Local political observers like blogger Hillary Brown want to know more about Tuesday night’s vote to delay a $2.7 million renovation of the old Athens First building next to City Hall for a Public Utilities Department customer service center.

I will try to oblige.

There are some underground politics going on here that briefly emerged during an exchange between commissioners David Lynn and Andy Herod.

Lynn had made a motion to approve the renovations minus a drive-through window. Commissioner Kelly Girtz made a motion to hold off, seconded by Herod, arguing that they could make better use of the space if another department occupied the building along with PUD.

After some back-and-forth, a clearly exasperated Lynn said Girtz’ argument “sounds less like rational thought and more like a grudge against the Public Utilities Department.”

Herod replied, “It seems to me that what’s driving this is who’s got the money and not necessarily who’s got the need.”

A lot of agencies – including the tax assessor, tax commissioner, computer folks and Public Works Department, along with PUD – have a need, according to county studies on overcrowded offices. But it’s true that only PUD has the money.

Some commissioners, most notably Carl Jordan, have often chafed at PUD’s independence, viewing the 195-employee department with its $26 million annual operating budget and essentially unlimited capital funds as director Gary Duck’s personal fiefdom. They have tried to exercise more oversight for years and rarely succeed.

And here is where we arrive at the murky waters.

Plunging ahead, PUD is an enterprise fund, meaning it’s entirely separate from the rest of the county budget. Water and sewer charges fund water and sewer, nothing else. Trash pickup fees fund the Solid Waste Department, nothing else. Neither one gets any property or sales taxes, just fees for service. Because people tend to pay more attention to their property taxes than their water bills, this rule is to stop the commission from, say, jacking up water rates to build parks.

Therefore, while it’s technically possible for PUD to share space with a general-fund department, it would take some seriously complicated accounting to make it work legally. One branch of the government would have to pay back another branch part of the $1.9 million spent to buy the building, and the government would essentially be charging itself rent.

Keep in mind that the general fund – mostly property taxes and sales taxes – will be a sad and barren wasteland for at least the next year or two, thanks to the recession. Finding money where there’s none to send an enterprise fund that’s flush with cash is not going to be easy.

The perception of this vote is that Lynn, Kathy Hoard, George Maxwell and Harry Sims are eager to squander our hard-earned dollars on a project of dubious benefit simply because some bureaucrat told them to.

And so Girtz, Herod, Doug Lowry, Alice Kinman, Mike Hamby and Ed Robinson come off as defenders of the taxpayers’ pocketbooks. In reality, they essentially voted to delay a project that will only get more expensive as time goes on and to find tax money to pay for a complicated scheme that could keep taxpayer-funded lawyers and accountants busy for who knows how long.

It is true, as some commissioners have alluded to, that it is politically far easier to raise water rates than taxes. Perhaps they’ll think of that the next time a rate increase lands on their lap, but I doubt it; the hikes are needed to pay back $200 million in bonds mostly for new sewer plants.

As Lynn has pointed out, ratepayers have already been separated from their $4.6 million and a larger water business office is indisputably needed, so why not just go ahead and build it?

I suspect that’s what they’ll end up doing at their next voting meeting anyway.

Another politician discovers tekmology

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is now on Twitter. He hasn’t tweeted or twittered (or whatever) anything newsworthy, unless you count the fact that he’s apparently up at 3:30 in the morning.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com