Flower Mound Leader:
County commissioner to host water forum
By Cecile Satin, Staff Writer
02/25/2006

Denton County Commissioner Jim Carter will host a water issues public meeting Monday to address concerns regarding water availability, the ultimate cost of water for residents and a future plan for the water district.

The meeting will start a 7 p.m. at The Cross Roads Bible Church, 8101 East FM 407. The Upper Trinity Regional Water District and several Precinct 4 municipalities, including Copper Canyon, Double Oak and Flower Mound have been personally invited to attend. Commissioners Bobby Mitchell and Sandy Jacobs will also be in attendance.

Commissioner Carter could not say whether or not Upper Trinity will attend the meeting.

Calls to Upper Trinity were not returned.

Copper Canyon Mayor Sue Tejml will make a presentation for all the attending municipalities which will take place prior to the Question and Answer sessions with the media and the audience.

According to Carter, Upper Trinity was invited to present its accomplishments and future projects to the audience.
According to elected officials, this meeting will enable the cities, Upper Trinity and residents to raise a number of issues and concerns they have in a public format, away from the water district board room.

"Our goal at this point is to bring light on some of the issues that we have identified with Upper Trinity that is causing our water rate to increase and hopefully identify means of correcting those problems," Flower Mound Spokesperson Michael Ryan said. "Our concern is that the district, in theory, is a member driven entity, however it has historically been a staff-guided organization and we consider it to be an operational error. The district should be operated like a democracy but up to this point it has been operated, managed and budgeted primarily by one individual."

Double Oak Mayor Dick Cook did not express such a strong feeling in regards to water district director Tom Taylor, but did express some concerns as well in regard to the board governance.

"Upper Trinity has done a marvelous job so far but we have noticed a number of issues," Cook said. "The problem I have is with the governance of it. It appears that there are checks and balances but in fact there is not... Each board member is appointed to represent the goods of each city but once they are on the board there is a culture of assimilating the ideas so that Upper Trinity is always right. Basically, there is a lack of oversight of checks and balances that needs to come from the board members."

Flower Mound, Double Oak and Copper Canyon share and wish to address at the meeting the district successive debt, the concerns on the district's general governance and the overbuilding of infrastructures among others.

"The ultimate goal is to ask for some external independent revue of the district operational and budget management, and debt," Ryan said.

"We understand that nobody wants to turn the tap and not have water but on one hand you don't want to pay if you don't know whether or not you will need the water," Cook said. "There will always be discussions on the subject, but I believe that with a healthy organization, Upper Trinity will make the right decisions."

For Tejml, there is no question that the district does not need anymore water and has enough to supply the future demand.

"I think that the first question we have on water issues is, is there enough water for the future? I think that yes, we do," Tejml said. "The water is there and there is an excess of water even without Lake Ralph Hall."

Tejml also wished to address the successive debt of the water district and the increase in water rates.

"Upper Trinity has been running in the read for the last four years in their operations," Tejml said. "What Copper Canyon wishes to see is a cut back on unneeded expenses. Also board members should take a good hard look at what is going on, take a look at the number and the big picture. We need to be sure that the members are kept well informed and ask the hard questions."

Commissioner Carter's hope is that all the participating entities will leave the meeting with a better understanding on how to reach closure on their disagreements.

"I think that these cities have an interest in solving their problems with the water district," Carter said. "I think that this forum would be a good start."

Contact staff writer Cecile Satin at 972-538-2117 or cecile.satin@scntx.com