RUSS not like public utility

Richmond, Iowa

Feb. 10, 2012

To the Editor:

As members of Residents for a Better Richmond (RBR), we read with interest a recent article, ?Wes Rich to chair RUSS? in ?The North Washington County Free Press.? Rich announced his election as chairman of the Regional Utility Service Systems (RUSS) Board at a meeting of the Washington County Board of Supervisors last month. The article reports Supervisor Rich as saying that ?RUSS needs to help people understand what RUSS is.?

Residents of Richmond would like to help people understand what RUSS is by pointing out a few facts.

RUSS is neither a public utility nor a corporation, and therefore it lacks the accountability and transparency you would expect from your telephone or electric company. Its customers have none of the protections that are legally required of public utilities, and there is none of the transparency that is required of corporations.

Indeed, RUSS appears to us to function as little more than a conduit through which huge quantities of public money is channeled to a small number of private companies.

More specifically, our experience in Richmond shows that the management of RUSS has no expertise regarding sanitary problems, but depends on several private engineering firms. These companies, which have a vested interest in doing large, expensive, high-maintenance projects, are hired to determine what, if anything is needed in small communities.

Although there is no reason to believe that Richmond has serious sanitary problems, it came as no surprise when one of their engineering firms concluded that we need exactly what they are selling ? an expensive lagoon system.

The same article quotes Supervisor Rich as saying ?that RUSS was organized?to help small communities develop sanitary sewer systems.?

We see it as a poor kind of ?help? that lacks the expertise to weigh all available options, but almost automatically selects an expensive, communitywide sewer system without even bothering to find out what the problem is in the first place. This is ?help? we can do without ? thank you!

It has been over a year since four of our five county supervisors voted to offer us up as a sacrifice to RUSS, and as we learn more and more, we realize how many problems actually plague this outfit. In addition to its management?s lack of competence and expertise regarding RUSS?s stated purpose ? ?to develop sanitary sewer systems,? these include the apparent inability to account for taxpayer money and a string of serious ethical problems.

In any case, even as we congratulate Washington County Supervisor Rich on his appointment as chairman of the board of directors of RUSS, we begin to see him as a man trying to ?serve two masters.? Does he serve the interests of the citizens of Washington County, or does he serve the interests of RUSS?

Richard and Joanne Horesowsky