INC NEWS - Elected officials fail at oversight, basic city functions

[Caleb Southern]

"Bell said that anyone who read the reports should have known about the
problems and should have told the City Council. 'My issue is with Patrick at
this point,' he said." (N&O)

My issue is with you, Mayor Bell.

Certainly there is plenty of blame to spread around for the dump fire. But
this happened under Mayor Bell's watch. And it was predictable and
preventable.

In the four years I have been involved with civic issues in Durham, the poor
state of maintenance and basic city services has been a constant theme. I
can only imagine what other 'invisible' functions we take for granted (water
& sewer, stormwater, etc.) are on the verge of catastrophic failure. We all
see the sorry state of our pothole-ridden roads and other visible
infrastructure. 

We just passed a massive bond for what is euphemistically called "deferred
maintenance" -- effectively using our credit card to buy groceries.

HOW DEEP DOES THIS PROBLEM GO?

I, for one, am not willing to give Mayor Bell and Council a pass on this. We
elect them to provide oversight on our behalf. It is unsatisfactory to let
them get away with finger pointing AFTER THE FACT. The catastrophic failure
of basic city services is not a surprise. Mayor Bell and our elected
officials must get ahead of this problem and ensure that our city functions
properly -- rather than squandering our tax dollars on boondoggle theaters
and grants to inept or corrupt organizations.

Instead of ordering a report about "who knew what when and how far up the
chain it went," the Mayor should order an audit of the state of all city
infrastructure and systems, and what we need to do now to prevent the next
imminent failure. That would be . . . leadership.

Mr. Mayor, Harry Truman said, "The buck stops here."

Caleb Southern


***

Officials briefed on dump's risk
Durham leaders got updates on the status of a waste center that later caught
fire

By Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer: News & Observer

As the city's yard waste composting facility burned, top administrators
denied they were told the dump had been operating for more than two years
without a state permit.

But internal reports show that City Manager Patrick Baker and Deputy City
Manager Ted Voorhees got weekly updates that outlined the problem. Solid
waste managers also warned their superiors that equipment shortages and a
contractor's poor performance could lead to a fire.

In interviews Friday, Baker and Voorhees acknowledged they received and read
the "City Manager Executive Updates," the contents of which were routinely
discussed at weekly meetings of senior city administrators. Both said,
however, they had no knowledge of the permit lapse, the severity of the
problems at the dump or the likelihood of fire.

The reports cover the period from May 29, 2005, until days before the acres
of accumulated leaves and limbs at the dump spontaneously burst into flame
Sept. 10. The fire took 14 days and more than $100,000 in taxpayer money to
extinguish, while smoke blanketed nearby homes and forced some residents to
flee to hotels.

"Time is crucial as material is arriving without being processed, thus
increasing the potential for compost fires," reads the report for the week
of July 15. That statement was bulleted under the heading "Management
Issues," defined on the form as issues "the city manager needs to know
about."

The Yard Waste Compost Facility's permit expired in July 2004, five months
after a large mulch fire burned for nine days. When the city applied for a
new permit, officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural
Resources refused.

As of Friday, the yard waste dump still did not have a valid operating
permit. Meanwhile, state regulators are considering fines of $5,000 per day.

Baker, who became acting city manager in August 2004, said he had never
visited the yard waste dump until after the most recent fire. By his
reading, the warnings in the executive updates about a potential fire were
referring to piles of mulch and compost, not adjacent the mounds of yard
waste that spontaneously combusted.

"All I can remember being told, and I can't remember exactly by whom, is
that they had some permitting issues with the state they were working out,"
Baker said. "Hindsight is 20/20. But this happened on my watch, and it is my
responsibility."

Council members blasted the city's handling of the recent fire at a Sept. 18
public meeting and expressed outrage that they were never informed that the
facility had been operating illegally. Baker apologized, telling council
members that they were not told about the problems because he had never been
informed.

On Sept. 21, as the piles smoldered, Mayor Bill Bell instructed Baker to
prepare a report about "who knew what when and how far up the chain it
went."

Interviewed moments later in the hall outside the council's conference room,
Voorhees said he had vague knowledge that his subordinates were working to
renew the permit. He was adamant, however, that he never knew or had been
told the permit had expired.

But the internal updates make repeated references to the department's
efforts to get a new one. Under the heading "Future Hot Items (Potential
negative press or controversial issues)," the one dated May 29, 2005, has
the bulleted entry: "Yard Waste Composting facility Permit from DENR -- all
required documentation has been submitted for approval."

The reports describe a facility struggling with insufficient resources to
handle the yard waste. Without room to spread out the materials, the piles
grew bigger, increasing fire potential.

The executive report for the week of Dec. 31, 2005, reads, "The facility is
inundated with existing compost, newly ground mulch, and newly arriving yard
debris -- primarily leases. ... Our only operational equipment, a rubber
tire loader, is not well suited to moving large loads over uneven, non-paved
terrain due to its rollover potential. As mentioned in the previous report,
we really need a tracked loader to help push and efficiently store
material."

Though another city department eventually loaned the yard a tracked loader,
the requested new equipment is still on order. It is expected to arrive in
30 to 90 days.

Context cited

Voorhees said Friday that the internal updates should be considered in the
context of all the priorities of city government. Responsibility for the
failures at the yard waste facility lies at the feet of its on-site manager,
Roosevelt Carter, Voorhees said.

"It's sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind until it catches on fire -- and then
everyone knows about it," Voorhees said.

Efforts to reach Carter on Friday were unsuccessful.

Bell said that anyone who read the reports should have known about the
problems and should have told the City Council. "My issue is with Patrick at
this point," he said.

Two other council members who reviewed the reports questioned the
performance of Baker and Voorhees. Thomas Stith said the documents indicated
"negligence." Eugene Brown questioned whether the pair were worth their
salaries -- a combined $271,649 per year, not including benefits and perks.

"We pay the manager and his team big bucks to resolve these issues," Brown
said. "In this case, I don't think the taxpayers got their money's worth."
Staff writer Michael Biesecker can be reached at 956-2421 or
mbieseck at newsobserver.com.