Alamo Heights residents question water, sewer line compliance details

Several Alamo Heights residents – on the heels of learning the city may have to spend more than $4.3 million in realigning water and sewer lines –are wondering if the city violated open meetings guidelines in not listing the discussion item as a separate entry on the agenda.

During their April 13 session, Alamo Heights City Council members learned of the need to realign water and sewer lines off Broadway and North New Braunfels to adhere to state environmental guidelines. This need was included as the last item of a packed agenda under a general update on the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP).

But residents have noted the realignment was not part of the original CIP – a patchwork of municipal improvements largely funded with proceeds from a $7.5 million issuance of public debt last year – and have aired their concerns on a community portal dubbed myalamoheights.com.

Calling it likely “…the most expensive problem the city has ever faced,” one resident noted the surprise of council members upon hearing of the need for relocating water and sewer lines affecting the Bluebonnet and Sylvan Hills neighborhoods. The lines must be separated – moving sewer and water lines from alleys to streets – in order to keep a 9-foot separation between them as dictated by environmental regulators.

“Although city staff has obviously known about this for some time – from four to 24 months, depending on who you talk to – it was very apparent this was the first that most of the city council had heard about it,” the resident wrote.

Another resident suggested the item was wedged into general CIP discussion at the end of the evening’s agenda, suggesting the city did so intentionally to lessen its broadcast of the development.

“This water/sewer compliance fiasco was not posted as an agenda item, was not posted publicly and was hidden at the tail end of Agenda Item 9 when most people had gone home,” the resident wrote. “This is a classic example of a serious violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.”

Discussion of water/sewer line realignment came under a single heading in the last item of the April 13 agenda simply entitled “Capital Improvement Program Update.” Assistant City Manager/Public Works Director Shawn Eddy made the presentation on the future water and sewer line relocation project, which was not part of the original CIP.

In response to subsequent questions on the matter by the North San Antonio Times, Eddy suggested the lines’ realignment is inextricably linked to CIP completion – directly tied into a future water tower acquisition that was an original CIP item – making its discussion under that general category adherent to open meetings guidelines.

“Proceeding with the last CIP project is contingent upon resolving this issue and is the reason in was presented as part of the Capital Improvement Program update item,” Eddy wrote. He said the matter became a CIP issue when city engineers and plan consultants Freese & Nichols first spotted the need for the lines’ relocation.

“When Freese and Nichols determined that the only course of action that could be taken was to apply for a temporary exception to the rules and present a plan to remediate the issue, that plan and the estimated cost were presented to the Infrastructure and Services Committee and then to the City Council during the next Capital Improvement Project,” Eddy wrote in an emailed response.

By Tony Cantú - Contributing Writer/North San Antonio Times