The group whose initiative petition regarding the operation of the storm water utility was certified Friday is willing to negotiate with the city in the next month about the wording of a measure must go to City Council for approval in the next month.

But Lee Urias, one of the leaders of Concerned Taxpayers of El Paso, said if that doesn’t happen, his group will start a second petition drive to put an initiative on the ballot that will take effect, word for word, if voters approve it in the May city elections.

“We support a stormwater utility, but we want it to run economically, and we want it to run correctly,” Urias said. “Mostly what we want is accountability.

"We’re willing to negotiate, but before they weren’t, and that’s why we went for jugular. Why? Because the city wouldn’t negotiate.”

While the PSB has approved two major rate reductions since starting the stormwater utility in March, the reductions have largely helped homeowners, schools and nonprofits, but have not reduced commercial rates enough to satisfy some, if not many businesses.

The petition Urias’ group submitted last month with more than 2,400 signatures of registered voters, was the first initiative to be certified as having enough valid signatures in the city’s history. The group needed 2,022 signatures to force City Council to consider its ordinance.

If the members of Concerned Taxpayers aren’t satisfied with whatever action City Council takes, including the passage of a similar but unacceptable ordinance addressing the stormwater utility, the group can mount a second petition drive to have voters approve the proposed ordinance.

Mayor John Cook said a highly publicized and likely successful petition drive that puts a controversial stormwater proposition on the May ballot is just about the last thing he wants to see.

If the measure goes to voters as it is worded in the petition, Cook agreed, the stormwater utility issue would alter the election and perhaps become the biggest issue in the race of those seeking re-election and their challengers.

Last year, City Council approved the establishment of a stormwater utility and delegated its operation to the El Paso Water Utilities’ Public Service Board which, as of March 1, began operating it as a second utility.

The ordinance proposed by Concerned Taxpayers and recited on the petitions people signed would simply redesignate City Council as the board that “will retain complete authority and control over the stormwater utility system.”

Cook said he is meeting with the city’s Legal Department to discuss whether state law allows a city to operate a utility using City Council as the board.

“That was one of the reasons we put it as the PSB,” Cook said. “They have the governing ability and better expertise in maintaining pump stations and things to do with waste water.”

Cook, who plans to run for a second term, said the stormwater utility is “definitely my Achilles heel, my big weakness.”

“My advisers told me to just back off the issue because it could cost me re-election,” Cook said. “I said I couldn’t. It’s the right thing to do. If it costs me my re-election, so be it.

“I think it’s about time leadership stopped doing what was popular and making it right instead of doing what is right and making it popular.”

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com