MARFA — City Councilmember Travis Acreman penned a letter to the editor in this week’s Big Bend Sentinel that alleges previous City Manager Andrea Walter was wrongfully terminated for discovering several instances of “willful mismanagement” by city officers, stretching back years and resulting in the loss of “millions of dollars.”
Walter served as the city manager for around a month and a half before she was fired last week. In Acreman’s letter he outlines two main issues Walter had uncovered and was working to solve, including fixing vital street repair equipment that had been left languishing for years in a city-owned utility yard and addressing hundreds of dead water meters that result in inequitable utility collections for City of Marfa customers.
The Sentinel spoke with Acreman, as well as council members Raul Lara, Eddie Pallarez and Mark Morrison about the allegations. Mayor Manny Baeza was unable to provide a comment by press time. Walter declined to comment.
Other council members acknowledged the existence of the issues Walter brought to light, but denied that whistleblowing was the reason for her termination. Instead, they said she failed to work well with the mayor, City Council and city staff.
“She was unable to have an effective professional, pleasant work environment with the staff and the entire council,” Morrison said. “It was just not a good fit.”
Pallarez said the end of her brief time as city manager was mutual. “She wanted to leave just as much as we wanted her to go,” he said, adding that he took issue with her “stirring the pot in certain departments,” talking to people around town about which city staffers were on the chopping block before speaking with the employees one-on-one.
“She should have handled her managerial businesses like a manager, instead of half of the town knowing what she was going to do before her employees knew it,” Pallarez said.
In a follow up with The Sentinel, Acreman explained that Walter, in the process of cleaning house and ensuring utility bills and notices were being sent out, discovered hundreds of “zero-read” meters, or water meters that do not record consumption, across the city.
Zero-read meters may occur if a property is vacant or due to operator error. Acreman said some buried beneath the ground are hard to access.
He said that city utilities customers whose water meters are functional are subsidizing the cost of water for those with dead or non-functioning meters. “The water is going out the door, and the water has to be paid for, so anyone who is not receiving that free water is subsidizing the utility for the entire community,” Acreman said.
He said the issue dates back at least five years ago, and several city staff members are aware of the problem, including people involved with city finances, utility collections, the water department and the mayor. Acreman declined to go into detail regarding who is on the zero-read list, but said it contains several “prominent, longtime residents and businesses.” (The Sentinel put in a public records request for documents listing zero-read meters and billing that could show problems with meters.)
“Whether it’s oversight, embarrassment, or whether there is intentional manipulation occurring, I can’t speak to that,” Acreman said.
Morrison, whose name appeared on the some 300 accounts-long zero-read list due to a dead meter at one of the properties he owns, said city council members were “all surprised” to learn about the problem, but to his knowledge the issue is not willful and more likely the result of negligence.
The city has been pursuing the purchase and installation of automatic “smart meters,” which will result in more accurate water readings, for some time. In a recent council meeting Public Utilities Supervisor Chuck Salgado mentioned that around 45 had been received and installed so far with more on the way.
Acreman said council members opted to take a gradual approach to the installation of new smart meters — a complete overhaul was estimated to cost $800,000 — without being aware of how urgent the issue was. “We’ve been told as council and as the public time and again that our finances are in great shape, that there’s no cause for concern, that we’re operating within our means, that utilities are being collected, that there’s no urgent need for smart meters,” Acreman said. “Council has made decisions accordingly without being presented with a full range of the necessary facts.”
He also expressed frustration that equipment purchased by City of Marfa taxpayers that would allow for more street repairs to take place “in house” versus relying on outside contractors — who have delayed projects in the past — was never utilized and fell into disrepair. Acreman said he was not yet aware of a reason for the oversight.
Morrison said council members were pleased that Walter was “finding the things that have fallen through the cracks over the years,” and work to address the now-known issues will continue even in her absence.
“Now that she’s gone we’re not going to stop addressing these things, and whenever a new city manager is hired, that will be one of the directives — to keep on this kind of thing, to uncover inefficiencies and lapses in diligent recordkeeping and systems upkeep,” Morrison said.