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    • Riviera Beach water utility falsified test results
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    Riviera Beach water utility falsified test results

    Harry Posted on

    The Palm Beach County Inspector General’s Office said Riviera Beach’s water utility falsified test results and misled the public. None of the four people mentioned in the report remained with the service provider.

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    • An investigation found that Riviera Beach’s water utilities compliance manager intentionally failed to report water testing results and provided false information to the Florida Department of Health.
    • It was determined that the general manager of the facility, the deputy general manager and the water treatment plant supervisor could not provide adequate supervision and accurate reporting.
    • The Office of Inspector General forwarded its findings to the Florida Department of Health and law enforcement for potential administrative and criminal review.
    • Riviera Beach has already paid $80,000 in fines and fees, but could face tens of thousands more due to the utility’s actions.
    • The city has hired a consultant and is exploring financing options for a new water treatment plant because the existing water treatment plant is old and needs to be replaced.

    An investigation by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General found that Riviera Beach’s water authority’s compliance manager “repeatedly and knowingly” failed to report water testing results to the Florida Department of Health and provided officials with “inaccurate, altered or misleading information.” resulting in wells being improperly kept in service.

    The OIG report, released Monday, Nov. 18, also criticized the facility’s then-executive director, deputy executive director and water treatment plant supervisor for failing to provide adequate oversight to the compliance director and ensuring accurate water testing reporting. results.

    The utility’s failures were so significant that the OIG “found sufficient information to warrant referring our findings to the FDOH for administrative review and to law enforcement for determination of whether the facts constitute a criminal act under Florida (with a copy to be forwarded to the State Attorney General’s Office).” Regulations.”

    None of those who held leadership positions at the organization and were singled out in the OIG report (Chief Compliance Officer Anthony Williams, Executive Director Michael Low, Deputy Executive Director Steven Doyle, and Plant Inspector Michael Pinkney) remain with the company. Low stormed out of a contentious City Council meeting in July and was fired. Others resigned, retired or left for other career opportunities.

    The OIG’s 86-page report comprehensively condemns former leadership at Riviera Beach’s Utility Special District, which has been in turmoil since January when well water tested positive for E. coli, a fecal contaminant, six months ago. It can sicken or kill those who consume it. The OIG report comes on the heels of scathing statements from the FDOH, which found that Riviera Beach’s water authority failed to comply with state law by failing to submit testing reports in a timely manner, issuing misleading public statements and failing to follow proper procedure on re-inspection. testing water samples.

    Riviera Beach has already paid nearly $80,000 in FDOH fines and administrative fees under its agreement with the department, but Mayor Ronnie Felder and City Manager Jonathan Evans said city taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of thousands more dollars in additional fines and fees. It all comes down to the service provider’s testing procedures and lack of transparency.

    Evans said the organization hopes FDOH will consider the departure of those in leadership positions when the department identifies problems with testing, reporting and transparency.

    “Our hope is to try to mitigate any potential fines, but there’s probably still some punitive action that could come as a result of that,” Evans said.

    Lacking senior leadership at the water authority, the city hired a consultant to serve as what Evans described as a “staffing augmentation tool.” Consultant US Water was hired in September and is expected to work with the utility through at least early March. The consultant will be paid about $1.3 million, Evans said.

    The city manager said he is still trying to understand why the agency did not comply with retesting, reporting and transparency requirements.

    “I can’t speak to why this happened, but I can tell you very simply in our conversations with the Health Department that there are some things we can do if we want to deviate from the prescribed standard,” Evans said. “I believe there was a situation where our compliance manager was probably coming to the end of his tenure with the agency, and so the normal process that would have been followed at that time in his tenure probably wasn’t a priority because he was leaving the agency.”

    Inspector General report: Utility leaders blame each other for water problems

    The OIG report paints a picture of an aging facility and a utility struggling to cope with problems from wells and ill-equipped to meet the needs of staff who leave or go on leave. In interviews with OIG investigators, utility leaders denied that various functions of the agency were their responsibilities, blamed each other for problems and questioned each other’s competence.

    The report said Low, who was supposed to oversee the utility, said he “didn’t know how things worked” and had many responsibilities, including trying to build a new water treatment plant. The report stated that Low stated that he “had managers in charge of operations.”

    The report said Evans learned from FDOH in August that the city’s water utility staff may have changed the test results from contamination to validity. The city manager believes the utility district management “does not properly oversee the city’s daily water supply operations,” the report said.

    “Multiple city service district employees told Mr. Evans that Mr. Low and Mr. Doyle were rarely or never at the city water facility,” the report states.

    “Senior Service Area personnel violated reporting rules both through mismanagement of required processes and, at times, intentional actions designed to prevent required accurate reporting of water conditions,” the OIG report concluded.

    Why isn’t the timing of the inspection report good for Riviera Beach?

    The timing of the OIG report could not have been worse for Riviera Beach’s water management; Board members are expected to vote Wednesday, Nov. 20, on whether to authorize the city’s chief financial officer to pursue $400 million in revenue bonds for new water. treatment plant.

    Riviera Beach’s water treatment plant was built in 1958 and has been obsolete for decades as elected officials gambled repeatedly over the years when faced with the massive cost of renovating the plant.

    Meanwhile, residents regularly complained about the color, taste and feel of the water, and PepsiCo, one of the city’s largest employers, puts the water through the company’s own additional purification before use.

    A new facility is unlikely to be operational until 2027, a city consultant said Monday. City officials are unlikely to receive the final cost for the facility until spring 2025.

    Even if the utility’s board votes to approve the $400 million revenue bond, the utility would not commit to paying for the new facility with bond money alone, Evans said. He said the city is still exploring state and federal grant funding to help cover the costs of a new facility; This facility is currently expected to cost $356 million, with approximately $40 million more in associated costs. Development impact fees can also cover some of the costs of a new facility.

    Having a new facility in Riviera Beach is generally viewed as a necessity, as Evans has encouraged and current City Council members have embraced the critical need for a new facility.

    “The option of doing nothing was never an option for us,” Evans said. “The truth is, this can be inconvenient. There may have been difficult conversations and discussions in the past that others have given up on, but as a manager, I don’t see a situation where we’re going to leave it to someone else to handle it.”

    Wayne Washington is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations. You can reach him at: [email protected]. Help support our work; subscribe today.

    Harry
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