By Christine Vestal, Stateline Staff Writer

Washington Post/Getty Images More than 240,000 water pipes break every year in the United States — about one every two minutes. Although states offer local governments low-interest loans to help pay for upgrades, localities are mostly on their own to pay billions of dollars in repair bills. When a cold snap hit the Southeast last January, water pipes broke all over Jackson, Mississippi, including those that fed the state capitol and the governor’s mansion. Like everything else in the city of 140,000, state government ground to a halt for three days. To prevent a repeat occurrence, Jackson’s Democratic Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. asked the state to underwrite a no-interest bond for $6 million to upgrade the pipes that supply drinking water to state buildings. Lawmakers agreed, but Republican Governor Haley Barbour and other top officials declined to approve the proposal, saying the water system in Jackson is Jackson’s problem. Barbour’s office suggested the city seek the needed money from a state revolving fund that loans localities money for water repairs. Over the past 12 years, Jackson has borrowed more than $14 million from the fund. This time, the mayor wanted to lighten the burden on ratepayers by seeking an interest-free loan. “Although $6 million is a drop in the bucket,” says a city aide, “it would have helped us leverage borrowing in the capital market, leaving less that future ratepayers will have to pay.” Technically, Jackson’s problem is, in fact, Jackson’s problem. Like most other cities, Jackson owns and operates its water utility and is responsible for maintaining it. States step in only when there’s an emergency, or to help disadvantaged communities that cannot afford to pay for safe drinking water systems. But states have a lot to lose if repairs to local water systems are delayed for too long. Businesses suffer, diseases can spread and emergency repairs can be costly. As a result, some states started taking a more active role in repairing crumbling municipal water works — at least until the recession began in December 2007. “States have been feeling pressure from localities in terms of more demand for funding,” says Rick Farrell, executive director of the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities. “Unfortunately, they’re not in a position to fill the void.”  Instead, some states are looking at creative ways to maximize the federal money they themselves get for water facilities. How big is the problem? According to the U.S. Geological Survey, water main breaks result in the loss of up to 1.7 trillion gallons of clean water each year, at a cost of $2.6 billion. That loss is an issue of increasing concern as regional water shortages become more common. In addition to breakdowns in delivery, the failure of antiquated sewerage systems results in as much as 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater flowing into the nation’s drinking water sources each year. Although states primarily play the role of regulator — guarding watersheds against pollution — they also are charged with deciding which cities and communities should get low-interest loans for water infrastructure repairs. States distribute about $6 billion per year through state revolving funds, which include federal grants plus a 20 percent state match. States manage the programs by recycling principal and interest payments from the localities that borrow the money and combining them with annual federal grants and state matching funds. Created by the Clean Water Act of 1977 and expanded by the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996, the money is intended to help localities — which own about 84 percent of the nation’s water utilities — bridge the gap between the rates they collect for water and sewerage and the cost of maintaining safe water systems. In many cases, states supplement the fund with further borrowing and, to a lesser degree, tax revenues. Mississippi makes $2.9 million in general revenues available to localities for emergency wastewater repairs that cannot wait for a loan processed from the revolving fund. Other states have been more aggressive in supplementing local sewerage relief. California lawmakers this year approved $11 billion in bonds for water infrastructure, because of the devastating economic effects created by water shortages in farming regions. Similarly, Pennsylvania has invested more than $1 billion in water infrastructure through general obligation bonds. “Infrastructure surely is not the sexiest word in the English language,” Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell wrote in a recent article, “nor does it command the attention of the media or the average person on a daily basis. That is until a bridge collapses, the water is contaminated, a levee breaks or a school is shuttered in your own backyard.” Neighboring Maryland has a special fund to clean up its major water resource, the Chesapeake Bay. Levying a so-called “flush tax” on users of public sewerage systems and owners of private septic systems, the state created a wastewater cleanup fund that last year came to $203 million. In addition to using it for environmental restoration of the state’s watersheds, the money went for repairs to local wastewater systems, including those in the state’s largest city, Baltimore. A growing gap Although the state revolving funds and supplemental funding streams are important sources of capital, they don’t come close to covering the widening gap between the cost of maintaining the nation’s aging water infrastructure and the fees charged to the business and residential customers who use the systems. At the heart of the problem is the fact that most cities and communities do not charge their customers rates high enough to cover the true cost of providing clean drinking water and removing wastewater. Among developed countries, the United States and Canada have by far the lowest rates for clean drinking water and sewerage.Yet despite a growing awareness that most U.S. water rates do not cover the costs of maintaining the infrastructure, most mayors are loathe to support unpopular water fee increases. Clean water is assumed to be a permanent benefit, and guaranteeing it is not at the top of the average citizen’s list of public priorities. “Out of sight, out of mind,” says Steven Brown, executive director of the Environmental Council of the States, whose members oversee the state revolving funds. “Every state has multiple pots of funds they can use to assist local governments, but those are among the first budget cuts that get made,” Brown says. This year, however, the most sought-after source of local water maintenance funding was the federal stimulus law. States distributed $6 billion in federal stimulus money to localities in the form of grants and low-interest loans. The money — which had to be fully committed by March 2010, according to stimulus rules — was quickly soaked up by local water authorities that had a long list of critical projects waiting for funding. More than 240,000 water pipes break every year in the United States — about one every two minutes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Without adequate funding to replace aging pipes, the number can be expected to grow. A patchwork of concrete, iron, steel, and even terra cotta and wood makes up the nation’s 54,000 separate water utilities. With some sections more than 200 years old, the hidden network is decaying, cracking and springing leaks beneath city streets at a rapidly increasing rate. As it turned out, Mississippi wasn’t entirely unconcerned about the Jackson water problem hampering state government. The state Department of Transportation decided to use its own money to drill a well right outside its main office near the Capitol building in downtown Jackson. That well will prevent future city water breakdowns from paralyzing the DOT. But it won’t help solve the rest of Jackson’s water problems. —Contact Christine Vestal at cvestal@stateline.org

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS

Uncertainty remains over how revenue collected from a controversial voter-approved city ordinance that requires police officers to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers will be spent to create additional impound space.

When Denver voters in 2008 approved Initiative 100, they also approved a $100 land acquisition fee intended to be used to purchase or lease additional impound space. Denver’s impound lot holds 2,082 vehicles. But the lot is often near capacity, and space has always been a factor for the Denver Sheriff’s Department, which maintains the lot.

Earlier this year, discussions were taking place over where to build a new impound lot. One proposal was to build the lot near the existing lot at 5160 York St. But neighbors of the Elyria Neighborhood complained and pointed out that a FasTracks station is planned for 48th and Brighton, which has the potential to transform the neighborhood through transit-oriented development.

Since then, discussions have fizzled, said Capt. Frank Gale, spokesman for the Denver Sheriff’s Department. Despite ongoing capacity problems and the continued collection of the $100 land acquisition fee from unlicensed drivers, Gale said the department does not have an immediate need to expand the lot.

“The way things are going right now there’s not an imminent need to expand, said Gale. “I-100 is law, it’s being enforced, vehicles are being impounded, and there’s no imminent need to create anymore expansion right now.”

Back in April, city officials were discussing overcapacity problems with the impound lot, pointing out that the city was having trouble selling abandoned cars from the impound lot. The city holds about two public auctions per month.

For reasons unknown to city officials, more vehicles are being left abandoned at the impound lot. They believe I-100 is a factor, but also point to reasons such as the down economy. Things got so bad last year that Sheriff’s officials asked that the Denver Police Department only send them vehicles that need to be impounded as evidence in felony crimes.

That resulted in a drop of total impoundments of 18,719 in 2008 to 14,785 in 2009, which equates to a loss in revenue for the city at a time when the mayor has had to manage several budget shortfalls. The city lost about $340,000 as a result of taking in less cars.

Budget officials have said that if the city were to build a new impound lot, the city would make an estimated $400,000 in additional revenue from increased impoundments.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz believes that a stalled proposal by Councilmen Paul Lopez and Doug Linkhart to repeal I-100 is affecting progress on building a new impound lot or expanding the existing lot.

“The sheriff’s department explained it has been put in a bind by the Lopez/Linkhart proposal to repeal Initiative 100,” Faatz recently wrote to a constituent. “The sheriff’s department needs to know whether to plan for the capacity continuation that I-100 would require, or plan for lesser needs. Projections could affect location.”

Linkhart told the Denver Daily News last week that the proposal to repeal the ordinance has stalled, but said he is still interested in moving it forward, possibly as a voter-referred ballot proposal. The deadline has passed for the proposal to make the November ballot.

“I do think that we should repeal 100,” he said. “There’s costs to the city, there’s costs to individuals, there are unintended consequences that people are dealing with.”

Linkhart said a friend of his recently had their car impounded because an unlicensed mechanic was driving the car. He said it was a very difficult process for his friend to claim the car from the impound lot.

Other controversial stories have raised questions over I-100. An Iraqi war veteran whose car was impounded in 2009 was forced to raise nearly $4,000 to cover bond and fees associated with driving with an expired Missouri driver’s license. Even though the Denver district attorney’s office dismissed the traffic charges, Furman’s car sat in the city’s impound lot because of the ordinance.

Jefferson County resident Daniel Hayes introduced the ordinance to voters in 2008 as a means to cut back on illegal immigration and accidents involving uninsured drivers. Because undocumented immigrants don’t likely have a valid driver’s license, he figured requiring police officers to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers would do the trick.

To release a car from the city’s vehicle impound lot, drivers must pay $2,500 bond, a land acquisition fee of $100, a processing fee of $30, a $120 tow fee and storage fees.

Hayes attempted to add teeth to the law in 2009 by asking voters to absolutely require police to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers. He said at the time that police officers were using their discretion and not impounding enough of the cars. That initiative failed.

Meanwhile, Lakewood city officials last month referred to voters a vehicle impound ballot initiative to the November ballot. The local police union there has opposed the measure, and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police has opposed the measure. Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy is opposed to the initiative as well.

Several business groups in Lakewood have also come out against the proposal, including the West Chamber of Commerce and the Alameda Gateway Community Association.

Coloradans for Safe Communities, a coalition of business leaders, community groups, public safety advocates and elected officials, has launched a campaign in opposition to the Lakewood ballot proposal.

“I don’t want my family and I getting stranded without our car just because I forgot my wallet, it’s not safe,” said Ken DeBey, a 45-year resident of Lakewood. “I care deeply about my community, and I am very concerned about the negative impacts this impound initiative could have on our city.”

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
State Sen. Paula Sandoval took the City Council special election last night to fill the District 1 vacancy left by former Councilman Rick Garcia.
Sandoval, a Democrat who has represented northwest Denver for the past eight years at the State House, says her first priority is going to be dealing with the city’s new zoning code update.
But with the city facing an $80 million shortfall going into the next budget cycle, Sandoval also acknowledges that she will have her work cut out for her.
“Maintaining core city services in light of the budget issues is going to be challenging,” she told the Denver Daily News following her victory.
Sandoval, the wife of well-known former State Sen. Paul Sandoval, won the election last night with 23 percent of the vote, as of the last count by city elections officials last night at 9:18 p.m. Susan Shepherd, a former union political organizer, came in second with 17 percent of the vote, as of the last count last night. State Rep. Jerry Frangas, a Democrat, came in third with 15 percent of the vote.
Sandoval fills the seat left by Garcia as a result of his appointment by the Obama Administration to act as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new regional director. He was sworn in in March.
Sandoval says many issues face northwest Denver, including redevelopments and repairs along Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard within her district, as well as the relocation of St. Anthony Central Hospital to Lakewood. The vacant lot will be a large piece of land up for development.
Sandoval, who for the past 25 years has co-owned Tamales by La Casita, Inc. along with her husband, said she understands there will be a transition from the State House to city issues, but she says she is up to the task.
“I’m very excited and honored to have been elected the next City Councilperson for District 1,” she said following her victory. “I know I have a lot of work ahead of me transitioning from the Senate to the Council, but I’m up to the task.”

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Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
The Denver City Council last night gave approval to $65,000 in liability claims stemming from one incident described as “unwarranted police brutality” and a separate civil action against the Denver Public Library system for allegedly firing a disabled security guard after he complained about adverse working conditions.
Eric Winfield, 29, describes his “ordeal” as being about exposing police brutality incidents, especially those by the Denver Police Department. His self-described nightmare began after Game 3 of the Rockies-Boston Red Sox World Series game in Denver on Oct. 28, 2007 — an incident that left him badly beaten when police allegedly mistook him for another suspect.
Meanwhile, Denver Public Library security guard Kevin Thomas alleges in a complaint against the city that library officials refused to allow him to drink water while on duty, something he needs to do as a result of his condition known as renal dysfunction, a condition that affects the kidney. The black security guard claims that by the time he was fired in December 2007, he had experienced discrimination as a result of his disability and the color of his skin.

A brutal account
It was Winfield’s story, however, that made national headlines after photographs emerged of a badly bruised, bloodied and overall beaten Winfield who was on his way home with friends after watching Game 3 of the World Series back in 2007. Having just watched the game at the former Public House near Coors Field, Winfield and his friends and family headed to his sister’s apartment downtown for a little after-party, according to Winfield’s account of the incident. At around 1:45 a.m., Winfield and a few friends began heading home. As they walked past Le Rouge, a nightclub in LoDo, a fight had broken out by the club.
Winfield and his friends were navigating through the crowd in front of Le Rouge when he was pushed from behind into a car. Believing that Winfield was the suspect in the bar fight, Denver police punched Winfield in the face, threw him to the ground and repeatedly kneed him in the groin, according to Winfield’s account. The lead officer was Officer Antonio Milow, according to Winfield.
He was later beaten by several other officers, including Officers Glenn Martin and Thomas Johnston, according to the allegations.
With Winfield weighing in at around 160 pounds, he stood no match for the three officers, weighing at least 320 pounds, 180 pounds and 280 pounds, respectively, according to Winfield’s account.
Winfield, an oil painter, was transferred by ambulance to Denver Health following the incident where he was treated for a broken nose; lacerations above his eye and on the bridge of his nose; a burst blood vessel in his eye; bruised ribs; cracked and chipped teeth; and documented permanent nerve damage to both hands.
Winfield’s supporters established a Facebook page for him to raise awareness. At “Justice for Eric Winfield,” supporters talk about the concerns they have over police brutality, as well as concerns for Winfield himself. His painting has been affected by the permanent nerve damage, he says.
In the end, he spent more than a day locked up with felons before police charged him with assault on a peace officer. But when prosecutors reviewed the case five months later, the charges were mysteriously dropped without explanation.
“It’s coming to an end for me, but for the taxpayers and City and County of Denver citizens, it’s not coming to an end — it’s the same thing that’s been happening for years and years,” Winfield told the Denver Daily News prior to the City Council meeting last night. “It’s good for me that I can finally put this past me, but I still look forward to helping everyone else out with similar cases É this isn’t going to change anything.”
The Denver City Council last night gave approval to a $40,000 expenditure to settle Winfield’s claim.

Security guard alleges discrimination
An attorney for Kevin Thomas declined to share details of the disabled security guard’s complaint against the city. But court documents allege that Denver Public Library officials went out of their way to make life difficult for Thomas. One complaint is that Thomas asked to drink water on the job because of his medical condition, but that the request was denied.
When he complained about his treatment, Thomas was placed on disciplinary probation, according to the complaint. In November 2007, he was suspended for making his grievances known, according to the complaint.
Thomas was ultimately fired in December 2007.
He alleges that during his entire time working for the Denver Public Library system, library officials treated him differently because of the color of his skin, creating a “hostile work environment.”
Thomas’ attorney argued that he was denied due process, and city attorneys settled the case for $25,000, which the City Council gave approval to yesterday.
Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, a steadfast fiscal conservative who always takes a close look at lawsuits against the city, said she backed the lawsuits last night because it seemed like the right thing for the city to do.
“I’m always hesitant to even approve them because I don’t want to encourage other people to file them, especially when I really don’t feel they’re meritorious,” said Faatz. “I can’t say that I really feel either one of these is meritorious, but I do feel that there are reasons that I can decide to go ahead and support it.”

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County commissioners in Colorado vowed to turn over control of their welfare programs to the state if Gov. Bill Ritter goes ahead with a threat to take over county programs that refuse to pay more for services, the Associated Press reports.

Weld County commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer told a legislative hearing on child welfare Friday that county officials were blindsided by a proposal from Ritter to take over county programs that fail to pay 20 percent more for programs. Kirkmeyer said counties can`t afford it and they`ll be forced to give up programs that are working.

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County officials turned out in force Tuesday to help kill a bill that would have put county commissioners in charge of their salaries. The bill is now dead for the year, The Durango Herald reports.

The Colorado Constitution gives the Legislature the power to set salaries for county elected officials – commissioners, clerks, sheriffs, coroners, surveyors and assessors.

That has always frustrated House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville. “We have no idea what their budgets look like, whether they can afford it, whether their constituents want it,” Weissmann said.

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A proposal in the Legislature would put on November’s ballot the question whether county commissioners should set their own salaries and those of other elected county officials, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. House Concurrent Resolution 1001 would give voters a chance to decide whether to amend Article XIV of the Colorado Constitution, which gives authority to the Legislature to set the salaries of elected county officials.

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Many Denver business owners have been notified this month that they must pay a new $50 registration fee so the city can process a business tax that they have been required to pay for decades.
The City of Denver says the biannual fee will cover the costs of processing the occupational privilege tax, which is levied on employers and employees “for the right to work in Denver.” But a small business owner and city councilwoman say the registration fee will make it harder for small business owners to stay afloat in a down economy.
The registration fee is expected to generate an additional $1.4 million for the city. Businesses that owed less than $30 in the occupational privilege tax last year will be exempt from paying the fee, but all other businesses — from a one-person operation to an employer of hundreds of people — will have to pay the same $50 fee.
Gerald Trumbule, a Denverite who runs a business by himself, believes the registration fee unfairly targets small business owners like him.
“For a large company with 1,000 employees, that little $50 fee isn’t going to be a big deal,” he said. “But for a single entrepreneur, a single employee business, you will have to pay almost double (for the occupational tax) that first year.”
The Denver City Council in October passed a bill approving the registration fee. Before the council approved the bill on a 9-2 vote, City Director of Budget and Management Ed Scholz said that the fee would only cover the costs the city incurs when processing the occupational privilege tax. He added that $1.4 million would have to be cut from somewhere else in the budget if it weren’t for the new registration fee.
Councilwoman Marcia Johnson added that when she ran her own business in which she was the only employee, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed a biannual $50 fee compared to the multiple other expenses she incurred
“I believe we have to tax ourselves to provide the services that we in the city believe we should provide,” she said during the Oct. 19 council meeting.
But Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz believes that implementing a new fee at “a time when businesses are trying to survive” is not a good idea.
“This registration fee to me is not business friendly and I will not support it,” she said.
The occupational privilege tax requires employers to annually pay the city $48 for every worker they employ. The tax, which annually generates about $40 million for the city, has not been increased since 1983.
Council members like Peggy Lehmann support the tax because it helps the city cover the costs of maintaining infrastructure like roads that are used by people who work but don’t live, or pay taxes, in Denver.
But Faatz, Trumbule, and community activist Dave Felice believe the new registration fee is a backdoor attempt to raise the occupational tax without going through the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which requires voter approval fsor any tax increase.
“It is an example of the kind of frustration people felt when they passed TABOR in the first place,” said Felice. “They were just fed up with the government getting out of hand, and now the government has found another way to subvert the process.”
Business owners are required to pay the registration fee by June 1.

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Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, said about half of the 800 or so bills that will be proposed this year in Denver will affect the authority of municipalities in some way, and he used rules regarding medical marijuana as an example, The Durango Herald reports.

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A slew of potential mayoral candidates has emerged to succeed Hickenlooper if he wins. “Who’s eyeing the race?” political consultant Eric Sondermann told The Denver Post. “Get out the Denver phone book.”

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