Director of Atlanta’s troubled water and sewer system is out

The leader of Atlanta’s troubled water and sewer department is out.

Mayor Kasim Reed announced Saturday that Jo Ann Macrina has been removed as commissioner of the city’s Department of Watershed Management and will be replaced by William Johnson, the City’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer, who will serve as interim commissioner.

A release by Reed’s office did not say why Macrina’s rocky tenure ended, but Channel 2 Action News reported that it was due to “a number of management missteps and questionable international travel.”

“The Department of Watershed Management provides critical services to Atlanta residents and businesses, and I will ensure that it has effective leadership who will deliver operational excellence,” Reed said in a prepared statement.

Macrina has been a controversial and polarizing figure from the very start, with two council members voting against her appointment in 2011. She directed DeKalb County's watershed program before being coming to Atlanta.

And Macrina had repeated run-ins with city council over various problems in her department: the level of staffing, sewage spills, customers being over-billed, employee pay and a scathing audit that found security in the department so lax that it was impossible to know how much equipment was stolen or missing.

Councilwoman Felicia Moore, one of two on the council who voted against Macrina’s appointment, said the issues plaguing the department extend outside of city hall.

“People have been wondering when the mayor would let her go for a long time,” Moore said. “This will probably be viewed in the public as a positive.”

The most recent controversy had to do with a $378,000 settlement with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division over more than 147 million gallons of sewage-tainted waste water that had spilled during the past seven years.

“This, to me, a staggering breach of the public trust,” councilman Howard Shook told Macrina at the meeting, then told her she owed the public an apology. Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean added: “I’m beginning to think we don’t have a very good relationship.”

An internal audit in 2014 found that the department couldn’t account for more than 10,000 water meters, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing equipment, including an $80,000 backhoe.

"I think most everything we reported is a management failing." auditor Leslie Ward told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. At least seven employees were charged with theft.

Despite the department being under investigation by three different organizations, Macrina in 2014 awarded huge raises to several staff members: $15,000 raises to Watershed's head of security and safety, Yafet Bekele, and Watershed employee Ben Kuku; manager Crystal Crawford's salary increased from $110,000 to $124,600; deputy Commissioner Frank Stephens was given a $25,000 raise, increasing his salary by 20 percent to $150,000 annually; and the agency's spokeswoman, Scheree Rawles, saw her pay rise from $99,700 to $125,000. The salary hikes were reversed after inquiries from the AJC.

Also in 2014, a lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court claimed that the city collected almost $59 million in illegal taxes and fees from the water department, which then passed on those costs to water and sewer customers. Atlanta resident Freda Stokely and Brookhaven resident Steven Newton were the lead plaintiffs in the suit.

Macrina's departure comes at the same time Reed announced the removal of Miguel Southwell, as general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Southwell and his team had just completed negotiating a 20-year lease agreement with Delta, which was widely haled as a success.

Interim Watershed Commissioner Johnson joined the Reed Administration as Deputy Chief Operating Officer this month. A press release said he brings more than 20 years of experience in infrastructure management and emergency response, previously serving as Director of the Department of Transportation for the City of Baltimore, where he managed engineering and permitting services for the City. He also managed city-wide snow and weather emergency operations.

Prior to his service in Baltimore, Johnson held a key leadership role as Prime Contractor to the State of Florida Department of Transportation, according to Reed’s office.

Robert Schreiber, a frequent critic of the department, said this week’s change won’t solve the problems in Watershed Management.

“Removing Jo Ann Macrina won’t stop a 25-plus years of problems, which involves Atlanta’s damaging public health, the environment, and the financial damage to any ratepayer who pays any portion of a water/sewer bill to the City of Atlanta,” Schreiber said.