WEST FORK — Voters who wanted the Water and Sewer Commission dissolved will not see that happen anytime soon.
The City Council tabled the issue indefinitely this week.
More than 65 percent of 909 voters approved a measure to dissolve the commission in November. The measure was placed on the ballot after enough city voters signed a petition.
Charlie Rossetti, Ward 4 alderman, said the council was well aware of the political repercussions that go with ignoring a clear message sent by voters. Instead, the council will keep closer tabs on the utility, he said.
“The City Council has verbally made a commitment to be more proactive in all the areas of the business of the city, particularly the water and sewer commission,” Rossetti said.
Dissolving the commission would delay a time-sensitive project to connect sewage lines through Greenland and into Fayetteville’s wastewater treatment system, Rossetti said.
The project could be delayed six to eight months, Rossetti said. The state set a three-year deadline for the project.
The state Department of Environmental Quality told the city last year it must close its sewer plant after the department recorded 45 pollution violations since 2009. State officials said the 42-year-old plant continues to exceed discharge limits of pollutants into the West Fork of the White River.
Proponents for November’s initiative have said they want the commission dissolved because of financial mismanagement, including a $25,000 city bailout to meet payroll in 2011.
“I plan to put it on the ballot again in two years,” Michele Winkler, one of the petition’s organizers, said last month if the City Council chose to keep the commission.
The city attorney has told aldermen they weren’t legally bound to the election’s result because of a technicality. The petition’s filers didn’t include a necessary ordinance and voters didn’t get the opportunity to see any ordinance proposal at the time of signing, a requirement of state law.