The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on May 29 brought at least a temporary close to a two-year investigation of how the county handles sewer capacity fees when county Administrative Officer Alan Theriault read a nine-minute-long report on that investigation into the public record.
“Frankly, we had a mess,” said Commissioner Jim Luke at the end of the report, given as part of the regular Commission meeting. He said he was pleased with what the county had done to address the problem.
Theriault began his comments by reminding the commissioners that he had promised them he would make a report “to the commissioners and to the public” on the “research” he and others had done and the actions that had been taken.
Theriault said the “review was initiated primarily because of complaints and criticisms received by members of the Board from citizens, business and others about the methodologies employed to calculate and assess those fees, the cost of capacity fees themselves, and what appeared not to be a uniform, consistent and a fair manner in which the fees were collected.”
For details on Theriault’s report and reactions of the commissioners, go to Oconee County Observations. A video of Theriault reading the entire report is included.
