Urging RUSS involvement stop

February 24, 2012

Kalona, Iowa

To the Editor:

There was an interesting article, ?Wapello County denied withdrawal from RUSS,? in The Washington Evening Journal of Feb. 14, 2012. It reveals some shocking facts as it describes how Wapello County?s board of supervisors recently voted to end their county?s membership in Regional Utility Service Systems (RUSS).

Aside from the management, accounting, and ethical problems that plague RUSS, each county?s annual membership dues have increased from $1,000 to $7,000, not to mention the extra $1,000 each county is being asked to contribute to pay for RUSS? legal difficulties. Apparently, as they learn more about this outfit, supervisors of some other counties are recognizing the mistake they made.

The RUSS board of directors, however, told Wapello County that they are bound to RUSS forever ? they can never get out! The reason given is that a member county cannot be relieved of its responsibility for RUSS? current indebtedness, or for indebtedness accrued in the future.

As huge government debt threatens our whole country, we now discover that our county government has signed on with an outfit as unreliable as RUSS, under terms that could easily leave us holding the bag for its humongous debt!

Residents of Richmond have learned that RUSS itself has no expertise in sanitary engineering, and depends on a few private engineering firms to report that small communities need expensive sewer systems, and then to oversee their construction. After a one-year guarantee period, these firms put their money in the bank, leaving RUSS to manage and maintain the system, and to pay off the huge debts which have been incurred.

Since RUSS has never been able to manage even itself properly and is plagued with serious accounting and ethical problems, its prospects for long-term sustainability appear quite dismal. That is why it is so disturbing to learn that our county government is permanently trapped so that we are ultimately responsible for all the debts RUSS has ? and all the debts it ever incurs in the future!

For our county supervisors to get us stuck in a tar pit like RUSS was extremely unwise ? to use a charitable expression. Did they really understand what they were getting us into when they agreed to join RUSS under these terms?

We think our involvement in RUSS needs to stop now before we get in any deeper!

We may need to follow the huge quantities of money that flow through RUSS to find out why anybody would agree to such terms. Exactly who got us into this mess, and where are they now?

How many citizens of Washington County were aware of what was happening when this colossal blunder was committed? This should definitely become a major issue during the next election campaign, when three of our county supervisors will be up for re-election.

David H. Rosen

Member, Residents for a Better Richmond