RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The Office of Inspector General for Palm Beach County said employees felt pressured to get contaminated water wells back online for one reason— money.
Stuart Robinson, an investigator with the Office of Inspector General in Palm Beach County, said a former utility employee told him that Compliance Manager Dr. Anthony Williams did not perform the correct amount of water quality tests due to motivation to save money.
At Tuesday's meeting, Williams read part of the interview transcript between him and Robinson.
“I think that primarily because of the conditions of the well, they had a lot that was out of service. And I guess whenever they lose a well, it forces them to open up the interconnect and stuff like that, which would end up costing the city more money to buy water from seacoast utilities.” Williams said, quoting Robinson.
It’s unclear the amount of money the city of Riviera Beach spent on buying water from outside entities. WPTV has been told the city has spent $1.2 million on paying consultants to fix the city’s utility, which could get extended for even more money.
Palm Beach County Inspector General John Carey said he’s confident the evidence shows city administration wasn’t aware of the problems within the utility district. He also said that city administration should face consequences for inaction outside their purview.
“We follow the evidence,” Carey said. “It’s where the evidence led us up to Mr. Low.”
The Office of Inspector General found senior city utility district staff violated reporting rules both through mismanagement and, at times, deliberate actions designed to circumvent required accurate reporting of water conditions.
For example, former Utility District Manager Michael Low previously said the city didn’t retest the samples testing positive for E. coli because staff felt unsafe after an incident stopped them from conducting proper testing protocols. However, the Inspector General’s office tracked down those recommendations from the Riviera Beach Police Department, and they didn’t tell staffers to avoid proper testing protocols.
Council members Tradrick McCoy and Dr. Glen Spirits, along with Mayor Ronnie Felder, argued city management oversaw senior staff members like Low. They questioned their culpability, but Carey said their role was to find possible malfeasance rather than a management decision.
“What the board wants to do for the manager that’s a management board issue,” Carey said.
Councilwoman Shirley Lanier said the report was proof that blame for the various issues came from the former Executive Director rather than the city administration
“It appears like you did your homework on where the blame lies and I appreciate that,” Lanier said.
