$6.5 million bill angers FM Town Council
By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter

This week, the Upper Trinity Water District’s Board of Directors voted to slap the town of Flower Mound with a bill for $6.5 million for “damages and costs incurred.” In response to the invoice, Flower Mound Place Two Councilman and Mayor pro-tem Paul P. Stone called the district “a bunch of empire-building bureaucrats.”

“It’s like buying a house, paying on your mortgage, and paying a water bill when you don’t even have a hookup. Or cable! Or electricity! Or telephone!” continued Councilman Stone.

The official invoice, pending receipt by the council, includes charges for five separate line-items. According to Flower Mound Mayor Jodie Smith, the largest of the charges, $4.1 million, is supposedly for delaying the construction of the Harpool Water Treatment Plant in Argyle. Town authorities claim the delay was a result of a standstill agreement pending authorization of state permits.

“But we don’t know what these alleged increases in cost are really for,” said Councilman Stone. “They haven’t justified them.”

Other fees charged to the town include $372,000 for engineering costs, $900,000 for repair of the Stone Hill water storage tank, $650,000 to sterilize a pipeline and $384,000 in attorney fees pursuant to collection of the alleged debt. Mayor Smith does not take the charge lightly. "This is nothing more than a PR stunt and a scare tactic intended to stop us from raising questions,” she said. “They want to go back to the good ole' boy days when they could over-build their system, increase debt, and raise water rates at the expense of the residents and businesses of Denton County without anybody asking why."

$300 million in debt and the Upper Trinity’s debt is nothing to scoff at. The district is currently running a budget deficit of over $300 million. "The district can't justify or fully explain some of the charges noted in the invoice,” said Councilman Stone. “They are asking us to pay for their operating expenditures and the cost of doing business. When you are paying for your everyday expenses with a credit card, you have to find somebody to pay the bill. The amount of money they are demanding from us would not even make a dent in the debt the district has built."

“They’re not happy that we questioned their operating procedures, spending habits and the expensive projects they are building,” said Michael Ryan, Flower Mound’s Director of Community Affairs. “It’s a slap on the wrist to keep us from pressing for transparency.”

"The $6.5 million invoice is nothing more than retribution for the town questioning the district's business practices and spending habits,” explained Mayor Smith. ”They are accustomed to operating in the shadows with no oversight. Now the district is mad that we've disrupted their sheltered little world and prompted the elected officials and residents of Denton County to ask why they are paying so much for water."

Mayor Smith elaborated on her ire. “I’m not comfortable, as a mayor, with how they make decisions at their board level. They make unilateral decisions that affect everybody without considering what the effect is. Even this Harpool plant … They are building the highest-tech form of reservoir possible. Unbeknownst to any of their members, they are building a membrane-type plant, when they really don’t need it. This is the type of spending habits they have.”

In a recent correspondence between members of the Upper Trinity Board of Directors, one member suggested that Flower Mound should pay up, or the district would drop the town. It is apparent that, in the case of the town of Flower Mound versus Upper Trinity, the town simply refuses to drown in a glass of water. The bill for $6.5 million was the drop that made the vase overflow. “For that amount, we should have them hand deliver the water in one-gallon jugs!” said Councilman Stone, smiling. “What are they going to do? Cut off our water? They’d go belly-up! We are their biggest customer!”