Shannon won backing of seven fellow commissioners and will hold the top Mayoral post for 11 months until another city election is held in November 2011.
Commission President Chris Shannon Named Bay City's New Mayor
Priority One May Be Dealing with High Sewer Charges Caused by Huge Debt
December 11, 2010
By: Dave Rogers
Fiscal discipline is on tap under new city leadership, a concept in much demand to meet a crisis in sewer services in which $13 of a $22 bill is for debt service.
City Commission President Christopher Shannon, a workforce developer with Michigan Works, is Bay City's interim mayor, and will face that and other problems with a plan in mind.
The new mayor has stated he has a comprehensive strategy to transform Bay City's economy, creating stability and certainty.
Mr. Shannon has suggested that a solution to high sewer charges plaguing the city may be contracting out the service to private firms. Restructuring the rate model is also being studied. Information gathering is underway to equip the commission with data on which to base a decision.
Mr. Shannon's overall strategy calls for restructuring the budget to fit the services delivered within the boundaries of projected revenues.
Shannon won backing of seven fellow commissioners to hold the top post for 11 months until another city election is held in November 2011.
Mr. Shannon won out over former mayor Mike Buda, who previously served as interim after the death of former mayor Robert Katt, and popular local civic leader Hratch Basmadjian, both of whom got three votes, and seven other candidates.
Mr. Shannon is a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University and is a Certified Public Manager (CPM). He serves on the CPM advisory board at SVSU, is an alumnus of the Great Lakes Bay Leadership Institute and serves on the board of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Initiative.
The sewer problem, which has some residents up in arms over high bills spiked by additional charges for debt, is likely among the top priorities for the new mayor. A citizens advisory group sparked by former commissioner Virginia Hutter and named by City Manager Robert V. Belleman has been meeting and will meet again this Friday attempting to find a solution.
The recent pullout of Hampton Township from the sewer system, along with reduced city usage, has created a shortfall of an estimated $1 million a year, according to minutes of finance and policy meetings. The city has about 13,500 sewer customers. Commissioner Larry Elliott has said that added debt charges "unfairly burden" minimal service users.
Commissioner Kathleen Newsham has cited statements from constituents complaining of sewer charges two to three times higher than water.
The city was saddled with a $45 million bond issue that was court ordered in 2003 to remove PCB contamination from the system. The debt service on that bond is nearly $2 million for sewers alone and with the water system debt amounts to nearly $5 million a year.
The city manager is seeking a legal opinion on an idea by departing mayor Charles Brunner who suggested using $2 million from the P.O.W.E.R. Fund for reduction of the sewer debt. That money has been earmarked for the Uptown at RiversEdge project.