Local resident Paul Yovino has been critical of the rise in water and sewer rates and especially the corresponding rise in MWRA salaries. He voices his concerns in the following WBZ iTeam investigation report. Please click “Read more” for video and related links.
You can find the story online here.
You can find the MWRA’s final municipal assessments for 2013 here. Milton’s change from 2012 is 7.5%
A little background. Earlier this July, Milton’s representative to the MWRA’s Advisory Board made a Power point presentation to the Milton Board of Selectmen created by the MWRA’s public relations arm. It was to focus on all the wonderful things the MWRA has done for its “Customers”…. [ we are rate payers not customers. If we were just customers we should be able to select another water service company in addition to the MWRA. We can't. We are stuck with the MWRA and so in truth we are NOT customers only rate payers]
Buried deep in the Power point was a minor line item which stated that the MWRA and the Advisory Board had approved a $ 3.8 Million
Dollar Wage and Salary Increase for its employees. I later learned that the bulk of that wage and salary increase is going to non-union employees at the MWRA and not to union employees as the Advisory Board would have you believe.
Our MWRA Advisory Board member, Katherine Dunphy, did not highlight to our Selectmen verbally or otherwise this drastic and outrageous wage and salary increase and it appears that although it was on the monitors in the Cronin Conference Room none of the Selectmen took notice or commented on the $ 3.8 Million Dollar Plus wage and salary increase. In truth, there was probably little the BOS could do since it was already approved by the MWRA Advisory Board. Still, a response from any of the selectmen would have been appropriate and welcome.
In my opinion the MWRA Advisory Board is nothing but a sham. Did you know that the Director of the MWRA Advisory Board who you will see in the video, Mr. Favolaro, has a plush office within the plush and overly ostentatious MWRA Headquarters in Charlestown next to Old Ironsides. We are paying for that as well. Would like to know what Mr. Favolaro is being paid and did he get a wage and salary increase for his contribution to the effort … as the head cheerleader?
You should also note, that Fred Laskey, the head of the MWRA was on vacation in Maine when WBZ TV called his office and he came back to Charlestown to give the $ 3.8 Million Dollar Wage and Salary increase the best spin he could to this outrageous grab at our wallets.
Frankly, it is time for the MWRA Advisory Board to be abolished or to be reorganized to really represent the 36 communities within the MWRA district. If I want to see cheer leaders I will go to a Patriot’s game not to the MWRA.
If you think Mr. Laskey or Mr. Favolaro justified the $3.8 Million Dollar Wage and Salary increase in their remarks please comment below. In these tough economic times when private industry is not giving its employees any wage or salary increases there is nothing Mr. Laskey or Mr. Favolaro can say to justify those raises. I believe Mr. Laskey is getting a $60,000 pay increase this year. Nice, huh? If he has a good conscience he should refuse to take in light of this economy and more importantly in light of the 15% Rate increase it would like to impose on Milton and other communities. As my late friend and colleague, Jerry Williams would say at the end of his radio program, “Wake up America ! “.
Milton Rate Update !
The Milton Board of Selectmen will be voting on a proposed 7.85% increase in our water/sewer bills for the upcoming year at Thursday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting. The Massachusetts Water Authority – MWRA was asking for a combined 15.6% rate increase. Milton’s increase is half of that.
Well, now we know where much of our money will be going – to pay for the MWRA’s outrageous if not immoral $3.8 Million Dollar wage and salary increase. Since they are only getting a 7.85% increase instead of the 15.6% increase they demanded maybe, Mr. Laskey and Mr. Favolaro, Chairman and Advisory Board Head – will have to take a pay cut to make ends meet…. Perhaps, the two can car pool to work to save a few bucks on gas!
“Facts” in the response by Mr Yovino are not accurate. Therefore his conclusions are wrong.
Dr. James F. Dunphy
Cheerleader Never
Constructive Critic Always
The MWRA Advisory Board works on behalf of the 60 communities that receive water and sewer service. The Advisory Board’s job is to provide the Authority with what it needs and not a dime more.
Based on the discussion on MyTownMatters, I feel compelled to insert a few facts to the discussion, which are listed below.
• In just the last budget debate, the AB review resulted
in a rate assessment adjustment of 23% from 3.99% to 3.0%.
A Boston Herald story stated that the AB convinced the
Authority to reduce its budget.
• Over the past 3 years,the AB review has also kept
increase cumulatively at 8.98%.
• The AB has also worked to reduce funded positions from
1,775 to 1,200. And in a recently concluded staffing
study, which was also recommended by the Advisory Board,
there were another 36 positions identified for elimination.
• The AB holds the Authority to a strict capital Spending
CAP and have recommended that the FY14-19 CAP to be
reduced $340 million.
• Of the 3.8 million in wage increases, 3.2 million was a
part of the collective bargaining agreements with the
authorities’ unions
• And last but no means least, Mr.Laskey’s increase is his
first increase since 2008, which is less than $5000.
I hope this adds some factual content to the discussion.
Joseph Favaloro
Executive Director
MWRA Advisory Board
Mr. Favaloro two questions you did not address in your response.
1. Where did the Advisory Board (AB) stand on the $ 3.8 Million Dollars wage and salary increase?
2. What is the bottom line Total Wage and Salary budget for the
MWRA Advisory Board?
Thank you for your response.
Paul Yovino
Rate Payer
If citizens really want changes in the way MWRA does business call
your state legislators to take action. Remember it was the legislature that created this unaccountable agency because it did
not want the responsibility to continue to raise rates and incur
voter wrath. However if enough people are upset, pressure on the
legislature might result in some fiscal alterations. Remember the
legislature created this authority, so it can liquidate it as well.
Providing reliable, high quality water and waste disposal services to a large metropolitan area is a complex task and not cheap. Neither was cleaning up Boston Harbor and re-engineering an old and outdated infrastructure. The MWRA is not cheap but it professionally run and delivers some of the highest quality municipal water in the world.
We should thank Mrs. Dunphy everyday for the many hours of hard work she puts in on behalf of the town serving as an effective watchdog on this complex agency. I’m certain her efforts have saved the ratepayers many dollars over the years.
Paul, Why don’t you actually look at the budget documents?, they are public and freely available on the MWRA website. In large part ($2.9M) the S&W increase is due to funding negotiated raises in the operations division covering the 928 employees for both FY12 and FY13. The other divisions saw a similar negotiated raise increase and as with the operations division also saw reductions in staffing (down 10 since FY12, and down nearly 600 since 1997).
On the S&W of the advisory board or for that matter the board of directors, again the information is freely and easily available. As noted in section 23 of the MWRA enabling act:
“Each member of said advisory board shall serve without compensation but may be reimbursed, as an expense of said advisory board, for all reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of its duties as approved by the advisory board.”