BexarMet reform bill dies

AUSTIN — Legislation allowing Bexar Metropolitan Water District customers to vote whether to keep or abolish the troubled utility apparently is dead.

A compromise plan did not meet a Sunday midnight deadline after Rep. Lon Burnam,Ö D-Fort Worth, tagged the bill with an objection.

“I am extremely disappointed, and I’m very disapointed that Trey Martinez Fischer got Lon Burnam to tag that bill,” Sen. Carlos Uresti,Ö D-San Antonio, said early Monday morning.

Two San Antonio legislators assigned to seek a compromise bill — Rep. David Leibowitz and Martinez Fisher — refused to go along with the deal, which they said did not provide enough reforms should voters keep BexarMet.

“I question the integrity of that bill,” Martinez Fischer said. “If they win the election or if the Justice Department doesn’t approve, you’re going to have so many ethical loopholes in BexarMet that you’ll be able to drive a Brinks truck through it.”

Uresti, the primary author of the measure, insisted that BexarMet’s 86,000 customers get an opportunity to decide the utility’s fate in an election.

“The ratepayers will have two more years of BexarMet in its dysfunctional manner, and that’s unfortuate,” said Uresti.

BexarMet has frustrated customers and lawmakers because of mismanagement of the district, financial improprieties and unreliable service.

The legislative session ends today, and it is unlikely that the BexarMet bill can be saved.

By Gary Scharrer- Express-News