By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Elected officials within the City of Whitewater narrowly agreed to pay a pair of sewer backup claims that have roots going back more than a year.
The Common Council on Dec. 20 voted, 4-3, to pay the claimants a combined $5,200 from damage incurred from a backup incident in late November 2015 at a home in the 300 block of South Summit Street. The funds will come out of the city’s wastewater utility connection fund.
Property owner Lorenda Cedars filed one claim, while her tenants — Anna Bianco and Victor Lefaive — filed a separate claim for damages. The backup was linked to the municipal sewer system.
At the advice of the city’s insurer, the council early this year swiftly denied the claims, though it dually expressed sympathy for the damage incurred and the inconvenience from the ordeal.
The scenario did spark a widespread discussion of how the city should address future sewer backup claims, if and when they do occur. An ad-hoc committee was formed in the first quarter of 2016 to explore the issue in depth, and the council adopted a no-fault reimbursement policy in April.
The council at its meeting last week used that 9-month-old policy as a mechanism toward paying Cedars and Bianco/Lefaive’s claims.
But the council’s vote on the specific claims — much like the overarching policy itself — came with varied viewpoints within the seven-person elected body.
Council President Patrick Singer and members Lynn Binnie, Chris Grady and James Langnes III voted in support of the claim reimbursements.
But council members Jim Allen, Stephanie Goettl and Patrick Wellnitz voted against it.
Binnie, who served on the ad-hoc committee early this year, supported the reimbursement for a number of reasons. He pointed out no new sewer backup claims were filed this year and further noted three claims reflecting significant loss have been filed the past dozen years.
Allen provided a different viewpoint. He said he was sympathetic to the losses incurred from the 2015 incident, but said he would not support the motion, made by Binnie, because the city did not have a policy in place at the time of the incident.
Legally, the city has not been under any obligation to pay the claims because of a series of safeguards, which were noted in January when the city’s insurer, the Cities and Villages Mutual Insurance Co., recommended the denial.
At the time of the incident, Tim Reel, the city’s wastewater director, said he was unaware of any issues within the sewer line leading to the Summit Street property. As is the case throughout the community, Reel said infrastructure within that area is routinely inspected.
While the city is paying both claimants, it is sending a message this is a one-time reimbursement for this specific property.
City Manager Cameron Clapper said a sewer backflow prevention device would be a useful mechanism in preventing further incidents at the property, if they should occur. The city’s wastewater utility connection fund will reimburse the owner if that device is installed.
