RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — All year long, WPTV has been pushing for accountability in Riviera Beach, after uncovering positive E. coli tests in the city's water system that its management kept under wraps for months.
In the seven months since we learned of those test results in a city well from June 2023, the Riviera Beach Utility Special District was hit with multiple health code violations for the way its leadership kept those results to themselves for months, then downplayed them when they did become public.
More than 100 residents have filed claims against the city claiming the water made them ill, and this summer, the city council stripped Utility Special District Director Michael Low of his title. He and his assistant director then resigned as city employees.
WPTV was able to report on these developments, and others, within the Riviera Beach water system by digging up records, attending public meetings, and speaking with residents as Utility Special District leadership ignored questions.
City Manager Jonathan Evans is now running the Utility Special District. He sat down with WPTV for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Chief Investigative Reporter Jamie Ostroff.
(Note: some of the questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Q: First of all, who's running the day to day right now with the utility district?
A: So, the day-to-day operations is a responsibility that I've absorbed as city manager, sitting in that interim role to assist in the utility district operations, and I also have additional staff supporting me on a variety of different tasks and responsibilities.
Q: Are you stretched too thin right now?
A: No, I'm not stretched too thin right now. I think it's the need of what the community needs and what the organization needs at this particular moment. And I think the next person up-- I think it's appropriate that I step in and that the team coalesce behind what we're trying to effectively accomplish here: to move this initiative forward, to improve the water quality in our community.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans apologizes for water quality issues
Q: How is your search going right now for a new utilities director and assistant director?
A: Right now, we're in the early stages of our preliminary search. In the next couple of weeks, we are going to really hit the accelerator to actually try to get candidates from all over the nation. This is an important job. It's an exciting job, considering you have a new water treatment plant on the horizon, but it comes with its challenges, and so the right fit is important. And we don't want to rush to bring somebody in just to fill the position. We want to bring the right person in that emulates what the community is trying to accomplish, but also understand the challenges that come along with the job.
Q: These are things that former Director Michael Low and former Assistant Director Steven Doyle raised in some of their public comments in recent meetings; that these leadership jobs at the utility district have become something of a hot potato, that they feel that being in these leadership roles, they're getting scapegoated for problems that are long running and systemic in Riviera Beach. How are you convincing the right candidates to take these very high-stress jobs?
A: You know, it's important for us to make sure that we communicate all the information with regards to the condition of the utility district as well as the opportunities. I think anyone that is looking to pursue this opportunity -- to entertain the conversation -- is going to do their research. But I think it's important that they understand what the expectations are, what the challenges are, and realize that this job is going to require you being a working supervisor. It's going to require you getting into the day-to-day operations and understanding the nuances of the plant, the community, and then working with the elected officials and administration.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans shares status of high service pumps
Q: To put it bluntly, why would somebody want that job?
A: I think if you look at our community, and you look at the opportunity, you have the opportunity to build a $350 million water treatment plant that's going to live on for 50 to 70 years. That's a legacy project. Not many utility district supervisors, managers or department directors ever get the opportunity to be on the ground floor of an exciting opportunity. Now, it comes with its challenges, but I think the upside and the potential to leave a lasting legacy that says, "I am the department director that invariably helped move this forward--" I think, is something that your career will be defined by this opportunity. And so I think finding the right person that understands the challenge and the opportunity-- they're out there. It's just us going out there and finding them.
Q: I want to circle back to that $350 million figure, because that's a project that started at about $150 million. Earlier this year, we discovered that it would be $300 million. Now it's $350?
A: So, when you look at the cost for the water treatment plant, the plant, in and of itself, is about $214 million, but there's other ancillary costs associated with revitalizing our water treatment plant: new wells, which is $40 million, new pre-treatment processes. So, there's multiple elements, distribution, transmission lines, that actually build out the entire utility. So, the city is going to invest $350 million over a next couple of years to address all the items. But the plan, in and of itself, is about $214 million.
Q: How is the city going to be able to pay for that?
A: You know, one of the things that's very important is to make sure that we don't overburden our ratepayers. And so we are looking for every opportunity, to look for grants, for state federal appropriations, to look at different loan options that are available through the state and federal government, and then finding a way to Make it as palatable to the ratepayers to see the value in what this investment is, and it really is an investment.
Q: There was talk of a 100% rate increase at a recent meeting. Is that in the realm of possibility?
A: I would say that anything right now is possibly in the realm of possibility. But that's one of the things -- our consultant provided the worst case example, and we know that 100% rate increase will be a significant burden on the rate payers. And so we are going to do everything from administration and the elected body to minimize that impact, but we are going to make sure that we communicate effectively with the residents to understand what the investments are, what the cost is going to be to them, and what relief we can provide by working with some state and federal partners to buy down that rate to make it a lot more affordable for our community in the long term.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans discusses improvements to water quality and morale
Q: Some of the residents that I spoke to at the beginning of the year... when those test results had first become public, (said) that they already feel like they're paying too much for water and they can't trust the quality. So how do you think they're going to stomach even a small rate increase?
A: So, one of the things that we're really looking to do here at this plant, in its existing form, is we're really going to open up the doors of government, right? We're going to increase additional transparency, we're going to improve the quality of water. The board authorized an expenditure of $1.2 million to assist in having a US Water (Services Corporation) come as a staff augmentation tool, to help our staff bring some processes online that invariably will improve the water quality. In addition, too, we're talking about internal programs that we are going to stand by our product to the point where we also want to have a situation where we can bottle water here, and if you're a Riviera beach resident, be able to pick up cases of water that are free to you. And so these are things that we're looking to do to restore and regain the public trust. Because we know we made mistakes, we own that situation, and invariably, we want to move forward, but have the ratepayers and the community understand that. We're here to do the right thing and tackle this challenge head-on.
Q: In a recent survey of city employees, some of them attributed some of the troubles at the utility district -- that perhaps led to the diminishing water quality and those issues there that we saw last summer -- to poor morale. So how is that being addressed?
A: One of the things that I've done immediately is I have a presence here at the utility district, and I've made it a point to all the staff that we're here to help you and we're here to support and make sure that your success, because their collective success invariably leads to the success of the utility district. We're triaging a lot of things, we're assessing a lot of things, and we're making the appropriate investments. Our board did authorize an expenditure of $4.8 million to address some of the wells-- conditions of some of our wells. We have some contractors that are on site as of this moment to assist in addressing some of the things that were communicated as some concerns from staff. So we are focused on our staff. We're focused on making sure we provide them an opportunity to be heard, to be part of what we're trying to accomplish. And then we did move forward with some record increases, especially on our representative employees, to the tune of about 15% wage increases.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans explains how the city plans to pay $1.2 million contract for management, maintenance and consulting
Q: You had mentioned earlier the contract with US Water Services to provide those consulting and staffing services for the utility district. How is all that going?
A: Their first day on the job is going to be next week, Wednesday. So, we have gotten all the processes as it relates to contracts resolved. And so we have an orientation basically next Wednesday, but they have already been here on site and have assessed some of the things that they are going to look to jump in and help us resolve immediately. So, we're excited about the additional personnel to work with our team to help us. To improve the water quality and experience. So, we're excited about that, and we have another gentleman that's also helping us from a plant operation perspective. So we've got a lot of resources that the board has made investments to ensure that we continue to improve the water quality here in the district.
Q: It's a six month contract. What happens after that six months?
A: In the perfect world, I would hope, in a six month period, at least, the critical vacancies as it relates to the district director is hired for, and then obviously having the consultants help us to identify what are some of the other positions we need in the agency. But I think we're going to be able to stabilize a lot of things here with some of the additional support. And then hopefully it's just addressing the things that come up, but then really accelerating what we want to do on the new water treatment plan.
Q: When I was talking to (city) councilmember (Glen) Spiritus a couple of weeks ago, he said that you had shown him some of your plans for the utility district moving forward, and that had instilled in him and some of his colleagues quite a bit of confidence. So what exactly are those plans? And what do you think was the thing that really got the Council on your side?
A: The importance of investments in infrastructure, the constant communication with the elected officials. We know that there's some infrastructure here on the plant that we need to address with a sense of urgency, and communicating with the board-- these are what the needs are... I want us to get to a point where residents of Riviera Beach can come get a case of bottled water, and we can put the date in which it was tested and that we are providing you this because we stand by our product, and that's the type of relationship we want to re-instill with our community. And so we want to be very aggressive in addressing the concerns. We want to be aggressive in addressing the infrastructure, and then ultimately have a situation where people can be excited about what the new what a plant's going to provide.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans talks about minimizing impact of possible 100% rate increase
Q: It had come up weeks ago that there were some additional notices of violation from the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County that were sent to the utility district. I requested copies of those and got the response that the records clerk did not have access to those records to share because the leadership had left. Do you have access to those records?
A: Yeah, we can provide you with a copy of those documents.
Q: Alright. Since I have you sitting here on camera, what was found in those violations?
A: Some of the violations we're still combing through. Some of those elements through the Health Department -- and I don't want to speak on their behalf-- but I can provide you (with) some of the documents and information and test results, invariably, that they provided.
Q: In a situation like this, perception is reality. How can the people of Riviera Beach perceive that their water is reliable?
A: I think that's incumbent upon all of us as staff to ensure that we're all doing our jobs, and that we're making sure that we're working collaboratively and collectively with the Health Department-- to know that we are doing everything in our power to preserve the health, safety and welfare of the public and provide a quality water product. And so that is the goal, and that is the mission, and I know that it's going to take time for us to regain that trust... There's probably subsequent actions that we can anticipate from the health department, but at the end of the day, we need to communicate what our errors and omissions were, own those mistakes, be true to the public and move forward. But I can tell you that this is a priority for me, and this is a priority for my administration, to make sure that we lean in and provide the support necessary, and that we help usher in those days where people can not have to read a read about it or see it on the news about the water quality in our community.
WATCH: City Manager Jonathan Evans talks transparency and reliable water in Riviera Beach
Q: What do you think the city's biggest mistakes were?
A: I don't have, you know, a list of things that, invariably, you know, we could have done differently. And I don't want to Monday morning quarterback that. There (were) errors made. I think we need to own what those errors are. I think we need to communicate that to the public- which we are doing- and then find a way to instill the public trust and public confidence by showing more, being more transparent, understanding that errors can happen, but there's processes to cure that error or those errors. I can tell you from my experience, in the short time that I've been helping out at the district, I've established a good relationship with the health department, and the health department has been exceptional in regards to providing us guidance. They're a resource for us, and so staff knows that if there's any questions, let's call the health department. Let's get guidance on that. As well-- we rely on our consultants as well as our other utility providers in the region.
Q: Moving forward, are you able to commit right now to having a more open dialog with the community about the state of their water?
A: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, when I think-- when we get to a good point, when we stabilize with our relationship with US Water, and we're able to get some of the infrastructure addressed here on the plant, we would love to have a more robust conversation with the community to really identify where there were errors and omissions, and what we have done to mitigate those particular issues. I can tell you one thing that I personally worked on is a communications plan, and how do we ensure that the appropriate parties are notified if there is something that comes back from the lab. And so we are looking to do everything we can to improve the relationship, but the public's trust and public confidence is critically important.
WATCH: Riviera Beach to spend millions fixing water utility
Q: If you could just speak directly to the people of Rivera Beach right now, what is your message to them?
A: My message to them is that we apologize. We apologize for a situation that led itself to the community and the public questioning our abilities to provide this critical service, and that we will strive every day to make the water product and every product and every service we provide that much better, and we will increase transparency and have a better relationship with our public. And we want to be that shining city on the hill. We want them to be excited about what's happening in our community, and so we own any issues or mistakes that we have made. But we're committed and we are focused on improving the relationship with our community, but more importantly, improving what comes out of that tap in those houses. I live here, my daughter's here, my family's here. So this is personal to me, and so we are focused on moving this forward in a way that the community can be proud of.
Q: Do you drink the tap water?
A: Yes, I do.
Following Wednesday's interview, Evans had not provided the more recent notices of violation from the health department as of Thursday evening, despite two emailed follow-ups throughout the day. WPTV will continue working to get those public records.
A city spokeswoman provided a letter that will be sent Friday to Riviera Beach water customers about violations committed last year. The Utility Special District had previously denied some of the violations, which WPTV had reported on.
READ THE LETTER IN ITS ENTIRETY BELOW:
Read more of WPTV's coverage of Rivera Beach's water woes below:
WPTV Investigates
Well tests positive for fecal bacteria; public not notified until 7 months later
Riviera Beach
Riviera Beach concluded positive water test 'false positive,' emails show
Riviera Beach
4 council members unaware water contamination investigation ended 3 months later
WPTV Investigates
How did fecal matter get into Riviera Beach water? Report provides clues
WPTV Investigates
Riviera Beach man sues utility district, claims drinking water made him sick
Riviera Beach
'No confidence': Riviera Beach board fires their utility director. Here's why
WPTV Investigates
Riviera Beach employee morale report revealed more trouble with utility district
WPTV Investigates
More leadership gone from Riviera Beach utilities. What's next?
Riviera Beach
