PMUA Settles With Watson, Ervin

In a split vote, the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority's board of commissioners has agreed to settle with two former top executives for $725,000, down from the $1.2 million they initially sought in compensation claims.

The settlement was approved late Tuesday night. Plaintalker obtained a copy of the resolution, which is to be signed in “mid-January,” according to a notation on the OPRA receipt. Payment hinges on certification of available funds by the authority’s chief finance officer, James Perry, but Chairman Harold Mitchell said Friday he voted "no" because the amount could not be certified. A call to Perry was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.

Former Executive Director Eric Watson had already received severance amounts of $151,000 and Assistant Executive Director David Ervin had received $124,000 after resigning in March 2011.After months of arbitration over additional claims, lawyers for the pair made a settlement demand in November of an additional $750,000 for Watson and $300,000 for Ervin, along with legal fees of $80,200 and arbitration costs of $15,500.

In making the demand, attorneys for the pair cited the continuing costs of arbitration and the uncertainty of the outcome of arbitration hearings, as well as the pair’s “significant contributions” to development and growth of the authority.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the PMUA’s board of commissioners voted to settle for an additional $450,000 for Watson and $275,000 for Ervin. Commissioners Alex Toliver and Malcolm Dunn and alternate Cecil H. Sanders Jr. voted “yes,” while Mitchell and Commissioner Carol Brokaw voted “no.” Commissioner Tracey Brown was absent.

Between the initial payments and the settlement, Mitchell said, "It's almost a million dollars. Carol and I didn't agree on the amount."

The agreement calls for equal payments annually for four years, pending certification of the availability of funds by the chief finance officer.

Watson and Ervin, who along with the late Lou Jones were founding executives of the authority, resigned after 15 years of service. All three had been administrators in the city’s Department of Public Works. The new authority took over solid waste services that had previously been furnished by private haulers contracting with property owners. It also took charge of sewer services that had been provided by the city’s sewer utility.

The authority grew to be the fifth largest employer in the city, but came under fire from a ratepayers’ group after steep increases in 2009. The group uncovered and made public extensive tabs for travel and business lunches incurred by PMUA executives and actively encouraged property owners to “opt out” of the PMUA for trash pickup. The group maintains a web site, DumpPMUA, that continues to monitor authority costs. Besides its troubles with ratepayers, the authority has been at loggerheads with the City Council over its operations and the governing body last year formed a PMUA Task Force to examine the authority’s workings and make recommendations.

Meanwhile, new Executive Director Duane Young has promised more transparency and cooperation with the City Council and ratepayers, adding much more public information to the web site and more convenience to customers. At a rate hearing in December, the authority announced there would be no rate increase for solid waste rates in 2012 and a 2.6 reduction in sewer rates.

--Bernice