Broken Promises

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="044005a0exvipq.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFCC33" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eastside Republican Club"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><B>  </B><B> </B></FONT><B>  | </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><B>Eastside Republican Club</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B>Events</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="eastside_republican_review_summary.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ERC Review"><U><B>ERC Review</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="michigan_s_13th_district.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Congressional District News"><U><B>Congressional District News</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="civic___governmental_links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="erc_officers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U><B>About Us</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Broken Promises</B></div> <div> <A HREF="link_to_michigan_gop.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michigan Republicans"><U><B><IMG SRC="05358580.gif" border=0 width="88" height="88" ALT="Michigan GOP" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:yxztiGXVpfwC:www.freep.com/news/locway/water14_20030114.htm+%22George+Constance%22+water&hl=en&ie=UTF-8" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:yxz"><U><I><B>Read About Detroit's Promises</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <I><B>Get Your </B></I><A HREF="greg_brock_points_to_value_of__choice__chrumka.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Meaningful Education Reform"><U><I><B>Patriotic Yard Sign</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_testimonials.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Theyre Saying About Us"><U><I><B>Read what they've said about us</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B><IMG SRC="81b871f0.gif" border=0 width="135" height="31" ALT=">>Events" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <A NAME="top_of_page"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <U>Warren City Attorney Wages Water War with Detroit</U></div> <div> <B>Skyrocketing Suburban Water Rates</B></div> <div> <B>Trigger Legislative and Court Battles</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><IMG SRC="90fb4fa0.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="250" ALT="Warren's George Constance" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="6" VSPACE="2"></FONT></div> <div> “Broken promises” are the basis for Warren's current battle with Detroit over escalating water rates, according to George G. Constance, Warren City Attorney, speaking to the Eastside Republican Club's April 15, 2003, forum.</div> <bR> <div> Of the 127 communities served by Detroit, <A HREF="http://www.cityofwarren.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.cityofwarren.org/"><U>Warren</U></A> is the largest. No wonder that after experiencing Detroit's charges increase by 70% over seven years, followed by a further double-digit increase in the eight year, Warren brought suit asking Detroit to explain its rates, the “rate formula.” Constance said, “People are fed up.” He explained that Warren's suit is simply an effort to require Detroit to abide by terms of its contract to sell water at a fair price. Not only is Warren demanding an accounting, but Constance said, “Warren expects a refund of overcharges--we want cash back.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>Costly Inefficiency</B></div> <div> Constance said a comparison of the Detroit board's 2,300 full-time employees to the number of water employees required by other cities is evidence of gross inefficiency. While Detroit has the second largest water department of all but one other U.S. municipality, it employs 1,325 more workers than the largest water department in the country--the Chicago water department.</div> <bR> <div> An example cited by Constance is the 37-member Detroit water public relations operation, compared to only three for its Chicago counterpart.</div> <bR> <div> Making his point about inefficiency even more telling, Constance said, “Although Chicago operates with far fewer employees, it serves one million more customers.” Constance charged that these facts make the Detroit board the “single most inefficient of any of the top 10 in the United States.”</div> <bR> <div> One reason for escalating suburban rates, he said, is that treated water is lost within Detroit, and never billed, due to broken pipes, and open valves in abandoned buildings. Constance stated that this amounts to $23 million dollars per year--double losses in Chicago.</div> <bR> <div> Constance cited other examples of inefficiency, including $250 million in no-bid contracts, an army of paid consultants, a questionable $30 million security system, and $59 million in uncollected water bills owed by accounts located within the City of Detroit. He said that his research reveals that fully, “37% of city water users don't pay their bills.” Nevertheless, Constance said, “The highest paid public official in the State of Michigan is the director of the Detroit Water Board.”<U><IMG SRC="969aac40.jpg" border=0 width="170" height="196" ALT="ERC Chairman, Ed Joseph, greets George Constance" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="6" VSPACE="2"></U></div> <bR> <div> <B>Suburban Representation</B></div> <div> “It's an illusion,” Constance said of the pretense of suburban representation on the current board, noting that three out of four Detroit customers are outside the City of Detroit. He explained that present suburban representation consists of only one person from each suburban county served, and each of these is hand picked for appointment by Detroit's mayor.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Everybody's Doing It</B></div> <div> “The mark-up fiction,” was cited by Constance as a creation of the board's public relations department. It represents Detroit's claim that suburban communities merely add their own profit margin to Detroit rates in calculating what to charge end users. He said that every municipality must add to the cost of its wholesale water the cost of operating transit lines required within its own borders to deliver water to individual users. Constance said Warren's charges are based on bona fide costs, and flatly stated, “There is no mark-up involved.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Lansing Battle</B></div> <div> Constance has testified during three public hearings before members of the Michigan House as it considered a bill to restructure Detroit's water board. Read “Down the Drain,” a <A HREF="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2002/waterdept" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/20"><U><I>Detroit News</I></U></A><A HREF="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2002/waterdept" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/20"><U> special report</U></A>.</div> <bR> <div> According to Constance, the Michigan legislature no sooner passed the bipartisan legislation bringing parity to the board than Gov. Granholm, keeping her campaign pledge to favor the City of Detroit, <A HREF="http://www.gophouse.com/waterboardkoetje/governor_opposes_legislative_fix.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.gophouse.com/waterboardkoetje"><U>vetoed it</U></A>. Read the Pete Waldmeir <I>Detroit News</I> story, "<A HREF="http://www.detnews.com/2003/metro/0303/21/a01-114816.htmt " TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.detnews.com/2003/metro/0303/2"><U>Detroiters Owe Warren Mayor Vote of Thanks for Water Fight</U></A>."</div> <bR> <div> Constance graduated from Albion College with a double major, and from Central Michigan University with a Master's Degree. He then enrolled in night school at Detroit College of Law. He explains, "I made steel by day and went to law school by night."</div> <bR> <div> Following his 1987 law school graduation, Constance went to work for the Warren City Attorney's office. For the last seven years he has served Michigan's third largest municipality as City Attorney.</div> <bR> <div> Constance is a founding member and legal counsel for the community-based DARE and PAL programs, and maintains an active involvement in the Knights of Columbus, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Catholic Lawyers Society. For more than twelve years, he has taught business law in the legal assistant program of Macomb Community College as an Associate Professor.</div> <bR> <div> <I>>>Read “Down the Drain,” a </I><A HREF="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2002/waterdept" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/20"><U><I>Detroit News</I></U></A><I> special report</I><I>.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#top_of_page" TITLE="Broken Promises"><U>back to top</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>