus with Jack McNeely the vote miraculously swung to 9-0 in favor, so Council has no one to blame but the man in the mirror.

      Last, the C&P is reporting this morning that 60,000 residential meters will be replaced. In order to get the price tag down on this project, 14,000 or so meters less than 5 years old were removed from the list to be replaced, or a new scope of 46,000 residential meters. Have the slippery salesmen at Johnson Controls managed to insert those 14,000 back into the total ? That point really needs to be addressed. As per usual, the vendors are in control, calling the shots and answering to no one.

      • How does this Jack McNeely weld the kind of power that sways the CC to do things that are against the greater good of the citizens? I can understand Robinson and Weaver voting against us, but the rest of them. I guess it’s a case of, following the money. The only way possible to make sense out of this whole deal is to add a kickback to it.

        • In Evansville the unions tell the elected officials where to take a crap and how fast to eat it. They won’t stop till the last borrowed dollar has been spent and the city is bankrupt. Corruption and Cowardice is what CC stands for in my book.

      • This Johnston Controls deal is a complete flim-flam designed to rip off the water customer. We are getting nothing from it. I doubt staffing will be reduced as a result of these meters being installed or lower the expense of running the water department.

        Was anything mentioned about responsibility for problems with the water meter pits in the contract the city council approved? Who read it front to back before approving it? Did anyone discuss what the customer is to do if he thinks he has a water leak inside his house? How can he check his usage at that moment and not have to wait for his next billing? (Higher bills = more money for the EVV Water Dept.). Currently, he can walk outside, lift the lid, wipe off the dial and see how much water has used by comparing the numbers on the dials and needle with the numbers on his last bill. What will we see with Johnston Controls equipment?

        • Winnecke didn’t have to do this. He’s a snake, how could people possibly vote for someone who attempted to steal their homestead exemption. We have 92 counties in Indiana and the 3 evil ones, behind closed doors, agreed to make us the only county without a homestead exemption. Taxapple is gone, Abel is temporarily out of the picture, one more to go. GHOST if you’re reading this, just remember the unions went all out to get Winnecke in office. He was on their list for union members to vote for.

    6. A little history of the local meters. All the meters were changed in the late eightys to digital readout models. In the mid ninety’s they were all changed again to the touchread system. Both time the water dept paid for any repairs if pipes were broken while being changed. What I was told by a water dept supervisor was they were sending letters to people who have galvanized steel pipe in there pits. The pipe can be in excellent condition an they will still gig you. The fact that they are lying an telling these people they have a leak is the worst. You MAY have a leak if they disturb your plumbing but you do not have a leak now. The water dept admit they fixed the ones they broke previously why did they have liability then an not now?

      • Thanks for the information! Galvanized piping is never a good thing, corrosion and build up inside these pipes are terrible. The fact that these pipes were working, there is no reason to be forced to replace these just to get the meter. This would be something the owner has the luxury of replacing when every “they” choose to!

    7. I received one of these letters. I had a friend who is a maintenance technician and he stated that I do not have a leak. He cleaned out my meter well, sprayed liquid wrench on both fittings going into my meter, loosened up and retightened both fittings. He explained that in the older homes with old pipes need to be handled carefully and there’s a slight chance they could break during the meter change. I have reason to believe they did not check my meter well and sent out the letters as a CYA. With the exception of SBR the whole city council needs to be replaced. Connie Robinson why aren’t you speaking up? This is wrong on so many levels that I personally have to believe there was some sort of payoff, some profit motive to get the city council to vote for this.

      • Todays IIT poster had mention that the meters had been replaced back in the 80/90’s, so any variations in the hookups would had been resolved back then. Just as you mention, a little TLC will change those meters without incident!

    8. Correction, I have a friend who is a maintenance technician. He’s alive and still my friend.

    9. I wonder if these letters are being sent to property owners, only. There are some really irresponsible landlords who will ignore them, and tenants will be getting their water shut off because of it. That should be a nice Christmas surprise for a lot of people who are probably already struggling. Even tenants who pay their own water and sewage bills will be subject to having this happen without warning, unless residents of the properties are also being notified. Moving this time of year is no fun, but it may be the wisest thing for people who are renting from irresponsible landlords.

    10. The contract was signed by the Administration before it went to city council. City council had 2 choices. If they voted for it, the bond rate would be the lowest possible. If they voted against it, the contract would still occur, but the bonds would have been at a higher interest rate. They chose to vote for it after leveraging the removal of 11 million from the scope of work.

    11. If this project is 40% complete, that means that an approximate total of 2,500 homes are at risk of having their water service cut off, if the owner is unable to comply with the unreasonable demands of the Water Dept. Does anybody think that CAPE and Memorial Church will have enough funds available to even make a dent in the need for assistance that this will cause? I surely don’t!

      • It seems unfair that the first 40% gets their repairs courtesy of the city and the rest of us have to pay for our repairs. I think an investigation into the financial affairs of our last 2 mayors and other city officials is called for.

    12. Sort of odd that this has been known about for months but comes out just days after the elections.

    14. So am I reading this correctly? Initially as problems were uncovered, the Water Department made the corrections at no cost to the customer. Then the contract was revamped, Johnson paid the city to cover overtime–which wasn’t enough and now they are passing those costs on to customers. So some customers had their problems taken care of, but as bad planning snowballed, they thought they could just slide it over to an unsuspecting public? Was the potential for problems not discussed in the original contract? Surely Johnson had run into this before. Who pays for repairs? And how do we, the consumers, trust the meters to read accurately and not high? The people putting the meters in stand to loose a great deal of money if they don’t–and they are the ones PROVIDING them? Hopefully, Duckworth and Mounts aren’t answering any phone calls from Nigeria….

      • I am suspicious of the accuracy of the meters, too. I thought I was just being paranoid, but I have a feeling that Johnson Controls KNOWS that everybody’s usage is going UP,

    15. When the contractor installed the update at our home, we were out of town and had shut off the water to inside the house. Apparently, the contractor opened our outside faucet and neglected to close it. When we came home and opened our water service valve inside the home, we faintly heard we ate running. After checking everything inside the house, we finally discovered the outside faucet was open.

      This doesn’t speak well for the contractors doing the work. SNAFU!

      • If what your saying is true about Hydromax being non-union, then there is “crow” to be ate by a few of the posters here!

        • Our consortiums Centrists approve of union fitters due the superior apprenticeship training, we also approve non union shops that hire qualified skilled trades persons. Where we see the stick out, or the “rub”, is the project focus expectations..
          {Overall ranges, fails to meet, from base conception, original goal)

          The base consortiums left of, and right of, centered solutions disagree on the values presented, however, by consensus do see a solution if original conditionals are addressed by content per service location, and origination weighed and balanced inputs, at todays end point customer values.
          Non realistic objectives, and sore bent (conjecture) on older supply meter connection infrastructures to perform during normal or standard technical requirements, during the observed span of the projected upgrade procedures.)
          Don’t blame the skill set, blame the conceptual plan base. Its unrealistic, and conditions by analysis are proving that with the cost run ups.

          (Predictable and expected) : Per poor overall supply infrastructures due material age during expected regional ambient spanning.

          We’d say to the Mayor, and the Citizens that’s an average that can be worked forward by usage spans and focused adjustments. Credit due where credits given due, for what you all have been “sported” to work with by contract to date.

          Mitigation recommendation would be: (Each, as of specified project base) And thereof Counsel appropriate, case review, and application due run out timing at geophysical point contact due utility supply base infrastructures.

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