Rockwall City Council Public Forum
Very pleased to share that I was not the only one attending/speaking at the public forum at the Rockwall City Council Meeting. McLendon-Chisholm Mayor Keith Short, Mayor Pro Tem Trudy Woessner and Council Member Bryan Patrick McNeal were also there.
Essentially, we attended to let the Rockwall City Council know that we are taking the RCH water situation seriously and taking steps to rectify it. We want our cities to work together and we will do what we can on our end. If you are new to my blog, welcome and thank you for reading to be informed about the water administration frustration that we are all experiencing here. Please read my previous article, “RCH Customers Want Better Water Management” to catch up on contracts, bylaws, RCH Board application, projected growth and more.
Mayor Short Addresses His Concerns
And Wants To Work Better Together
“I’m here both as a concerned private citizen and also the Mayor of McLendon-Chisholm. An issue arose overnight from July 12 to July 13 concerning our water supply from RCH which provides water to most of the citizens of McLendon-Chisholm. I will tell you having researched some of the information that I was provided I understand the City of Rockwall is a water provider to RCH WS which is a private entity. I also understand that you don’t have to respond to me between your organization and them. But understand the reason why I am here is because the citizens of McLendon-Chisholm don’t always see that. And they beat us up everyday right now because of that issue. And that is why I am here. I was able to pull numbers that are public record [VIEW FIGURE 1 Below].
I know that you put out a public notice on Wednesday, July 13 about the amount of water being pulled for RCH to service the community. I have no issue with that. I understand where that came from and I understand Rockwall is not stopping the flow of water that you are contractually obligated to provide. I get that and I have no issues with that. But running numbers I have found on RCH’s website which go all the way back to January 1, 2022 [VIEW FIGURE 1 Below] the numbers didn’t add up. And I give people credit that they round numbers up. In your statement, it mentioned RCH was using one million gallons a day. When I look back at the numbers they look like what is currently happening now.
2022 RCH WATER SUPPLY
WATER CONSUMPTION REPORT
Mr. Jackie Pullen who is the president of RCH came to our City Council Meeting the night before this started. He made a comment in our Public Forum residents were using 3 million gallons a day for 29 days straight. That was inaccurate information as well. So I did my due diligence and went back to June 1 [SEE FIGURE 1].
Out of those 43 days only 2 days [July 6th and 8th] was 2.9 mgd or above. It never hit 3 million. But I give him credit for rounding to 3 million [SEE FIGURE 1]. There were only 26 days of the 43 where the flow was over the 2.1 mgd which you are contractually are obligated to provide. 17 of those days were under 2.1 mgd. When I went back and started pulling the information, one of the things that I found in there was that RCH didn’t even start using more than 2.1 mgd until sometime in June.
RCH’s Numbers Don’t Add Up
My concern is that RCH‘s numbers don’t add up. Your numbers as far as what you said in the statement didn’t add up either. But I also get that you are only obligated to give 2.1 mgd. We are sister cities. We butt up to each other. Me being the head of McLendon-Chisholm as the mayor it would have been nice to know the ongoing issues a little bit earlier than when it became a catastrophe where water was shut off to certain subdivisions. And people started panicking hence your statement that you did not shut off water.
I know Rockwall did not shut off the water. But the citizens did not understand that, because RCH shut off the water to certain subdivisions and caused people to panic. It would have been nice as a sister city to have been given the heads up. I lived here a long time and at one point I was a resident of Rockwall. I expected better out of the City of Rockwall and I expect better out of my own City Council and city employees if there was an issue that may concern you or effect you. I would expect to have someone on the phone to let you guys know. And that didn’t happen.
The next day we were flooded with phone calls blaming us for the water issues. We are not the water provider. We are not at the level where you are in providing the water. Would we like to be there? Absolutely. But we are not there yet. I would have liked to have known something ahead of time. This problem has been going on for a while. I have reviewed that contract. I understand that there are flaws with RCH and I’m not laying all the blame on the City of Rockwall. I don’t want to come across that way. In the contract RCH is only allowed so many taps and they are only allowed so many gallons per day which is 2.1 mgd. But there was also a clause in there that by September 1st of each year there would be an update regarding future growth. And I understand that RCH has been signing agreements and promises to provide water every year to developments to private citizens to whomever is in their service area. I can’t control that, because they are a private entity. So I know there are flaws on that side of it.
We need to work better together as two separate cities that border each other so that this doesn’t happen. The day that they had this catastrophe they pulled 1.8 mg of water. As I look at it, these numbers extend all the way to yesterday. And if I forecast this correctly it appears they are growing again. At about 100,000 gallons a day. By Friday, we could potentially have another catastrophe because they are going to try to pull more than 2.1 mg of water. I’m very concerned about this whole situation. I’m not blaming you, the majority of the blame is with RCH. I would hope as a sister city to do a little bit better in talking to us and not leave us blindsided. That’s not the way I want to do business.
Mayor Fowler Asked City Administrator To Address The Discrepancies
Honorable Mayor Fowler was gracious to address this public utility concern by allowing the City Administrator to respond to Mayor Short during the public forum.
Mary Smith, Rockwall City Administrator shared, “The difference is storage. Ground and tower storage. When we pump, we pump to RCH‘s ground storage and tower. Then it flows out from there. The numbers RCH gives is what goes out and we give what goes in. So at the particular day it was right at 3 million gallons, because RCH stored more than what they put out.”
Mayor Short continued, “And like I said I am not blaming you RCH is not forthcoming with information to us. That is a struggle that we are working on.”
Mayor Fowler heard Mayor Short‘s message and reciprocated his concerns.
Mayor Pro Tem Fills Us In About Early Indicators
Mayor Pro Tem Trace Johannesen added, “I wanted to share how the towers worked, because if I am right Mary we do not have any view how RCH manages the water they take from Rockwall. Early indicators are hard for us to get information out to the City of McLendon-Chisholm. Is that accurate?”
Mary Smith, Rockwall City Administrator said, “That is correct. We knew we were pushing water every minute all night. We didn’t know that RCH‘s tower was draining faster than we were putting it in. And that is what caused RCH to turn the water off to get the water back up. That’s my understanding, second and third hand.”
Mayor Short Asked a Follow-Up Question
Mayor Short asked Mayor Fowler if he may ask a follow-up question, “You are pushing water to RCH and the numbers they are providing from their water usage. Is there a way for our city to know what you are pushing them even though they are a private entity?”
“Yes, absolutely. Our records are open record.” Mary Smith Rockwall City Administrator said.
Mayor Short also said, “They (RCH) are not forthcoming on a lot of stuff.”
Mayor Fowler recommended, “It would be probably be beneficial for you, me and Mary to sit down or you and Mary to sit down. As much as you need and would like to be involved.”
Mary Smith Rockwall City Administrator added that the newly hired McLendon-Chisholm City Administrator, Konrad Hildebrandt met on Friday, July 15, 2022 and have been emailing each other.
Balkum Shares How Citizens Are Taking Action
To Address RCH Water Supply and Board Governance
“First, I want to say thank you for the staff that you have hired from your parks and recreation department to your city administration. Your city admin Mary Smith is wonderful. Each of my encounters have always been professional and responsive.
The reason why I came this evening is because I am a customer of RCH. Like most of our community we were all caught off guard to what happened last week. Due to that fact and number of other issues related to the contract that I have reviewed, I want to let you know that I’m stepping up to provide a solution.
RCH is in need of some mandatory changes. I am not making any claims that a single person(s) had any evil intentions, but I want to believe that Mr. Pullen and the RCH Board want to do the right thing. I believe they need help with new leadership.
At the moment, we have one person that is meeting the qualifications to apply for board of director this week. I hope to be able to meet with Mr. Pullen to provide additional applicants that are interested in volunteering, as well as stress the importance of the upcoming agenda at their next RCH board meeting Wednesday, August 3, 2022.
If Mr. Pullen and/or the remaining RCH Board ignores these requests and is not making efforts to apply as a customer for NTMWD I will proceed to the next steps needed that is available for RCH customers. I am fully prepared to do so.
My hope for you is to hear me when I say we want to be good neighbors and we want to work with you. Thank you for extending the grace that you have all these years. I hope that we can get the matter resolved soon. If Mr. Pullen and/or RCH doesn’t show concerted effort to accept new candidates, discuss the agenda provided, improve their customer communications, agree to post board agenda/minutes or pursue the process of becoming a NTMWD customer, then one of my goals will be to spend considerable time reaching out to RCH customers to pursue an alternative qualified CCN provider.
That is all for now…I would be happy to share additional information with any of you. I felt that it was important for you to know that our community is taking this seriously, as you can see from our McLendon-Chisholm City Council. Thank you.
“I know that you have slayed bigger dragons. Right now, this is our dragon and we need help.” –Mayor Pro Tem Trudy Woessner
Mayor Pro Tem Shares Her POV
“I just want to say to you that I know quite a few of you on City Council. I have done business with you for many years. I have been here for 30 years. I have lived in Rockwall, Heath and now I’m in McLendon-Chisholm. With that being said, we all try to do the best we can to do what’s best for our families. Since I have lived in many of the cities in Rockwall County, I just kinda think of us as a family. When McLendon-Chisholm is looking for help I look to you all as our big brothers.
We need help, guidance with the situation that we are in right now. We are not coming to complain. We are asking for your help and if you can offer us anything as to what we can do to rectify this without having to jump through so many hoops that would be awesome. It would be so much appreciated.
Of course you know we don’t get paid for what we are doing. We are doing the best that we can. We would just appreciate your help. When we reach out to you it is because I admire you guys and I know you have been through this and I know that you have slayed bigger dragons. Right now, this is our dragon and we need help. So if any of you can email us, make suggestions or meet with us or meet with our new City Administrator, Konrad. Poor guy this was his first week and this happened. I would like it for us to reach out to each other and would love your help, your guidance or advice. Thank you so much for listening to us.”
Leaders Taking Action
Before the meeting in speaking with Council Member Bryan McNeal we talked about the importance of leadership and how much of what we heard was blaming residents for water usage or whatever the latest excuses were. I said, “Leaders don’t lead in a sea of tranquility, but through storms of adversity. They set the tone, they don’t complain, but lead to get things right.”
He nodded when I said, “Leaders bring solutions. And there may be a whole list of problems, but guess what…leaders should be approachable and welcome the conversation.”
Hope you are encouraged to see that local leadership is also involved and there is still more to do. You can help by sharing my blog, “RCH Customers Want Better Water Management“, volunteer your time to be a board of director for RCH by filling out the application. Please do let me know if you do so that we are keeping up with what is sent to RCH. All of this information will be used to keep them accountable.
Many asked how to help. Please help by:
1. Sharing my blog post, RCH Customers Want Better Water Management;
2. We are looking for VOLUNTEERS to apply for the RCH Board of Directors**;
— First round will need to be people who are “engaged in farming**”.
3. ***Do not be discouraged about not meeting the first round (it’s related to the RCH Bylaws also linked on my blog). We have contingencies in place to address “the requirements”.
4. POST/TEXT your friends off of 205, FM1139, Edwards, Highpoint Ranch, Post on Nextdoor, mom groups, etc. the following:
“
5. Comment below that we can count on you to SIGN when director applications start coming in. Each applicant will need 20 SIGNATURES.
6. Help by printing (7) SEVEN copies of the applicant(s) docs. (2) TWO of the application copies will be sent by certified mail.
7. Volunteer to be a notary.
If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to call me at (469) 338-3804. ❤️