The Albany city commission may soon change the way Water, Gas and Light operates.
 / Ashley Knight
ALBANY, GA --
Water Gas and Light is not acting like a normal department of the city, say city commissioners. At Tuesday’s meeting city commissioners wanted to start a five year plan for their finances, but first must realize all their liabilities.
“The city manager informed us and the city attorney said we can't really tell you all the potential liabilities because we don't know what WG&L's liabilities are,” says City Commissioner Bob Langstaff.
There, they discovered how much they really didn't know about the operations of Water Gas and Light.
“The problem is they're not communicating, they don't have to communicate, or they don't feel like they have to communicate. And that is a dangerous situation,” adds Langstaff.
The city not knowing what they buy or what they've budgeted.
“We do everybody else's checks and payments and collect their revenues through the finance department, but the Water, Gas and Light Department has a completely separate Finance department, HR department, Risk, Procurement, they do all that themselves,” says City Finance Director Kris Newton.
When pressed, General Manager Lemuel Edwards said he is thinking of retiring in the near future and commissioners want to make sure whoever takes his place will be more forthcoming with information.
“But it needs to be a national search, I mean if that's going to happen we need to get the best person for the job,” says Langstaff.
The city will decide whether or not to restructure that process when they meet to discuss their five year plan in an upcoming meeting and how all of this factors into it.