In response to Mayor Franklin’s letter of June 30, 2008 regarding United Water, here are the facts: 1.   United Water received the Gold Award from the Georgia Water & Pollution Association for “complete and consistent compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act.” 2.   United Water achieved a 12-month rolling average bill collection of 100%. 3.   United Water reduced field activity work orders from 14,000 to 1,000. 4.   United Water achieved 206% of Maintenance Goals. The annual fee of United Water was $21.4 million compared to the City’s cost in the year 2000 of $48 million. According to a memo from the CEO of  United Water, United Water is seeking an increase of 15%, or $24,7 million annually. The City’s cost of the water operations today is well over $55 million, with the savings over $30 million annually. The $4 billion water infrastructure program referred to by the Mayor is not the operations of the water system, but the construction of the water infrastructure. There are reputable water engineers who feel that the $4 billion water infrastructure could be value-engineered by independent engineer and reduce the $4 billion cost  to $3.4 billion. According to federal data (Public Works Financing, U.S. Government), over 90% of governments choose to continue privatization at renewal time.   Kind Regards, John S. Sherman President