Officials Decry Rate Changes Without Representation for East Granby's MDC Customers

When the Metropolitan District Commission raised rates for East Granby customers by more than $200 for 2013, most residents had no idea the change was coming until they opened their bills. And they likely wouldn’t know another rate changed has been proposed until after it has been passed, state Rep. Bill Aman said.

That’s why he and others who represent the MDC’s non-member towns are urging residents to speak at a public hearing Wednesday.

Aman sent a letter encouraging the MDC customers in South Windsor to attend the public hearing, to be held Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. at the MDC Training Center at 125 Maxim Road, Hartford. Farmington town officials sent one to that town’s MDC customers and Glastonbury state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan sent one to those in his town.

Farmington and South Windsor, along with Glastonbury and East Granby, have the distinction of being the MDC’s non-member towns, meaning they receive water but not sewer services from the quasi-autonomous municipal entity. Only parts of the towns receive water from MDC.

MDC is governed by a board of politically appointed representatives from its eight member towns, which, among other things, sets the rates and budget for the MDC.

“The problem is that the non-member towns don’t have the same rights and privileges as the member towns do,” said Farmington Town Council Chairman Jeffrey Hogan. “There was a question about representation - whether folks that were residents of non-member towns could even come and speak at these meetings.”

The hearing notice for Wednesday’s public hearing on proposed rate changes states: “All interested parties from The Metropolitan District’s member municipalities may appear to be heard." 

Hogan and Farmington Town Manager Kathleen Eagen went through a lengthy correspondence with the MDC, Hogan said, eventually confirming that customers in the non-member towns, as well as officials from the towns, on their residents’ behalf, may indeed also be heard. But, he said, the board is beholden to member towns, not the non-member minority.

In addition to a lack of representation, non-member towns also pay a large fee, the Special Capital Improvement Surcharge, which member towns do not. That fee is what has residents in South Windsor upset, said Town Council member-elect Liz Pendleton, who is also an MDC customer.

“I don’t think anybody complained about the rate increase,” Pendleton said. “They were complaining about the surcharge that we’re being charged quarterly for the upkeep… the member towns aren’t getting charged this. Only the non-member towns are carrying the tab.”

Pendleton said the lack of transparency is also upsetting and despite a ream of documents on the company’s website, the proposed rate changes are not available. She said she has been working with Rep. Tim Larson on the issue.

“[Farmington] had challenged the rate increase [in 2013] and the fact that there wasn’t due process for arguing,’ Hogan said. “And that rates were significantly higher for non-member towns. We felt we were paying for capital projects just because we were non-member towns.”

In East Granby, only 468 homes and businesses get their water from the MDC but those that do are suffering, said First Selectman Jim Hayden. 

“Certainly the increase in the past year was just extraordinarily high, let alone trying to get additional increases. It’s a hardship for the people,” Hayden said. “For those 450 houses, it was a doubling of the rates, for some even a tripling. It was phenomenally punitive.”

Hayden agreed that the non-member towns should have some type of representation on the MDC board, something Aman said he fought for in the last session and will continue working for in the next.

In the meantime, Aman said MDC customers should have their say at the public hearing.

“'We’re charging the non-member towns more because we can.' If they wanted to give you a true answer, that’s what it would be,” he said. “There’s nobody even looking across the table saying ‘are you really going to do this’ and making everyone squirm. Everyone’s saying ‘this is great we’re taxing someone who isn’t us.’” 

Messages left with MDC communication employees Friday were not returned.