It is time for the renewal of top positions for Acda and many, it seems, would like to quench their thirst at the source of the “mayor’s water”. The issue was discussed in the last session of the city council in Cuneo, with a question addressed by Ugo Sturlese (Cuneo for Common Goods) right to the mayor.
The Cuneo Water Company manages the services of 108 municipalities in the Granda over 3,975 kilometres, with 254,780 residents. The last change in the organizational chart dates back to 2021, when Beppe Delfino, inspirer of the Centro per Cuneo list, became CEO. The president is Livio Quarantamayor of Gaiola for twenty years with the PCI and the PDS and a reference figure for the left in the subsidiary.
The renewal of the summit brings with it various unknowns, also because it is combined with a succession that will necessarily have to arrive in the ATO, the current president and former mayor of Saluzzo having been elected to the Regional Council Mauro Calderoni. With Quaranta, Calderoni and the former provincial secretary Momo Dear in Cogesi the Democratic Party had placed a “thread” in the water service management bodies, guiding the difficult – and still not complete – transition to public water. This is precisely what worries us the most Patrizia Manassero: “It is on the ‘last mile’ that we focus a lot of our attention” he confides to the councillors.
“We – he adds – we will work to protect the skills and representation of the Municipality of Cuneo, to protect the priority objective of not weakening either the company or the position we have obtained for the achievement of public water”. All this without forgetting that “today the governance of water policy has moved from Acda to Cogesi: Acda manages our water infrastructure, both drinking and wastewater, but the total strategy of investments and tariffs now passes through the role that Acda has in Cogesi”.
So much for the objectives, but what about the appointments? On this point the mayor does not reveal her cards. The social statute of Acda, he recalls, “does not provide for Cuneo or other municipalities the right to have a member on the board of directors”. The only clause is the one to protect small municipalities, which are assigned the right to express up to two councillors. The current president Quaranta is, precisely, an expression of the smaller members. At the last meeting it was decided to expand the board of directors to five members, with the aim, explains Manassero, of “ensure everyone has a voice in the governance structure”.
“The rumors are flying” he says, slyly, Giancarlo Boselli (Independent): “There would be, from the main component of the majority, the request to have the nomination for the presidency”. In other words, it would be the centrists who claim the highest seat for Delfino: “It is necessary that the Municipality expresses important governance over Acda, as the reference shareholder” underlines Boselli. Sturlese’s warning is similar: “Maintaining structures with certain skills is extremely important. I ask that the criterion of professional competence continue to prevail”. The mayor, as mentioned, does not comment on any candidatures: “We will talk about it as a majority and the mayors’ assembly will identify the asset”.
