Cleveland City Council meeting turns heated over water rates

CLEVELAND (WJW) – There was a heated discussion on the floor of Cleveland City Council on Monday night, but it was about a topic that was not on the agenda.

The fireworks started when a private investigator hired by Cleveland business owner Darrell Houston was called on to speak during council’s public comment period, and Brenda Bickerstaff blasted council for not allowing Houston to speak because he has been critical of city water rates and other utility bills.

“He’s been denied his constitutional right to speak. That’s not the way it works here, so at this point, what I’m going to do right now is I’m going to give my other minute a half to Mr. Houston,“ Bickerstaff told council.

“That is not in the rules Ms. Bickerstaff, Mr. Houston, the rules that you signed up for. Ma’am, it’s a clear set of rules, the next person will be up,” city council president Blaine Griffin said.

Houston owns a car wash, a group home and several other properties in the city and says he wants council to address how water rates and other utility bills are affecting his bottom line and the pocketbooks of other Cleveland taxpayers.

“I noticed that we were promised that after a clean water initiative, when they bring new meters in, we would have lower rates and that wasn’t true. We actually are paying more than we ever paid in the city of Cleveland for our water bills now. We’re paying more monthly than we’ve ever paid in quarterly, so that’s terrible,” Houston told FOX 8.

As Houston attempted to speak, Griffin said, “this council has a set of rules that we are going to follow. If you continue to disrupt the meeting, I am going to ask the police officers assembled to escort you from the mic.”

Houston says he has had private discussions with city officials about issues like water rates, and he claims that he and other critics are now being silenced.

“I don’t sense anger, I just sense frustration, OK, to taxpayers’ dollars being wasted,” he said.

But council members are defending their record in attempting to hold the line on water rates and other utility bills.

“We haven’t raised our electric rates since 1983 and water has been raised I think three times or four times in the last 15 years, so no, the water bills shouldn’t be a burden on anybody unless they’re using an overabundance of water,” said councilman Brian Kazy, who is the chairman of city council’s utilities committee.

City officials suggest that Houston should consider that his water bill is high because he runs a car wash, and say they are willing to work with any business owners or residents who are facing hardship.

“We have received and I have received no complaints over water rates and just in the summer last year, city council allocated $2 million in utility amnesty and we were able to clear up a bunch of back water bills that were owed,” said Councilman Kazy.

As Houston continued his attempt to speak on Monday night, Griffin told him, “you are not on the agenda, please remove yourself from the mic.”

When he was then approached by several police officers assigned to the council meeting, Houston stopped speaking but told FOX 8 that he will be back to air his grievances and send a message to council members.

“To be perfectly frank, I don’t think you guys are doing a good job anymore and I think some of you guys should resign or reconsider reconstructing the committees because they are ineffective right now,” he said.

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