By Tracy Ouellette
Staff Writer
Newly elected Waterford Sanitary District Commissioner Dan Dickinson says he was taken aback recently after requesting some documents from the WSD administrator, Debbie Nelson.
Nelson told Dickinson he’d have to make an open records request for the material he needed and pay for it like any other resident.
Dickinson did so.
But Dickinson, who was named the WSD board president Sept. 12, said he expects WSD staff to become responsive to requests for information that commissioners need to do their jobs.
“We have 1,900 bosses,” he told the board Sept. 12. “Staff have three.”
Nelson in turn defended her actions and said she told Dickinson what she did on the advice of WSD Attorney John Macy, who resigned from his position later in the meeting.
Macy explained he told Nelson that Dickinson had to request documents that way if requesting them as a resident. But if acting as a commissioner, then that isn’t necessary if the other WSD commissioners were also given the same document.
Macy said he must not have made that clear to Nelson and apologized for any confusion.
At its Sept. 12 meeting, the board then decided to waive any fees for records requests by commissioners and to direct Nelson to let the remaining commissioners know whenever a commissioner requests documents so they all have the opportunity to have copies as well.
Staff cooperation
The issue of staff cooperation was further discussed in regards to the WSD’s website.
Dickinson said he had asked Nelson to remove a “Fact & Fiction” tab on the site soon after he was elected to the WSD board Aug. 14.
As of the Sept. 12 meeting, the Fact & Fiction content had not been removed.
“When staff is given direction to do something, I expect it to get done,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson said that he had attended the meeting when the website issue had been decided and he felt that Commissioner Jeff Santaga’s intent for use of the site had not been fulfilled by the creation of the Fact & Fiction tab.
Santaga agreed, saying his original intent was to disseminate information to the public, not refute supposed rumors circulating around town.
“It’s not a blog,” Santaga said.
The board then voted unanimously to change the Fact & Fiction tab to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) tab, remove the existing content and use the new tab to keep district members informed about WSD business.
As of press time Wednesday, the Fact & Fiction tab was gone; the new FAQs tab is set up, with no content within.
New committees
The board also approved the formation of two committees Sept. 12. The board is seeking additional members from the community for input and help with both committees.
• The first committee is a “roll-up-your-sleeves” working committee to address the 2013 budget. Dickinson is the chair with both commissioners Rick McNeiley and Santaga as members. Jim Filicetti, a certified public accountant with KJ Tax and Accounting, is a likely candidate for this committee.
Filicetti spoke to the board at the Sept. 12 meeting and volunteered his help, free of charge, to perform an independent, external review of the district’s finances, much like he did several years ago for WSD.
Filicetti said he would like to work in cooperation and conjunction with the current WSD accountant and board in determining the facts of the district’s finances.
Dickinson said his goal is to use a “zero-based budgeting” system and reduce internal costs by 10 percent in the upcoming budget.
• The second committee is the WSD Organizational Structure Committee. Dickinson is the chair, with McNeiley and Santaga as members. The group will explore options available to the sanitary district in regards to staffing levels, in house/out of house duties, the formation of an employee handbook and other ways to improve the district’s organizational structure to reduce costs and benefit the members.
“I think we are organizationally focused and not task focused like we should be,” said Dickinson.
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