As published in the August 1, 2009 Toledo Business Journal
Tim Brown
Wood County Commissioner
Regionalism key to water issue
Toledo Business Journal recently interviewed Tim Brown, Wood County Commissioner. He shared the following thoughts.
Toledo Business Journal: Water is a critical issue for communities around the region. As a commissioner for Wood County, do you have any official responsibilities for administering water in the county?
Tim Brown: Wood County [water] used to be a department under the jurisdiction of the commissioners. But, many years ago, before I was Commissioner, the board of commissioners decided that, given all the time that was going into issues of water and sewer, it would be best to form under the Ohio statute that allowed for the formation of the Northwestern Water & Sewer District.
Around 1995, this jurisdiction was removed from the board of commissioners and put under the jurisdiction of the Water & Sewer District.
So, we don’t have a direct role; we do maintain a kind of partnership with that entity in that we appoint three of its nine board members. Their board is made up of member townships and municipalities.
TBJ: You have raised the issue of excessive costs for water to Wood County residents. Can you discuss your involvement and the involvement of the other commissioners with the issue of water costs from the City of Toledo?
TB: We have learned over the past several months that Toledo is increasing its demands for its service of providing water to Wood County customers. What got our attention was that the markup ranges anywhere between 50% and 125% just for the water.
So, Wood County citizens are paying roughly 50% to 125% more for water than somebody inside the city of Toledo. We don’t expect Toledo to provide us water without some sort of a markup for that service; that’s understandable. But, when it starts to get up in that 50-125% range, it starts to get your attention.
On top of that, Toledo has been asking for 40% of the tax revenues generated from water used to create a business or industry. Toledo will not provide a water contract or a water agreement to Rossford, for example, unless there is a tax sharing agreement that 40% of the taxes derived from that business is sent to Toledo. So, it’s done more formally in the form of a joint economic development agreement.
That issue has really gotten the commissioners’ attention, because we spend Wood County taxpayer money to have a Wood County economic development department, and we invest our time and effort to develop jobs and grow jobs for our citizens. Then to have to pay Toledo taxes for the jobs that we created just seems patently unfair. And in return, we get no service for those tax dollars.
If that same business were created in Toledo, Toledo would be providing services. They’d be providing fire and EMS and all the other municipal services that come with tax-based pay to a city for water.
In this very tough economy where we’ve had an impact to County revenues and we’ve had an impact to our County budget, the last thing we would do is raise taxes on our citizens. This is nothing short of a tax increase on people for the service of water at a time when people can least afford to have to pay more for government service.
So, it’s a problem. It’s a problem our citizens are facing – especially in Rossford right now – because their contract is up. It’s a problem we anticipate having in Perrysburg in 2027 when their water contract with Toledo comes up. And we feel that now is the time to start the process to find an alternative provider of water to our county.
TBJ: From a regional perspective, do Wood County and other surrounding counties have any responsibility to assist the development of the metropolitan Toledo core and its water infrastructure?
TB: I wouldn’t say that any of the surrounding counties have a responsibility to assist with the development, but if we’re really truly going to thrive and survive as a northwest Ohio region with a strong urban center, I think everybody has to participate in the process.
Relying on one source of water for a metropolitan area this size probably isn’t prudent from a practical standpoint either. It probably makes sense – from an economic standpoint – to have some competitive sources of water being provided.
TBJ: Can you discuss any initiatives that Wood County has undertaken concerning the long-range supply of water for county residents?
TB: We are in discussions with Ottawa County, for example, about a partnership with them to provide water to the north end of Wood County. They were immediately agreeable to those discussions. I’ve had a tour of their water treatment plant in Port Clinton along with the director of the Northwestern Water & Sewer District and some of its board members just to see what facilities they have and to learn what capacities they have to serve outside customers.
In the discussion process, Ottawa County made it very clear that they were not interested in tax sharing agreements with us and they were not interested in making a huge profit off their neighbors. They seemed to get the concept of regionalism; the concept that, if the area does well, we’re all going to do well.
That’s a concept that I’ve held for some time. When our economic development team goes out and talks to a company from outside Ohio or outside the United States, it wants to know what the area is like. It wants to know what the urban center is like. I’ve said for a long time that we have a vested interest in a strong downtown Toledo, because it benefits the region and it benefits all of us.
There are companies we talk to that will only locate in an urban setting. They do better in a downtown, and we understand that and we support that. When we hear from a company and that’s what it wants, we point them in the right direction. Vice versa, there are companies that will not locate in a downtown setting and want to be out in the suburbs. And that benefits the urban center as well. Both entities have to do well in order for all of us to survive and benefit.
It doesn’t make sense to have high utility rates in the suburbs that might prevent a company from locating here because the utility costs are too high. Especially when that company won’t go to Toledo anyway. We end up losing that company that would benefit Wood County and would benefit Toledo and would probably hire from the entire area. We lose them, maybe to another area of the state or even another state. We lose if we don’t look at the cross benefits of having development in both the city of Toledo and in the surrounding suburbs. And having these escalating costs for utilities is going to eventually put us at a strategic disadvantage for locating jobs in the suburbs.
We’re also looking at whether or not it is viable to put our own water treatment plant near the Maumee River, stick a pipe in the river, and draw our own source of water. We have had very preliminary discussions with Henry County about its systems, whether or not they might benefit from being part of the Northwestern Water & Sewer District at some point, and whether or not that brings in any potential sources of water.
The City of Bowling Green is very well aware of our needs for additional water. It has its own water treatment facility along the Maumee River as well, and the City could potentially be a supplier of more water to the County.
So, there are a lot of different pieces out there that we’re looking at, and we don’t know in the end which direction we’ll go. But, I’ve had some people ask me if – with the public discussions we’ve had with Ottawa County and the prospect of finding another source of water – it is our goal to get Toledo to provide better terms for the contracts for their water. And my response is that it’s not the goal.
It would be nice if there were better terms, but I think that the goal in the end has to be having additional competitive sources to provide water not only to Wood County but also to northwest Ohio. That is in the long-term interest, to ensure that utility rates never put us at a competitive disadvantage to attract jobs to the area.
TBJ: With the large investment required for water infrastructure, do you see the financial feasibility of any alternatives to the City of Toledo utility system?
TB: Yes, I do think that we’ll find feasible alternatives. We have to. Even though the costs might be fairly substantial, I think that the cost of doing nothing – to the citizens and businesses that have to pay the bills and to the system of attracting jobs and industry and growth for our area – would be more costly.
Yes, there will be some financial hurdles here in finding a solution. We have made an agreement with Poggemeyer Design Group to do the study and determine what route we might use to bring water from Ottawa County to Wood County and how exactly logistically we might do it.
Wood County is paying a third of the bill, Northwestern Water & Sewer District is paying a third of the bill, and – most telling – Ottawa County has agreed to pay a third of the bill. So, they are interested in being regional partners, and they see the need for this kind of collaboration as well. I think that simply sharing in the cost of the study has been meaningful in itself.
Timing for the completion of that study has not been determined yet. We’re hopeful that sometime in early fall we may have some preliminary data that would tell us what we’re looking at.
In addition to the things that I’ve mentioned, we’re looking at some other options as well that have not yet been fine-tuned.
TBJ: City of Toledo Mayoral candidate Mike Bell has raised the issue of a regional approach to water. Can you share any thoughts on the possibility of a regional authority to administer water and how this might work?
TB: I had a meeting in Rossford with State representative Randy Gardner to discuss issues of concern to the citizens as they pertain to water, and Mike Bell took the time to come to Wood County – to Rossford – and to just sit in and listen. His comments seemed to lead everyone to believe that he gets regionalism as well. He understands that, while a study may not lead to any change, it never hurts to do one. He seemed to be supportive of the concept of evaluating and looking at regionalism. It may benefit Toledo in the long run to be partners with the outlying communities.
I heard a lot of the other candidates talk about Mike Bell’s willingness to evaluate a regional concept as being something that would lead to higher costs for Toledo residents. Well, if every surrounding community that gets water from Toledo could snap their fingers and come up with an alternative water source to bypass Toledo, my guess is that the majority of them would. We certainly would in Wood County.
And if that happened, then who is going to pay for the entire infrastructure of the Toledo water system? Toledo residents. And at a substantially higher rate if they didn’t have the partnership with the outlying suburbs. A partnership with the suburbs probably holds the cost of water down for Toledo residents. Not being partners with the outlying region and forcing us to go to a system of bypassing them would probably exponentially increase the cost of water for Toledo customers in the long-term.
And again, to survive as a region, we need utility costs to be low in Toledo and in the suburbs so we can attract jobs. Ultimately, if the cost to supply water to the inside customers of Toledo is higher, that puts everyone at a disadvantage. Toledo has then disadvantaged itself because it is stuck with a customer base that is so small that the cost would have to be higher for the inside users.
So, not looking at a regional system and having solid fair agreements with the region could cost Toledo in the long-term. And I think Mike Bell is simply being proactive in looking at the long-term, big picture, which is what we in public office ought to be doing. Not looking at just the short-term, but at the impact of these policies in the future.
TBJ: Are there any other issues that you would like to address?
TB: A few years ago, Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner cracked on Wood County for supposedly pirating jobs from Toledo. Every chance I get, I try to educate people as to how our economic development commission works and what our mentality here is on that issue.
Our economic development team has very strong guidelines that it follows. Among them is that we go to no neighboring county or community and try to entice business or industry to relocate to Wood County. We simply don’t do it. But when that company comes knocking on our door and has a private business interest, it has the right to determine where it wants to be. It isn’t government’s job to tell a private company where it’s going to be. It’s up to that company to decide what is the best fit for them.
When the company comes knocking on our door saying it is interested in exploring a change of location and wants to know what’s available, we would be absolutely foolish to turn our backs on them and say, “You have to stay in Toledo.” Because you’re not going to tell a private company what to do anyway. And if we’re obstinate and not open to providing the information they want and not open to considering all its options, we run the risk, as a region, of losing that company entirely. And that does none of us any good.
I feel very strongly about the strong urban center. We do better in Wood County with economic development when Toledo is doing better. It’s just the way it works. We’re a region, and we’re either going to survive as a region or we’ll fail as one.
My two colleagues and I see our involvement in this water issue as important and want to make sure that, in the future, we haven’t allowed ourselves to be put at a competitive disadvantage because of high utility costs for water for business, industries, and citizens who want to be here.