Mayor Vetoes Wholesale Water Rate Proposal

The Mayor exercises his veto power in regards to a motion that involves the wholesale water rate.

Mayor David Phillips has vetoed the motion that was made at last week’s Clayton City Council meeting to propose a wholesale water rate of cost plus five thousand dollars a month to the Clayton Rabun County Water and Sewer Authority.

The motion stated that rate would remain in effect until the water and sewer authority’s reserve balance reaches $725,000, which Phillips said he is in favor of, but he would like clarification of amount of fund currently in the authority reserve account.

“It was just a discrepancy on the amount in the reserve fund,” said Phillips. “There was two or three different numbers, so they just wanted to verify the amount in the reserve.”

Phillips said in the future, more collaboration on the amount of funds in the authority’s reserve account may be needed between the city and the water and sewer authority.

“That’s gotta be up to the council, but some way to monitor it in the future needs to be in the motion, where they can get maybe a quarterly report from the authority where we’re all working together.

Negotiations between the City and the Clayton-Rabun County Water and Sewer Authority for a new wholesale water rate have been going on for some time.