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Vote casts a shadow

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2009

DADE CITY - When Dade City Commissioner Camille Hernandez made a motion last week to repeal the town's ban on private irrigation wells, she said it was about conservation and property rights.

It is wasteful to force homeowners to use the city's potable water to sprinkle lawns if they can afford to drill a well, she said. She was persuasive, getting a 3-2 vote to repeal a decades-old ordinance.

Hernandez left out one relevant detail: She had been accused of having a well on her Bougainvillea Avenue property that was in violation of the ordinance.

City Manager Billy Poe and engineer Lennie Naeyaert are investigating the allegation, which came to light after the vote.

The previous city manager and utility director apparently were aware of the possible code violation but had not dealt with it.

"I told staff they need to look into this," Commissioner Curtis Beebe said. "This was all pre-Billy and pre-Lennie, so they were not aware of the issue. I would like to think that personal issues are not affecting policy decision."

Poe said he had heard rumors about an illegal well on the Hernandez property. "But I'd never seen anything in black and white until last week."

Officials in the water department turned up a letter from former City Manager Harold Sample, who retired on July 1, 2007, written on his last day in office. The letter, addressed to Hernandez's husband, David, indicates Sample had been aware of the well for six months.

"This is to confirm and document a conversation we had a few weeks ago concerning a non-City water source on your property," Sample wrote.

The Hernandezes had a separate meter for their sprinkler system but had it shut off in November 2005. The city became aware of the well after the couple asked the water department to move the meters as part of a landscaping project on their 1.8-acre property.

"We're researching whether it's an illegal well," Poe said. "It depends on whose side you listen to. One side says it was dug in 2005; the other says it was an existing well that was on the property before it was ever subdivided, back when it was still agricultural."

Camille Hernandez did not return phone calls for this article.

Poe said that neither Hernandez nor her husband ever provided documentation to the city to prove the well existed before 2005. The couple had an irrigation meter at least as far back as 2001, when the city began computerized water billing.

"I don't understand why you would have an irrigation meter if you had an active well," City Attorney Karla Owens said.

Although city code prohibits private wells, there is no criminal penalty. "It's a code violation," Owens said. "The property owner would be cited, and we would probably request that a judge order them to cap the well."

The issue has raised questions about whether Hernandez had a conflict of interest that should have prevented her from voting on the ordinance. "That's the question of the day," Owens said. "It's conflict if you stand to gain something financially. If it's a grandfathered well, then it would be a moot point."

It also has raised questions about why Sample did not deal with the well and why there are no records other than Sample's letter to David Hernandez, dated June 29.

"We had been trying to gather information from ... (the Southwest Florida Water Management District) on that matter," Sample told the Tribune. "We couldn't get a definitive answer, and there were other people who wanted to do the exact same thing. We were researching whether the city should change its position on shallow wells."

In the letter, Sample tells Hernandez that the ordinance probably would come up at city commission meeting within months because "the city has had several requests to change this prohibition."

Sample said he wrote the letter on his last day "so there would be some documentation." It was filed under "miscellaneous correspondence," and no one followed up on the matter.

One person who has lobbied the city to overturn the well ban is Hernandez's neighbor Mike Wells, who is Pasco County's property appraiser.

"He wants a well, and he brings it up every couple of years," Poe said.

The ban was enacted in 1982 and withstood a court challenge in 1985. Owens said the item was placed on the agenda for Oct. 13 because Swiftmud, as the water district is known, had asked the city to make a few minor revisions to the language to make it consistent with the ordinances of other municipalities in the water district.

What seemed like a routine vote escalated to a lengthy debate. Instead of updating the ordinance, commissioners voted 3-2 to direct staff to repeal it.

Commissioners Steve Van Gorden and Eunice Penix voted with Hernandez to repeal the ordinance. Penix said she voted to repeal the ordinance to help lower water bills for city residents. She had no knowledge of the Hernandezes' well. "If it's an illegal well, then she has a conflict," Penix said.

The issue will be on the commissioners' agenda for Oct. 27.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 259-8109.

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