A contract to merge the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District with the city of Georgetown's water utility stalled after members of the Chisholm Trail SUD board of directors voted 3-3 on the contract Aug. 1. The vote effectively tabled the contract, which the board will reconsider the at its regular meeting Aug. 15.
Pat Gower, Chisholm Trail SUD board president, and members David Ciambrone and Marcus Canipe voted against the contract, and board member Ed Pastor resigned from the board before the vote was taken.
Gower said he could not vote to approve the contract because he felt it did not adequately protect the SUD's customers.
The Chisholm Trail SUD provides water to about 6,300 customers, about two-thirds of whom are in or near the Georgetown extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. The district incorporates northwestern Williamson County as well as a portion of Burnet and Bell counties.
The board had directed its legal staff July 18 to draft the contract.
"[The district] is being run by an excellent field staff, an excellent staff in accounting and customer service staff. But it has not had the operational management team in place to run, what I think, is a reliable, ongoing, good operation for its customers," Gower said at the board's July 18 the meeting. "We either have to fix that, or we have to move it to somebody who can do that. Right now, I would say the board is in the position of moving toward somebody who can do that and not fixing it."
At that meeting, Gower said the board considered several options including merging the entire system and dissolving the Chisholm Trail SUD, transferring portions of the SUD into the city's service territory or continuing to operate as an independent utility.
The new contract would have been a full merger of the two systems. In the contract, the city of Georgetown would take over all the SUD's assets, including the district's debt and 17 full-time employees, Georgetown Utility Manager Jim Briggs said.
"The city has in-city rates and out-of-city rates, and we would become part of that out-of-city customer base," Gower said.
The Georgetown Utility System board of advisers will be updated on the Chisholm Trail SUD decision at its Aug. 9 meeting.
Background
If approved by both entities, the transfer would have also required approval by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Briggs said.
"This [contract] is probably an easier deal to transition with," Briggs said July 23.
The SUD board had previously considered an agreement with the city that would have created a local government corporation; however, the board voted 4-3 in April to deny the agreement.
The two utilities have been discussing the proposed merger for more than 2 1/2 years.
The agreement was expected to help ensure water supplies for future growth and keep water rates stable, Briggs said in April.
In December 2011, City Council and the Chisholm Trail SUD board of directors each approved $100,000 to complete a feasibility study that considered consolidation.
