D.C. seeks to rule WASA funds

D.C. officials are trying to use a legal loophole to take financial control of the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority.

D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi wants control of WASA so he can appoint somebody to help manage the agency’s money and affirm the District’s financial authority under the Home Rule Act.

Gandhi spokeswoman Maryann Young said the move for control of WASA would be for “consistency” and that “the Home Rule Act says that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

Congress in 1973 approved home rule, then created a CFO in 1995 along with the financial control board to oversee the city’s finances and help correct years of fiscal mismanagement.

Congress and the D.C. Council also amended the home-rule charter in 2001 to give the District a CFO in the post-control board era.

Mr. Gandhi’s proposed change could be accomplished through an addition to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s Budget Support Act. The addition was introduced by council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, and would amend legislation to make clear the agency is subject to oversight by the CFO. It also would change the Home Rule Act to clarify the CFO’s authority.

Mr. Graham said the change is needed to resolve the disparity between the federal charter and the city legislation that created WASA. He said the change also would make the agency akin to such organizations as the Anacostia Waterfront Corp., which has a Gandhi-appointed CFO and a budget that cannot be touched by the council.

“I think this is so much of a tempest that we just need to get it resolved one way or another,” Mr. Graham said.

WASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson is among those who object the most strongly to the proposed change.

He said the agency has done well on its own, routinely receiving clean audits and having a strong bond rating.

“We’ve been functioning that way ever since the organization was established,” Mr. Johnson said. “The numbers speak for themselves.”

“We’re fairly unique from other entities of the District government,” he told The Washington Times. “We’ve never had any credit-card scandals, or contracting scandals or other things that have occurred within some of the organizations that [Mr. Gandhi] actually provides oversight and guidance for today.”

He said the agency also must be fiscally independent from the District to respond quickly to industry changes and negotiate deals with a minimum of red tape.

WASA has a CFO who reports to Mr. Johnson and has the authority to issue bonds and run its own procurement system. The agency develops its own budget, which is incorporated into the District’s budget, then forwarded to Congress.

The agency was previously part of the D.C. Department of Public Works. Mr. Johnson said before WASA was created as an independent agency in 1996, D.C. officials dipped into its money for other city functions.

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