Asheville makes 1st picks for water outage independent review group – Citizen Times

ASHEVILLE – A Jan. 24 vote by Asheville City Council cemented seven members to its newly-established water outage independent review committee, a nine-person body ultimately responsible for analyzing the events and circumstances that led to the unprecedented holiday outages that impacted thousands and left some without water for days at a time.
Of the about 20 possible candidates, City Council unanimously approved staff’s recommendations.
Among them are three public water systems experts, including a former Asheville director of Water Resources, an engineer at the Knoxville Utilities Board and a director of internal development at Highfill Infrastructure Engineering in Charlotte.
Previous coverage:Asheville creates independent review committee in the wake of widespread water outages
Rounding out the Asheville appointees, along with two communications professionals, are area residential and commercial customers.
City Council approved the creation of the third-party independent review committee on Jan. 10.
Assistant City Manager Ben Woody said most of the potential candidates reached out independently, although staff did reach out to some candidates to increase the total number available to council. Staff requested that all potential candidates provide a resume and/or statement of interest. 
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The final two selections will be made by Buncombe County Board of Commission at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Michele Ashley, the city residential customer selected, said in her statement to staff that she is a tenant living in South Asheville, in the newly-developed Hawthorne luxury apartments on Mills Gap Road.
“The experience of our most recent water outage was both a shock, inconvenience (and) a major disruption to my quality oflife as a single woman living in Asheville,” Ashley wrote.
Like many Asheville area residents in the wake of the disaster, Ashley said in her nine years living in Asheville, “this by far has been the most disturbing weather crisis yet.”
“My personal experience in combination with witnessing a complex of over two hundred units, filled with families and working professionals, resort to various survival mode methods, I believe would provide support and clarity as to how we, as community, can prevent this from happening again,” Ashley said in her statement.
A list of the candidates, along with their resumes, bios and statements when included, can be found here.
Public water supply experts:
Communications professionals:
Residential water customer:
Commercial water customer:
After the county makes its selections, Woody said the committee will likely hold its first meeting in mid- to late-February. Once seated, the committee will engage an expert, begin analysis and share updates to council.
As an independent review committee, Woody said their meetings are not required to be public.
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About 90 days from its establishment, the committee will provide a final written report and presentation to City Council.
The committee will provide:
Included in its list of potential appointments, the city also offered its picks for an independent facilitator and an expert to prepare the report.
Woody said there are no contracts finalized. Though the committee members will be volunteers, funding will come from the Water Resources Fund’s existing budget to contract with an independent facilitator to support the independent review committee and to engage with an expert to prepare a written report.
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Woody said he doesn’t yet know how much those contracts will be.
The city’s pick for an independent facilitator is Kelley O’Brien, owner of Carrboro-based KTO Strategy and Communications, and an adjunct instructor at the UNC School of Government.
The possible expert is Keith Webb, vice president of McGill Associates, former public water department engineer, and someone with direct experience with Asheville’s water system.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.

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