ClearWater Solutions will no longer be providing many of Greenville’s basic city services as of March 15.
The Greenville City Council voted in November to end the agreement with ClearWater and to take all services in-house, due to mounting financial problems facing the city.
“We have worked closely with the city for more than two and a half years and feel really good about the services that have been provided,” said ClearWater area manager Donde Baldwin. “At the end of the day, our company and our employees have been able to significantly improve services. Our company is growing throughout Mississippi and the Southeast and we certainly stand ready to help Greenville residents in the future, if needed.”
Mayor Errick D. Simmons said the city and Clearwater were partners in providing efficient services to the citizens. He also commended the company for working hard with city leaders in recent weeks to develop a new plan for the company to remain involved, but at the end of the day the council wanted to take all services in-house.
“The City of Greenville and Clearwater had a great relationship meeting the needs of our citizens. Clearwater was accessible, improved efficiencies, and managed employees well in terms of the quality of services provided. But right now, a majority of the city council feels like we need to bring those services in house in the best interest of the City,” Simmons said.
Since taking over many city services in 2016, ClearWater Solutions has met or exceeded many of the financial and service goals originally envisioned, Regional manager Brent Stauffer said.
Stauffer said ClearWater Solutions saved the City of Greenville more than $479,000 in their first-year operating budget.
“This was more than $1 million in savings compared to what the other lowest bidder proposed,” Stauffer said, noting the company gave the city a rebate of $188,000 for the repair and maintenance account.
“[We] almost tripled the number of work orders completed compared to work orders completed when the city previously managed services,” he said. “[We] responded to all emergency Action Line calls from residents the same day or within 24 hours.”
Employees that transdered to ClearWater from the city reportedly received a 5 percent pay increase at the beginning of the partnership and ClearWater offset employee insurance costs from the city cost in October 2016.
ClearWater also reportedly paid for all safety supplies and training, hired a full-time safety person, and spent almost $200,000 for safety expenses not covered by the contract.
Stauffer said employees focused on improved appearance of the city from cleaning up right of ways and repairing potholes to removing debris throughout the city and cleaning up all occupied areas for public work and utility operations.
“[We] gave employees performance evaluations and raises each year of operations, as well as bonuses based on work performance,” Stauffer said.
ClearWater Solutions will work closely with city leaders and administrators during this transition to support city residents, Baldwin said.
“ [We are] most concerned about the future of more than eighty employees who have been invaluable team members as the company has worked to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and support priorities of the city.
“When we first started some employees that came over from the city were uncertain about their future, but I can say without any question that the working relationship with our employees has been great,” Baldwin continued.
“They came to work every day with a positive attitude, worked hard for Greenville, and we treated them like family. We know this transition and the potential effects from it will be difficult for many of them and we wish them and their families the best in the future,” Baldwin said. “Hopefully, one day our paths will cross again and we will have an opportunity to work together.”
ClearWater services included water billing, customer service, meter reading, water treatment and distribution, wastewater treatment and sewer collections, stormwater management, public works, including building and grounds maintenance, traffic, right of way maintenance, fleet services, street maintenance GIS and action line calls for all services listed.
