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North Florida Water Utility Authority: Unprepared, Unorganized, No Business Plan, No Experience, Spending Money Like Water – Welcome to Never-Never Land

August 1, 2025  7:45 am | 6 min read

County Attorney Joel Foreman opines as County Manager David Kraus looks on.    Columbia County Observer photo

By Stew Lilker

COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The North Florida Water Utilities Authority (NFWUA) met Wednesday morning. The Authority, operating without a business plan for over a year and with an executive director who has no experience running any kind of utility, trudged forward into its self-created Never-Never Land.

The action began before the meeting got underway as NFWUA Executive Director Shannon Roberts handed out an interlocal agreement that was not complete when posted to the Authority’s website on July 24 as part of the meeting’s agenda packet (the meeting material).

Columbia County Commissioner Rocky Ford has been at the helm of the NFWUA since the beginning. The Authority’s track record speaks for itself.

Missing – everything needed to make a decision and inform the taxpayers

Missing were the exhibits from the interlocal agreement (ILA – an agreement between Columbia and Suwannee Counties and the Authority), which identified the water and wastewater assets that were to be maintained and operated by the Authority and the budget.

Also missing was the NFWUA budget to run those utilities.

Why is this important? The Authority’s funding is coming from the pockets of all Columbia and Suwannee County taxpayers. It was on tap to be approved that morning by the Authority Board members, which included county commissioners from their respective counties.

Executive Director Roberts’ lack of relevant governmental utility or other experience also resulted in the material posted on the NFWUA’s website not being ADA compliant (handicapped accessible).

When the lack of ADA compliance was pointed out to the Authority members, each a county commissioner – they just shrugged.

Joel Foreman short-circuited the NFWUA enabling document

Looking back to before there was an Authority, Columbia County’s expert in legislative matters, Staz Guntek, in 2022, put together various scenarios of forming a utility authority and presented the names of multiple authorities, including the Okeechobee Utility Authority enabling documents as a suggestion.

Mr. Guntek was thrown overboard by Columbia County County Attorney Joel Foreman, who had a better idea, form the Authority after one of the most problematic special districts in North Florida, the Suwannee Valley Transit Authority. Mr. Foreman worked to shoehorn the Utility Authority into the SVTA’s enabling papers, which were eventually approved.

NFWUA Chairman Rocky Ford and Suwannee County’s Franklin White both questioned the vital missing material.

Executive Director Roberts explained that when the agenda was created, they didn’t have the missing material (exhibits A, B, C), and the final assembly of the material was done “yesterday,” at which time Mr. Roberts said he printed off some copies for the public and brought them to the meeting. He did.

Columbia County printed more copies of the interlocal agreement and exhibits so that the Authority Board members had complete copies.

NFWUA Attorney Grady Williams called the interlocal a “kickoff strategy.”

The interlocal agreement can be viewed or downloaded here. The 12th hour additions begin on page nine.

The ILA: running millions of dollars of county assets — no big deal, “like getting your learners permit… it’s an experiment.” County Attorney Joel Foreman

Columbia County Attorney Joel Foreman opines as County Manager David Kraus looks on.

Columbia County Attorney Joel Foreman compared turning over the running of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of utility assets to “getting your learner’s permit.” He said, “It’s sort of like handing the keys over to the car, right? You got your learner’s permit, you’re 15. We’re going to see how you do between 15 and 16. So this Interlocal is kind of like that learner’s permit, right? You gotta do your thing. We’re gonna be looking over your shoulder. We’ll be checking in from time to time… Let’s see what you can do…We know this is an experiment… If things go sideways, the counties are protected, because we can undo this.”

Suwannee County County Attorney Adam Morrison, who co-authored the ILA (interlocal agreement) added to Mr. Foreman’s learner’s permit scenario, “There will be growing pains; there will be screwups.”

Chairman Rocky Ford said, “I like what Mr. Morrison had to say about growing pains… I think we’re making some good headway.”

Commissioner Tim Murphy: He wanted a finished agreement before moving forward.

Columbia County’s Tim Murphy took exception to the rush to push through the ILA, noting the 12th hour additional materials. “I don’t think we’re under a deadline here,” he said.

County Attorney Foreman protected his position, “The Interlocal allows for us to constantly come back to the table – say, hey, got an issue.” Mr. Foreman explained, “I also want to reassure you that if you don’t address a disagreement at the very same meeting” we could do it at another time.

Mr. Foreman continued his explanation, “You know, we start to take that baby step, and first thing you do is step in a bear trap and it’s not a catastrophe, the way we drafted it. Nothing is a catastrophe.”

What about the customers?

Finally, someone mentioned the utility customers. Columbia County County Manager David Kraus said, “The biggest thing we want is a smooth transition for our customers. You don’t want a utility billing interruption, and then suddenly you have problems collecting payments because they didn’t get bills. So, you know, transition for our customers is equally important.”

At this time, it is not clear how many Suwannee County utility customers there are or if they are all being billed.

Executive Director Shannon Roberts knows, but isn’t talking. He is still doing work for Suwannee County, is using their offices, and is being paid for that work in part by Columbia County taxpayers.

Suwannee County’s Adam Morrison likes growing pains

Suwannee County’s Attorney Adam Morrison: “There will be screwups… and growing pains.”

Back to growing pains came Suwannee County’s Adam Morrison, “the one thing I like about this problem (billing) is the idea of growing pains; this is the training bill before you get the car. Because if for some reason this goes south, you don’t want to spend all the money transitioning everything into this new [billing] system.”

Attorney Foreman backed up his co-ILA-author: “Everything you do, as long as this Interlocal is in place, needs to be reversible, right? Because, again, the consequence of everything falling apart is that everything goes back to where it started, right? If you do anything irrevocable, like you spend money on servers. They’re not going to take them back. Somebody’s getting up with servers that they didn’t even want. You want to avoid creating too many of those kinds of situations during this Interlocal… You’re going from the learner’s permit to a full driver’s license.”

County Attorney Foreman left out the part that if the Authority had hired an experienced utility director and had a business plan and model, and a rate study, they wouldn’t have to spend half their time looking over their shoulders.

Commissioner Murphy stuck to his guns, telling the Authority that the executive director should put together an agreement that “everybody understands and then bring it back to the board.”

Now comes Kevin Kirby

Assistant County Manager Kevin Kirby. “We don’t track repairs.” Where is the County internal auditor – Jay Swisher, Clerk of the Court.

How much do Columbia County’s utility repairs cost?

Kevin Kirby is the long-time county public works director, and according to the County organizational chart, the co-county manager, although his payroll title is assistant county manager.

Mr. Kirby weighed in, announcing for the first time anywhere, “Since we have been in utilities, we have never documented repairs, and they happen quite frequently.”

County Attorney Foreman shared that he thought “there could be some estimates.”

Mr. Forman’s ILA partner, Attorney Morrison added, “The real point of this agreement is to get a macro understanding at the 30,000-foot level as to what everybody’s expectations are.”

Executive Director Roberts was taking heat because he didn’t have a monetary figure for repairs in his presented budget.

Mr. Kirby helped him out by explaining the Columbia County way of doing business: “Long story short, in your defense, I can speak to Columbia County. For clarification, it’s not budgeted. That activity is not budgeted. We simply rob it out of the road department.”

Greg Scott, Suwannee County’s County Manager, weighed in

Suwannee County County Administrator Greg Scott. His experience running a county came from being the Director of Recreation.

Mr. Scott said he wasn’t sure if Suwannee County had a utility budget, and he explained that when something broke, they just called somebody. The person was not under any kind of emergency repair agreement; they just called.

Mr. Murphy weighed in again, “I don’t see the rush. And I feel like your attorneys can hit on this and get with the proper parties involved and work these things out. I’m not going to support the MOU [sic-ILA] today.”

Commissioner Ford tried to convince Mr. Murphy.

Mr. Murphy said they were supposed to be “here for the taxpayers” and that no one on the Authority Board “would run our operations [businesses] that way.”

Mr. Murphy concluded, “I just don’t see the necessity for the speed of this  to be signed today.”

Suwannee County Commissioner Franklin White knew there was something wrong. In the end – he rolled over.

Suwannee County’s Franklin White said, “I think it’s just a review today, is it not?”

Chairman Ford, who everyone acknowledges is driving the NFWUA ship, said, “Right now, Columbia County and Suwannee County are still gonna own all the assets. So, if there’s a major catastrophe at one of those assets, they [respective counties] still own it.”

Mr. Foreman spoke about how there would never be a perfect interlocal agreement.

Mr. Ford said, “All attorneys agree right now, this is a very good start.”

Mr. Morrison added, “Until you get started, you don’t know what the problems are. Everything is theoretical.”

Mr. Ford again said he wants to get going.

Mr. Morrison said, “Joel [County Attorney Forman] and I talked about this. I don’t think it sounds crude. We’re just making it up.”

There was more talk.

Mr. Ford said, “I’ll entertain a motion. We had plenty of discussion.”

Suwannee County’s Franklin White, the Authority member who said he thought the ILA was for review, made the motion to approve the ILA as written. Suwannee County’s Leo Mobley seconded it.

Mr. Murphy was the only one opposed.

Epilogue

With no rate study, no business plan, no one running the Authority with any experience, and an incomplete budget, the NFWUA marched forward.

A word to the wise to the taxpayers and law-abiding citizens.

Keep your eye on the Columbia County landfill and the deals Suwannee County and Columbia are making.

There may be more here than meets the eye.