Sacramento’s missing water meter saga continues like a bad soap opera. This major debacle is costing taxpayers millions of dollars—money that could be used to provide essential services without the tax increases liberals are crying for.

Unfortunately, for taxpayers, the city of Sacramento hired an out-of-state consultant to find the lost meters at a cost of $99,000 to search about 32,000 addresses. According to the Sacramento Bee (July 16, 2008), the U.S. Metering and Technology representative “spends his days looking for Sacramento’s lost water meters, lifting heavy concrete hatches in yards and on sidewalks, meticulously recoding serial numbers.”

“The Sacramento Utilities Department does not know where the meters are. They were labeled ‘unaccounted for’ in a recent city investigation….The city auditor estimates the missing meters are worth about $1.3 million,” and suggests “They could be lost or in a city building where no one thought to look.”

“Best case: The city failed to record their location and they’re plumbed into the city water system in front of 4,492 homes and businesses. Worst case: The meters, solid bronze and weighing at least 8 pounds each, were stolen and sold, perhaps as scrap metal. The [Sacramento] Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation, and the FBI is probing improper sales of salvage metals from Utilities Department storage yards. There’s only one sure solution to the meter mystery: Go out count them all.”

As a result of the investigation, “[a s]alvage dealer pleaded guilty in federal court to bribing employees of Sacramento and Sonoma in exchange for letting him have city-owned, used water meters to sell to recyclers,” according to Saramento Bee (July 25, 2008).

What’s worse, “Sacramento lacks a comprehensive plan and expert advice for its massive water-meter installation project, raising the risk, industry observers say, that expensive components won’t be able to communicate with each other,”according to the Sacramento Bee (July 2, 2008). 

“A draft plan for the state-mandated $400 million project contains dozens of blank sections, including the one on equipment specifications, a Bee review found, and it takes an approach not recommended by experts in the field.” 

Some critics, including the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee, say ”[t]he city of Sacramento should put its water meter installation program on hold. A pause will give city officials time to re-evaluate and, if necessary, revamp the water conservation project that requires Sacramento to install more than 100,000 water meters in city homes over the next 17 years.”

In these challenging economic times, it is important for public officials to spend taxpayer dollars as if it were their own money. The city needs to reexamine its current policies for keeping track of merchandise it purchases at taxpayers’ expense. The policies it implements should include more transparency and oversight in order to protect the interests of its citizens.

Bottom line: taxpayers have been the big losers in this situation, and they will continue to pay for the mistakes of public officials until better planning, oversight, and accountability are part of the story.

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