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City attorney shushes council on river flow

Since the matter may be headed to court, he tells council only the mayor should comment.

By JANET ZINK
Published March 30, 2007

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio wants only one person associated with the city to talk about how much water should flow into the lower Hillsborough River.

And that's Mayor Pam Iorio.

City attorney David Smith made that clear to City Council members Thursday as they were about to hear from environmental groups and the Southwest Florida Water Management District about the issue.

Smith told the Council they could listen, but advised them not to comment because the matter is likely to end up in court.

"Anything you say today can be part of the process," he said, adding if council members express an opinion that runs counter to the mayor's, they could end up testifying against the city.

"There has to be one voice," he said.

Smith said river flow is an administrative matter, and the council has no say in it.

Last week, an assistant city attorney delivered the same message to the Mayor's Environmental Roundtable, a group formed in 2005 to provide Iorio with perspective on environmental issues.

Smith's advice to the City Council had Phil Compton, a member of the nonprofit group Friends of the River, shaking with anger.

"It's very odd that council is being intimidated by the mayor's office," he said after the City Council meeting.

"They're trying to intimidate the members of the environmental roundtable. They're trying to intimidate the City Council," he said. "It's evil."

Council member Linda Saul-Sena said she was frustrated by Smith's advice not to talk.

"I'm going to research our options," she said. "The health of the Hillsborough River is very important to me. The river is one of the city's great assets and I want to have a healthy river."

The council opted to postpone the river flow presentations.

At issue is how much fresh water should flow over the Hillsborough River dam into the lower river to keep fish and plants alive.

The city gets most of its drinkable water from a reservoir above the dam, and city officials say they can't spare a drop for the river's wildlife. The city already takes the maximum allowed by a state permit to meet Tampa's water needs.

The debate over how much fresh water should flow into the lower Hillsborough River began more than seven years ago when Tampa and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, set the rate at 10 cubic feet per second.

The nonprofit group Friends of the River questioned the level, saying it wasn't high enough to support snook, baby manatees and other wildlife. The group sued and reached a settlement requiring a five-year study.

In 2005, Swiftmud released a draft report that said the level should be raised to 26 cubic feet per second. The city said the report didn't justify the higher number. Swiftmud and the city negotiated a level of 20 cubic feet per second. But a scientific panel review of the recommendation released this week said that amount "just barely" meets the river's needs. The review recommends at least increasing the flow to 24 cubic feet per second in April through June.

Swiftmud will respond to the recommendations next month.

Rich Brown, an engineer who worked on water quality issues for the U.S. Navy, serves on the Mayor's Environmental Roundtable. He said that in a "spirited" discussion with city officials last Friday, the group said they wanted to weigh in on the matter. But assistant city attorney Jan McLean told them they could not make any recommendations.

"She was sent there, I thought, to squash us," Brown said.

Brown said as a member of Friends of the River, he would like to see at least 30 cubic feet per second flowing over the dam. But as a compromise, the group would accept the recommendations of Swiftmud's scientific review panel.

Brown believes the solution is simple: Let the water flow over the dam to help the river and simply buy water from Tampa Bay Water for the city water customers.

That would require raising the city water rates, he said, but Tampa residents now pay very little for water.

According to city officials, Tampa residents pay about $12 per month for water. Residents in Pinellas County pay twice that, and other Hillsborough residents pay nearly three times more.

"The mayor needs to make a bold move," Brown said. "Just raise water rates in the city of Tampa to match the average of the local area."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 00:40:23]