Some cities have utilities that are owned by private entities, but these are for the most part small or rural towns. In some cities—Milwaukee, for example—it is public-private partnership where the city owns the utility, but it is operated by a private company. The reason cities partitioned the utilities off from direct control and set up a situation where the boards are appointed by the mayor, or whoever, was to shield elected officials from the political heat associated with the needed rate increases for the utilities.

It’s an ongoing debate that utilities remain in public hands to make them more accountable to ratepayers rather than to shareholders. Atlanta represents a disastrous case of what happened when the city let its utility be taken over by a private company. Rates went up, service crumbled, and the city had to take it back.

Also, I have no idea if the increase in water rates can be attributed in any way to contracting crews being paid for standing around doing nothing (or something.) Maybe you’ve done extensive research and analysis of DC Water’s accounts over the last decade or two.

Or is there someone who has? I wouldn’t mind reading it if it’s available.

Taken directly from DCWATER’s website.

“In 1996, the District Government initiated the creation of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA), an independent authority of the District of Columbia providing services to the region. On April 18, 1996, following a 30-day Congressional review period, the District Council enacted DC Law 11-111, “The Water and Sewer Authority Establishment and Department of Public Works Reorganization Act of 1996.”

DC WASA began a renewal period to improve delivery of water and wastewater treatment services to the District and regional customers and to improve and replace the water and sewer infrastructure. Like many older East Coast cities, Washington, DC’s aging water and sewer infrastructure was in dire need of major renovations and general maintenance.

Among other operational changes, DC WASA’s finances were no longer tied to the District’s overall budget. This marked a positive change for the organization and its customers since every dollar collected by DC WASA could then be reinvested into operations and capital improvements. Funding for operations, improvements and debt financing now comes through user fees, grants and the sale of revenue bonds.

In 2010, DC WASA initiated a rebranding campaign and is now known as DC Water”

Public space construction moves at *such* a slow pace in this stupid city and the work quality seems fair-to-average at best (exhibit A: 18th Street renovation). Even a simple arrest of a drunken fool attracts 4-5 officers to stand around and look at the guy getting arrested.

It all seems like a big scam being played on the taxpayer/ratepayer and it frustrates me, too.

No one is talking about DC’s stormwater issues. Stay focused here as the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

DCWater is a non-public, private utility. They don’t get any federal or city dollars. Their operations are paid for solely through user fees and they are under no obligation to pay prevailing wage. They choose to. Hence my annoyance when I drive by these sites (like I do multiple times a week in a variety of places around the city and we see that 70% of the billable hours onsite literally do nothing. The only reason those 5 guys weren’t sitting in a truck with the A/C cranked is because they saw someone with a camera.

Lets put this into a more personal perspective. You have a broken water line in your house and you call a plumber to fix it. They show up with 7 guys, you are being billed for each at $32 bucks an hour. 5 of the guys sit out on your stoop for 2 hours smoking and yacking away while 2 guys are in your basement fixing the leak.

Are you honestly telling me that you either, wouldn’t be incredibly pissed that you were paying 5 guys to sit on your porch and smoke, or tell the 5 to leave and you weren’t paying them?

Actually, I forgot a third…you would sit there and stew over it, irate that you were paying them to stand there and as soon as they left you would fire up the intertubes and rant to the blogosphere about it.

Why is waste on a public scale so much more acceptable to you than on a personal scale?