Letter to the Editor: City Council should provide "clean analysis" of water and sewer costs

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Charles Lore, a former Decorah City council member who served on the city's Utilities Committee):

"On Monday night the Decorah City Council will vote on the third reading to raise your water and sewer rates.  I would encourage the city council to table this motion until City Hall provides the citizens of Decorah with a "clean" analysis of our water and sewer rates.

What do I mean by a "clean" analysis?  Let's take the Water Department, for example.  The citizens need to know the actual cost of operating the department, plus that portion of the city's billing clerk salary used by the Water Department.  This means taking out the additional operating costs, such as a portion of the city manager's salary, a portion of the city clerk's salary, a portion of the cost of the city's IT Department, the retainer fee for engineering and the capital expenditures that were added for extending the water line at Highway 9 & 52.

This would allow the citizens to see the true shortfall in our water rates and sewer rates and what the increases should be.  The citizens should expect transparency from our city government.  This could be done by requesting the city to operate on an itemized budget, making city administration a stand-alone entity, funded by the general fund and not by income from city services."