A new utility with the same tired excuses

Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2000

There's a new utility in town.

The NEW LINDRICK. The emphasis from the all uppercase letters and bold type comes from owner Joseph Borda in a Feb. 15 letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Kind of reminds you of HILLARY!, doesn't it? Except Borda forgot his "!". Apparently putting everything in capital letters is the newest attempt at revisionist history.

Bad press? Bad pipes? Bad service? Bad attitude?

That was the old Lindrick, the water and sewer company serving 2,200 customers along coastal west Pasco. (It's also for sale to the city of Port Richey for nearly $15-million.)

So, try adding some emphasis to improve the image. It's a better makeover than Merle Norman can provide.

Okay. That's FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS being offered by a city of 2,667 people. Oh, sorry. That's probably not the punctuation the utility envisioned.

What's unclear is whether Port Richey is pursuing NEW LINDRICK or the old Lindrick.

Consider the differences:

"The NEW LINDRICK has established an excellent track record with regard to repairs and service with both its customers and DEP in the past year," Borda gushed in his three-page letter.

Swell. DEP, though, still hasn't lifted its consent order, which basically created the NEW LINDRICK by forcing multimillion-dollar repairs to the aging utility. Those repairs were ordered because of pollution concerns.

Let's see, the old Lindrick liked to dodge responsibility. A 91 percent rate increase? You can blame that on DEP because of its consent order. At least that's what the NEW LINDRICK did in its letter. The old Lindrick blamed the state Legislature for passing a bill prohibiting future discharge of treated sewage into Pasco County's coastal waters.

Either way, the buck-passing is the same: Don't blame Lindrick. Blame the state.

The NEW LINDRICK "has consistently worked to protect both Florida's precious coastal environment and the pocketbooks of our customers."

Now I'm really confused. I wonder which Lindrick filed for a 158 percent rate increase in its sewage treatment rates, complaining the 91 percent jump authorized by the Florida Public Service Commission was just too darn stingy?

Was it the NEW LINDRICK using the old Lindrick's sloppy-record keeping procedures that prompted the utility to send out customer bills including the new higher rates before they were effective?

Which version of Lindrick tried to justify $12,000 a year in leased vehicles, including a Lexus for its president?

Does any of this sound like a utility protecting its customers' pocketbooks?

The old Lindrick might hire Democratic power player Clyde Hobby to influence the Pasco County Commission and to try to sneak through county blessing of a $15-million bond deal. And, the old Lindrick's chief principal bundled at least $1,750 to Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay's 1998 gubernatorial campaign.

The NEW LINDRICK hopes "hearsay and political pressure" is not the reason DEP sent the utility a Feb. 8 warning letter regarding complaints about odor and noise at the utility's transfer station.

Does this mean political pressure only works on Democrats? Does Borda regret contributing $500 to the campaign of JEB!? Is that where he borrowed the idea for NEW LINDRICK?

The old Lindrick would have ducked the odor and noise complaint issue, too. The NEW LINDRICK, however, gets right to the source. It repeats an unsubstantiated rumor to DEP about personnel changes at the nearby city of New Port Richey plant and suggests it should be scrutinized as the source of the odor.

"It would betray the public's trust to expend additional rehabilitation dollars, which will result in higher utility rates, without being sure the odor problem will be solved," Borda argued in his letter.

It is hard to swallow the sanctimony of Lindrick preaching about public trust.

The NEW LINDRICK would betray the public trust if it dumped its overpriced utility on the city of Port Richey, burdening that unsophisticated city with a bond debt it has never experienced and giving its current customers no political recourse against higher rates that could be set on a whim by Port Richey's City Council.

Unfortunately, in all these instances, the NEW LINDRICK is married to an old excuse:

"It's not our fault."

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