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Frustrated Fasano must stay driven

By Times editorial
Published August 13, 2006

An exasperated state Sen. Mike Fasano asked Citrus County officials just how much money was needed to fix the problem of running sewer lines to Chassahowitzka.

Like a parent doling dollars from an overused wallet, Fasano pressed the commissioners and county staff Tuesday for a figure: $3.5-million? $3.6? What is the magic number to make this headache go away?

Fasano's frustration is understandable, considering that he has helped the county get $6-million for the controversial project. As the costs keep escalating, the senator keeps feeling more pressure to help the residents who will be served by the utility pay the escalating startup costs.

He doesn't oppose having the state contribute toward helping the people; he just wants the county to do its share.

For its part, the county has contributed countless hours of staffers working on the project and the related water lines. County Commissioner Gary Bartell has held numerous town hall meetings in the area to discuss the project and has pounded the hallways in Tallahassee looking for money. The proposed county budget for next year also includes $2-million that could be used to attract matching grants for this kind of project.

The project is in Citrus County, of course, but as Commissioner Vicki Phillips pointed out to Fasano, the Chassahowitzka River is a state waterway, and thus the state has a financial responsibility to restore it and to keep it clean.

Fasano did not promise to bring home the additional funds for the project, now estimated to cost more than $11-million, only to do his best to find the funds.

That is welcome news for the people of Chassahowitzka, who are looking at assessments topping $6,000 without the extra state help. We hope Fasano is successful.

What is troubling, however, is Fasano's directive to the county not to ask for anything else from him.

No elected official should ever put an arbitrary limit on the amount of constituent service he or she will perform, no matter how angry. When people voted for Fasano, they were not told that there was a threshold for his level of public service.

Circumstances beyond anyone's control or anticipation might arise in this or future projects, making state help essential. Should the county now consider the senator off-limits?

Fasano is certainly correct to grouse to the county about the way this project has been handled from its inception. Even as the commissioners were discussing the assessment options months ago, they were still arguing about whether the river truly is polluted and debating the merits of septics vs. sewers. The assessment costs keep changing as more properties are added to the list at the 11th hour. And the contractor hired to do the work is the same one the county has chastised for the way he has handled a similar project in Homosassa.

None of this inspires confidence among the citizens.

Equally disturbing is that if Fasano is successful with finding more money, it could fix one problem while exacerbating a larger one.

Helping to solve this crisis in Chassahowitzka with a one-time infusion of cash does not help those Citrus residents who will have already paid assessments for utility lines, or those elsewhere in the county who will be facing such charges in the coming years as sewer lines move into their neighborhoods.

Fasano has already said not to bother him again. His colleague in the Senate, Nancy Argenziano, who represents the rest of Citrus County, opposes a sewer system for Chassahowitzka, supporting a septic solution instead. Citrus County should not assume that she will press for state dollars for future sewer projects, especially in waterfront areas.

This one-time fix could also keep the county from facing head on the real problem of how to pay for future sewer and water line expansions.

The commissioners must devise a fair method of sharing the costs for these systems among the users, the state and local governments, and the rest of the county.

Commissioners must not allow this muddled situation in Chassahowitzka to become the norm, or to delay them from taking on the critical challenge of developing an equitable funding formula.

Fasano's frustration with this project certainly is understandable; he is hardly alone. We hope that his comments on Tuesday were simply momentary expressions of those feelings and not a true closing of the door on future constituent service.

[Last modified August 12, 2006, 20:41:39]