Vanessa Fleisch, Terry Ernst, Mike King, Kevin Madden and Phil Prebor, as Peachtree City mayor and council, make decisions and set city policy with the help of city staff.
However, as the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) chairman and board, Fleisch, Ernst, King, Madden and Prebor make decisions and set WASA policy with the help of a contractor, who is paid $287,000 per year to manage WASA, and can be terminated with 30 days notice. Therefore, they have the primary and ultimate responsibility to ensure they competently and properly conduct WASA business.
The March 2019 WASA meeting is an example of the board’s incompetence. Fleisch, Ernst, King, Madden and Prebor unanimously approved two documents associated with the “Resolution on Service Contracts” and “Amendment to Bylaws” agenda items that had easily identifiable errors. And all five members signed each document.
The errors are references to an unknown agency called the Water and Sewerage Authority of the City of Peachtree City. Both documents make reference to the unknown agency several times, but not once does either document refer to the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority.
Fleisch, Ernst, King, Madden and Prebor had access to those draft documents in the meeting packet published the week before the March meeting. They had ample time to review, ask questions and recommend changes. Had any one of the five done due diligence, their review should have caught the obvious errors in the draft documents. That’s five sets of eyeballs to accomplish a simple review to ensure the documents were correct, and they collectively failed.
You can review the March meeting packet and the April meeting packet with the March meeting minutes online at WASA’s website, http://pcwasa.org/2019-board-meeting-agendas. The WASA board approved the March meeting minutes as written and without discussion.
John Dufresne
Former WASA board member
Peachtree City, Ga.
[Dufresne has an Open Meetings lawsuit pending in Fayette Superior Court that has named both the WASA board and the Peachtree City Council as defendants.]
