Over the last few weeks, hundreds of Tampa residents mainly in the Dana Shores, New Tampa and Lake Magdalene areas have expressed outrage over their astronomical water bills, and have been even more unhappy in some cases about the responses they've received from city of Tampa officials.
Last Friday more than 100 such citizens expressed their indignation at a town hall meeting called for by City Councilman Joseph Caetano in his New Tampa district. Some even called for city public works administrator Steve Daignault to resign, as he has been the Iorio administration's point man during this mini-crises.
Speaking with CL this morning, Mayor Pam Iorio said she was upset that members of her administration were being criticized, and said as the leader of the city, the buck stops with her. "I have a great staff and they work very hard and they're excellent public servants. And if people should be unhappy with anyone, they should be unhappy with me. I'm the head of city government, and I'm ultimately responsible."
The Mayor said she's been evaluating what has been happening, and is expected to release a statement on that later Monday. She said that it's important that in a situation like this (with citizens water bills being five to times higher than normal), that local government analyze what's gone wrong to prevent it from happening in the future.
But on the more prickly question of how her administration has handled the complaints, the mayor admits that "we've been behind this issue since day one." She admits that she didn't think city government was up to the task when the situation first hit, with hundreds of people calling into the city's water department demanding answers to $2,000 water bills. She calls that "inadequate," adding, "I think they were handling it as business as usual, and it wasn't business as usual."
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.