Disputed $1.5-Million ‘Outreach’ : Council OKs Sewer-Information Program

San Diego City Councilman Bruce Henderson lost his much-publicized bid to halt a $1.5-million public education program Monday, as a divided council approved a three-year effort to tell residents about sewage treatment and water reclamation projects.

Henderson, stepping up his audio-visual assault on his colleagues, filled the council chambers with ominous theme music from the movie “Jaws� and displayed an inflatable shark as he continued warnings that consultant “sharks� would engage in a “feeding frenzy� on public funds earmarked for the program.

But, in the end, Henderson, whose office window is adorned with the “Jaws� poster of a shark munching a dollar bill, could persuade only Mayor Maureen O’Connor, Councilman Bob Filner and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer to join him in opposing the “public participation� program required by the federal government.

“The sharks are in the water,� Henderson said after the vote. “They are beginning to feed.�

Extensive Process Begins

The vote permits three consulting firms to begin an extensive distribution of public information and gathering of opinions on the massive, $1.5-billion sewage treatment upgrading that has been ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a corresponding waste-water reclamation effort recommended by a city task force.

The city, unable to reach agreement with the EPA on a start-up date for the “secondary sewage� treatment facilities or a financing plan for project, expects to be sued by that agency and the U.S. Justice Department within a few days.

Nevertheless, council members agreed Monday to push ahead with a series of public hearings, presentations and meetings with government agencies designed to garner public support and comment for the project. The public relations campaign is part of a larger, $9.5-million contract between the city and the James M. Montgomery engineering firm to outline the city’s alternatives for the sewage upgrading.

Under Montgomery’s plans, the engineering firm would pay itself $818,000 to provide technical expertise during the presentations. The consulting firm Katz & Associates would receive $323,760, and TCS Governmental Consulting would be paid $88,900. Overhead costs would add $257,940 to the total cost.

Community Outreach Sessions

In incredulous tones, Henderson told the council that the plan calls for 18 public workshops at a cost of $365,100, or $20,283.33 per workshop. The 125 scheduled outreach sessions with community organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Rotarians would total $513,110, or $4,104.88 per session.

The 108 planned “government liaisons� would cost the city $225,100, or $2,084.25 per liaison, Henderson said.

“It is the most outrageous, obscene per unit cost I have ever seen in my life,� Henderson said.

O’Connor, taking particular exception to the $50-an-hour overhead fee the consultants will earn, agreed. “I’ve said from the beginning, the million and a half is a high figure. I feel in my gut it’s too high a figure.�

But E. Miles Harvey, chairman of the Metropolitan Sewer Task Force and Asst. City Manager Jack McGrory defended the expenditures as the price of doing the job well. Task force members trying to conduct a public meeting on their own produced “a total disaster� because they were “ill-prepared to deal with the public,� Harvey said.

Moreover, McGrory said, the extensive public outreach is required by the EPA because sewer users will be facing a possible quadrupling of monthly sewage bills, to $40 monthly, within five years. Residents who may see a sewage-treatment facility planned for their neighborhoods have the right to voice their opposition, a report states.

The council had deadlocked on the issue last month, when, with only seven members present, it mustered just four votes in favor of the project. This time, the proposal won the support of council members Ron Roberts, Gloria McColl, Wes Pratt, Ed Struiksma and Judy McCarty.

Pratt said the 22-cent-per-person expenditure for the program is similar to Los Angeles’ 20-cent-per-capita spending, and less than many other cities pay for similar efforts.