Commenting on the article in the Friday, June 12, edition of The Herald Bulletin titled “Trash fee gets initial OK from City Council,” Councilman Eicks made a couple of points.

Unrelated to the title and buried deep in the article was a comment in which Councilman Eicks inferred the $3.50 a month storm water fee was a “recent” assessment. This residential fee was hardly a “recent” assessment, but has been in place over the last several years. This residential fee is a fraction of what businesses, hospitals, schools, churches and other properties covering the land have had to pay.  We should remember funds from this assessment were used to grant several city officials, including the mayor, raises; the rationale given for these raises was that these folks were assuming additional responsibility when the Storm Water Management Department was created.

Additionally, for some reason, it appears the department records for these storm water assessment funds, in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars, have never been subjected to a real audit (if so, it has never been published), as they are not considered tax revenue. Even though Eicks said “city officials would make available in the clerk’s office a report” as to how the Storm Water Management Department has spent their funds, this doesn’t cut it. For some time I have thought this department should have their books opened and audited by a real auditing firm.

To “make available in the clerk’s office reports on how they spent” these monies isn’t enough. There has been a large amount of money assessed and dispersed and the citizens of Anderson are entitled to see a proper audit.