Riviera Beach continues to struggle with its Utility District after failing to find a new director (2024)

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The Special Utility District will continue to operate without an acting director after an emergency meeting following the removal of Executive Utility Director Michael Low last week.

City Manager for Riviera Beach Jonathan Evans, who manages the utility, said he would continue to work with the assistant director Steven Doyle to run the daily operations. Doyle, who was the nominee to become the acting director, was denied the position after a vote Wednesday night.

Low was relieved from his duties after the board received an $80,000 fine for its response to a water contamination event, first reported by WPTV in January. Officials also said it is facing 122 claims related to the water quality issues, which could led to potential lawsuits, and also said it received new warnings from the health department about more violations related to the water quality.

WPTV reported in Januarythat the utility waited seven months to warn customers about a positive test for fecal bacteria in June 2023. We also received emails from a public records request showing the city didn't notify the public because it believed the positive tests were incorrect. The district didn't follow standard procedures to retest the area because staff were concerned for their safety while interacting with customers.

Riviera Beach utility director says goodbye

Councilmember Dr. Glen Spiritis said he didn't want to appoint a director until he understood his qualifications for the position. He also requested an outside consultant to run the utility's day-to-day operations.

"I want to have an opportunity to speak to Mr. Doyle and vet him one-on-one," Spiritis said. "I wasn't going to go right ahead and vote to approve him. I want him to have the opportunity to have discussion to have him sit here before us and explain his qualifications and what he expected to do and what he has done as the assistant director."

Councilmember Shirley Lanier said she wants somebody from outside the utility to lead the agency and she doesn't have confidence in individuals within the utility to fix problems.

"It seems like we keep fumbling how we're moving forward with this," Lanier said. "We need to have somebody in that district that knows what they are doing, can do the job and I recommend outside assistance because what's been happening hasn't been working."

PROBLEMS WITH FIXING PROBLEMS

Steven Doyle said fixing the utility's problems is impossible for one person. He was critical of the utility last Wednesday, threatening to quit if Low was removed at the meeting while comparing the amount of emergencies within the department to a fire department.

"You take one bite at a time, we're taking two bites and it's not enough," Doyle said. "I have more 911s on a daily basis in the fire department. By the way, I could walk out with Mr. Low too, this has nothing to do with that, just basically this is straight engineering. There are a lot of things that are broken here and we're doing the best we can on a daily basis to make it work and it's challenging."

He also said Low and himself were drowning in the daily demands of the utility.

"I'm telling you right now, the two of us together cannot even meet the demands of this utility right now," Doyle said on Wednesday. "We're drowning, plain and simple, there's not one person that could handle this utility right now."

Doyle led the City of Riviera Beach's investigation into the seven-month delay back in September 2023. The investigation found the independent laboratory taking tests was only sending information to two city staff members. One of those employees was out of the office for several weeks on medical leave. The other employee, the department's compliance manager, terminated his employment with the Utilities Special District.

The report said the employee was scheduled to remain in his position until June 16, but only showed up to work on June 14. It recommended having the independent laboratory include more than two staff members when returning water quality data analysis.

The City of Riviera Beach, who runs the special utilities district, agreed last week to pay $80,842.60 in fines from the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County for the water contamination event. It said their investigation found the utility district broke Florida law 13 times after discovering coliform and fecal bacteria from treated water supplied to customers. The health department is requiring the utility pay the fine rather than spend the money on fixing their utility, which occurred after the utility had water contamination issues in 2016.

The city is asking the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General to investigate the issue as well.

He also blamed the utility's problems on the current water treatment plant, which officials said is 25 years past its current lifespan. The utility is trying to build a new water treatment plant, but the project is now paused.

Riviera Beach water treatment plant mockup

Construction of the plant was planend to begin in 2023 but is still in the design phase. The board voted to pause on picking a design after consultants paid by the city couldn’t provide a baseline cost for three different designs in April.

WPTV’s Ethan Stein also found the cost for the water plant doubled from about $150 million to $300 million after delays with construction. City staff said it couldn’t afford the new price tag in April, which means the utility will need to raise rates on customers if it can’t get grants.

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