NASHVILLE – East Ridge officials’ bid to gain more voting power on Hamilton County’s sewer authority died today in a House subcommittee.
Acting on a motion by Rep. Ben West, D-Nashville, members of the Local Government Subcommittee postponed consideration of the bill until March 11, 2011, killing it for the year.
Earlier, East Ridge City Manager William Whitson told the panel that the current structure of the 12-member Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority gives too much voting weight to the county’s five voting members. Seven cities in the authority each have one representative but, because of the votes are based on population, one vote from a member of the county bloc can outweigh votes from all seven members of the cities.
“We believe a more fair and equitable way to have voting structures set up is customer base … as opposed to population base and that is the basic purpose of our request,” Mr. Whitson said.
But Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey asked the panel to “defeat this bill.” He noted the county created the authority, put $6 million in to fund it and allowed seven cities, including East Ridge, to join in.
“A city like East Ridge actually gave up their sewer system – and their problems – to WWTA,” he said.