Mayor Collier led the workshop designed start a dialogue to entertain the possibilities of the Water and Sewer Department, the Park and Beach Board and the Property Owners’ Association coming together under the auspices of the Town. The thrust of the meeting was to explore and promote the advantages of the entities coming under the umbrella of the Town and to reach a common goal for the good of the community.
In attendance were Town Council members, various board members, Taylor Harper and Spencer Collier.
A power point presentation listed the advantages specific to each of the entities to join the effort. Several of the points mentioned overlapped. Below are some of the reasons mentioned.
Space constraints prohibit going into all of the points made during this portion of the presentation.
Another chart illustrated a possible structure of the new alliance showing Administration overseeing the various specific entities, in addition to the normal functions already in existence at the Town level (finances, planning and zoning). The form that the new ‘administration’ would take had question marks surrounding it, as this was just the beginning stage of exploring the idea of unifying the entities.
After the presentation, Mayor Collier invited the various board members and guests to speak about what they just heard. As one might imagine, there were both positive and negative comments expressed. Below are some of the concerns (with apologies), as they will be expressed generically rather than specific to each department.
Taylor Harper spoke to the issue of "public access". He said that the Press Register had given DI negative publicity through various articles and perception was so important to getting funding. In Montgomery, those who were in a position to help financially stressed the need to have public access. (Later in the evening, Bruce Thompson read aloud a list of numerous parks and fishing piers, the public beach, etc. on Dauphin Island and asked if these weren’t indeed all public. People in the audience agreed amongst them that perhaps better advertising of these "facts" might be in order.)
All of the above mentioned "positives" being a well-deserved given, below are some of the concerns expressed by the entities:
Collectively, each department appeared to be proud of their current management and employee performances and concerned about constraints put on them by a different management.
A Board member of the water department stated that many municipalities along the coast had private water departments.
Additionally, it was mentioned that the Water department currently had loans to repay and were about to seek another one for $3.5 million for a new water distribution system and improvement and asked if the Town was willing to take that on an almost $8 million debt.
Although some of the entities were not a part of a municipality, they enjoyed private non-profit status and were eligible for funding/grants.
The POA leadership expressed concern about opposition because he felt that people have expressed to him a lack of trust in the Town’s management. Also expressed by the Board President was that the constitution places restrictive action on the Board and stated that the POA must have approval of the population.
Also mentioned was the fact that various entities could contribute to the Town environment without connecting.
Mayor Collier then invited the audience to voice their comments but surprisingly, other than Bruce Thompson, one other gentleman spoke. The audience was incredibly and unusually silent.
In conclusion, the Mayor again expressed that this was just the beginning and hoped that future dialogue would take place.