Last Friday, June 5, 2015, the judge overseeing the remainder of Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy entered an order extending until January 1, 2016, Judge Sean Cox's appointment as mediator of matters involving DWSD and the Great Lakes Water Authority.
Under the contemplated lease agreements, the GLWA would operate and maintain DWSD's water and wastewater treatment facilities for 40 years in consideration of annual lease payments to the City of $50 million.
Under the terms of the Amended Plan of Adjustment submitted in the City's Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which created the Great Lakes Water Authority effective November 26, 2014, the new authority and the City of Detroit have 200 days to completion negotiations and execute the contemplated lease agreements. That deadline is June 14, 2015.
To date, these negotiations have occurred behind closed doors with Judge Cox serving as mediator, but subject to a court order prohibiting the participants from discussing any of the matters. Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel has been very outspoken in his criticism of these confidential (secret) negotiations. Reports indicate that Macomb County has been shut out of the process.
Comment: I have no inside information (which I couldn't share with you anyhow), but entry of last Friday's order, extending Judge Cox's tenure as mediator to the end of 2015, strongly suggests to me that the June 14, 2015 deadline to complete a deal on a long-term lease agreement is going to be extended. I don't know how you can finalize a deal if Macomb County is not part of the process. That makes no sense to me. If I were to guess, I would say the parties will ask (or have already asked) for a new deadline that goes to mid-October or early November. What do you think?
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4 comments:
My belief is that no one "knows" exactly which city uses what resources (sewage or tapwater). The systems of the past lead to guesses, estimates, odd rate assumptions, all due to massive underground piping inter-connectivity between counties and cities, along with a copious amounts of rainwater infiltration skewing the strategy. LBrooksP and Hackel may want "numbers" , but they simply don't exist with the hodge podge of archaic metering, flow rate measurements, etc. Maybe, maybe with a fully functioning operational modernized SCADA radio network an authority possibly may get a handle on the truth of who used how much tapwater and what was sent into the stormdrains.
No amount of extension time will garner any new discoveries. People and Businesses took water for granted, and now its time to pay , in full, for services rendered. No amnesty, no debt wiped out, everyone from Billionaires to Welfare recipients pays those pennies per gallon associated with what they own. TapWater is tooo damn cheap, it should be really really expensive - then folks would wake up from the slumber.
View a very telling informative video on DWSD - pay attention to "weather" , "meters", "measuring" and the rational why that has ALL been abandoned - in favor of a massive simplification and the hunt for financial revenue.
I think they could not account for massive rainfall infiltration, couldn't measure it, could not charge for it.
https://vimeo.com/87431942
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