By SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL | JAN 05, 2020 | 6:10 AM
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis is preparing to reveal a major plan for repairing and rebuilding the city’s crumbling water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure. While needed, the public’s confidence in the city is low. Better oversight is needed. (Joe Cavaretta / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Fort Lauderdale’s day of reckoning arrives Thursday. It’s long overdue.
At a 6 p.m. City Hall meeting about the city’s infrastructure, Mayor Dean Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, he will “lay out” a plan to repair and rebuild Fort Lauderdale’s water, sewer and stormwater systems. Trantalis spoke last Tuesday, as the city was dealing with another sewer pipe rupture.
Trantalis declined to provide details. But he said the plan, which has been in the works since October, would address “all short- and long-term issues” related to the city’s plumbing. Referring to the American-led effort to rebuild Germany after World War II, Trantalis called it “a Marshall Plan for Fort Lauderdale.”
Though the comparison might be a stretch, the urgency is not. Events of the last three weeks have exposed — yet again —
decades of neglect and denial regarding Fort Lauderdale’s most basic and vital services. Trantalis said, “We have been hiding our heads in the sand.”
The cost of the neglect will be huge. One consultant has estimated that Fort Lauderdale will have to spend $1.4 billion. Trantalis cautioned, however, “We won’t know for sure until we start digging.”
Residents will be shocked to learn that the $200 million the city borrowed in January 2018 for sewer costs won’t go toward this “Marshall Plan.” Trantalis said that money — which the city is repaying by charging higher utility fees — is for “previous rehab work” tied to a settlement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Between 2014 and 2017, Fort Lauderdale allowed sewage discharges into state waters. One discharge, in mid-2016, was 10.6 million gallons.
“We were trucking sewage for weeks,” Trantalis said. The cost of that alone was $20 million. “This is crazy.”
Crazy indeed, but hardly surprising.
For years, Fort Lauderdale has allowed decrepit plumbing to foul canals in the self-proclaimed “Venice of America.” Pollution in Las Olas Isles has been several hundred times higher than levels considered safe. Last summer, a water main break caused by a Florida Power & Light contractor cut off drinking water to Fort Lauderdale and the cities it supplies. If workers hadn't plugged the hole with a log, that crisis could have been prolonged.
Previous mayors and city commissions ignored all the warning signs. They approved bigger and bigger developments that further stressed the system. For a decade, they raided the water and sewer fund — which runs on fees and assessments — to balance the city’s operating budget, which uses property taxes to pay for such services as police, fire and parks. The raids siphoned $20 million a year from the fund as the problem worsened.
The current commission, elected in March 2018 amid promises to deal with the water and sewer crisis, didn’t act decisively. Commissioners only limited the raid to $15 million for the current budget. Trantalis said the city “could have not have absorbed the impact” of cutting that amount in services and payroll.
So why not raise the property tax rate, which is much lower than that of other older, full-service cities in South Florida? Trantalis said residents and businesses already faced higher bills because of rising property values.
Yet Trantalis and city commissioners managed to more than double their salaries this year — to $78,840 and $65,700 —
and give themselves city-financed health insurance. The mayor and commissioners also will get automatic annual raises.
The bill for all that short-term thinking, however, is coming.
“There will be an increased cost of living and doing business in Fort Lauderdale,” the mayor said. To address the crisis piecemeal would “beg future problems.” That’s also an understatement.
Trantalis noted, correctly, that there’s been a cost to the city beyond the money for pipes and emergency work. The environment has suffered, and not just within Fort Lauderdale.
All the sewage the city pumped out of Rio Vista won’t stay in the Tarpon River. It will move from there into the New River and from there into the Intracoastal Waterway and from there into the Atlantic Ocean. Now Fort Lauderdale residents understand the outcry from those in Martin County when polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee foul their waterways.
As in the Treasure Coast, residents want action. Fishing captains – who depend on clean water for their livelihood – will lead a 2 p.m. demonstration Sunday at Tarpon River Brewing. They want to “hold accountable” those who must end this crisis.
That would be Trantalis and the current commission. Their problem is that public confidence in the city is low. How low? The sewer breaks in Coral Ridge were somehow considered less of an emergency because the pipes were only 12 inches and 16 inches, compared to the 54-inch break in Rio Vista. The city doesn’t even have a permanent public works director.
Fort Lauderdale could create an oversight committee to monitor the plumbing plan, but that’s no guarantee. The Broward County Commission is poised to big foot a similar oversight committee charged with monitoring spending from the 2018 transportation tax surcharge. As structured, committee members say the promise of independence has been broken.
Fortunately, Miami-Dade County offers a warning.
After years of similarly irresponsible failures to maintain its sewer system, the county faced lawsuits by the state and federal governments for violating the Clean Water Act. The settlement required Miami-Dade to spend $1.6 billion over 15 years to eliminate sewage spills. A judge ensured the outcome got it right. Because of those lawsuits, spills are way down.
If the threat of litigation isn’t enough incentive — the state has continued to fine the city; Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to increase environmental fines — Fort Lauderdale also could face higher borrowing costs. Ratings agencies could determine that the city’s resiliency plan is inadequate.
Trantalis said current prospects for state or federal help are low. When he meets with other mayors on this subject, the conclusion is, “We must rely on our own resources.”
Eventually, though, the Legislature must get involved on the issue of resiliency. Sales taxes from South Florida fuel the state’s general fund. Florida will suffer if rising seas and ancient plumbing threaten the regional economy.
At the very least, Tallahassee should attempt to understand the scope of the problem. Rep. Kristin Jacobs, D-Coconut Creek, and Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Bartow, have introduced legislation that would require the DEP to take an inventory of the state’s water resources and infrastructure. It has not had a committee hearing in either chamber.
But the city could help in ways that don’t involve money. Commissioners should discuss a pause on development approvals. Though Trantalis opposes a moratorium because he wants to keep pushing affordable housing, the idea likely would have public support.
In 2016, a petition drive got enough signatures to force a referendum on a one-year moratorium east of U.S. 1. At that time, the issue was traffic. The commission at the time used a technicality to head off the push.
Fort Lauderdale touts its All-America City Award, but that recognition means nothing when sewage is running in the streets and residents wonder if their neighborhood is next.
Commissioner Steve Glassman pointed out that the sewer spill pipe in Victoria Park was the fourth since 2014. The pipe itself dates to 1973.
Fort Lauderdale soon will open a new City Hall near the Brightline station, as part of a complex with a new county government center. That project symbolizes the city’s misplaced priorities. On Thursday, those priorities must start changing dramatically.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.