Toledo to vote on whether to join regional water system
Toledo voters now will likely decide whether they want their city to join a regional water system, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said on Wednesday.
The announcement was made after city attorneys, with help from outside legal counsel, determined that the city’s charter likely requires a referendum before the municipality, along with its Collins Park Water Treatment Plant, can become part of the Toledo Area Water Authority.
The referendum requirement will be triggered once Toledo City Council passes an ordinance to move forward with the water authority, which they aren’t likely to do until a series of public meetings on the issue concludes at the end of March. Should council vote against joining the authority, the deal would be off the table and there would be no need for a citizen vote.
“The wisest and most prudent thing to do is to benefit from the input of the public,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said.
The goal of a regional water authority is to equalize water rates for all participating communities while pursuing a secondary water source for redundancy.
Taking the issue to a vote could delay the timeline for forming a new authority set by leaders from Toledo and eight neighboring communities that buy its water. It could also sink the deal altogether, something neighboring leadership is worried about.
“I think it’s a major step backward,” Maumee Mayor Richard Carr said.
After years of discussions, leaders from Toledo, Lucas County, Maumee, Perrysburg, Sylvania, Whitehouse, Fulton County, Monroe County, and the Northwestern Water and Sewer District signed an agreement Jan. 31, pledging their support for the Toledo Area Water Authority. But even then questions remained about whether Toledo’s charter would require a vote to be part of the deal.
City Law Director Dale Emch in January said he did not believe a vote would be necessary for the Toledo-owned water treatment plant to change hands. But after further researching a portion of Toledo City Charter that says the “granting of a general public utility franchise” would require a referendum, he determined it would be wisest to send the issue to a vote.
Emch consulted with the law firm Squire, Patton, Boggs. He said that while sound legal arguments could be made on either side, a referendum would be in Toledo’s best interest.
“That is an opinion that me and my administration and law director embrace,” Kapszukiewicz said. “I look forward to the voters having an opinion, to weigh in on an issue of such import.”
The issue likely will be in front of Toledo voters in November, Kapszukiewicz added.
Carr, whose water contract with Toledo expires in 2026, said waiting much longer than November is not an option for his community. He believes it would take five or six years for his backup plan — Maumee and Perrysburg would leave Toledo and purchase water from Bowling Green — to take shape because new water lines would need to be built.
“We’re not saying we’re going to walk away from [the water authority], but we are going to be far more aggressive in seeing if we’re going to work out an agreement with Bowling Green and Perrysburg,” he said.
Sylvania Mayor Craig Stough, who spearheaded the push toward regional water, said leaders from all nine communities who signed the initial agreement in support of the authority need to discuss an alternative regional water plan in case the ballot measure fails in Toledo.
That could take the form of a uniform contract, something Paula Hicks-Hudson proposed when she was Toledo’s mayor, which would secure equal water rates for all eight communities that would continue to buy their water from Toledo.
“I am encouraged by Mayor Kapszukiewicz’s leadership toward a regional water system, however, we can’t just sit idly by waiting until November,” Mayor Stough said.
He also said he is continuing to move forward with his backup plan of developing a water system with Monroe County in case Sylvania needs to cut ties with Toledo water altogether, though he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“I still believe in a regional water system. It is the right solution for safe, reliable, and economic water for the benefit of everyone in the region,” he said. “Fragmenting water systems will cost us all more in the long run.”
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken on Wednesday said he was “caught a bit off guard” by the decision, but added he is hopeful the move will only delay the authority’s formation, not derail it.
“I’m still of the opinion that the average resident in the city of Toledo doesn’t really care who owns the water plant,” he said. “They want a water bill that’s accurate, that they can pay, and has fair rates that are predictable.”
Kapszukiewicz said he is confident Toledoans will vote in favor of the measure in November because their water rates will rise if the authority falls apart and suburban customers leave Toledo’s system.
“Citizens who do not want their water rates to triple will vote the way I am going to vote, personally, and that is to move forward with the regional water system,” he said.
But there is opposition within the city. A group called Water Watch Dog has formed with the goal of keeping the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant under Toledo ownership instead of transfering ownership to the authority, a move currently called for by the regional water plan.