DWSD and GLWA - lease contract intact ?

**O3H** · June-03-17, 10:23 PM

It's been relatively quiet in Detroit regarding water.
Wonder how those binding agreements are holding up ?

https://www.oakgov.com/exec/Document...ntKeyFacts.pdf

Can Detroit stand on its own, without help, for water infrastructure ?
Will the suburbs find a way to wiggle out of the payments to Detroit ?

http://www.dwsd.org/downloads_n/abou...2015-10-29.pdf

**Dumpling** · June-04-17, 12:28 AM

"It's probably all true"

Here's some stuff.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2017/06/...section-video/

That's the geyser in Westland from a broken valve. At least one of
the two responding vehicles is DWSD - can you tell if the other one
is, also? So DWSD under the rubric of GLWA may be getting money
from the suburbs - whether that would be the lease money or a
different form of payment - but it may be responding to issues in
the suburbs also. There are at least eight professionals responding
to this incident. GLWA has hired individuals recently, but is still
trying to reduce staffing requirements.

**Jimaz** · June-04-17, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by Dumpling

...That's the geyser in Westland....

Thanks for the video. I heard about that on the radio but was wondering what it looked like.

**O3H** · June-04-17, 08:48 AM

I'll call the geyser a red herring and merely a distraction from the tougher issues facing DWSD like covering pensions, health insurance, etc., etc.

**detroitsgwenivere** · June-04-17, 11:39 AM

DPW has been fixing a main in Corktown since around 9am this morning. Out there right now busting their ass in the sun. This is the third break that block has had in the last year and a half.

I'm glad to pay these guys whatever they're worth to come out on Sun morning to make sure everyone has clean water, and if other communities are lucky enough to get these guys out to fix their busted pipes, happy for them too.

**O3H** · June-04-17, 01:16 PM

No, no, no - it's called a job - you do it - simple as that.
People pay for maintenance, support, and service.

It's definitely not "lucky" that someone came out.
The Water Utility is just like DTE - the current must flow.

**Dumpling** · June-05-17, 02:08 AM

Ms. Sue McCormick was hired as DWSD director by Mayor Bing
starting from about January 2012. At the time there was an
editorial intention for McCormick to shrink the "bloated" DWSD,
which included at least one accompanying picture showing
multiple DWSD staffers responding to something. What
may have "saved" some DWSD field jobs - besides the stated
desire to achieve correct staffing levels through attrition - were
the extremely harsh winters of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
There were so many water main breaks that the field workers
were probably completing repairs while on overtime more often
than not.
Constraining norms to any planned staff reductions for these
workers were: feedback from the general public on the problems
caused by the water main breaks, coverage of the problems in
the press, and the potential for legal and other actions to maintain staffing levels. The amount of overtime being paid was such that,
if anything, hiring additional persons could have been the right
course at the time.

**detroitsgwenivere** · June-05-17, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by O3H

No, no, no - it's called a job - you do it - simple as that.
People pay for maintenance, support, and service.

It's definitely not "lucky" that someone came out.
The Water Utility is just like DTE - the current must flow.

I didn't say that they are lucky that "someone" comes out to fix the water. I said they're lucky if DWS comes out to fix the water. Those guys work really hard, and do an awesome job considering what they have to work with, that was what I was driving at.