EAST LIVERPOOL — The East Liverpool City Council’s Refuse and Recycling/Public Utilities/Franchise Committee met with other council members on Wednesday to discuss what to do with the city’s water department and the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which is currently not meeting due to a lack of board members.

No formal decision was made due to committee members wanting to consult with City Law Director Charles Payne before making a decision to recommend temporarily disbanding the board to a full council to vote on.

The Refuse and Recycling/Public Utilities/Franchise Committee will meet on Monday May 4 at 5:15 p.m. prior to a full council meeting to further discuss the issue and possibly vote on making a recommendation to the full council at that time.

During the meeting, Mayor Bobby Smith said at this time he does not have an issue with doing away with the board and let the management of the utilities fall under the supervision of Service-Safety Director Bill Jones until a time when the city is able to get the board functional and put back in place.

Smith also said that the city will be looking for a replacement for Tim Clark, part-time utilities director, who is ready to retire and let Clark take care of the water department until his replacement can be found.

Clark told Smith the water department would also fall back under the service-safety director.

Council member Brian Kerr suggested the city consider the possibility of hiring a city manager to over the utilities

Water Superintendent Paul McCarthy said he would like to see the BPU remain in place because he doesn’t believe the city council is aware of what all the water plant faces. He also noted that the water plant or the city was not going to get qualified employees unless wages increase.

Smith responded saying they can offer more money, but they can’t offer better health benefits as the healthcare cost for the city increased by $400,000 last year.

Kerr pointed out that the council granted approval for the BPU to set wages, but the board has not met to do anything and asked how wages would be handled under the service-safety director. Council Member Tom Clark responded that council would handle it if the board isn’t in place.

Council Member John Mercer said he believes finding three good people to be BPU board members may be an issue. Smith agreed, saying he doesn’t think it would be any good to have someone on the board who doesn’t know anything about it or the issues being faced.

There was further discussion on the wages and revenue for the city from the water department with Beagle asking how other municipalities increased their revenue without increasing their census, to which former council member Fred Rayl replied raising their rates.

Discussion then centered on water rate increases with McCarthy saying the city needs to raise the rates, so enough money is able to be set aside expenses and repairs.

Beagle said there needs to be an escalating rate scale put in place.

Rayl said rate increases aren’t going to stop, and if the BPU hadn’t gone away in 2016, things might be in better shape, but that it’s been eight years with no leadership.

Mercer said people can’t afford the rate increases and that in regard to a company who may have interest in purchasing the city’s water department is that company has buying power.

During further discussion on rate increases, it was noted that an annual three percent rate increase should be put in place for the next five to six years.

Rayl said either way, the people are the ones going to pay, whether the city raises the rates, or another company buys the water plant and raises the rates.

Smith said nobody is going to be happy and while Aqua may have a good plan, it’s not about selling the water plant.

Council Member Jeff Kreefer who is the utilities committee chair, said council needs to decide if they want Aqua to come speak with them. He also noted that he doesn’t want the water plant sold and that if Aqua can run the plant at a profit, the city should be able to.

Council members said they do not want to sell the water plant.

Kerr said he would like the administration to take over immediately while things are figured out with the BPU, but he does not want that to be permanent. He just wants to see that happen while the city works to construct a new board.

Council President John Torma said that if the BPU was done away with the city would never get it back.

Kerr and Kreefer both agreed that it was difficult to bring the BPU back.

Kreefer wrapped up the meeting by saying he is putting a lot of thought into these matters and wants to do what is best for the citizens. He called a meeting for further discussion for May 4 at 5:15 p.m. in council chambers.