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Dade City irrigation well ban to stand

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: October 29, 2009

DADE CITY - Commissioners unanimously reversed a decision to repeal a nearly 30-year-old ordinance banning private wells in the city.

The vote came after controversy swirled around Commissioner Camille Hernandez, who championed the cause of private irrigation wells and was accused of having a well in violation at her home.

"For the record," she said, "there is no illegal water source on the Hernandez property."

Hernandez also denied allegations that she had a conflict of interest on Oct. 10 when she made a motion to repeal the ordinance. "It made good sense to me to have irrigation wells rather than to use good, expensive drinking water for people's lawns," she said. "I thought that was the type of behavior we want to encourage."

Though he agrees with her logic, Commissioner Steve Van Gorden said the "cloud over there" made it impossible to repeal the ordinance. I did not accept her explanation, he said. "I'm a character person, and when you look at the whole equation, it stinks."

Van Gorden was referring to a letter from former City Manager Harold Sample to Hernandez's husband, David, written on Sample's final day in office. The letter was to document their conversation about a possible illegal irrigation well at the couple's Bougainvillea Avenue home.

In the letter, Sample asks Hernandez to provide documentation that the well was drilled before the city instituted the ban in 1981. The Hernandezes have never provided evidence the well should have been grandfathered.

City Manager Billy Poe said neither Hernandez nor her husband has provided documentation to the city to prove the well existed before 2005, when the couple deactivated their irrigation meter.

Despite the controversy, commissioners based their decision on financial interests. Poe told them that if private wells were allowed, commissioners would be forced to raise water rates to make up for the resulting revenue shortfall.

"Bills will go down for the people who have wells, but they will go up for everyone else," he said.

In addition, repealing the ban would have put the city in violation of its bond covenants, which require all customers abutting city water lines to connect to the municipal system.

"The city would be in default of its bond issue, and the bondholders could call them due immediately," Poe said.

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

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