The Butler Area Sewer Authority is one big conflict of interest.

Let's start with Chester Engineering, which has controlled BASA for many years. This sewer authority has only one adviser, which is Chester Engineering, and it decides everything.

The authority manager, M. John Schon, who was hired by BASA from Chester, represents an obvious conflict of interest.

Look at the board. John Heim has been on this five-man board virtually forever. Our good mayor didn't know when she reappointed him that Heim's wife was employed by BASA to the tune of more than $17,000 a year — directly against regulations that prohibit board members or their relatives from being paid.

How would the mayor know this? Heim failed to report this on the financial statement required by law. This currently is under investigation.

Or course, Heim votes with Chester on everything. The attorney for the city might have caught this, but it's worth noting that his law firm also represents BASA.

Now that Mayor Maggie Stock and the city council want explanations for this, Heim refuses to report in to the council or resign from the BASA board.

The other city BASA board member is Van Peterson. He goes along with Chester's hand-picked jobbers and decisions because we are paying Chester to advise us, and he leaves decisions to board chairman Gerald S. Patterson Jr. and Chester.

Peterson has been invited to talk with the city council, and I have tried to talk with him, but to no avail.

Question: Board members don't have to report to the elected officials about the most important decision on local debt in our lifetime?

Patterson was put on the BASA board by Butler Township with clear promises to curb the power of Chester and voted originally not to continue with Chester as adviser to the board. But the month he no longer worked for the township, he became tight as a tick with Chester Engineers. He will not even consider any options unless they are approved by Chester.

George Shockey is the other board member from Butler Township and is a very knowledgeable man. However, now that he is a township commissioner, there is a question as to his remaining on the BASA board, because this could be a future conflict of interest.

And now Chester Engineering is pushing through its hand-picked company from out of state to handle and contract virtually all of the $31 million contract for holding tanks and associated projects. The NATGUN Co. (it alone) completed plans in June with Chester, and yet the BASA board was not even informed of NATGUN's name until July.

Chester expects to choose the contractor. However, competitive bidding and other choices are the only protection to us, the public.

Chester wrote the specifications for the holding tank project — AWA 110 III tanks only — so narrowly that NATGUN is the shoo-in.

It's the oldest trick in the book, and Chester waited until the last minute so it could ram it through.

BASA was forced by regulation to hire another engineering firm to give a second opinion on the methods of construction, the costs, and methods of bidding on the holding tank contracts.

KLH Engineers was hired, and its recent report disagreed with Chester and recommended co-bidding Type 110 III alongside Type 115 tanks in the bid specifications to try to save money and keep the bidding competitive.

But Chester has been riding the BASA board to allow only 110 III in the bidding so that NATGUN Co. is not underbid.

For those people who might think that maybe Type 115 tanks are of lower quality, I can say both designs were looked at by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the state will approve Type 115, if only BASA proposes it — no question of quality.

Also, the warranty on Type 115 tanks is 10 years, while the warranty on NATGUN's tanks is one year.

Chester, with all of these conflicts, rules the roost, so BASA households will end up paying for the more expensive tanks with a staggering $34 million bond issue — much of which will be unnecessary — and this will be paid for by greatly increased sewer bills for generations.

Sure, we have to spend a lot. I'm not for delay, but why not co-bid the tanks. How would the bill-paying public lose?

We might even save about $8 million.

People must remember that all conflicts of interest must be avoided because it is the only way to ensure things do not deteriorate into scams or all-out fraud.

I will now resign as treasurer of BASA, but stay on the board as a voting member and report to Stock and the city council and all paying customers of BASA.

In the next couple of meetings, Chester might be able to limit our choices to Type 110 III only and bring about a crippling debt for all of us to pay.

But don't carp at me. I'll say, "I told you so."

Mike English represents the city of Butler on the Butler Area Sewer Authority board.